Holiday Rebate Coupon + Unity iPhone 1.0.1 Release

We've all had stuff that has gone on discount shortly after purchasing.. but we are talking about the magnitude of the purchase cost, the time frame to it's release and amount of the discount. And most stores will offer you a credit or a discount when they do a sale price. You'd be hard pressed to find one that didn't... once again, it goes hand in hand with the return policy and just good customercentric business practices. Most companies would not discount a product so soon after inception. As to avoid jilting the 'large' number of users who paid so recently. And right or wrong, what is wrong with going above and beyond for loyal customers sake. I don't see it beyond reason giving people who made recent purchasers some in store credit. Guess it's just a different school of thought.

But the fact that you are concerned about whether you are right or wrong, is rather telling. It should be about making sure customers are happy. I'm not looking for an argument here. Unity has a very loyal group of customers. It's that way because it's a great product and the support is first class. If customers are upset, they are upset, whether you think they're justified or not. Typically companies try to do right by there customers. After all, without they're customers, they wouldn't get anywhere. I'm not quite sure why that is such a hard concept to grasp. Don't take the fact that people are upset personally. Just understand that they are and either do something about it or do nothing.

On a side note..
Typically there is a grandfather policy that coincides with the return policy, otherwise customers would just return the merchandise and then buy again at the discounted price. I'm not sure what the return policy is for purchases through the Unity store, but I'd imagine that if there is one, it would be within reason that anyone could return and than repurchase.

 

We don't offer that in our store actually (I'm part time sales assistent).
We have special offers while we have them, those who buy earlier / afterwards don't benefit of it.
Offers are normally made for good reasons within the timeframe they are.


Also I don't see the real point here: If you were in need for Unity Pro or whatever before and decided to buy it, you did for your own personal reasons and because you wanted to have it then.
If you didn't want to have it then and just bought it then and are now regretting it, I think its hardly the Devs fault that you did something just on a "mood".

There is never a right way to do that actually. As Higgy mentioned: whenever it is done, it will be a day after someone bought it very likely so its normal that you have a hard set start and end date and they even go that far to mention the end date. its pretty common in software dev that the end dates aren't mentioned as well to build up more tension and speed the "spread of the news" considerably.

 

I didn't say anything about devs, or mood. I think you misunderstood what I was saying. If there is a return policy, then someone can return it, and repurchase the same item again, at the discounted price. That is the reason a retailer offers the grandfather policy, because typically it's more of a hassle to the retailer to deal with the returns. Also, with durable goods, they typically need to be sold as used or "opened". If your store offers a return policy, there really isn't much way around it.

So if someone purchased a Pro/Advanced license 2 days ago (as someone said), and there is a 10 day return policy.... there is nothing keeping them from returning the software... getting their money back... then buying it again at 20% off.

 

I just wanted to say thank you for the coupon, it has been put to good use

Thanks for helping me on my journey to make great games.

Merry Christmas!

Brian

 

thats why digital goods normally have no return policy unless you have a serious technical problem that does prevent you from using it.

 

I don't think I see any valid point for Unity to be obligated to give you a refund since it is 90 days later. Plus this is just a One Month discount that will go away at the end of December, so it's not like Unity dropped the price on the product. It's like buying a newly released TV for 2000 and then seeing that same TV in 3 months for sale $1500 at the same store. Are they obligated to giving you a refund? What about all the folks that bought a PS3 at $599 and then Sony dropped it to $399, are they obligated to giving all those folks a $200 refund?
I remember when I bought my Indie license for Unity 3D to read the sales conditions which were fairly clear and told me what rights I had. I always make sure to check that out. It's almost like signing a contract. I'm not trying to start a fight or anything but I would like you to consider my point of view. So no Hard feelings, if I had known about Unity 2-3 months ago, I would be in the same boat as you as for paying early.

 

Aww man! And I just used most of my "spare" cash on christmas presents. Now I've just got to persuade the family to pitch in and pay for upgrades for christmas :wink:

Regarding last-minute purchase regrets, I've got one: I buys my mbp core duo the very night before the core 2 duo was shipped. I even ran to the shop to make sure that I got it before they closed

Edit:
Tom: Loving the new avatar by the way

 

Never said that anyone was obligated to give a refund. Just stating the loophole of a return policy and discounts. And with your TV example. the same applies.. I don't know of many places that have a return policy that's 90 days.. except cost co that has a lifetime return policy... which is crazy, because people will buy a TV, use it for 2 years, than return it and get a new one. That's taking advantage though... And actually, I keep thinking unity iphone has been out for 3 months.. it's really only been out for less than 2 months.

Don't misunderstand, I am not angry. I am disappointed, because I would have liked to take advantage of the discount but I ordered just a bit too soon. In a perfect world, they'd have given us folks who had purchased/upgraded in the month of december an additional coupon on an asset server license or something. Cause that's the only thing left to buy. (I'm not making these things up, I've seen plenty of offers be given retroactively for the month )

Unity is an amazing product, and anyone who want's to make games and doesn't take advantage of this offer, is an idiot. The past two months that I've been using it, have been great. I've learned so much, so quickly and just enjoy every minute of it. I'm new to the visual aspect that unity gives you, and it helps so much with creativity.

 

We have a 0 day return policy in our store (and we sell hundreds of TVs every day) and if you return it and the price has changed you will only get the current price at best, not the original price. If the price has not changed, you will get the time value. Thats pretty common in europe.
Returns are normally only possible if you got broken stuff or if the advertisement is broken ie you got something not doing what it is meant to do.

And world just isn't perfect. But it is actually fair, because everyone has to bear the consequences of his doing and decisions normally, independent of the context. I know that sounds hard, but how many times do you think have others missed special offers and will in the future?

also if "all in dec" would get something, those from the last Nov week would want to have the same treatment and so on -> leading to a price drop

Thats why special actions have start and end dates.
Those who buy in that timeframe have the discount, the others don't.

And your wording and between the line meaning is definitely differing seriously from what you claim in the written text. Are you sure you know why you post here, why it is bothering you?

 

I note that when prices go up, you never see people demanding to be charged extra because they bought the product just 2 weeks before the price increase. Think about it.

--Eric

 

Because I'm talking about a few different things.. let me start with this..

You have to realize, that I'm not saying Unity owes anyone anything. I'm not demanding anything. I'm fine. I got my products, I'm happy with them. I think they are worth even more than I payed for them. Even if I don't make a dime selling games with my advanced license, the amount of entertainment value on my own account, will more than constitute the value of the product to me. I'm also really enjoy the community here on the forums. People are very helpful, and the concept of 'Unity' shines through, as everyone here is willing to help. In other words, I like it here, and I am content.

My original point got derailed. The main issue being the proximity of the discount to release of the software. Which is less than 2 months from release. And the fact that it is significant discount something just released. %20 on $3000 is a lot of cash. Typically you don't see such a steep discount on a brand new product. Since you just had a mad rush of people who got it, then you offer a discounted price immediately.

Second issue is that, the initial release of the Unity iPhone was almost like an extended beta test period. There were a lot of bugs in the initial release. You couldn't really use multiple scenes or it might crash. Certain UI elements didn't work, seemingly random crashing issues, etc. I don't mind the bugs or the rushed release. I wanted to get down and dirty and I expected bugs. I'd rather have a rushed out tool, than no tool at all. The thing is, once again, it's more common that you see a discounted price for early adopters/beta testers, rather than charge the beta testers, then as soon as most of the kinks are worked out and the fix is available, offer a discount to everyone else. I understand that the release of this product was not considered a beta, but in many ways it felt like it. And the fact that the hotfix was released and then a discount was made available makes it seem more so.

Third issue is, that one of the big reasons for upgrading to Unity iPhone is bytecode stripping. At least in my case, it pushed me over the edge. Unfortunately there are bugs that caused me from being unable to use it. So in reality, my whole reason for upgrading could have been held off. I feel like I paid 2400$ for an non functioning product. If could have held off.. and then when I saw I could get the same product for $1920, I would have pulled the trigger, functional or not.

4th thing, is that most customercenteric companies offer a short grandfather window. I personally wouldn't fall into this probably, as I upgraded to advance/pro nov 25th and purchased my indie/basic oct 22, when iphone was released. However, I think it's pretty harsh that the guy who upgraded the day before the discount, gets no love. I also said that there may be a return policy, which would be a loophole to returning the software and repurchasing it at a discounted price. I find the rigid stance that they didn't at least grandfather in the week of the update, a little unsettling. I know Unity doesn't have to offer a discount. They also don't "have" to fix any bugs. But they will, to keep their customers happy and their reputation in good standing.

So in closing, I'm not saying that anyone is necessarily owed anything, I'm just saying, if the company is going to offer such a steep discount for new users on a brand new product, it would have been in the spirit, to offer some sort of gratitude to those who alright did. And I can't stress it enough, it's because of the proximity of the release of the product to the discount, that makes me feel is the reason why there are uses to feel they've been somewhat ripped off. More so those who paid the extra $2400 for extremely little in return. (ability to remove splash screens and sockets..) It's more of a good faith thing, rather then a hey, you owe me this. I'm just surprised that a company so integrated with their customers would tell some guy who paid for a $2400 upgrade the day before a 20%, tough $hit. That's not in the "spirit of giving". Otherwise they would have hooked that guy up. Maybe given a coupon to unity iphone purchasers, since hey, in reality, the purchase is so new, they haven't even shown up on the Credit cards yet. Instead say what it really is, trying to generate some additional year end sales, so we meet our 2008 financial goals. Nothing wrong with that.

 

There are all kind of things that I need to buy before next Thursday -- but I really can't see my wife thanking me if I gave her a Unity Pro upgrade, it would be so transparent. T-shirts, mugs - I'm sure I could get away with those...

 

Sure you could, all you need to do is buy it, put it in a ring box and give it to her. When she opens it and reads the code, just tell her that means you love her in code, like a cellphone text message.
However, I can't promise even like 1% that would work. Backup plan, just make sure to have your belongings packed up and ready to go just in case the plan fails.

 

A big thanks from me to UT for the 20% discount. It has allowed me to make the jump fom Basic to Advanced sooner than I could have. Also thanks for keeping the smaller developers in the game by not charging on a per game basis and for the free dot upgrades... as a small business it really allows us to get into the market.

kevinr I feel your pain. Having purchased a Cinema 4D Core Mac licence specifically for use with Unity. Maxon then released r11 less Two months later with universal licencing. Shame the reseller neglected to tell me this. If I had of known I could have spent the money upgrading my C4D Studio PC licence (I now rarely use my PC) to r11 and used on the Mac instead. Now I have two r10.5 licences nd only need for one.

Regarding stripping in Advanced, I did discover an issue with the slider control however we replaced with buttons so we could still publish our game update on the app store with much reduced file size. With Basic it was 8.9mb zipped and 17.1mb once Apple did their thing which albeit excluded us from the iPhone user sales. The new stripped file is 4.9mb so hoping Apple keep it under the magic 10mb once they upload.

 

@HiggyB

I am happy to tell you that the rebate coupon was very helpful for me to convince my wife.
I am very proud to join this community with my indie licence + iPhone.

Many thanks and "Joyeux Noël"

:wink:

 

With the coupoun and current exchange rates iPhone pro was too good a price to resist . Unfortunately I only applied for my apple iphone dev a week ago so it may be a while until I can put anything on the store

seasons greetings and all that jazz from Nihon.

Grant

 

I just upgraded to Unity iPhone Advanced. Thanks for the 20% discount!

 

It's a Merry (if secular) Christmas for me: iPhone Advanced!

I won't have time to get back into Unity (after too long away) until January, but I look forward to re-learning everything I once knew!

 

Awesome.
And perfectly timed as well - since I'm not at university any more I need my own copy of unity now. So I bought an Indie license two days ago and I'm absolutely happy ^^

Thanks Unity team and happy new year.

 

Thanks,

The discount pushed me over the edge and I'm now the proud owner of Unity iPhone Basic

 

Yeah, that rebate was too tempting... Even after only one week of trial, I decided to buy a Pro license. After several PC games done with (among others) Gamebryo, our next PC game should be Unity powered! Can't wait for a XB/PS version!

 

Bummer, I missed it, and it is still December 31st here :cry: End of year must be GMT, got to love those time zones. Well, I guess I can be an example, don't travel and don't procrastinate too long I still think it is great that Unity3d does do promotions like this one. Maybe I will get the next one.

 

Hey guys, I finally got the money to do the update and its saying that its expired but its still the 31st.

What gives?

 

I am guessing that you live in the Western Hemisphere like me. Probably the server is in Europe, which is already the next day. I know in the past purchases were handled outside the US because I always had to call my credit card company for them to authorize the purchase.

 

Hopefully HiggyB and company will cut us a break - we tried to do it right

 

8:14PM EST and the time differential never occurred to me. Really silly as I had put it in the back of my mind to do last minute while I am traveling in New York.

 

Not sure about what's going to happen about this time difference problem... unfortunately Tom is out and everyone in Copenhagen is either already asleep or in full party mode.

I'd say the best thing to do is post your intent to purchase something here before the deadline in your time zone and hopefully Tom will honor these intentions when he reads this thread.

Absolutely no guarantee that this will be the case though.

Ethan

 

Happy New Year to all!

 

I just discovered this thread as I was trying to figure out why the code wasn't working. I hadn't thought about the timezone thing until now; the notice on the news page never specified a timezone.

Well, I sent a message to the sales@unity3d.com address asking to place the order with the discount applied. Does anybody know of a better address to use?

Thanks,
Joe

 

Cutting it a little too close? I don't know what sales will do -- at some point they will have to cut things off, but sales@ is the right way to go for something like this. Ethan's advice of documenting intent is good too.

 

Even worse for me. I'm on the west coast dealing with some stuff for CES and it was not even 6PM yet.

 

Too all you last minute shoppers, contact us at either sales@unity3d.com or me directly (PM or email) and I'll take care of you, but know that your extension will only be for about 24-48 hours at the absolute most.

FYI: the coupon was set to expire on January 1st, like right at midnight, Copenhagen time. That's 3pm here on the west coast of the USA. Thus some of you experienced it expiring "before" the 1st.

 

Thanks folks, I'm all squared away.

Now an owner of Unity Advanced and Unity iPhone Advanced. Now all I need is a Unity Android Advanced and I'm all set for quite some time

 

damn it i missed out ..can i please please have a rebate coupon .i have been saving for ages for this awesome engine and just cant manage to get enough but if i get the rebate then i can borrow /beg for enough to get it .....ohhhh please

 

Sorry to say, but the sales are over... we have to cut it off at some point.

 

Any plans on having another coupon. Could really help as I spent alot of my cash on Torque already before I found you guys lol!!

 

It would be great if you guys did do another coupon for the 2.5 release/GDC (which I though I read somewhere you might be doing).

 

I will buy the Indie version when another coupon emerges. Until then I can just enjoy the trial for a little while longer. It sucks being poor.

 

really interested in Pro but dont have 1500 bucks is there a coupon coming soon?

 

Folks, we don't generally pre-announce rebate coupons so you just have to either (a) buy Unity, or (b) wait until we happen to announce a coupon.

 

A 4th of July Holiday Coupon would sure set off the fireworks, ya know? Talk about a way to celebrate!

I'm just saying... :mrgreen:

 

it's time for a new 20% Rebate Coupon
we are still waiting.

 

I would love to upgrade to unity pro and iPhone advanced but, with the rediculous 25% tax just for ordering in the EU I simply can't afford it.

It's going to cost me 1967 pounds to upgrade (after the tax is added). A 20% discount knocks the price back to 1750 (assuming the discount is applied before tax) which ironically is exactly what the two products would cost me without the tax anyway!

How about doing a 50% off deal for a short time. To promote the increased popularity of unity and the release of 2.6. It would be even better if it were to coincide with the conference hint hint!

 

Those of you that don't like VAT taxes understand that is not our choice, right? We don't control EU taxation laws, we just live by them. That money does not go into our pocket, we don't keep it.

 

But you are aware of the fact that you can get a refund from your fiscal/tax authority if you are using it commercially ?
Unity is in no way expensive - today i paid €1300 just to stay in 3ds Max subscription for the next 1 1/2 yrs. (= free upgrade to next version) . That was a thing i really thought long about, because of the somehow slow and uninnovative development progress...

 

Hi Higgy

Don't worry I'm not blaming Unity for the tax. It's just my personal situation, that I think may be shared by a lot of others on these boards.

The tax pushes what is already a high price into the totally out of reach bracket. It adds 437 euro to the price of the upgrade from indie and basic, to pro and advanced!

A 50% off sale once a year (for those already in possesion of unity indy and/or iphone basic) would really help out those indies like me with limited funds.

It would drop the upgrade price to 1093 euro for a few weeks and encourage anyone on the fence to upgrade or wait another year before the price comes back into their range.

And before you say it. Yes I know that a discount like that is unlikely to happen....*sigh*

 

It's not the 50% you were hoping for but there is a 15% coupon in the October issue of 3D World.

 

Well that's fine and all, but you'd be surprised at how many people get angry at _us_ like we pocket that 25% or something...

I love how easily everyone out there offers up ideas on how deep we should cut into our own pockets and lose revenue on your behalf. How about once a year you offer your clients half off of your work in a bulk sale? Would you do that?


Note that I don't see us doing anything quite like that but we often have discount programs. We've done it some years for the end of the year holiday type thing. We've done it around certain conferences. We've done it at times around releases. We've done it as part of marketing campaigns. So we do this stuff, not on a 50% level but at different levels and different times, you just have to be alert and notice them when/where/if we do.

 

waiting for special discount for pro?any plan?

 

A scary Halloween iPhone offer would infact make my Christmas come early this year.

:wink:

Matt.