Why Mstand members question the value of their coffee maintenance spend
Mstand's black gold card offers 50 percent off drinks, but keeping the tier requires 6,000 yuan of spending within 365 days. That equals roughly 316 discounted drinks at 19 yuan each, and stacking coupons or recharge deals pushes the real cup count higher. Members who placed proxy orders for friends found their accounts banned, while scalpers on resale platforms keep offering 15 percent off without penalties.
The gap between official member pricing and proxy-order pricing is now the center of the complaint. The brand has not blocked scalper accounts, yet it blocks members who order for friends. Loyal customers say the 50 percent benefit was their main reason to keep spending, and they are now asking whether the membership system still rewards the repeat purchases it was built around.
Chain coffee brands often use membership discounts to attract loyal customers, and Mstand's black gold card 50% off benefit was once a reason for many consumers to keep spending. However, some members discovered that to maintain their tier, they need to accumulate 6,000 yuan in spending within a year, which translates to buying 316 discounted drinks to meet the threshold, while scalpers on second-hand platforms offering proxy orders can provide discounts as low as 15% off without being banned. What confuses members even more is that when they placed proxy orders for friends themselves, their accounts were banned by the system. When official member discounts are far inferior to scalper prices, the appeal of the membership system is facing a test. Will the brand's tacit acceptance of proxy orders cause it to lose more loyal users?
▲
Click to follow | Daily specialty coffee culture magazine Coffee Workshop
To cultivate consumer loyalty, chain brands generally establish membership systems, encouraging customers to make repeat purchases through diverse member benefits. Among the many perks, the one that gives consumers the greatest sense of value is probably member discounts.
A long-term Mstand customer revealed that it was precisely because of the 50% off benefit for black gold card members that they decided to register and keep spending. But recently this customer noticed that the terms of the Mstand electronic membership card state that "members must accumulate 6,000 yuan in spending within the validity period (365 days) to maintain their current membership tier, otherwise they will be downgraded."
The customer did a quick calculation: already holding a black gold membership card, he would need to buy 316 drinks priced at 38 yuan (19 yuan after discount) to accumulate enough points to reach the tier-maintenance threshold. If member coupons, recharge discounts, and other stacked discounts are factored in, the actual number of cups needed would only be more than 316.
For the brand's loyal fans, buying one drink every day, plus other spending such as purchasing brand merchandise and buying drinks on behalf of friends, might be enough to reach 6,000 yuan in spending within a year. But the customer found that after placing proxy orders for friends several times, their account was banned by the system.
What this Mstand fan finds hard to accept is that the scalpers offering proxy orders on second-hand platforms have no trouble with being banned by the system, and their drink discounts can reach 15% off, far lower than the 50% off of their own black gold membership card.
This fan believes that Mstand does not allow members to place proxy orders themselves, yet tacitly permits the proxy-order scalpers on second-hand platforms to exist, and even the scalpers' discounts are lower than member discounts . This is unfair to members who have been spending with Mstand for a long time.
Brands implement membership systems to let loyal users enjoy services different from ordinary consumers through benefits such as spending points and discount offers. Correspondingly, members also keep spending in order to enjoy more benefits.
Mstand's membership system is the same: after registering, consumers can enjoy discounts corresponding to their tier and also accumulate spending points to exchange for gifts, etc. But in the eyes of many members, Mstand has quite a few member benefits, yet in terms of the discount offers that consumers value most, it is inferior to proxy-order scalpers.
Some consumers said that after getting cheaper Mstand products through proxy-order channels, they no longer painstakingly accumulated spending to reach higher membership tiers, and gave up their original membership status.
On the other hand, regarding the proxy-order scalpers appearing on second-hand platforms, the brand has not taken substantive action to stop such behavior. Instead, the system bans member accounts after detecting that users place orders for friends. In the eyes of loyal members, this move feels like a "stab in the back," and they are unwilling to continue spending just for a membership status.
Consumers generally choose the price more favorable to themselves when making transactions, which is why proxy purchasing, proxy ordering, and similar behaviors exist on various platforms. But when proxy-order discounts and member discounts are severely unequal, the brand may lose some loyal users because of its tacit acceptance of proxy orders.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
Disclaimer: Some images in this article are from the internet. For some content on the website, such as images, we will respect the original author's copyright and indicate the source. However, due to the large quantity, there may be individual images or texts that have not yet been credited. Please understand. If the original author has any disputes, they can contact the website for handling. Once verified, we will correct it immediately. Compiled and edited by "Coffee Workshop." Please indicate the source when reposting. If there is infringement, please inform us for deletion. Thank you~!
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
