MyFitnessPal
soldier2soulja23
Posts: 1 Member
I have used this app for a very long time and to my dismay you started charging for the meal scan feature. In my opinion, this is a feature is needed for meal accuracy and should be included for basic membership like it was in the past. I feel forced to either purchase premium or leave the app. Unfortunately, I am going to choose to leave. There are many apps that offer the scan function at no cost. Lastly, you scan function already has many errors and does not work efficiently. Bye MyFitnessPal
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Replies
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I'm tired of people doing this. The scanner is still there. For free. Go into your diary, hit add food, the scanner will pop up. For free.1
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sollyn23l2 wrote: »I'm tired of people doing this. The scanner is still there. For free. Go into your diary, hit add food, the scanner will pop up. For free.
You think people are inventing this? They're not, many people can no longer scan for free, they get a message asking them to join Premium when they try to scan barcodes, even if there seem to be some (unexplained) exceptions where some people can still scan.5 -
Look at it this way. A gym membership can be 3x as much, and a lot of people join it, go for the first month, then quit, while still paying the monthly fee. You’re getting all you really need for weight loss here on MFP for a third of the cost. It’s a bargain 😁. AND ad free (which is why I went premium years ago). Just sayin2
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I don't think the scanner increases accuracy. On the contrary it invites to not check entries properly and just accept what comes up. Yes, I am allowed to be critical as I've lived in 4 countries since joining and the results I got were on average not good: outdated nutritional macros and calories, data from the wrong country, units I don't want to work with, or downright wrong kind of food. Another critical point: When I found the right item the scanner would next time still give me the wrong thing.
But hey, it was damn convenient where it did work and I'm also not happy it's gone because it got many people here who later learned to log properly and learned about nutrition and lost weight. So yeah... that's my opinion on this.5 -
One day, maybe everything free will be gone, gone, gone. There will be no such thing as a free lunch. We'll have to pay to play. Community, scanner, diary. We won't know who's mad, sad or glad, because we'll all be on a level playing field.
Seriously, no one here can do anything about it. It's just like all of the other technical issues, we can't fix it. We can't refund premium memberships. We can't do bodiddly about the scanner. I've never used it, but I don't use GPS either. I still read maps. I don't use any of these fitness apps to count my steps or motivate me. My phone and watch are as dumb as a box of rocks. I'm a tracker by nature, but I don't rely on anyone or anything to do it. I threw that siri handy dandy answering device into the bin.5 -
I've been a member for 11 years and never once used the scan feature, which I wouldn't take as gospel anyway. I verify ALL user-created entries, and have seen numerous errors.5
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sollyn23l2 wrote: »I'm tired of people doing this. The scanner is still there. For free. Go into your diary, hit add food, the scanner will pop up. For free.
Not with my iphone - I am prompted to get premium.2 -
It's been gone for months now, or at least it was announced months ago.
Many people (though IMO a small fraction of the user base) have posted complaints about it in the Community, similar to this one.
Why, why, why?
The MFP staff doesn't read every post in the Community. These posts are just talking to other regular MFP users who have no more power than the OP has. At least post here, where the staff might read it:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/feature-suggestions-and-ideas
Or go up-vote the complaints about it that are already there.
After the amount of time that's passed, it's probably even less functional to post elsewhere than that in the Community, such as here where this post appears: Mostly, those who are still here are regular users who don't care that the scanner is no longer free, or who decided premium was worth the cost (whether for the scanner or other reasons). I have premium, find the scanner inconvenient within my routine. (I have to have the package in hand when I log? Just no.), On top of that, it's too-often inaccurate. I don't use it.
Since OP thinks this is a good place to vent, I'll vent, too.
I'm really sick of reading these complaints, literally months after the change was announced. Leave, don't leave, whatever. Maybe we'll miss the speculated endless droves of excellent contributors who'll leave, but honestly there are only a couple who I think left because of this, whom I miss. Pretty often, the complaints are coming from people who have few signs of being active participants (few/no posts, few/no MFP friends). There are other logging tools. Maybe some have free scanners, dunno.
In the abstract, I'm sorry you're unhappy, but what's the point of trying to make other people unhappy, too?
When someone is just now figuring out the scanner is gone, I have to wonder how often they actually use the app, TBH. Maybe they're one of the few for whom the scanner kept working for a while. I don't know, I don't care. I think they didn't read the announcements, didn't read any newsletters (maybe turned off that feature). 🤷♀️5 -
kshama2001 wrote: »I've been a member for 11 years and never once used the scan feature, which I wouldn't take as gospel anyway. I verify ALL user-created entries, and have seen numerous errors.
Fair enough. My main point was I get frustrated with people coming into the comments and complaing about things that we can't change. They need to contact MFP customer service. But, in their defense, I can choose to just not look at their comments.2 -
My first thought ws, "Are people still complaining about yhis? It's been 84 years!"
(Also, I think we came up with a reason some can still scan and some can't which I will be keeping to myself because I HATE getting scolded by mfp.)
(AND the only time I've ever used the scanner was to test said theory which seemed to be correct.)
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My first thought ws, "Are people still complaining about yhis? It's been 84 years!"
(Also, I think we came up with a reason some can still scan and some can't which I will be keeping to myself because I HATE getting scolded by mfp.)
(AND the only time I've ever used the scanner was to test said theory which seemed to be correct.)
Well that’s intriguing! Can you type it out in pig Latin maybe?2 -
My first thought ws, "Are people still complaining about yhis? It's been 84 years!"
(Also, I think we came up with a reason some can still scan and some can't which I will be keeping to myself because I HATE getting scolded by mfp.)
(AND the only time I've ever used the scanner was to test said theory which seemed to be correct.)
Well that’s intriguing! Can you type it out in pig Latin maybe?
You made me laugh, so you get a hug.
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sollyn23l2 wrote: »I'm tired of people doing this. The scanner is still there. For free. Go into your diary, hit add food, the scanner will pop up. For free.
Just so you know, if you live in the United States, the scanner is not free anymore. It is now premium there. I'm guessing you live eleswhere and were unaware of that fact. Regardless, your comment came across as a fair bit rude. That was not necessary.
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Wynterbourne wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »I'm tired of people doing this. The scanner is still there. For free. Go into your diary, hit add food, the scanner will pop up. For free.
Just so you know, if you live in the United States, the scanner is not free anymore. It is now premium there. I'm guessing you live eleswhere and were unaware of that fact. Regardless, your comment came across as a fair bit rude. That was not necessary.
Pretend you didn't read it 🤷♀️1 -
sollyn23l2 wrote: »Wynterbourne wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »I'm tired of people doing this. The scanner is still there. For free. Go into your diary, hit add food, the scanner will pop up. For free.
Just so you know, if you live in the United States, the scanner is not free anymore. It is now premium there. I'm guessing you live eleswhere and were unaware of that fact. Regardless, your comment came across as a fair bit rude. That was not necessary.
Pretend you didn't read it 🤷♀️
Wow. Doubling down. Please refresh yourself with the Community Guidelines. Have a good day.
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Wynterbourne wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »Wynterbourne wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »I'm tired of people doing this. The scanner is still there. For free. Go into your diary, hit add food, the scanner will pop up. For free.
Just so you know, if you live in the United States, the scanner is not free anymore. It is now premium there. I'm guessing you live eleswhere and were unaware of that fact. Regardless, your comment came across as a fair bit rude. That was not necessary.
Pretend you didn't read it 🤷♀️
Wow. Doubling down. Please refresh yourself with the Community Guidelines. Have a good day.
Indeed. You have a wonderful day yourself.1 -
My first thought ws, "Are people still complaining about yhis? It's been 84 years!"
(Also, I think we came up with a reason some can still scan and some can't which I will be keeping to myself because I HATE getting scolded by mfp.)
(AND the only time I've ever used the scanner was to test said theory which seemed to be correct.)
Well that’s intriguing! Can you type it out in pig Latin maybe?
My second thought is how did I let those typos get through. Geez!
Edited because not all posters are playing nice.
Honestly, all the first time posters who posted only to complain about the lack of scanner really did get to be too much.
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sollyn23l2 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »I've been a member for 11 years and never once used the scan feature, which I wouldn't take as gospel anyway. I verify ALL user-created entries, and have seen numerous errors.
Fair enough. My main point was I get frustrated with people coming into the comments and complaing about things that we can't change. They need to contact MFP customer service. But, in their defense, I can choose to just not look at their comments.
Yeah contact MFP customer service to waste even more of your time where they’ll make you gather all kinds of info and send a screen recording to explain a broken feature that they absolutely know about. Speaking of MFP customer service, why don’t you complain to them that you hate all the complaints? Show us how this useful suggestion works.
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I’m on premium trial and think this MFP greed actually reduces the quality of scan results for premium users. They got rid of of the free labor creating and assigning all the entries, so more entries than I even remember are not found when you go scan. Thanks a lot to the lovely individual that suggested and insisted on implementing this.1
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soldier2soulja23 wrote: »I have used this app for a very long time and to my dismay you started charging for the meal scan feature. In my opinion, this is a feature is needed for meal accuracy and should be included for basic membership like it was in the past. I feel forced to either purchase premium or leave the app. Unfortunately, I am going to choose to leave. There are many apps that offer the scan function at no cost. Lastly, you scan function already has many errors and does not work efficiently. Bye MyFitnessPal
The bar code scanner pulls from the exact same database as if you were to just type in the search. It doesn't increase accuracy in the least. It can actually make things worse because it's only going to pull up one entry which may or may not be correct and when you type in the search you get multiple entries which you can actually vet for accuracy.5 -
MelodyandBarbells wrote: »I’m on premium trial and think this MFP greed actually reduces the quality of scan results for premium users. They got rid of of the free labor creating and assigning all the entries, so more entries than I even remember are not found when you go scan. Thanks a lot to the lovely individual that suggested and insisted on implementing this.
I wouldn't say it's necessarily "MFP greed". MFP is no longer privately owned...it's not even owned by UA anymore. It's a holding in a portfolio for a large tech equity firm, Francisco Partners. MFP's sole purpose at this point is to generate revenue for the portfolio...and you generate revenue with subscriptions, not free use.2 -
If you don’t like the product that you are using for free and you, as a non-paying party, have a beef with the customer service provided to you, you have an option! Pay. Then you can complain.
I’m pretty sure MFP, a business that needs to generate revenue to pay for the staff and technology that keep this site running, doesn’t care much if you take your zero dollars elsewhere.
I don’t have premium. It’s still an incredibly useful tool that is kind of awesome to get to use for free.3 -
MelodyandBarbells wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »I've been a member for 11 years and never once used the scan feature, which I wouldn't take as gospel anyway. I verify ALL user-created entries, and have seen numerous errors.
Fair enough. My main point was I get frustrated with people coming into the comments and complaing about things that we can't change. They need to contact MFP customer service. But, in their defense, I can choose to just not look at their comments.
Yeah contact MFP customer service to waste even more of your time where they’ll make you gather all kinds of info and send a screen recording to explain a broken feature that they absolutely know about. Speaking of MFP customer service, why don’t you complain to them that you hate all the complaints? Show us how this useful suggestion works.
Because we are complaining to the people who have control over the problem.
MFP doesn't have a staff of people coming into the Community to complain about the changes. We're complaining to other regular MFP users who are complaining about the scanner, because we'd like them to stop, and more importantly because it's completely pointless to complain here.
Obviously, that's as successful as you claim that contacting MFP support is for things that are in MFP's control . . . because here are the complaints again.
As an aside, I've contacted MFP support for other things. It was frustrating, but not that different from level one support for other apps. I've worked a tech help desk, so I get that they need all the details down to the lowest level. Yes, that's frustrating for the user. Ultimately, the problem I was reporting got solved. But it was a little arduous from the user end of things. Since I don't pay for the app, I figure got value for my money.
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cwolfman13 wrote: »MelodyandBarbells wrote: »I’m on premium trial and think this MFP greed actually reduces the quality of scan results for premium users. They got rid of of the free labor creating and assigning all the entries, so more entries than I even remember are not found when you go scan. Thanks a lot to the lovely individual that suggested and insisted on implementing this.
I wouldn't say it's necessarily "MFP greed". MFP is no longer privately owned...it's not even owned by UA anymore. It's a holding in a portfolio for a large tech equity firm, Francisco Partners. MFP's sole purpose at this point is to generate revenue for the portfolio...and you generate revenue with subscriptions, not free use.
You also generate revenue by delivering eye-balls to ads, and free use facilitates eye-ball delivery. Free use also generates content (both database entries and community discussions), which are a huge part of the value of the app.0 -
MelodyandBarbells wrote: »sollyn23l2 wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »I've been a member for 11 years and never once used the scan feature, which I wouldn't take as gospel anyway. I verify ALL user-created entries, and have seen numerous errors.
Fair enough. My main point was I get frustrated with people coming into the comments and complaing about things that we can't change. They need to contact MFP customer service. But, in their defense, I can choose to just not look at their comments.
Yeah contact MFP customer service to waste even more of your time where they’ll make you gather all kinds of info and send a screen recording to explain a broken feature that they absolutely know about. Speaking of MFP customer service, why don’t you complain to them that you hate all the complaints? Show us how this useful suggestion works.
I have recently had several support tickets in to MFP staff. Sometimes it can take a while for them to go through their standard list of things they suggest you try. Kind of like the IT department anywhere asking if you have your keyboard plugged in. They may even suggest things that don't make sense, like deleting and reinstalling the app if you're contacting them about an issue with the website.
But! If you're patient and work with them, they will resolve the issues. I just had three somewhat annoying issues, and staff has fixed every single one. In fact, during our last dialogue, I said I was going to send a new support ticket because there was another issue I needed addressed, and I was waiting for the current ones to get settled first so I didn't have quite so many outstanding tickets. To my surprise, staff said, "No new support ticket needed," and they proceeded to resolve my issues. Well, resolve is too strong a word; they are working on making some changes that will resolve one of them. The other was resolved right away.
I've for sure had my frustrations, and I will say that eventually they do get things right. The little glitches are annoying, but there's so many users here, and so much data. It's also quite nice that the service is free and helps me be healthier. It's worth more than every penny I pay for the free service; I might move to premium at some point. I've done free trials, and I love not seeing ads, and there's a few nice features.1
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