Palm Gear doesn't like customers.....or is it just me?

[jims]

I hadn't checked my yahoo spam email for a week, (been traveling) and discovered a palmgear savings email for 20% discount off an app I was thinking about buying. When I selected the link, the old regular price was listed instead of the discount price.

So, I email Palmgear and was told that the sale had "expired." Hmmm, interesting because there was no expiration date anywhere on the email and this has only been about 1.5 weeks.

When I advised them of this and asked if I could still buy it at the discount price I was told "No" - due to accounting issues."

So, that means to me that Palmgear's business philosophy is more oriented towards being good at accounting rather than customer service, and let's not tell the customer that our promotions disappear very quickly with no notice.

LESSON LEARNED? Always buy direct from the developer whenever possible.

[Griff]

Did you find you had multiple e-mails about the same set of products? Seems everytime they send a promotion out, I get two of them to the same mailbox.

[cass_m]

Originally posted by Griff
Did you find you had multiple e-mails about the same set of products? Seems everytime they send a promotion out, I get two of them to the same mailbox.

me 2:) What is with that?

[jims]

I pushed the issue further and was referred to a person in their electronic sales department who admitted that I had a good point about no expiration date in their sales ads and that she would honour the discount this one time. She would have to manually make the adjustment, so I'll be checking my visa statement just to be sure! ;)

[hherbzilla]

I always buy from Handango. I figure I might as well take advantage of their frequent buyer program.

[jackson]

Well ... in their defense, I have always had first-rate service from Palm Gear. I suspect there is a lot of randomness to it all, but it's gone well for me.

Jackson

[Eric S]

I've never had a problem with PalmGear, but from what I've heard, they take a large enough slice of the price for themselves that the authors will get more money if you can buy the software direct.

[Ricon]

Palm Gear must like me. When I used to buy from them they took my money... then took my money... then took my money. Search their site to find a program then go to Handango and buy it. Check your credit card bills!!

[BettyE]

I had a problem with PalmGear and the answer they gave me was ludicrous, so I wrote back and told them that I am in sales and cannot believe they would give a customer an answer like that. I also pointed out how much I had bought from them. They reversed their position.

[nlode]

I bought Photoskin and they took a long time to email the developer; it took a week to get the reg code...

[jedix]

Originally posted by Griff
Did you find you had multiple e-mails about the same set of products? Seems everytime they send a promotion out, I get two of them to the same mailbox.


Me too! I hate that! Does this happen to everybody?

[vmax]

Bought a couple of things from them in the past without problems.

But I'm on the multiple mails list too [grrrrrrr]

[Unregistered]

PG still owe a lot of money to their developers (authors) and in many instances they a looking at getting the money they are owed over spread over 36months!!

Mr Unregistered

[Grandizer]

Originally posted by hherbzilla
I always buy from Handango. I figure I might as well take advantage of their frequent buyer program.

And being able to access your sales history is great too. Especially with full programs that are seperate from demos. Just click on the link in your purchase page and you download the latest full version.

[vansouza]

I like Palm Gear; and really only buy from them. I have had issues that they have always solved promptly.

[Griff]

Something always bothered me about Handango, not sure what exactly, but I have ordered from them.

In terms of fees, my understanding is Handango takes 30% for themselves and PG only takes 25%, of course with some of the developers they've taken 100%.

I always try to buy direct from the developer if possible.

[iebnn]

PalmGear has a new store system coming soon that REALLY adds / improves a lot.

[beano]

Originally posted by BettyE
I had a problem with PalmGear and the answer they gave me was ludicrous, so I wrote back and told them that I am in sales and cannot believe they would give a customer an answer like that. I also pointed out how much I had bought from them. They reversed their position.

BettyE I can believe that! At my first purchase with PalmGear, I emailed about a simple question - it was a plain Yes or No question of which I couldn't find any answer in their FAQ, and twice they sent ludicrous form letter crap to me. :eek:
I've since then switched to Handango, but mostly buy direct from developers.

[Fizzban]

I've had the same form letter type response. Several times I had a problem and received NO response until about the third email I sent them (a week later) and finally got a "Your response has been sent to the developer" type email. The question had nothing to do with the developer and was regarding one of their own policies. *sigh*

Buy they are one of the first places I go simply because I know if it's out there, it's probably at palmgear. Plus, they were one of the first software 'hubs' that I learned of way back in my Handspring Visor days. Old habits die hard.

[blastradius]

Originally posted by Griff

In terms of fees, my understanding is Handango takes 30% for themselves and PG only takes 25%, of course with some of the developers they've taken 100%.


I've heard the opposite; that PalmGear takes a bigger slice from the developer than Handango. That's why I've always purchased from Handango.

Can a Developer confirm either case?

[iebnn]

Handango takes a bigger slice than PalmGear. PalmGear is 20%, Handango is 30%. This is a big difference.

[Griff]

I checked my multiple e-mails from them today and found out the line,

We hope you enjoy the special savings we have offered. If you would rather not receive future PalmGear e-mail specials, please send an e-mail to leave-mypg-???????@mlist2.palmgear.com requesting removal from future issues. is different in both e-mails. So I sent an e-mail to one of the addresses, hopefully this will bring me down to one e-mail per special.

[rob_squared]

I buy direct from authors. I like the personal touch, I guess.

[n2ifp]

A lot of authors are directing puchasers to Palmgear and Handango. I believe it makes it more difficult for purchaser and seems to remove any direct contact or relationship with the developer. I personally don't like it, because if you have a problem, your basically screwed!

[iebnn]

Originally posted by n2ifp
A lot of authors are directing puchasers to Palmgear and Handango. I believe it makes it more difficult for purchaser and seems to remove any direct contact or relationship with the developer. I personally don't like it, because if you have a problem, your basically screwed!

If the product doesn't work, you can contact PalmGear and get a refund if the developer doesn't respond. If you buy straight from the developer, you can't get any refund or anything if he doesn't choose to give you one (or if he doesn't respond). You're still able to email the developer with support questions after you buy from PalmGear or etc. Notice the Email link?

[volcanopele]

I prefer to order directly from the developer mainly because I find that I get my reg code faster that way. If the developer doesn't have a way to purchase directly from them, then I use Palmgear. I haven't had any problems ordering from them though I am getting a bit annoyed by their ads.

Jason

[kallykalifornia]

iebnn, I was wondering if you are able to clarify your relationship with PalmGear for us since you seem to have inside information.  It would add weight to your postings if your connection was established.

Kal:)

[KelAZ1]

According to these posts, it seems like PalmGear and Handango are the sites of choice to order software from. Does anyone know of or prefer any other bulk Palm software vendors other than these two? Just curious.

[Unregistered]

Yes I too get two Emails every single time ... I will be checking how I can deactivate receiving the newsletter. For me this is SPAM ...

And as mentioned I also heard there are weird things going on paying the money to the developer they owe them for over a year ...

I can't believe it ... They make money with the developer and then they don't even pay them due to legal issues they had. So why should the developer beeing punished for their (palmgears) mistakes.

Now they are still owing a lot of developers a lot of money which I think is HORRIBLE !!! And then they pay it back within 36 month what the heck is that ??? palmgear YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED !!!

palmgear should pay interest to these developers ! like everywhere where you owe money you have to pay interest !!! you can't just set your own rules and treat the people that make your income chabby like that and in the meantime invest the money you owe ! There is no excuse for such actions and i am really surprised why palmgear has not been dragged to court because of this backpay issue.

I mean everybody knows who tried his hands at palmos programming how tough it is to program these units and palmgear plays their happy games with those palm developers who pay their (palmgear's) living ...

Mark Forden

[iebnn]

Originally posted by Griff
Something always bothered me about Handango, not sure what exactly, but I have ordered from them.

In terms of fees, my understanding is Handango takes 30% for themselves and PG only takes 25%, of course with some of the developers they've taken 100%.

I always try to buy direct from the developer if possible.

They haven't taken 100% from anyone. You had an option. You could have the two months of sales be paid in full over 3 years, or half over a year, or a third immediately (if I remember correctly). While this was not a good thing, it was only two months of sales and NOT something that is continuing.. They would have gone out of business if they hadn't done this. If they went bankrupt it would have been even worse than what they did. You can blame Handango for suing palmgear :)

[iebnn]

Originally posted by volcanopele
I prefer to order directly from the developer mainly because I find that I get my reg code faster that way. If the developer doesn't have a way to purchase directly from them, then I use Palmgear. I haven't had any problems ordering from them though I am getting a bit annoyed by their ads.

Jason

If you're talking about the email ads, you can easily block those with a filter that takes 1 minute to set up.

Palmgear's new order fulfillment system will get you your serial number or etc immediately in almost all cases now (unless the developer chooses to fulfill it himself). They've greatly improved/redone the system

[iebnn]

Originally posted by kallykalifornia
iebnn, I was wondering if you are able to clarify your relationship with PalmGear for us since you seem to have inside information.  It would add weight to your postings if your connection was established.

Kal:)

I'm just an independent software developer who sells his software on PalmGear.

[Unregistered]

A lot of developers do not have the time or the money to set up the ability to accept credit cards over the net. Not everyone loves PayPal.

I have never had a problem with PalmGear even when I was the one who screwed up.

[Griff]

Actually I can blame it on PalmGear for not having good business practices. Sure, Handango did hurt, but paying over three years is ridiculous.

That said, I still prefer Palmgear over Handango, but I prefer developer over PG.

[Unregistered]

It really does seem as if iebnn has a greater than normal vested interest in supporting PalmGear...

For someone who is only selling, say, $100 per month, "only two months of sales," as iebnn says, may not be a lot. But PalmGear owes different developers different amounts of money, with many of them being owed for more than two months of sales and many thousands of dollars.

The process is just beginning, and PalmGear still has a long way to go to earn back the trust of developers.

It's well documented on both the PalmGear and Handango websites as to how much they take from developers. The standard percentages are 25% for PalmGear and 30% for Handango. These percentages vary depending on the special agreements that any given developer may have with each of these companies.

The best thing to do is to buy directly from the developer's website. The developer will always direct you to the purchase method that they prefer, the one that gives the most back to them and/or the one that is the most convenient for them. No matter where you purchase from, whether through the developer of through any of the resellers, you'll always be able to get the same customer support from the developer.

[iebnn]

Unregistered: I'm aware that two months of sales can be a LOT, but I was saying that it is NOT as some people seem to be saying -- they're not randomly not paying developers, and they aren't continuing the "borrowing." It was just those two months. I know that it can be a lot of money (and is for some businesses). I do think they should give interest, but I'd rather they do this than go out of business.

As for the "greater than normal vested interesting in support palmgear," I'm just trying to squash some of the rumors/ideas that people have of PalmGear (taking more than handango, still borrowing money, not paying back anything, etc)

[Srevets]

I posted a poll in the NX forum and realize I should have posted it here... sorry.  (Hindsight is always 20/20). Rather than be redundant and do a repeat post in this forum, I thought I'd create a link to the "poll already in progress."  Anyway, I would invite all to participate/comment on your particular preference.

The link is here:

http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3698&highlight=Palm+Gear+Handango

Thanks all.  Regards...

[jims]

Sooo, I just got my credit card statement and any guesses on whether I was charged the sale price or the full price?  Any takers??

.....I WAS CHARGED FULL PRICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    :mad:

How does PalmGear stay in business?????

[*Jive Turkey*]

Gotcha covered! Send us your order number and we will credit ASAP. Sorry for the trouble.

[iebnn]

Every business makes a few mistakes. It's not possible to have 100% everything go right when you have this large a business. They stay in business because you are a minority, and because they'll still (apparently) fix the problem

[marshillfbn]

Been buying software from them a long time. Back in the days when I had a palm v. Had only 2 issues with them, they solved them promptly. One of those issues was on my part, I wrote down my email address wrong. Well, they couldn't e mail me so they called me. Now thats greatness.