Jul 1, 2014

Doodle premium service, too expensive

I have recently discovered the MeetMe service from Doodle, which allows guests selecting a slot on the host's calendar.
In my case, students can see my Google calendars, with busy/free times. For official duties, if I decided so, they can also see my actual activity (e.g. exams, lessons, what and where, etc.).
MeetMe has the advantages that guests can look themselves for free slots and chose the one that is more convenient for them. Moreover, they save me the time to put in the meeting details.
All this has been free for a short time, and finally this April 2014 it has become a pay service at the unfair price of about 40$/year, going up to about 150$ with additional features (e.g. no ads). I can accept a nominal cost for additional services, but 40$/year looks me a ridiculously high cost, considering that many more complex software cost less than that, e.g. android apps are in the order of the buck (=1$).
In many areas, e.g. among my colleagues and students, the Doodle and the MeetMe applications are still not known, and I think that Doodle has made a barrier to their expansion, by fixing such a high cost and this has decreased my estimation for the company. E.g. I have 100+ colleagues in my University Department each with hundreds of students every year, all potential users.
By this post I am informing the former and future potential users of the MeetMe Doodle service that I have given up using it for its excessively high cost.

To book an appointment with me you can view my calendar here and possibly send me an invitation request in one of the following ways in order of priority

  1. from your Google calendar if you have one, as explained here
  2. from Gmail if you are a user, as explained here
  3. at this lanzetta.youcanbook.me page
  4. by contacting me