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Odd Thing About Upgrading Bundles...

Discussion in 'Release 42 Feedback Forum' started by Elgarion, Jun 15, 2017.

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  1. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    I've noticed, that if you originally purchased a bundle at a discount, to upgrade, the price is adjusted so you're paying back that discount with the upgrade.

    Once we have the discount, shouldn't we keep the discount for the original purchase, and the upgrade price jump upward from the discounted price (or simply ignore your actual purchase price in the calculation and instead calculate upgrade cost from the original values of the bundle).

    Examples 1
    One of my 2 Story Row Bundles was purchased at $247. To upgrade, the next bundle has a cost of $350 full price. To upgrade, one might think that should be $103 BUT my original 2 story bundle has a $275 value before discount. Shouldn't I only be paying $75 for my upgrade to a 3 story row bundle? The $28 I had saved when buying the 2 story row bundle has vanished into the matrix!

    Example 2:
    One of my 2 Story Row Bundles was purchased at $220. To upgrade, the next bundle has a cost of $350 full price. To upgrade, one might think that should be $130 BUT my original 2 story bundle has a $275 value before discount. Shouldn't I only be paying $75 for my upgrade to a 3 story row bundle? The $55 I saved when I bought this at a telethon flash sale was lost.

    I might be thinking of this wrong, but it definitely seems off to me.

    Please comment, Portalarium ;)
     
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  2. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    that's the way it worked with pledges, too, as they raised the prices. towns as well, i think.
     
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  3. TheWanderingPoet

    TheWanderingPoet Avatar

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    The discounts were kept until they were discontinued. Likely it is because we are no longer eligible for the discount, so upgrading would be at full cost.
     
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  4. Tristano Sforza

    Tristano Sforza Avatar

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    Wait for the next telethon before upgrade!
     
  5. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    Not expecting my discount to continue onto the upgraded items (10% or 20%) but I shouldn't be losing my actual saved amount off the original purchase price. I essentially have to pay back my discount then upgrade. This seems counter-intiuitive to having a flash sale. Thoughts?
     
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  6. zyxe

    zyxe Avatar

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    I agree. The cost to upgrade should only be the difference between the non-discounted prices and not negate the discount you received, in my opinion.
     
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  7. Lord Dreamo

    Lord Dreamo Avatar

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    It makes sense, because the new bundle has the new price still.

    Imagine you bought a stereo on sale for $100 and there was a better model also on sale for $150. A week later you decide you want the better one, but the sale is over. So it now costs $200. They could apply the credit from your $100 purchase to the better stereo, but you'd have to pay the $200 price still so it would cost you $100 extra.

    The whole point of the discounts is to get you to upgrade and spend more.
     
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  8. Lord Dreamo

    Lord Dreamo Avatar

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    To add to my original comment:

    I couldn't take the stereo I paid $100 for back and then ask for $150 in credit towards a better stereo.

    You are upgrading from what you PAID, not what the current cost is. This is why you gotta get your upgrades in before the sales expire!!
     
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  9. Lord Dreamo

    Lord Dreamo Avatar

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    Actually, that's exactly the point of a flash sale. They wanted you to impulse buy/upgrade when the deal was hot!
     
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  10. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    @Lord Dreamo -- the stereo analogy works quite well :) Let's try a home upgrade analogy. I have a $100000 home that I bought at a discount at $75000 because I'm a stone cold real estate mogul (I'm not), then decide to do an upgrade to the house and add on a room, which would cost $25000 and raise the value of my home to $125000. I did not have to pay $50000 for the additional room added on, just $25000. I did not lose my original discount on the homes purchase. One concept, we're swapping one product for another (stereo) and in another rendition we're improving/updating/upgrading upon an existing product (home). Two ways to look at it, and I'm sure Port uses the stereo analogy.

    Glad you brought that up -- at least I understand how they're looking at it, and it certainly makes sense from that perspective. Thanks Dreamo ;)
     
  11. Lord Dreamo

    Lord Dreamo Avatar

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    Your analogy is interesting, but in your scenario the upgrade is not being purchased from the same person. Your house in fact still had a value of 100,000. But the actual cash value of your bundle was and forever will be $75 not $100(to use a simple number)... hopefully that makes a little more sense... think of when you buy an addon on sale for $10 and then it goes up to $20... you can't melt it for $20 store credit.
     
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  12. TheWanderingPoet

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    The way I see it is much like my pledge. Once the pledges went up in price my pledge did not. However if I were to upgrade I was made quite aware I would pay full price. If I pledged too low for my liking and did not upgrade before this point that was my own doing, and no fault of them.
    So if I bought a $45 game purchase pledge (which was what $25 back then?) and wanted to upgrade to the $120 pledge, I would have to pay the extra $95 or I would not have paid enough to reach the price of the $120 pledge because I'd be $20 short.
     
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  13. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    Hahhaa we could go on and on with analogies but I think you nailed it with how Portalarium views it. Thanks for the insight :)
     
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  14. Barugon

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    Wait for a sale before you upgrade.
     
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  15. Lord Dreamo

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    bnvv,
    I think you nailed it right there. Gotta wait for another sale or pay the impulse tax of full price :p
     
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  16. zyxe

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    In your case, it would be called a "trade-in", not an upgrade.
     
  17. Lord Dreamo

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    It's essentially the same concept though... the bundle initially paid for is forever valued at the price paid.

    It also works the other way too though... if I paid full price for a bundle at say $200 and then they do a sale on bundles and the next tier is now only $400 instead of $500 I can upgraded for $200 instead of the $300 I would have spent. While someone else who paid $150 for their bundle would have to pay $250 since the actual value of their initial bundle was only $150.

    Perhaps an even better example... when they lowered the price on addon store lot deeds. I was able to melt down my original deed for store credit and rebuy the deed for cheaper than before and have leftover credits. Based on the OPs scenario my deed would have been devalued to the lower price now that they are on sale.
     
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  18. zyxe

    zyxe Avatar

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    I think we shall have to agree to disagree on how upgrades should be handled. I understand your examples may be illustrating what Portalarium is thinking, but I'm arguing that upgrade is incorrect terminology. Perhaps "exchange" would be a better use of words, because it appears to work as you've stated; you are essentially reverting your purchase back in terms of store credits for what you paid, not what the item is worth at the time, and using those credits immediately to get a new bundle. This is not the same as an upgrade, where the additional services you get should only be based on the additional cost of the new items or services based on the difference of the current sales prices of the higher value item and your current item. You should be set at a level once you've achieved that tier and should not have to pay extra to play catch up to get to the next tier.

    Here's another analogy: if someone earns level 80 in a skill because it was easier early on, should they have a harder time to get to level 100 than anyone else just because they had an easier time getting to 80? No. what happens is that the rules may be adjusted because it was too easy to get to 80, but these new rules apply to all players. Once you're 80, you're 80, unless there's some weird exception or exploitation or other random issues.

    You can spin it either way, of course. The only real course of action, since we cannot change Port's terms, is to indeed wait for a flash sale to upgrade, but I think that stinks and isn't getting Port as far as they'd like financially :)
     
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  19. TheWanderingPoet

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    Experience works differently.

    But the fact remains, you payed say $5, for a $10 product. The amount of credit you have is $5 because that is what you paid. They can not and will not give you $10 credit if you change your mind. So when you upgrade you have $5 in credit, NOT $10 when upgrading.
    Basically what you want is free money. Because when you upgrade to $20 they don't get $20. You get a full price product for only $15. If you hadn't planned ahead on your purchase you're expecting them to fork over the difference and that's not sensible.

    Let me correct your analogy for you. If you had things your way, it would work in the sense that the player at level 80 needed say 5 mil xp to hit it. They change it to cost 3 mil instead. With your analogy they should experience a massive leveling effect and maybe reach grandmaster due to the change.
    But no. The skill is lv 80 and that is as far as you have reached.
     
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  20. Lord Dreamo

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    Your bundle isn't valued at the current non sales price though. It is valued at what you paid for it.

    I also agree to disagree though :) I do see where you are coming from. But I don't believe you'd find any similar product functioning that way.

    At least we can be civil in our disagreement. We may have made computer game forum history right now...
     
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