I guess you didn't read my blog post because I addressed everything you wrote. The issue is not that it went paid, it's the 4-days notice. They are perfectly in their right to start charging for their API, they just can't give us 4-days notice.
Well they can do whatever timeframe they want of course. And I can write about how rude it is. 4-days (really 1-business day in the original email Friday->Monday) is not a reasonable timeframe within which to threaten to cutoff an app with real users.
Just killing your app is an emotional, not a rational, decision. You have a human responding to your emails, so here's a business way to handle this situation:
Dear Yelp,
Your decision to discontinue the free API was unexpected, and it’s difficult for me to switch to the new one within the given very short 4-day timeframe. Not only is this not enough time to estimate how your new API pricing will affect my business model, but it also requires some engineering work to switch my app to the new API.
Given my 10-year history of working with Yelp, I would appreciate it if you could send me your new pricing proposal ASAP and also give me some time to consider it. If accepted, I would need additional time to implement it.
It's just not worth it. I have a full-time job and many other projects and apps I am supporting. I don't want to work with a company that provides long-term API users 4-days notice about a major change and threatens to cut you off in that time period. As you saw in the blog post I did write back to them and did not get any kind of response indicating flexibility (did you read my whole post?).
Also, the money is very very low stakes. This app sells dozens of copies a year. Not hundreds or thousands. It's just not worth it financially. It sold 467 copies over 10 years. People who used it loved it, but it's not a money maker.
> I don't want to work with a company that provides long-term API users 4-days notice about a major change and threatens to cut you off in that time period.
If you don't want to deal with the slightest inconvenience don't run a business and don't take money from customers. You owe it to your users to care at least a bit.
> If you don't want to deal with the slightest inconvenience don't run a business and don't take money from customers. You owe it to your users to care at least a bit.
I did care "at least a bit" which is why I kept updating the app for 10-years despite it not making almost any money. How many indie apps survive that long? But based on the pricing they quoted me it would be a money-losing venture to continue (see slide 3 base monthly fee $229 from the deck they sent me):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cb_8laDpxZdfwJPtYBmibZgvLZ8...
And we have to decide what we work on when we are just one person. If it's money-losing and they don't treat you well it might not make sense to keep doing it.
That said, as I expressed in the blog post I do feel really bad for any of the users that bought the app and I want all of them to get a refund from Apple as explained in the post. They can use these directions:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/118223
Well they can do whatever timeframe they want of course. And I can write about how rude it is. 4-days (really 1-business day in the original email Friday->Monday) is not a reasonable timeframe within which to threaten to cutoff an app with real users.