Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8
Yes, LORD EMPEROR. (if you don't know why I'm saying that, please reference post #2994).
Please forgive thy humble servant for his rash and fallacious blathering.
Yep, I made a bad assumption. I assumed that you had to pay up front and the credits still would be doled out to you on a month-by-month basis. That seems to be the way that it usually is with most deals where you pay up front (I'm excluding, now, audiobook memberships, because of the information that you gave); the only benefit to the customer is having a smaller amount to pay each month.* Genuine thanks for the correction.
However:
1. In practice, is anyone going to use all 12 of his or her credits immediately after buying a membership? What would be the point of burning through 12 credits right away, and have none for the rest of the year? A person can't have more than one membership at one time, so he/she would be out of luck the rest of the year. Audible may not parcel them out by the month, but the customer is going to do that for himself or herself.
2. Things can be "gotchas," even if "everyone" is doing it--i.e., it is standard industry-wide practice. We hear all of the time about lawmakers, attorney generals, and courts putting the kibosh on those such "gotchas."
* Having customers pay up front and offering them a small discount, on a percentage basis, for doing so, is usually advantageous to a company--a large company, especially. They get money right away to invest or use for various projects (building new offices, manufacturing new products, etc.). Too, having a lot of cash allows them to invest in things that yield a far better return than the small, individual investors can invest in. Thirdly, it improves "cash flow" which, among perhaps other things, has a lot of benefits when the figures appear on company financial statements--stockholders are happier, potential investors are more likely to invest in the company, investment advisors are more likely to recommend the stock to a client, etc.
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