Following the discovery back in October that over a dozen developers who participated in MacBundler and BundleCult-led bundle deals, often hosted under various other names, never got paid, we attempted to contact the founder of both sites for comment, with no success. Recently, BundleCult offered a new bundle, and so we ran a story reminding readers that at least some developers involved have never been paid. We have periodically since October tried to reach out to the organizer to get their side of the story, but have never gotten a response until now.
MacNN has finally received an email, and had a brief exchange earlier today from Dan Kingsley, the self-proclaimed "curator" of MacBundler. In the response, we were given some information by Kingsley discussing the situation, but in doing so, it raised more questions. (Updated several times on Tuesday April 5 with responses to some of our questions from Kingsley, reports of more problems, and allegations levied by Kingsley against some complainants. Updated Thursday April 8 with news that the email address he has provided for the developers to contact him does not exist.)
At 11:22AM ET April 4, Dan Kingsley emailed us after months of silence -- presumably in response to the article we ran last week, as he claims to have never received an email from us after the October initial report. For background, and to clear the air of what he calls false accusations and an issue that
MacNN and "a few other editors have set fire to, trying to make headlines," Kingsley notes that "I and Samuel Okwuada went to [the University of East Anglia] UEA, Norwich together, and decided to launch MacBundler in 2010. We have been running monthly bundles now for over five years (2010) until Samuel's graduation (2015). I, being a UK citizen, moved back to my home in Manchester, while Samuel went home as with other colleagues, and we have practically lost contact since."
Kingsley claims to have looked into the situation, saying that "what I can confirm from my investigation unfortunately is Samuel must have launched [one] bundle on Mightyloots.com before he left us, and we were not involved in this promotion. I believe this was the bundle that caused the uproar."
Additionally, regarding the statements that Mariner and the Rottenwood developers gave us when we
originally looked into the situation, Kingsley tells us that "I have never spoken with Logan Ryan from Marinersoft [or] Charlie Monroe from Rottenwood. I hope they can attest to this."
A group of developers alleged last year that the people behind the recently-completed BundleCult bundles had a history of not paying developers. The lead developer of CoreCode, Julian Mayer, contacted us first to discuss the issue. After not getting paid for his offering, Mayer found similar issues across several bundles, which then all seem to link to the same organizing entity.
When asked for more details, Ryan told us that "several developers (including Mariner) participated in his bundle last year. It did relatively well, from what we could tell. After the bundle ended, Samuel/Dan/Isaac (he goes by many aliases) was to have paid said developers their share. That didn't happen. We pursued him (and continue to), but since he is in the UK, the probability of ever getting funds is small."
In the email on April 4, Kingsley defends himself by noting that the Corecode site pointing to problems with Bundlecult and MacBundler owned by Mayer is no longer online. However, in the research leading up to the October article, Mayer told us in an email on September 21, 2015 that "the guy has now contacted our hosting provider because he wants our page on him to go offline." Mayer has not yet responded to an email from today asking about the absence of the documentation, and we will update you with any response we receive.
The bundle sites had gone dormant, but not offline, for six months since our October article -- why specifically, we don't know. The April email about a new bundle that prompted our reminder last week was from the BundleCult sales email, linked to "Daniel Okwuada" through Amazon's Simple Email Service.
Regarding the confusing name situation that we briefly addressed in the first two articles, we looked into UEA Norwich graduation records. The
convocation listing from the university said that a "Kingsley Daniel Okwuada" graduated in 2015 with honors.
Samuel Kessington Okwuada, who lists himself as the founder of MacBundler on Facebook, claims to have graduated in 2014, not 2015, from UEA with a Masters in Pharmacy. We couldn't find his name in the graduation records from 2014. It is possible the two dates are accurate, as there is significant overlap between a masters in pharmacology and a degree in chemistry. We lean towards the name presented in the convocation program as being genuine.
At 1:15PM ET April 4, we looked into the WHOIS information for the site. Our first check listed Samuel Okwuada as the "Tech Name" for the site, with a phone number, and a UEA affiliation as of July 17, 2015. This information was changed at 1:24PM ET April 4, with a check at 1:33PM April 4 having a change of phone number and address for the registry of the site. While we aren't going to publish the phone number, we attempted to call it once from a cell phone, and once from Skype calling, the first with no answer and nothing more than the carrier's recording to leave a message, and the second with a failure to connect.
First WHOIS check on MacBundler
Second WHOIS check for MacBundler
So, between the Facebook listing, which could be genuine -- or completely fabricated out of whole cloth -- the UEA graduation listing, and emails, there are significant problems in positively identifying the Macbundler senior staff. This in itself is not a problem directly, and should there be no payment issues, wouldn't be a problem at all.
However, potential name issues aside, there are enough developers that claim that they haven't been paid properly, with two more surfacing since last week, that there is clearly some sort of problem. The email exchange with Dan Kingsley has supplied
MacNN with a list of developers that the company has had dealings with, and we are in the process of contacting them.
Answered questions
At 12PM ET April 4, after a 30-minute email exchange with several emails between MacNN and Kingsley, we asked four direct questions:
1) Do you think that you've paid all of your partner developers what they are owed?
Kingsley, April 5: "We have Paid all partner developers in full according to royalty received for their participation. Where 1 or 2 developers are dissatisfied, we have worked to get their app featured on a succeeding bundle. I deter from giving names so i am not quoted but few developers (in list supplied) can say our 15 day promotion effort has not generated royalties worth their time."
2) If not, what's the plan to get them paid?
Kingsley, April 5: "I would love to hear from developers who feel they were not paid in full for their partnership with Macbundler. I will work hard to get that issue resolved as I believe I have done with Julian mayer from Corecode. I hope he and other fellow developers featured on Mightyloots see this writeup and know we deeply sorry for this misunderstanding and we are open to discuss a resolution pertaining unpaid royalties."
3) You claim that Samuel started a single bundle without proper permission, and you believe that it is the cause of all the problems. Can you explain that situation in more detail?
Kingsley, April 5: "Personal disputes not only led to parting ways but also a failed project that is Mightyloots. I'm sorry I cannot discuss much about it because i know very little. As i said, I am the curator at Macbundler and I have only been in contact with one developer from that promotion. "
4) There are complaints on the MacHeist forums that date back five years about problems with your bundles. If the single bundle was the problem, how do you explain these complaints?
Kingsley, April 5: "I will ask my colleague to look into these complaints. Dating back to when Macbundler started(5 years ago?), ofcourse there will be complaints(sorry to say), we were only testing a model then that surprising worked. I am sure those complaints are no more, support issues or license activation problems sent to our email (
[email protected]) get response in no more than 12 hours. We always work to resolve customer complaints before payments are released to bundle partners."
Kingsley informed us at 11:57AM ET on April 4 that he has signed up for the forums, and he's told us that his user name is
kinglypay.
We here at
MacNN aren't trying to damage the entire bundle "scene," for lack of a better word. Our goal in exposing the situation, and expanding the complaints of some of the bundle's developers who feel that they haven't been paid adequately, is to get resolution of the situation once and for all.
Misunderstandings are commonplace in business transactions, so if this was one or two developers over the history of the Macbundler run, we'd be inclined to dismiss it as a misunderstanding. In his response to us on Tuesday morning, he didnt address the identity issues, but did thank us for publishing this article to update the situation.
We originally did dismiss the reports, when Mayer contacted us in July of 2015. When more developers chimed in saying the same thing -- that they hadn't been paid in full or, in Mariner's case, at all, we started finding more problems.
Kingsley said in his email that his goal was that "developers not only feel good about their effort, but also earn periodically through promotions when sales are declining." Right now, there are a number of developers who don't feel good about the situation, nor have they earned what they believe that they've been promised.
MacNN is simply seeking resolution to the satisfaction of all parties. There are questions surrounding the company that are concerning, but may not be directly relevant to the situation. It may be that a rogue agent inside the MacBundler organization caused the problem as Kingsley suggested -- but even if so, we believe that the company is still on the hook for making good on contracts that were made with developers.
Update, Tuesday April 5, 9:41AM ET: Kingsley repeated to us in an email to us this morning that "The one and only Mightyloots bundle that was run last year has its screenshot attached." No screenshot was attached, and we've emailed back to get this attachment. He added that "unfortunately, it is the source of the current misunderstanding. Apps involved are: Rottenwood, Airy, Time Tracker, Habits, Bracketeer, VideoGet, UninstallPKG, TubeDisco, MacGourmet 4, WhatsApp Pocket."
While there is some overlap in the list here, and some of the developers that have contacted us about not having gotten paid, there are other developers not included in that bundle claiming the same. One developer took to Twitter to say that he knew problems existed since April of 2014.
We reached out for more information, and a confirmation of no payment in 2014 in response.
Since yesterday's publication, we've also found more problems with BundleCult and developers claiming that they haven't been paid, but this time, from game developers. In a thread on
SteamGifts, CuveGames claimed that they were included in a bundle on BundleCult, and hadn't made an agreement with the company for the distribution. Additionally, in the same thread, ExoSyphen chimed in, also claiming that they hadn't been paid. The thread does note that one of the commenters had heard that at least partial payments were made to some developers, so more clarification is required. We've emailed both developers who claimed to have a problem with BundleCult, and will update accordingly.
Despite some claims to the contrary by the developers involved, Kingsley states that "I have never discussed with these mac developers. I hope i can discuss with them as i have with Julian Mayer from Corecode to soften the blow this bundle must have caused." However, on April 1, Mayer from Corecode confirmed to us that the differences between him and the MacBundler/BundleCult staff had yet to be worked out. We've also emailed Mayer this morning about Kingsley's statement, and he told us in response that "no he didn't pay and nothing is worked out."
Update, Tuesday April 5, 12:05PM ET: In a second email from Kingsley today, he provided the screenshots he promised, that held nothing that we didn't already have in our possession. Accompanying the screenshots, Kingsley said that "I am hearing there are two [Mightyloots bundled] but i have no information how to trace any 2nd one so i stand with this one i could find."
With a few minutes work on the
Internet Archive site,
MacNN found three of the MightyLoots bundles. At this point, it is not clear which bundles are legitimate, and which may have been posted by bad actors, as cited by Kingsley.
To wrap up the latest email, Kingsley added that "I have not owed developer any money unfortunately, i cannot pay from money i do not have either. I have thought many times to shut down Macbundler and every body walks home. This is act of fraudster so i will continue to run macbundler and hold my peace. If nobody is interested to resolve dispute. I will continue as affiliate only. I cannot do anything. I'm sorry."
Update: April 5, 12:37 PM In a follow-up email just received by
MacNN, that contains evidence that he has read this series of articles, Kingsley said that "I am more than willing to pay developers out of my pocket if we will cooperate in a promotion and navigate out of this issue. I told Julian this in my email to him which he will not respond to."
Kingsley says that he has some personal savings that he may be interested in dispersing to claimants, but "If I cannot settle relationship problem with this. I see no reason to respond to these allegations. I'm doing my best in terms of agreement with me, Dan Kingsley."
The latest email continues to point the blame at MightyLoots. In the most recent mail Kingsley wrote that "you can see most of the issues fall on mightyloots. Cuve games submitted his license key and agreement form to me and I ran that bundle. His statement is a result of news he reads online. I will show proof of conversation and submission form from all game developers I've worked with. I cannot distribute license I did not get submission for."
Update: April 7, 8:00 AM As of last night, according to the developers who have contacted us, the email that Kingsley has provided for developers to contact the company is bouncing back as unavailable.
We attempted to contact Kingsley yesterday regarding this at the e-mail address we have for him, but he has not responded to that, or two other emails sent to him by
MacNN since yesterday morning.
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