What was the point of is buying it early?
I ONLY bought the unit early because it was cheaper to do so, if I had known they would say fuck the discount codes "only for FC BTW" were just going to lower the price for everyone fuck those "VIP"
well dont do that next time. this is just unsolicited advice. im no financial advisor but getting in on the bleeding edge of things is generally a way to lose money, not to save it.
i get you though, it isnt just about the money. i do agree there could have been some public communication around this decision, especially if youre (camouflet) soliciting forum members' opinions and calling us vips or whatever. we definitely arent *owed* anything but when you sell 17 of the first 20 to forum members it would just be nice to be kept in the loop. its a bad look i think for tinctorus's situation (finding out about a price drop after the fact, from logging on to the website, not even in an email) to even be possible. patience and courtesy does go both ways, not least because we're personally conversing with each other and not just making faceless website orders from s&b or whatever.
i think it is important for companies to be aware that people are not rational actors and that as buyers we get attached to things like price, and first impressions matter. i even said in my post earlier that the 40% was an acceptable discount for a seconds quality stem and now that's been wiped out (they are sending me a new stem, so it actually hasn't, but you know*). but really, at the end of the day, thats just the way she goes... if you want stability then you have to buy from established companies. product cheaper now pretty much always comes with tradeoffs later when improvements are made, manufacturing is firmly established, processes are codified, etc.
But all you lost in the process is the sense that you got a special, exclusive deal. You still paid less than list, still got a nice device. Better for them to adjust now and disappoint you by $4.60 than to die in the crib, no?
i agree with the thrust of this post but getting the deal is *important* to a lot of people, not to mention having the deal *taken away* - just ask jc penney. if youre never given something- fine. if its snatched out of your hands- thats a profound loss. i see this play out in real time often when playing games: deny an opponent the action and they figure out something else to do, but if you are able to effectively *undo* the action they get tilted first and then they decide to figure out something else to do.
tl;dr psychological losses can be as important to customers as material losses
finally, in any case, as camouflet have alluded to, raw price isnt the only way for early adopters to "be taken care of", so we'll see what happens. 20 is ultimately a miniscule amount of units and they have plenty of room to grow, hopefully to the point where the occasional mad customer can't vibrate the needle on public perception.
onward and upward as they say
*as a postscript, camouflet contacted me in pm asking for photos of what i described. i sent them and they informed me i would be receiving a new stem, with the assurance that they would be examining their manufacturing and qc processes. at no point did i ask for any sort of compensation. imo sort of a bare minimum customer service test but passed with full marks, no notes.
