Babbel started offering Black Friday deals today, but apparently only to new users. So your reward for being a loyal paying customer is to get screwed. I found this out by visiting Babbel on another system where I was not logged in. First thing you see is the “Black Friday %65 off!” banner. But when I’m on my logged in PC, I see the same pricey $149/mo (private classes) / $99/mo (group classes) deal I’ve seen for the last month. I’m a long term app and Group classes customer.
UPDATE: Some of you think the available discounts are only for the app now. This screenshot was taken just now and the offer has been up for about a week now.
I’m equally pissed because my subscription ran out in the middle of November. I chose not to renew in hopes there would be a good deal for 6 or 12 months and now that’s not even an option!!!
The advertised price is even more than I was paying before if I had just renewed my original monthly subscription.
Actually I think that if you are logged in on their official website (babbel.com) and you use the link for the deal it will apply for your account even though you are not logged in according to the site which has the deal.
For example I was logged in on my Babbel account (when I visited babbel.com) but when I pressed a deal offer (external link) it said I was not logged in. Everytime I press the log in button I went away from the deal. So I tried to enter the site with the deal again and it still said I wasn’t logged in. But I tried buying it anyway and when I bought it it actually got linked to the account which I was logged in on babbel.com already. In some way Babbel understands where to apply the deal even though it says you’re not logged in.
I don’t know if this makes any sense, but I was in the same situation (not the actual link that you have used but a similar) and I experienced almost identical situation like you. So I don’t think this deal of yours is ONLY for new members, I think it actually is for ALL members but the button for login makes it confusing when you actually are logged in.
I signed up as a new user and also don’t see any offers for Babbel Live, so I think the Babbel live classes are completely excluded for whatever reason.
Babbel is usually pretty good at giving the same offers for existing and new users, I don’t think that’s the issue
Hey everyone. Instead of giving us all access to the Black Friday deal the UK site still had (70% off!), I just checked, and they took that deal down too. Talk about the Turkey Who Stole Thanksgiving (a la The Grinch Who Stole Christmas).
What’s truly sad is at least as of now, the top of the page still says “Get 70% off!” but the page shows the standard retail pricing of $99/month for group classes.
Yes, but there is the possibility they could cancel my membership later because I attempted to circumvent their geolocation efforts. (I’m in the USA).
Also I believe Awwesomesauce below said it switches you to the app when you try to get that UK deal. Are you saying you were able to get the Babbel Live deal shown in my screenshot, or that you got a deal on the ap?
All valid points, but that’s what makes the deal manipulation so painful, since crappy treatment of loyal customers is in such stark contrast to the high quality of Babbel’s product. Said differently, they should fire the marketing department and give everyone else a raise.
Unfortunately I can’t frame the massive price difference the way you are. Paying almost a thousand dollars more for a years worth of private lessons versus the early Black Friday deal they had up until a week ago, and then magically and tragically pulled it for no reason right before Black Friday when everyone expects the best price, is not a small thing by any measure. At least not for me. I’ll be putting my money somewhere else. I’ll still use the app since I have a lifetime subscription and its definitely quality, but that’s it. You can’t burn a customer that bad and expect them to keep taking it. YMMV.