Here is some new space for you to discuss DSA, DST, MSA or anything else you want to debate about.
FYI - I do see your emails, but as a general rule I will not respond to them. Call me paranoid or whatever, but y'all can be ruthless. Feel free to send me alerts as I check my email more often than the blog, I will see them. So anyway, thanks for the reminder, I have been meaning to get a new post up just for you.
For the person looking for the dirt on Amanda, I don't have time to rehash 3+weeks worth of drama for you, feel free to read the blog archives, it unfolded here. You have the link, spend your time looking for the information you are requesting.
If you are in the US, enjoy the long weekend, hopefully nice weather has arrived in your part of the world.
1,394 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 400 of 1394 Newer› Newest»http://www.scraporchard.com/forum/showthread.php?p=88169#post88169
It's announced at SO. And you are complaining about them posting a few days off when the contest doesn't start until June 15?
Get a life.
I'm so not excited about this contest because now you'll be bitching about it too.
Hi! I hope you guys could give me some advice on digi store sites & designer names please.
The type of digi papers & kits I’m interested in are: pretty patterns, florals, travel, heritage, elements that can be used to frame or accent a photo,...
I’m not interested in: doodles, gaudy loud designs, fantasy fairy stuff, kids stuff, anything too “themed” unless it can be used in more than one type of situation.
Thanks in advance! :)
PS. I’m not familiar with initials or abbreviations of sites, so I’d appreciate if you could include the full name please. Thank you so much!
http://digiscrapaddicts.com/
FLERGS - FEATURED DESIGNER
Come on already Flergs! Can you please be a little more professional and NOT talk about "boobies"? I'm so sick of all the raunchy talk and I'm no prude but I have never gone to another non-digi scrap site and found a featured artist or otherwise talk like that. Again, the question is IS IT A PROFESSIONAL business or not. I just hate seeing shit like this. And NO, I don't personally know Flergs nor do I like or dislike her but this did make up my mind about buying from her (which I was about to do). I just think that kind of talk in a professional setting makes her look like an idiot. That's my opinion and you can say whatever you like but that's how I feel.
It will be really interesting to see how many designers they suck into SO now. I've heard of two already today who will be leaving their shops.
May 25, 2009 8:11 PM
******************
Who did you hear would be leaving their shops for SO?
In two months there will be no reason for anyone to go to DSA any more, just like there's no one at MSA or DST anymore. The same group of posters that are all hot over DSA right now will get sick of it and find a new place to hang. It's just hilarious to see the same faces again and again talking about how cool and great and new DSA is but it's the same old crowd. Nothing new under the sun. Except for the raunchy talk. That's new! LOL
May 25, 2009 11:52 PM
________________________
Will there ever be a scrapbooking "hub" that you all are happy with? If I thought it would actually make it and be popular for more than a few months I'd go through the trouble of creating one.
Hi! I hope you guys could give me some advice on digi store sites & designer names please.
The type of digi papers & kits I’m interested in are: pretty patterns, florals, travel, heritage, elements that can be used to frame or accent a photo,...
I’m not interested in: doodles, gaudy loud designs, fantasy fairy stuff, kids stuff, anything too “themed” unless it can be used in more than one type of situation.
Thanks in advance! :)
PS. I’m not familiar with initials or abbreviations of sites, so I’d appreciate if you could include the full name please. Thank you so much!
___________________________
I personally suggest Traci Reed at Sweet Shoppe Designs.
http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=24
She has the best stuff out there and best customer service. I had an issue (nothing major) once and she was very sweet and professional (she seems to be fairly popular probably because of her quality and professionalism). She has a huge variety of stuff and I always find just what I need with her.
Good luck!
All of these things may seem innocent in and of themselves. However, when you take the fact that the same people are involved in ALL of these situations, it just makes you wonder.
__________________
The only thing it makes me wonder is, to paraphrase a previous poster, which you are: another store designer trying to start something, a PO'd designer, or just someone with a personal grudge against these people.
At least drop the pretense and be woman enough to tell us which of the above you are. You can run around willy nilly and smack whoever the hell you want anonymously, but you have to know that no one is putting any credibility behind anything you say since your intentions are so damn transparent and you clearly aren't brave enough to actually say anything with your real name.
And Amanda Dykan? Come on, that was so 2 weeks ago or whatever.
To all those who say they're not prudes, obviously are. Do you not watch a movie or buy a CD when you see a celebrity on Cosmo and their caption mentions sex, drugs, boobies, rehab? Or if they are on a talk show and they saying something about their ta-tas? I highly doubt it. Are they being unprofessional when they are doing the circuit promoting their newest movie/CD and are candid? I think not. Get over it.
Get over it? FUCK OFF. How about that. While you bitch about everything everyday here I sit back and hold my opinions and now I say it and I'm wrong? In case you didn't hear me the first time - FUCK OFF. I'll say what I feel, when I like and I wont let some dingleberry like yourself tell me I cant. Bite me bitch.
Get over it? FUCK OFF.
^^^^^^^
See? Now that's classy, professional , and completely non-offensive, unlike the word 'boobies'.
Come on already Flergs! Can you please be a little more professional and NOT talk about "boobies"? I'm so sick of all the raunchy talk and I'm no prude but I have never gone to another non-digi scrap site and found a featured artist or otherwise talk like that. Again, the question is IS IT A PROFESSIONAL business or not. I just hate seeing shit like this. And NO, I don't personally know Flergs nor do I like or dislike her but this did make up my mind about buying from her (which I was about to do). I just think that kind of talk in a professional setting makes her look like an idiot. That's my opinion and you can say whatever you like but that's how I feel.
______
Get over it? FUCK OFF. How about that. While you bitch about everything everyday here I sit back and hold my opinions and now I say it and I'm wrong? In case you didn't hear me the first time - FUCK OFF. I'll say what I feel, when I like and I wont let some dingleberry like yourself tell me I cant. Bite me bitch.
____
what? the word "boobies" offends you but "FUCK OFF" and "Bite me bitch" just roll off your tongue with ease? get real. you're FULL OF SHIT. you aren't a customer and even if you were, your decision to buy her kits or not buy her kits would have absolutely nothing to do with her using the word "boobies". you obviously have a personal grudge against her and you are grasping at straws here (the best you've got is she said the word "boobies"!!! come on!!!) to find any opportunity to slam her.
so i am a customer and i just went and bought her entire store because i love that she said the word "boobies" and i love that your attempts to call her out and take her down have now just generate an assload of income to her. yay you! flergs should send you a thank you card!
Come on already Flergs! Can you please be a little more professional and NOT talk about "boobies"? I'm so sick of all the raunchy talk and I'm no prude but I have never gone to another non-digi scrap site and found a featured artist or otherwise talk like that. Again, the question is IS IT A PROFESSIONAL business or not. I just hate seeing shit like this. And NO, I don't personally know Flergs nor do I like or dislike her but this did make up my mind about buying from her (which I was about to do). I just think that kind of talk in a professional setting makes her look like an idiot. That's my opinion and you can say whatever you like but that's how I feel.
______
Get over it? FUCK OFF. How about that. While you bitch about everything everyday here I sit back and hold my opinions and now I say it and I'm wrong? In case you didn't hear me the first time - FUCK OFF. I'll say what I feel, when I like and I wont let some dingleberry like yourself tell me I cant. Bite me bitch.
____
what? the word "boobies" offends you but "FUCK OFF" and "Bite me bitch" just roll off your tongue with ease? get real. you're FULL OF SHIT. you aren't a customer and even if you were, your decision to buy her kits or not buy her kits would have absolutely nothing to do with her using the word "boobies". you obviously have a personal grudge against her and you are grasping at straws here (the best you've got is she said the word "boobies"!!! come on!!!) to find any opportunity to slam her.
so i am a customer and i just went and bought her entire store because i love that she said the word "boobies" and i love that your attempts to call her out and take her down have now just generate an assload of income to her. yay you! flergs should send you a thank you card!
Hi! I hope you guys could give me some advice on digi store sites & designer names please.
The type of digi papers & kits I’m interested in are: pretty patterns, florals, travel, heritage, elements that can be used to frame or accent a photo,...
I’m not interested in: doodles, gaudy loud designs, fantasy fairy stuff, kids stuff, anything too “themed” unless it can be used in more than one type of situation.
Thanks in advance! :)
PS. I’m not familiar with initials or abbreviations of sites, so I’d appreciate if you could include the full name please. Thank you so much!
May 26, 2009 12:53 AM
-------------------------------
Check out www.store.dsp.me
There is some lovely stuff there, no CU regurgitated stuff either.
Again, the question is IS IT A PROFESSIONAL business or not
________________________
LOL Nope. Not even a little bit.
I'll say what I feel, when I like and I wont let some dingleberry like yourself tell me I cant.Bite me bitch.
May 26, 2009 1:20 AM
But yet Flergs is not allowed to say what she wants when she wants and how she wants without you spouting off about how she shouldn't say those things? Wow, hypocrite.
Flergs is flaunting all that boobie crap publicly on her storefront. ('cause, yeah, that's what I want to read when I'm trying to decide what I want to buy. *rolls eyes*)
Whoever is posting here is doing it on an anon smack blog.
There's just a tad bit of a difference, don't you think?
2) Someone who is a frequent poster on this blog really hates SO for some reason
-------------
Or there are alot of us who hate SO. Shocker!
------------
So what is a lot? 5, 10, 15? If they had no customers they'd have no store-hmmm guess they are still in business so you must be one of the few!!
http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showthread.php?t=193545
More A5D drama.
I'm tired of people saying that customers entered $0 for the price. I checked out with some stuff, some free, some not. It was set to $0. I thought it was actually a freebie and not a store glitch. It was only worth a freebie to me. I would NEVER change a price! (not even from free, LOL!)
The designers should be paid anyway. Glitch in the software equals store's responsibility. Owner should suck it up if she is that concerned about her designers.
^^^
Their CT is digging them further into a hole too.
I'm offended. I didn't take advantage. I checked out with items that were set to .49 and .00. I didn't change prices either. I will never go there again. Why not check your store after you turn on your sale?
On the A5D thing... I guess I am not understanding.
Did the screw-up involve pricing the items at $0 or was the correct price initially stated, but they left it so that the customer could change the price?
Either way, it was a huge foul-up on their part. But I would be SERIOUSLY angry if the item price was set to $0 and then they came back and said I needed to donate what I thought was fair.
Aren't they the same people that invoked the name of AE in firing a designer? I need to go check. Things just keep getting better and better over there if that's the case (tic).
The items said "enter your price". When I put it in my cart it was $0.
It was like the freebies listed here at SBB:
http://scrapbookbytes.com/store/digital-scrapbooking/sampler-downloads/
(scroll down)
They say "enter your price". I don't believe that you are required to put any amount in for those items. They are freebies. When you place them in your cart they are $0.
I'm looking at a few items at A5D and they are 20% off. Is that a glitch? Am I taking advantage?
I think I'll pass.
Wow! A5D is going down.
Yes, this is the same store that fired one of their designers for having a TypePad blog and using her own handwriting in her kits because apparently people complained that the designer was trying to copy Ali Edwards. And also not being very active in the community when she is 7 m. pregnant with twins.
It was talked about in the last post here if you want to look it up. Crazy stuff. What's going on at A5?
In two months there will be no reason for anyone to go to DSA any more, just like there's no one at MSA or DST anymore. The same group of posters that are all hot over DSA right now will get sick of it and find a new place to hang. It's just hilarious to see the same faces again and again talking about how cool and great and new DSA is but it's the same old crowd. Nothing new under the sun. Except for the raunchy talk. That's new! LOL
------------------------
ITA. Truth is, none of these new communities have any staying power.
MSA: I was one of the first active members of MSA, but after a while, I felt totally out of the loop and eventually I stopped visiting at all. At first it was supposed to be an open place to post without a bunch of rules. Later, they started complaining about 'commercial' sounding posts. It was a mixed message. It became clear that it wasn't a neutral community - it was just a site for 'Sponsors'. And even though I'm not a designer, the fact that they have a message saying they are 'full', yet you see the list of sponsors changing is a big turnoff to me. Just seems deceitful. The place is so dead now. Page one of the forum still includes posts from May 19 right now which means in the past week there have been less than 20 threads updated in a week. And the gallery is worse - Pages and pages of layouts with no comments.
DSA: I've been keeping my eye on DSA wondering if it's a good place to hang out - conclusion is 'No'. I predict this site will die soon once the contest is over. It would have been nice to have an alternative to DST, but I don't think DSA is it. A quick check of the gallery shows it's already dead as a doorknob. Not only are there hardly any comments, but the layouts aren't even getting any views.
As a comparison, let's compare gallery participation from the three 'neutral' sites (DST, MSA and DSA). Here's a comparison of the results of searching by views, last two weeks, descending view. An average of the top 10 layouts:
DST: 427-774 views
MSA: 83-121 views
DSA: 68-123 views
I think these numbers tell a lot.
I emailed Amy and told her the items I checked out for free were only worth the delete key.
I thought they were just giving out samples too. If you make a mistake in business own up to it. Don't start asking for handouts. It's tacky! And pisses off your customers!
I probably would have scrapped with the alphas I downloaded and went back to buy more!
Hi! I hope you guys could give me some advice on digi store sites & designer names please.
The type of digi papers & kits I’m interested in are: pretty patterns, florals, travel, heritage, elements that can be used to frame or accent a photo,...
I’m not interested in: doodles, gaudy loud designs, fantasy fairy stuff, kids stuff, anything too “themed” unless it can be used in more than one type of situation.
Thanks in advance! :)
PS. I’m not familiar with initials or abbreviations of sites, so I’d appreciate if you could include the full name please. Thank you so much!
___________________________
I personally suggest Traci Reed at Sweet Shoppe Designs.
http://sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=24
She has the best stuff out there and best customer service. I had an issue (nothing major) once and she was very sweet and professional (she seems to be fairly popular probably because of her quality and professionalism). She has a huge variety of stuff and I always find just what I need with her.
Good luck!
--------------------
Are you kidding? Talk about a bizarre recommendation! I love Traci Reed, but she said no 'kid stuff'. She asked for florals, travel, & heritage. There are many. Here's a few to start:
Shabby Princess from the Shabby Shoppe for florals
Diane Rigdon from Scrap Artist for beautiful florals.
Manu from Scrapbookgraphics for Heritage and Travel.
Gina Marie Huff from Weeds and Wildflowers for great florals.
The A5 mass email was extremely tacky. I can`t believe she would send out a mass e-mail to save herself the work of going through the files and emailing the specific customers. It would be more work but gosh, she screwed up she should pay the price. She should have had someone watching the store for problems, who could have done something sooner. I am sure alot of people saw it as a great sale and had no idea it was a glitch. There is a post in the forum from 10:28, indicating a problem. Someone should have been around to fix it. If you are a store owner that is your responsibility. You can`t just disappear and then cry about it later.
A5 is always screwed up. I can never find the sales when I go there. Yesterday when I clicked on Monday Madness there was nothing there? It was Monday! I can never figure out where or what the happy hour sale is.
I find it hard to navigate with all the big ads at the top of the store. They are no longer there so hopefully that's better.
And now they are saying that we should have known there was a glitch and just not checked out? Whatever. I'm a customer. I saw items priced for free. Price is price. The customers didn't adjust the the prices. The cart did and whoever turned on the sales. If they knew at 10 a.m. and didn't do anything that's their problem. And the designers should be pissed at Amy not on DST lecturing the customers for checking out when the cart had a glitch.
And instead of just posting an apology at DST, shouldn't a mass apology email have gone out?
I think A5's problem is that they are only about putting out the fires quickly and not really thinking things through.
And I'm not impressed with how the designers & ct represented themselves in the thread at DST.
The customer is ALWAYS right. If they see something marked as free then they have every right to get it free. It's pathetic that they would be treated as thieves.
It's hard to learn business from really life experience! But a business owner's reaction in this case can make or break them.
The problem with the A5 thing is that it wasn't just about hte customers who honestly thought stuff was free. It was about the people who figured out that stuff was free, and probably shouldn't be, and went in one product at a time to buy it all, told their friends, and their friends did the same thing.
They screwed up when they store was set the way it was...it's ultimately the store's issue with the designers for having let the store be set up that way. But there were plenty of 'customers' who probably went in and loaded up, item by item, cause they figured out that they could, and then all their friends did.
Amy should be responsible to her designers for the mix up. If Amy has someone else running the store and doing store set ups, they are both responsible to the designers for the store set up.
But the 'customers' who took advantage (not all the customers did...just those who really did) were stealing.
DST: 427-774 views
MSA: 83-121 views
DSA: 68-123 views
I think these numbers tell a lot.
May 26, 2009 10:55 AM
-----------------------------------
Hey Shannon!! How have you been? LMAO NO customers or people with no stake in a site go through such painstaking research.
LOL WV -- hallyzat
Hally zat you thinkin' you can fool us Shannon?
But the 'customers' who took advantage (not all the customers did...just those who really did) were stealing.
May 26, 2009 12:54 PM
---
OK, let's take this outside the digi world.
I went to a shop that had items on a shelf and the shelf was marked to $5. These were $40 items! And I knew it. I went to check out and the store owner told me that the sign was misplaced. The items were marked incorrectly.
The store owner had 2 choices. Thank me for bringing it to her attention and then give me the item as it was priced. OR Tell me that she has to charge me full price. Sorry.
Which circumstance do you think will lead me to return to that store? Am I taking advantage for getting the items for the lesser price when it was PRICED that way?
If I switched the signs myself, then I could be considered a thief. But if a store employee put the wrong sign up, then it's not my problem!
Ditto to the above.
I once bought an item that normally costs $600+ for installation alone. Well the stores website advertised $99 installation. It turns out that was a mistake, however it was not my mistake and because it was listed that way I received the deal. I will definitely go back to that store again when I need similar items or replacement parts.
if I was a designer at A5 I would be searching for a new store! Amy's email was unprofessional. They need to stop trying to put this on the customers as if A5 is the victim. They set the prices incorrectly and didn't properly test the sale.
" we hate to lose customers over something so trivial as an email some feel they shouldn't have received, which has already been explained and even apologized for."The email didn't cost them my business, but this attitude just might.
Her excuse of the impossible task of searching for the right emails is poor. It is very easy to pull all the orders of $0 in any given day. Pull those orders, click a button or two on excel, and there you have it, all the 0 orders for a given day.
They keep on saying how much the designers lost, but its not really as catastrophic as they make out. There is no actual product as in a real store( I know it is a product of sorts). I also think that the people that figured out the system to get free products never would have gotten those products otherwise. The lost of some sales is a given, but only a percentage of it is a true sale loss. I think it was shallow to send out a mass e-mail to ask for donations. It kind of sounded like the shop wpould not survive if the community did not buck up with donations. The store seemed to be in that situation for 16+ hours. Far too long for no one with access not to have checked IMO.
This whole thing is rediculous. So they goofed and some people got stuff for free. Whoopie shit.
I once set my sale prices to reduce everything by a certain dollar amount. This lead to some items that were actually less than the dolloar amount to be reduced to be listed in a negative dollar amount LOL! Several people got them for free before I had even realized something was wrong. Know what I did? I felt totally stupid, changed the prices to what they should have been and went on with my day. NO WAY I would have emailed those customers asking for money. No way in hell. It was my idiotic mistake.
What an insane thing to do to your customers.
They keep on saying how much the designers lost, but its not really as catastrophic as they make out. There is no actual product as in a real store( I know it is a product of sorts). I also think that the people that figured out the system to get free products never would have gotten those products otherwise. The lost of some sales is a given, but only a percentage of it is a true sale loss. I think it was shallow to send out a mass e-mail to ask for donations. It kind of sounded like the shop wpould not survive if the community did not buck up with donations. The store seemed to be in that situation for 16+ hours. Far too long for no one with access not to have checked IMO.
May 26, 2009 2:00 PM
----------------------------
ITA! I was going to say that too. They didn't really lose out on 1,000 sales as many probably would not have chosen to download the item had it not been free. I am so tired of hearing K Studios complaining about all the $$ lost as a designer.
And as others have said there should have been a backup admin to "watch" the store while Amy was otherwise engaged. Do the designers not have permissions in their own store to fix things in X Cart?
Also the whole, "you had to put only one item in your cart at a time and checkout repeatedly", the same argument could have been used that they thought that was just a glitch for the freebies but since they wanted to get more than one of the freebies they returned for others.
If it was so obvious as they keep stating that certain people did the above and kept checking out for only 1 item at a time it should have been an easy thing to spot in your store and even easier to email them and only them. What a mess! It definitely could have been handled better!
I find it interesting that Kami has now closed the "pirate" thread and edited the links to the pirate site in all the posts with "edited to prevent further distribution of pirated files".
Which is BS since Mel and some other helpful SO/DSA ladies already went in an deleted ALL of the pirate site's file threads.
Piracy is wrong. But to go into another (poorly protected) site and
1. Delete threads that did not contain your items
2. Then to edit the forum owners post and replace it with something malicious and defaming her character
was WAY over the line. They should have just left the trashy forum and the owner's post stay the way it was. It seems very unprofessional to me that Mel did that, and that Flergs and the DSA creative team members are joking and laughing about trashing this site.
It should have been left the way it was and left for the proper authorities to deal with.
3:39.. what site? what files? I think I missed something...
http://angelscrapbooks.freeforums.org/
that is the site that was taking SYTYCD contest kits and repackaging them and calling them her own...
Oh my now people are donating to A5 because they feel sorry for the designers. Amy put the donation items back in the store!!
Its like Chrysler and GM all over again, bad business decisions and expecting the public to bail them out.
Are you freakin kidding me?! I CANNOT BELIEVE that she put the donations up just because that one woman on DST said she wanted to donate to the poor poor designers. Give me a break! Sorry, as a store owner who didn't cover her backside oops, I mean the back end of her store and check to ensure all was working properly she is the one to be paying the designers not the general scrapping public. I know I will not shop at A5D after this mess!
Hi this is walmart and we were stoopid (intentional sp error) and left our doors open and people stole some stuff, now we can't pay our employees will you give us donations so that we can? Thanks so much suckas!
Yeah, and when we put up those 'free, help yourself' signs, that was like obviously a mistake, but some scumbags didn't pay. The nerve.
Dear. Gawd. It's official. Amy H. is a dumbass loser with absolutely no brains, business sense or professionalism.
The Karla Dudley thing was bad enough.
But this latest fiasco just seals the deal. I will never, ever buy another thing from A5. I will not ever put another dime in Amy's pocket.
I sure hope the decent designers there find a more professional store.
Amy should be ashamed of herself for so many things. tsk tsk.
A store owner blaming customers for her own screw up and acting like a snot about it in a private forum??
The new lowest of the low in digi.
oops, 'private' should be 'public'
For the person who said that SO hired Amanda Dykan:
yes they did-when she was pretending to be Lily Anne Taylor.
um, DC dealt with Amanda Dykan more than once, KNOWING it was Amanda and then slinked away and closed up shop when the whole LAT situation came to light.
I'm not a huge fan of SO or DSA, but that was just weak.
DC said they'd still be up (just not selling) til the end of the month. you know, so ppl would have time to dl purchases. but they're offline already.
DC said they'd still be up (just not selling) til the end of the month. you know, so ppl would have time to dl purchases. but they're offline already.
May 26, 2009 5:05 PM
-----------------------------------
Of course they are. It costs money to maintain the bandwidth to keep the site up, so they could get out cheaper by shutting it down early. Forget maintaining promises to the customers--they'd already blown that front.
And to answer the downhill comment; yes, I have checked the new designers over there. It's all the same, nothing stands out from the rest of the herd. I can get those kind of kits anywhere
After 5
Oscraps
Catscrap
Shabby Pickle
Scrap Orchard
Scrap Artist
etc.
I don't know buy from any of those places either though. I'm not saying it's bad, but it doesn't stand out. I used to love shopping at SBG in the early days, but now, it's just the same old same old.
___________________
Not trying to be an ass, but where do you shop then? Do you have something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?
___________________
Still waiting on this!! Also, which two designers from SYTYCD are leaving their stores for SO??
I wonder what the DC owner's part in the whole Amanda/LAT scheme was....I'll bet someone out there knows!
I am getting really sick of all the A5 designers and various A5 designer CT's over at DST.
I'd bet that the 2 designers moving from mystery store(s) to SO are from Shabby Pickle.
After seeing how the owners of the pickle and A5 have handled the LAT mess, Karla Dudley, the SUTUCS contest, and now the A5 sale that wasn't a sale, I can see why there'd be a LOT of designers from those two stores looking to get away ASAP!!
Yeah A5 is really taking a beating over at DST but I don't feel it totally unwarrented.
Karma's a bitch hey Amy H. So I wonder how many people got away with $0 orders yesterday. As if anyone is going to give back any money.
I can only imagine the pity party they have going on in the A5 private or ct or whatever forum! The only thing funnier is the shameless sycophants and self-righteous handslappers in the DST thread.
The A5 peeps only have themselves to blame for how every.little.bit of this has played out. It could have gone down so, so differently.
business suicide=blame customers for your mistakes
If there were 'thousands' of orders yesterday, that sure doesn't do much for the argument that they're all so underpaid and barely scraping by, does it?!
So let me get this straight. You email the newsletter list letting them know that there was a glitch and you know that several people took stuff for free, knowing full well that it was a glitch, and you expect them to pay a donation to make up for that. Hello. If they are dishonest enough to take it in the first place, what the hell do you think you are going to recover? And 1000 orders in one day? I don't think 1000 orders would have come in if people didn't spread the news that there was a glitch.
Be a profession, absorb the cost of your stupid mistake and take a few business courses on how to provide good customer service.
You don't have to sign up for newsletters when you become a customer, right? Sending an email by the newsletter addys won't reach everyone who shopped yesterday right?
I haven't shopped there before & had made the decision not to after reading about terminating the pregnant designer.
I am tired of all the A5 brown nosers blaming everyone else for the error. The person that owns this mistake is AmyH. The rest is just human nature, be it right or wrong.
I sent an email to Amy and have heard nothing in response...I was and remain PISSED OFF about how she handled this.
It was dumb-unprofessional and totally avoidable.
Amy doesn't give two shits about answering emails. She has proved over and over again that she only cares to talk to ass-kissers.
It wasn't a "glitch" it was a stuff up, and now Amy is trying to cover her ass with her designers by recouping some of the losses from innocent customers.
Its not too hard (or time consuming) to pull $0 orders for any given day or couple of days, and email those customers only.
The fact that its easy to do, makes me question why everyone was sent this email in the first place. Was she hoping that some poor old souls will feel sorry for her and donate even though they didn't take advantage of this so called "glitch" ?
As for the rabid CT, you aren't doing your store any favors, back off !! Number 1 rule in business, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.
Amy this was your mistake, your loss, deal with it in a professional manner!! Don't go blaming the very people who put food on your table for your bad management.
Funny I am on the mailing list & didn't receive this so called mass mailing.
Kristen, you need to quit lying. This was not 80 percent of the store. The stuff that was 0.00 was the bottom of the barrel. Get a grip SNOOTY.
I was there & it sure is funny how Camilla's, Cafe J, Martencja, & Kimla's stores were not affected.
Those CT vultures, need to go back the nest.
The fact that its easy to do, makes me question why everyone was sent this email in the first place. Was she hoping that some poor old souls will feel sorry for her and donate even though they didn't take advantage of this so called "glitch" ?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!
It wasn't a "glitch" it was a stuff up, and now Amy is trying to cover her ass with her designers by recouping some of the losses from innocent customers.
Its not too hard (or time consuming) to pull $0 orders for any given day or couple of days, and email those customers only.
The fact that its easy to do, makes me question why everyone was sent this email in the first place. Was she hoping that some poor old souls will feel sorry for her and donate even though they didn't take advantage of this so called "glitch" ?
As for the rabid CT, you aren't doing your store any favors, back off !! Number 1 rule in business, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.
Amy this was your mistake, your loss, deal with it in a professional manner!! Don't go blaming the very people who put food on your table for your bad management.
May 26, 2009 7:20 PM
Anonymous said...
Funny I am on the mailing list & didn't receive this so called mass mailing.
Kristen, you need to quit lying. This was not 80 percent of the store. The stuff that was 0.00 was the bottom of the barrel. Get a grip SNOOTY.
I was there & it sure is funny how Camilla's, Cafe J, Martencja, & Kimla's stores were not affected.
Those CT vultures, need to go back the nest.
May 26, 2009 7:26 PM
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I swear I am about to pee my pants right now because KARMA IS A BITCH and poor wittle Amy is getting hers. She is a money hungry, greedy witch! Don't bother emailing her she won't answer. She is too busy not running her store properly!! ROFL! And as for Kristen and her self righteous bitchy attitude karma is coming for you honey bun! And how funny is it that you are so into this yet your stuff wasn't affected. I am not buying it and I think it is FREAKING HILARIOUS! I will be laughing about this for days! Oh, and for all of the brown nosing CTers who think they are holier than thou...whoopie you get free kits...someone please give them a cookie!
The fact that its easy to do, makes me question why everyone was sent this email in the first place. Was she hoping that some poor old souls will feel sorry for her and donate even though they didn't take advantage of this so called "glitch" ?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!
==============================
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Man, after seeing this shit storm over Amy's management of A5D, I sure am glad that I've held off on some purchases from K Studios!!! She has been such a snot on that thread.
And cherryberry takes the C(un)T of the year award for her behavior over at DST. She's costing that store some serious sales with her attitude.
Obviously, these "ladies" need some training in retail managment and customer service. Maybe their declining sales will wake them up-but probably not. Those affected with the diva syndrome are completely oblivious.
Good luck to anyone who does try emailing Amy about this mess. She is notorious for not answering emails-especially if it's about a problem.
Amy this was your mistake, your loss, deal with it in a professional manner!! Don't go blaming the very people who put food on your table for your bad management.
--------
ITA! And I wish someone would go over to DST right now and speak up to say it. PLEASE!
^^^^^^^^^
I would love to see that! She is such a snot and thinks she is better than everyone else, but she got it in the end! I don't feel the least bit sorry for her.
ITA! And I wish someone would go over to DST right now and speak up to say it. PLEASE!
------------------------
Unfortunately you will be eaten alive by all the snotty vultures if you say anything, that they don't agree with. That's why I didn't bother to reply to the thread at DST.
The BROWN NOSER'S rule the roost over there.
Unfortunately you will be eaten alive by all the snotty vultures if you say anything, that they don't agree with. That's why I didn't bother to reply to the thread at DST.
The BROWN NOSER'S rule the roost over there.
May 26, 2009 7:44 PM
AMEN to that! They like to attack anyone that has their own opinion and doesn't agree with theirs!
ha! More come-uppance for Amy H. and her minions from hell-this story has hit the paper smack blog.
Second time in as many weeks-first the cowardly, dishonest way she fired Karla Dudley and now blaming customers for her "glitch."
Amy this was your mistake, your loss, deal with it in a professional manner!! Don't go blaming the very people who put food on your table for your bad management.
--------
ITA! And I wish someone would go over to DST right now and speak up to say it. PLEASE!
May 26, 2009 7:40 PM
Don't worry, they'll see it. They read over here just like everyone else.
link to the other blog please ?
Unfortunately you will be eaten alive by all the snotty vultures if you say anything, that they don't agree with. That's why I didn't bother to reply to the thread at DST.
The BROWN NOSER'S rule the roost over there.
May 26, 2009 7:44 PM
so.very.very.true
papersmack blog:
http://scrapsmack.blogspot.com/
thanks :)
Okay, one thing I did wonder. One poster at DST said that all e-mails that come from A5 have her name on it (like it's a typical, coded thing to have it say "Hi, YOU!" every time). That made me wonder why the OP had her panties in a wad over it if all newsletters are like that?
That is totally not to say that I think AmyH is in the right--hell no! What a mess for her. She should have sucked it up, maybe just commented on the sale/shop boo-boo and even paid her designers for their lost kits. It's not your customers fault AT ALL. Yeah it's really shitty if a bunch of people purposefully went through the checkout a ton of times, but come on. Amy YOU screwed up. Own up to it.
Really, it would have been nice to hear the OP at DST tell the truth and say "We don't owe you a damn thing for your mistake, girls!"
YES! Thank you simply.scraps for having the guts to stand up and say something at DST!
Oh, I understand now. Customers aren't fed up with incompetent, unprofessional or unethical store owners/designers. We're negative, gossipy sharks circling for blood. Got it.
So whatever happen to the idea that the safest way to know that you aren't getting pirated items is to download them directly from the store? I guess if you are getting them for free FROM a5 then you are still pirating? (according to one of their snarky CT's.)
I hope they realize how much damage their CTs caused by defending them. It sure made the entire site look BAD!
I can't say I've ever shopped at A5D, but I can honestly say that I certainly won't be doing so now! This mess has been mishandled from the beginning. All they had to do was either say nothing at all (which would have been waaayyyy easier) or maybe 'dang, we screwed up! hope ya'll enjoy your products on us anyway!'. Instead, they went the incredibly tacky route of basically begging for money and even more incredibly to everyone on their mailing list rather than simply pulling a report out of X-Cart for the recent orders. Amazingly pathetic response to a self-inflicted wound in the first place. Classic...
This is *hilarious*! Amy couldn't have done worse on this one if she had tried.
What's the link about the A5 drama on DST?
Recently at A5D we've had:
- the horribly disappointing SYTYCS contest...
- the firing of Karla Dudley (which we blamed on Ali Edwards)...
- and now the Memorial Day Sale incident... (and subsequent begging for money).
Anyone else think that they need to really lay low for a while?
I'm sorry, I had a system glitch and all my kits came out terrible. I made no sales last week. Could you possibly see your way to a donation so I can feed my kids? Thank you. I know I need to fix the problem first, but this is much easier.
^^^
thanks for the laugh!!!
"This whole thing is rediculous."
What is ridiculous is the constant misspelling of the word "ridiculous". It has an I not an E.
Sorry, I'm not usually one to correct spelling errors but this one really bugs me no end.
The part that is wrong about all this is the wording in that email. It basically accused everyone of "changing the price to $0" when a lot of those people may have only added one freebie to their cart and DIDN'T CHANGE THE PRICE at all.
Sure, some people worked out to get one at a time and not have to pay but there must be a lot who didn't and only had one "freebie" in their cart with other purchases.
The wording of that email insinuated that eveyone had "changed the price".
I think that is what is probably upsetting people the most.
"This whole thing is rediculous."
---------
rediculous = of or being very red, as in "I'm so mad everything is rediculous". ;-)
I think maybe you've named my next kit...
http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showthread.php?t=193545
What's the link about the A5 drama on DST?
________
Starts here:
http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/showthread.php?t=193545
Thanks for the link.
I'm sorry, I had a system glitch and all my kits came out terrible. I made no sales last week. Could you possibly see your way to a donation so I can feed my kids? Thank you. I know I need to fix the problem first, but this is much easier.
________
Hi! My name is Showan and I am a Nigerian prince. I believe I can help you with your funding problem. I have a sizable amount of money and I'd be happy to contribute to your cause. Unfortunately, due the recent political upheaval in my country, I need $5000 USD in order to access my princely treasure being held captive by the evil bankers. If you could help me out by supplying $5000 USD, I'll then be able to get my pile of dough and double your money faster than you can say "no whammies". Feel free to forward your money (sorry, no COD) to:
Showan
Nigerian Prince
Niger, Nigeria
Do they realize that the thousand free orders would NOT translate to a thousand orders if the items were priced correctly? How much of that would actually be purchased?
WTF, 11:20?
KimberlyRae has sunshine/rainbow diarrhea that thread.
Hi! My name is Showan and I am a Nigerian prince. I believe I can help you with your funding problem. I have a sizable amount of money and I'd be happy to contribute to your cause. Unfortunately, due the recent political upheaval in my country, I need $5000 USD in order to access my princely treasure being held captive by the evil bankers. If you could help me out by supplying $5000 USD, I'll then be able to get my pile of dough and double your money faster than you can say "no whammies". Feel free to forward your money (sorry, no COD) to:
Showan
Nigerian Prince
Niger, Nigeria
May 26, 2009 11:20 PM
------------------
LOL. I will be able to forward you that money, as soon as I have retrieved my mailing list lottery winnings. Bill Gates is so kind.
Do they realize that the thousand free orders would NOT translate to a thousand orders if the items were priced correctly? How much of that would actually be purchased?
--
ITA. Not to mention apparently 'the glitch' (otherwise known as I am a moron and didn't test my sale) involved people buying lots of very small orders instead of big ones (less than $2.99 was = $0). So, the 'thousands' of orders realistically probably would have been maybe 1/3 of that assuming everyone really wanted the stuff enough to actually pay for it.
Either way, suck it up, act like a store owner, and take responsibility for your actions that caused the mess in the first place rather than transfer the fault to your entire customer base.
WTF, 11:20?
_____
Which part was not clear? Showan is Nigerian prince with piles and piles of cold, hard cash. You are designer apparently running Windows Vista. What Showan needs is a small pittance to grease the skids of our new found "democracy" and then get you enough money in return to buy a real computer made by some Fruit company or something. So-
1) Send $5000 USD to Showan
2) Showan then sends back much more money
Easy as nooflefarb pie.
Either way, suck it up, act like a store owner, and take responsibility for your actions that caused the mess in the first place rather than transfer the fault to your entire customer base.
^^^^^^^^
ITA!
Either way, suck it up, act like a store owner, and take responsibility for your actions that caused the mess in the first place rather than transfer the fault to your entire customer base.
^^^^^^^^
ITA!
May 26, 2009 11:46 PM
*********************
I agree! She made the sale in xcart, did not check it, her fault. Deal with it.
Check out www.store.dsp.me
There is some lovely stuff there, no CU regurgitated stuff either.
---------------
Seriously?? That has to be the WORST store ever!!!! First of all the kits are expensive and contain hardly anything. And what's with the ranking of the designers? Surely someone needs to look at the crap that they are creating. It looks like SHIT on a BBQ
The whole A5D thing PISSES me off. They fucked up, plain and simple. Deal with it people. Get a grip and don't let it happen again.
What I want to know is whether the designers were screaming at Amy to do something behind the scenes to "fix it," the mass email was sent, and now has backfired.
Anonymous said...
What I want to know is whether the designers were screaming at Amy to do something behind the scenes to "fix it," the mass email was sent, and now has backfired.
May 27, 2009 12:42 AM
What, so now that blaming the customers has failed miserably, we'll try and blame the designers instead. Better luck next time.
Amy stuffed up pure and simple. She, as the store owner, must accept full responsibility for her mistakes and stop blaming others.
How long was the "glitch" in place that ONE THOUSAND ORDERS were able to come through with no one noticing or putting a stop to it.
If I started getting $0 orders, you'd better damn well believe I'd get the store owner or some admin on the phone RIGHT THEN to shut the store down until that problem was fixed.
Not 1000 orders later.
My thoughts exactly 6:28.
I'm not sure how XCart works but I know that in some cart systems designers get an email for every sale.
Why didn't Kristin Rice or Camila or anyone else for that matter realize what was happening LONG before 1000 orders were place.
On a side not-I did get an email back from Amy-another form letter-obvious from the fact that my name was in a different font than the actual apology.
Sadly-I don not feel any better because I think the email was forced and my perception of the email is that it is not sincere-it feels forced-damage control.
Thankfully I'm not easily fooled and actions speak louder than words.
I also sent her back a reply telling her that the After 5 CT made a very poor showing on the thread at DST.
This entire situation is ridiculous.
I'm sick of store owners not knowing how their software works.
If you accidentally set your store up so that 80% of it is free, and then don't notice for 1000 orders...
If you can't figure out how to pull a list of $0 orders (which is quite frankly just a basic search in xcart, export to excel thing)...
Maybe you shouldn't be a store owner.
The problem with the xcart messup is the designers don't have access to the store end, only their own product. So Amy's sale overrode anything the designers could have done. Amy said she was out of town on holiday, so there's a chance that for sixteen hrs or so, she didn't access (or couldn't) her store to see the mistake. And if no one had her phone #, there's no way to get ahold of her.
Many stores don't have admin backup for security reasons, but EVERY store owner should have 2 or 3 people who have direct access to them all the time for muck-ups like this.
This is totally Amy's fault for not double checking her sale...and it could've been missed easily, but it's still on her, not on the customers.
The customers who figured it out and started doing multiple sales to get the freebies are asses, but what are you gonna do about that? Whatevah. Suck it up, move on, get over it.
But I still giggle at anyone who is outraged by the email. Get a grip. All you had to do was go to the source, find out what was going on and get over it.
Everyone just needs to get over it.
Maybe this has been said, I haven't read everything here yet. I just have to say it anyway. But hello AMY...if you KNOW that the SAME customers kept coming back over and over to "steal" from you, then you DAMN WELL KNOW WHO THEY ARE and should've sent your e-mail to THEM. Stop letting your stupid designers and CT members accuse everyone ELSE of theft! This is on YOU, Amy. No one else.
A responsible business owner doesn't set up a sale and then go for a holiday.
Can we discuss DSP? I recently had a discussion with a designer that claims that their designers are far better than anyone else. She said that because they make everything from scratch and don't use CU products they are better. I realize that it takes a lot of effort to design EVERYTHING from scratch, but I also realize that their elements sometimes just don't look right as in ribbon, bows, strings, and even some flowers. I also commented to this designer that the preshadowing thing is just not right and the fact that each kit is limited to 12 pieces makes their kits some of the most expensive in all of digi land.
A responsible business owner doesn't set up a sale and then go for a holiday.
-----------
Responsible business owners are allowed to go on vacation, sale or no sale. However, they always have a backup plan in case something goes wrong.
hey amy - here's how it works - if you're a responsible store owner anyway -
1. you set up your store sale correctly.
2. you test the sale (hopefully before you leave on a long weekend).
3. you don't leave for a long weekend without having a way for your designers to get in touch with you regarding the sale that you messed up causing their products to be given away by the thousands.
4. if you DON'T do the above, then when you get back from your long weekend away, you apologize over and over again to your designers and pay them for your fuck up OUT OF YOUR OWN DAMN POCKET! NOT by sending out a personalized "how dare you check out of my store with free products due to a mistake of my own - now send me money!" mass email to your designer's customers!
oh and by the way. you don't fire your designers for bullshit reasons and then blame it on other designer's complaints - which you apparently made up because you don't have the backbone to let someone go for a real reason.
you don't run a scrapping contest and blow off every single deadline, or make it impossible for people to upload their layouts.
and lastly you don't have an incredibly holier-than-thou attitude when posting a response to your customer's complaints about your idiocy.
by the way, please email me directly with a DONATION that you feel correctly compensates me for my STORE OWNER 101 lesson.
idiot.
KimberlyRae has sunshine/rainbow diarrhea that thread.
May 26, 2009 11:23 PM
-------
She's the worst of all of them. PIRACY? WHATEVER!!!
Special offers in x-cart are always messed up. I can't believe she didn't test it first.
Can we discuss DSP? I recently had a discussion with a designer that claims that their designers are far better than anyone else. She said that because they make everything from scratch and don't use CU products they are better.
----
Well, little miss big head needs to get over herself. But it isn't uncommon to think the designers in the store you sell at are the best. Unless you sell at DigisCrapTown.com.
I have to say that I am impressed with the fact that DSP designers do it all digitally. They are god designers. But they just aren't my style.
^^^
I need some coffee.
"They are GOOD designers". NOT GOD.
LMAO!!!
I'm not a designer or store owner, so I have no idea how this would typically be handled. I'm curious about the LEGAL ramifications of the A5 glitch. Does Amy legally owe the designers the $ for every kit downloaded, or are the designers out of luck? If she owes them the $, this could put A5 out of business. Contractually, how would this typically be handled in other stores? Are store/designer contracts specific when it comes to things like this? If not, then they should be.
If I were a store owner, I'd review my contracts, my testing, and my processes to make sure that this doesn't happen again. Seems like some flags could be set to notify people of unusual store activity. I highly doubt that thousands or orders are normally placed each day, so this probably means there were some people that figured it out and had a hayday.
DSP? They're designers might be GOOD, it's a matter of taste right? But that store is GOD awful! Ugly, out dated, and from what I hear they hold their designers hostage by contracts that are unenforceable but they use scare tactics to keep them at their store.
Sad day when when a store intimidates designers to stay instead of making a good store so they want to stay.
WV= steyhr
we get designers to stey-hr by telling them they can't sell anywhere else for 6 months or more if they leav-hr.
Love the STORE OWNER 101 Lesson. My thoughts EXACTLY.
Go to your little party, but man, you better have your backside covered before you go! I have a team of at least 5 admins and CT friends who have access to my telephone number in case I'm ever needed like this. Not that I would be because I also have an account at the shop to test my f-ing sales out first.
And ITA about the 1000 orders coming though for hours upon hours. As a designer, I would have been flipping out, screaming for Amy or looking up her phone number online, and even disabling my products to stop it. They get an e-mail for every order. So were they all out of town?
It's shitty that it happened. But most people thought it was a gift. The people who really did take advantage of it over and over again--they suck. But we all know who's fault this is. It's not your customer's fault, Amy.
^^^
It's not your customer's fault, Amy.
ITA!
But it's not the designer's fault either. They do get emails, but honestly, they PAY their store owner to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen right? So they shouldn't have to disable their products for a long holiday weekend and lose ALL their sales because their negligent store owner can't get it right should they?
If I were an A5 designer, I'd be asking for payment or looking for a new store.
Can we discuss DSP? I recently had a discussion with a designer that claims that their designers are far better than anyone else. She said that because they make everything from scratch and don't use CU products they are better. I realize that it takes a lot of effort to design EVERYTHING from scratch, but I also realize that their elements sometimes just don't look right as in ribbon, bows, strings, and even some flowers. I also commented to this designer that the preshadowing thing is just not right and the fact that each kit is limited to 12 pieces makes their kits some of the most expensive in all of digi land.
May 27, 2009 8:44 AM
ROFL. Dover is CU. And it gets used aplenty. Just ask Robyn Gough.
I've only been a designer at a couple of stores, but I don't understand how you could sell at a store where you don't have the owner's phone number. The couple of places I have been, I've had the number of the owner in case of emergency and vice versa and I can't imagine being comfortable selling somewhere where that isn't the case. In other's experience is that normal?
If the designers at A5 did have Amy's number and were calling and not getting a prompt response, vacation or no vacation, then I'd personally be soooo out of there. Fact is, a small business owner (or CEO at a big corporation) is NEVER on vacation. That's the price you pay and if you're not willing to pay it, then you shouldn't put yourself in that position.
Responsible business owners are allowed to go on vacation, sale or no sale. However, they always have a backup plan in case something goes wrong.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
LOL... You've obviously never run a business, store or sale or managed workers.
28 days and counting to judge the scrappers choice awards? not that I have personal investment; but wow that is excessive isn't it?
The people who knew what they were doing and put in all the free orders aren't gonna fess up and donate. I wouldn't call 'em pirates though. The store screwed up and they took advantage of it.
Regardless, the store owner needs to suck it up and take her lumps.
And I love the store owner 101 post.
Priceless.
wv-paenic. People are all in a paenic and need to chill out.
OMG! I'm embarrassed for A5 right now over the fact that they have set up 'donation' buttons. This is so unprofessional...basically they are begging for handouts and exploiting their loyal base of fans. This isn't a medical emergency or a charity that needs help. And it wasn't a 'system error' either (It was a human error with someone setting up a sale who didn't know what they were doing). The scrapping community doesn't 'owe' them. And the sad part is that they have enough 'fans' out there that would do anything with hopes to be on their CTs, that they'll probably get a ton of donations.
Further, the people out that that actually DID take advantage of the situation, are not going to have a change of heart and send in $.
They've lost my respect.
The designers at A5 should be ashamed if they pocket that donation money. They should take the high road and donate all of it to a REAL charity.
It's not like the designers actually LOST this money! The people that purposefully stole the items would not have bought them anyway.
I agree with most of what everyone here has already said. The thing that bugs me most about all of this is the constant meme of 'there was a glitch' and 'the system messed up' coming from Amy, the CTs, and A5D in general. It doesn't appear to have been any of these things, but specifically was a mistake by Amy!
Oh, and as for the whole donation thing (which is sooo tacky), is Amy going to be keeping her store commission on these donations or passing ALL donations directly on to the individual designers? Since SHE appears to have caused the issue in the first place, it certainly does NOT seem as if she should be profiting from it!
And I love the store owner 101 post.
---------------------------------
Link please.
That's a good question.
The donation thing is tacky. The email was tacky and thoughtless. But those I can overlook. The thing that I find offensive is how the CT and designers are calling everyone thieves, it's robbery, same as piracy etc. The good customers did not know this. The ones that did and took full advantage of it would not have paid anyways. They should be happy that most customers do not read threads at DST.
ITA. Not to mention apparently 'the glitch' (otherwise known as I am a moron and didn't test my sale) involved people buying lots of very small orders instead of big ones (less than $2.99 was = $0). So, the 'thousands' of orders realistically probably would have been maybe 1/3 of that assuming everyone really wanted the stuff enough to actually pay for it.
-----------------
ITA - this is what's so funny. I don't know for sure because I didn't actually visit A5 during any of this. Sounds like she tried to set up a sale, which would give the customer 1 Free item, and a discount for 3 items etc. DUH - never thought about the same customer buying 1 thing at a time. Maybe they should call the donation item the 'Store owner Stupidity fund'.
A responsible business owner doesn't set up a sale and then go for a holiday.
May 27, 2009 8:26 AM
------------
Oh please! They are PEOPLE not MACHINES! They are allowed to have a life.
The A5 thing is just being over done. Mistakes happen all the time. No system prevents mistakes. A good system will help to identify the mistake and correct it in a timely manner. The fact that people got some free product is not the end of the world. In fact if handled properly it could have actually helped business in the long run. I"m sure some of the people who got the free stuff might have come back in the future and ended up making some purchases. The owner screwed up with her mass email which served no good purpose other than to insult many customers and advertise her mistake to the public.
So the next time A5 has a sale, do we have to question ourselves if it is really a sale or a store glitch? Will we get another email asking for donations? Will it be alluded to that we are theifs and pirates?
Tranny Jazzmin has spoken. The issue must be dropped.
I just checked other posts by Amy over at DST. It seems that A5 has had quite a few server issues. Many posts with...I'm sorry this or I'm sorry that. Starting a business and running it successfully is not always as easy as people think it will be. People who don't know what they are doing just won't last in this business. I wouldn't want to bet on the likelihood that A5 stays around very long.
The "store 101" post was in this thread somewhere. Might be in the older comments.
So the store and the people are simply gorgeous-dahlings??
I still agree that the supposed "loss of income" would not have been real income anyway. The peeps who did this on purpose would not have bought it in the first place.
It still seems the store owner needs to just say "Hey, we all screwed up and we're sorry." And then remove the tacky donation buttons.
And then when some other thing comes along that we can bitch about on here, we'll move on to that. It's how it seems to work. :)
Closing the thread on DST would be about as dumb as the donation email. People need to vent. Let 'em have their say. I'm sure the Shannon Club will come along and post that eventually.
It still seems the store owner needs to just say "Hey, we all screwed up and we're sorry." And then remove the tacky donation buttons.
-------------
I agree 100%. The only thing that Amy and any of the CT members should be saying in that thread is apologizing. I'm on a site CT and I would never represent my store in that fashion. Regardless of how I might be feeling on the inside, in public I'd only be apologetic for that email. At most, I might defend Amy's intentions, but I'd empathize with the customers and say that I understood how that email made them felt. If I were Amy, I'd fire all the CT members that are digging them deeper into a hole. By trying to defend A5, all they've done is fueled the fire and caused more drama.
Maybe they have finally been told to stop posting. The thread is now dying. Damage done might be minimal since most customers do not bother with DST.
Smart designers will get away from A5 quickly. Between Amy's stupidity and the bitchy site CT, it's like they're trying to drive customers away.
I hope the OP does not get bullied into closing the thread.
by the way, please email me directly with a DONATION that you feel correctly compensates me for my STORE OWNER 101 lesson.
idiot.
May 27, 2009 8:56 AM
__________________
I laughed so hard, I wet my pants.
I don't know why people want a thread closed just because they don't like the conversation. There is nothing wrong with the conversation and I would be deeply disappointed in DST if they closed that thread.
I don't think DST would close that thread. But the OP might get bullied into it.
So the next time A5 has a sale, do we have to question ourselves if it is really a sale or a store glitch? Will we get another email asking for donations? Will it be alluded to that we are theifs and pirates?
________
Such a good point!
Anyone notice the OP just disappeared? Every seems to be whining now that "no one will drop it" but the OP isn't going on and on. It's just new people who feel the need to add their 2 cents. That's fine but it is getting to be a flipping dead horse.
Anytime the brown nosers can't get everyone to join them in kissing ass, they clamor for a thread to be closed.
Whatever happened with Shane's Mommy, Keely Simpson? She was scamming people back in 2006 with stories about her sick son. And before that she scammed paper scrappers with stories about her abusive husband. Do you think she disappeared or is lurking around under a new name??
I've actually wondered about Keely, too. She's really mentally ill, and that doesn't change just because you're caught red-handed.
She's probably moved on to scam some knitter's forum somewhere. :o
I think the thing that bothers me the most is A5 team that the whole "poor Designers" and the donation thing. Its like they are saying that because the designers are all so nice and make such beautiful(in the eye of the beholder) kits, that we should be donating to the "cause". This just seems to wrong like the Keely Simpson situation. This whole thing should have been kept amongst the A5 designers and never brought to the public knowledge. Its like begging for money and that just turns my stomach.
Its like begging for money and that just turns my stomach.
May 27, 2009 6:00 PM
ITA. It's beyond tacky to ask for donations and put those buttons right at the entrance to the store. It's just sick that Amy feels like this is anyone's responsibility but her own.
Very tacky. I still wonder if AH gets a commission off the donations.
The sad thing is that the store will probably get more money through the donations than with the sales. I wonder if Amy will take down the buttons once the 'lost' money has been 'recovered'.
Amazing. Amy says she has "no regrets"
http://twitter.com/arwen1616
You know, with the way she talks about getting drunk all the time you have to wonder. The woman put her Mem. Day drinkfest before her store and her designers and has no regrets? she should!
The mass email stated "A5D has many expenses it must pay monthly in order to stay afloat. With the current economy, these costs are even harder to meet." So I would assume that A5D will keep some of the $$$.
^^^
Huh? What entitles A5 to that money? So tacky.
Ugh, those donation buttons will keep me out of the store for sure.
It was Amy's fault, period. She should never have sent out that email (I'm not "outraged", I just think it was a dumb move on her part). Add on top of that, the CT and designer comments (poor them, they were the victims) at DST. However, they forget that it was Amy's fault to begin with. Poor management. She didn't test the sale thoroughly and she should have had someone manage the store while she was gone.
Now the last straw is the "donate" buttons. WTF!! How is she going to report that to the IRS? She's not running a frickin' charity!
What a stupid way to run a business.
It truly is a shame that there are people out there who will take advantage of situations like this, but IT WAS AMY'S FAULT, PEOPLE!! She left the store door open to the thieves.
What a bunch of idiots...Amy, for not finding the so-called "glitch", the thieves who stole from the store, and the morons who are going to donate to a business to make up for the owner's stupidity.
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!
I am so done thinking about her. She is off having a cocktail,wearing her new flip flops and having a good evening. Maybe she should be going through those 1,000+ orders and contacting the culprits and try getting them to pay up. Instead of waiting around for "donations" and posting stupid comments on twitter.
I laughed so hard, I wet my pants.
____
Thanks! I crack myself up sometimes!
I think Amy, the A5D designers and CT and hangers on should read this article, it may prove useful:
http://www.wikihow.com/Panhandle
Isn't the whole donation thing in this case nothing more than panhandling?
Apparently Amy took away the donations buttons but brought them back at the requests of others.
So maybe every store should have donations buttons. That way whenever a kit from one of their designers is passed around a piracy group the honest citizens can donate to make up for their loss.
Give me a break.
I wonder how long those buttons will be up for and if she will report on the distribution of that money.
Can we discuss DSP? I recently had a discussion with a designer that claims that their designers are far better than anyone else. She said that because they make everything from scratch and don't use CU products they are better.
----
Well, little miss big head needs to get over herself. But it isn't uncommon to think the designers in the store you sell at are the best. Unless you sell at DigisCrapTown.com.
I have to say that I am impressed with the fact that DSP designers do it all digitally. They are god designers. But they just aren't my style.
May 27, 2009 9:03 AM
I don't see anywhere where it says the designer who claimed this was from DSP. I don't think any of the designers at DSP have a big enough head to claim such a thing. They all seem pretty down to earth to me.
There are good designers everywhere, but I have to admit the designers at DSP really are exceptional, the realism they achieve doing it all digitally is just amazing. It's a shame there aren't more designers out there who can do it so well without CU products and extractions.
And whoever mentioned the price of the DSP kits... usually the saying 'You get what you pay for' is pretty apt. There is a lot of great work in those kits, and there are NO recolors or duplicate items.
DSP? They're designers might be GOOD, it's a matter of taste right? But that store is GOD awful! Ugly, out dated, and from what I hear they hold their designers hostage by contracts that are unenforceable but they use scare tactics to keep them at their store.
Sad day when when a store intimidates designers to stay instead of making a good store so they want to stay.
WV= steyhr
we get designers to stey-hr by telling them they can't sell anywhere else for 6 months or more if they leav-hr.
May 27, 2009 9:16 AM
-------------------------------
No idea who you are but you have it so wrong it isn't funny.
I am a designer at DSP and I can tell you it is a fabulous place to design for. My sales are better there, than anywhere else I have sold and the staff and community are friendlier than anywhere else I have seen.
I LOVE designing for DSP and have no intention of leaving there...ever. DSP are so much more professional than ANY other site out there. No offence at other stores, but it is just run more like a business than the average SAHM run store out there. It is a professional business with staff.
My desire to stay at DSP has nothing to do with a contract, it has to do with professionalism, good sales and a wonderful community. Any designer would be lucky to be part of it.
ROFL. Dover is CU. And it gets used aplenty. Just ask Robyn Gough.
May 27, 2009 9:42 AM
------------------------------
Sheesh...who DOESN'T use Dover??
They don't use extracted CU products, or element actions. It is common for the most professional designers to use clipart, but you won't see recolored regurgitated CU stuff at DSP. They actually design at DSP
Besides, have you ever used Dover? It requires a lot of work to clean it up to a usable product, the quality is ordinary.
I have to say, I've only purchased a few items at DSP, but I do agree that they are very professional. It's nice to see a store without high drama. I couldn't care less that they use Dover.
I have to say, I've only purchased a few items at DSP, but I do agree that they are very professional. It's nice to see a store without high drama. I couldn't care less that they use Dover.
May 27, 2009 8:36 PM
-------------------------------
They even have customer service STAFF.
The drama free forums are great.
I have to say, I've only purchased a few items at DSP, but I do agree that they are very professional. It's nice to see a store without high drama. I couldn't care less that they use Dover.
May 27, 2009 8:36 PM
-------------------------------
WOW! I just had a quick squiz, they have a lot of great stuff in the store! Will have to check it out some more when I have more time.
ROFL. Dover is CU. And it gets used aplenty. Just ask Robyn Gough.
May 27, 2009 9:42 AM
------------------------------
Can't see any dover in this kit by Robin although it does look like there could be some in some of her other kits, but is that flower and ribbon seriously digitally created? They look like scans to me, actually a lot of them do..
http://tinyurl.com/pqme2r
I've been around this community quite a while and I have never heard a designer have anything good to say about DSP. I've heard they have 6 month non-compete clauses for all their designers and pay really, really low commissions relative to everyone else. Because of that, I avoid their store completely (plus it's fugly and almost impossible to navigate). I will admit that their designers are pretty good, though. If it's so great, what's up with the lame non-compete thing?
I use dover on occassion and it's NOT that hard to clean it up. A little time-consuming sometimes but not difficult. Please don't make it sound like designers who use it are soooo gosh darn talented.
But that seems like a double-standard to me, anyway. If someone uses "regurgitated" CU, they can't design but if they use clipart they're okay? I see a lot of CU items that are hand created by the designers selling them and are not scanned or extracted doodles from an over-used book of clipart. I don't see what's so wrong with supporting those designers and I don't see anything wrong at all with using those items as they are intended to be used.
When you get right down to it, it's ALL nothing but fancy-named clipart, no matter where it comes from. And there's so many resources out there, it's absolutely impossible to determine who made what and when for everything. I've said it before. It doesn't matter WHAT resource you're using, if you didn't make the original item being used yourself, it's a CU resource.
DSP designers are NOT better than any others. Every designer out there is selling their art and no one is better than the other. Why this has turned into such a bitch-slapping playground popularity contest over the years is beyond me.
^^^^
That's what I've heard as well...
I use dover on occassion and it's NOT that hard to clean it up. A little time-consuming sometimes but not difficult. Please don't make it sound like designers who use it are soooo gosh darn talented.
-------------------------------
I don't see anywhere where it said it was hard to clean it up, it isn't but it is not exactly a ready made element that you just have to recolour.
------------------------------
But that seems like a double-standard to me, anyway. If someone uses "regurgitated" CU, they can't design but if they use clipart they're okay?
-----------------------------------
I am sorry, but a kit full of recoloured CU elements and papers does not a designer make. It is not the same as creating an element out of a basic shape.
DSP designers are NOT better than any others. Every designer out there is selling their art and no one is better than the other.
------------------------------
No one said they were. It was mentioned that DSP designers were some of the best around, no-one said they were better than anywhere else. I have to admit, they ARE really good.
-----------------------------
Why this has turned into such a bitch-slapping playground popularity contest over the years is beyond me.
May 27, 2009 8:56 PM
------------------------------
Who knows, because it is fun???
I've been around this community quite a while and I have never heard a designer have anything good to say about DSP. I've heard they have 6 month non-compete clauses for all their designers and pay really, really low commissions relative to everyone else. Because of that, I avoid their store completely (plus it's fugly and almost impossible to navigate). I will admit that their designers are pretty good, though. If it's so great, what's up with the lame non-compete thing?
May 27, 2009 8:56 PM
------------------------------
If your commissions are lower but you sell more, you still win right?
A non-compete clause is pretty standard in any designer contract. In digiland or elsewhere. I guess it depends on how professional your store is....
I've been around this community quite a while and I have never heard a designer have anything good to say about DSP. I've heard they have 6 month non-compete clauses for all their designers and pay really, really low commissions relative to everyone else. Because of that, I avoid their store completely (plus it's fugly and almost impossible to navigate). I will admit that their designers are pretty good, though. If it's so great, what's up with the lame non-compete thing?
May 27, 2009 8:56 PM
-----------------------------
SBE has a non-compete clause, it is not exactly uncommon
WOW! I just had a quick squiz, they have a lot of great stuff in the store! Will have to check it out some more when I have more time.
May 27, 2009 8:46 PM
*********************
I'd like to know what products YOU'RE looking at? I can not ever find anything in there worth buying. I hate the way the site is set up (hard to navigate) as well. Maybe it's just me but I really don't like the look of all digital flowers & ribbons. I'd rather it be well used CU.
I'd like to know what products YOU'RE looking at? I can not ever find anything in there worth buying. I hate the way the site is set up (hard to navigate) as well. Maybe it's just me but I really don't like the look of all digital flowers & ribbons. I'd rather it be well used CU.
May 27, 2009 9:14 PM
-----------------------------
[shrugs]
Each to their own I guess?
It was mentioned that DSP designers were some of the best around
______________
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, so "best" would be a pretty loose term. over-hyped and over-priced maybe, but not best.
*********
I am sorry, but a kit full of recoloured CU elements and papers does not a designer make.
__________
A kit full of badly executed things does not a designer make, as well, handmade or not. See my first response about beauty being in the eye...blah, blah, blah.
My eye does not see much beauty in the designs at DSP.
If your eyes do, good for you.
LOL. Hi Robyn.
A kit full of badly executed things does not a designer make, as well, handmade or not. See my first response about beauty being in the eye...blah, blah, blah.
May 27, 2009 9:19 PM
--------------------------------
Of course, no-one is disagreeing with you there.
I do think however the designers at DSP have talent, and yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I like DSP stuff, you don't who cares?? If you don't like it don't shop there, I do, so I do shop there.
Maybe it's just me but I really don't like the look of all digital flowers & ribbons. I'd rather it be well used CU.
------------
I agree! Don't like the fully digital look at all.
Anonymous said...
I use dover on occassion and it's NOT that hard to clean it up. A little time-consuming sometimes but not difficult. Please don't make it sound like designers who use it are soooo gosh darn talented.
-------------------------------
I don't see anywhere where it said it was hard to clean it up, it isn't but it is not exactly a ready made element that you just have to recolour.
------------------------------
But that seems like a double-standard to me, anyway. If someone uses "regurgitated" CU, they can't design but if they use clipart they're okay?
-----------------------------------
I am sorry, but a kit full of recoloured CU elements and papers does not a designer make. It is not the same as creating an element out of a basic shape.
DSP designers are NOT better than any others. Every designer out there is selling their art and no one is better than the other.
------------------------------
No one said they were. It was mentioned that DSP designers were some of the best around, no-one said they were better than anywhere else. I have to admit, they ARE really good.
-----------------------------
Why this has turned into such a bitch-slapping playground popularity contest over the years is beyond me.
May 27, 2009 8:56 PM
------------------------------
Who knows, because it is fun???
May 27, 2009 9:04 PM
----------------------------------
*SLAP*
Yep - you're right-- it's fun!!
WV- unbologa -- anti-Oscar Mayer?
Lovely stuff. It just doesn't suit my scrapping style. And if the designers there think they are better than everyone else and their sales are reflecting it, then good for them. It's ok to be proud of the fact that you can do something well! They are good designers whether you like their stuff or not!
A non-compete clause is pretty standard in any designer contract. In digiland or elsewhere. I guess it depends on how professional your store is....
-------
I so completely and utterly disagree with you! There may be other stores that do this, I don't know, but in general non-competes are utter bullshit used by crappy employeers as a modern version of forced servitude. They're illegal and unenforceable in a number of states here in the US for good reason- they're complete crap. Tell me how it's fair to someone to say- Sorry, know you want to leave but you can't make a living or feed your family for the next 6 months if you do.
A non-compete clause is pretty standard in any designer contract. In digiland or elsewhere. I guess it depends on how professional your store is....
**********
Gee, I am a designer at a store that does fairly well and I didn't (nor would I have) signed a non-compete agreement with them. Thanks, DSP, for telling me that the store I sell for is unprofessional!
Good to know how you really feel. I don't do a whole lot of shopping since I make mostly my own stuff, but I'll definitely NEVER be coming to your uppity, smarmy ass store again (oops, sorry was that unprofessional?). I'll stick with a "SAHM" store any day over your sorry ass.
Shitheads...
Does anyone know the story of why Stacey Jewell Stahl left DSP?
But they sign it when it they sign on? Seems like they can't really complain! They didn't have to sell at that store nor sign the contract.
Post a Comment