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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 1, 2022 18:36:54 GMT
As someone that tends to buy everything under the sun from Big Finish I’ve certainly been dreading this. Fortunately, I started aggressively preordering back in bc 2019, when the price raise was mooted, but moving forward I certainly need to prioritize what I’m buying from big finish.
Spin offs are certainly off of the table at this point, and I haven’t even thought about Torchwood moving forward.
The increase in $CAD has certainly been a painful one, and my heart goes out to the Aussies that listen.
I think right now, the only ranges I’ll be keeping up with consistently is 4, 8, and 9.
I hope Big Finish has plans to continue with the lower budget stories, such as short trips and companion chronicles. Full cast is just too pricey at the moment.
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Post by tuigirl on Nov 1, 2022 18:41:18 GMT
This is really weird. It is not as bad for us in Europe right now, since the Euro prices only changed slightly. But looking at the recent German Who convention, it is clear to me that Who in general, and BF specifically, are VERY VERY niche in Germany. We are a dedicated and loyal lot who adores the BF audios, but we are few. So yes, they probably did not lose too many customers in our neck of the woods.
HOWEVER. I would imagine that the fan base, and therefore CUSTOMER base is much larger in, let's say, Canada and Oz. Increasing the price by 100% (20$ to more than 40$) will certainly smash that market, especially when at the same time the prices for groceries and energy are going through the roof. Who in their right mind will spend 40$ on a download now?
My mind simply boggles. And I repeat again, I do not have a degree in economics. Maybe I am not getting the real / big picture. I just hope, and I repeat myself, they actually sat down with someone knowing this stuff and worked this through, looking at customer base in different countries and how prices would develop in certain situations.
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Post by Digi on Nov 1, 2022 19:24:16 GMT
I would imagine that the fan base, and therefore CUSTOMER base is much larger in, let's say, Canada and Oz. Increasing the price by 100% (20$ to more than 40$) will certainly smash that market, especially when at the same time the prices for groceries and energy are going through the roof. Who in their right mind will spend 40$ on a download now? Exactly this. Exactly.
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Post by Digi on Nov 1, 2022 19:56:33 GMT
I see they've finally deigned to add a link to the change to this week's news updates. I wonder whether that was prompted by me writing in my email that it's astonishing there was no news item about it, either independently (as one would expect for a change of this magnitude) or within a weekly update page.
Too little, too late.
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Post by kipperserver on Nov 1, 2022 20:58:47 GMT
I see they've finally deigned to add a link to the change to this week's news updates. I wonder whether that was prompted by me writing in my email that it's astonishing there was no news item about it, either independently (as one would expect for a change of this magnitude) or within a weekly update page. Too little, too late. I found out about it vie the email. I also got an app notification. And I'm not evern overseas!
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Post by Digi on Nov 1, 2022 21:13:08 GMT
I see they've finally deigned to add a link to the change to this week's news updates. I wonder whether that was prompted by me writing in my email that it's astonishing there was no news item about it, either independently (as one would expect for a change of this magnitude) or within a weekly update page. Too little, too late. I found out about it vie the email. I also got an app notification. And I'm not evern overseas! Amazing...I received neither of those things
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Post by masterdoctor on Nov 1, 2022 21:15:48 GMT
I would imagine that the fan base, and therefore CUSTOMER base is much larger in, let's say, Canada and Oz. Increasing the price by 100% (20$ to more than 40$) will certainly smash that market, especially when at the same time the prices for groceries and energy are going through the roof. Who in their right mind will spend 40$ on a download now? Exactly this. Exactly. Digi, I gotta ask, is it 40 for you on a previously 20$ set or 30$? For me it’s showing as 30 (ish obviously)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2022 21:22:44 GMT
Would it not be simpler for BF to price downloads in £ only and let customers' credit cards / paypal handle the currency conversion? I have bought stuff in other currencies using my UK credit card and the card converts it to the £ price I see on my bill. From a website development/maintenance point of view I'd have thought that would be simpler too They have always charged you in GBP, regardless of the currency shown on the website. This would mean I was always charged slightly more than the price listed on the website.* But I rationalised this when I found out I was paying half what the U.K. customers were paying (I'm in NZ). However, not only have the prices almost doubled (UNIT Nemesis 3 is 39.27NZD) but I have just taken an item through to the checkout and we are still charged in GBP meaning we will still pay a slightly-higher price than is listed. *For example, Kaleidoscope was listed for 16.99NZD, charged 8.59GBP and paid 17.43NZD excl. bank conversion fee.
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Post by Digi on Nov 1, 2022 21:32:29 GMT
Digi, I gotta ask, is it 40 for you on a previously 20$ set or 30$? For me it’s showing as 30 (ish obviously) That number actually came from coffeeaddict 's post on the previous page... I didn't think to note prices ahead of time because I was anticipating an across-the-board price increase of you know, 15-20% or something like that, for everybody. Absolutely did not anticipate that the change would be towards a pricing model that prejudicially specifically targets non-UK residents. So I haven't got baseline data to compare against.
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Post by coffeeaddict on Nov 1, 2022 21:49:06 GMT
Digi, I gotta ask, is it 40 for you on a previously 20$ set or 30$? For me it’s showing as 30 (ish obviously) That number actually came from coffeeaddict 's post on the previous page... I didn't think to note prices ahead of time because I was anticipating an across-the-board price increase of you know, 15-20% or something like that, for everybody. Absolutely did not anticipate that the change would be towards a pricing model that prejudicially specifically targets non-UK residents. So I haven't got baseline data to compare against. I looked at the price I had paid for a boxset I bought early last year vs what was showing today. The pricing is odd. I don't think there is that large a discrepancy on pricing between markets on other products. Personally I'd love to see what an accountant would make of BF's books. They have to be leaving money on the table in a number of areas other than international pricing and their horrible shipping deal.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2022 21:49:18 GMT
Thanks for the sympathy for us AU/NZ fans. Right now I've preordered through to the end of ranges I'm following (9DA, UNIT Nemesis, Robots etc.) but won't be making any new purchases.
I'll echo tuigirl with "who in their right mind?". At $40 I'll buy an on-sale video game (or 3 months of Netflix Basic) which will get me many tens of hours, not a 5-hour audio.
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Post by tuigirl on Nov 1, 2022 21:52:19 GMT
I found out about it vie the email. I also got an app notification. And I'm not evern overseas! Amazing...I received neither of those things Neither did I and I am a subscriber. What is going on?
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Post by timleschild on Nov 1, 2022 22:28:12 GMT
Amazing...I received neither of those things Neither did I and I am a subscriber. What is going on? The usual nonsense from BF
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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2022 22:30:01 GMT
Okay, I just took a look at the price on some stuff I ordered a while back - download had until today been $19.99 Canadian. Today it is 46.87. A jump of over 50% is not something that will encourage me to buy audio's going forward. Can I afford the increase, sure, but frankly that means taking money away from other interests and frankly the BF product has been largely uninspiring over the past few years and I don't see myself wanting to order something that might not hold my interest when it is going to cost so much. I may just squirrel away the money I would have normally spent on BF and put it into getting another custom guitar. As with three years ago, it seems they didn't spend any time thinking this through. If there is a way to completely lose your foreign market, this is it. And because the issues of three years ago were correcting mistakes they made from years before that, it compounds everything. From years of losing money sending CDs worldwide to some IDIOT not realising £1=$1=$1CA is nonsense (no-one at BF ever used a Bureau De Change?) it means that the jump is WAY bigger than needs be now. If the policy had been in place for years and increases were gradual, like box set prices? No major hassle. People would have jumped off, sure, but it would have at least been organic and BF would have not been pissing money away for over a decade. It almost boggles belief they are about to be 25 years old with basic economics AND PR skills completely alien to them.
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Post by Star Platinum on Nov 1, 2022 23:09:09 GMT
I see they've finally deigned to add a link to the change to this week's news updates. I wonder whether that was prompted by me writing in my email that it's astonishing there was no news item about it, either independently (as one would expect for a change of this magnitude) or within a weekly update page. Too little, too late. I found out about it vie the email. I also got an app notification. And I'm not evern overseas! I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a notification from the app, I wasn’t aware it could send them out!
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Post by bohnny on Nov 1, 2022 23:48:14 GMT
I see they've finally deigned to add a link to the change to this week's news updates. I wonder whether that was prompted by me writing in my email that it's astonishing there was no news item about it, either independently (as one would expect for a change of this magnitude) or within a weekly update page. Too little, too late. Basically 80% price rise in Australia. $16.99->$30.46, $18.99->$35.84. I get that the pricing needed some adjustment, and that is had been flagged. But there was no sense that it was coming right now. This forum has many who watch BF operations like a hawk, but I didn’t see anyone read the announcement of pricing changes as being about this. So, at best this is VERY poor communication of intent. And to do it all in one hit? At the risk of sounding like a cliche, I’m more disappointed than angry or upset. I really feel that this has broken the ‘loyalty bond’ I had (without being that conscious of it) with BF. I was always willing to buy on trust knowing that the hit rate was high enough at the price to justify it. I now feel that I won’t be doing that. And that I might shop around a bit more for CDs, and share purchases w friends, rather than just automatically plonking my $ down. And once the habit of purchasing is gone, it will be far more likely that I’ll drift away from regular buying and only come back for the high profile stuff.
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Post by timleschild on Nov 1, 2022 23:59:11 GMT
I see they've finally deigned to add a link to the change to this week's news updates. I wonder whether that was prompted by me writing in my email that it's astonishing there was no news item about it, either independently (as one would expect for a change of this magnitude) or within a weekly update page. Too little, too late. Basically 80% price rise in Australia. $16.99->$30.46, $18.99->$35.84. I get that the pricing needed some adjustment, and that is had been flagged. But there was no sense that it was coming right now. This forum has many who watch BF operations like a hawk, but I didn’t see anyone read the announcement of pricing changes as being about this. So, at best this is VERY poor communication of intent. And to do it all in one hit? At the risk of sounding like a cliche, I’m more disappointed than angry or upset. I really feel that this has broken the ‘loyalty bond’ I had (without being that conscious of it) with BF. I was always willing to buy on trust knowing that the hit rate was high enough at the price to justify it. I now feel that I won’t be doing that. And that I might shop around a bit more for CDs, and share purchases w friends, rather than just automatically plonking my $ down. And once the habit of purchasing is gone, it will be far more likely that I’ll drift away from regular buying and only come back for the high profile stuff. I can see this backfiring on BF in relation to their international customers & they have no one else to blame but themselves on this one. But will they ever learn?
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Nov 2, 2022 0:51:47 GMT
.. Just to compound matters , just received an SMS from a mate who said he saw something on the news this morning about our electricity prices going up 56% (another broken Federal Budget promise!).
Our home state is known for 2 things.. The most serial killers per capita and literally having the Highest electricity rates in the world (seriously). An extra 56% is going to hurt.
(I used to work for the Default Electricity Retailer for 6 years many years ago- it was horrible back then about 95% angry calls and death threats.. I can only imagine what it is like now..)
Some people in Australia are literally choosing to skip meals themselves in lieu of their children having regular breakfast and lunch at school. It's being documented.
;(
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Post by redsharkJason on Nov 2, 2022 3:25:53 GMT
That is just hogwash from BF. If I order a bluray from Australia, as I do from Imprint Films and Umbrella, I pay the Aus price directly converted. They don't take into account "tradition" and give me a discount. It's the price. I either choose to pay it or not. And shipping is expensive but it's literally the other side of the world with a rather...unusual Australian postal service when it comes to import and export costs. so it is what it is. Even a major company like Amazon doesn't operate with a moronic principle like that. If I order from Amazon US, it converts the currency from dollar to pound exactly. It doesn't alter the price. Would it not be simpler for BF to price downloads in £ only and let customers' credit cards / paypal handle the currency conversion? I have bought stuff in other currencies using my UK credit card and the card converts it to the £ price I see on my bill. From a website development/maintenance point of view I'd have thought that would be simpler too I would much prefer having the download (and CD) prices to be reflected in pound sterling - it's simpler in terms of being pinpoint accurate. The XE.com that Big Finish utilises for their website currency conversions is around 5% less than what is actually paid when using PayPal as payment. A prior to November 1, 2022 example - A $16.99 listed Human Frontier 2 download purchase from BF on September 28, 2022 ended up costing me $17.99. PayPal conversion rate on that day hour: 1 CAD = 0.642996 GBP. 17.99 x 0.642996 = £11.57 actual payment (as stated on my bill) to Big Finish. Big Finish received 6% ($1) more thanks to XE. With the 1:1 conversion for international currency now being nixed at Big Finish, I sure as hell hope that we won't be expected to pay £21-something for a £20 priced download. Additionally - The annoyance of unnecessarily paying the 20% VAT that is no doubt included on all Big Finish products is only amplified with this latest download price increase as well. As far as I understand it. It's not above board to charge UK Value Added Tax on online sales to Canada and many other countries.
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Nov 2, 2022 4:00:40 GMT
Would it not be simpler for BF to price downloads in £ only and let customers' credit cards / paypal handle the currency conversion? I have bought stuff in other currencies using my UK credit card and the card converts it to the £ price I see on my bill. From a website development/maintenance point of view I'd have thought that would be simpler too I would much prefer having the download (and CD) prices to be reflected in pound sterling - it's simpler in terms of being pinpoint accurate. The XE.com that Big Finish utilises for their website currency conversions is around 5% less than what is actually paid when using PayPal as payment. A prior to November 1, 2022 example - A $16.99 listed Human Frontier 2 download purchase from BF on September 28, 2022 ended up costing me $17.99. PayPal conversion rate on that day hour: 1 CAD = 0.642996 GBP. 17.99 x 0.642996 = £11.57 actual payment (as stated on my bill) to Big Finish. Big Finish received 6% ($1) more thanks to XE. With the 1:1 conversion for international currency now being nixed at Big Finish, I sure as hell hope that we won't be expected to pay £21-something for a £20 priced download. Additionally - The annoyance of unnecessarily paying the 20% VAT that is no doubt included on all Big Finish products is only amplified with this latest download price increase as well. As far as I understand it. It's not above board to charge UK Value Added Tax on online sales to Canada and many other countries. I received my 12 CD Torchwood bundle this week I still have the receipt. I will check to see if we get charged VAT. Our version is GST (Goods & Services Tax) and is currently at 10%.. although everything costs so much here so the "savings" of 10% is absorbed. EDIT: I just checked and GST in NZ is 15%
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