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USE THIS SOFTWARE AND LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE: We made a cute Christmas video to include in our card this year. My wife created a QR code from a random website a

USE THIS SOFTWARE AND LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE: We made a cute Christmas video to include in our card this year. My wife created a QR code from a random website and included it in the card as a picture. It linked to our video. We sent all of the cards out. People loved it. ... except we got an email from the QR code company about a week before Christmas. We went over our "free" click (the QR code went through their URL shortener). If we wanted to keep the QR code active we had to pay $20/mo. We got absolutely fleeced. Never again. Control the URL and make the QR image yourself.

0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago
Clever grift. I am surprised I have not heard more stories about “free” web tools utilizing some kind of similar monetization trick.
franga2000 2y ago
I've spotted this on several large events on setup day, explained how fucked they'll be in a few days and showed them a safe QR code generator. Usually it was just signage and they could reprint the QR code and glue it over the bad one, but one of them had printed hundreds of leaflets with the event schedule and I think they just ended up paying because even a year of "QR ransom" was cheaper than overnight printing and shipping. My other favourite QR-code related fuckup is designers trimming the quet zone to just 1 module "because the white border looks ugly" and not checking if the codes are scannable. That and light-on-dark codes, which according to the standard don't exist, but most scanner apps can handle them these days thanks to endless complaining by designers.
joshstrange 2y ago
Yep, came here to make a similar comment. My sister used some random free QR generator to open your email app with a “to/subject” filled out. There was no sign up and she didn’t know to check to QR code itself. Instead of being a normal QR code (QR codes support the email case directly, as part of the “spec”) it was a link to the QR company’s website that immediately bounced you to the the right url to open your email. After a month or so they emailed her (using the email address she entered for the code) and told her to pay up or the code would stop working. These people are scum. Make it clear it’s not a standalone QR Code (and there are potential upsides to this, to be fair, like updating where the qr code points) and don’t bait and switch.

0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago

Clever grift. I am surprised I have not heard more stories about “free” web tools utilizing some kind of similar monetization trick.

franga2000 2y ago

I've spotted this on several large events on setup day, explained how fucked they'll be in a few days and showed them a safe QR code generator. Usually it was just signage and they could reprint the QR code and glue it over the bad one, but one of them had printed hundreds of leaflets with the event schedule and I think they just ended up paying because even a year of "QR ransom" was cheaper than overnight printing and shipping. My other favourite QR-code related fuckup is designers trimming the quet zone to just 1 module "because the white border looks ugly" and not checking if the codes are scannable. That and light-on-dark codes, which according to the standard don't exist, but most scanner apps can handle them these days thanks to endless complaining by designers.

joshstrange 2y ago

Yep, came here to make a similar comment. My sister used some random free QR generator to open your email app with a “to/subject” filled out. There was no sign up and she didn’t know to check to QR code itself. Instead of being a normal QR code (QR codes support the email case directly, as part of the “spec”) it was a link to the QR company’s website that immediately bounced you to the the right url to open your email. After a month or so they emailed her (using the email address she entered for the code) and told her to pay up or the code would stop working. These people are scum. Make it clear it’s not a standalone QR Code (and there are potential upsides to this, to be fair, like updating where the qr code points) and don’t bait and switch.