What's In This Newsletter?
- Move to AWS - Update
- Account Funding & Memberships
- How Memberships Affect You
- New ZOLEO Partner Interface
Move to Amazon Web Services - Update
As springtime activity started to ramp up here in the northern hemisphere, we experienced some growing pains while right-sizing the new AWS environment. Of course, this happened while I was on the wet road to Colorado in early June which made it even more interesting. But we figured out a few things and persevered.
The main issue was right-sizing and configuring the web servers. Once we got those dialed in, the environment has been stable ever since. The backend database (AWS Aurora) never missed a beat. In fact, Aurora was one of the driving factors in the move from Rackspace to AWS.
While you do what you can to mitigate issues like this, they weren't unexpected. And as always, we appreciate everyone's patience and understanding.
Account Funding & Memberships
On Sunday, September 8th at 9PM US/Central time, we're going to shake things up a bit. In an effort to, hopefully, simplify account funding we're moving to a membership model.
A SpotWalla membership will come in various levels. The distinguishing characteristics are the number of active devices each day and whether or not you can manage your own location pages. All memberships come with unlimited storage, map views and activity while your membership is active. And we'll store all your data even if your membership expires to ensure you never lose or have to purge your data from the system.
You can purchase a 60-day membership or a one-year membership. Upgrading and downgrading between the various levels is entirely do-able.
| Level | Devices1 | Manage Location Pages? | 60-Days | One Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | 2 | $5 | $15 | |
| Family | 4 | $15 | $25 | |
| Business | 20 | $75 | $100 | |
| Elite | 50 | $125 | $200 | |
| Platinum | Unlimited | $200 | $300 |
Most users will fall into the Individual or Family plan. The pricing of both levels (spread over a year) is cheaper than the daily cost of SpotWalla today. SpotWalla is cheaper than it has ever been.
So what's the catch? Well, when your membership is active, everything works perfectly. But when your membership expires, your devices will cease to work, trips won't be viewable, location pages won't update your location, etc. Essentially, SpotWalla will stop working for you. However, your account balance will not continually go negative and we'll keep your data intact until you renew your membership or cancel your account.
We won't support subscriptions. Not because we can't, but because we don't want to continually charge someone for something they're not using. If you want/need to use SpotWalla, purchase the appropriate membership and use it. We'll send you an expiration reminder 7 days before your membership expires and an expiration notice when it does expire, but keeping it active is entirely up to you. As it should be.
How Memberships Affect You
Making the transition to a membership will be automatic for some users and require a little effort for others. Here's the breakdown...
IBA Premier Plus Members
If you have an active IBA Premier Plus Membership, any remaining time will be converted to an Individual membership. No action is required.
Active Accounts
If your account is active and has a credit balance, that's your money. We will not automatically convert your funds into a membership. Instead, after these changes go live we encourage you to log into SpotWalla and convert your balance into the membership of your choosing.
When you log into SpotWalla, your dashboard will show something like:
To see how that balance can be used to purchase one of the membership levels, click the Membership Manager button. The balance will be converted into some number of days of each membership level. Choose the level that best suits your needs. It's simple, painless and quick.
Friends of SpotWalla
If you're a ride sponsor and a current Friend of SpotWalla, nothing will change for you. No action is required.
Accounts On-Hold or a Balance Due
If your account is currently on hold or if you have a negative balance, your account will be expired. The next time you log in you can purchase a membership at the level of your choosing. Any outstanding account balance will be forgiven in full.
New ZOLEO Partner Interface
ZOLEO is the only satellite tracker with a real-time interface to SpotWalla. Connecting your ZOLEO device to SpotWalla just got a lot easier. For more information, see this help page:
Connecting Your ZOLEO Device to SpotWalla
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please email us and we will help.
Thanks,
Jason