PC CLub

shante

Seem to have just gotten railroaded out of the old PC Club Membership I've been enrolled in for years at a little over $7/month into the new PC Club membership for $24/three month rate.
I was pissed with the way it was done especially since I've been spending thousands of dollars here for so long and thinking I was going to separate from DAZ at last. But, after cooling off a bit I wanted to figure out what the advantages of this new PC club is over the old club membership for myself?
Keep in mind since DAZ has been slowly distancing itself from Poser users offering more and more product designed to work turn-key with their D/S application, I have been purchasing less and less NEW product, keeping the membership for the freebies and occasional dual format products and Vintage products sold.

For the way I work and thus shop, is this new membership wort the price and are the differences for me.....anyone?

fixmypcmike

Did you let your old subscription expire? you should be able to continue at the same monthly rate in PC+

CypherFOX

Greetings,

shante said:

For the way I work and thus shop, is this new membership wort the price and are the differences for me.....anyone?

{...oh my gosh, I wrote a BOOK here! If you want all the details, ask, and I'll post it, but this is the tl;dr version...}

I don't know your purchase history, but I'd suggest you consider how much you typically have to spend. I think there's a spend-per-month amount which is a break-even point, but if ANY of the money is likely to go to (back-catalog) PC or (new, compatible) PC+ items, OR you can use the coupons, you can stop there and consider it worth it, purely from a math perspective.

-- Morgan

shante

I got several emails from daz telling me they were having problems paying from the same credit card I have had here for years. I thought it strange, but When I contacted them they first told me to just reset the membership from my accounts page pointing to the new card as the payment of choice.
That still didn't work So i contacted them again. Then they told me I would have to delete my membership and re-add the card as if from scratch to force the seemingly "Glitched" system to reset itself. So in good faith,I did. But could still not get the PC reset to work with my card.
I was then told I would have to put the PC membership in my cart and buy it again for it to work. But there was no longer any option for the old month-t- month Plain old PC Membership. I would now have get the PC PLus plan minimum for 3 months at a time.
When I complained I was told I should never have allowed my old plant to expire or canceled it. WHAT!?

Angry and frustrated, I reminded them I didn't really cancel with the intent to go away but I was told to do so ti RESET it and that it was them who told me to cancel and reinstate it IN ORDER FOR ME.....TO KEEP IT!
Having complained again I am now being told the glitch had nothing at all to do with the expiration of my old plan (never mind their accusing me of having canceled it and, oh BTW, cancelled plans will no longer be re-enacted but also reminding me the old plans are being phased out and EVERYONE will be forced to go with the PC Plus plans now. So much run around is so unprofessional. Why didn't they just say that from the beginning instead of all that BS?
I am old enough to understand business and the right of the company to handle that business as it sees fit but I just can't help feeling played.

Now I have to decide if I am going to continue my long patronage here it that decision will be based on what is in it for me for what I will be paying.

icprncss

shante said:

I got several emails from daz telling me they were having problems paying from the same credit card I have had here for years. I thought it strange, but When I contacted them they first told me to just reset the membership from my accounts page pointing to the new card as the payment of choice.
That still didn't work So i contacted them again. Then they told me I would have to delete my membership and re-add the card as if from scratch to force the seemingly "Glitched" system to reset itself. So in good faith,I did. But could still not get the PC reset to work with my card.
I was then told I would have to put the PC membership in my cart and buy it again for it to work. But there was no longer any option for the old month-t- month Plain old PC Membership. I would now have get the PC PLus plan minimum for 3 months at a time.
When I complained I was told I should never have allowed my old plant to expire or canceled it. WHAT!?

Angry and frustrated, I reminded them I didn't really cancel with the intent to go away but I was told to do so ti RESET it and that it was them who told me to cancel and reinstate it IN ORDER FOR ME.....TO KEEP IT!
Having complained again I am now being told the glitch had nothing at all to do with the expiration of my old plan (never mind their accusing me of having canceled it and, oh BTW, cancelled plans will no longer be re-enacted but also reminding me the old plans are being phased out and EVERYONE will be forced to go with the PC Plus plans now. So much run around is so unprofessional. Why didn't they just say that from the beginning instead of all that BS?
I am old enough to understand business and the right of the company to handle that business as it sees fit but I just can't help feeling played.

Now I have to decide if I am going to continue my long patronage here it that decision will be based on what is in it for me for what I will be paying.

Ok, as of 1 August of this year, DAZ changed the PC to the PC Plus. Those who were monthly members were given a final month in the regular PC before being transitioned to the PC Plus. Even if your CC payment had gone through on time, you still would have become a PC Plus member as of this month.

Annuals can opt in early or hold onto their final months of the regular PC. If their annuals expire before 1 August of next year and they renew, they too become PC plus members. Anyone whose membership extends beyond 1 August of next year will be given a pro rated refund on whatever remains of their membership after that date.

Your only choice if you are monthly member is to opt in early or wait until this month. Since your payment method failed however many times DAZ puts it through, they cancelled your PC membership. You essentially had to buy a brand new membership. Any new memberships are PC Plus and the only options are annual and 3 months. If you decide to remain in the PC, you can go back to paying monthly. Just go to your accounts page and the PC page and make sure monthly is checked. After the 3 months the monthly payment will kick in.

Changes: main thing is pricing. PC now has tiered pricing. $2.99, 3.99, 5.99 and 7.99. First 2 weeks you get the standard PC discount on top of the intro discount. You still get the PC discount on DAZ originals. You still get the $6 coupon good on non-PC DO's. You also get an extra coupon good for $6 off DO and participating PA's but you must spend $18 to get the $6 off. Participating PA's are tied to sales and promos. They will be listed on the promo page.

The back catalog ends somewhere around the table tennis product that was a freebie for one week. All back catalog items will remain at $1.99. Everything released after that is the tiered pricing.

Hope this helps.

DaWaterRat

icprncss said:

Changes: main thing is pricing. PC now has tiered pricing. $2.99, 3.99, 5.99 and 7.99. First 2 weeks you get the standard PC discount on top of the intro discount. You still get the PC discount on DAZ originals. You still get the $6 coupon good on non-PC DO's. You also get an extra coupon good for $6 off DO and participating PA's but you must spend $18 to get the $6 off. Participating PA's are tied to sales and promos. They will be listed on the promo page.

Not quite right on the $18 minimum coupon. The $18 minimum coupon is good on all PA, PC, and Daz O's that are older than 60 days. It doesn't matter if the PA is giving PC+ members a bonus on their current sales or not. The $18 minimum coupon only can't be used on Memberships and Gift Cards.

shante

OK.
A complex cornucopia of supposed or actual benefits. However my biggest gripe is the METHOD by which I found this out.
I don't remember reading in any email from DAZ of this change being permanent and without choice. The last I remember was DAZ announcing via email the option we had to choose this new PC Club Plus plan for a month as a test and seeing how it went before decisions were made.
That was the last I heard about it. They have automatically been charging my membership from my Credit Card since as they have been for years. And for years everything was cool. I never got any announcements that I can recall, prior to August 1 reminding me that the membership plan I have had for years was going to change.

Ok, I am a big ole boy who understands companies have to keep track of the bottom line and also, despite what might, to many, seem like a meritless gripe, what I am most pissed off about was their uselessly tripping me through everything I had to do to fix the problem while not telling me what was really going on. They chose to tell me there was a glitch in their system that made them unable to charge my credit card as normal. They told me, while it was being looked into, that I cancel my membership and then reapply for it with the card to reset everything hoping it would fix all.

When I did, in good faith, as told and tried to reapply there was no longer an option. When I asked about that I was told to simply put the new option in my cart they would TRY and get me back into the old one but for only one month. When I voiced my frustrated anger about all this, they added to the injury by telling me it was because I canceled and they could not renew under the same old plan and this PC Plus plan was now the only option I had available to me.

If they just said what I just read here, it would have been far less egregious to me. As I said despite my ability to understand business trends and changes in a company conducting its business, what I can't stand is the run around, posturing and what appeared to be deceptive tactics and then implying the blame being mine for doing what I, in good faith was told to do to fix the situation: Cancel my old plan! Really!?
I have always defended DAZ products and Customer Service which for me has always been prime. But this really disappoints me. I don't blame the customer service reps but management who didn't think of prepping uninformed customers like me of this to avoid a smoother transition and not making me feel played!

Daz Jack Tomalin

shante said:

. I don't blame the customer service reps but management who didn't think of prepping uninformed customers like me of this to avoid a smoother transition and not making me feel played!

I'm sorry you feel like this.

I believe emails were sent out detailing the changes, and myself and the rest of the PC team have spent - literally - days in the forums trying to do exactly that.

Like I say, sorry if that's not been your experience.

icprncss

shante said:

OK.
A complex cornucopia of supposed or actual benefits. However my biggest gripe is the METHOD by which I found this out.
I don't remember reading in any email from DAZ of this change being permanent and without choice. The last I remember was DAZ announcing via email the option we had to choose this new PC Club Plus plan for a month as a test and seeing how it went before decisions were made.
That was the last I heard about it. They have automatically been charging my membership from my Credit Card since as they have been for years. And for years everything was cool. I never got any announcements that I can recall, prior to August 1 reminding me that the membership plan I have had for years was going to change.

Ok, I am a big ole boy who understands companies have to keep track of the bottom line and also, despite what might, to many, seem like a meritless gripe, what I am most pissed off about was their uselessly tripping me through everything I had to do to fix the problem while not telling me what was really going on. They chose to tell me there was a glitch in their system that made them unable to charge my credit card as normal. They told me, while it was being looked into, that I cancel my membership and then reapply for it with the card to reset everything hoping it would fix all.

When I did, in good faith, as told and tried to reapply there was no longer an option. When I asked about that I was told to simply put the new option in my cart they would TRY and get me back into the old one but for only one month. When I voiced my frustrated anger about all this, they added to the injury by telling me it was because I canceled and they could not renew under the same old plan and this PC Plus plan was now the only option I had available to me.

If they just said what I just read here, it would have been far less egregious to me. As I said despite my ability to understand business trends and changes in a company conducting its business, what I can't stand is the run around, posturing and what appeared to be deceptive tactics and then implying the blame being mine for doing what I, in good faith was told to do to fix the situation: Cancel my old plan! Really!?
I have always defended DAZ products and Customer Service which for me has always been prime. But this really disappoints me. I don't blame the customer service reps but management who didn't think of prepping uninformed customers like me of this to avoid a smoother transition and not making me feel played!

Sorry for the slight inaccuracies about the extra coupon. Keeping track of the this can do this when and where and what takes more time than I want to spend on it.

The beta test ended and the actual PC Plus went into effect the same afternoon. I don't remember if there was an email about it or not.

The glitch could be with DAZ. A large number of online and physical businesses have recently been reporting data skimming. Banks and CC processors have been more cautious about approving transactions especially small seemingly innocuous ones as that's how the thieves start.

Yes customer service should have told you straight up about the change. It wouldn't have mattered for you whether you cancelled your old membership and bought a new one or your payment went through on time. When your September payment went through, you would have been PC Plus. The only down side to having to cancel and buy again is that you only have the annual or the quarterly option.

shante

Jack Tomalin said:

shante said:

. I don't blame the customer service reps but management who didn't think of prepping uninformed customers like me of this to avoid a smoother transition and not making me feel played!

I'm sorry you feel like this.

I believe emails were sent out detailing the changes, and myself and the rest of the PC team have spent - literally - days in the forums trying to do exactly that.

Like I say, sorry if that's not been your experience.

There have been some glitches in my relationship with DAZ but for the most part you all managed to smooth them out as we went along. This is why I felt especially "betrayed" (love the melodrama in that word and have always wanted to use it!)....misled just doesn't sound as painful. :)
But you are assuming everyone comes to the forums trying to be kept abreast of new info. I really don't much, preferring to visit when I have questions and/or needs. Once here i browse the most recent threads until my eyes cross and I run screaming elsewhere. So if you count on the forums to efficiently spread the "goods" word, I'magine I might'nt be th'only uninformed fool out here. ;)

shante

ssgbryan said:

As a PC member (2005 - 2012), I gave DAZ a year to see what direction the PC club would take after DAZ went with a non-Poser native figure. I ended up spending that year cleaning out my wishlist and then I let it go. As a Poser user, it simply isn't worth it, especially when compared to other options available to Poser community.

Not to mention the fact that about once I year, DAZ will do a "Try the PC for a weekend (or week)". I'd scarf up anything that has arrived in the past year that I could actually use (hair & props).

I am quite confident that DAZ will continue to make this offer on a regular basis - I'll pick up what I may want (hair & props), without dealing with pesky membership fees and the annoyances of coupons that are of no value to me as a Poser user.

that's sorta what I've been doing lately. except for taking great advantage of this last DAZ Millenium 4 figures sales, i use my PC membership to cull the freebies and the under $2 products offered on a regular basis. I get frustrated there are so many great offerings available either for D/S and/or Genesis not available for the old long in the tooth Poser users as well as all the great stuff for the Mil4 figures crammed into my bulging wish list made by contracted vendors I have wanted forever and never seen available the real big sales.
If I do reapply to this new PC Plus Plan I know it will never allow me to get many of those items at the rates I can now afford so still wondering if it will be worth it in the long run. I just can't wrap my head around all the options mentioned here it covers seems too complicated especially since it will mostly benefit the most D/S and Genesis users.

shante

icprncss said:

shante said:

OK.
A complex cornucopia of supposed or actual benefits. However my biggest gripe is the METHOD by which I found this out.
I don't remember reading in any email from DAZ of this change being permanent and without choice. The last I remember was DAZ announcing via email the option we had to choose this new PC Club Plus plan for a month as a test and seeing how it went before decisions were made.
That was the last I heard about it. They have automatically been charging my membership from my Credit Card since as they have been for years. And for years everything was cool. I never got any announcements that I can recall, prior to August 1 reminding me that the membership plan I have had for years was going to change.

Ok, I am a big ole boy who understands companies have to keep track of the bottom line and also, despite what might, to many, seem like a meritless gripe, what I am most pissed off about was their uselessly tripping me through everything I had to do to fix the problem while not telling me what was really going on. They chose to tell me there was a glitch in their system that made them unable to charge my credit card as normal. They told me, while it was being looked into, that I cancel my membership and then reapply for it with the card to reset everything hoping it would fix all.

When I did, in good faith, as told and tried to reapply there was no longer an option. When I asked about that I was told to simply put the new option in my cart they would TRY and get me back into the old one but for only one month. When I voiced my frustrated anger about all this, they added to the injury by telling me it was because I canceled and they could not renew under the same old plan and this PC Plus plan was now the only option I had available to me.

If they just said what I just read here, it would have been far less egregious to me. As I said despite my ability to understand business trends and changes in a company conducting its business, what I can't stand is the run around, posturing and what appeared to be deceptive tactics and then implying the blame being mine for doing what I, in good faith was told to do to fix the situation: Cancel my old plan! Really!?
I have always defended DAZ products and Customer Service which for me has always been prime. But this really disappoints me. I don't blame the customer service reps but management who didn't think of prepping uninformed customers like me of this to avoid a smoother transition and not making me feel played!

Sorry for the slight inaccuracies about the extra coupon. Keeping track of the this can do this when and where and what takes more time than I want to spend on it.

The beta test ended and the actual PC Plus went into effect the same afternoon. I don't remember if there was an email about it or not.

The glitch could be with DAZ. A large number of online and physical businesses have recently been reporting data skimming. Banks and CC processors have been more cautious about approving transactions especially small seemingly innocuous ones as that's how the thieves start.

Yes customer service should have told you straight up about the change. It wouldn't have mattered for you whether you cancelled your old membership and bought a new one or your payment went through on time. When your September payment went through, you would have been PC Plus. The only down side to having to cancel and buy again is that you only have the annual or the quarterly option.

Yes, in fact all this happened on the overlap of having had my credit card hacked at HiveWire. Got an email from them warning me of possible compromise of my card there and suggesting I change it. I got notified about two weeks late. I called my card service and was told the crooks had already tried to use it twice making purchases at an overseas software security company but were thwarted by the card company. Thank God for AmEx card fraud protection systems which I read re the best in the world. I am convinced of that now.

It has never happened before but it put a bad taste in my mouth for sites w/o robust firewalls and/or protection in place. Apparently HiveWire had had previous problems with this darn hacking issue and it had just supposedly rectified it. Apparently not well enough. I am now cold footed enough to not want to return there for purchases.
Falling on the overlap of this incident the issue with daz started with same canceled card and went sideways from there to what I described above. But, turned out to be something all together different.

CypherFOX

Greetings,
Here's the thing... Nobody can help with your emotions; that's not to dismiss them at all. If you feel betrayed (I love the drama there too!) that's a negative goodwill which biases the evaluation of the cost/benefit.

If you do the math, in abstentia of past benefits or goodwill issues, the Platinum Club (now, with an extra PLUS! ;) ) is typically worth while.

Your past experiences (crap, I used to be able to get Jack Tomalin's amazing stuff for $1.99, now I have to pay $0.80 more! Quelle horreur!) and current experiences (goddamn customer service screwed up, told me to do something I didn't need to do...NOW look where it got me!) are totally valid, but they don't change the math.

I totally get wanting to punish a company; I do it all the time, often against my own interests. If that's your choice, go for it. But in the thread opening, you asked

For the way I work and thus shop, is this new membership worth the price and are the differences for me...anyone?

That's a math question, and I don't think it's that hard to answer.

Also, I can say as we enter the PC[+] anniversary sale, it's very likely that you may be able to get it as low as $50 for a year. (That's 30% off.) So if you save $4.10 a month by being a member, you're ahead of the game. And that's not THAT hard to do, even with the DAZ Studio orientation of many releases. That's one (new) Platinum Club Plus item per month. Out of 16. Or one $1.99 back-catalog purchase per month. That's one $6 coupon (out of two offered). You could completely fail to use ANY coupons in 1 out of every 3 months, and still about break even, without any other purchases.

If you pay full price ($70) for an annual membership, you have to use one (of the two) coupon each month. Or buy one $1.99 back catalog item per month. Or one PC+ new release (out of 16) per month. Any of those, and it's worth the cost, irrespective of the 30% off on DAZ O's, unpredictable discounts on PA's, freebies, previews, contests, and other harder to quantify benefits.

The math exists irrespective of the emotions. If you want to punish DAZ for their behavior by withholding your money, that's entirely reasonable, but it's not because the PC+ isn't worth while from an economic standpoint.

-- Morgan

fixmypcmike

If you've got a lot of PA items in your wishlist that never go on sale then PC+ may work out better for you, since you get a 2nd coupon for $6 off an order of $18 or more that can be used on those items.

shante

Cypherfox said:

Greetings,
Here's the thing... Nobody can help with your emotions; that's not to dismiss them at all. If you feel betrayed (I love the drama there too!) that's a negative goodwill which biases the evaluation of the cost/benefit.

If you do the math, in abstentia of past benefits or goodwill issues, the Platinum Club (now, with an extra PLUS! ;) ) is typically worth while.

Your past experiences (crap, I used to be able to get Jack Tomalin's amazing stuff for $1.99, now I have to pay $0.80 more! Quelle horreur!) and current experiences (goddamn customer service screwed up, told me to do something I didn't need to do...NOW look where it got me!) are totally valid, but they don't change the math.

I totally get wanting to punish a company; I do it all the time, often against my own interests. If that's your choice, go for it. But in the thread opening, you asked

For the way I work and thus shop, is this new membership worth the price and are the differences for me...anyone?

That's a math question, and I don't think it's that hard to answer.

Also, I can say as we enter the PC[+] anniversary sale, it's very likely that you may be able to get it as low as $50 for a year. (That's 30% off.) So if you save $4.10 a month by being a member, you're ahead of the game. And that's not THAT hard to do, even with the DAZ Studio orientation of many releases. That's one (new) Platinum Club Plus item per month. Out of 16. Or one $1.99 back-catalog purchase per month. That's one $6 coupon (out of two offered). You could completely fail to use ANY coupons in 1 out of every 3 months, and still about break even, without any other purchases.

If you pay full price ($70) for an annual membership, you have to use one (of the two) coupon each month. Or buy one $1.99 back catalog item per month. Or one PC+ new release (out of 16) per month. Any of those, and it's worth the cost, irrespective of the 30% off on DAZ O's, unpredictable discounts on PA's, freebies, previews, contests, and other harder to quantify benefits.

The math exists irrespective of the emotions. If you want to punish DAZ for their behavior by withholding your money, that's entirely reasonable, but it's not because the PC+ isn't worth while from an economic standpoint.

-- Morgan

Just laughed my butt off reading this detailed math equation of my ins and outs question. Man I was so overwhelmed reading it I had to read it three times to understand it all and still not sure. But the crux of your math answer is I should at least try it for one quarter and see how it goes.
OK.
As far as punishing I don't want to punish anyone. Like I have said I am a big ole boy and understand the meaning of BOTTOM LINE and pleasing consumers enough to make them want to keep spending. I am sure DAZ management does intend to do both and despite feeling "betrayed" or how cool that sounds now, there is nothing in that word that really applies here except if defining my frustrated impotence in controlling my destiny however misguided. In the greater scheme of things having gotten time to "Get over it" and remembering not to stress over the little stuff and of course remembering all this sheitz is "Little Stuff"I feel stupid having made such a BIG THING about all this.....or maybe not! But thanks for the detailed and complex Mathmatty break down!

CypherFOX

Greetings,

shante said:

Just laughed my butt off reading this detailed math equation of my ins and outs question. Man I was so overwhelmed reading it I had to read it three times to understand it all and still not sure. But the crux of your math answer is I should at least try it for one quarter and see how it goes.
OK.

_tips hat_ Happy to be of service :)

-- Morgan