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11-09-07

Crawling Back
Okay, so, I'm guessing you guys have noticed that I've been plagued by inconsistency this year.  Sorry.  I'm working on it, I really am.  And, to be honest, I can't really claim that it has anything to do with any real life stresses, because I have relatively few stresses in my real life.  Lately things have just been getting away from me.  Also, my art still kind of sucks, but, if you thought a month or so of self-instructed practice was going to make it a lot better, you're even more delusional than I am.

But that's not today's rant.  Really, if anyone gave a rat's ass about my artistic output, then my tagboard would be filled with complaints about my non-production and not the ads for porn sites and dubious pharmaceuticals that currently clog the history file.  Today's rant is about something else entirely.

Pure Profit
I recently bought a new security program (nobody just buys anti-virus programs, any more—sleazebag technology has advance to the point that viruses are no longer necessary and some talented scuzz houses are now capable of even performing back alley kidney removals via a security hole in Outlook).  I won't tell you which one it is, because they are owned by a multinational software company that has lots of lawyers who can squash me (financially, but maybe physically, too) like a bug.  This is the third year in a row that I bought a whole new program at a retailer instead of just updating my subscription and/or updating online.  Why?  Let me walk you through it.

When my subscription started running out, I followed the links to the subscription update site.  They offered a subscription update for $29.99 or an upgrade to the newer-better version for $49.99.  These were marketed as amazing deals that could be got nowhere else.  Being a person who has trust issues, I decided to check on that.  At one brick-and-mortar, I could get the upgrade for $39.99.  At another, I could get it (effectively) for free.  The actual price was $49.99, just like on the sub site, but it carried a pair of rebates (one for $20, the other for $30) that not only eliminated the retail price but actually paid a penny of the tax.  The upshot being that for ultimately nothing, I acquired a program, with an optical backup, plus a year's subscription, while, had I gone with the convenience of online ordering, I would have received a download and no backup for about fifty bucks.  In other words, the company spent about five dollars on packaging and product (over and above whatever costs they paid to create and update the program plus research and patching costs inherent in the subscription) and got nothing, where they would have charged (and received) full retail with no product or packaging costs had I gone with the online upgrade.

Seeing where I'm going, here?  Let me give another example.

I play an online game.  Last year they released an expansion pack (MMORPGs release expansions on an annual/semi-annual basis; this allows powergamers an excuse to keep paying subscription fees on a game they almost never play any more, because of the additional content, and gives casual players new locations to die in).  For months, they advertised the benefits of pre-ordering online.  The primary benefit being that if you did so, you would get:  the expansion pack download.  I've never been one to make big issues about being there first, so I never got around to pre-ordering.  Thank the gods.  After the game was released (they were still touting the benefits of online ordering), I toddled over to my nearest software store and discovered that buying the physical disc copy of the expansion pack netted me:

That's right, for fifty dollars, I could have the right to download the expansion, or for thirty dollars, I could have a nice backup on optical disc with the complete program and a couple of extras.

Now, before I go any deeper into this, let me address those persons who are going to claim that online customers are paying for the convenience of ordering online.  That's bullshit.  Convenience costs extra in the real world because there are additional costs associated with providing it.  Convenience stores are forced to maintain a broad but shallow selection, increasing their purchase and spoilage costs.  Banks have to provide extra tellers for drive-through windows and pay processing fees to financial firms for ATMs.  The "cost of convenience" is a means for companies to defray the additional costs to provide convenience.

This is not the case in the digital world.  Digital renewals and upgrades cost the companies providing them pennies, and save the company money when compared to the costs of packaging and distribution to brick-and-mortar retailers.  By the same reasoning that excuses additional expense for real world convenience, digital convenience should be cheaper than normal retail purchasing.  The reason it's not, is that special deals and product facing are a form of marketing.  Essentially, loyal customers who use the online maintenance services are being expected to buy a copy of the program for someone else. 

I'd like to say there was a solution to this inequity, but the fact is, until enough people actually learn to get off their asses and look for the best deal they can find, companies will always screw them over.  Don't just assume that the online price is the best price just because it "should be."