Bargain Center: discussion, gossip, etc.

[barnaby4]

Did they cancel any of the Trident-A Range orders? Was the pricing of that also a mistake? I got mine.

[Fleer]

I always got great deals as well as dedicated support from MF and some of my best purchases were at GC.
Can’t complain at all.

Not sure about GC. When I first started buying equipment many years ago, they said to themselves here's a sucker with more money than knowledge. Well, a lot of it was used equipment but I wondered if it had belonged to the sales guy. I get better advice from my sales specialist at Sweetwater. He's talked me out of stuff that won't work with what I have and he makes good suggestions.

But it isn't local, so I can't try stuff out. Always negatives to go with the positives

Still musing about that nice Alesis Fusion HD synth I got from GC Boston (on Commonwealth Ave) for the sweetest price around.

[ghettosynth]

Did they cancel any of the Trident-A Range orders? Was the pricing of that also a mistake? I got mine.

I imagine that most people who were buying for a discount on Vol2 didn't buy both because A-Range comes in Vol2. But, it was probably also a mistake.

[escalona]

Hello guys,
For what it´s worth, Musiciansfriend.com is owned by Guitar Center (which is mostly owned by BainCapital and some affiliates). Whatever you see online in GC you will (mostly) find it also in MFs at the same price, with the same description, etc. They have the same team handling both websites (as well as music123 and Woodwind and Brasswind's websites which are also owned by GC).
My guess is that there was a communication error and the final price set in both websites was $19 as a result of this error. Now thinking about who knows their products and their value (Softube versus GC website team) I'm somewhat inclined to think that it was GC's website team misreading some of the information (I can' think that a Softube gal/guy told them to sell it at 10% of its current value as a mistake).
I wonder if Uncle E could pitch in on what it happens when a retailer makes a mistake setting a price and what kind of negotiations take place with the developer when this happens. My guess is that the retailer loses money, and in this case MF should be the one managing the damage (to all of you whose purchases got "cancelled" after several days and to Softube for selling their product at a gigantic discounted price).
I bought two licenses for the Grand Channel two years ago and I thought I was getting a great deal. I really like the plugin and recently I sold one of my licenses here (for $75) and I thought I was giving someone a great deal, then I find it's being sold for $19 and I felt guilty... I know this sucks for most of you and I feel for you but I feel kind of relieved that this $19 deal was a mistake.
I love Softube's products and I think it's a great company. MFs is a giant where people work in a corporate environment and in which some of their BainCapital (look at their pics for a collection of rich white people) own islands (public record)... My sympathies are going clearly aimed to the Sweden team of developers at Softube.
But of course this is just my opinion.

[ghettosynth]

I was aware that GC and MF are the same company. I even have a bit more to say about that and my purchases there, but I just couldn't be bothered. However, who we should blame the mistake on isn't really the point and that's what I was trying to say earlier. You can argue that SF knows the value of its products, but, excuse me if I disagree. I don't think that they've caught on that their products are overpriced.

No matter whose fault it was, only SoftTube loses in this deal. We didn't get our license, and mistake or not, we now have the experience of other people demoing a product that some of us think is vastly overpriced and saying "it's not all that." So, it doesn't matter if some people do think that it's all that, or that it was never meant to be sold for $19. There is now an imprint and a collective memory, which will be spurred on because some people DID get a license, that the grand channel is worth only $19 or less. This might seem outlandish to some, but it seems about right to me and I offer in evidence all of the Waves channel strips that were had for about that price.

Had SF delivered on the license they would have seen an unexpected surge in upgrades on the next sale, they decided that wasn't the approach that they wanted to take and that's their choice. That doesn't mean that in our minds the value of their product is congruent with them, what is true is that SoftTube didn't deliver licenses for a product that we purchased at the advertised price.

[dandezebra]

Boom

[hhuang9611]

Is it possible to get a personal upgrade price to Softube Volume 2? I own more than half of what's inside, so the upgrade price of still $239 doesn't make any sense to me.

[Rational]

I'm with ghettosynth on this one. Softube is losing a ton of upgrade sales that will now never happen. Plus they've now engendered distrust and a bad memory.

I also haven't been buying much of their stuff since Volume 1's pricing was really low. Been waiting for them to lower their pricing on their Tube-Tech EQ Collection for ages. Even this week their 'steep' discount is still $200 for it. Nope. I have enough pultec clones that do just fine. Softube need to reevaluate themselves against the current market. They're overpriced. Good stuff, but I'm not buying and haven't been. I only bought Tape this BF because it was an attractive price of $29-34. Didn't go for my Volume 2 upgrade because they wanted $119 for it (without Tape). Had they dropped it to $99 then it would have been a maybe. They drop it to $79 soon then I'm in.

[Rational]

Is it possible to get a personal upgrade price to Softube Volume 2? I own more than half of what's inside, so the upgrade price of still $239 doesn't make any sense to me.

When Softube sold Volume 1 last year or was it two years ago now?, everyplugin was offering a drop down listing of upgrade options. I was able to get it for $79 I think if I owned Softube's reverb. Which I promptly bought used for cheap and grabbed V1. They need to do that again for V2.

Marketing ideas. They work. Try them Softube.

[dandezebra]

Sadly (for Softube), I have enough plugs already and was going in blind at $19 for what looked like a sweet and not unheard of deal. Thesys for $10, Warmverb and IK Black free with CM, Waves new pricing, etc.

I'm not even going to bother demoing now and will probably ignore anything from them again... How crazy would it be if they have it on a sale like that at Christmas though?!

[Rational]

I have to give out some kudos.

Unc came through for me personally this BF. He was right there answering me in realtime fulfilling my order. He even hooked me up when I made a mistake on choosing the wrong upgrade version of something. He's the best. No one else goes three extra miles like he does. And so I'm giving him as many of my purchases as I can from now on. Thanks unc. (Speed up your website search query results though. They are slow. )

Audified.com also treated me very well today. They've warmed my heart. I'll be spending $ on their entire catalog.

plugin-alliance.com is also always hooking me up with free $50 vouchers and free plugins because of it. Lots of goodwill built up with me which I am now and will be returning via more purchases.

Thank you you three. That's how it's done.

[dandezebra]

Eric is certainly a top notch seller. I actually feel bad as I was in contact with him about Thorn but ended up spending too much money and didn't make the purchase. With Dune 3 next week as well as Pro-Q3 tomorrow, I'm not regretting the lack of a purchase! Not like I wont pick up something from JRR between now and Christmas.

[Feelshallright]

A price mistake is a price mistake. If it's coming from the retailer, Softube has no responsability at all to lose money on every license.

I see the argument that they are losing sale for the Volume 2 upgrade. How many of all the actual buyers of the 19$ plugin will spend a hundred dollars or more to upgrade, just by getting a cheap deal?

They are selling right now all their plugins at up to 60% off. If you're really interested in their products, check this sale.

I saw the upgrade price of the Output bundle, and I was pretty sure it was a price mistake. I pulled the trigger quickly and got the price, before they raised the price a couple of days ago.

I can understand the frustration, but sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

Just my 2 cents.

[Shalotta]

How is your search at JRR?
(Despite being slow)

When I quickly try to search something,
many other items pop up and I`m loosing focus

[dandezebra]

A price mistake is a price mistake. If it's coming from the retailer, Softube has no responsability at all to lose money on every license.

I see the argument that they are losing sale for the Volume 2 upgrade. How many of all the actual buyers of the 19$ plugin will spend a hundred dollars or more to upgrade, just by getting a cheap deal?

They are selling right now all their plugins at up to 60% off. If you're really interested in their products, check this sale.

I saw the upgrade price of the Output bundle, and I was pretty sure it was a price mistake. I pulled the trigger quickly and got the price, before they raised the price a couple of days ago.

I can understand the frustration, but sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

Just my 2 cents.

Also good points. I am actually the most mad at MF as it took them six days to cancel my item without any reason as to why (I just counted and I got 22 E-mails from them in the meantime!). This of course was after Black Friday and Cyber Monday so I and others hypothetically missed picking up something else on the cheap as we thought we were getting the Softube plugin.