Has The RCM / Royal Canadian Mint Master Club Become Redundant?

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Author	Replies: 8 / Views: 2,085
MoneyPenney Pillar of the Community Canada 2984 Posts	Posted 12/07/2016 11:07 pm Received an email from Colonial Acres yesterday saying that they will be revamping their website and instituting a new points based VIP Rewards program. They already have VIP 5% off for people who spend more than $1000 on coins a year but this new program will be for everyone. Colonial Acres now join Gatewest Coins and Canadian Currency Coin and Currency with similar programs. Now we come to the RCM and its Master Club program. Besides free shipping there seem to be little benefit to the MC program, especially for those people that spend a lot of money at the RCM. The MC program has seriously deteriorated in the past year. - No free case. - promised point redemption that still has not materialized - 2nd renewed dollar fiasco - poor service Yes, there is a free coin, the Orca with no demand and no outside of the MC program even knows about. Yes, there is early advance notice. But the problem is that only 2 coins out of more than 200 releases did not make out to the public: the Star Trek gold Delta and the renewed Library of Parliament coin. Is it really worth it to spend $5000+ for higher MC tiers for the 2 or 3 coins a year coin that you can't get from dealers? Might as well get those coins from ebay with the saving you get from the other dealers Edited by MoneyPenney 12/07/2016 11:11 pm Report this Post to the Staff

commems CCF Master Historian of USA Commemoratives United States 12281 Posts	Posted 12/08/2016 12:18 am I agree that the RCM Masters Club, as currently configured, offers limited perks (especially for those at the lower tiers). If I were designing a customer loyalty program for the RCM, it would look something like this: 1. Advance notice of new releases (same as current program) 2. Free shipping on all orders (same as current program) 3. Reps for the upper tiers of membership (same as current program) 4. Upfront discounts on all purchases; these discounts would be applied at the time of purchase. Silver: 5%, Gold: 7.5%, Platinum: 10%, All other upper tier levels: 12.5% 5. A distinct "MC members only" telephone number for quicker access to service when needed. This number would be available to all MC membership tiers. For this to be a useful benefit, RCM service reps would need to transfer non-MC callers back to the standard queue if they try to circumvent the system. This would be for use by MC members w/o personal Reps. 6. Two "MC members only" coin releases each year. All MC members (regardless of level) would be able to order each coin during a two-week ordering window (i.e., these exclusive coins would be struck to order). Silver and Gold members would be limited to ONE coin each; Platinum and above would be able to order TWO. All MC members would be given advance notice of the ordering window so that they can plan appropriately. 7. MC orders would receive priority processing and shipping if ordered during the advance notice period - regardless of when shipping actually begins - a basic first in/first out (FIFO) model that ensures that ALL advance-notice MC orders would be shipped before ANY non-MC orders. MC orders placed after the general release date would be added to the standard queue vs. receiving priority 8. Free Mint Tours and invitations to MC events (same as current program). 9. Other TBD perks that would be based on the health of the RCM's bottom line for the year. A year with strong financial results could yield a free case or exclusive members-only silver medal. Such ad hoc perks would be absent in years with poor performance. This type of program would give me more incentive to remain loyal to the Mint. Collecting history one coin or medal at a time! (c) commems. All rights reserved. Report this Post to the Staff
wildflowerAB Pillar of the Community Canada 2845 Posts	Posted 12/08/2016 08:30 am As a collector who dabbles in more than just NCLT, I think dealers are very wise to develop loyalty programs. The disadvantage of RCMs MC program is it's limited in scope to only new release NCLT. In my opinion, that makes for an extremely limited (and boring) manner of collecting framed around just what's released that particular month. The advantage to dealer programs that offer incentives is they also sell: - old and new circulation coin, along with older NCLT. - the education competent of coin collecting, books etc. - supplies including binders, pages and dispay boxes and cases. - as well as their sale offerings, special deals and events. Most importantly I should add, is the odds are very high that one is left with the satisfaction of feeling their business is truly appreciated, where good service and efficiency are standards as opposed to extraordinary. Edited by wildflowerAB 12/08/2016 08:46 am Report this Post to the Staff
JGG Pillar of the Community Canada 798 Posts	Posted 12/08/2016 10:55 am I've seriously lost interest with all the market flooding the RCM has done. I'd sooner spend the money on a vacation or a new kitchen. Report this Post to the Staff
CC-Ottawa Pillar of the Community Canada 3690 Posts	Posted 12/08/2016 11:33 am Not only redundant, it's ridiculous. MC members are in some ways treated worse than other customers. In many cases, as an MC, even though I order earlier via advance notice, I receive coins well after regular Mint customers and certainly well after they are available at dealers (especially CP). I won't even start with phantom redemption codes, unilaterally cancelled orders, undelivered free boxes and other broken promises. Further, I find dealing with my rep to be cumbersome and unhelpful. The one time I spoke with him in the year and a half he has been my rep, concerning the Library of Parliament, he was accusatory and condescending telling me I was not 'allowed' to order the coin and should not even have know about it. I ordered it through him. If there was a mistake, it was his, yet he blamed me. And then others ordered a half dozen without impunity. They have their coins, mine is still 'processing'. Frankly, I'm done with my rep and the stupid MC club. I have been a collector for 40 years and an MC member for more than a decade; that accounts for exactly squat with the Mint. They only value new customers and churn them out. That in my opinion is a business model doomed to fail. Customer acquisition is infinitely more expensive than customer retention, not to mention, they will eventually run out of 'new' customers. They will be left out of the direct sales game and will turn to dealers as their primary distribution channel. Perhaps that is the ultimate goal - make Bromberg et al rich. Only the suckers will buy direct at full price while dealers slash prices and still make good profits selling discounted new old stock. /end rant Edited by CC-Ottawa 12/08/2016 11:43 am Report this Post to the Staff
Nubee Valued Member Canada 256 Posts	Posted 12/08/2016 11:42 am RCM has "broadened" their horizons (ie: bottom line) over the years to sell as many over-priced coins it can and make a profit. They care less about the themes, quality, and interest in coins. They're a factory punching out coins as many worldwide mints have become Just keep pumping them out whether it's animals, flowers, Superman, Star Trek, etc. They can remelt any leftovers into a new over valued series. Report this Post to the Staff
CC-Ottawa Pillar of the Community Canada 3690 Posts	Posted 12/08/2016 11:52 am Does anyone have any real evidence that they routinely 're-melt' unsold coins? I seriously doubt they do this especially given that almost all of the coins produced now have some sort of embellishment that would have to be removed in the refinery process. I believe if they over produce coins, they sell them to dealers (mostly Bromberg) at huge discounts. That's why he can liquidate tons of coins at half price or less. There is no way he is losing money on these things. Report this Post to the Staff
Dcadon Rest in Peace Canada 1360 Posts	Posted 12/08/2016 1:17 pm JGG wrote: Quote: I'd sooner spend the money on a vacation or a new kitchen. LOL..... 2 months into the renos, and (not) missing about 2 months worth of NCLT coins Edited by Dcadon 12/08/2016 1:18 pm Report this Post to the Staff
Silveroid Pillar of the Community Canada 6768 Posts	Posted 12/08/2016 1:43 pm Try to do standard car maintenance service (something in addition to oil change), it will cost 50%-75% of 2017 Penny set. The car ran great and after maintenance is the same - so basically no difference, but you have to do this to have a car...so then you realize what is "a must" and what is "spending for joy" Anyway, with the current MC offerings, to spend 5K-10K annually directly at the Mint worth, if it not a serious amount for you, and you want to get all "fresh". Report this Post to the Staff
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Has The RCM Master Club Become Redundant?