NEW Spotwalla
- Thread starter Brookester
- Start date
hehehe. Hang tight, chief. This new functionality won't go live until February 1st and I'm funding each account with the first $5 so there's plenty of time to ease back and get acquainted with it all.
Some folks have asked if they'll need to create a Stripe account to make a payment. The answer is absolutely not. Stripe is not a Paypal. It's a card/payment processor used by companies around the world to accept card/payments of all kinds without polluting their systems with Personal Card Information or having to implement custom payment processing systems.
The next newsletter will address funding, cost savings and coupons in more detail. Then on Feb 1 we'll release the kraken.
Some folks have asked if they'll need to create a Stripe account to make a payment. The answer is absolutely not. Stripe is not a Paypal. It's a card/payment processor used by companies around the world to accept card/payments of all kinds without polluting their systems with Personal Card Information or having to implement custom payment processing systems.
The next newsletter will address funding, cost savings and coupons in more detail. Then on Feb 1 we'll release the kraken.
@Jason Jonas Sorry, that whilst I support everything you have done and are doing, my time out on bikes, or out and about in any form, has been seriously near zero over the past 2+ years. As a result I have deleted my devices. I only wish there was a simple way to delete the account for now and re-register should I ever get back out there?
Wishing you and SpotWalla a bright and prosperous future.
Cheers, Brooke
Wishing you and SpotWalla a bright and prosperous future.
Cheers, Brooke
Hi,
I have been having a hard time trying to figure out what an annual budget for this would cost. That is the only issue I have with the pricing structure for this service. A flat monthly or annual fee would be so much more straight forward (for me anyway). I'm concerned I could rack up cost and not know it. It adds uncertainty to the transaction and storage fees for every file every month seems wired. Most models bill for a set amount of space usage 2 GB for $2/month for example. I do appreciate the IBA coupon option but a set it and forget it approach would be a much more simple option for me as a customer.
Please don't take this in a negative way. I'm only giving my feedback from my perspective. I love the application and what it brings to the table. It does things other can't or do poorly.
I have been having a hard time trying to figure out what an annual budget for this would cost. That is the only issue I have with the pricing structure for this service. A flat monthly or annual fee would be so much more straight forward (for me anyway). I'm concerned I could rack up cost and not know it. It adds uncertainty to the transaction and storage fees for every file every month seems wired. Most models bill for a set amount of space usage 2 GB for $2/month for example. I do appreciate the IBA coupon option but a set it and forget it approach would be a much more simple option for me as a customer.
Please don't take this in a negative way. I'm only giving my feedback from my perspective. I love the application and what it brings to the table. It does things other can't or do poorly.
I'm with @NightShifter on this one. I have no problem with paying for Spotwalla (it's a service that, unlike many other subscription services, is actually useful), but the "utility pricing" model is a bit opaque. I'd rather be told "It costs X amount per year", make a one-time payment, and be done with it. I don't want to have to monitor my account and make sure I'm paid up in advance before I do something.
Hmm. I'm thinking Zeus's message on funding didn't reach everyone.
What You Pay For
In SpotWalla you pay for storing locations, viewing locations on a map and device activity plus any transaction fees and applicable taxes. Storage/Map fees are 4 cents/day for any account with one or more messages. Device activity fees are 3 cents/day for each device with activity. Activity can be the act of polling a SPOT or InReach device or a phone app that uses the Web API or any device that uses the Email Interface.
Assuming your account has at least one message for the entire year, the storage/map fees are $14.60. Each device that has year-around activity incurs a fee of $10.95. So if you're the typical user that has messages and a device that's kept active the entire year, That's $25.55 per year. You can reduce these costs by applying some cost-savings measures discussed below.
A SpotWalla "day" is from 12:00AM to 11:59PM in the America/Chicago timezone.
New users will receive a $1 credit. For the typical user this equates to two weeks of storage/map and device activity fees and allows news users time to get acquainted with and start using SpotWalla. Of course, we won't start drawing from those funds until your first device and message arrive.
SOURCE.
What You Pay For
In SpotWalla you pay for storing locations, viewing locations on a map and device activity plus any transaction fees and applicable taxes. Storage/Map fees are 4 cents/day for any account with one or more messages. Device activity fees are 3 cents/day for each device with activity. Activity can be the act of polling a SPOT or InReach device or a phone app that uses the Web API or any device that uses the Email Interface.
Assuming your account has at least one message for the entire year, the storage/map fees are $14.60. Each device that has year-around activity incurs a fee of $10.95. So if you're the typical user that has messages and a device that's kept active the entire year, That's $25.55 per year. You can reduce these costs by applying some cost-savings measures discussed below.
A SpotWalla "day" is from 12:00AM to 11:59PM in the America/Chicago timezone.
New users will receive a $1 credit. For the typical user this equates to two weeks of storage/map and device activity fees and allows news users time to get acquainted with and start using SpotWalla. Of course, we won't start drawing from those funds until your first device and message arrive.
SOURCE.
I received the message. That's not the issue.
What I'm trying to illustrate is that the explanation of the structure is a bit wordy and needlessly detailed. Coming from a background of building a SaaS database and marketing it to an industry, I learned that the simpler the pricing and explanation is, the better.
It's better to say "It costs $25 per year and you don't have to think about it anymore" than it is to say "Well, the costs can vary depending on this usage and that circumstance, and can be variable from month to month, and you have the option to turn things on and off, and your overall costs can vary depending on the functions you use and don't use, and we'll give you a credit, and you'll have to check in to your account and see what your balance is..." yadda yadda yadda.
Anyone who balks at $25 per year for Spotwalla is being flatly unreasonable and isn't someone who you want as a customer anyway, as far as I'm concerned. After the many thousands of dollars that people spend on other things for this hobby, balking at $25 for a genuinely useful service like Spotwalla is a non-starter.
Just say "It costs $25 per year. Thank you for being a customer."
What I'm trying to illustrate is that the explanation of the structure is a bit wordy and needlessly detailed. Coming from a background of building a SaaS database and marketing it to an industry, I learned that the simpler the pricing and explanation is, the better.
It's better to say "It costs $25 per year and you don't have to think about it anymore" than it is to say "Well, the costs can vary depending on this usage and that circumstance, and can be variable from month to month, and you have the option to turn things on and off, and your overall costs can vary depending on the functions you use and don't use, and we'll give you a credit, and you'll have to check in to your account and see what your balance is..." yadda yadda yadda.
Anyone who balks at $25 per year for Spotwalla is being flatly unreasonable and isn't someone who you want as a customer anyway, as far as I'm concerned. After the many thousands of dollars that people spend on other things for this hobby, balking at $25 for a genuinely useful service like Spotwalla is a non-starter.
Just say "It costs $25 per year. Thank you for being a customer."
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