Comments on: BusyCal 3.0 Review

By: kevin

kevin — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 07:06:12 +0000

I cannot believe how stupid (yes stupid and that’s putting it mildly) developers/vendors are when they get loyal customers who actually buy their product and then they alienate them in one fell swoop. If the story about Kirk is true then Kirk should be sacked. The options they give are way short of how you would treat your customer base (because once you lose them they will not come back). Here’s how it should have been addressed:

We apologise for the inconvenience, we have no control over how google does XYZ, and we have to amend our software to address how they do XYZ. We understand your frustration:

1. If you bought busy cal in the last 6 (insert arbitrary value) months you qualify for a free upgrade.
2. If you have a valid license that is older than that, you get a 50% (include arbitrary %) reduction in the purchase price of busy cal V3.
3. If you are a new user the product will be discounted by 20% (insert arbitrary %) for the next 6 (insert arbitrary value) months.

Now no-one can complain, you are helping your loyal customers as best you can and showing to NEW/POTENTIAL customers you are the good guys. HOW HARD IS THAT!!!!!!!

I don’t get it, the first thing vendors do is take the moral high ground and try to piss off the people who have given them money…WHY??????

By: Alan Cole

Alan Cole — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 07:06:07 +0000

In reply to Christina.

Hi Sam / Christina,
I don’t think posting here will help as I doubt that the BusyCal developers read this site.

I do think you might be being a bit harsh too. It’s not really the developers of BusyCal’s fault that Google have changed the way that their calendaring system works. Version 2.0 of BusyCal worked perfectly when you bought it and has done so for you over the past couple of years. Things move on though and things change and if you want the latest and greatest software then someone has to work to develop that software. If they don’t charge for the work that they do developing the software and updating it to work with the changes over time then they won’t be able to develop it at all. This would mean there would be no BusyCal 3 (or BusyCal 2for that matter) and therefore no options for you either. At least by charging for it they are giving us an option. You can either:

1. Use the free built in Calendar within OSX (which does pretty much everything BusyCal does),
2. stick with your old out of date Version 2 of BusyCal but ditch Google Calendar, or
3. support the continued development of BusyCal, pay for BusyCal 3 and use that.

It sounds as though option 3 is really your preferred option but unfortunately it’s also the only one with a cost involved – sometimes though you have to pay for the things that you want.

Alan.

By: Christina

Christina — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 20:55:01 +0000

DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY!!!

I cannot express how infuriating my experience has been. Not only is their customer service nonexistent, they cheated me out of my money. As others here have said, their app does not meet Google’s security specifications and they refuse to upgrade the version 2.0 and also refuse to give a free upgrade to the 3.0 version.

I emailed them explaining my frustration and someone named Kirk said he was the “manager” and refused to give me an upgrade for the $50 program I paid for. When I asked to speak to someone else because he was so short with me and rude, he stated that they would not give me a refund OR a free upgrade.

Here is the email I received from Kirk when I asked to speak with someone else:
“There is no one else to talk with. We are not upgrading BusyCal 2, we are sorry that you don’t want to pay to upgrade to BusyCal 3, but we don’t have another route for the product to function w/Google’s changes. You should be able to remove BusyCal 2 and use OS X Calendar if your need for Google syncing is critical and BusyCal 2 no longer functions for you.”

Seriously, people–don’t support this company. They will take your money and then leave you out in the cold.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 16:59:26 +0000

I want to warn potential customers that BusyCal is a scam! I purchased BusyCal2 about two years ago and now it will no longer work because instead of updating they are making version 2 obsolete forcing customers to buy version 3. I wrote to customer relations to request a refund or solution and was told “there was never a guarantee that BusyCal 2 would work in perpetuity”.. they suggested I use Apple Calendar! This is a fly-by-night scam business. Do they really think people will pay $70 every couple years?

By: Bee

Bee — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 13:53:19 +0000

BusyCal 3 removed the ability to swipe between months or weeks. And moved the navigation to an inconvenient corner. I don’t like these changes. Nor did I like the snotty response I received from a staffer when I wrote to request the return of the swipe feature. I’ve used BusyCal since the first version because it was easier to use than Apple’s mucked up iCal. If BusyCal is going to just replicate the fan boy nonsense, I’ll have to find a different calendar. 🙁

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 24 Jul 2016 14:15:54 +0000

JeÅ¼eli ktoÅ› daje mi coÅ› free na 30 dni, a wyÅ‚Ä…cza to po 7 dniach to jest oszustwo. A ja od oszustÃ³w nic nie kupujÄ™.
Poza tym Busy Cal 3 nie jest warte swojej ceny.

By: Mat

Mat — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 04:09:23 +0000

I agree with the above comments. The demo really pissed me off. I had the App Store version of BusyCal, and it was wiped off my system with the demo. Why? Probably because they can’t coexist. That’s red flag #1. When I wanted to revert after a very short time, it involved a full delete, reboot, and redownload from the App Store.

As for the actual app, it’s a font change. Sure, travel time would be nice, but that *really* isn’t a killer feature. If you’re going to do a UI overhaul, why not offer a dark mode, and save my eyes? Why get rid of weekend indicators? And why not show at least a carat or some indicator where appointments aren’t visible that day?

There are a lot of things BusyCal 2 does very well. There’s nothing that BusyCal 3 does that’s worth money, and that’s a shame. It wouldn’t have taken much, but they clearly were working on their dud of an iOS app. It’s a rudderless ship, and for the first time in 7 years going all the way back to BusySync, I’m disappointed in their offerings.

By: Adrian Gordon

Adrian Gordon — Sat, 02 Jul 2016 02:29:35 +0000

The 30 day trial offer to use and test BusyCal 3 is a scam. It acutally works for about one week from the time it is installed and then gives you a message that your 30 day trial is up and you either have to buy the program or revert back to BusyCal 2 (if you upgraded). They were dishonest with me when they got me to download the upgrade by promising 30 days to test it or the program does not work as advertised. Either way, why would I want to purchase anything from them?

By: Patrick Houlihan

Patrick Houlihan — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 16:49:38 +0000

“All of the other features from previous versions of BusyCal are still there.” Not quite. For example:

– BusyCal 2 had a menu/shortcut option to adjust the week view by a single day. That’s gone. (A few users have stated that a shortcut is available to achieve this, but it’s mysteriously not working for some users and it’s not listed in a menu.)

– BusyCal 2 allowed users to specify times for the beginning and ending of a work day. That option is missing in version 3.

These are the kinds of advantages that made some of us think of BusyCal as the Mac calendar for power users. Version 3 is less powerful.

The updated design and the addition of travel time are nice, but BusyCal 3 is merely catching up with Apple’s Calendar regarding these features. The menuapp is good, but not as useful as Fantastical’s. As the review mentions, considering the price, BusyCal 3 is a disappointment.