Forum - View topicCrunchyroll Membership Plans
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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So what is everyone's plans in regards to purchasing membership at Crunchyroll now that it appears there are no Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals for it?
I can understand their reasons for doing away with it. To have a large portion of their customer base constantly waiting for yearly deals would not be a great business move if it's not earning them any profit. The BF deals were likely done to grow their membership and now that they've reached a certain point they don't feel it's necessary to offer it anymore. That's fine. It's not going to stop me from subscribing. I guess what I don't care as much for is their lack of communication in regards to memberships (I guess my experiences in customer service are spoiled by the likes of Funi - who often go out of their way to respond to and please fans - and Rightstuf, Vertical, and AnimeSols - who have presence on these forums and answer questions). You had to dig through posts in the CR forums to get confirmation that there will be no membership sales. Additionally, whatever happened to their ability to gift membership to others? It leads to a 404 page now. My wishlist? For them to offer an Anime+Manga Premium membership option that didn't include dramas. I'd be willing to pay full price for that. Crunchyroll needs to switch up their options on memberships now that they're growing their manga and drama databases. Their choices between Free, Anime, and All Access is very limited, and I really don't have interest in All Access at this time. I feel like I'm stuck with it though because I still want to access the manga. So, I'm kinda stuck on what to purchase right now. Potatochobit's post states that somewhere they mentioned there was another surprise coming, but I can't find where he found that. I'm holding out on a bit of hope that some sort of Anime+Manga Premium membership option will be offered in the future, so I don't really want to buy a yearly plan unless it has access to manga as well, since I'll be stuck using whatever I buy for a year. However, I don't want to jump on the All Access yearly option right now if there's a chance that other membership options will be added. I'm currently at a standstill anyways. My membership was supposed to expire on the 27th, yet I still have full access to everything. On my Premium Membership Status page, it is only giving me the option to renew, and the only renewal option I have is the All Access one (I'm not even sure it will allow me to select monthly instead of yearly, and I don't want to experiment and end up with something I didn't intend to purchase). So I guess I'll take a "Wait and See" approach. I might as well see how long this glitch lasts, at least for this weekend. Since it's a holiday weekend, I don't know how responsive their customer service would be. I'm sorta hoping that my membership will just get cancelled so that it will give me the full range of options to purchase memberships. Afterwards, I may just stick to monthly memberships (switching between Anime and All Access) in hopes that some sort of Anime+Manga option is added down the line. For everyone else here, what are your plans in regards to CR memberships? Last edited by Crisha on Fri Nov 28, 2014 1:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Crisha
Moderator
Posts: 4290 |
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Just an update: It finally expired and now I have access to all of the options. I guess it was just a lag in the system.
Okay, at least that question is answered. Now I just need to figure out if I want to go for an Anime monthly membership or All Access monthly membership for now. EDIT: And I did just find the manga-only membership option, derp. They need to make that more obvious that just hiding it in the All Access option. Or I could go for the Anime yearly option and just purchase the monthly manga option every so often. Hm... decisions, decisions... |
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Dessa
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Apparently, on page 8 of the forum thread, they confirm that there will be no Cyber Monday deals on memberships, either.
A lot of people are pissed, myself and my roommate included. Their crap about how they're losing too much money offering the discounted memberships falls flat. They could always make it less of a discount, which would bring them in more money without pissing off customers, but apparently any discount is bad now? Now, instead of bringing in less money from Black Friday specials, they're going to be bringing in less money, period, because people are downgrading and/or cancelling. Really, unless you're watching simulcasts or on an app, there's no reason for a membership at all. Their staff is apparently being incredibly rude and short with people, to, to the point where people are printing out their responses and giving it to their staff as examples of bad customer service. They're accusing people of being "entitled." Well, when you've offered the exact same deal for several years, and don't notify people that you're discontinuing it? Yeah, people are gonna be pissed. If they had sent out an e-mail to all members notifying them that memberships were no longer going to be offered, while there would still be upset people, it wouldn't be this bad. Furthermore, their "30% off select items"? People are reporting that a) it's a very limited items, as well as the fact that they won't allow you to use store credit or gift certificates (I'm fairly certain that's gonna run afoul of CA consumer protection laws). Finally, this year a hedge fund apparently took control of a majority share of CR. My roommate assumes this is what led to the change, and is just waiting for CR to be run completely into the ground due to it. [edit] I got a response to my tweet that I was unhappy with the lack of customer service. The tweet came from @MilesExpress999, whose name is listed as "frequent flyer Miles". Apparently, according to their profile, they're the brand manager? Why am I being tweeted at by a personal account, rather than an official one? ThinkGeek, RightStuf, Xbox Support, they all respond from official accounts with initials identifying the user. |
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Maidenoftheredhand
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Since CR is not doing the sale I will be sticking to the anime-only option. Though I think they should offer an anime/manga option because not everyone is interested in drama. For me drama is nice but it's just an add-on I don't need.
Although I am personally not interested in any of their manga either (maybe if they added Chihayafuru...not really sure what excuse Kodansha has here since it is digital) so I am fine with sticking with just anime. But I know other people who would probably want that anime/manga option. But this may be the year to go for Funimation. They are having a $54.95 deal plus a $25.00 credit to use in the store. And it lasts until the end of 2015. I am not actually watching any Funi anime this season but I am sure I will before the end of 2015. Although once I get it, it will be hard to stop subscribing and it sounds like you can only get this deal once. But I like that they give me to Dec 15 to decide. http://www.funimation.com/p/subscribe |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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It looks like I'll try going back to free. I've lost interest in commenting on show threads weekly, so that's not a big issue, and if enough people quit their subscriptions it will probably force them to offer something as a proper enticement.
I guess I could try Funimation again... maybe if enough people DO subscribe with them it will inspire them to stream more. |
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potatochobit
 Posts: 1373 Location: TEXAS |
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First of all, you can pretty much watch every show on crunchyroll for FREE after 2 weeks with commercials.
don't act like you guys are starving children in Africa. second, crunchyroll has bills and employees to pay. if crunchyroll doesn't make money, the business will close. if the business closes, there will be no anime. if there is no anime what are you going to do? now, I liked the black friday deal and I have given out membership coupons as gifts. but honestly, the extra charge is about 4$ a month and that is not going to hurt anyone. I know some people have tight finances, but like I said above, you can already watch everything on crunchyroll for free after a short wait. now, I love my Funimation account, but don't get one thinking they are going to stream more. Funimation will almost never stream sentai filmworks shows, which is what the majority of crunchyroll is. can't have you coming back here and crying when chunibyo doesn't show up on funimation channel. I only recommend you get a Funimation account if you like to watch simulcasts in HD. edit: I recommend you wait till cyber monday on your crunchyroll subscription anyway, and after that just do 1 month first because there could always be a DEC sale too. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Yeah, I decided to subscribe to FUNimation over CR due to this lack of membership subscription sale for the latter.
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EyeOfPain
Posts: 312 |
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You'd be saving $0.05/month. Whoop! As for the gift memberships, they'll be back Monday, apparently.
I don't remember exactly what the discounts have been in the past, but I clearly remember them offering different terms in the past. Just because the deal isn't available this year doesn't mean it won't be in the future. And it very easily could have been a last minute decision, which might explain the lack of clear communication.
CR has multiple merchants selling through their store. I'd guess the Black Friday coupon code only works for products that CR is selling directly. |
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Crisha
Moderator
Posts: 4290 |
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Haha, yeah, I did the calculations myself. I would assume that some sort of inbetween price could be created, even if it's just $10 off from the full access pass. I forsee the full access pass jumping up in price in the future anyways as their library of anime, manga, and drama grows bigger. Honestly, the only thing that bothered me was how it was handled. Had there even been an announcement beforehand stating that, sorry, there would be no sale on memberships this year, it'd have gone a long way into furthering better relationships with customers. Instead there was just an overenthusiastic announcement on the boards about "No membership options this year, but we've got something even better with this Black Friday sale!" Like the person was instructed to try and sell the news as best as they could. And then there had to be confirmation later on in the thread that "no membership sales this year." That could have been handled waaaaay better. But that's my only real complaint. In the end, Crunchyroll still offers a majority of the titles I'm interested in watching. I also have Funimation and Amazon Prime subscriptions, but they'd never act as a replacement for CR. I really like watching anime with my Roku, so having a subscription is a must. Additionally, I like the lack of ads and being able to watch the episodes whenever. These subscriptions help me save money in the long run. No more blind buys, fewer purchases to buy anime just to watch them, etc. A majority of anime I will only watch once. I only want to collect the series that are my favorite. So CR does me a service of figuring out which ones are one-and-done and which ones are to be bought (if there's a physical release). I decided to go ahead an pay for an Anime Only monthly pass. I wanted to wait and see if any deals are offered in December. If not, then I'll probably upgrade to a yearly pass, which might just be an All Access pass again. Like I said, it probably won't stay at $99 forever, so I might as well get it if there won't be an Anime+Manga option. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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As of 11/9 Crunchyroll did an automatic renewal of my all access membership for a year (360 days actually). The good news is that the price for renewal was $69.99. That is not as good as $49.99 but better than the normal price of $99.99, especially since the $49.99 is not currently available.
The semi-bad news is that they used a credit card that is no longer valid (it was cancelled/replaced due to last year's Target breach). So far they haven't noticed and I'm still considered enrolled to 11/5/15. I went to the settings page but it will not accept a new card. Apparently the site is a bit broken. I'll have to try again next week. |
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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The renewal price was 69.99? I do not remember that little BIG detail of the deal last year. I've accidentally forgotten to cancel the automatic renewal and the price was always the current full price.
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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According to my order history on Crunchyroll, I paid $49.95 in 2011, $49.95 in 2012 and $69.99 in 2013. As I said, they are trying to charge me $69.99 this year as well. They also said I had two orders in 2013 at the same price. My records show I only paid for one in 2013 but otherwise match theirs.
They apparently tried to charge me $99.99 in 2012 but the charge didn't go through. Interestingly even though the effective date in 2013 was 11/29 they renewed it on 11/9 this year. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Go back to fansubs? Worst option would be FUNi or Sentai trying to fill that gap with their even worse streams. |
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potatochobit
Posts: 1373 Location: TEXAS |
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this is Anime only, I don't think it includes the Soap Operas which should be 99$ unless you got a special deal |
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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IIRC The Black Friday deal last year was 69.99 for a premium membership (anime/drama/manga).
I'm wondering if, because of Alan's two charges from last year, they charged him once for a premium and once for an anime-only membership at full price and when the extra charge was removed it was for the Premium membership. If that had happened to me, I'm not sure I would have ever noticed. Because the manga app never worked with my Kindle fire I can't remember if I ever once even tried the manga side of the deal and I'm pretty sure I never watched any drama. |
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