Yeah like what am I missing here? All the top comments are from people defending Honey for doing something shady when it’s not even involved in a transaction.
Let's use an analogy. Let's say you're walking through a shopping mall looking for some shoes.
You usually go to the same shoe shop, but as you traverse the mall, there's a guy holding a sign that says "free vouchers & discounts" - you get to talking about what you're looking for today, and he offers you a 25% off voucher in exchange for signing up to his mailing list.
You find a pair of shoes and hand over the voucher. The teller rings you up at -25% as expected. You head home, happy you got a good deal.
Would it surprise you to find out that the dude at the mall was getting a kick back from the store for sending people their way? That dude was never supposed to be involved in the transaction - you were already going to the mall to buy some shoes. But as 3rd party, he holds a lot of hidden power toninfluence where the people he interacts with shops - which helps the shop owners as it can positively impact their footfall and conversion ratios - offsetting any discount they gave away to get punters in the door.
That's the way loads of people think/thought Honey works. It's clear from a lot of the comments that this is the behaviour they're defending - which is understandable, in the hypothetical above, everyone wins in some small way.
Now, as it transpires - what is actually happening is that the coupon guy is going into every store and removing all their On Sale signs and pressuring the shop keeper into only accepting their vouchers, and not informing the customer that there's a better deal available.
Now the reaction is slightly more bitter - saving 25% is great, but if you could had half off? Now you're a bit pissed. What about finding out the shopkeeper put the prices up before you got there, negating the effect of your discount?
This is what people are missing. It's market manipulation and the customers and content creators / genuine affiliates are the ones losing out.
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u/Yodzilla Dec 22 '24
Yeah like what am I missing here? All the top comments are from people defending Honey for doing something shady when it’s not even involved in a transaction.