Continually Confusing Sale Criteria
Mortimer J Snodsworth III
Posts: 22
Pardon me if you feel otherwise, but personally I am sick to death of trying to decipher the DAZ3D sales criteria.
Between the 'punchable' nonsense, the 'smash n grab' befuddlement, the intentional omission of the duration of sales, to name a few issues off the top of my head. Your decisions have driven me to squelch my DAZ purchases. I'm fed up with being made to feel like an idiot whilst attempting to decipher your stipulations..
For what it's worth, it is in DAZ's best interest to put as few obstacles as possible between my money and you. The themes, the calculations, the stipulations, and the rigamarole is bothersome.
I'm sorry to have to say it, but I, for one, will not be spending money here as I have in the past. Not until i'm satisfied things have changed for the better. Tell me what the discount is, and how long its active. Otherwise its all just gotten too annoying.
Best of luck. I hope things change for the better.
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Comments
I'm with you.. I don't bother with these sales and stipulations jargon and haven't bothered for a good while.. I just go to other sites that have easy to read sales & promos
Thirded. I've been complaining about these sales for years now and it's only gotten worse.
Said it before, saying it again, it's all deceptive games promoted by some marketing know-it-all. It's designed to take advantage of weak minds.
But that being said, if it's working for DAZ and they believe they're making money at it then shame on those of us who buy into this type of nonsense. It's indicative of the disease that pervades modern over-consumers.
Whilst I sympathise with the comments above, I should add that it is during these complex sales that often the huge discounts become available (ie 70% plus), and it tends to be during this time I pick up those items I like, but I either have no real immediate need for it, or I already have something else that is similar. Often I would be unlikely to buy those items at any time unless very heavily discounted. So personally I rather like this strange sales games, even if it is obvious most do not.
Remember that you can always just add items to the cart and see what the final price is, and decide to take it or leave it at that time. That way there is no need to get out the calculators, as the cart system will do all the maths for you. I am aware that due to glitches there are frequently issues where discounts are not applied etc, but as we saw recently the errors sometimes play out in our favor.
The bottom line as always is, if you like the price in the cart then buy, if not, empty the cart and pass.
The more complex Daz make sales the more glitches I seem to be finding i.e. sales stacking when they should not.
Honestly, I mostly ignore the sales promos unless there is something very simple and clear involved. Instead, what I do is put stuff I want on my wishlist, and then keep an eye on it every week or so to see what is cheap/on sale. Then I buy that.
If I really, *really* need something for a render right now, I might buy it at full price.
But what I don't do is try to keep track of all the crazy little 4 hour or 1 day sales. I don't do that in supermarkets or department stores, so I sure as heck am not going to do it here.
This is pretty much how I shop DAZ too. If I want it or need it, I buy it if I can afford it. If money is tight right then, I put it on my wishlist and keep an eye on it for future purchase. The sales have been too convoluted for the past year or so and I don't have the time or desire to figure them out.
...yeah when I see a significant discount (other than the PC 1.99$ price) on something on my wishlist (usually due to a Flash or a PA's Anniversary/B'Day sale) then it goes into the cart.
I even studied abstract algebra and matirx theory and some of these Daz sales baffle me sometimes.
Here is the problem that I see...
Confusing sale, increases the number of sales support tickets. Increased tickets means either an increase in workforce or a decrease in service. The result is either a monetary hit, negating the benefit of the increased purchases. Or no increase in purchases due to frustration.
For me, it is all about the lost of fun. Sales used to be fun here. They changed up often. Now it is always the same thing. I have decided to stop paying attention to the sales rigamrole and just buy based on the price I see listed with the item. The complicated sales means that they don't show up as onsale in your wish list - rendering it useless. So I guess I give up. I will buy new items that I like if the price is right - that's all.
I'd been here months before I understood the 'punch' thing. The first time I saw it, I looked at it, thought 'Uh?' and moved on. For every person who jumps at the 'buy scads of items to get something else cheaper during a window of opportunity it's too much trouble for us to define' sales, there are bound to be people who just walk away.
I like the current resources sale because Ron's brushes were already on my radar anyway and it is very clear about what the deal is. However, my budget was a bit squeezed when I purchased on Thursday - if it had been any tighter then I would not have bought and would probably have spent my pennies on something elsewhere, instead of saving them to add to funds that I knew would be forthcoming at the weekend and then buying the brushes then. Who's going to budget for a sale that could well be over in four hours anyway? With no indication of the duration of the sale, it's not possible to prioritize and so it's not possible to make Daz a priority.
I'm not bothered about 'fun' in sales. I just want to be able to quickly make an informed decision at the point of purchase - if I can't see the length and breadth of something presented to me as a 'bargain', then I'm not just going to take the seller's word for it. Daz would stand much more chance of parting me from my cash if their sales were less convoluted and obscure.
That said, Dax sales are still fun in their way. 'Buy an item from a specific category for four days in a row to get a massive discount on Monday on an unknown item you might not even need' got a laugh out of me. It didn't get my money out of me.
Hmmm... based on the direction this thread is taking I'm beginning to think that marketing people might be "don't-know-it-alls". Somebody tell management.
Remember that marketing has access to the sales figures, and so has a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't. Also remember that the forums are a limited sub-set of users, and that threads like this are, to a large extent, going to attract mainly the sub-set of the sub-set that agrees with the premise.
...the punch sales are the worst particularly for those on a tight budget who rely sales to add to their content libraries. Being in this position, I have to be very picky about what I purchase as when I put my money down, it will be something I will actually use and not just have sit on the HDD taking up space.
What makes matters worse is punches must be redeemed each week or they go away. To get 15 punches in seven days would mean not only buying 15 new release items, but items I may not need (or want) just to get the maximum discount. Considering the outlay required to get all those punches it could actually exceed any savings I would get due to the way stacking discounts are applied (no more X% off of 50%). I would also have to redeem that discount in the following week, or *poof*, it's gone. I think the most punches I ever had was four and that was because of a not only glitch where a freebie gave me a punch but a couple 1.99$ PC items that qualified as "punchable" (that appears to have changed as well). Never got a 5th item for even a 5% discount, so once the week rolled over, the count reset to zero.
...the punch sales are the worst particularly for those on a tight budget who rely sales to add to their content libraries. Being in this position, I have to be very picky about what I purchase as when I put my money down, it will be something I will actually use and not just have sit on the HDD taking up space.
What makes matters worse is punches must be redeemed each week or they go away. To get 15 punches in seven days would mean not only buying 15 new release items, but items I may not need (or want) just to get the maximum discount. Considering the outlay required to get all those punches it could actually exceed any savings I would get due to the way stacking discounts are applied (no more X% off of 50%). I would also have to redeem that discount in the following week, or *poof*, it's gone. I think the most punches I ever had was four and that was because of a not only glitch where a freebie gave me a punch but a couple 1.99$ PC items that qualified as "punchable" (that appears to have changed as well). Never got a 5th item for even a 5% discount, so once the week rolled over, the count reset to zero.
I agree with you 100% regarding the punch sales where the benefit goes away after just a week. They only really benefit the heavy spenders as you need to spend 150-200$+ in a week to reel in the max benefit. I spend 50-100 a month on average, though more during major sales like the PC sale. This makes me, I guess, a "mid-range" spender, and I largely ignore these type of punch sales. It was okay during the 2013 PC sale, when you only needed to spend 2-3 dollars for a punch, but needing to spend 10-15 per punch is a different matter.
However there have been some very good deals in the last 6 months where often only a single purchase, often just a PC item was enough to trigger huge discounts. Probably the best of these was the V4/M4 sales in Sept/Oct, where the 80% discount stacked with other discounts to mean many items were close to 90-95% off and cost 1-2 dollars each.
So I agree many of the sale deals are only for the high spenders, but there have been a number mixed in with those for people on tighter budgets.
btw: I agree with Richard, these strange sales games have been going on for over a year now, and DAZ would have abandoned them long ago if there was evidence that revenue was down.
...still not totally thrilled about the "BOGO type" as well as "progressive" sales where you have to spend more to get a better discount.
Then there's glitches like the one that occurred to me where a qualifying item I actually wanted would not trigger the discount and the sale expired before anything could be done to fix it. Same happened t the end of the PC sale when many of the prices glitched to full retail in the last day of the event (just one of the issues most likely caused by the "update" to the store site during the sale - very poor timing on someone's part).
I have a number of items on my wishlist I'd like to get for which often the PA or category is not one featured as part of a BOGO type sale. Was only able to finally get several Faveral sets I wanted that were wishlisted because of the current B'Day sale.
Hoping MM will be a straight discount sale without all these games.
Or one could say that the data Marketing has says that the sales are not working. Which is why there is a different sales methodology every week or two.
It was another glitch that allowed you to buy half of Faveral's whole catalogue for around 2$, but those kind of glitches are rare, and they normally work against the buyer.
To paraphrase "The marketing folks knows what they are doing because they have the sales figures, and wouldn't do it if it was losing money".
Okay, sure. That's painfully obvious.
However, take a look at the traditional sales approach: "I have an item I want to sell. I want to charge $10.00. For the month of Salember, i'm offering a 50% discount. Come buy it while the sale is active for this indicated period of time at this great discount."
Very straight forward. No confusion. There is a stated benefit of a discount with a beginning and an end. Its a method that has been in effect for millennia.
And yet this traditional method doesn't work here at DAZ3D? Why is that?
Why is it that adding details, stipulations, asterisks, preconditions and such is more beneficial to DAZ3D sales practices?
Any suggestions?
..no, I got the ones in question for the advertised 66% off.
..no, I got the ones in question for the advertised 66% off.
I think he was referring to me. And I can't really say how that purchase happened.
Is it, though? Personally I find it hard to read the words "The marketing folks know what they are doing" and take them seriously when almost every sale on this initially does not work, does not work as intended or is not advertised the same way it works.
Maybe they don't know what they are doing and behind the scenes, DAZ is doing really poorly. We don't know that.
I agree totally. I've just unsubscribed from the e-mails in a small protest at the ridiculous offers: 20% off this...if you buy a full price this etc. At least on Renderocity, they either occasionally offer a blanket % off an artists whole catalogue, to encourage you to look at that artists products, or give you a (say) 20% off on purchases over $20 for example. You don't have to buy something you don't want, just to get a reduction on something else...
I don't really care for sales anymore, if they want me to combine items in cart before discounts apply. It just isn't worth the time of playing around with item combinations and coupons for another hour before I really know it works like expected and find out if items from my wishlist are included with participating categories - or not. I don't like this sale concept and won't buy stuff I don't really want/need just to trigger some better discounts anyways.
But what really bothers me is the uselessness of the wishlist here - and only here. With those 'combine the items in cart before you see discounts' sales I cannot see if I can get a discount for an item from wishlist - and those are the ones I planned to buy some day. Doesn't help that I need to go through categories and catalogs with hundred of items just to see if some items are included - or maybe miss them.
If you don't want to stop these annoying complex sales PLEASE at least add a filter 'show wishlisted items only' just like the 'show PC+ items only' filter for item categories, this would help a lot and should be easy to implement I guess.
Sorry for rant, but maybe someone who cares reads here..
Whilst I agree with you regarding that people prefer a straight forward discount, I have to say 20%, 30% or even 40% off fail to get me excited anymore. You almost never get stacking discounts at Renderocity, and when they do give vouchers, they often say that Sale/Clearence/Prime Products items are not included. If I have to buy a 2$ item to get 60% off a 20$ item I want, to me that is a better deal than a straight 20% off everything. If there is nothing I want included in the 60%, then naturally I just pass.
Whilst there are great products at all the sites, I personally find the overall deals here at DAZ far superior, and the reason why I do the vast majority of my 3D shopping at this site.
I use the Arby's rule....
Almost no one is willing to pay $9 for a roast beef sandwich for lunch, no matter how good it might be.
So almost no one goes to Arby's without a coupon. And Arby's sends out a lot of coupons.
So what use to be the normal price at Arby's is actually the sicker price, minus the coupon of the day.
You should look at this thread
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/50680/
Basically Cypherfox has come up with a simple method that temporarily converts the "PC items only" filter into a Wishlist filter. It works great, and I recommend it. It allows you to see all the maybe 1000s of items in a particular sale that is part of your wishlist. Ideally DAZ would add this filter themselves, but in the meantime Cypherfox's solution is a good workaround.
Assuming that convoluted sales games work for the company and that you have to be a big spender to take advantage of the big savings, then is that a case of the 1% driving the 99% ? Or possibly ragged villagers playing slot machines to win enough to get through the gate into the amusement park while watching the gentry on stilts walk over the fence?