Sitepoint recently offered a wonderful 5-for-1 pdf book deal with all of the proceeds being donated to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal. Certainly a worthy cause and one that had designers and programmers such as myself rushing to get in on the action. In fact, within the first day Sitepoint’s original goal of $50,000 had been busted with two more days to go. However, when the wonderful gift had ended, Sitepoint seems to be facing more criticism than praise.
Many are complaning loud and clear that they did not have the full three days notice to get in on this event. It seems many were notified via newsletters and other emails of the event. The sale was also largely twitterized which helped steamroll the massive event.
The problem is that many people who received notification of the sales event did not realize when the actual event began. Though the original post on Sitepoint was on February 10 and stated clearly the three day time limit many seem to have taken for granted time differences. Residents of the UK seem to be the most upset but US residents are also voicing their displeasure.
Is Sitepoint really to blame, though? Perhaps they should have specified that the sales event would be over by Friday, February 13, 2009 at 5PM EST or whatever time zone they were in. But, rather they said three days. If you look in the post details underneath the original post you can see when the article was published (Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 4:51PM). But there is no mention of a time zone. So, reasonably thinking, residents in the US Central Time Zone or Eastern Time Zone would think they have an additional 4-5 hours (from the post-time of this article) to get in on the action. UK residents may be thinking they just barely missed the event by an hour or two. All of us would have these thoughts at the same time. It is very reasonable to understand why so many would be upset.
But I don’t think this is so much Sitepoint’s issue as it is their lost customers. Most of the complaints are not that they just found out. But rather, they found out well into the sale period with another 1 or 2 days to get in on the action. The Customers actually are complaining because they procrastinated! I understand this is a rough period of economic troubles. Many (especially here in the US) get paid today. However, by the time they woke up this morning the sale was already over. Well, sorry. You had your chance. Perhaps you should’ve done as TheOriginalH did:
There comes a point where any business must understand they cannot make every customer happy. There will always be the complaints. Most of it will arise because customers realize they missed out on something because of they’re own doing and no one else’s.
But how should Sitepoint rectify this? Should they even try? To answer that question it helps to go back to the original idea. The sale was not for hardcover books. It was only for electronic PDF files. Were Sitepoint to continue this sales event the only money that comes out of their pocket is the time it takes to make however many additional copies of PDF files. They’re not paying for printing or binding costs. And considering it seems a large number of people still want to get in on this event as well as it gives Sitepoint an opportunity to show they do care about their customers, perhaps it’s not a bad idea to extend the event through the weekend?
Sitepoint: just make sure you post what time zone it offiically ends.
What are your thoughts?
Sitepoint would enhance their branding much more by extending this sale as well as help out their co-workers and neighbors who are caught up in all of that mess. Do it Sitepoint! Extend the sale!
i promise ill buy today. just give me 1 day sitepoint!!
Sitepoint loses out revenue even by copying the PDF files. That’s not a valid excuse. Customers should have taken advantage when they had the chance. Period!
What exactly does Sitepoint lose out on? Sure, $29.95 (estimated average PDF price) X 4 = just under $120 per sale. Who loses out more, though? Sitepoint or the victims this money would go to? There’s a point where recognition and awareness outweigh financial rewards. This would be a great example. I don’t think Sitepoint feels otherwise. I do believe that should enough noise be made they will extend the sale.
Plus, how many people from Sitepoint will proceed to donate at least $29.95 to the Fund for nothing in return? Many, for sure. How many will grab the 5-for-1 sale this weekend should it be extended? Many many more, for sure.
Just do it, I say. I would.
And what’s with the “Period”? My mom’s the only one I know of allowed to tell me that!
Sitepoint should have definitely clarified the time frame in a more detailed manner. In my thoughts, to bring back their prospective customers, they should in fact extend a certain period of time. Great opportunity for all to build their knowledge in all aspects.
Wow. Just wow. I don’t know what’s worse, criticising Sitepoint because the world doesn’t revolve around you, or leveraging it as an opportunity (“shameless plug”, in your own words) to promote your own site.
It would have taken you two seconds to find out what the local time in Australia was. Or did you assume they’d work 20 hours shifts to stay in their smoke-filled offices till past midnight to suit US and UK business hours?
You’ve got a roof over your head. Your loved ones are alive. You’ve got a credit card that you’re welcome to use at any time to donate directly to the Australian Red Cross – even if you don’t get anything in return. And all some of you can think about is me, me, me.
Wow. I didn’t think I sounded hostile in my post. Maybe you weren’t hostile when you wrote your comment. Sounds like it.
First, yes it was a shameless plug. Because I had ideas that were too long to post there and I deserve to be heard as much as you or anyone. Hey, it happens (as you so kindly inserted your own website address in your comment)!
Are you under the impression these complaining customers don’t give a rat’s ass about the wildfires or helping those involved? If you do, shame on you. This has nothing to do with the wildfires or that people don’t want to donate money for nothing. Yes, you can make the argument some people will not donate voluntarily unless they receive something in return. I made the point in an earlier comment and it is perfectly logical.
However, to insist that people are so selfish as to think the good employees of Sitepoint should ride out the fires to suit us Americans and Britains, are you freaking serious? First, don’t think for one second that someone had to log onto Sitepoint and manually end the contest (it is, after all, a website, in part, about programming). Second, Sitepoint continues to run, as far as I know, as normal. At least, I’ve seen new articles and content appearing on a daily basis. Am I saying they are not affected in any way, shape or form? No. But obviously they are not sitting in smoke-filled rooms.
This post was about what should and shouldn’t be done in a similar situation. Yes, the customer is not always right. However, there are ways to come to satisfactory mediums. It will cost Sitepoint very little to extend the contest. Obviously many are still interested in getting in on the deal. And the true victims of the fires reap the rewards. And everone’s at fault. Sitepoint should’ve specifically stated the deadline for the contest. Customers are at fault for procrastinating. By the way, I know how long it would’ve taken to make my purchase. I did so yesterday morning. I am not the customer that missed out.
Or perhaps you just didn’t read my post. If so, why the hell did you post this ridiculous comment?
BOTTOM LINE IS TEHY DIDNT SPECIFY WHEN THE END DATE WAS. AND BECAUSE OF THAT MILLIONS OF AUSTRALIANS ARE MISSING OUT ON MUCH NEEDED MONEY AND COUNTLESS OTHERS WANT TO CONTRIBUTE. BRING IT BACK SITEPOINT
You know, I’m reading more and more of the comments posted on Sitepoint’s blog and it really is starting to sound like a bunch of selfish whiners. I’m very curious as to how many will take the $29.95 they would have paid to buy the five books and go ahead and donate that money to the Australian Red Cross. How many of you are doing so?
Thanks for posting about this.
Unfortunately there’s another reason for the early closure, and it’s not the timezone. Our directory and cofounder Mark Harbottle added a comment about this here:
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/02/13/the-5-for-1-book-sale-has-finished-we-smashed-our-usd-50k-target/#comment-878118
Please take a read of that.
Of course, I mean our *director*, not our directory. Our directory is *actually* a big book marked ‘Yellow Pages’.
Raena,
Thanks very much for posting that comment. I didn’t even see it (of the 90+ posted already!). It makes very much sense why they wouldn’t extend it.
I want to clear up that I never felt they did close it early. My original idea was that the period was 72 hours and being that the initial post on the sale was conducted Tues afternoon around 5 (time zone unnecessary) and the contest was announced closed by Fri afternoon around 5, I felt it was sticking to the plan. Or, as I mentioned in a previous comment, programmatically halted at the end of the 72 hour period.
Still want to know how many of those who are bitching will proceed to donate $29.95 to the Australian Red Cross.
That’s right—in terms of actual time, it did run three 24-hour days (from Tuesday afternoon our time till Friday afternoon). As Mark’s comment points out, though, it was indeed an early closure.
Of course donating to the Red Cross is a great idea no matter what
The fact that PWC were brought in at the end was an obvious indication that something was not right. You don’t bring in big guns like PWC to count your beans. You bring them in to help you work through the questions which I raised elsewhere yesterday (link to my discussion with Tim on my own blog), as I suspect their legal counsel began doing as soon as they passed the deadline.
I have not seen a single argument in support of the “extend the sale” camp which is grounded in business facts and strategy that would benefit both Sitepoint and the Red Cross. I have seen a lot of foot stamping from people for whom Victoria is frankly better off without their money. How many of these whingers have the guts to buy a book at full price and make a donation as well? If Sitepoint books have helped their professional skills in the past, the combined cost of a book and a donation is less than half an hour of billable client work.
Heather, I’m not disagreeing with you as far as buying the books. Reading the comments it is a bit irritating that while there are many who are more along the lines of, “Shoot, I missed it. Good job anyway, Sitepoint”, there are too many that seem to just want to gripe. One even went so far as to gripe Sitepoint doesn’t care because they’ll write it off in taxes. As if that’s every businesses goal. If I make $50,000 last year and I write off $40,000 in taxes, I don’t see how that helps my business. Besides the point.
Perhaps I came across as attacking Sitepoint. That was not my intention. I received an email from Matt Mickiewicz, Sitepoint co-founder, last night and I responded back that I had no complaints about the contest but was merely of the suggestion that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to extend it through the weekend; yet understand why they haven’t due to legalities. My personal attitude is towards the people who procrastinated. But, again, that’s life. Some people just don’t get that inaction is their responsibility.
As far as copying the PDF’s, you had said in an earlier comment on your own site that mass reproduction without passwords for these PDF’s would hurt Sitepoint tremendously. But that’s untrue. These PDF’s are password-protected. I could easily create a generic email, post the books on my website with the password and let everyone have a free for all. That’d be great marketing for me, would it not? The harm of extending it purely based on the PDF factor is not enough to warrant not extending it by two or three days.
In my original post I asked for a median where everyone involved would be thrilled. Again, I see no problem taking some of these whiner’s money and giving it to those who need it. I really don’t think Victorian residents would reject funds if it came from Sitepoint or the lowest-life individual in the world. It all spends the same.
However, Sitepoint has stated why they are unable to. And I have no reason not to believe them. In fact, it makes perfect sense. Perhaps they should have done better research but it doesn’t matter anymore. Sitepoint may come out of this with no worse than a blemish to their name. I and many other millions will continue to visit the website.
Last chance to get involved in the conversation...