Fictionwise more expensive?

[momghoti]

Ahh! I was wondering about that--I've only seen the 'rebate for credit/pay pal only' recently and thought it had changed; I guess I've only been getting high rebates lately.
Ummm.. I don't quite get the ' use the same store credit over and over' statement(although since it doesn't work that way anymore it's a bit moot).
What is 'Books on the Knob'?

[koland]

Originally Posted by momghoti

Ummm.. I don't quite get the ' use the same store credit over and over' statement(although since it doesn't work that way anymore it's a bit moot).

They boasted that store credit was the same as cash, including on any purchase with a rebate. They then started having 100% rebate books. So, you buy a couple of 100% rebate books (let's say it cost you $30 up front). You sent in your email, got the credit. Then, the next week you could use that $30 credit to buy that week's 100% rebate books. Rinse, repeat. Every week you could get the 100% rebate books, using only the initial $30 investment, so long as that week's books didn't cost over $30 (or so long as you could get a credit issued on say half the books, then buy the rest near the end of the week). It was, shall we say, a non-sustainable business plan. Which many of us commented on (even if we did take advantage of their foolishness).

Now their rebates are worse than those at Fictionwise, since the negate all rebate credits on purchases they are used for, even small ones. Essentially if you use store credit, you end up paying digital list price (unless the title is on sale, which does occur), which is a very poor choice in almost all circumstances, especially since the is always that 15% club discount at Fictionwise.

Rebates and credits at FW have changed back and forth, but sometime early this year they formalized the policy (but there have been exceptions) and there is a cutoff (at 30% or 35%) that requires cash instead of credit to be used. The best part of their sales is that multi-format books seem to never have rebates, so credit can be used on those and still get the sale prices. I end up building a balance due to the 100% rebate of new books, but eventually they'll have a sale or I'll see a NYT Bestseller I want (for now, they come in at less than Amazon's prices: after their 9.95 price, plus 15% club discount, plus micropay rebate, they are often under $8) and use my balance on those.

What is 'Books on the Knob'?

My blog - book reviews and ebook bargains (mostly kindle or those that will work on it)

[momghoti]

Thanks--I'll have to check it out.

It sounds like BoB didn't think it through. I do understand the reasoning behind FW's limiting the Micropay rebate; the only situation that is problematic is if you *buy* micropay credits--then you're effectively paying more for the high-rebate books. I don't know how they could fix that, though; besides, Micropay is mostly good for small purchases and new books are usually expensive enough to use a credit card.

[JSWolf]

Seems Fictionwise dropped the ball. During the last sale, all the eBooks priced at $9.99 turned out to be more expensive to club members. And they did not fix the problem before the sale was over. This is a huge black mark for Fictionwise.

[momghoti]

If I'd noticed--I didn't happen to find any to purchase in that price range(and I'd used my book allowance already)I would have been annoyed. I don't know about a 'huge black mark', though--it was, after all, a sale; giving us something extra they didn't need to. Maybe only a small black mark, or a large dark-grey one. Of course, since the point of a sale is to inspire kind feelings and generate business, the glitch caused it to fail miserably and should be very embarrassing to all concerned.
They seem to be having some problems in general. I've found several mistakes in their descriptions and thumbnails lately, and frequently the 'blurbs' have problems with hyphens and other format problems. Once they attributed a book to the wrong author of a similar name! They corrected it but I wonder if they had to reduce staff or something.