Lowering price controversy

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:35 am Post subject: Lowering price controversy

During the weekend we lowered prices of all our products. Now some controversy emerged about something that may be some bug with derived from products that we did not think of when doing the price change.

Personally, I think it should be no problem to lower some price of some product that others derived from, because the person who derived from can lower too and actually benefit from it. But some other developers think it shouldn't be this way and that this is only possible because of some bug.

I think no matter who is right here, I don't feel comfortable with this controversy. At the same time, I want to be sure that people can continue to buy cheap products and also want people who derive products be able compete.

So, here is what my team and I plan to do.

There is about 1000 products in our catalog that have been derived from. We plan to re-upload each product one by one at low price and make it derivable, then switch the price of the original product back up to where it was before price change and hide the old product.

I know this means some trouble for people who derived, because basically you have to reupload your derived products and derive from the new, cheaper version to take advantage of better price. I really wanted to avoid this inconvenience, but now the peace in the developer community I consider very important. Rightfully or not, some people became upset, so I think it is my responsibility to listen and remove their worries, even if it means some additional work.

Of course we will make sure there is no problem with derived from products while we do this. To make this change to more than 1000 products is going to be slow process though, especially when deal with the slow network in China.

What does this mean for you?

1. The products you bought will not be effected
2. Nice price products will still be available. If you see something from us with old high price accidently or temporarily show in the catalog, then please don't buy it.
3. If you derived, then it is best to keep your product price at the old, higher price level from before we reduced our price, and wait until we upload the cheaper version so that you can derive from that
4. If you work on new derived products, I suggest you wait some days before you upload the product so that you can derive from the new permanently low priced original product

I especially feel sorry for the deriving developers. You did many nice products and now all this becomes confusing and you will need to spend some time to actually take advantage of the lower mesh price. I hoped this could be avoided. Anyway, I am 100% confident that after this change your sales will grow much and it will really have been worth it for you Smile

Please everybody don't flame me. I really try to listen here and at ACS we will put in crazy amount of extra work.
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:38 am Post subject:

Wow, this really mucks it up for the devs that already derived from the Higher priced products.

No way for them to compete unless they redirive from the new lower priced one.

People are just going to love you for this.

Good luck

*goes to snicker in the corner*
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:41 am Post subject:

Anshe, wont this mean that our old versions will not sell now because everyone elses will be cheaper because of deriving from the new uploads? I know you are trying to help the community but it seems like a lot of work for you, and a lot of wasted time for us who derived from the old products because now they will be unsellable. Surely IMVU can come up with a better solution than this one. Pretty much what this means as we might as well hide all our old products as well because they will be dead because of the high prices on them.
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:42 am Post subject:

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:44 am Post subject:

But the products I've derived from you at the high price won't be able to compete with the newer, lower priced items!

I think you should just start making new products at a lower price, and leave the old ones at their original price. If you keep changing things around, a lot of people are going to feel ripped off and unhappy!
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Anshe 230 Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 245 Location: China

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:47 am Post subject:

Notorious Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 13663 Location: USA

who is going to issue me a refund? (for the new derive fee?)

::::: what are these feathers on the ground....has anyone seen Goose? ::::::::::::
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^ This is my banner.

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:48 am Post subject:

- uhm ok... I'm just a bit surprised at this decision..
I'm not going to discuss the fact if its allowed or not the change the prices of derivables here, since we're all waiting on a statement from the staff here.
- But there is a rule in the TOS that says you can't submit the same product more than once, for whatever reason you have. I read it yesterday while I was searching for some particular other rules that couldn't be found. So how are you going to solve this?
- Just another question about the price changing issue, you say you think it is not a bug, how do you explain the text on the submitting page that prices will be locked after derivation? it says prices will be locked, not just for raising, but also for lowering, its locked for every change. So what does this mean do you think? I would like to know your thoughts on that? Since this function doesn't work, how would you call that if its not a bug? (btw staff told me it is actually a bug, so there's not much of discussion here, just want to know what that text means to you)
- I can say that I'm not happy with your decision just as you already suspected, I think you could have thought of this before changing your prices. I don't like both the decisions you made, and this is not for flaming you or whatever, but just out of honesty, I will never derive of you again or buy a product by you. I'm sorry if I'm not supposed to say it out loud, but it's just the truth.
- the sole fact of lowering prices is fine to me, because I always thought your prices were on the expensive side, but my thoughts on this are, why don't you just leave your old products the way they were before the changes and price your new products lower. Also I think there's a difference in lowering and bottom prices... but I think you already know this.
- I also agree with the others on the fact that the old products will not sell, and I payed a derivation fee that was way too high.
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Demand Consistency for ALL devs!

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:49 am Post subject:

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:51 am Post subject:

Notorious Joined: 02 Jan 2006 Posts: 13663 Location: USA

Storms...the issue at hand is IT CAN BE AVOIDED!
i think this tactic is extremely in poor taste and ridiculously suspicious.....IMHO...

edited to add: i thought i read somewhere (maybe in the Yanhu disabled thread.....) that posting two of something is against the ToS....did i misunderstand that?
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^ This is my banner.

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:55 am Post subject:

Anshe, If you pay for all my submission fees, I'll resubmit my products at the lower price. Exclamation

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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:56 am Post subject:

Chicka I think that should be, it COULD have been avoided, the thing is, you cant turn back the clock and no matter what no one wins here.
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Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:56 am Post subject: