Would you take $10k to stop using their product?

[bizaro86]

Inspired by recent discussion around the famous WEB quote about Apple - the question is what firms (as a customer) would you decline an offer of $10,000 to never use them again.

 

I would switch phones for $10k in an instant, but there are a few businesses where that isn't true for me.

 

1) Interactive Brokers. I wouldn't even consider it. The alternatives in Canada are so much worse.

 

2) Cobs bakery - I go to the local franchise probably 5x per week for fresh bread/buns. It's walking distance to my house (or a 1 minute drive) and so much better than any of the alternatives. Sadly a private company.

 

3) Rogers (my internet provider). Only cable is available on my street - if I bailed on them my choices would be ADSL or starlink. Of course - if someone pulls fibre down my alley I'd switch immediately, so this isn't exactly loyalty.

 

Anyone else?

 

The other one in my portfolio I think might qualify is JOE - I doubt many clubs members would take $10k to drop out.

 

I don't own my Costco shares anymore, but do shop their often. For $10k I'd stop but it would be close. There are a few things (eg rental cars) where we very conveniently get outsized value.

Edited March 5 by bizaro86

[Parsad]

34 minutes ago, bizaro86 said:

Inspired by recent discussion around the famous WEB quote about Apple - the question is what firms (as a customer) would you decline an offer of $10,000 to never use them again.

 

I would switch phones for $10k in an instant, but there are a few businesses where that isn't true for me.

 

1) Interactive Brokers. I wouldn't even consider it. The alternatives in Canada are so much worse.

 

2) Cobs bakery - I go to the local franchise probably 5x per week for fresh bread/buns. It's walking distance to my house (or a 1 minute drive) and so much better than any of the alternatives. Sadly a private company.

 

3) Rogers (my internet provider). Only cable is available on my street - if I bailed on them my choices would be ADSL or starlink. Of course - if someone pulls fibre down my alley I'd switch immediately, so this isn't exactly loyalty.

 

Anyone else?

 

The other one in my portfolio I think might qualify is JOE - I doubt many clubs members would take $10k to drop out.

 

I don't own my Costco shares anymore, but do shop their often. For $10k I'd stop but it would be close. There are a few things (eg rental cars) where we very conveniently get outsized value.

 

Cobs Bread?!  I like their bread too, but definitely would take the $10K and find another bakery.

 

I don't use any Apple products other than the iPhone.  It's so integral to my daily life, virtually every family member has one, that I would probably turn the $10K away.

 

Broker, Cable Company...I've been with the same ones for nearly 20 years...but I probably would not give up $10K to stay solely with either of them.

 

Not sure I could give up a Filet-o-Fish for the rest of my life...may have to turn away McDonald's $10K.

 

Kerry Gold Irish Butter...have not been able to find a suitable replacement anywhere in Canada or the U.S....bye-bye $10K!

 

Visa or Mastercard...if I had to shun both and go to Amex...probably turn the $10K away.  Just not enough places take Amex.

 

Cheers!

[bizaro86]

3 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

Visa or Mastercard...if I had to shun both and go to Amex...probably turn the $10K away.  Just not enough places take Amex.

 

That's an interesting one. For $10k I'd give up mastercard (which happens to be mostly what I use along with Amex). But if I had to give up BOTH visa and mastercard for $20k I wouldn't do it.

 

I could easily switch between them but definitely need one or the other.

[Parsad]

1 minute ago, bizaro86 said:

 

That's an interesting one. For $10k I'd give up mastercard (which happens to be mostly what I use along with Amex). But if I had to give up BOTH visa and mastercard for $20k I wouldn't do it.

 

I could easily switch between them but definitely need one or the other.

 

By the way...you probably know better than me...but Cobs has their awesome hot-cross buns out right now for Easter.  Four different flavours...my favorite is the Apple Cinnamon one.  Brought some fresh on Saturday morning to have with my coffee!  Cheers!

[UK]

50 minutes ago, bizaro86 said:

Inspired by recent discussion around the famous WEB quote about Apple - the question is what firms (as a customer) would you decline an offer of $10,000 to never use them again.

 

I would switch phones for $10k in an instant, but there are a few businesses where that isn't true for me.

 

1) Interactive Brokers. I wouldn't even consider it. The alternatives in Canada are so much worse.

 

2) Cobs bakery - I go to the local franchise probably 5x per week for fresh bread/buns. It's walking distance to my house (or a 1 minute drive) and so much better than any of the alternatives. Sadly a private company.

 

3) Rogers (my internet provider). Only cable is available on my street - if I bailed on them my choices would be ADSL or starlink. Of course - if someone pulls fibre down my alley I'd switch immediately, so this isn't exactly loyalty.

 

Anyone else?

 

The other one in my portfolio I think might qualify is JOE - I doubt many clubs members would take $10k to drop out.

 

I don't own my Costco shares anymore, but do shop their often. For $10k I'd stop but it would be close. There are a few things (eg rental cars) where we very conveniently get outsized value.

 

I second IBKR. But also maybe Google services (search, maps, waze, yt etc)? And also perhaps some pharma/healthcare products, where people just do not have a choice?

 

 

 

[Parsad]

1 minute ago, UK said:

 

I second IBKR. But also maybe Google services (search, maps, waze, yt etc)? And also perhaps some pharma/healthcare products, where people just do not have a choice?

 

 

 

 

Yes, I forgot about Google Search!  Bing just sucks...and the AI searches sometimes provide too much detail or compilation.  At least for now, I would have to turn away $10K for some Google products.  I also prefer Google Meet, Chrome and Maps.  Cheers!

[WayWardCloud]

It's Amazon for me. I hate hate hate malls and shopping (except Trader Joe's).

[bizaro86]

29 minutes ago, UK said:

 

I second IBKR. But also maybe Google services (search, maps, waze, yt etc)? And also perhaps some pharma/healthcare products, where people just do not have a choice?

 

Google is a good one for sure. I would give up $10k to keep just my gmail account, which has essentially my entire life history in it.

 

 

[nsx5200]

1 hour ago, bizaro86 said:

 

That's an interesting one. For $10k I'd give up mastercard (which happens to be mostly what I use along with Amex). But if I had to give up BOTH visa and mastercard for $20k I wouldn't do it.

 

I could easily switch between them but definitely need one or the other.

In the US, Costco takes only Visa (Canadian Costco only takes Mastercard.  Grr...).  Costco is my primary basic necessity vendor so no go trying to move away from either one.

[Sweet]

3 hours ago, nsx5200 said:

In the US, Costco takes only Visa (Canadian Costco only takes Mastercard.  Grr...).  Costco is my primary basic necessity vendor so no go trying to move away from either one.

 

Whats the incentive for a company to do only Visa or Mastercard and not both?

 

I personally only have Visa, because that’s what my bank uses, and I’m sure others only have Mastercard.

 

Never encountered a place that only took Amex.

[Parsad]

2 hours ago, Sweet said:

 

Whats the incentive for a company to do only Visa or Mastercard and not both?

 

I personally only have Visa, because that’s what my bank uses, and I’m sure others only have Mastercard.

 

Never encountered a place that only took Amex.

 

I have a few cards (personal, personal holding company, companies I run, etc).  For the personal stuff...I have both Visa and MC because they have two different reward/insurance programs.  For the companies...they are all Visas to keep it simple at the same bank. 

 

I used to have a personal Amex for a few years, but the lack of places I could use it, relative to the Platinum fee charged...just couldn't justify it as frugal consumer.  I kept looking at the annual fee and said this is just stupid...switched to the Canadian Black Amex (not the invite one, the other one)...lower fee, some similar insurance/rewards...for a much lower fee.  Again, with the lack of places to use it other than restaurants, couldn't justify that either and got rid of it.  At the end of the day, there was zero reason for me to have an Amex!  

 

Cheers!

[Fly]

Interesting question to think about. Maybe some airlines depending on where you live and desire/need for travel? Think of living in Atlanta and not being able to fly Delta for instance. Some airlines have dominant market share positions in a given geographic area, as opposed to some other consumer products mentioned like Apple or Google who have broad reach. 

[Sweet]

57 minutes ago, Parsad said:

 

I have a few cards (personal, personal holding company, companies I run, etc).  For the personal stuff...I have both Visa and MC because they have two different reward/insurance programs.  For the companies...they are all Visas to keep it simple at the same bank. 

 

I used to have a personal Amex for a few years, but the lack of places I could use it, relative to the Platinum fee charged...just couldn't justify it as frugal consumer.  I kept looking at the annual fee and said this is just stupid...switched to the Canadian Black Amex (not the invite one, the other one)...lower fee, some similar insurance/rewards...for a much lower fee.  Again, with the lack of places to use it other than restaurants, couldn't justify that either and got rid of it.  At the end of the day, there was zero reason for me to have an Amex!  

 

Cheers!

There seems to be much better incentives and rewards in North American than in Europe.  Sigh.  Thanks for info

[bizaro86]

20 minutes ago, Fly said:

Interesting question to think about. Maybe some airlines depending on where you live and desire/need for travel? Think of living in Atlanta and not being able to fly Delta for instance. Some airlines have dominant market share positions in a given geographic area, as opposed to some other consumer products mentioned like Apple or Google who have broad reach. 

 

That's a good one. Westjet has dominant market share at my home airport, I make at least 5 trips a year direct where I'd otherwise have to connect. That easily saves me $10k worth of time so I wouldn't take $10k to stop using them.

[Saluki]

Most products wouldn't make the $10k cut. Here are a few that I wouldn't drop. A surpising number are from Alphabet

 

Google:  Although AI is getting better with several companies (including Gemini), Google is still the best search engine by far.

Gmail: all my stuff is on there.

YouTube.

Waze

 

Costco. I only use it once a month, but it's well worth it. The booze is very cheap there, and even though I'm not a huge drinker, paying more for each bottle of wine would eat away that $10k pretty quickly.

 

Netflix is a maybe. I have a few streaming services but Netflix is the one I use the most. Prime is the one I use the least. The richest man in the world makes a product with the worst UX. Why? 

 

I would give Visa OR Mastercard, but not both. They are interchangeable, but also indispensable. 

 

Lyft. I guess I could use Uber (which I don't now, but I would need one of them, like Visa/mastercard). 

 

Amazon. I think Bezos is a jerk, but i have Prime and if they can send a guy to deliver me $5 batteries, at my door, in 1-2 days, so I don't have to waste half and hour going to the store, then those few seconds of clicking are worth $10k. 

 

 

[gfp]

Yeah for me they are the familiar standards:

 

IBKR

Alphabet

Apple

Amazon

 

I thought about Toyota/Lexus, Costco and Total Wine.  $10k ain't what it used to be.. Those are tough ones but future Toyota might not be as important to me as past Toyota

[Libs]

You guys are missing the most obvious one - COBF (but don't get any crazy ideas about charging us, Parsad!)

[Parsad]

1 minute ago, Libs said:

You guys are missing the most obvious one - COBF (but don't get any crazy ideas about charging us, Parsad!)

 

If you are in, you are in...no charge!  

 

Although I would like to give up the Politics thread for $10K!    Cheers!

[Marco Van Basten]

You guys are clearly not married, I'd pay to have MasterCard and Visa cancel on my wife!

[John Hjorth]

25 minutes ago, Marco Van Basten said:

You guys are clearly not married, I'd pay to have MasterCard and Visa cancel on my wife!

 

 This is hilarious, @Marco Van Basten!,

 

It actually also reminds me that I live together with a very cost conscious woman, which I'm not married to. Then I get annoyed, stressing we're not married, when she is blaming me for having the black belt in book hoarding [<- ], expressing I'm in need of treatment for it! - Very insulting, I think! 

[Mephistopheles]

3 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

If you are in, you are in...no charge!  

 

Although I would like to give up the Politics thread for $10K!    Cheers!

 

I know this has been suggested in the past, but would you consider charging us an annual fee, perhaps $100 or whatever makes sense, and then use the proceeds to make this into an app and get rid of ads? Or does the time/economic value equation not make it worth it?

[RichardGibbons]

Funny that Google's on all these lists. I own shares of Google, but actually switched away from Google search to DuckDuckGo about a year ago after this.

 

My reasoning is that my model of reality is based, to a significant degree, on the Internet. With those image generation results, it's pretty clear that Google was deliberately inserting ideological bias into its results. Essentially, it wanted to feed me a distorted view of reality to suit its own biases. That they were doing that was quite obvious with those pictures, but they could quite easily do it in an effectively undetectable way throughout their business. So, to attempt to maintain an accurate model of reality, I switched.

 

I'd guess, for me, duckduckgo is sufficient for about 98% of searches. It fails me frequently on images and constantly on maps (which is Apple maps).

 

For me, I think the $10K answer would be Windows--I could switch, but the effort isn't worth $10K, ditching both Visa/MC, and that's probably about it. (That said, Windows itself could actually make me switch away, if future versions of the OS destroy it to an extent that barriers to switching fall, and they've certainly been trending in that direction.)

[Parsad]

4 hours ago, Marco Van Basten said:

You guys are clearly not married, I'd pay to have MasterCard and Visa cancel on my wife!

 

LOL!  I didn't think of that.  Give her a Diner's card...no one uses those anymore.  Cheers!

[Parsad]

1 hour ago, Mephistopheles said:

 

I know this has been suggested in the past, but would you consider charging us an annual fee, perhaps $100 or whatever makes sense, and then use the proceeds to make this into an app and get rid of ads? Or does the time/economic value equation not make it worth it?

 

Very few would pay anything close to that.  Good investors generally are very frugal investors! 

 

Our membership would drop from 5,000 to 500!  The resultant income would be the same...but we would lose a lot of content. 

 

Again, that being said...losing the Politics content might be worth it!    Cheers!

[John Hjorth]

36 minutes ago, Parsad said:

Very few would pay anything close to that.  Good investors generally are very frugal investors! 

 

Our membership would drop from 5,000 to 500!  The resultant income would be the same...but we would lose a lot of content. 

 

Again, that being said...losing the Politics content might be worth it!    Cheers!

 

I still remember the 13^th March 2013 - clearly! Best day in my life ever!, -and not only in my own life - also to my family and those I hold dear! -Found CofB&F on that day! - Browsing around for about one hour here, then decided to dive in, registering!

 

If I remember correctly, then CAD 30! Frigging best investment I've ever made! - But it is what it is! it's - old fashion WYGIWYG! I spent about three - three! - years reading up the whole friggin' CoiB&F board! - about 100 posts in that period from me, most of them carrying no real value.

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

Then, when I near Christmas try to express my appreciation towards Sanjeev [ @Parsad ] for keeping us all connected here, by sending absolutely nomimal amounts of money as a token of appreciation <still stingy John and all that>  from both of us [The Lady of the House and I] to Sanjeev [ @Parsad ], I get met by a friendly refusal, not taking the money, to keep running the CofB&F digital outfit, donating, redirecting the nominal funds provided to Canadian food banks in stead!

 

Fair to say, I don't even have a Danish friend, that behaves like this! Tons of stamina, perseverance,  patience with us, combined with beeing a down-to-the-roots good, non-self-serverving person!

 

Just so friggin' seldom to me.

 

That said, I think I have by now figured out by now how to circumvent the 'blockade' - next time!  - Here, we're now out in mob-related measures, desparate measures, desparate means! [somewhat inverted!]