New Alan Partridge Podcast & This Time S2 Coming

[mr. logic]

Actually, that's a point. Is there any chance of them releasing this in print form too?

[Noodle Lizard]

Amazon know that when people create a free Audible subscription and get a free book many will cancel the subscription. But from Amazon's perspective, that's not a loss. It's a win, when compared to the starting position, which is that you didn't have an Audible account (and might not even have had an Amazon account).

For the cost of giving you a free book, they have got your email address, put Audible on your phone, and hoovered up some other data about you that you probably didn't notice. You now know what Audible is and you know its potential value to you, leading to a vastly improved odds of one day paying for something. They have also gathered a few extra morsels of data points they can use to sharpen their algorithms and publishing strategies. Amazon have won. They are in this for the long term.

That's true. A lot of people also forget to cancel their free trials, sometimes not noticing for months. I don't think there's a good reason for pirating something that's technically available for free (especially something as good as this) - unless you're really against Amazon and never use their services, which is understandable. The numbers absolutely count when it comes to future deals, and how much the creators get paid for them.

[solidified gruel merchant]

I paid the full £17.99 retail price. Happy to do it. It's fine.

[popcorn]

I paid the full £17.99 retail price. Happy to do it. It's fine.

You got absolutely robbed, mate.

[BeardFaceMan]

Actually, that's a point. Is there any chance of them releasing this in print form too?

It did seem to be mostly scripted, so that would be lovely.

[kalowski]

Spoiler alert

Pirates, Oscar Pistorius and Davros.

[close]

[holyzombiejesus]

I'm surprised they've not done an Encyclopedialan. They could basically rip off stuff he says in this and the other two audio books/ novels and have an a to z of Alan's thoughts and opinions.

[Retinend]

I'm surprised they've not done an Encyclopedialan. They could basically rip off stuff he says in this and the other two audio books/ novels and have an a to z of Alan's thoughts and opinions.

From your lips to Coogan's ear.

[Menu]

It's not so much I think you are him... I just can't not think you are him.

Haha!

[Menu]

If you get it for free from Audible then don't renew you are actually doing more harm than pirating it, though. That sort of thing adds a major disincentive to investors, who DO look at the metric for releases-to-free-trials-to-cancellations. Not only that but Audible's files is shite. If you really want to get it for free just pirate it, becuase that does far less investor-visible harm. I don't care about investors but they are the people who determine whether or not stuff like this continues to get made.

And yes I can safely say this is fact, as I have spoken to people in this industry.

Complete bollocks. Audible want you to sign up, and are prepared to lose a few who pick up the Partridge and then leave, as they expect/hope that more will stay cos it's actually quite a good deal if you listen to audiobooks. They got me on a free trial and I was planning to sack it off, but I realised it was cheaper to pay £8 a month than pay (approx)£11 a book on iTunes (on average)more than once a month. Also when you try to leave, they give you a free credit to get you to stay! Lovely stuff!

EDIT - and all the stuff Popcorn said.

Audible is genuinely a good service and should be rewarded for being so. I know they're owned by Amazon now but I'm not 100% down on them either. They have their good points as well as their bad ones.

[Non Stop Dancer]

Once a year or so audible will offer you half price for 4 months. Just set a reminder to cancel before the 3 months are up, rinse and repeat forever.

[Retinend]

Maybe I'm naive: if it wasn't for the lab-rat like existence of Amazon workers, would it be such a problem company? I don't see anything wrong with its success in terms of replacing the high street, for example. The high street is shit: you can never get the best product that is out there. But put a pin in that...

Since Audible is only financially linked to Amazon, and doesn't contribute to expanding internal demand for those nasty warehouse working conditions, I think it deserves a pass.  If Audible made 2x the profit, I don't see what the negative repercussions would be. Obvious the positive repercussions would be huge for the creative and/or funny people community. 

[QDRPHNC]

Yes, you're being a bit naive.

Amazon is Walmart... On acid.

[Retinend]

Admittedly, I buy so much on Amazon (especially these days) that I rightly ought to be offered some equity.   I do, however, stand by my hatred of the high street (except for the charity shops/ used-paperback booksellers - they can stay).

[bgmnts]

Are mega monopolies bad though?

[Retinend]

Amazon doesn't have a "monopoly" on anything, to be serious for a moment.

[Ferris]

Once a year or so audible will offer you half price for 4 months. Just set a reminder to cancel before the 3 months are up, rinse and repeat forever.

Cancel it. The site will force you to click through a few screens including a "tell us why you're canceling" screen with a load of options.

Picking "it's too expensive" will always give you a large discount for another 1-3 months*. Tried it with audible the other day when canceling my subscription, it offers half price for 3 months with 0 hassle. I suspect you could keep doing that every 3 months if you wanted.

<sub>*To add: this works for basically any subscription service. We canceled our internet as we were moving, and they immediately offered a year at half price as part of the cancelation process aka "we've been mugging you off for years and could slash the price in half and still operate profitably, you suckers!"

This backfired in my case as it only made me hate the provider more, and I'm making a point of not getting a new contract with them in the new gaff.</sub>

[Ferris]

Amazon doesn't have a "monopoly" on anything, to be serious for a moment.

Amazon has market-warping de facto monopolistic and monopsonistic power. It is not a good thing, and I try not to buy too much from the cunts if I can help it.

[Dr Rock]

It's a platform where a lot of small businesses and sole traders can sell in markets like abroad that otherwise they'd never reach, even if they had a website with all flash animations.

[popcorn]

Amazon has market-warping de facto monopolistic and monopsonistic power. It is not a good thing, and I try not to buy too much from the cunts if I can help it.

It's OK if you only use it for my birthday presents.

(minimum value £10)

[Ferris]

Cancel it. The site will force you to click through a few screens including a "tell us why you're canceling" screen with a load of options.

Picking "it's too expensive" will always give you a large discount for another 1-3 months*.

Just tried this with CaB - a panicked Neil offered to pay me just to keep me posting on here as a member. Makes you think.

[pigamus]

The thing about Amazon is, at least you know when it's coming, more or less. Buy from Marketplace sellers or eBay and you've got no idea what courier they're using or when it's going to turn up, and it's a pain in the arse - and obviously corona has only made it ten times worse.

[Dr Rock]

To be fair I sell on Amazon and my shipping times are dreadful.

[pigamus]

I'm surprised nobody's set up parcel shops where you can get all that shit delivered. That would be my Dragon's Den idea.

[pigamus]

Okay, back on topic,

Spoiler alert

"from the Outhouse" had me laughing like a twat

[close]

[olliebean]

*To add: this works for basically any subscription service. We canceled our internet as we were moving, and they immediately offered a year at half price as part of the cancelation process aka "we've been mugging you off for years and could slash the price in half and still operate profitably, you suckers!"

This backfired in my case as it only made me hate the provider more, and I'm making a point of not getting a new contract with them in the new gaff.[/sub]

This has never worked for me with internet providers; which is to say, they do offer me a limited discount, but have somehow never been able to offer me a price comparable to the one they - and their competitors - give to new (or returning-a-year-after-cancelling) customers. The idea of encouraging customer loyalty doesn't seem to occur to them.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

A Richard Hammond and Clarkson jibe and I'm 6 eps in. Have these guys totally fallen out then after Coogan called them out for casual racism?

[jamiefairlie]

Amazon has market-warping de facto monopolistic and monopsonistic power. It is not a good thing, and I try not to buy too much from the cunts if I can help it.

As do/did supermarkets, booksellers, pharmacies, etc. It's the great lie of capitalism that it encourages competition, rather it inevitably leads to sequential private monopolies, where one beast eventually eats the current king e.g. IBM to Microsoft to google.

[Utter Shit]

Admittedly, I buy so much on Amazon (especially these days) that I rightly ought to be offered some equity.   I do, however, stand by my hatred of the high street (except for the charity shops/ used-paperback booksellers - they can stay).

If you're a regular customer and believe you're owed something for your custom, try telling them something you bought was broken or whatever and ask for a refund. I've never done this illegitimately, but have twice had to request a refund for genuinely faulty products and both times they just gave me the refund without asking for proof. Annoyingly the same fault seemed to affect three separate copies of the fantastic Phl Collins tribute album Urban Renewal, they kept sending me replacement copies as requested until I eventually said "look lads, the entire batch is fucked can you just send me a refund". Ans they just sent it out without any hassle

As far as I understand this happens if you have a long record of buying products without any issues, I guess because they value your custom and can see you don't have a track record of trying to scam them.

Exactly the same thing happened with John Lewis with my first ever order from them - the delivery guy literally smashed a pair of whiskey glasses by my front door as he delivered them, I was already on the phone to customer services before he had even gone. They didn't ask for any proof of damage or anything, just sent a new pair out instantly. And that was before I had any purchasing history with them whatsoever. Bound to be plenty of cads who have taken advantage of their policy.

[Ferris]

If you're a regular customer and believe you're owed something for your custom, try telling them something you bought was broken or whatever and ask for a refund. I've never done this illegitimately, but have twice had to request a refund for genuinely faulty products and both times they just gave me the refund without asking for proof. Annoyingly the same fault seemed to affect three separate copies of the fantastic Phl Collins tribute album Urban Renewal, they kept sending me replacement copies as requested until I eventually said "look lads, the entire batch is fucked can you just send me a refund". Ans they just sent it out without any hassle

As far as I understand this happens if you have a long record of buying products without any issues, I guess because they value your custom and can see you don't have a track record of trying to scam them.

Exactly the same thing happened with John Lewis with my first ever order from them - the delivery guy literally smashed a pair of whiskey glasses by my front door as he delivered them, I was already on the phone to customer services before he had even gone. They didn't ask for any proof of damage or anything, just sent a new pair out instantly. And that was before I had any purchasing history with them whatsoever. Bound to be plenty of cads who have taken advantage of their policy.

They sent me an Iron Maiden LP last year instead of [record I don't remember]. I was hoping they'd let me keep it and send a replacement for the other record but alas it wasn't the case.