Thank you Brandon for bringing this to my attention.
If I could stop buying from Handango I would, but as a Dutchman without creditcard I can’t purchase there in the first place.
And even though I didn’t really take a good look at John’s software, this thing Handango is doing is just wrong.
I sent them a message through the form at John’s site, and will post about it in a topic at the sbsh.net forums.

I can’t believe Handango is trying to get rich quick, by doing what they do with download protection and terminating John’s account. It’s going to cost them money in the long run. So unless they want to quit with Handango, I don’t understand why they are doing things like this.
But then again, I’m not a businessman, but just a consumer.
One of the many consumers, and I hope Handango feels that.

Kudo’s to you for advertising John’s software here.

Thanks for the Kudo’s… in this case it just seemed like the right thing to do. Handango has done a lot for the community and I don’t want to take that away from them (I bought my first PPC app from them many years ago) but at the same time it almost seems as if they have been trying to alienate the developers and the customers recently with some of the things they have been doing.

As for being (overseas from me) a Dutchman … is Germany an option for buying software? If so http://www.pocketland.de/ PocketLand is a great place to buy from although I find they tend to be a little bit more expensive than some other places. They run a lot of specials, and you can usually find everything you could think of on the site.

Anyway, thanks again for the note – and thanks even more for getting over to John’s site and sending a letter to Handango. Hopefully they will realize the mobile community is the only reason they have a company and start working out some of their issues.

Netsyd,
This is pretty appalling. After reading your article, and John’s emails, I added my own eail to the “contact Handango” form.

I also posted a message on his message board telling him that you gave him some “free advertising” over here and offering to do some reviews of his stuff if he gets it released here at JAMM.

Doug

Brandon – I indeed purchased most of the software at Pocketland. They also do their job at pocketland.nl so it’s even in my own language. Well not all, since I get German texts occasionaly. From that I discovered they do their business through Pdassi. When I was testing the password recovery tool at http://www.sbsh.net I noticed that it didn’t work, and Amit fom SBSH told me that Pdassi doesn’t send the user info to the developer.
That’s a downside, but knowing SBSH’s great support it will not become a problem.
Pocketland is indeed my choice for purchasing software now.

PDA247 has got some response from Handango on this. I don’t think their response will make anyone feel any better about Handango (without more facts being shared or coming to light) – the curcial part of their (non)response is: “Without divulging specifics, our collective decision to not distribute Omnisoft’s content was based on additional information not publicly shared.” So I guess we just need to trust them huh? The PDA247 post is at:

Sorry – link is:
http://www.clieuk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?threadid=8356

Hey all-

My name is Will Pinnell, and I am the Senior Director of Content at Handango. In light of the recent posts about Handango seen on Just Another Mobile Monday, I wanted to provide an update. I visited Omnisoft’s site myself last week and read the available thread between John and members of our team. I also spoke with him on the phone.

I’d like to assure you that Handango does not discontinue partnerships without cause, nor did we come to this decision lightly. In my nearly seven years at Handango, I’ve served as an advocate for small developers and appreciate the passion shown in your posts. As a standard business practice, we strive to ensure productive and successful relationships with all our thousands of content provider partners. Without divulging specifics to the community, our collective decision to not distribute Omnisoft’s content was based on additional information not publicly shared.

I do admire John Cody’s drive to make customers aware of his applications and wish him the best of luck in the future. Although we stand by our decision to not distribute his company’s content at this time, we have issued a payment to Omnisoft in the amount of the remaining marketing credit.

Thank you for your continued enthusiasm about the smartphone content space. We look forward to continuously improving our communications with our valued customers and content provider community.

Will Pinnell
Senior Director of Content
Handango