DAZ+ vs. PC
Lonesome Cowboy
Posts: 158
I've now taken a closer look at DAZ+.
It's almost exactly the same as the old Platinum Club, only much more expensive.
PC = $70 / year
DAZ+ = $120 / year
That's a $50 increase in price for NOTHING!
If DAZ has money problems, why is DAZ throwing out lots of items at ridiculous prices and then charging members $50 more for the otherwise good Platinum Club?
DAZ+ has no significant advantages over PC.
The only serious disadvantage is that everything that was available on PC is now available on DAZ+ and members have to pay $50 more for the same services.
In Germany, this is called a "rip-off" (Abzocke).
This is taking the mick out of customers!
I insist on getting the PC back, otherwise I will significantly reduce my DAZ purchases, which are around $300-500 per month.
This offer is just a huge cheek! You don’t do that to customers!
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Up until October, Daz+ used to cost $70.
And yes, the price increase is for nothing. Something all the companies do. The difference is they don't do it with such a high increase, and they do announce it at least a month before the increase. There was a whole thread about it since the day new tier (Premier) and a price hike was introduced.
It's called rip-off in the US too. It's rather telling that the best anyone can come up with to defend Daz is "other companies do it" and "it's not illegal"
The whole PC to Daz+ thing happened years ago though. It's just the price hike that's new
Three years ago 1L of yougurt was about 1.4 Euro, now it's 2.8 Euro, that's 100% increase in cost for nothing...
It's called inflation, everyone's costs has increased, so even costs for DAZ and living costs for those creating the items.
That would be a stronger argument if Platinum Club hadn't the same base price since ~Aug 2013, and there weren't quite a lot of years of inflation to catch up on.
(And Archive.org's captures before this actually show a $99.99 yearly price).
And I stress, that's Platinum Club. Not Platinum Club Plus, which was an upgrade that came later and added a second coupon for PA back catalogue items (Prior to that, PC only had one coupon a month, not two).
~~~~~
Not to say I'm *happy* with the change (and I think increasing the cost risks no longer locking people into the whole "lure you into buying more by making it seem like you're saving" marketing strategy), but it's been a long time since PC/Daz+ had any price increase.
And whose fault is that? They could have easily incremented the price in that time, Daz punishing their customers for Daz's own choices isn't a good look.
... so you're saying you'd rather have been charged more for the last ten years?
Has the coupons go up 70% too? I mean, if we are going to consider the perfectly valid inflation route as justification for a price increase, then there should also be an increase in the benefits (IMO). Not 70%, but several key DO item types have seen at least 30% increase from past generation. Yet, the coupon is still $6. It feels unfair to be charged more for something that has less value than it used to.
If we consider that lots of people used buy sub at high discount, then the increase is even more. Let's say for those that paid $40 is now a 200% increase.
Actual question: Have all cost/expenses increased 70% to 200%? Unlike the previous rhetorical about coupons, this time I'm not saying ‘no’. I'm actually asking.
I have seen several price increase of services over different things, like inflation, shift on consumer practices, or just plain "let's up the price because we are more popular now". I think this is the first time see one so drastic and without heads up; and i'm from Argentina so i know about inflation better than most. This kind of thing should had come with a letter(mail, banner, post, blog article) in advance; you know actual communication. That is what i think (as both consumer and also business owner) a professional company should do. In my personal opinion, seeing on how it was handled, DAZ did not behave professionally.
Personally, yes. Small increases acording to real cost increase are perfectly valid and hurt a lot less than massive increase overnight. (Talking from personal experience)
Now. Let's be realistic. Is inflation really the problem? Daz frequently and until recently offered massive discounts (sometimes even over 50%) and option to purchase with store credit, so for me is hard to buy the inflation card as justification for the overnight shift in price and forced montly. IMO, the change has nothing to do with inflation and was only made to try corner more people into premier that has encription/DRM.
$70 in 2013 would be $95 now, not $120.
https://westegg.com/inflation/
and again nobody has any better argument than "Other companies are doing it" (inflation) or "It's not illegal". Nothing that gives me any reason why I as a customer here should not feel the price increase is a rip-off.
As different commodities inflate according to different pressures, inflation rate calculations are entirely dependent on estimating an "average" for the market and thus any calculations from them only provide the broadest picture. You cannot use them as a hard metric that exactly represents the exact change in cost of living/business/etc in any possible given field.
Daz made the decision to set the price for their PC/Daz+ program. Daz decided to wait 11 years to increase the price. Daz decided to regularly put annual memberships on sale at big discounts. Daz decides the prices and discounts for its items. So, all that is on Daz and Daz alone. Daz, IMO, decided it was worth it to get more people in the club, to get more people to spend more on actual content. Daz also decided to make said content dirt cheap in different sales. Not sure how this works out for Daz and artists. Pretty well, by some accounts, maybe not as well by others. Obviously, with the new programs, there is some sticker shock for customers. I think Daz would prefer all of us to become Premier members - The patterns suggest that. That might be why the benefit of Daz+ did not increase at all. It's a half-step now.
Since there is usually buy-in for best prices here, consider the membership price is now a bigger part of the buy-in. Also consider that it's not possible to buy a full-year membership, not possible for Daz to discount a full-year membership that doesn't exist. All of that means that frugal people may choose to be strategic in buying a month here or a month there of D+ or Premier in order to get the best prices at specific times. We may also sit out some sales where we might otherwise participate. Daz will gauge the effect of that over the coming months. Then, we'll see whatever we'll see. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Closing this as thjere has already been extensive discussion of the topic (link in first reply).