17
Dec
2008
Posted by The Mad Ape as Affiliate Programs, Blogging 101, Mad Ape Rants, Scams
We have all heard the horror stories of StomperNet 2. Some of us have even suspected it to be a scam. Not me. I have always considered the StomperNet gang to be knowledgeable, hard working, sincere folks and never considered them to be con artists. However, their management has made some serious gaffes and now they are trying to restore their goodwill.
Grand Poobah Andy Jenkins, has issued a public apology, in an attempt to right the ship. Is this is a good sign? It appears that things are heading in the right direction. Although I feel that he is at least one month too late…better late than never.
Hi, Andy Jenkins here.
I’ve never had to write an email like this before – and it’s
one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do at StomperNet.Back in September, we launched our print journal, The Net
Effect, and offered you a chance to receive our top-of-theline
SEO training program, Stomping the Search Engines 2.0, for no
more than the cost of shipping. Nearly 18,000 of you took us up
on that offer, and although the vast majority of our customers
received the products they ordered without incident, some of
you did not. For that, I apologize.
At this point, we have reshipped thousands of products and every
problem that we are aware of has been resolved.We’ve heard some folks out there on the forums are saying that
our customer service team didn’t respond to them. While it’s
possible that a few emails slipped through the cracks, our team
has responded to X thousand cases since September.If you are still experiencing any problems at all, you can
reach our support team by email (escalate@stompernet.com) or
call our new 24×7 telephone support line at 404-348-4401. All
issues will be handled promptly.1. The Short Story
At the end of this email, you’ll find a download link for a PDF
file that contains the full story, in agonizing detail, of
everything we did wrong, everything we did right, and what
we’ve learned from this experience.My hope is that by sharing this information, we can help some
of you avoid the kind of problems we experienced. In the
meantime, here’s the short story. In August, before we made
our offer public, I placed advance orders for 5000 copies of
the Stomping the Search Engines 1 & 2 DVDs, and 5000
copies of Issue 1 of The Net Effect.We hired what we thought was the best fulfillment house
available, based on recommendations from a lot of other folks
in the online marketing space. We tested the shopping cart. We
had inventory on hand. When we opened our doors for business on
September 5th, we honestly, sincerely believed that we were
ready.2. How It’s Supposed to Work
The process was supposed to be super simple. Our customers
would place orders, the fulfillment house would ship their
orders, and we’d produce additional inventory as needed if we
had underestimated the demand.Our worst-case scenario was that it might take a couple weeks
to ship orders out, even if we sold out our original inventory
on the first day.After giving our customers 35-40 days to evaluate The Net
Effect and cancel if they chose to do so, we would begin
shipping issue #2 to our subscribers in mid-October. (* Note:
Although our sales copy described it as a 30-day trial, we
allowed an additional 5 days for domestic and 10 days for
international shipping.)3. How It Went Wrong
As I said, for the vast majority of our customers (well over
90%), everything did go more or less as it was supposed to.But when you’re dealing with 18,000 people, that’s not nearly
good enough.We could blame it all on the fulfillment house letting us down,
but that doesn’t do a darned thing for our customers, and
besides – I’m the genius who hired them. When you do hire the
wrong fulfillment house, that bad decision gets magnified big
time.You see, when you’re shipping physical products, it takes about
3 weeks to even have the slightest inkling of a problem,
because for the first 2-3 weeks, your products are supposed to
be on their way to the customer. By the time you find out that
a whole lot of products were *not* shipped on time, or not
shipped at all… well, the damage is done.But I’m getting ahead of myself.
4. I’m Sorry
I could go on all day explaining everything that went wrong,
but that wouldn’t be fair to those readers who just wanted to
hear me say “I’m sorry.” I am. Profoundly so. But I’d like to
tell you the rest of the story – and I think I can make it
worth your while to listen.
So, here’s what I’ve got for you: a 23-page report (PDF) with
the entire blow-by-blow story. Everything that went wrong. How
our team responded. What we learned. The steps we’ve taken to
make sure that this *never* happens to our customers again.
I’ll explain how *you* can avoid making the same mistakes,
and a few things that just might help you do truly amazing
things for your customers.There are some real gems in this report for anyone who does
business online – including an amazing solution to speed up
international shipments.You can download that report here – no opt-in, no nothing,
just download it and read.Thanks for your interest in StomperNet and The Net Effect!
Andy Jenkins
CEO, StomperNetP.S. For anyone who thought we were going to just disappear…
Not a chance. Issue #3 is shipping now, and we’ll be ready to
take on new subscribers in a couple days.
He seems sincere in his commitment to this never happening again. Let’s hope he is right because their credibility, their very future depends on it. Actions speak louder than words so Andy and gang…please live up to your words or you will only be screwing yourselves in the long run.
I will consider opting back into my subscription if they live up to their word. I will take a wait and see approach for about a month or so.
Technorati Tags: StomperNet, StomperNet 2, StomperNet 2 Scam, StomperNet Scam, The Net Effect, Take Back The Internet, Andy Jenkins, Andy Jenkins Apology, StomperNet Apologizes
Related posts:
5 Responses
The Mad Ape
December 17th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
1I did receive my initial order and can report that, for the most part, the content was of excellent value. It is too bad that all of this extra baggage of delivery caused ill will amongst customers.
At the end of the day I have learned a fair amount of new tactics for driving traffic to this site.
Having put into practice some of what I have watched, I have seen an approximate 26 % boost in traffic. That is good but I want more.
To get the extra traffic I have been working diligently behind the scenes putting into place a whole new section of content for this site. I am hoping to launch it early in the new year.
If you are interested in keeping up to date please sign up for my email RSS feed in the banana peels section at the end of this blog entry (above).
Talk to ya later
The Mad Ape
http://www.tatumba.com
Chris
December 19th, 2008 at 9:00 am
2I signed up to this scam too. I paid £150.00 and received…………………. You guessed NOTHING. Not even an email to my various complaints. I paid by visa so hopefully I can claim my money back and also let the credit card company know that they are dealing with a bunch of scammers.
The Mad Ape
December 19th, 2008 at 10:35 am
3Chris,
You need to contact them…phone call if necessary. I do not think you were intentionally scammed. Sure…they screwed up…but I know they will come good.
Contact someone, explain your plight, demand satisfaction.
The Mad Ape
http://www.tatumba.com
Bo
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
4Yeah Andy is real good with words, unfortunately actions do not follow.
“At this point, we have reshipped thousands of products and every
problem that we are aware of has been resolved.”
Complete BS. I know of about 18 people, including myself who have not received the product after 4 MONTHS! I myself had to dispute the transaction with Visa and I advise others to do the same. Stompernet has not responded to any of my numerous emails to their support department. Completely useless – these guys do not care. By throwing around platitudes they think they can regain good will based on nothing but yapping.
Good riddance…
The Mad Ape
January 4th, 2009 at 9:19 am
5Yeah Bo and with them jumping in and launching a new product called F5 within days of releasing the apology, makes me think that he has been a bit sleazy in his business practices as of late.
Read about it here: http://www.tatumba.com/blog/archives/753
The Mad Ape
http://www.tatumba.com
RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI
Leave a reply
previous post: Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion in Lending
next post: The World’s Going Loonie? | Goldman Sachs says get rid of US Currency
to top of page...