Might be time to drop dBrand as a sponsor (if they haven't already)

[Arika]

I know Linus has hinted in the past that he doesn't like the people at dBrand, but I think this should cement them firmly in the "fuck off" category of future sponsors.

 

Which would have been a witty come back, if they didn't actually go ahead and do it.

 

 

 

Before, you end up either paying full shipping for something if you only want 1 skin, or you need to buy pointless things just to get free shipping.

Now you need to buy multiple skins to get anywhere near $50.

 

.....it's a sticker....how much can t really cost to ship.

 

The thing that annoys me isn't the price, it's the fact that they are so happy with themselves that they did it "Yes we're predatory, now go fuck yourself".

 

Thoughts?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Reminds me of the time someone twitted at Wendy's something like: "Thanks for charging me an extra 50 cents for not putting cheese on my chili" and their response was "No problem." 

[Spotty]

Well, shipping isn't free. dBrand has to pay another company to deliver the product the customer orders. With multiple items or expensive items companies can sometimes absorb the cost of shipping. It's easier to absorb $15 of shipping costs on an order of 14 items worth a total of $420 than it is to absorb $5 shipping on one thing that costs $20. 

 

The whole "free shipping on orders over $50" thing but what you want only costs $49.90 is not uncommon. I think Amazon Australia offers free deliveries on orders from Amazon US that are over $49. Of course the thing I've wanted to buy has been $48.90.

Dominos pizza (in Australia) has a minimum order cost for delivery ($20?). It wouldn't be worth it to pay a delivery driver to deliver a $4 garlic bread to your house but if someone is paying $60 for 6 pizzas, 3 bottles of soft drink, and 2 garlic breads they can cover the cost of paying someone to deliver it.

On Amazon LTT sells water bottles for $35 with delivery (United States) included. They sell the same bottles on lttstore.com for $30 + delivery. Delivery is never 'free', it's just included in the price.

 

Honestly, I don't mind if dBrand tells this person on Twitter to bugger off. Customers are getting far too entitled these days and customers complaining on Twitter is the pinnacle of entitlement. If it was worded differently like "buy two skins and get free delivery" would they still complain? They probably would because they have a Twitter account and you don't have Twitter unless you like to complain about pointless shit.

[da na]

"How do I get the front panel off?"
"Just yank hard"

[Chris Pratt]

Sorry, but this is ridiculous. It's fairly obviously a joke. That's dBrand's style. They act like a-holes as a gimmick.

 

Frankly, the complaint didn't deserve a better response, anyways. The LTTStore gets these same kind of complaints because people can't seem to comprehend that shipping is actually expensive. When stores do free ship thresholds, they're eating a certain amount of shipping costs hoping to make it up on volume. The threshold is necessary to ensure that they don't lose an excessive amount of money. Honestly, if you can't be bothered to spend more than $25, you shouldn't expect free shipping from any retailer. There's just no profit margin there.

 

I vote LMG does more dBrand sponsorships just to spite this lame rant.

[Ravendarat]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

 

Honestly, I don't mind if dBrand tells this person on Twitter to bugger off. Customers are getting far too entitled these days and customers complaining on Twitter is the pinnacle of entitlement. If it was worded differently like "buy two skins and get free delivery" would they still complain? They probably would because they have a Twitter account and you don't have Twitter unless you like to complain about pointless shit.

This last paragraph rings super true. Customers are entitled children and your example is 100% bang on!

[Avocado Diaboli]

The overall complaint is silly, because this isn't the only product available on their website and there are a number of combinations or devices that lead to a price slightly above $25, so you can't really accuse them of purposely designing their prices so you'll spend more if you want to save $5 shipping costs. And the skin he attempts to purchase is one of those limited offers, which only gets produced in limited quantities. A regular Galaxy S21 skin on their site costs ~$20, so the MKBHD edition is $5 more expensive. Now I have no idea how they calculate that price behind the scenes or if MKBHD (or anyone who gets their own skin from them) earns something from the sale of those skins to justify the price increase, but let's assume it's 100% justified. Would you really want to eat those $5 shipping on a product that's $5 more expensive than a regular version if those $5 are required to even make offering the product worthwhile?

 

With that said, the issue at the core of this is x.95 pricing that leads to outcomes like this. However, there's little incentive to abolish this kind of pricing strategy. Because it clearly works, since humans are just generally really bad with numbers. Many people who see a price tag of 499.95 see it closer to 400 than the 500 it actually is. To claim that this pricing strategy that pretty much everybody from e-commerce to brick and mortar stores employs is theft would require you to go through life fairly blindly.

[Blademaster91]

On 6/25/2021 at 7:49 PM, Mel0nMan said:

"How do I get the front panel off?"
"Just yank hard"

Wasn't that NZXT?

I wouldn't recommend NZXT anyway, its overhyped junk and the H1 was a literal fire hazard.

[Guest]

That type of customer service isn’t really acceptable. To be fair the customer isn’t in the right, and just complaining about price, but still you need some tact. 
 

Doesn’t really matter because I won’t buy DBrand anyway. You can just buy the same skins off Aliexpress with free shipping. Or better yet, buy a real case for your $1000 phone. 

[Ravendarat]

43 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

That type of customer service isn’t really acceptable. To be fair the customer isn’t in the right, and just complaining about price, but still you need some tact. 
 

Doesn’t really matter because I won’t buy DBrand anyway. You can just buy the same skins off Aliexpress with free shipping. Or better yet, buy a real case for your $1000 phone. 

He wasnt asking for customer service though, he was bitching on twitter to anyone who would read and trying to actively sabotage a business partnership between Dbrand and MKB. If he had contacted their customer service department and got that response I would be totally on board with you.

[Daethz]

I got a dbrand case for my phone, wasn't impressed, only used it for a week before I got a UAG

Linus should seek a sponsor from UAG if hes going to do any case brands, because they are actually gr8

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Ravendarat said:

He wasnt asking for customer service though, he was bitching on twitter to anyone who would read and trying to actively sabotage a business partnership between Dbrand and MKB. If he had contacted their customer service department and got that response I would be totally on board with you.

Customer service is serving a customer or potential customer. This includes social media - which is meant to promote the brand to potential customers, i certainly don't see how this did any good. 

[Middcore]

I find dbrand's self consciously edgy social media style tiresome, but this guy complaining on Twitter can fuck off. 

 

Of course free shipping at a certain order total is a tactic to entice you to buy more product. All retailers want you to buy more of their product. Water is wet.

 

Complainer's premise is wrong because you can buy products from dbrand that cost as little as $1.95. Of course if they set the free shipping threshold at $2 some jackass with that $1.95 cart would still be bitching.

 

[captain_to_fire]

Whoever popularized the notion “the customer is always right” deserves a backhand and a slap. 
 

-past work experience include sales and retail 

 

How I wish I was this scathing to the few mendacious clients I had before. 

[expiredbiscuit]

On 6/26/2021 at 5:45 AM, Arika S said:

I know Linus has hinted in the past that he doesn't like the people at dBrand, but I think this should cement them firmly in the "fuck off" category of future sponsors.

 

Which would have been a witty come back, if they didn't actually go ahead and do it.

 

 

 

Before, you end up either paying full shipping for something if you only want 1 skin, or you need to buy pointless things just to get free shipping.

Now you need to buy multiple skins to get anywhere near $50.

 

.....it's a sticker....how much can t really cost to ship.

 

The thing that annoys me isn't the price, it's the fact that they are so happy with themselves that they did it "Yes we're predatory, now go fuck yourself".

 

Thoughts?

Where and how did he hint he did not like the people at dbrand?

[Middcore]

2 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

Whoever popularized the notion “the customer is always right” deserves a backhand and a slap. 
 

-past work experience include sales and retail 

 

How I wish I was this scathing to the few mendacious clients I had before. 

 I take it back, I love dbrand now. 

 

Now what was somebody saying about customer service meaning you have to cater to the whims of people who haven't bought anything?

 

2 hours ago, expiredbiscuit said:

Where and how did he hint he did not like the people at dbrand?

I'm guessing people who think he doesn't like dbrand are the same people who think he actually hates Madison.

[Blademaster91]

ITT: people simping for dbrand because they're a sponsor.

I don't see how dbrand being a*sholes on twitter is something good, that "f*ck you" attitude doesn't look good for them.

And going on twitter is something you have to do nowadays with some companies that have awful customer service, I can only guess their customer service acts like a*sholes too, and after seeing their twitter it just makes me not even want to look at their products. But I did, and dbrand wants $18 for a phone skin, and $5 to ship a freaking sticker.  IMO, just buy a real case that would actually protect your $1000 phone.

This also reminds me of the controversy with LTT and a sponsored VPN, just because a company is an LTT sponsor doesn't mean their products are good, do some research yourself before you buy.

[Moonzy]

On 6/26/2021 at 8:15 AM, Arika S said:

The thing that annoys me isn't the price, it's the fact that they are so happy with themselves that they did it "Yes we're predatory, now go fuck yourself".

 

Thoughts?

stupid complaint gets stupid response, so yea

 

people who complain about the shipping cost obviously never tried to ship anything before and don't understand the cost associated

go pick up the product yourself if you hate shipping fees

[Levent]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

stupid complaint gets stupid response, so yea

 

people who complain about the shipping cost obviously never tried to ship anything before and don't understand the cost associated

go pick up the product yourself if you hate shipping fees

Not to mention with the start of coronavirus, shipping anything for cheap is no longer an option. Even if you buy a envelope sized item from china they still charge 2-3x more than they used to in 2019.

[Avocado Diaboli]

10 hours ago, Blademaster91 said:

ITT: people simping for dbrand because they're a sponsor.

I don't see how dbrand being a*sholes on twitter is something good, that "f*ck you" attitude doesn't look good for them.

I'm not sure they're simply arguing for dbrand just because they're a sponsor. Many people like brands that get confrontational after many decades of "The customer is always right" mentality and dbrand has cultivated an image of being very confrontational. It's a simple tactic to humanize a corporation and thus leverage parasocial relationships with your customers if they think their favorite brand is also their friend. dbrand are not alone or unique in this, but I can see how this rubs some people the wrong way. I mean, I tried drinking an Arrogant Bastard Ale in the past out of curiosity. They outright state on every can and bottle how "you're not worthy" (and I'm aware that their marketing worked on me since that's what piqued my interest to begin with) of drinking their beer. I found the beer absolutely disgusting (and I'm usually a fan of strong dark beer) and to me it seemed like the confrontational attitude is a preemptive shield to hide something.

 

To get back on topic, dbrand's response does come off a bit like a childish temper tantrum à la "I'm taking my ball and going home", but that doesn't invalidate the inherent silliness of complaining about not getting free shipping for not actually reaching the free shipping threshold, which again, I don't think they purposely designed around this one single product when there are tons of products and combinations that easily lead to a price above that threshold. Increasing that threshold is a purely anti-consumer move and I sympathize with anyone not willing to support dbrand anymore, either over that or their public behavior. But honestly, both sides don't do themselves any favors here.

[tikker]

Well what do people expect? Free shipping is very often a hard threshold and of course sellers are going to price stuff in such a way that makes you spend more to get it.

 

They've got the cool factor going and I think their marketing/PR department is a gold mine, but at the end of the day they're just another business. They must realise you can't have free shipping on everything. The pricing of $XX.99 or $XX.95 is already a tactic to make you buy more on its own, as it makes you perceive it to be cheaper, free shipping is there to tempt you further.

 

Complaining about 5 cents, even $5, is just petty. 100% they'd order $25.01 worth of stuff just to get free shipping. I'm used to $50 or higher being the limit for free shipping anyway, so thumbs up to dBrand lol.

[Virus__]

I'm just salty Dbrand stopped selling skins for AirPods Gen 2 & AirPods Pro.. Be glad they even offer free shipping to any country, as sending shit from Canada is fucking expensive man. A friend in Newfoundland (later moved to BC) it would usually cost her anywhere between 20 & 50 dollars CAD to send me anything in Australia between 200g-500g in weight..

[DoctorNick]

12 minutes ago, Virus__ said:

I'm just salty Dbrand stopped selling skins for AirPods Gen 2 & AirPods Pro.. Be glad they even offer free shipping to any country, as sending shit from Canada is fucking expensive man. A friend in Newfoundland (later moved to BC) it would usually cost her anywhere between 20 & 50 dollars CAD to send me anything in Australia between 200g-500g in weight..

Just were xbox controller as neckless then. Much better

[LAwLz]

Yes, bitching to some customer support staff on Twitter about free shipping is stupid... But acting like an asshole back is not the right way to go about it either. Two wrongs does not make one right.

 

We should not celebrate large companies treating customers like shit or applaud them raising prices because they "pwnd" someone. I think it's honestly scare how many people on this forum are siding with dBrand here. I don't think people would be saying the same thing if it was some other company doing it, like Intel, Nvidia or Apple.

 

I also don't like the attempts at vigilante justice where people try to "cancel" companies by having others cut ties with them.

I think pointing out that dBrand acts like a child with a bad attitude should be enough. But then again, judging by how impressed people in this thread seems to be, I guess that might not be very effective at making dBrand change their way and start acting like adults. Reminds me of middle school where the young people looked up to the older bullies because they were "cool".

[spartaman64]

On 6/28/2021 at 2:54 PM, Blademaster91 said:

ITT: people simping for dbrand because they're a sponsor.

I don't see how dbrand being a*sholes on twitter is something good, that "f*ck you" attitude doesn't look good for them.

And going on twitter is something you have to do nowadays with some companies that have awful customer service, I can only guess their customer service acts like a*sholes too, and after seeing their twitter it just makes me not even want to look at their products. But I did, and dbrand wants $18 for a phone skin, and $5 to ship a freaking sticker.  IMO, just buy a real case that would actually protect your $1000 phone.

This also reminds me of the controversy with LTT and a sponsored VPN, just because a company is an LTT sponsor doesn't mean their products are good, do some research yourself before you buy.

i doubt they raised the shipping just because some guy on twitter complained they were probably planning to do it anyways and just used it as a joke. 

and i dont think companies have to give you free shipping since shipping costs money. if you dont think its worth the asking price then dont buy it