erutan

Have fun with the FOSS alternatives then, there's not really anything close to Serif aside from Adobe. For more casual use Pixelmator Pro is nice.

You're shooting yourself in the foot if you don't want to take the 40% discount as an upgrade price.

I was originally holding off due to the ambiguity over family sharing, and then reported issues with Braintree.

I figured I'd give it a shot now, and using a Mastercard (Apple Card FWIW) in the US with no VPN on I wouldn't have known there were issues. I've used my license on two laptops (with different Apple IDs associated with them) in my household on my iPad Pro. I don't foresee needing any other activations, but it's nice having the option to use a windows machine or w/e.
Only having to register one application per device is a nice touch - I checked and all of them show as being registered.

Obviously many others have had worse experiences, and mine doesn't invalidate yours, but it's not a scam.

@Patrick ConnorTwo things that jump out at me that could be done a lot better:

1) I never received a confirmation email, and yes I've checked my spam/junk folder. While this isn't critical as I can check the purchase on their site and there's no actual license key, it's abnormal. Having a confirmation with a repeat of the instructions of how to register the license would be reassuring to people as well as give them something to look at when they don't RTFM.
2) On the actual orders page there's normally weighted text below the field with my email address that states: "After download you will need to activate your license using your Affinity ID and password." IMO this should be styled more like a subheading to get people's attention, positioned with some vertical space from the email field (or replacing it), and be remove ambiguity.
 
3) Nowhere near as critical as the above 2, but no Apple Pay option.
 

I browsed through the other thread link here, and one moderator said there are no issues with payment processing. So they have no visibility on what is going on from their payment contractor. Braintree is it? And braintree also don't have visibility on Affinity's system, they only process payments. Of course, I also don't know how they communicate with each other.
So what happens when the pending transactions, 2 in my case, got processed at Braintree's end? Do they know that they should not process duplicate transactions for one product? What happens when I purchase through Paypal and then Braintree also process my first 2 transactions?
Until I know what happens to my first 2 transactions I will not try another payment method. Because even if they may be pending, those are credits withheld from my account and cannot use.

If you purchased an individual license (not a multi-seat business license) then the Affinity ID isn't something you receive. It's the email address you used when creating your Affinity Store account. And the password for that account. (Both of which may be different from the ones you use for this forum.)
And if you purchased that individual license from Apple or Microsoft, not Serif, and you don't yet have an Affinity Store account from using V1, then you'll need to create one during license Activation.

Hi Roto, welcome to the Affinity forum.
As many of our apps are bought through third party App Stores we do not have a mechanism to offer upgrade pricing to all of our users. This was why we decided to offer such a large launch discount—to give all users, new and existing, and irrespective of how they bought our V1 apps an opportunity to get V2 at an incredible price. V1 owners who do purchase during the launch period will receive bonus content at a later date.
Upgrading is completely optional and, if you wish, you can continue to use the V1 apps for as long as you like.
We will be updating V1 to fix any critical problems caused by operating system updates in the future. So if the next version of macOS breaks V1 we will endeavour to fix it. There will be a point in time when continuing to maintain V1 in this way will not be tenable, but certainly for the foreseeable future we will continue to patch. In fact, we have an update to V1 queued up for release very shortly with some fixes for Ventura and issues caused by a recent Windows security / quality update.

There's known issues with the processor (Braintree iirc) they use and AMEX in general but it can crop up anywhere. PayPal works without issues as it bypasses their payment provider. Has the money actually been deducted, or is it held as a pending purchase?
 


Six days seems like a reasonable amount of time to wait for a response (some people get mad after a few hours), while they said they're going to respond to tickets in the order they get them it probably wouldn't hurt to put a quick response on your ticket in case it slipped through the cracks.
 
The sale will last until December 14th and they've said they'll extend the current price for people that have had payment issues, so as long as you don't need v2 imminently there's not any FOMO urgency. I'm personally holding off a bit until it seems the payment processing stuff gets sorted.

Have fun with the FOSS alternatives then, there's not really anything close to Serif aside from Adobe. For more casual use Pixelmator Pro is nice.

You're shooting yourself in the foot if you don't want to take the 40% discount as an upgrade price.

There's known issues with the processor (Braintree iirc) they use and AMEX in general but it can crop up anywhere. PayPal works without issues as it bypasses their payment provider. Has the money actually been deducted, or is it held as a pending purchase?
 


Six days seems like a reasonable amount of time to wait for a response (some people get mad after a few hours), while they said they're going to respond to tickets in the order they get them it probably wouldn't hurt to put a quick response on your ticket in case it slipped through the cracks.
 
The sale will last until December 14th and they've said they'll extend the current price for people that have had payment issues, so as long as you don't need v2 imminently there's not any FOMO urgency. I'm personally holding off a bit until it seems the payment processing stuff gets sorted.

Mac App Store doesn't support discounted upgrades, it's standard practice to just have an upgrade level discount when a new version launches as a workaround so people don't have to pay full price.

Think back to before the MAS existed, it's not like a new version of application would be 40% off for new users and 50% off for existing ones. I'd be full price for new users and 25-50% for people with a previous version.

That's my understanding 

@SG1000
Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums
 
Your explanation is prety much exactly what I said (over the weekend) that you should expect. However, customers have said otherwise, and our tests here have confirmed that it is not quite as you have written (or as I said earlier). It is actually like this.
If I purchase a universal license via Apple:
I have to register my Apple purchase with my serif account (not sure how this works?)  Yes your Serif account is HOW the other applications find out that you bought the universal license. It is the single point of contact that lets the applications know they are licensed through a single Universal license purchase in the Apple App.  My family sharing members can use affinity V2 on all their compatible Apple devices through apple family sharing (and not by logging into my affinity account or using my affinity credentials)? Only in trial mode, they will need to sign into your Affinity ID to use the shared In App Purchase (we thought it would work but are having problems so this approach is not working, but a shared Affinity ID does). iPad seems to work as you described though and we are not 100% sure why yet. I can use affinity 2 apps on any Apple compatible devices and windows PCs I own Yes that is the generic "any device you own on this OS" offer of V1, now expanded across all supported OS's by the Universal V2 license My family cannot use Affinity 2 apps on any windows devices they might own (unless they log into the apps with my serif account/credentials) Correct, but also true of macOS as family sharing is not working as we expected, and we may not be able to get it to work either. If I purchase a universal license via Serif direct:
my family sharing members can use affinity V2 on their compatible Apple devices through apple family sharing No, licensing through Affinity ID works, as explained in point 2 above, but apparently not through Family sharing I can use affinity 2 apps on any Apple compatible devices and windows PCs I own Yes My family cannot use Affinity 2 apps on any windows devices they might own (unless they log into the apps with my serif account/credentials) Only as 30 day trials, so Yes QUESTION: To enable Apple family sharing – do I need to link my Apple ID to serif account? No that is not what is happening. Only your In App Purchase of a universal license is passed up, so we have nothing to enable to get the family sharing to work. Family sharing is 100% an Apple thing and nothing to do with the success or otherwise of the universal license via your Affinity ID. QUESTION: And will family sharing work seamlessly for my family? Or will they need to log in to my serif account in their apps in any way?  They will need to log in to my serif account Just ONCE, like you, to access the license. After that they do not need to be logged in. Family sharing should have made that bit unnecessary but it has not functioned as expected and we do not know if it can. We may even have to turn Family sharing off for the in app purchases, as it does not work and is causing confusion. So Upgrading via Serif Or Apple gives you about the same, and your V2 Universal License can be shared around your devices and those of your family members, but only via your Affinity ID that you registered it to.

Obviously we refute this claim above.
 

To all in this thread,
I am sorry that you feel we are not dealing with this appropriately. I think that we should be able to respond to queries but failed transactions take a while to look into so anyone not getting an answer by now is bound to think we don't care. We really do. Sorry if you think we don't or in dealing with so many queries it has come across like we don't.
A failed transaction is bad for you (because you do not want to try again in case it happens again) and bad for us (we're not getting the money). Worse still is when the payment method looks to the customer like it has been taken (or in a very few rare cases actually has) but we have no transaction at our end. That will always look terrible until it is resolved. We have only closed a few threads here, mainly because they are overwhelmed with people who also have their own independent support tickets (emails to AffinityOrders@serif.com) and obviously financial issues like bank transaction numbers cannot take place in public. I also close threads when too many people come to the defense of Serif and start laying into those voicing valid opinions. It is sometimes the only way to stop you being attacked when you are simply explaining your experiences.
So
There is a substantial delay in responding to your query, which is not good enough we accept, we do appreciate your patience. BUT nobody is being ignored, we are just picking up oldest tickets first To identify problems like this takes time as each case is unique.  Most payment failures are picked up automatically and reappear in your account without us doing anything. If that is true for you PLEASE email us to let un know we do not need to investigate further, it would really help This article has been written explaining what happens most of the time, but you will hear from us at some point soon to address your specific cases.

The thread I started on the payment problems with Affinity 2 products has been closed, and that is the right decision,
I am  lucky in that I eventually found a payment method that worked. But that  does not help a lot of people.
Having followed this thread I have concluded that 
1: The banks have had to tighten up on security
2: Affinity/ Serif  have done all within their powers to resolve the difficulties.
3: There have been problems with Serif/Affinity contractors that they are still trying to resolve
4: Serif/Affinity have practical and legal difficulties in disclosing the problems they are experiencing with those contractors
5: Despite assurances from others, Serif/Affinity have not realised the reputational damage that they may/will suffer as a result of failing to look after a small, but significant, number of clients or potential clients who have experienced serious stress,
6: Too many people are passing the buck, but Affinity is not the bigest problem.
Sad though it may be, we all need to calm down and allow Serif/Affinity some room to address the individual problems and lean hard, very hard, on their contractors to sort out this mess. 
I have known this company for 20 years. They do care, they do look after their customers, and I am sure that, in the end, they will do so this time. Without being able to prove it, I believe they have been badly let down by others, and i hope and trust they will be able to negotiate their way out of this mess. The argiument that the number of failed transactions is normal will not wash. Serif will, I am sure, take this seriously and endeavour to make sure that everyone who wants their V2 range can have it at a very competitive price.
I congratulate the forum mediators who have been slammed by this problem over the weekend for dealing with the issues with a degree of patience. However, I think Serif/Affinity should think a little harder about what this problem looks like from a customer point of view, The situation  has not looked good, and I just hope it improves.

Both licenses are independent of each other, that'll work fine.

Although family sharing has always been more generous than the Serif license, we had it for version one and have it for version 2 also

Furthermore once you have a license you can install BOTH macOS versions on the same device without issue 

Nope, on Windows you can only have one of them installed at the same time. It's a restriction caused because they have the exact same name, and MSIX installers have to be uniquely named on any machine. So you can uninstall the Microsoft Store version and install the Affinity Store version sign in the the Affinity ID you registered the license to and therefore swap from one to the other. The reverse is also true (uninstall Affinity Store version and install the Microsoft Store one).
That is WHY the Microsoft Store version is a free download, as you may have a product or universal license bought on another store 
Mac's have no problems with two applications having the same name, and that's why I said you can have both installed on macOS 

It'd be worth reaching out to support directly perhaps, in a lot of cases people that paid full price x months before a new version can get a free upgrade, but App Store integration makes that difficult aside from handing out a one off free license.

So you contacted them today. Note the giant red banner at the top of the forum:
 

@monzo  @Florin Iaru @Sam Neil @BAKAI @PaulEC
In 2012, Photoshop CS6 costed US $700 and Photoshop CS6 Extended costed $1000 that was its last perpetual license - there was no new features added after the release - the bug-fix updates also stopped sometime after Creative Cloud came out one year later. 
Affinity Photo V2 costs US$ 41 (without discount $70) so does  Designer and Publisher.

In 2012 Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign would cost $1400-$2000 (depending on if you buy it as a package or individually)
Affinity V2 Suite costs US$ 100 (without discount $170)
Affinity's suite costs less than 2 months of rental of similar apps from the other company!
and for those rental apps, you have nothing to claim if you stop paying - even if you spend thousands of dollars over a few years. 

Are you guys really upset about the price? or are you upset that you didn't get any preferential treatment over the new users?
Would you be happy if it costed more to the new user? or do you think what you are getting from Affinity is not worth its price?
Think about it...

(I for myself was expecting some features that are missing in V2, and I am struggling how their new MSIX based installation works on Windows,  But weighing the overall situation, such as - regressive rental model from almost all creative software companies,  lack of decent professional apps with perpetual license and not to mention the price and how Affinity could manage to do a few things better than the rental apps developed by the market leader with practically unlimited resources!!
I see the Affinity apps as nothing less than a miracle for me and I would do whatever little I could to to support them and make their business model sustainable..)

There are many threads on this forum on this since the 2.0 launch.

Yes, they are not giving the existing customers any special discount for loyalty, but considering its perpetual license and how much (or how little) it costs, esp with the discount - it's still a very good deal.
 
 

It just amazes me that people are actually complaining about paying for V2. Serif has been clear on this from the beginning. All updates to V1 would be free for life. V2 will be paid for and all updates will be free for life. If you don't want to pay for V2 you can continue to use V1 for life. 100 bucks is pretty inexpensive considering what you get and is in no way comparable to Adobe's subscription plan. Just to be clear. AFFINITY HAS BEEN CLEAR ON THIS FROM THE BEGINNING. STOP YOUR WHINING!