Preorder | Notify Me Timesact

This is sad case of playing the blame game.

An employee of the company deleted all the products added in the app and, instead of taking responsibility or just earnestly asking for help, they claimed the app deleted the products (there is no code functionality like this so it is literally impossible) and there are logs that the person can see and a delete all products action was logged.

While being abusive to staff every other line was about a refund. It would not surprise us to find that this is just the persons MO generally (notice how the review comes not from their main store but the one used for development). There will be no refund as such behavior should not be encouraged as it only hurts decent people and their businesses.

Even if everyone on the team was supportive and friendly and acting in good faith (including our CTO Robert whom you can read about in many of our other reviews to make up your own mind about him) they decided to damage our business with this review.

It stings, of course, but I imagine if you are reading this that you've all sadly had experiences like this with some people.

P.S. We also tried to speak to the owner to clarify any misgivings about this for a few days now but have had no luck. It is an open good-faith invitation, anytime.

Hi there,

Andrei here, one of the co-founders of Timesact.

I would like to start by thanking you for being a loyal customer since May 2022 and for continuing to use the app despite this difficult experience you’ve had just recently.

As a co-founder I have a responsibility to other users or potential users reading this to provide more context and proof of exactly what happened so that they can make an informed decision.

The details are very important in this case but I cannot fault you in any way for not providing them in a moment of frustration and anger.

The way our dynamic pricing works is that you pick a number of in our case preorders you want to use in a month.

When you reach 70% of that plan we send you an email to let you know.

When you reach 100% of that plan we send a second email to inform you and then grant you a 24 hour grace period during which time the app and all settings work the same way.

Once the 24 hour grace period ends we send you a third email to inform you that the app was disabled meaning the preorder settings are no longer applied.

We have checked and all these emails were sent to you and they were also opened in a timely fashion. They were also opened almost immediately by your team.

We also assume that given the many plan changes you have made in the past that there is at least some level of familiarity with how this all works.

I have compiled a document that can be accessed here with all the points I’m making so that there is full transparency for anyone reading this:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fv2AyhP8C2JHZGfXnekRUsd-C4o-TC6h76z1jTNDj0o/edit?usp=sharing

Of course there could be many mitigating factors here that I am not aware of since we are not in contact. Maybe the inbox is shared, maybe a new person on the team took over this task of monitoring the app. We could always change the recipient of these emails but were never asked to on our many support channels. We are here for you on chat/email 24/7 so please let us know if this is something you want done.

I’m an optimist and want to see the best in people but just in case this review was solely meant to hurt our business I want to tell you that it has. We dropped in the ratings yesterday because of it and lost a lot of installs. I only mention this in case it gives you comfort. I like to believe it doesn’t and that we will come together soon and continue to help each other.

I have reached out to you to both personally apologize for your bad experience with us as well as to offer my full support in case you wanted to discuss solutions that would improve your experience with us. That door is always open and I would enjoy talking to you anytime because I believe you can offer valuable insights that would make the app better for everyone else.

Thank you,
Andrei

Hi,

This is Andrei, co-founder at Timesact.

I’m sorry to hear about your frustration with the app but I do appreciate you being a great customer since June 2023 and continuing to use us!

I’m sure we can work together on improving things for you, but I have to point out that the information in this review is FALSE and I can PROVE IT. Please read on for details.

All the evidence can be found at this link (follow the argument number to the same number on the doc for screenshots/proof):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FKNOd-JWY7Z_bwz0j91A1D-0cDRRWDRljbXYuLXrmDs/edit?usp=sharing

1. “They say that their plans start from $1 and are $17 per month for unlimited.”

Our dynamic pricing starts at $1/month, that is the one you are on currently.

The Fixed pricing $17 is for new users on a BASIC SHOPIFY plan just like we say on our app listing and on our linked pricing page on our website (that is there to open on the app store directly). You are a legacy user since you installed the app in June 2023 so this promotion was not open to you.

The fixed pricing is for:
Basic Shipify stores $17/month
Standard Shopify stores $37/month
Advanced Shopify is $57/month - this is you so this pricing would not have made any difference since you pay a lot less in the dynamic pricing given your monthly number of preorders
Shopify Plus is $97/month

This is all on the website https://timesact.com/pricing. We cannot fit all the information on the app store page because there are limitations to how many pricing options we can show. 90% of our customer base is BASIC SHOPIFY and of course that is what we wish to highlight given the space constraints.

All our pricing, dynamic or fixed is less expensive than any of the top 5 premium pre order apps in the app store.

2. “You have to PAY per preorder”.

Not true. You select the number of preorders per month you wish to use. And can scale up or down as you please at any moment. There is no fee per pre-order.

3. “So far, for 50 preorders, we have paid $25USD.”

Look at your own logs, you activated the $16.15/month plan for 50 preorders/month. No $25/month plan even exists for you to activate. I’ve attached screenshots with proof.

4. “and have just had to pay another $20USD to unlock another 50.”

That is also not true but I can see how this could be the perception. This is simply not a great interface on Shopify’s part. When you modify a plan the way it looks on their end is like you will be charged the new plan level as another transaction. What they do not tell you is that they merge charges and create negative transactions to adjust these numbers. You are currently on a $20.7/month plan and that will be merged with your previous $16.15/month plan and the total you will end up paying will be less or equal to $20.7 in total.

Look at your entire history. If what you said was true then Shopify should have charged you a total of $156.2 for the duration. Instead they charged you $79.98 in total. Why? Precisely because of merged charges. We cannot control how they present this information to you and are forced to use their system to charge you. But follow the math, it does not lie. Proof attached.

5. “They stop the app from working if you don't pay.”

This is oversimplification and makes it look like your service just gets cut when you reach a limit. In fact we send emails at 70% of a plan being used up, 100% of a plan being used up and then you also get a 24 hour grace period during which time all the app settings are in place. It is only after the 24 hour grace period has finished that the app settings are simply removed, nothing else is done. And with this system in place you are never not informed or caught off guard unless you simply ignore the emails.

I’ve attached proof of all the emails being sent to you.

And given the fact you have used the app for over a year you or a team member surely have had some experience with this. The only thing I can think of is maybe there was a staff change or you made the inbox a shared one in the interim and the relevant person was not reading anything.

6. “The pricing listed here on the Shopify App store is straight up a lie!”

This is not only refuted by the arguments above but is also impossible to even achieve. Our app serves 14k users and is one of the most audited apps on the Shopify app store by Shopify directly. We have had this listing for months and never once got any kind of flag due to the fact that all information presented there is factually checked by Shopify. Had we even attempted to do anything like you describe we would have gotten demoted or delisted in accordance with the terms and conditions of Shopify. If even one word in that listing is in any way wrong it takes less than 24 hours for us to be notified.

To conclude, all this information was available to you at all times and, in case you didn't want to read through it because you were busy, our friendly support staff was waiting for you in chat/email/video call 24/7 to answer any questions or take down your concerns and find solutions that better serve you.

They are all still there as am I, always, for you or anyone who needs our help! And I know this review is simply given in anger and does not represent your real experience with the app, just a particular point of frustration which we are all guilty of from time to time. I have reached out to you to try to communicate directly.

I simply ask you to not spread FALSE information just because you are upset, because you are hurting our business and our team.

Looking forward to our continued collaboration and I hope anyone reading this will take the time to go over the evidence and draw their own conclusions,

Andrei from Timesact

Hi there,

I can see that this is a review given in anger. I empathize with you because times are tough and there is no shortage of reasons to be angry. I am often angry when heavily stressed and any little thing can set me off.

In my experience often the only cure for our anger especially when it relates to other people is just talking it out and finding common ground and solutions. I have reached out to you and hope you will choose to talk to me because I really want to talk to you and understand you better.

For other people reading this I will also provide some context for our discussion here:

1) You have used up your free plan with us (because the app does have a free plan for your first 10 pre-orders - by that I mean orders that contain at least one active pre-order variant).

2) I reached out as I do to all of our customers when this happens, to congratulate you and to let you know that you should consider upgrading.

3) I also informed you that we have a 24 hour grace period from when you are informed until the service is disabled.

4) You acknowledge my message and told me you would be looking into other apps.

5) I thanked you for informing me and respected your decision. I did not make any comment, try to sell you anything or did anything try to make you change your mind.

6) Then I take it that you did not actually look for another app in fact and as you were informed the service was cancelled after the 24 hours had passed.

There was nothing out of the ordinary here in my experience but perhaps there are other things I do not know about and am ready and eager to learn more from you if you will choose to have a conversation with me. I hope you do so we can both feel better about this.

Thank you for reading this,

Andrei from Timesact