CrashPlan Big sale • Hacker News Board

Re: CrashPlan Big sale

#11

Post by ruswick » Sat, Nov 24, 2012, 6:09 PM UTC

brainstew wrote: post #8

kmfrk wrote: post #2

Note: the longer the sale goes on, the more the discount decreases. (It decreases 1% every hour counting down from 100%). I didn't notice that yesterday, and it's worth keeping in mind when reading this submission. In my case, it might actually have had the effect of discouraging me from considering the offer, because the price went up since I last checked. Does anyone else feel the same way, or is this a discount mo…

80% off is still a pretty good deal.

But, knowing that the same product was 100% off mere hours ago will certainly disgruntled potential buyers. I think this model is more likely to alienate customers than it is to entice them.

Re: CrashPlan Big sale

#12

Post by Evbn » Sat, Nov 24, 2012, 9:42 PM UTC

ruswick wrote: post #11

brainstew wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80% off is still a pretty good deal.

But, knowing that the same product was 100% off mere hours ago will certainly disgruntled potential buyers. I think this model is more likely to alienate customers than it is to entice them.

On your theory, products should never go on discount. Clearly the world feels differently.

Re: CrashPlan Big sale

#13

Post by Someone » Sat, Nov 24, 2012, 11:38 PM UTC

rm999 wrote: post #4

Are they a stable company that will exist in a year or two? They sometimes give away one year plans for free (go to slickdeals and search for crashplan), which makes me wonder if they are desperate to sign up new customers. For something important like backup I don't want to start using a product that may fold in the near-term future. edit: it seems the free deals are for people who want to switch from carbonite, but…

"which makes me wonder if they are desperate to sign up new customers."

For this kind of product, the 'one year free' strategy seems like a decent lure to me. If you use the service extensively, at the end of that year, you will have x GB of backups that you need to move elsewhere fast if you do not continue your subscription. That is way more of a hassle than, say, changing your Internet provider, phone company, or health insurance (at least in some parts of the world).

So, I guess their ploy is that users who cost them a lot during their free year will stay for years.

Re: CrashPlan Big sale

#14

Post by ruswick » Sun, Nov 25, 2012, 3:26 AM UTC

Evbn wrote: post #12

ruswick wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, knowing that the same product was 100% off mere hours ago will certainly disgruntled potential buyers. I think this model is more likely to alienate customers than it is to entice them.

On your theory, products should never go on discount. Clearly the world feels differently.

Just, no. You lack a fundamental understanding of the psychology that underlies my point. Knowledge that you are missed out on a more lucrative deal makes the current price less appealing when juxtaposed against the missed deal. This is identical to the cognitive process that causes people distress when they miss refilling their parking meter by minutes. If you leave your car on the street for 3 days, it should not seem that unreasonable that you receive a ticket. However, in the cases where one approaches one's car while the ticket-writer is still present but the ticket has already been written, the person is more likely to flip their shit. The latter is far more upsetting because the person "missed it by that much."