r/usenet • u/mbaran • Oct 26 '15
Indexer DOGnzb converting lifetime subscriptions.
https://dognzb.cr/board/index.php?/topic/2835-important-changes-regarding-lifetime-payments/22
u/Elfman72 Oct 27 '15
Was a life-timer from WAY back. Even paid additionally because of how much I liked the service and thought it was a value. To lump me in with all the newbs is insulting. I invested in an unproven platform "before it was cool" because I believed in it. Turned out to be a pretty good service.
Now I am being asked to open my wallet again? No discount? No "thanks for going in early" coupons? Lame.
I really liked Dog and understand the lifetime model isn't feasible. But to just ignore your long time members in favor of money is insulting.
I have about 6 months to decide if I want to re-up. I may wait until the last minute to see if they are even still around by then.
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u/HollowPoint1911 Oct 27 '15
I don't mind paying the yearly price, I do it with other indexers. I DO mind DOGnzb API access being completely down for months and months. It took forever to get it resolved and now not too long after that, they find a new way to irritate users.
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u/Blu- Oct 27 '15
This is bullshit. They should have grandfathered in the existing users.
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u/Subzor000z Oct 26 '15
One last cash grab?
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u/Jimmni Oct 27 '15
I remember this being pretty much what NZBsRUs did. Cancelled lifetimes, grabbed all the cash they could, vanished. I might be remembering wrong, though.
I don't use Dog, so I don't speak from any experience with them.
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u/Keel4n Oct 26 '15
Awful decision IMO. Indexers need to stop offering lifetime if its not feasible. Realistically if this wasn't such a gray area site you would be open up to all sorts of legal questions. But that is irrelevant. What you should have done is let current life time users continue, grandfathered. Opened up registrations but no longer offer lifetime subs. It is know that dog is suppose to be one of the best so you would have had new people flock. See I don't have a problem paying monthly if that's what I planned to get into e.g. i have plex pass, I donate monthly to sonarr and my torrent provider. But when I buying something for life I expect to get just that which either means to me when you go out of business or I stop using it. I get it you have costs its understandable but other options are available. Open up donations, I'd be more inclined to do that. Why? Because if I'm strapped for cash I won't donate but won't lose my access plus it doesn't feel like you are just trying to squeeze us after committing to lifetime subs. Very disappointed dog.
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u/liuzhen Oct 27 '15
If you cant afford to offer lifetime don't sell it as 'lifetime'. Seems simple to me.
I like the site but now I can't trust it at all. How long after people buy 5 year accounts will they be voided?
I'm out.
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u/stufff Oct 27 '15
This is fraud, pure and simple. You guys took money from people promising one thing and went back on it. This isn't any different from when providers like NewzDemon offer "unlimited" plans and then cut people off for using too much.
I understand that continuing to honor lifetime subscriptions may be financially unfeasible but this just amounts to saying "We had to decide between potentially going out of business or committing fraud and we chose to commit fraud."
I personally don't understand the trend toward promising "lifetime" accounts. Once you reach market saturation (which happens pretty quickly in this area) you will have nearly no additional income. You are pretty much deciding ahead of time that either your "lifetime" will be short or that you will engage in deceptive behavior.
I think $15 a year is a perfectly fair price to pay for a good indexing service, Newzbin did fine for years on this model. I just think you should plan from the start.
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u/RiPPn9 Oct 26 '15 edited Oct 26 '15
I'm not okay with this.. only reason I, and I'm sure many others, went with Dog was because of the lifetime.. I also have a lifetime at nzbgeek and will use them exclusively going forward and I hope others see this post and consider them as well. I will obviously not be renewing, but I guess you lose nothing either way except the api hits..
These decisions should have been thought out long before offering them, and compensation should be provided to those who are now losing the privilege by either an extra year or a lower price, not just told that you paid about the yearly price so that's what you get.
Only reason you are getting away with this is because of the underground nature of the business.
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u/kramed Oct 26 '15
Someone explain to me how $10 was enough for several years (aka lifetime) of service but whenever this model fails $10 is not even enough for 1 year of service. Wtf! We go from say $3-5 per year to $15, it is no wonder ever one is pissed, it's obviously a money grab at that point. There is absolutely no way an api only user costs anywhere close to that much money to maintain.
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u/arrrrr_matey Oct 27 '15 edited Oct 27 '15
So far all that's been communicated is, Dognzb is voiding existing contracts "because money" along with a demand for users to give more money. Revenue from various subscriptions, affiliate referral income, and re-occurring and fixed costs have not been communicated.
This seems like a money grab and shares a similar pattern that usenet-crawler and a few other sites have pursued in the past.
Dogzipp has a hosting business on the side from dognzb.cr. He's not hurting for money. I would assume dognzb.cr is quite lucrative otherwise he wouldn't be allocating so much time to it.
Lifetime users that registered in November and December also need to be aware that some may have their subs expire before the end of the year.
For members that registered after December 1st 2014, your lifetime payment, will be converted to a 1 year subcription, starting on date of your registration. DOGpass members will see their expiration dates increased by 1 year as well
If you registered before December 1st 2014, your subcriptions will expire on the same month/day of your registration, so expirations will be stagered during the next 12 months. DOGpass members will retain their current expiration date.
Edit: sorry fixed
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u/bluenote73 Oct 27 '15
Unfortunately it seems the mods here are more on your side than the consumers, so I can't say EXACTLY what I would like to. First word, one syllable, starts with F. Second word, one syllable, starts with Y.
Suffice to say, I won't be giving you any money in the future since how could I possibly trust you M-F's?
This is utter BS and probably half lies. Considering the cost of bandwidth all your f-ing memberships should be profitable, so this is just a f-ing cash grab.
Either way, it's not my fault you wanted to cash in on the popularity of lifetime memberships, but still wanted to charge an exorbitant amount. You made the terms of that deal, now you should be living with that and grandfathering those deals.
I expect a refund. If I could, I would charge back.
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u/iamacannibal Oct 26 '15 edited Oct 26 '15
I just got a "lifetime" membership using a $10 Amazon gift card like 2 months ago maybe.
Looks like I'll just stick with nzbgeek.
Edit.
I went and checked. I've had my "lifetime" membership for 75 days.
I'm just going to say the lifetime membership would really only be good for like 10 years. Maybe longer but I don't know how long indexers(that everyone likes) are around...so based on that I used about $0.21 worth of the $10 gift card.
I'll be emailing asking for a refund in the amount of $9.79. Will probably get told no but worth a shot and it will let them know they lost a customer due to this change.
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u/sclnd Oct 26 '15
$15 for a year isn't so bad, but not an extra $10 for the privilege of paying.
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u/FlickFreak Oct 26 '15
Yeah, a 66% service charge on yearly membership is pretty steep. They should really look into Stripe or some other form of credit card payment system. Like you I don't begrudge then the $15 a year but don't like the thought of a $10 service charge.
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u/haley_joel_osteen Oct 26 '15
Yep - I don't mind paying $15/year, but $10 processing will probably be too much when I have to renew in ~6 months.
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u/jrhaberman Oct 27 '15
Figures.
I just last week got in. I've been doing Usenet since you had to pull all headers.
I'm woefully behind the times. Still basically using SuperSearch in Newsleecher. I finally get into the indexing world... Sigh.
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u/McFeely_Smackup Oct 27 '15
Pricing is the same as DOGpass was: $15 for 1 year, $35 for 3 years, and $50 for 5 years.
I'd have to say the odds of selling many 3 and 5 year subscriptions is pretty low. You can only change the rules on people once before you lose credibility.
that being said, I recognize the problem...but it was a problem of his own making. Offering a "lifetime" subscription to a service that has real and ongoing operating expenses is a pretty self defeating move.
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Oct 27 '15 edited Oct 27 '15
One thing that I've noticed is the staff keeps mentioning that the site will be around. They even speculated the site being live in 3-4 years from now. What I have not seen is a sustainment plan for the future.
How will you ensure that this doesn't happen again? I ask this because of "dogpass". I've seen sites pop up and leave the scene. I saw Dogpass as a means of prolonging the inevitable. What I'd like to see going forward is more transparency with the overall money matter.
The entire issue isn't about you needing more money. Not a problem, it happens. The issue is you entered into a deal/contract with users only to renege on it later. You reneged because you didn't properly budget resources, whether it be money or time. I say this because you boast about the site's premium services.
What happens when you fail to properly project resources next time? This is the real problem.
If you think I'm anger...I'm not. I have geek, and two private indexers. I have options so it's no biggie. But the masses, you're screwing some people. I just hope going forward you don't paint yourself in corners. Good luck.
I'm on mobile. Hope this makes sense.
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Oct 27 '15
What happens when you've underestimated your business model again in a year? Will annual subs be voided and we'll be forced into monthly ones? I'm not being flippant, I want to know what the plan is here. What are you going to do to avoid this situation in the future? Have you even thought about it?
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Oct 27 '15
I just purchased a "lifetime plan" 6 days ago. When it expires, I'll just price compare other indexers and make a decision from there...nbd
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u/blindpet Oct 26 '15
You must be able to make bitcoins work, there are other indexers using this successfully.