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

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Discussion Overview

This thread revolves around a participant's frustration regarding a person who appears to be abusing a subscription service by repeatedly requesting free samples. Participants share their thoughts on how to handle the situation, expressing a mix of annoyance and concern for the impact on other customers.

Discussion Character

  • Opinion-based
  • Anecdotal
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses frustration over the repeated sample requests, questioning how many samples are necessary to make a decision.
  • Another participant suggests blocking the individual to prevent further abuse of the system.
  • Some participants mention the possibility of contacting the individual directly to address the issue.
  • One participant shares their experience of previously managing requests manually and highlights the time investment involved.
  • Several users discuss the idea of modifying the sample newsletter to limit its appeal or ensure it contains outdated information.
  • Another participant points out that the behavior of the individual feels like stealing from the service provider.
  • Some participants reflect on the emotional toll of having to potentially punish all customers due to one person's actions.
  • One participant suggests that the content of the sample newsletter may not need to be current, as the purpose is to showcase the format rather than the latest offerings.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Views differ among participants regarding the best course of action to take in response to the situation. There is no clear consensus on whether to confront the individual directly or modify the service to mitigate the issue.

Contextual Notes

Participants share personal experiences and opinions about managing subscription services and the challenges of dealing with dishonest behavior from potential customers.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to other consultants facing similar challenges with subscription services and customer interactions.

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.
 
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.
 
Noora expressed my sentiments exactly.
 
raebates said:
Noora expressed my sentiments exactly.
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Me too.....both about Joy and about John...:thumbup:
 
NooraK said:
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.
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:thumbup::thumbup:
 
  • Thread starter
  • #66
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.
 
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. ;)
 
Good for you Joy!
If YOU feel good about it, then it was worth it :)
 
  • Thread starter
  • #69
Sheila said:
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. ;)
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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.
 
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.
 
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).
 
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. ;)
 
  • Thread starter
  • #73
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!)
 
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!
 
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.
 
  • Thread starter
  • #77
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...
 
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.
 
pcsharon1 said:
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
ChefShalon said:
If your wondering go check it out... The Pampered Chef, Ltd.
They even have defferent products to suit the german culture.
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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.
 
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!
 
  • Thread starter
  • #83
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 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?
 
PampChefJoy said:
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.
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I love mine too! AND it has a lifetime guarantee (though melting the handle, of course, isn't normal use :D)
 
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.
 
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!
 
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...
 
pcsharon1 said:
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.
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nikked said:
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...
Click to expand...

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