Core subscription price anomaly

So what’s going on here?

I know it’s only 50p a month but why the discrepancy?

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Resolved · Last Updated

Please see the update shared here: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/comment/129696#Comment_129696

Comments

  • We set a single price ($4.99 USD per month) and the platforms or Google and Apple app stores have their own pricing tiers. They are meant to be the same, but some Agents have reported a much larger difference in certain countries, and we're following up to see if there's anything we can adjust from our team's side.


  • Hi Brian.

    both those images are from UK agents.

    One being an Android account the other (mine) on IOS.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you for the attention. In Brazil the difference is almost 2 dolars (converted).

    It's funny because everything but the subscription is cheaper on android.

  • Thank you for reporting this. We followed up with Google and identified an issue on our end with the pricing templates we use. For more info, please see my update here:

    We're going to extend the 7,000 CMU total for an additional 30 days (so for the first 60 days total) because of this issue.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    I'm happy for you attend this personally but I didn't like the outcome of this. You're rewards everyone, else but the damaged. I and and several other brazilian paid the initial price BRL29.9, that BRL11 more than the correct price, over one third the paid price and equivalent to USD2.06 almost half the subscription price in USD and over half the real price in BRL. I just lost half the next month subscription amount.

    I'm thankful for the rewards next month, but it doesn't seem fair. Everyone will be receiving that gift while everyone who paid overpriced continue at loss.

    Edit: got my compensation trough support. Thank you! Hope everyone else get it too.

    Post edited by Hydracyan on
  • Poderia ajudar ou explicar como conseguiu sua compensação? Abri um ticket mas sem sucesso, mesmo com dezenas de pronta.


    (Could u help ir explain How you got your compensation? Issued a ticket but with no sucesso, even with tons of printscreens.)

  • starwortstarwort ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am confused between "We set a single price and the platforms or Google and Apple app stores have their own pricing tiers" and "there was an issue with our pricing template". Whose pricing tiers are they - yours or Google's?

  • C.O.R.E. was originally using Google's pricing tiers, and we updated this to Niantic Platform's pricing tiers so that the $4.99 USD per month subscription should more closely match the $4.99 7,000 CMU Bundle already in the Ingress Store. The Ingress team sets a single price in our local currency, which is $4.99 USD, and the pricing tiers are determined at the platform level.

  • starwortstarwort ✭✭✭✭✭

    So... the fact that the 7,000 CMU bundle is overpriced in the UK store* is because it is set that way in the Niantic Platform pricing tiers and not because of the Google Play store. On the other hand, the original price of the C.O.R.E subscription in the UK store on Android was set by Google to a more accurate value based on currency rates, while Apple was using the prices chosen by Niantic. This error happened therefore because the Niantic Platform pricing tiers are inaccurate with respect to today's currency market. It does seem to show that "We only set the USD price and Google/Apple do the rest" is not the full truth about how the UK price was chosen. Unfortunately Niantic chose to put the price of the subscription up on Android rather than re-evaluate whether the 7,000 CMU pricing was correct.

    * 1 GBP is 1.38 USD and VAT is 20% so $4.99 -> £4.34 although I'm not sure whether that includes US tax that has to be deducted during the conversion. The UK store price for 7,000 CMU is £4.99, and for the subscription was £4.49 until the "correction". Now to be fair to Niantic the exchange rate has dropped to 1.20 three times in the last five years and the tiers could have been set then; but it was roughly 1.50 when the in-game store was introduced in October 2015 and had been over 1.50 for most of the previous five years. I am not aware of whether Niantic's price has changed over time because of currency fluctuations, but at a rate of 1.5 the price should have been £3.99, not £4.99. Obviously there could be other information I am not aware of that could affect the price, but overall it seems that UK players are getting a raw deal compared to US players. Not that Niantic is any way unique in this - it seems fairly universal across the whole technology industry.

  • Niantics transparency at its best. It's a pity. :/

  • @NianticBrian can you please explain why the bundle is advertised to give the users 7000 CMU each month when it's actually only 2500 CMU after the initial phase? Trying to trick the users? Another error?

    So what people pay is 5,50€ in Europe for 2500cmu, +500 inventory space and maybe also the Intel api (that is not actually part of the offer by the shops description).

  • If I was the kind of person that takes joy in annoying others, I might take a closer look at the screenshot and would notice that it doesn't actually say "7000 CMU each month". It only says "7000 CMU". So I would expect that I get the CMU grant only once, just like there's only one Inventory expansion, one medal and one flair. I might also expect that we can't keep those CMU after we let the subscription expire, just like we can't keep the expansion or the flair. On a bad day, I might even start spamming the forums and demand that all the unannounced benefits are removed from people's accounts immediately.

    But I won't do that. Instead I suggest that the text be reviewed with the aim to find a phrasing that's still short enough for most players to read, but accurate enough to not upset hypothetical me.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    Well, in portuguese it actually say 7000cmu/month, so it might make some of us understand that we will get that amount every month, not just now. So I suggest @NianticBrian to change it to 2500 or add an * explaining that is a limited offer.

  • Totally agree. It would be great, if the users knew what they would actually get for their money.

  • It's about facts. If you sell something for money, you are obliged to correctly describe the product where you actually make the offer and not only some explanations somewhere in your FAQ/forum whatever. So while some people might think this is nitpicking, it's simply a requirement that has to be fulfilled.

    And personally, yes I think Niantic is free to simply remove features that are not part of the contract. That's an additional issue regarding the actual value of the bundle.

    I would additionally love to see a guarantee of playability, so some uptime /response time guarantee, etc. But that's a different topic.

  • Thank you @NianticBrian. Now at least we know what we really get.

    Any information why it said 7000cmu/month before? Just a mistake?

  • The subscription details prompt said 7,000 CMU because we gave/are currently giving Agents 7,000 CMU.

  • GuschtelGuschtel ✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    One more question to what you wrote in another thread:

    https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/13502/discussion-now-available-c-o-r-e-subscription/p4

    ... but it's intentionally meant to mirror the $4.99 USD 7,000 CMU bundle price so that any Agent who might have even considered purchasing CMU could choose to join C.O.R.E. instead.

    I would understand that, that instead of buying 7000 CMU, i could switch to CORE, which actually will give me only 2500 CMU instead of 7000 (after the two initial months) (plus 500 inventory and a few items i can easily hack, which seems to be worth 4500cmu then).

    So that reasoning doesn't make much sense to me anymore after the two initial months. Did I miss something?

    Maybe some will then just try it for the first two months, where money/value is a bit more appropriate then afterwards.

    Besides all my comments above - I really do like the progress Ingress is making currently, don't get me wrong. Its probably just me that thinks that many decisions and statements simply don't line up. Especially in regards of earlier purchases - 5 keylockers as a very appreciated example vs 5,50€/Month - vs a 60-100€ full-featured game purchase. Or bugs (like the key sorting, chat scrolling, to name two) that seem to get never fixed. shrug

    Keep it up, but please stay transparent and consistent.

  • starwortstarwort ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Guschtel

    I would understand that, that instead of buying 7000 CMU, i could switch to CORE, which actually will give me only 2500 CMU instead of 7000 (after the two initial months) (plus 500 inventory and a few items i can easily hack, which seems to be worth 4500cmu then).

    When did you last hack an Apex?

  • GuschtelGuschtel ✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    @starwort Better question: When did I last use an apex?

    Even better question: How high is the percentage of active (and subscription) players, that actually regularly used an APEX (at least once a month) before the subscription?

    For me an APEX is completely useless. It doesn't add anything to the gameplay. I'm already L16 and don't need any AP at all. In addition there are no benefits having more AP, so why would I need a short-time AP-Multiplier?

  • Well. It seems to have happened again

    today I (iPhone user) was charged £4:99. Where as Android users have only been charged £4.49.

  • InvestigateXMInvestigateXM ✭✭✭✭✭

    If Android users have been subscribed with the old price, for some reason, Google will charge the old price one more time and will only charge the higher price in April. I assume it's out of Niantic's hand for once.

  • @goulashnikopf if your 7,000 CMU bundle is also showing the same £4.99 price as C.O.R.E., then this is working as designed. Apple and Google prices should be the same to reduce arbitrage opportunities, but this isn't something we control from our Ingress team's end.

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