Digital Art Zone

Strong words. Will probably get me banned. But I gotta get this off my chest.

I bought the Hiro 5 Pro bundle yesterday (October 31). I don’t really care for the figure itself, but I guess it could be used to mix with other figures for more variety. What really got me interested were the clothes. They’re really cool, and being Genesis based, I can see using them on both the guys and the gals. I thought that the bundle cost was a little high for just the clothes, but with the $10.00 discount, and the nice variety of textures shown in the promo renders, I figured ‘what the heck’, might as well go for it. Imagine my surprise today, when Hiro was officially released, I find out that the nice textures from the promos are actually not included in the package.  Big…Massive…Bummer!!!

I’m more disappointed than angry. I could just shut up and buy the textures (after all, they’re not that expensive), or just quietly return the Pro bundle, which I’ll probably do (except for the quietly part), but it’s the principle of the thing that gets me. I really feel that this promotion is misleading. If you show something in the promos, especially when there is no way to actually determine what you’re buying (the links to the individual items were not available yesterday), you have to indicate what’s included, and more importantly what is NOT included. All the other stores do this rigorously in their promotions, and it is shameful for a store of DAZ’s stature not to do likewise. Very sloppy marketing! (And having a 30-day return policy is no reason for not doing your due diligence.)

I was annoyed by this too. A couple of the outfits showed shoes in the promos, but the outfits didn’t include any shoes and they need them. I agree that showing textures in promos that aren’t included with the product is a bit deceptive, and it seems to be a common occurrence lately.  I’m considering returning the bundle because I was a bit underwhelmed.

I would return it, but it on your wishlist and wait for a sale.

I dislike it when options which are shown in the promo aren’t available in the packet.

Stuff like this seemed to have always been the case.  When I was a total newbie, I got The Girl http://www.daz3d.com/shop/the-girl because one of the promo images showed her in a red and black leather outfit.  Another promo showed her on the skybike.  Being a complete newbie, I thought those were included.

But it’s really great that some of the PAs actually put text within the promo images stating what in the promo is NOT included.

By the way, does anyone know the name of that red and black leather outfit?

Mr Leong - 01 November 2012 09:40 PM

By the way, does anyone know the name of that red and black leather outfit?

I believe that was The Girl’s catsuit, with the freebie package “ACTION ACCESSORIES FOR THE GIRL” by the3dwizard providing the gauntlets, belt, knife and I think the red/black texture set.

—Walt Sterdan

fivecat - 01 November 2012 09:13 PM

I was annoyed by this too. A couple of the outfits showed shoes in the promos, but the outfits didn’t include any shoes and they need them.

I’d agree with people on the texture issues, where you can’t know whether the shown textures are the ones included (unless the counts of included textures make it obvious there are too many shown), but for clothing items I think you need to check the What’s Included tab religiously. So many clothing sets don’t include shoes, or are shown with other items which may, or may not be included, that the only way to be sure what you’re buying is to run down the What’s Included list. I do have sympathy for the Promo artists - it’s a bit difficult to show someone barefoot if the outfit doesn’t suit that. (My other pet hate is packs which do include shoes, but never show them in the promos!)

DWG - 02 November 2012 07:51 AM

fivecat - 01 November 2012 09:13 PM

I was annoyed by this too. A couple of the outfits showed shoes in the promos, but the outfits didn’t include any shoes and they need them.

I’d agree with people on the texture issues, where you can’t know whether the shown textures are the ones included (unless the counts of included textures make it obvious there are too many shown), but for clothing items I think you need to check the What’s Included tab religiously. So many clothing sets don’t include shoes, or are shown with other items which may, or may not be included, that the only way to be sure what you’re buying is to run down the What’s Included list. I do have sympathy for the Promo artists - it’s a bit difficult to show someone barefoot if the outfit doesn’t suit that. (My other pet hate is packs which do include shoes, but never show them in the promos!)

Except you couldn’t check the “what’s included” when the bundle first came out because the individual items weren’t in the store yet, so none of that information was available.

For what it’s worth I agree with the OP. If something shown in the promos isn’t part of the product, this needs to be clearly indicated on the product pages.

wsterdan - 01 November 2012 11:05 PM

Mr Leong - 01 November 2012 09:40 PM

By the way, does anyone know the name of that red and black leather outfit?

I believe that was The Girl’s catsuit, with the freebie package “ACTION ACCESSORIES FOR THE GIRL” by the3dwizard providing the gauntlets, belt, knife and I think the red/black texture set.

—Walt Sterdan

Looks like the Action Accessories is no longer available here, but thanks for the answer.