Talk Me Down From the Ledge... I'm so Peeved Right Now.

[Shelly Flanagan]

The sad part is that there are so many dishonest people out there. I would never have thought to try to "re-sign up" for a trial offer. Cheating must be something they do on a regular basis if they tried to sign up a second time just to see if they could. Some people amaze me, and not in a good way!

 

[babywings76]

Confront her. You have nothing to lose. She is in the wrong and stealing from you. It's too bad you don't have a way to change your programming on the free trial. I would only let people see the previous month's issue for their sample and not the current one.

 

[cookingwithlove]

Give me the hundreds of dollars it's going to cost to hire someone to re-program the system. I don't know how to change the programming for the 15 day free trial myself.

Sorry you have to listen to me complain.

You are welcome to vent all you want and sometimes we just need to complain a little. You have a good business with your newsletters and you offer a great service. I loved your newsletters and emails when I used them. Whether you accept it or not you are a businesswoman and you control your business. Yes, people will take advantage of you if you let them. What is your plan to take care of it? You do not want to confront her and you do not want to change the services you offer. What are your other options? You can offer a true "sample" of the newsletter. Or you can continue to let people take advantage of you. I think what John is giving you is "tough love", because he does care about your business.

 

[esavvymom]

The sad part is that there are so many dishonest people out there. I would never have thought to try to "re-sign up" for a trial offer. Cheating must be something they do on a regular basis if they tried to sign up a second time just to see if they could. Some people amaze me, and not in a good way!

Certainly not MONTHLY! I might have done it a second time if I did it once long ago, and then many months or years later, I'd come back shopping again, then maybe a second time.


And it never hurts to ASK your programmer how much it would cost to just disable the Free Trial, and replace the sample with a standard default item. That should not be some serious coding. He/She would just be going in and making a couple of edits in existing code.

 

[smart2cook]

You have the right to vent just like the rest of us. Is there anyway to block a person from receiving more than one Free Trial period by their Consultant ID? Seems to me that needs to be your key use for monitoring and keeping people from stealing from you.
I too agree that you should confront her and include a bill! She does know what she is doing and so far has gotten away with it.
I am so sorry this has happened to you. I hope that you find a simple solution to prevent this from happening again. Hugs.

 

[CooknSteph]

Joy, I am going to be very blunt here. Stop complaining about it and do something about it. YOU AND YOU ALONE have control of this. If the issue is that you are literally giving your service away because of the 15-day free trial, then get rid of it! And here is some more news for you, she is not the only one doing it. You already know some other people out here who are doing it too without intending too! So as you focus solely on this one lady, how many more are doing it without your knowledge? Or how many more will because you have now advertised that it is OK because you won't do anything about it? Think about it, I may as well give away cookware sets to get bookings! close the frickn' loop hole in your system and be done with this discussion.
You have two choices here:
1) Let everyone walk all over your hard work or
2) Remove Free Trial option

First: I would say to Pampered 1224, Stop reading this thread if you don't want to hear Joy "complain".:yuck:
Second: I say to Joy, I am with the magority on this, truley make it a sample or embed it so it can not be changed to include he name number, ect. with the service.

 

[pcsharon1]

Well, that was rude..................we all come here to complain from time to time. As far as I'm concerned this is a big complaint that is fully justified. Joy is being ripped off by someone who has figured a way around the system. People have become very negative lately. I haven't been on here as much lately because I have a lot going on in my life right now. As do most people. But when I do come on and there are ten new threads and someone was rude in five of them it's frustrating.

Vent away, Joy. I love your service and totally agree that you should just make the sample an old version that never changes. Just pick a random month - July 2011 - make it your sample from now on. I think the majority of us understand that good things get taken away from us because of a few bad apples. And quite frankly, unless they've read this thread, a new person would never know that they used to be able to get a current newsletter as the sample. They would just assume it had always been that way.

Maybe you should send her an email in the tone of assuming she misunderstood the policy "Maybe you misunderstood that my sample newsletter for free is a one time offer. Having used the service for the last year you understand why I would be concerned. I would be happy to accept payment for the last year and the current year together"

 

[pchockeymom]

I do not find Pampered 1224's response rude at all. In fact, when I read it, I sensed a big hug wrapped around the hard truth written. After all, there are 3 pages of suggestions, all good, helpful and valid. Clearly some are unavailable due to the cost. That said, S**t or get off the pot!! If you merely want to vent without truly getting help resolving the issue, then make that clear and vent away. If you want a resolution, do something! Anything! It sucks that you're in this situation, that people, even PC consultants, are unethical, but it's life so if you want a change you have to deal with it. But do something.

 

[DawnH]

“The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won't work - if you won't.” -Zig Ziglar

 

[PampChefJoy]

Well, I have just a couple things to add and then I'm going to stop on this topic. It is HARD to be in this business by myself. There are exactly 5 others that I know of that run a similar service and we don't talk to each other, and we surely don't have a message board to commiserate or build our business with like PC consultants have with Chef Success. I tread a fine line by coming her to air out my dirty business laundry with this group because, yes, she may be here lurking and reading and laughing, and yes, you are all my customers or potential customers and I am ALWAYS questioning whether or not something I am saying is in my best business interest or appropriate to share from a vendor-customer standpoint. I am jealous that CS is all that to you as consultants and I have nothing similar to lean on when I have a question in running my business. I am sorry to those of you who feel it's inappropriate for me to vent here. I love suggestions, though I may not be able to use them (for monetary or other reasons). I "get" your tough love messages, I do... but I guess it's not really what i was looking for when I started this thread. I don't want to name names and I don't want you to all email her. Evil as it might be, I know that's not the most business-ethical thing to do.I do wish people were more honest, but I know that one bad apple shouldn't spoil the bunch too. I am taking steps to protect myself by changing the programming even though it is hard to find someone to do so and even harder to afford to do so in light of how much business I have lost over the last year with HO's own newsletter. I'll manage somehow, but I won't post my troubles here anymore. To those of you who offered up your suggestions and support, thank you for your kind ears. I appreciate more than you know.

 

[gailz2]

Joy, please don't stop posting. We all have the right and need to vent on here, and ask for suggestions. The number of people who have responded, mostly with constructive advice, realize that. Some others, well, just let them be--we all have bad days. The number of responses you received from your original vent shows how many people love and respect your business--you have no control over how many respond. Don't give up posting (or the great newsletter!). HUGS.

 

[NooraK]

I agree with Gail. You are very much a valued member of this community. You certainly have just as much right as anyone here to express your opinion, and even vent if necessary. You've been here long enough to know there is nothing but love in John's post. And many of us have been here long enough to know you would never post the contact information of this person. Yes, this board is a consultant board, and I'm sure it'd be great to have something similar for you newsletter creators, but please don't ever feel like you can't be a full fledged member here and interact with us like anyone else. Frankly, I have all that much more respect for you and how you run your business because I know you are completely honest about everything you do.

 

[raebates]

Noora expressed my sentiments exactly.

 

[esavvymom]

Noora expressed my sentiments exactly.

Me too.....both about Joy and about John...:thumbup:

 

[babywings76]

I agree with Gail. You are very much a valued member of this community. You certainly have just as much right as anyone here to express your opinion, and even vent if necessary. You've been here long enough to know there is nothing but love in John's post. And many of us have been here long enough to know you would never post the contact information of this person.

Yes, this board is a consultant board, and I'm sure it'd be great to have something similar for you newsletter creators, but please don't ever feel like you can't be a full fledged member here and interact with us like anyone else. Frankly, I have all that much more respect for you and how you run your business because I know you are completely honest about everything you do.

:thumbup::thumbup:

 

[PampChefJoy]

It is done. Changes have been made to the website and signup process. (Trials can still be done - they just have to be requested through me, which is then a little more work for me to set up on the backend since it's not automated... but that's the price I pay)Samples are now set up to send old versions instead of cycling through more recent or current ones.And a very NICE plain email has been sent to a certain person informing her that I can no longer provide free trials. No accusations. Just the facts, ma'am.Bear with me, folks. There are going to be days when I wonder if it's truly worth it....
Thanks.

 

[Sheila]

Joy, if you have their consultant number & e-mail address, you should be able to get their name & address from HO ~ then you can send them a certified letter stating that additional "free trials" are theft & will be handled accordingly. If they continue, you could file a civil judgement on them.Glad you figured out a way to get it fixed. If it's an old version, do you really need to do have the automated free trial feature disabled? If you put it back up with an old version, it's still a good sample for people to get an idea of what you provide without actually giving them anything that they can use for the month.

 

[pamperedlinda]

Good for you Joy!
If YOU feel good about it, then it was worth it

 

[PampChefJoy]

Joy, if you have their consultant number & e-mail address, you should be able to get their name & address from HO ~ then you can send them a certified letter stating that additional "free trials" are theft & will be handled accordingly. If they continue, you could file a civil judgement on them.Glad you figured out a way to get it fixed. If it's an old version, do you really need to do have the automated free trial feature disabled? If you put it back up with an old version, it's still a good sample for people to get an idea of what you provide without actually giving them anything that they can use for the month.

The sample and the trial are two different things... the sample sends a newsletter directly to them. That's what I changed to an old version. The trial grants full access just as if you were a paying subscriber. I can still set people up manually in the system for a trial period. It's just that I have to do it manually now instead of the signup process automatically giving them a free period.Oh, and from googling, the best I can tell is that this person is in Germany - not sure how the laws work there. Do we even have consultants in Germany? Maybe military?? She has a Facebook profile, and I find her email address all over the internet - signing up for blog giveaways and drawings, SHOCKER.... I don't have a high opinion of her - seems like the type of person out to get whatever she can for free. I guess I should thank her for teaching me a lesson about business.

 

[pampered1224]

YEAHHH JOY!!! I will apologize for what I said but I felt someone had too. Yes, we all have the right to vent. But I wanted you to stop dwelling and start making decisions. I needed to light a fire under you so you would realize that you needed take action on your own behalf. You are a bright, talented person and it was really pissing me off that you were going to let someone take advantage of that.

 

[esavvymom]

We do have consultants in Germany, I know at least military- but not sure if 'local'.Either way. Just making these changes now, may be enough for her to go away and leave you alone. So maybe you won't have to do the manual work for very long. But if you DO change back to the way it was, don't tell US! haha....just in case she is reading it online. But then again, she probably wouldn't pay for an account here anyway. That would be to HONEST of a thing to do. If she wanted FREE, she should have just used PC's version (assuming she has a website).

 

[Sheila]

Gotcha! Thanks for explaining that. I did a sample once, but have never done the free trial.Yes, we have lots of military consultants there. I have 2 on my team & some of the Directors that are there too. If you want to PM me the name, I'll see if it's someone I know.

 

[PampChefJoy]

It's fine. Sadly, my volume has dropped so much since HO's newsletter came out that it doesn't impact my time nearly as much as it used to. I'll probably keep things this way. I do like the option of still offering a trial to someone who is truly on the fence, and it's always helpful for those who aren't sure they can walk through the steps of downloading/sending the newsletter... it just forced a change in my business model, that's all. The 2 months' worth of revenue that I just had to give up to pay a programmer to update the website was a little hard to swallow...Sheila- It's just not worth pursuing. I have no interest in seeking back-payment for stuff that's already happened. Not that what she did wasn't wrong, but it's my own fault for having loopholes in my system that she took advantage of.The closest thing I can liken this whole thing to is a kitnapper. We can't go after them for pretending to have a true interest in running the business and then not following through... whether they intended to be dishonest to begin with or not.... But we always say bless and release and that's what I'm going to try to do. (I also believe in karma... and I'll just let her be her usual bitchy self!)

 

[Intrepid_Chef]

I'm guessing she's military or she'd have no interest in your site.

I sign up for tons of freebies too ... but to me a free week's worth of Align and a coupon for free hot dogs is a lot different than coasting on your site any way I can!

I'm glad I'm a paid subscriber .... now to get off my tail and actually send my newsletter out!

 

[ChefShalon]

Actually we do have Pampered Chef consultants in Germany they even have offices over there. My sister when we lived there was a Pampered Chef consultant with the German Pampered chef.

 

[ChefShalon]

If your wondering go check it out... The Pampered Chef, Ltd.
They even have defferent products to suit the german culture.

 

[PampChefJoy]

That's cool!

However, I'm going to guess military as well, because the "native" German specials are so different from ours that it wouldn't make sense to use my newsletter with all the US specials and references...

 

[pcsharon1]

If she is military it doesn't matter if she is in Germany. She is there on military orders and thereby agrees to follow american laws. That clearly doesn't mean she can break the german laws but it does mean that she has to abide by all our laws. Not that I'm saying you want to go that way and have this drawn out any longer than necessary. Just that if she's military living in Germany it's no different really than if she were living here.

 

[ChefShalon]

If she is military it doesn't matter if she is in Germany. She is there on military orders and thereby agrees to follow american laws. That clearly doesn't mean she can break the german laws but it does mean that she has to abide by all our laws. Not that I'm saying you want to go that way and have this drawn out any longer than necessary. Just that if she's military living in Germany it's no different really than if she were living here.

Not to be too be rude but just wanting to educate here. I was a millitary brat and lived in Germany for 6 years. I went to clubs and drank when I was 16 and on up and this was legal age to drink in Germany. If this was true I would have to abid by american laws and would not have been able to drink till 21. So saying that you have to bid by american laws isnt true.

 

[pcsharon1]

Thank you but I've been educated by living there as a military spouse. Yes, you could have gone to a German club and drank at 16 because it wasn't illegal for you to do so in that club. However, if you were caught drunk coming back in the gate to post housing - you and your active duty family member could have both gotten in trouble because while it wasn't illegal off post for you to have that drink, it is illegal on post for you to have been drinking under the age of 21. If this person is living in Germany with a military sponsor and working her business on post as a US Citizen (if you are an American PC consultant you can not sell to the German nationals - only to someone with a military address) then the German law would have nothing to do with this situation.

 

[BethCooks4U]

If your wondering go check it out... The Pampered Chef, Ltd.
They even have defferent products to suit the german culture.

Interesting. Actually, other than the cookbooks (wish we could see those!) everything is or was in our line. They still have a lot of our discontinued things probably because theirs is a smaller market. I miss some of the items they can get. Like that black handled bread knife. I liked them so much I bought extras when that went away so I'd have them for gifts.

 

[pcsharon1]

I wish we could see the cookbooks, too! I bet they would be very interesting. It's funny! Every time we start talking about things we miss from living in Germany - because it's incredibly beautiful, for one thing - we always end up by naming some food establishment we miss! And not even all German, they had GREAT foreign food places too. Real italian, greek, thai - it was fabulous!

 

[PampChefJoy]

I LOVE the old bread knife! That was such a good value! I melted the handle on mine, too close to the stove, but I still use it all the time.

 

[Intrepid_Chef]

I got a bread knife in a surprise box and have had no luck selling it at fair after fair ... maybe I ought to put it on the marketplace?

 

[NooraK]

I LOVE the old bread knife! That was such a good value! I melted the handle on mine, too close to the stove, but I still use it all the time.

I love mine too! AND it has a lifetime guarantee (though melting the handle, of course, isn't normal use )

 

[Sheila]

Hey!!! They still have some of the woven pieces AND all the utensils that we can't sell anymore because the Japanese manufacturer went out of business! They only have the Pineapple wedger and no mango or veggie wedger.

 

[pcsharon1]

Wonder if they have an outlet through individual websites like we do? Wouldn't mind checking out the woven pieces. I bet priced in Euro it's expensive!

 

[nikked]

Can we say "hijacked"? hehehehehe...I had a German gal in my downline, and she was so bummed she couldn't recruit her German relatives...

 

[ChefShalon]

Thank you but I've been educated by living there as a military spouse. [\QUOTE]

I never lived on base. Bases have there own set of rules.

 

[NooraK]

Can we say "hijacked"? hehehehehe...I had a German gal in my downline, and she was so bummed she couldn't recruit her German relatives...

You can get a referral bonus if they sign with PC Germany.

 

[nikked]

You can get a referral bonus if they sign with PC Germany.

Learned that after the fact, but it was too late for her...will know for next time!