WOW. I had to update this previously glowing article of what had been a well-made app and service to reflect the poor business decisions made by LogMeIn. First, they had one of the more expensive apps at $20 to $30, and more recently, it was as much as $130. But I still recommended it because it connected to their FREE service, making the up-front investment worthwhile.
Now, the Free service is gone, and the app has been pulled and is useless. Users have seven days to convert to a paid account of $50 to $100 or more. When that happens to a free or even $0.99 app, it's one thing and understandable, but with $30 to $130 app, that's a bad investment and bad policy.
Independently, and simultaneously, I was charged $90+ and $50+ for their Cubby service and 100GB of extra storage. I had not even been using that service, and had no notice of the charge, in advance or even after the fact. I just happened to check my credit card statement. Even if I did have a warning, they have no mechanism to cancel without contacting customer service which others report takes hours. They even charged the amount to my canceled credit card, and it still went through, so I'm taking it up with American Express. Here's their email when I first signed up: "You may change your billing preferences at any time by logging in to your account at cubby.com and choosing Account settings. Do not reply to this email. Your reply will not be seen by humans."
This is another business lesson for app developers and service providers. Your reputation is hard to earn and can be quickly ruined.
See below for how LogMeIn had at one time earned a good reputation, but that was another time and place...
Just a quick note that LogMeIn Ignition is on sale for $19.99 instead of $29.99. I paid full price and it's been worth it for me and I know several of my colleagues here at iPhone Life use it too. I use the free LogMeIn service on my macs and I can control them remotely from my iPad (or iPhone, though the smaller screen is less practical). Now that a Bluetooth keyboard is supported by iOS, this makes the iPad even more practical. Indeed, I've been able to leave the MacBook at home and travel with just an iPad and still be able to connect to my server, etc.
