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So they have an app on iOS and Android that you can use to add balance, check mins/texts/data etc. They have a limit on the amount of times you can check your data, which makes sense so people don't send tons and tons of requests. Every 15 mins your info is updated. Except it isn't, because even if you wait 15 minutes, the update still does not appear, sometimes not even until hours later. I assume this is so people check their info, use a bunch of data or whatever and then get charged for going over the limit because they though all of their info was up to date.

That is bullshit, but the bullshit doesn't stop there.

After you use the app for a while, you will get a thing popping up that asks you if you are enjoying their app. If you press no they will ask you why, but you can just decline to answer. Every single time I have responded in this way, the app breaks. Your update limit gets pushed to one hour rather than 15 mins, and it stays there forever. The only thing you can do is delete the app and then reinstall it. At first I thought this was a flaw in the design, but it was put there on purpose. I know this because I just pressed "Yes" for the first time when they asked if I was enjoying the app. You are then asked if you would like to rate their app, and are given "later" and "rate" as options. Pressing "later" will set your limit up to an hour, but rating their app does not and it will continue to work perfectly.

I assume there is some rule in the app store/play store about asking for ratings a certain amount of times, so the workaround they found was forcing people to redownload the app so they could keep asking for a rating.

So they have an app on iOS and Android that you can use to add balance, check mins/texts/data etc. They have a limit on the amount of times you can check your data, which makes sense so people don't send tons and tons of requests. Every 15 mins your info is updated. Except it isn't, because even if you wait 15 minutes, the update still does not appear, sometimes not even until hours later. I assume this is so people check their info, use a bunch of data or whatever and then get charged for going over the limit because they though all of their info was up to date. That is bullshit, but the bullshit doesn't stop there. After you use the app for a while, you will get a thing popping up that asks you if you are enjoying their app. If you press no they will ask you why, but you can just decline to answer. Every single time I have responded in this way, the app breaks. Your update limit gets pushed to one hour rather than 15 mins, and it stays there forever. The only thing you can do is delete the app and then reinstall it. At first I thought this was a flaw in the design, but it was put there on purpose. I know this because I just pressed "Yes" for the first time when they asked if I was enjoying the app. You are then asked if you would like to rate their app, and are given "later" and "rate" as options. Pressing "later" will set your limit up to an hour, but rating their app does not and it will continue to work perfectly. I assume there is some rule in the app store/play store about asking for ratings a certain amount of times, so the workaround they found was forcing people to redownload the app so they could keep asking for a rating.

3 comments

[–] jobes 2 points (+2|-0) Edited

I fucking hate the mobile app market so god damned much. I've downloaded maybe a total of 15 apps in the last 3-4 years. If there is a single ounce of bullshit in an app then it's gone and I'll either not use the service anymore, or I'll use the web version. It's a predatory market that needs to somehow die....but noooo. It's too profitable because people are fucking morons.

[–] PMYA [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

The time period between apps appearing and ads/microtransactions/other BS was extremely short. A while ago I was having some trouble finding a few files on my android, so someone recommended a file manager to me. I think it is called EZ file manager or something similar. About a week later, I came across an article detailing how this app was sending data back to some obscure Chinese analytics company. How do you fuck up a file manager?

[–] jobes 1 points (+1|-0) Edited

Yeah, ES File Explorer. It's actually a great file manager, best one I've seen on Android, but the China stuff is sketchy as fuck.