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The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

andrewchen.com

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Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#61

Post by dahart »

steveBK123 wrote: post #21
baq wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She says she wants to get in shape but actually she likes visiting new gyms. Nothing wrong with that, right?

She is a gym member maybe 1 out of 3 months because she is perpetually rotating through the deal she can get. The secret to this stuff is boring - persistent, continuous effort. If you can't even maintain a regular gym membership, you will not get that effort in. She's been complaining for over a decade as she continuous this charade.

To be fair, gym memberships are often crappy rent-seeking contracts. They love it when people start memberships for their New Year’s resolutions and then stop coming in February but keep paying, and they often try to hike the prices on you, renew automatically, and make it difficult to cancel. I’m perfectly fine with paying for a gym but I absolutely hate signing up for memberships. Currently I’m going to a city-run gym that has a day rate, and it’s more expensive than a monthly or yearly rate, and I still pay it happily and I feel like I’m getting a good deal, because I’m paying as I go for what I use and I’m not locked in and there’s no risk of wasting money.

Maybe she’s actually staying more motivated to go this way, maybe her engagement is higher than if she paid. Or, maybe she’d love it if you gave her a gift and pre-paid for 6 or 12 months of membership somewhere? You could even tell her you got a deal, which is true regardless of what you pay. Valentine’s Day is here…

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#62

Post by [deleted] »

Retric wrote: post #47
IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually , the one answer you gave, is a common myth[1] https://www.investmentzen.com/news/the-surprising-identity-o...

It fits my experience, the people I knew used coupons frequently where are all low income. One ended up having quite a large savings from compound interest and another got a healthy inheritance, but their jobs paid little.

[deleted]

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#63

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF »

ghaff wrote: post #56
red_admiral wrote: post #29

The kind of people who ran coupon schemes in the pre-internet days could have told you this. Back in the day, coupon schemes were things like you had to physically cut out and mail in vouchers from newspapers or magazines, and you got a discount on something like groceries in return. The point of this was market segmentation: you want to get people who (1) otherwise wouldn't buy your product, or at least not as much…

I'm actually sort of curious why, sometimes substantial, mail-in rebates seemingly largely went away? I haven't seen one in years. A significant customer of a former employer processed a lot of these out of Minnesota.

Probably they were introduced as marketing and when more-preferred customers realized they never mailed anything in, and therefore the rebate price is misleading, it ceased to be effective marketing.

Sounds like it was also the difficulty around “doing it right” which is probably different per seller. https://www.consumeraffairs.com/consumerism/rebate_madness01...

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#65

Post by ghaff »

steveBK123 wrote: post #58
ghaff wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still mostly were neither free nor a particularly good deal. I tried Blue Apron once (probably with a discount). In addition to the dark pattern of we'll send you meals next week by default they pretty much all used, they all seemed to have a really narrow use case. Basically, you had to be fine with cooking sometimes fairly time-consuming recipes for 2+ people three days a week, but didn't have a well-stocked p…

Really depends on where you live. In NYC/HCOL areas where the groceries are practically luxury priced, having a discounted meal kit delivered does add up savings-wise. I think it's like some of the other HCOL urban business models that won't / didn't scale nationally during/after COVID. Favorite example is Peloton. $40/month virtual gym is a great option in NYC where a "nice gym" might cost 5-10x that. In the rest of…

For me, it wasn't even so much the money as it was I had to plan and then do some (sometimes fairly time-consuming) meal prep. There are things I can buy either locally or keep in the freezer that are good and are far less time to prepare.

But I agree with your basic point. More than a meal at McDonald's is probably a lot to many people.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#66

Post by steveBK123 »

dahart wrote: post #61
steveBK123 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She is a gym member maybe 1 out of 3 months because she is perpetually rotating through the deal she can get. The secret to this stuff is boring - persistent, continuous effort. If you can't even maintain a regular gym membership, you will not get that effort in. She's been complaining for over a decade as she continuous this charade.

To be fair, gym memberships are often crappy rent-seeking contracts. They love it when people start memberships for their New Year’s resolutions and then stop coming in February but keep paying, and they often try to hike the prices on you, renew automatically, and make it difficult to cancel. I’m perfectly fine with paying for a gym but I absolutely hate signing up for memberships. Currently I’m going to a city-run…

You actually hit the nail on the head re: gift giving. I stumbled upon this years ago with family more..

If you want to gift anything nice to family who is more scarcity mindset, you absolutely HAVE to talk up the deal/discount you got, or how you paid for it with points that were going to expire, or something. It's also better if the thing you are gifting has opaque pricing / is somewhat custom or uncommon so they can't just google the price.

Anyway.. everything turns into sales/marketing sometimes!

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#67

Post by dylan604 »

ghaff wrote: post #53
vdaea wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which makes sense to me - more educated people are those who know how to save.

There's a difference between being frugal where it actually moves the needle and pinching every penny when the effort/scarifice far exceeds any benefit.

What effort/sacrifice was expelled? Flipping through the paper with a pair of scissors? You didn't even need to buy the paper as the coupons were ignored by the majority of those that did buy the paper and would just toss the coupons. It took no more effort than what people expend doom scrolling the socials.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#68

Post by _puk »

TheCaptain4815 wrote: post #41
steveBK123 wrote: post #36

Thinking more on this, I have a group of friends who partake in these types of deals. They are arguably a leading indicator of business models that are going to fail. Why? Because they will cycle through every single deal and never sign up. Every single one of them cycled through all the meal kit trial discounts during the ZIRP era, without ever signing up for one (it's free food dude). If you think I am kidding, go…

I did the same with the free money those gambling sites were all giving away. Stayed disciplined and made around $800

That coupled with the crazy cashback deals that were on offer from referral sites..

I cleared double that, but doubt it would work these days.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#69

Post by ghaff »

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #63
ghaff wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually sort of curious why, sometimes substantial, mail-in rebates seemingly largely went away? I haven't seen one in years. A significant customer of a former employer processed a lot of these out of Minnesota.

Probably they were introduced as marketing and when more-preferred customers realized they never mailed anything in, and therefore the rebate price is misleading, it ceased to be effective marketing. Sounds like it was also the difficulty around “doing it right” which is probably different per seller. https://www.consumeraffairs.com/consumerism/rebate_madness01...

Though they weren't a flash in the pan thing. It's true that their allure for marketing was that a lot of people priced the rebate in and then never mailed for it or violated some term/condition. But they were commonplace for a long time.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#70

Post by ghaff »

dylan604 wrote: post #67
ghaff wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between being frugal where it actually moves the needle and pinching every penny when the effort/scarifice far exceeds any benefit.

What effort/sacrifice was expelled? Flipping through the paper with a pair of scissors? You didn't even need to buy the paper as the coupons were ignored by the majority of those that did buy the paper and would just toss the coupons. It took no more effort than what people expend doom scrolling the socials.

People "waste" time on lots of things. But, yes, coupon-clipping and redemption is a certain amount of effort and I'm not going to bother unless it hits a fairly high threshold for something I'd have bought anyway.
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