Package buying tactics

Yes I did notice it at least sometimes - where I couldn't afford say Gold, I grabbed Silver - and then in a few days some extra money come my way and the upgrade from Silver to Gold was less (allowing for the price of Silver) then it was for buying gold. I think I noticed this at least 3 times. I wouldn't think that this was guaranteed - and given that the prices vary as component prices change, just cause it wored out that way is no guarantee it will the next [;)]

I believe Mark Barnes took a fairly lengthy look at this before and concluded that the best buying strategy was to buy whichever package yields the highest percentage discount first. If I ultimately wanted Collector's, I would look at all the "lower" packages, buy the one with the highest percentage discount, and the see how that impacted the discounts on the remaining "higher" packages on the way to Collector's. Next I would buy the remaining one with the highest discount, then rinse and repeat until I bought Collector's last.

Mike Pettit said:

When Logos 7 came out I worked out (too late for most of the denominations) that you saved money by buying packages in individual increments rather than going for the top one.

For instance buy bronze, then silver, then gold etc all the way up to collectors rather than just buying collectors to start with.

The savings were actually quite substantial but it does seem a bit counterintuitive that you should do it this way.

Does anyone else have the same experience?

Yes, I suspected that and gave it a test run on several packages. It usually yielded a better discount. Especially when you got an additional discount on other items every time you purchased an upgrade.

I've also discovered a similar savings on the monthly publisher's sales with DP. I saved $150 this month by buying the smaller IVP before purchasing the larger IVP. I reported it to Sales CS, but never got a reply.

There was one instance a few months ago where it didn't work, so I returned the item and then purchased the larger item.

Mike Pettit said:

If logos wants us to push the button on big ticket packages they should let us know the costs of the various options up front.

That would confuse most of FaithLife's customers.

The rest of us can simply follow Mark's advice.

Kiyah said:

Well the problem with that is that the sales people always "advise" you to buy the biggest package you can afford to get the most savings. When I bought Logos 6 Platinum the lady on the phone actually told me that it would be more expensive if I bought a smaller package and then upgraded later (which wasn't true in that case, buying Diamond outright would have been more expensive than buying Platinum and upgrading). If the opposite is true and you could actually save money by buying smaller and then upgrading, the sales folks need to be instructed to stop telling people that "going big is cheaper" on the phone.

Well, there is a sense in which people save more by buying a larger package than a bigger package--the same way that if you buy one box of noodles discounted from $1.50 to $1.00, you will save less than if you buy three boxes of noodles for $2.00.

The problem is if the sales people don't know that some of the time you can save money by buying a lower package immediately before a higher one. If the sales lady was speaking of the difference between buying small right away and bigger after some sale was over, then she was presumably right. But this is a training problem for the sales manager to handle, not a website problem.

I noticed that with 6 it didn't make a difference, with 7 it benefited us to buy incrementally (unless you called sales... then they gave you the best deal without having to horse around). BUT prior to 6, it cost you a little more to go the incremental route. Remains to be seen how this will go.

Mark Smith said:

Mike Pettit said:

Absolutely, its all part of the fun!

I really hoping the quality of the packages improves this time around. I admit to being a bit disappointed with the L7 offerings, so here's to better things sooner than L8er.

I agree. It seems that including many weak resources has some justification if you have an integrated library so that when you do a search or passage guide or factbook or something like that, you get lots of hits without really working. The problem, though, is that many, many of the hits are ones I have to reject because the resources' contributions are PD works of no real historical significance, or contemporary works of no real credibility. I'm willing to pay more for L8 packages that have fewer, but better, resources.

Mark Smith said:

Mike Pettit said:

Absolutely, its all part of the fun!

I really hoping the quality of the packages improves this time around. I admit to being a bit disappointed with the L7 offerings, so here's to better things sooner than L8er.

I had some correspondence with FL staff a few months ago, expressing exactly that view. I’ve been reassured that they’re focusing on valuable reference books, such as commentaries and Bible dictionaries — and the draft lists of resources I saw were definitely a step up from L7.

Mark Barnes said:

I’ve been reassured that they’re focusing on valuable reference books, such as commentaries and Bible dictionaries — and the draft lists of resources I saw were definitely a step up from L7.

OK. Now I'm REALLY excited about L8. Can't w8 to see what's in store! 

And then there's the publisher's hidden discount. Package sm might be discounted 10%, while package med might be 20% and so on. They say it's cheaper, but don't publish the numbers. You have to dig the information out yourself. Sometimes when they go on sale, it really gets complicated. A sales rep can be really helpful, but it burns a lot of their time. If they would give us, the customers, access to these pricing tools, it would go a long way toward smoothing this problem out. I would like to be able to do virtual purchases so I could get the best deal. As it is, I have to do a real purchase and then return it.

Dale E Heath said:

And then there's the publisher's hidden discount. Package sm might be discounted 10%, while package med might be 20% and so on. They say it's cheaper, but don't publish the numbers. You have to dig the information out yourself. Sometimes when they go on sale, it really gets complicated. A sales rep can be really helpful, but it burns a lot of their time. If they would give us, the customers, access to these pricing tools, it would go a long way toward smoothing this problem out. I would like to be able to do virtual purchases so I could get the best deal. As it is, I have to do a real purchase and then return it.

The complication in that, and headaches it would cause customer service are likely why thats never happened.

We users in general get things twisted over version upgrades... Now imagine adding in a faceted list of percentage discounts and conditions...

I just wish Logos 8 release day would not be as bad as the release day of Logos 7.

Few things I wish Logos would improve on...

1. Make sure the Base Package discounts are crystal clear. So buyers can make good sound judgement.
2. Description & the details of the Base Packages can be a lot more clearer than Logos 7. Example: Logos Connect vs. Logos Now, features vs BP, etc.
3. I wish there's a built-in feature on the website where customers can do a "mock purchase"... so say...if I were to buy this X Base Package, then we can see how much discount it would effect the other Base Packages. That way we know how much we're saving. Thus, giving us the confidence to further purchase more BPs.
4. Make sure your server can HANDLE the loaad!!! I remember Logos website were down many times during the release of Logos 6 and Logos 7. So I hope you guys upped your servers. I remember I went crazy... I bought the portfolios without even knowing what's included in packages because the website was down... I just called and purchase anyway... and that was at 6:05 AM ...!! 5 minutes after. I can't wait!

I discovered an item in a BP that I'm planning on buying, that I purchased less than 30 days ago.

I'll return that and get a credit. Is there an automated way for FL to find these or is it a manual task? Is it something FL should do or is it my own responsibility?

But the resource is much cheaper in a BP, so I'll save money by returning it and then buying the BP. I've already emailed my rep to take care of it before ordering the BP.

How does the free mobile ed course work?  After purchasing L8 I was told I would get an email on how to redeem.  When might I expect such an email?  Thanks

It's actually not a separate email, Mattillo. The redemption details can be found in the "Thank you for your order..." email.

That link will bring you to the Redeem Course page, where you'll find a coupon code, and list of courses you can make a selection from.

Thank you all!  Never would have noticed that in my receipt...

So where is the list of available Mobile Ed courses with that coupon? I thoght that it could be anyone.

Thanks!