mad4themouse
<font color=deeppink>Never truly happy unless I'm
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2001
- Messages
- 2,360
I recently contacted Memolink regarding a prize that I've been waiting for since July, 2003. Here's the email I got.
DearXXXX,
We are truly sorry that you have not yet received your prize. After three
years of struggling with late prizes, we are still in the same position.
You have likely heard more than one reason from Memolink as to why your
prizes have not been delivered. Although we have had some problems with
our fulfillment system and old technology, the underlying problem has still
not changed. We are still recovering from the "Dot Com" fall out dating
back three years. Memolink is a small company of less then 20 people, and
although we have tried many different ideas, and several new marketing
strategies, it is a constant struggle to purchase $1.5 million dollars
worth of prizes for which we were never paid by advertisers. The good news
is, we have slowly knocked out $1 million of that prize debt in the last
two years, and those prizes have been shipped! The bad news is, we still
have quite a bit more to cover before we are completely caught up, which we
feel will be sometime in the next 12 months.
As many of you are aware, Memolink, unlike many of its competitors, still
honor the points you earn, even when we're not paid by our advertisers.
Other point programs are known to reverse the points you've earned when
they're not paid by advertisers. We've always felt that our policy was a
better approach as we didn't want to penalize our members for something
they had no control over. Recently, the economic climate for Internet
companies has improved. The resurgence in our economy, the positive trend
in online commerce and the failing of less stable rewards programs (our
competitors) are all positive signs for Memolink.
We do keep up with the buzz on the message boards. The most common
statement made by Memolink members is they just want us to be honest about
their prize orders. Frankly, we want to be honest. We will no longer put
a soft-cushion on our excuse, or give you a date that your prize will
arrive. The truth is, we aren't sure. We have many loyal members that
come to our site each day to complete offers worth many points. These
members keep us in business and will be rewarded - they will receive their
prizes. We also have many loyal members that come to our site each day and
participate in only "free point offers" that don't bring in revenue. We
are happy to provide these free offers, but this has caused an unforeseen
financial strain that may need to be corrected if prizes aren't caught up
soon.
What's our solution? We have created a new prize delivery arrangement that
will allow us to take many things into consideration before shipping the
prize to a member. This arrangement is designed to deliver prizes first to
candidates that will come back and earn us the most revenue, enabling us to
ship ALL prizes quicker. We would like to say again, all the prizes that
have been ordered will be delivered, but we will not be able to give you a
date at this time. After testing this delivery method, we hope to better
predict when your prize will arrive, but we won't be able to do so until we
see how well it works. Suffice it to say, if you complete revenue
generating offers on Memolink (shopping, credit cards, clubs, etc.), both
old and new prize orders will be given some priority.
The MemoGold program was launched to select members to show our
appreciation to those who have stuck with us over the years. We will keep
the system in place and current Memogold members will still receive other
benefits of having an upgraded account, but the accelerated prize shipping
won't be reintroduced until we have our prize shipments back under control.
Once this has happened, we'll be launching the MemoGold program in full
force and we can concentrate on giving it the attention it needs to be the
best elite program on the Web!
You have continually asked us for forthright and honest answers. We are
doing this for you today, even though it may not be the answer you want.
We have confidence that this is the best solution, and quite possibly the
ONLY solution, if we want to get out of this three year prize shipping
deficit.
We welcome your feedback - but understand that we are unable to answer all
emails regarding specific prizes at this time. While we are working
through this new prize plan, we will be concentrating on prize
organization, and emails related to specific prizes may go unanswered until
we know where we stand. All other questions related to your account will
be handled as quickly and as accurately as possible. Without hundreds of
prize questions daily, we hope to give more attention to other Member
Support issues.
We appreciate your understanding. Please know we are doing the best we can
to rectify this situation as soon as possible. When this new strategy
proves successful, and we are able to ship all the prize requests, it will
mean a new beginning for Memolink, and a fresh start for its loyal members!
Unlike others in the industry, we're not looking to take the easy way out.
We will pay off all prizes while continuing to enhance the point earning
opportunities and services available to you on Memolink.com.
Memolink has been in business since 1994 and will celebrate its 10 year
anniversary this June. We're looking forward to another 10 years in
business and hope that you'll continue to be a loyal member.
Best regards,
Memolink Member Support Team
Is that a bunch of baloney, or what? They need to get out in the real world more. Why would I shop thru a site that has a reputation for taking forever to reward its members, changes the rules for prize fulfillment every 6 months and never gives anyone a straight answer? Especially when there so many programs like CR and CTTM who offer personal responses to emails, prompt crediting of points and a decent turnaround time on prize fulfillment.
I'm placing this one in the "I'm so done with you" pile. It'll be right next to BLINK and ePoll.
DearXXXX,
We are truly sorry that you have not yet received your prize. After three
years of struggling with late prizes, we are still in the same position.
You have likely heard more than one reason from Memolink as to why your
prizes have not been delivered. Although we have had some problems with
our fulfillment system and old technology, the underlying problem has still
not changed. We are still recovering from the "Dot Com" fall out dating
back three years. Memolink is a small company of less then 20 people, and
although we have tried many different ideas, and several new marketing
strategies, it is a constant struggle to purchase $1.5 million dollars
worth of prizes for which we were never paid by advertisers. The good news
is, we have slowly knocked out $1 million of that prize debt in the last
two years, and those prizes have been shipped! The bad news is, we still
have quite a bit more to cover before we are completely caught up, which we
feel will be sometime in the next 12 months.
As many of you are aware, Memolink, unlike many of its competitors, still
honor the points you earn, even when we're not paid by our advertisers.
Other point programs are known to reverse the points you've earned when
they're not paid by advertisers. We've always felt that our policy was a
better approach as we didn't want to penalize our members for something
they had no control over. Recently, the economic climate for Internet
companies has improved. The resurgence in our economy, the positive trend
in online commerce and the failing of less stable rewards programs (our
competitors) are all positive signs for Memolink.
We do keep up with the buzz on the message boards. The most common
statement made by Memolink members is they just want us to be honest about
their prize orders. Frankly, we want to be honest. We will no longer put
a soft-cushion on our excuse, or give you a date that your prize will
arrive. The truth is, we aren't sure. We have many loyal members that
come to our site each day to complete offers worth many points. These
members keep us in business and will be rewarded - they will receive their
prizes. We also have many loyal members that come to our site each day and
participate in only "free point offers" that don't bring in revenue. We
are happy to provide these free offers, but this has caused an unforeseen
financial strain that may need to be corrected if prizes aren't caught up
soon.
What's our solution? We have created a new prize delivery arrangement that
will allow us to take many things into consideration before shipping the
prize to a member. This arrangement is designed to deliver prizes first to
candidates that will come back and earn us the most revenue, enabling us to
ship ALL prizes quicker. We would like to say again, all the prizes that
have been ordered will be delivered, but we will not be able to give you a
date at this time. After testing this delivery method, we hope to better
predict when your prize will arrive, but we won't be able to do so until we
see how well it works. Suffice it to say, if you complete revenue
generating offers on Memolink (shopping, credit cards, clubs, etc.), both
old and new prize orders will be given some priority.
The MemoGold program was launched to select members to show our
appreciation to those who have stuck with us over the years. We will keep
the system in place and current Memogold members will still receive other
benefits of having an upgraded account, but the accelerated prize shipping
won't be reintroduced until we have our prize shipments back under control.
Once this has happened, we'll be launching the MemoGold program in full
force and we can concentrate on giving it the attention it needs to be the
best elite program on the Web!
You have continually asked us for forthright and honest answers. We are
doing this for you today, even though it may not be the answer you want.
We have confidence that this is the best solution, and quite possibly the
ONLY solution, if we want to get out of this three year prize shipping
deficit.
We welcome your feedback - but understand that we are unable to answer all
emails regarding specific prizes at this time. While we are working
through this new prize plan, we will be concentrating on prize
organization, and emails related to specific prizes may go unanswered until
we know where we stand. All other questions related to your account will
be handled as quickly and as accurately as possible. Without hundreds of
prize questions daily, we hope to give more attention to other Member
Support issues.
We appreciate your understanding. Please know we are doing the best we can
to rectify this situation as soon as possible. When this new strategy
proves successful, and we are able to ship all the prize requests, it will
mean a new beginning for Memolink, and a fresh start for its loyal members!
Unlike others in the industry, we're not looking to take the easy way out.
We will pay off all prizes while continuing to enhance the point earning
opportunities and services available to you on Memolink.com.
Memolink has been in business since 1994 and will celebrate its 10 year
anniversary this June. We're looking forward to another 10 years in
business and hope that you'll continue to be a loyal member.
Best regards,
Memolink Member Support Team
Is that a bunch of baloney, or what? They need to get out in the real world more. Why would I shop thru a site that has a reputation for taking forever to reward its members, changes the rules for prize fulfillment every 6 months and never gives anyone a straight answer? Especially when there so many programs like CR and CTTM who offer personal responses to emails, prompt crediting of points and a decent turnaround time on prize fulfillment.
I'm placing this one in the "I'm so done with you" pile. It'll be right next to BLINK and ePoll.
...and I am sure that was quick according to some people! That is horrible! My Points usually takes *at the most* 3 weeks to receive a Gift Certficiate...I will continue to shop through My Points!
