[dave_m]

Originally Posted by drgardner

I don't necessarily have a problem with the price tag - I've used the OmniOutliner-based precursor to OmniFocus, and was one of the first purchasers of OmniFocus for the Mac as well as the iPhone. It's a tool, and I get more than enough value for what I'm paying for the different versions of the application.

My frustration with the price stems largely from Omni's decision to - first - refund iPhone app buyers $25 and then - second - to change that to just a refund of the original purchase price. But at the same time, they're doing nothing for people who have already invested in both versions of the application (and, in many cases, have purchased a variety of other Omni applications, family versions, upgrades, etc.).

I totally understand why you might feel this way, but I think Brian addressed this really well in series of comments on our blog last night:

Originally Posted by Brian

I’m really sorry that the reimbursements left you feeling like we didn’t care about you; we didn’t intend to make folks feel that way. Whenever possible, we want customers to feel good about us and the products they purchase from us. We know we’ll never reach 100% customer satisfaction, but we’re going to try to get as close to that mark as we possibly can.

I’m hoping it’ll help to clarify the reasoning behind the purchase reimbursements we’re doing. They aren’t meant as a sales gimmick or a “new customer discount”. In fact, it’s not a discount at all; we’re reimbursing the purchases a specific group of customers made. Customers with iPads but no iPhone. (Will some folks with both devices take advantage of this program? Probably. Don’t like it, wish they wouldn’t, but hey, them’s the breaks.)

Why? So they can buy the product they really wanted - OmniFocus for iPad - without paying the extra cost of the iPhone product they were using temporarily.

Ideally, all of our applications would have been available on iPad launch day, but our team is not big enough to do that. When we decided that OmniFocus for iPad wouldn’t be available at iPad launch day, part of the reason we did that was because the option of using the iPhone app on the device was there.

Now that the iPad application is ready, iPad-only customers can use either product. Customers with both devices can either buy both products, or use the iPhone application on both. And if someone wants to use the iPhone app on their iPad to save some money, they should have that option. That’s great.

What we didn’t want was to collect *extra* money from someone that was willing to wait for us to finish the iPad application and use the iPhone one in the meantime. We want those folks to spend the same amount as everyone else that chooses to buy OmniFocus for iPad.

Originally Posted by Brian

I think another thing that caused confusion was that we were originally planning to reimburse with iTunes gift cards, which only come in $15 and $25 varieties. Since there was no perfect option, we chose the latter, but it’s clear that made some folks feel even more left out.

Between that issue and the problems with getting international purchasers gift cards in the right currency, we switched to a plan where folks can have their purchase reimbursed via a mailed check maid, a Paypal transfer, or credit on our store.

It wasn’t communicated well, and I take personal responsibility for that. It was and is well-intentioned, though, so I’m doubly sorry it left a bad taste in your mouth.

Originally Posted by Brian

time-limited sales make one group of people - the ones that get the discount - happy. Unfortunately, there’s another group - the people that don’t - who end up unhappy that they missed out. The longer your application is around, the larger that second group gets: folks hear that there was a sale and someone else paid less than they did.

Worse, people don’t end up in either group on the basis of loyalty - folks who hear about the sale and buy get it. Folks on trips, without ‘net access, who were busy, or who just plain forgot are left out and feel bad.

We have some of the best customers anywhere and we really appreciate them - but we would prefer to earn our customers’ loyalty with great applications, fair treatment, and top-notch support. We feel those are far more valuable in the long run.