astromart-now need to pay to access

[PeterM]

show me the MONEY! show ME THE MONEY! SHOW ME THE MONEY!
Don't you just love em.

PeterM.

[Gama]

Hi Dennis, my gripe was a general one, and not from any posts.

Stephen, they get money from advertising, like google does.
They post up "Paid" adverts, and also do their own internal adverts.
Which is all good, but to "Force", and THIS is the magic word, "Force" you to pay, is a total ramsom$$ payment in my view.
If from get go, you had to pay, then fine. But that is and wasnt the case.
They are basically forcing me and others to pay to be able to log in. Sorry, doesnt matter how you cut and cook a skunk, its still a skunk !.
Peter has the right tone, "Ka-ching $$$"

Theo.

[rat156]

Originally Posted by PeterM

show me the MONEY! show ME THE MONEY! SHOW ME THE MONEY!
Don't you just love em.

PeterM.

Show me the cheapskate, show me the cheapskate!

For (insert deity's name here)'s sake it's $15.

I have bought heaps of stuff there, never had a problem, always cheap, even cheaper now with the exchange rate. Money well spent, they are providing a service.

Oh, and if you did visit the site often, there have been several announcements as to the financial state of the site and the impending fee for people that have never coughed up the $12. Initially the site was supposed to be paid for by the ads and sponsors, but they needed more to run and update the site, hence they had to start charging. Now they have corrected a perceived injustice by backcharging the existing people, some of whom aren't active, many of whom the details would be wrong and therefore the id's would be vulnerable.

Yes Theo you do have a choice, if you want to continue then pay the $12, if you don't, then don't.

Cheers
Stuart

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by rat156

Show me the cheapskate, show me the cheapskate!

For (insert deity's name here)'s sake it's $15.

I have bought heaps of stuff there, never had a problem, always cheap, even cheaper now with the exchange rate. Money well spent, they are providing a service.

Oh, and if you did visit the site often, there have been several announcements as to the financial state of the site and the impending fee for people that have never coughed up the $12. Initially the site was supposed to be paid for by the ads and sponsors, but they needed more to run and update the site, hence they had to start charging. Now they have corrected a perceived injustice by backcharging the existing people, some of whom aren't active, many of whom the details would be wrong and therefore the id's would be vulnerable.

Yes Theo you do have a choice, if you want to continue then pay the $12, if you don't, then don't.

Cheers
Stuart

Well good for you. Your fees may jump with the number of "members" who jump.
PeterM.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by rat156

>snip
Oh, and if you did visit the site often, there have been several announcements as to the financial state of the site...
>snip

Cheers
Stuart

Fair enough – thanks for that, I must have missed the announcement(s).

Cheers

Dennis

[casstony]

I paid the fee because it's not much money, though Astronomics manage to run Cloudynights without a fee and they offer a store discount to CN members. Additionally, CN members seem to view Astronomics as a benevolent overseer whereas Anacortes has been an adversarial presence on Astromart over the years. The two sites/owners apparently have very different philosophies, one using the stick and one using the carrot.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

I thought I had paid a $12 fee somewhere along the line, and seeing as my account is still active my hunch must have been right.

Really, the whole thing wasnt handled too well by owner - many of the announcements regarding the upcoming access charges, while perhaps made with some humour certainly didnt come across that way, and put many nose out of joint IMO

[Garyh]

I find it a bit crook not being able to log on..
I have been a member for around 5 years and only have ever bought one item years ago. Now I can`t even check out the prices in many adverts to see if somethings going at a good price that I might want or query..
It`s a bad move....better to charge a small advert charge to the seller than charging prospective buyers!

[gts055 (Mark)]

I had been using Astromart for the past 10 years till last week when I was refused access unless I paid a $12US fee. My internet provider and consequently my email address changed three times during the 10 years. The Astromart site would not allow me to update my email address unless a fee was paid. (The site owner is the proprietor of the business "Anacortes Telescope and Wild Bird", and claimed that site maintenance was costly). To regain site access I logged in as a new user, and of course lost my user ratings gained from purchases thru the site. I have 29 websites to update details when I change internet provider, Astromart (Anacortes Telescope) was the only one charging a fee to do so. Anacortes Telescope advertises profusely on Astromart, I guess their potential customer base will be dwindling with the imposition of the fee. Mark

[moggi1964 (Morris)]

Moderators: I hope it is okay for me to post this here - PM me if there is something I need to do.

I am the person behind the "Banned From Astromart" t-shirt and I am NOT Herb York. My name is Morris Bagnall, I am a Brit living in NJ.

I created a site called:

http://www.astrolaugh.com

I hope to populate it with other designs over time and that will likely help me get some advertising; it is difficult to sell the shirts when people don't know who or where you are. None of the major astronomy websites will let me post about the shirts or advertise for fear of getting into a war with Herb.

I personally think the service provided at Astromart is a good one and I also think $12 is not an unreasonable amount to charge for the security that it brings. How things are handled by Herb is another matter completely.

In my only post on Astromart about the shirts I told people, including HY, that it was me selling the shirts and that the humour was a tongue in cheek dig at the quirkiness of the owner and the banning. I also said that my plan was to donate 50c from each sale in sponsorship to show my support.

After some words about where he would put the t-shirts if he lived closer to me (and it didn't sound pleasant) and that he didn't need my support (strange because he was always pleading for it) the thread was deleted and I was ......................banned! Again! http://www.astroclassifieds.com/foru...milies/eek.gif

So now, 50c from each sale goes to a service that provides online astronomical education:

http://www.astrosphere.org/donate/

I sold the shirts at NEAIC and NEAF earlier this month. It was NEVER about making a lot of money (if they all sell at $12 I will make less than $40 after donations and expenses - if I sell some at the price they will go up to on May 16th then I will make more). This has always been about having a laugh at a situation many of us are familiar with.

It is not about a movement to denounce astromart or bring it to its knees.

I will tell you that I sold two shirts to wives of astronomers who said the husband would get a chuckle because the their wives kept telling them they were going to ban them from astromart because they spend too much money there.

I had such fun at NEAIC and NEAF (I helped out at both and sold the shirts there too); so many people came over to chat and share their experiences about astromart. It was really satisfying to see people simply walking past with a grin on their faces. THAT is what this has always been about.

If anyone here wants to buy one feel free to contact me through here (if that is okay with the mods) or through my website listed above. The site is not yet configured for international shipping but I will get you a price if you ask.

Thanks for listening.

Morris

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Morris,

Thanks for posting...I did not realize that you were invovled in all of the hoopla.

I understand the "spirit" of the thing and also understand why some people have reacted the way they have to your lark.

Cheers,

[taxman (Matt)]

Originally Posted by gts055

I have 29 websites to update details when I change internet provider.

I had this issue too but switched my email to gmail about 4 years ago - never looked back