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Hi - I've been saving up funds to purchase Affinity for Mac and planned on purchasing it through the app store on July 23, 2015 (the last day the $39.99 price was active). When I attempted to purchase the app, the price was $49.99 even though it was 8:30pm July 23, 2015... I reached out to Serif customer support and they instructed me to bring up the issue here. Why wasn't the $39.99 price honored as advertised?


 


Warm regards,


jrr52


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Hi jrr52,

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

Sorry you couldn't purchase the app during the launch offer, we set the offer end date when we upload the app. In this case 23rd July, however it would seem that in some areas the offer ended earlier than expected. Unfortunately this is out of our control and we're unable to give a discount to an individual.

 

Hopefully this hasn't put you off purchasing Affinity.

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Just to clear up any confusion, the price advertised in the App Store at the time of purchase will be the price that was charged - I don't think there's any way around that. The price was indeed set on the App Store to revert to the normal price on the 24th July 2015. As far as we're aware, each store's price will have changed as that particular territory's store reached midnight coming into that day. This is the only level of control we have - we are only allowed to say what day the price changes and that's it - the timing is completely out of our hands but we believe that it is midnight in each territory.

 

The description on the App Store page specifically mentioned that the 20% off was valid until 23rd July and we set the App Store to change the price as soon as it reached the 24th July - we could do no more or less than that and at no point have we deliberately tried to mislead anybody or give out bad information. We obviously just want our customers to be happy, not upset, so we have tried to make it as clear as we were able to in terms of what would happen and when...

 

Thanks in advance,

Matt

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Dear Affinity,

 

I, too, made the purchase of both Affinity Photo and Affinity Design the evening of July 23 expecting to see a 20% discount based upon the tag line below the price at the time.   I purchased both at $49.99 each - which is the regular price for my location.   When I received the billing confirmation email from Apple it did not show any discount - so I contacted Apple and they referred me to this forum.   I am in the U.S. on the west coast. It looks like the cutoff time for the discount was a bit earlier than advertised, and me, being an infrequent App store purchaser, didn't realize that the posted price was supposed to include the discount.  Sounds like there was an error on either Apple's part or how the discount expiration was set up.  In any event,  I would think that it would be appropriate to not just let this go, but correct the error for those of us who were misled.  I made my purchase at least 6 hours before midnight on the west coast, and the tag line was still up.  Seems to me that the same update that would change the price would also have changed the discount tag line.

 

Thank you.

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Lee,

 

This matter ultimately comes down to an issue of false advertising as part of civil law. Affinity's discount persuaded me to purchase the app. I commend your good intention for everyone to receive the discount, but it did not happen.

 

To follow through with good intention as well as good customer service for the company, you must honor the price advertised as regulated by our governmental agency the Federal Trade Commission as it is illegal to falsely advertise in most countries; how about the UK?

 

I paid $49.99 and expect to receive a $10 discount. You advertised it at that price until July 23rd. You took my money on the 23rd, so you should be able to refund $10 back.

 

The FTC makes such laws in order for companies for prevention versus punitive damage. However, I am looking for resolution in terms of the company's honor.

 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

Kristen

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Serif, I paid $49.99(at FULL PRICE) and expect to have paid $499.99 for this software!  This upsets me very much! /s   As a matter of fact, I don't have a use for Affinity Photo(as of yet) but I bought it anyway just to support you guys because of your EXTREMELY FAIR PRICING.  

 

I think that if people didn't get the discount that they feel that they deserve, they should be complaining to Apple and not Serif because it is Apple that pulled that price from the App store based on some time zone setting.  I know many people that bought the program on the 23rd and still got the discount because they didn't wait till the last minute to buy it.  But to come on this forum and start complaining about false advertising or some illegal aspect on Serif's end is absurd.

 

I don't know why you bought the product in the first place, but if you legitimately bought it for your business or to speed up your productivity in development, I think you will agree that an extra $10 is not worth getting upset about.  

 

You do have a legitimate complaint but I don't believe that this forum is where it needs to be directed.  Try here instead: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204084

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I paid $49.99 and expect to receive a $10 discount. You advertised it at that price until July 23rd. You took my money on the 23rd, so you should be able to refund $10 back.

 

Kristen

 

First of all, Affinity did not take your money; Apple took your money.  Affinity specified the discounted price and the sale end-date to Apple.  After that, it was all up to Apple.  If the sale price was pulled early, it was pulled by Apple and was completely out of Affinity's control.  You really need to take this up with Apple.

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There is no way for Serif to reimburse any money to customers - as Serif didn't take the money from customers in the first place, as pointed out by LilleG... We have absolutely no way of knowing who bought the software or when - as part of selling on the App Store we have no mechanism for connecting sales to customers. In all sincerity, if you think the software is worth $40 but not $50 then just ask for a refund and wait until the next time something great happens and we're celebrating something - because we'll probably be really happy and knock another 20% off for a week or so! :)

 

There is only one single control in the App Store for changing price - and it only allows you to say what date a price should change and what price it should change to... This was set to change on the 24th to the non-sale price. That is the only level of control we have - and we even told our customers when it would end on the App Store description so they could get it before it suddenly changed: That description was clearly labelled as valid until 23rd July as we had set the 24th to be the new price and it was the very first line of the description text so we were trying to be clear. The only way we could have done anything differently is simply not telling you when we intended to end the offer - and it sounds like we'll have to do that next time to make sure people don't get these problems by waiting to the end :(   Ironically, last time we had a sale, people were upset that we didn't tell them when it would end and they 'just missed out'...

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This is a suggestion but I wonder if prices on the App Store are programmed by Apple to reset for the whole US at Midnight Eastern time rather than for each individual time zone within the US.  

 

That could be LilliG, but in the past Apple seemed to time their 'events' around Cupertino time. I think the sales should end at midnight in the customer's time zone.

          MelG

 

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you. - Oscar Wilde

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Well … without trying to step onto anyones feet here: when you purchase in the AppStore, it VERY CLEARLY shows a price tag and asks if you're happy to buy at the price on the tag (you even need to enter your password to confirm. So it should be very obvious to everyone what the software costs … and if they don't like the asking price they shouldn't have purchased it.

 

If I go clothes shopping and a big sign in front of the store "20% off" and if I don't like the price that is presented to me at the checkout, I just don't give them my credit card and simply leave the store without my products. That's my decision as a customer.

 

In any case: Apple is usually very customer-friendly … if you go to your store account, explain what happened and ask for a refund, I am sure, they'll take the software back and give you a full refund.

Easy as that, no reason to even think about lawsuits and / or complain to Serif about.

 

And remember: the software costs what it says on the price tag. If you don't like the price tag, simply don't buy.

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FYI Apple's friendly customer service told me they couldn't refund the money and lead me to the developer. I understand now from the thread that Apple is in fact mistaken about the transaction and they should be the one to refund the money. They told me it was the developer who set the date and should do the refund.

 

Secondly, if you go to a store and there's a 20% off sign on a clothes rack, the tag on the garment needn't be labeled with the discount. However, the store must give you the discount even if the sign was mistakenly posted by the store on the wrong rack. The store honors the discount to protect their integrity.

 

Perhaps you missed what I posted above: The FTC creates these guidelines for prevention NOT punishment. No one said anything about lawsuits. This situation regards honor of a discount. If it is indeed supposed to be handled by Apple then hopefully they will handle it the next time I call back.

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Actually, in Britain the Sales of Goods act does not require a shop to honour a price label if it is incorrect.  The price paid is that requested at the actual moment of sale as indicated at the till.  It's up to the customer to decide whether or not to buy at that moment.  A shop has the discretion to offer the label price if they have the facility to do so, but they are not forced to do so.

 

Also, if a discount is to be applied to a ticketed price - there would be a sign to say that the discount must be deducted from the price shown, with an indication of the adjusted price displayed.

 

As others have pointed out - at the moment of sale, the App Store would have shown you the price you would be charged.  And, as we've said, we have no facility to adjust the price on an individual basis, or to offer refunds - we don't handle the transactions - you have to take that up with Apple.

SerifLabs team - Affinity Developer
  • Software engineer  -  Photographer  -  Guitarist  -  Philosopher
  • iMac 27" Retina 5K (Late 2015), 4.0GHz i7, AMD Radeon R9 M395
  • MacBook (Early 2015), 1.3GHz Core M, Intel HD 5300
  • iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB
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