Seasons change, time moves ever onward, and before you know it... Apple's hitting me up for $100 to renew my dotMac account. And I've given it some thought, and I'll probably waffle on some more before I finally decide, but I think I'm going to let the account expire.
I was almost reeled back in when I got the email describing the "special offer" for people who renew their accounts. Renewing dotMac folk can get either The Sims, EverQuest for Mac, or $20 off at the Apple store. And while neither The Sims nor EverQuest interested me, that $20 would take a nice chunk out of the price of Panther. Until I looked at the fine print and saw the coupon expires on the 25th of this month. Um... no.
It's no real loss. I use so few of the dotMac "features" that I doubt I'll miss them. iDisk and Backup are only really useful if you have a broadband connection of some type, I only have the one Mac, so iSync's capabilities (synchronizing Address Books, Bookmarks, iCal calendars, etc.) are pointless for me. I don't create my own iCards, and the free/discounted software offers are almost never anything I'm interested in.
Really, the only thing I'll be losing is the email address. And even that, the only valid email I get at that address is from Apple, trying to sell me stuff. Otherwise, it's either spam (steadily on the increase), or misaddressed email, which I get a lot of at that address. I expect the main source of frustration will be making sure that all my Apple-related registrations fall back gracefully to a non-dotMac address. I'm sort of dreading that, actually. Especially since I think Apple has made that email address my AppleID. Hopefully losing the address won't foul up any purchases I've made from the iTunes Music Store (though I suspect I'll have to re-register a new account at some point that doesn't use the dotMac address. Hopefully that won't blow away or render inaccessible all my previous purchases.
I love my Mac, and I like Apple (mostly) as a company. But I've got better things to do with $100.
Posted by Matt at September 10, 2003 11:06 AMhere's the real bitch about the $20 off gift certificate, which I was hoping to get.
(a) it only ships when your membership is renewed. for me, that's October 12.
(b) once it "ships" (and if it's for the Apple Store online, what has to ship?) it takes 4-6 weeks for it to arrive.
so, my question is: who actually will be able to use the gift certificate? people who selected that, and whose membership expired during the second week of August or earlier?
now, if memory serves, .mac was introduced last year, at MWNY. that's mid-July. and, when it was announced, you got a thirty-day free trial.
one other thing. if you signed up early, you got three months free. so, instead of my account expiring mid-August (and being able to claim the free gift) my account expires mid-October.
and, they don't tell you that your free gift has to ship until you pick it.
fuckers.
Posted by: braz on September 10, 2003 12:18 PMokay, Apple didn't screw me.
I got steamed the more I thought about this (no, I don't want EverCrack, and I've owned the Sims for years) so I went to the .mac support pages to find a contact number.
While browsing, I found that there's a discrepancy between what's listed on the offer page and what's listed on the T's & C's of the offer.
The terms and conditions state that the coupon will expire either 9/25 or 12/25, depending on renewal date.
So, that coupon for $20 off Panther is actually usable again. Or, my company could buy Panther, and I could use the coupon for Burning Monkey Mahjongg...
I'm a sucker for a good Mahjonng game...
Posted by: mithy on September 10, 2003 12:33 PMWell, that's a relief at least. But I don't think I can bring myself to spend $100 to get $20 and an email address.
Posted by: Matt on September 10, 2003 01:58 PM