I'm going to through my 2 cents in here.
First off, I'm not going to pretend that it's been easy to be PGHQ over the
past years, and I'm sure they (like some of the rest of us) struggle with
the lousy economy for venture money at this point. However, there's a few
things that I wish PGHQ would address. I did read the letter to Aaron, and I
will say that PGHQ has made some progress (they were 3 months overdue to me,
and they caught up 2 of those months earlier this month), but there are some
outstanding issues.
The biggest problem I have is with the way they handle finances. Since
they're taking 20% off the top of all purchaes, they should be using that
20% as income. Instead it seems they're using the whole 100% of a sale as
income and then counting the 80% they need to pay the developer as an
expense. This is dangerous for the developer beacuase we're basically held
up by PGHQ's legal troubles, etc. Obviously it gives them more workable
short term cash, but it's like stealing from the food money to pay for gas.
Ultimately it all has to be paid out.
Second, financial troubles or not, there's no excuse for 'sql error
#2321123' that seems to turn up for about 1/2 the things I do on PGHQ these
days. And if that's going to happen, then there's REALLY no excuse for the
lack of response from their designated support teams. Kenny West is
extremely responsive, but their websupport & partners lines are like molasis
and then tend to offer suggestions like "Make sure you're using a current
web browser"...gee thanks. I feel bad sending every problem I have to Kenny,
but with the support that the rest of the company gives, it's become the
only alternative.
Third, PGHQ tried several times to work out a developer/PGHQ contract.
However the attempts were convoluted, long winded and never ended up working
out. This leads me to believe that we as developers have no legal rights
when it comes to PGHQ. I'm not convinced about their continued existence
(yes I know they provide for Palm itself, but that doesn't guarantee
anything) or their continued ability to pay developers and as it stands I
don't think we have legal recourse as a creditor should it ever come to that
(which hopefully it won't, but it pays to be prepared).
Fourth, in Kenny's current letter and one he sent not so long ago, he claims
that PGHQ is actively seeking outside investment. I'm sure they are, and
that's great news, but working for a startup myself, I know just how tough
it is to get any money right now, so I'd be more comforted to know exactly
what avenues PGHQ is pursuing. Are they going to venture companies or are
they turning to Palm or what?
Lastly, and this is a nitpick. If you're going to charge a 20% fee at least
hold to your committments. It used to be that we had small icons on the
bottom of the software pages where we had free advertising. These have been
discontinued ever since hte "new layout". When I asked about it a little
while back, they said it's be put back "real soon now". Come on, it's not
that big an effort, and it'd make developers feel good to have the feature
back.
With all that said...I've been with PGHQ since the beginning and I intend to
tough it out to the end, but I no longer depend on them as my sole provider
and I doubt I will until they can prove they can put their act together.
"Robert Purcell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:61088@palm-dev-forum...
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I'm really getting concerned about PalmGear. After two months
> without receiving any payment from them, I sent an email to the
> president (Kenny). I got a reply that he would be sending out
> a letter explaining the company's "financial situation" and their
> plans for the future. The email went on to say that June/July
> payments would "hopefully" be sent out at the end of September
> (2-3 months late)!
>
> Not to sound totally negative here, but considering their financial
> status right now, what would happen if they reached a point where
> they could NOT pay the developers? Would we all be out the money
> owed to us?
>
> I've heard of several developer's pulling their product-sales
> from PalmGear and moving them exclusively to Handango (which I
> have always received timely payments from), and other online sales
> companies (digibuy, etc.)
>
> Can anyone comment on this? Does anyone else feel "concerned"
> that they may never see the hard-earned money for their product
> registrations?
>
> Sorry again for the "off-topic" subject and for speaking so negatively.
>
> Thanks everyone!
> -Robert
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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>
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