Plugin Alliance new transfer policy caused concerns and is corrected...

[jochicago]

PA is more or less back on track of their previous flash sale / urgent sale / sale of your lifetime behaviour. Subscription not working well? Or just fishing off the remaining vouchers?

I think it's more like they wanted to pretend sales were gone to push as many people as possible to memberships, and once that wave was over they could go back to regular sales hoping that those that have memberships will stay there.

[Digivolt]

New controversy

Traditionally we are not sending out any loyalty vouchers in December, so the November vouchers will be the last ones of that type to go out this year. All future loyalty vouchers will have a minimum order value attached to them, as we are seeing way too many people (ab-)using them in ways that they were never intended for. We see users selling them, trading them, using multiple vouchers from various users in one account within a month, etc. Obviously, this is something we cannot accept.

We want our loyal customers to get some of their dream plugins at really affordable pricing, but we are not in the business of giving away multiple free plugins each month to users tricking the system. So, while all our future loyalty vouchers will of course still be worth every Cent they represent, they will be tied to a certain minimum spend in the future. The minimum spend for the popular $25 loyalty voucher for example will be $32, so you can even still use them to activate 2 or more used licenses you may buy somewhere, or for any $39.99 deal and more. We imagine this won't be the most popular decision we are presenting here, but we hope you will understand.

RIP vouchers

[JerGoertz]

Well, it couldn't last forever...

[yehboy1]

So we have to spend $7 minimum to use a $25 voucher?

Lol is this $6,999 offer new? He referenced it in his bizarre email today: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... etual.html

[Calenberger]

From a business perspective the changes make sense.

[JerGoertz]

Lol is this $6,999 offer new? He referenced it in his bizarre email today: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... etual.html

I know, right? I'm rushing to find my credit card!

This is probably intended to make the subscription plan look attractive by comparison (# of expected sales : approximately 0).

[nathanj]

I agree, it was a bit of a weird email. Requires a few readings.

I do understand their standpoint on the loyalty vouchers but they made the system so easy to be abused. I honestly thought they promoted it and considered it a loss leader- why didn't they just tie the codes to accounts? Wouldn't that solve most of the issues he raised?. I've read they have hundreds of thousands of customers so I thought that even if 100k are spending nominal amounts frequently it still adds up pretty quick.

But I guess I was wrong. Luckily my vouchers stop this month and I won't be so eager to renew their presence.

[sin night]

Well, $7 + european vat (I'm in Italy) means the threshold is around 9-10 €. If I want a 39,99$ plugin, after the voucher it's 14,99 which means 18-19€ wih italian vat. It's not bad.

I looked at my PA receipts and my average is 25-30 € (after promotions and monthly voucher). With very few exceptions (two or three times I spent less than 10 €), I always spend more than 20 € (after discounted promotional price, my monthly voucher and european vat) everytime I buy something from PA.
I think the announcement of the new voucher policy sounds worse than what it actually is; it will have little to no effect on my spending on PA products...


By the way, I don't see how the new policy can be effective on the issue of people using vouchers from multiple accounts on the same order. I can clearly see the issue (people buying really expensive plugins for next to nothing, and maybe even reselling them for a profit after a while), but I think the only proper solution is to tie the vouchers to the account.

I'm just speculating, but maybe PA just needed an excuse to speak out about the misuse of the monthly vouchers (and I totally get their point). They probably already have all the informations they need to tie the vouchers to their respective accounts (and maybe they will do it at some point, if they aren't already doing that), so maybe they wanted to kindly warn users to stop some behaviours before an enforcement? I'm just speculating, but I don't see any pratical effect of the new voucher policy both on loyal customers and on those misusing the voucher system.


Just my two cents, of course!

[jochicago]

Lol is this $6,999 offer new? He referenced it in his bizarre email today: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... etual.html

I know, right? I'm rushing to find my credit card!

This is probably intended to make the subscription plan look attractive by comparison (# of expected sales : approximately 0).

Yes. Nobody is buying this, they didn't make it to sell it. He just wanted to drop it in there as a "mention" because it's another way to make the subscription sound like a good deal.

However, we are getting a new offer for the subscription this weekend and if it is lower than what has been offered before, it IS a great deal for anyone just starting out with stock plugins. I'd say, if you buy the sub with the rate locked in forever-ish at this week's price, and then unsub from all promo emails from all brands (and ignore sales) forever, you basically have thereabouts all the plugins you need to mix competently and at a fixed yearly cost commitment that is reasonable.

And PA keeps adding plugins every year, and now that they have the subscription model to think of, they'll probably look to round out their plugin selection (fewer comps and eqs, more of other stuff that's lacking). In a couple years there may be 20+ new plugins, but you are still paying the fixed rate (until they invent a reason to "un-fix" it down the line, probably inside of 3 years).

[zvenx]

From a business perspective the changes make sense.

Indeed.
Whilst I have never sold any voucher, only given away a few, I have sometimes picked up a plugin free just using my voucher. Matter of fact sometimes I pick up a product I doubt I would have significant use for, but since it will be free with the voucher, I pick it up.
I can't imagine how that would be helpful/useful/beneficial to PA.
rsp

[daily patcher]

That email was something else eh?

[thecontrolcentre]

I suppose it was too good to last. I've had a lot of bargains using my voucher(s) so I can't complain about that really. I got the Flanger and 3 guitar pluggies for $0.00 this month. I usually wait for sales before buying anyway, so next month looks fun.

I do wonder if they're ever gonna get round to fixing the bugs in some of their plugins. Unfiltered Audio have taken to releasing public betas on KVR because PA take way too long to test and release them on the site.

[Kongru]

Why don't they just do the simple thing and make vouchers usable only by the account that they were distributed to?

[nathanj]

Exactly.

[thecontrolcentre]

Why don't they just do the simple thing and make vouchers usable only by the account that they were distributed to?

They tried asking nicely ... nobody took any notice. TBH I think this is probably because of people regularly selling their vouchers. You cant move for them in the Buy Sell forum ...