LIndaB

I'm wondering what others have experienced with the Burn Your To Do List service. I joined when the WSO first came out and was very happy with the service. However, in the past month, the service seems to have deteriorated. Out of 16 jobs placed near the beginning of January, I've received less than half of them. They don't seem to have the capacity to fill the orders in a reasonable amount of time. I've been putting in customer service requests for the past week trying to get answers, plus trying to downgrade my account back to the Basic Service as it will again be charged in a couple of days. have even PM'd the owner, but am not getting any answers. I'm just wondering if I am the only one with problems, or if others are experiencing this as well.

Evita

The thread in the WSO section seem to have disappeared...

If you did have a chance to read it, you would have learned that your experience was not isolated.

Evita

Sig Kappel

Thaks for the heads up..

Dave d

I was one of the many angry folk who commented in the main thread. As you said it started of well and then it went to pot because I gather that it got overloaded. My main gripe was when I cancelled after testing for a month I recieved an email stating that all work in progress would not be completed and existing credits would be deleted. In other words you are locked in and held to ransom if you decide to cancel.

So I do not recommend this unless you plan on never cancelling.

Evita

They also upped the price for my tasks by 82% in the middle of my subscription period...

Really not recommended business practice... ;-)

LIndaB

Yes, that happened to me, too, but I was willing to continue for the rest of the month because I really wanted my articles. They have delivered very few to this point. I have now contacted them over a dozen times in the past week asking to have my account dropped back to Basic, as I don't want to be charged another $300 when they can't get the jobs done. Again, no response. Looks like I'll have to call my credit card company.

LIndaB

Just want to post an update that I've finally heard from Rachel and she has cancelled my account. I don't know yet, however, if I'll be getting the 80 articles that still haven't been delivered. Hopefully, that will be taken care of as well.

Debora Humphries

Wow, I'm glad that I poked my head in here tonight. I was seriously considering forking out the $300 myself and now it seems I would be better off going through oDesk or eLance. Thanks for the heads up.

juzanobo

It's not really a good idea having employees in a different country when you offer a service.

Besides, you can only gauge the capacity of your employee when you are there supervising them. I know Rachel is using Filipino employees, I think she over calculated daily outputs of individual employees and keeps accepting orders even the order queue is still fully loaded.

Dave d

Yes I ordered forum postings in the weight loss niche and and when I went to check the URL's I found my product being spammed all over the place including the WF of all places . In fairness I did complain and they did them again but by then the alarm bells started to ring with regards to the quality of the service offered.

RussGu3

I understand that some of you have had some problems with this service. I'm also a member and may be able to provide some additional insights.

First, this is a very new service (3 mo). Second, Rachel has had a whole slew of new clients come on board. Now, while this may be a great problem to have, there are a lot of organization issues that have come up.

I mean, don't we all wish we are so overwhelmed with business from our launch that we have trouble keeping up?

Obviously, there is the need for enough trained and proficient workers in the various disciplines to keep up with the increasing demand. Then, there is the constant need to bring on and train more workers, project managers, etc.

Of course, any of us could go to any number of outsourcing sites and solicit jobs multiple times in order to get something done. And that might take hours or even days. BYTDL is a service that does all that recruiting, training, quality control, etc. for you under one "roof".

Yes, I had a few challenges with one work order I submitted, but in the end I was completely satisfied. And I have seen nothing but integrity, a genuine concern for customer service and an obvious focus on improvement from them.

Yes, there is sometimes a delay in communications, but again, their growth has exceeded even Rachel's expectations and initial planning.

So, if you have issues with being patient, this probably isn't a good service for you. If, on the other hand, you don't mind waiting a couple of weeks for a job to be completed at a price that is absolutely laughable, then BYTDL is probably a good fit for you.

Plus there's a new service they offer; if you want something done within 48 hours, you can order it that way for a nominal fee increase.

Personally, I'm sticking around. From what I've seen this service is only going to get better and better as time goes on. And as an offline consultant, BYTDL will continue to be one of my aces in the hole.

Finally, I get a kick out of reading some of the comments by rookie IMers. As if they know how to run a successful outsourcing service from the ground up. I guess I'll leave you guys with this: If you think it's so easy, why don't you create your own service? Oh, FYI, I've never met Rachel, am not an affiliate of hers (yet) and am in no way associated with her or BYTDL other than as a client.

Hope this helps clarify some things,

Russ

Dave d

This has nothing to do with being patient or rookie IM'ers. No one is claiming they could have done a better service thats completely besides the point. Yes I know some people may have teething problems setting up a new business or service but did you not see the amount of pi$$ed off people in that thread that has now being deleted. I understand your happy with the service and good for you but a lot of people are not myself included.

BYTDL was launched in a haphazard way without any forward thinking. Do you think its right to raise the price of service your currently subscribed by 82%. Do you think its right to be unable to cancel a service unless you want to lose all your outstanding work that you've already paid for ?

RussGu3

Dave,

I hear you. And I didn't read any other thread on the subject besides this one, so I really don't know how many people may be dissatisfied.

As far as I know, there has not been any raise in price for those who signed-up during the launch. There has been a monthly adjustment of services and a few credit adjustments, but nothing major that I saw. Not sure where you got the 82% price hike.

No, I absolutely don't think it's right to be held captive in ANY WAY by any company, period. In fact, it's one of my biggest pet peeves regarding the underhanded way certain online marketers operate. They set their memberships up like Hotel California...

So, if you've experienced any of that stuff, that sucks and I hope they get it figured out to your satisfaction.

As far as how the whole thing was set up, well, that's another area for discussion. Sometimes I almost wish that there was some sort of a certification program required before a person could launch a site that promises certain things.

Because, as we all-too-often see, a lack of foresight and planning creates crises, complaints and threads on this forum talking about mismanagement in launch after launch! Why? Failure to deliver!

Also known as: Value Disconnect

Hey Jeff Walker (maybe you've got Google Alerts set to your name and will read this), how about a Product Launch Formula online certification program? With a checklist of mandatory tasks that must be complete and/or pieces in place, checked and verified (maybe provided) by your service, prior to issuing a "Certified For Launch" designation.

I mean, hey, if eTrust insignias and the like increase conversions so dramatically, how would a "Launch Certified" banner from a reputable source like JW improve conversions on launch day? Or affiliate promotions. Particularly for service or continuity-based programs.

I know one thing, it would surely increase my confidence that the back-end had everything the front-end promised.

Ok, there's a seven-figure idea for someone...

Anyway, even with all the modern "Butterfly" type product/membership sites and launch after launch, it seems that it is still rare to not have several glitches during a typical launch.

And the bigger and more complex the product or service, the greater chance there is for screw-ups.

Hopefully, BYTDL's growing pains will be short lived. Could she have done things better? Absolutely. But if she can get enough folks trained to handle both the workload and the variety of work coming at her in a timely and high-quality manner, I think satisfaction will abound.

If not, unfortunately, my prediction for long term sustainability is grim.

For now, I'm remaining optimistic, patient and persistent...

Rachel Rofe

Russ, thank you very, very much for your words of encouragement. They were very nice to see, and I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate them.

Yes, as the same few people have noted, we had some growing pains.

The truth of the matter is, though, after looking at cancellation numbers, that we've had about 3% of people cancel. The overwhelming majority of clients are happy with our service - and it's unfortunate that those who complain the loudest are the ones that get stuck in everyone's mind.

Just so you know... yes... we did have some issues at the start. I did have everything planned out provider-wise from the beginning, but unfortunately, the group of people I had working with me basically just stopped working. (Literally - they just stopped working. We hired 12 MORE full time people and in 14 days, they closed a total of 28 tickets - after I gave them all huge raises and secure jobs).

I ended up having to get rid of the entire team and completely start from the ground up.

The great news is that we are now predominantly U.S.-based. We do have providers from around the world, but the overwhelming majority are from United States. People have been giving wonderful feedback on the articles and other work being done. Again, the MAJORITY of people have been very, very happy with us, and it really saddens me that the same people can keep complaining and completely tarnish our reputation.

Yes, the article prices did go up, and we of course offered refunds to anybody who asked for them when we gave the news. Eva, I think we even offered you a special deal, so I'm sad to see that you're still choosing to complain here. As far as the timing of the article changes - no matter WHEN we made them, they were going to be in the middle of someone's subscription. The article changes came to the point of, do I either shut down the service, or raise the credit levels. Again, since the majority of people really love our service, I thought we'd help the most people this way. Thankfully a lot of people wrote in and said they didn't mind the increases because the one-stop outsourcing helped them so much.

As far as credits, YES - it has been in FAQ since day 1 - if you cancel your account, you lose your credits. If someone wants one-off credits or wants to test the service, then you should have purchased a la carte credits that are more money. David, you mentioned yourself that we offered to correct the problem but you chose to cancel anyway. It's not like we were just offering crap service and telling you to deal with it. We have ALWAYS dealt with any complaints and took all actions to correct them.

We have also constantly been listening to customer feedback - that's why we added 79 new services that clients asked for this February, as well as added 'Red Eye' options for clients who want things fast. I don't think anyone can dispute that we have been listening and are actively working on making this the best possible service for everyone.

Dave d

Rachel while I appreciate you addressing the concerns mentioned and I understand outstanding credits becoming void after you cancel, there is one issue that you have been consistently hiding from over and over again and you point blank wont address it.

Do you think its right that when a customer decides to cancel all outstanding work which has been fully paid for up front is cancelled ie holding a client to ransom or completely locking them into your service with no way out.

Rachel Rofe

I am not sure I understand this question.

I thought I addressed that earlier when I mentioned you lose your credits when you cancel.

You have said in this thread that:

a) You decided to cancel your outstanding work, even though we offered to fix whatever complaints you had.

b) You understand credits become void after you cancel.

So, by your logic alone, I'm not sure how we'd be holding you ransom or locking you in. You understand credits are voided after you cancel, and you understand we did offer to fix your work.

There is a way out, obviously - just cancel and forfeit your credits. Again -

I understand maybe you thought you'd want this long-term but then decided you didn't like the service... but being as we offered to fix your issues and you chose not to have them fixed, I would say that was fully your decision.

cypherslock

If the person cancelled and refused fixes or help, then how is that being held hostage? Sorry I'm with Rachel, you have no complaint.

kevin campbelle

I guess that answers Linda's question.

Interesting scenario this. I wonder what happens if a member decides to be patient (like Russ pointed out) and keep paying the monthly subscription even though they are not getting their work completed by the end of the month and they keep renewing their subscription in the hope of the work actually catching up with their subscription payment.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that the credits roll over, which is good but if the work continually stays behind your payment subscription then when you cancel 3 or 4 months down the line you could end up losing all your outstanding credits AND the money that you paid for the months that you were subscribed for.

Win Win scenario for the provider.
Lose Lose scenario for the customer.

IMHO, IF someone cancels and does a refund or chargeback (or refuse offers to have their account fixed) then they should have have their credits cancelled, otherwise work that is paid for should be honored.


Kevin.

Rachel Rofe

Kevin,

Linda's case was different from David's. We are still doing her articles. She wanted to downgrade her account, not cancel it.

cypherslock, Thank you very much. I appreciate the positive words.

LHighland

I hadn't used my credits up til now. Ordered several
articles over the weekend.

I have received two articles back and completed already
today (Monday), and was estatic with the quality of the
content.

:-)

Dave d

Ok sorry if I have not made myself clear. I will try to be as clear as possible here. I fully understanding losing outstanding credits if I cancel I do not have a gripe with that, but here is my issue - I recieved an email from BYTDL after I cancelled which stated that because I cancelled all tasks which were in the queue or currently in progress would be cancelled. Now that is wrong because I had already paid for them or used credits on them which ever way you want to phrase it.

Now I had cancelled at the end of the month and ordered my tasks etc well before. So once again how can you possibly cancel if you will lose all your work that you have previously ordred, as you will see that has nothing to do with outstanding credits.

And Rachel I never stated in this thread that I decided to cancel outstanding work. You offered a monthly service and I tested it for a month. Even if I had used it for 6 months or whatever length of time as soon as you cancel which a customer has a right to do you get an automated email stating work in progress will be cancelled. Again you will still not address this issue even though I have asked you numerous times. So once again can you please tell me why do you cancel work in progress that has already been paid for by the client if they cancel. That is all I want the answer to !

Rachel Rofe

David... when you forfeit you credits, that includes orders that hadn't yet been done. It's the same deal... giving up membership is giving up membership. I don't mean to keep repeating myself but if you wanted to test out the service, the recommended route would be to purchase credits a la carte. The aim of membership is NOT for people to test the service out... that's what a la carte is for.

That's wonderful to hear - thank you very much!!

Dave d

What a very strange way to do business. Anyway thanks for finally answering my question thats all I ever wanted. Its a shame I had to keep re-asking it in a public forum.

Have a good day.

Rachel Rofe

Well, the full quote was:

The reason I didn't answer your questions was because I didn't understand them. As you can see, once you elaborated, I was more than happy to respond.

Have a great day.

Bishops

Hi Rachel

I saw from your FAQ’s on your site that you guarantee work will be completed in 30 days.

How long does it take to get work done?
Work is generally done within 2 weeks, though we guarantee for 30 days to err on the safe side.

What happens in instances when you do not fulfil the work within the 30 day guaranteed period?

Yogini

I also was wondering about what happens if it's 30 days as I place orders on Jan 16th , 17th and 20th that haven't been done and the ones placed on the 16th are almost 30 days. Will we get extra credits or money back?

I also am confused about why I got a mailing from someone who they are doing a JV with for a free 1 credit because they seemed so backed up and to now offer a free credit will really strain the staff further. Wouldn't it make more sense to first complete the orders that are 28 days backed up?

Though the original thread was deleted I also experience problems that were mentioned in taking days to hear back from customer service and getting incomplete answers. I had asked on Feb 4th about my Jan 16th orders (I had 3 of them) and was told on the 8th that the one on the 19th was done. That wasn't my question though: I had asked about my orders from the 16th. I wasn't sure why they didn't just look at my history to see the problem I had asked about. Due to this, then a further delay was created as I had to write back again about this. I was told a few days ago that it would be taken care of immediately. It wasn't , so I wrote back today and was told I'd hear back tonight. Perhaps either more outsourcers are needed or customer support staff.

Debbie

Rachel Rofe

V1nny, the work is free when not done in the 30 day timeline. This is NOT normal at all, though.

(FYI we can't give credits back since credits aren't charged until a task is completed, so you'd just not be charged. Again though, this is NOT the standard at all.)

Debbie, we have responded to you.

Just so EVERYONE knows - we are actively clearing out issues with our older tickets (ones mis-assigned, etc). The help desk system we've been using isn't as awesome as we would have liked, so some of the older tickets got stuck. There are not that many of them, but they do exist and we're very proactively working on them. We are:

a) Going through all old tickets that haven't been done and getting them implemented right away

b) Actively searching for an upgraded system.

Also, just so everyone knows... WE ARE CONSTANTLY WORKING ON MAKING UPGRADES.

Our average delivery time frame for tickets that have been closed is getting better and better.

In December, we had a 17 day average to close out tickets.
In January, we had a 10 day average (improved by 46%)
In February (so far), we're down to a 4 day average, which means we have improved turnaround time by 76% since December.

New tickets are not a problem any more - like I said, it's just the closing down of a few other ones.

We are constantly, constantly, CONSTANTLY looking for ways to improve and make this the best service possible.

I appreciate the positive comments a lot of you have been sending in - they light up everyone on the team's day.

On that note, I'd love to refer you to a case study we just got published from one of our phenomenal clients.

You can download it right here.

This client made her first sale through us, increased traffic by 24% her first month, and is a RAVING FAN.

msmeth

Ok, after reading Rachel's reply here I am about to explode out of my chair. Rather then do that, I will share my experience as a Burn Your To Do List customer, which conflicts with just about everything Rachel just said.

First off, I was never informed about a 30 day timeline meaning that work would be done free of charge but that I suppose that is another matter entirely.

I signed up for Burn Your To Do List in late December and was among the first 100 people to sign up. I signed up for the Creme De Le Creme plan for 100 credits at $300 per month and submitted my first "big" order (60 some odd articles) on January 11th. I made the submission about 2 hours before or possibly right after Rachel sent out a sitewide message saying that the rates for many of their services had gone up significantly, in addition to announcing a few new procedural related changes, one of which was that article orders had to be broken down into smaller tickets with at most 10 or so articles each. Once I read this email the next day I got worried that they would mess my order up because it was grouped as one ticket (as it was submitted before this new rule was made or there was any formalized criteria for submission) so , I sent a verification email to them to make sure that my ticket would be handled correctly:

I received a message back saying that they had everything under control...

So, 2 1/2 weeks go by and still no articles. So on January 29th I messaged them to ask them when I would receive the work. They responded by asking me "what work are you referring to?" (bear in mind that the ticket in which we were communicating was the very same ticket that this order was submitted and confirmed on, so all the person had to do was scroll up to read the past messages).

At that point I thought the person was joking and proceeded to send them a series of messages. I received a response from Rachel two days later in which she in a nice way blamed me for the issues:

If you read the first two quoted messages, its easy to see that I did go out of my way to confirm things. After I cooled down I decided to drop it anyway since I have a good price with them and Rachel promised that she would rush my order.

So....now it is February 18th (another 2 1/2 weeks since I was told my order would be rushed) and I have received a total of 5 out of around 60 of the articles in this order. Of these 5, none of them were written as instructed or even incorporate the keyword that I specified (but I just decided to make do since they were grammatically correct for the most part and I need some content badly).

I emailed support on Monday of this week asking why I hadn't received my "rushed" order and asking when I would receive it. I was told by someone through one of the tickets that they were "working on it". I then followed up with a message today and a message yesterday. Still no response...still no articles.

I can honestly say that this has been the worst experiences I've ever had with outsourcing content. I want to like this service because Rachel seems like a sweet person and I think she means well, but this is just flat out unacceptable. This latest message by her adds insult to injury. I would strongly recommend looking elsewhere for outsourcing, especially at their current rate. As for me, I am hoping that posting here on the Warrior Forum will finally make this a priority for Rachel as I've given her every opportunity to fix this and I do not know what else to do at this point.

Regardless of what happens going forward, I will report back here for the benefit of others who might be considering this service. As for now, I would strongly urge you to look elsewhere.

Mike

Johnnyk100

Rachel, things were slow in Januray but acceptable. In February, your staff has not even touched my seven requests. I asked for updates and your saff just email back that I should wait 28 days or so. I want to give you a chance but nothing has been done on any of my orders in Feb. What do you recommend I do at this point?

Johnny

Johnnyk100

Rachel, while you enjoy my $55.00 payment, could you perhaps instead of blogging can you get to some of my reqests? Nice blog, well written, but not a priority for your many paying customers who have no service for their payment.

Johnny

msmeth

Wow...I still haven't heard back from Rachel or anyone else. I suppose I will give them a couple more days but if I don't hear back soon I'm just going to open up paypal and credit card disputes on the payments I made to them and file with the BBB.

If anyone knows of a good, affordable, and dependable service / person to outsource about 60-100 articles per month worth of work to, please let me know.

Jeremy Kelsall

I don't really care about the delays. Typically, I expect a delay when I outsource something and usually give a couple week cushion anyway.

Here's my question though...

Say I sign up for the big package - $300 a month. I'm a member for 2 months and submit jobs for my credits, then month 3 I decide that I don't want to continue....

My work doesn't get completed and my credits are lost, or am I understanding this wrong?

Justin Wheeler

Gosh. How very disappointing. I was about to sign up for the small business package and for a creme de la creme package. Think I will go back to the drawing board.

Shame really

Rachel Rofe

Hey guys,

Mike - I canceled and refunded your account. I hadn't been checking this thread as it just tends to upset me , but I did see your support requests and had responded to them. Either way though, I wish you the best of luck in the future and apologize for your article fiasco.

Johnny - I'm not sure what your full name is as I don't see any tickets with your questions from a "John" - either on the help desk or on email. It is possible you came here directly to complain though. Please PM me so I can help sort things out. As for the blog, unfortunately I can't spend 24 hours a day on BYTDL - I eventually burn out, so I replenish myself other ways and then come back. I have put in plenty of 20 hour days though, hopefully that suits your needs.

Jeremy - I am going to PM you. I'd rather not feed this thread any more.

Justin - I'd actually prefer if you didn't sign up until we got the new ticketing system in place anyway (March), but I am happy to tell you that the majority of clients we have are pretty happy. I think my project manager said we had a 3% refund rate or something like that. It's unfortunate that the people who complain the loudest seem to be what people reference, but I can accept that.

lisaann

Just thought I'd write this.

I signed up to Rachel's service right away, not sure exactly when that was. My first 2 orders took a very long time to complete. But they did complete them and gave them to me for free.

Just this past week I placed another order for 10 articles and used the rush service. I received them within just a few days and they are very well written.

So that's a huge improvement. Maybe something like a 10-fold improvement over a couple of months. I would really like to think the service had some growing pains in the beginning and maybe now things will be sorted out.

I've outsourced a lot over several years and I would say that maybe 30% of the people I outsource to flake out or just flat out don't do a good job. If you've done a lot of outsourcing yourself then you'll be able to identify with this unless you've just been lucky. I think the service is priced very low, which is why I jumped on it at first and can understand there might be issues from time to time, but again, I'm hoping more of my projects will be completed like the last one.

If so this will be an incredible deal and I'd like to thank Rachel for putting this together. It really is a great idea and I'm hoping it all works out.

Lisa

Rachel Rofe

Lisa,

Thank you VERY MUCH for taking the time out to post this.


I'm glad you noticed the changes. Like I mentioned, we went from a 17 day average turnaround in December to 10 days in January and 4 in February... and we're aiming for even faster in March (we'll have an updated ticketing system, too - praise the lord ).

We definitely had growing pains and are still working out some kinks, but we truly are dedicated to making this work... and be awesome, at that.

Johnnyk100

Rachel, cant PM yet. Here are ticket numbers:

1075,1074,1039,1038,1037

I look forward to your help on this. Like I said, your service was reponsive in January, but literally you have disapeared this month.

John

Rachel Rofe

John,

Gotcha. I just checked and every single one of those tickets was responded to.

I also checked your old tickets - we only gave status updates when you asked for them, just like with the old tickets. Nothing changed from before when you said you were happy.

We did tell you the reports were being worked on, on every single ticket. If providers gave every client a "Here's where I am today" report, it would take a significant chunk of time out when they could be actually getting work done.

Further, your tickets are not even close to 30 days out (not that we're going for that, but the way that I read your initial post, I was worried that they were close to overdue or something).

As for #1039, you have been getting blog entries done every week... nothing wrong with that ticket...

I would really appreciate it if you would email support with these things as posting here makes us look like we're doing a terrible job, when in actuality, what you are referring to is consistent with what you've gotten all along - and said you were happy with.

Again, we are doing our best to make things even better... ACTIVELY... but I don't see in this case, why you would have taken the time to complain here, as well as complain that I made a blog post. Nothing had changed.

I am not trying to be rude here... quite the contrary, I would love to make everyone happy... but I guess I'm just perplexed.

If you have further questions, you can feel free to email me at support@burnyourtodolist.com and I'd be happy to help out.

Thanks

areaK

Rachel, I don't know if you use a Project Management System in addition to your ticket system but we use Intervals as a PMS and it works well for our team...whether it's assigning articles, social property creation, whatever, it's very well organized and you can easily glance at tasks to see if everyone has completed what they were supposed to complete. I love it because I can quickly tell if people are not on their J.O.B. so that if they're not, tasks can be quickly reassigned to someone else or otherwise dealt with - helps us avoid late completions, etc. in a major way. Again, don't know what your backend is set up like and we are still somewhat developing ours more but I really love Intervals, make my life easier overall =) (I even assign myself personal tasks there because it helps me keep my own stuff on track too)

Best wishes =)

Rachel Rofe

Thank you for the recommendation regarding the Intervals Project Management system.

Our project manager has been spending the past two weeks investigating systems that would be suitable for upgrade and provide what we need so that:


- Customers can log in to see their own ticket details and history
- Customers can log in to see their credit information and current balance
- Help appears to show customers what information we require for the relevant task when they create a new ticket
- The system is easily usable by providers
- The admin side of the system allows for in-depth reporting
- System will auto-escalate tickets that meet certain criteria
- Advanced reporting on provider performance
- Advanced reporting on services provided to each customer
- etc

Intervals is one of over 50 systems that was considered, however would not address all of our current requirements. We do appreciate your thought, though.


We have narrowed the list down to 2 possible systems and are currently in negotiations with programmers regarding what modifications would need to be carried out on each system.

Our intention is to have the new system operational in early March.

In regard to the issues with December orders. Upgrades to our existing system that were carried out at the end of January were implemented at the new ticket stage of the process. This meant that as new orders came in they were much easier to keep track of, and therefore turn around times for those improved, whereas all orders from December had to be chased up manually.

Also, just so everyone knows - we began targeted recruitment of providers again mid last week and each applicant is put through more stringent screening before joining BYTDL. On average we are picking up 5-7 new providers per day and plan to run this recruitment for 30 days.

Our support staff have been extremely busy in answering your queries, processing orders, manually following up on older tickets, training/inducting new providers, recruiting and screening applicants, and carrying out research and providing quotes for custom requests. We have 2 regular part-time support staff and 1 full time manager. We have also just taken on another part-time support member to assist with recruitment. I'm not saying this to complain - I'm saying it to show you we're all busting our behinds to make things awesome for each and every user.


Of note is that the most common issues raised by those clients that have had complaints has been the delivery time for articles, with most clients wanting their articles within a day or two from placing their order (even when orders have been placed on weekends or public holidays).

When following up with these customers they have advised of which businesses they are comparing us to.

For article services some Warrior Member clients have been comparing us with another business listed here that does only article writing. On our larger packages customers have been able to purchase articles from 12 January for as little as $2.75 each which includes SEO. The business that we are being compared with charges $15+ PER ARTICLE. Therefore we have been measured against a service that charges over 400% more, but have been expected to provide exactly the same quality level and delivery times. Down the line we'd love to be able to do that - but for now, please keep in mind all of the variables.


At BYTDL we are providing our clients with a very broad range of services, which also requires that we have a wide range of providers to carry out the work and results in additional training, recruitment and overall management. We have writing, commenting, submissions, linking, a variety of social media options, and even offer some audio services.

All of our services listed are those that have been requested by our clients, and we continue listening to both positive and negative feedback to constantly review and improve BYTDL.

MikeyHeu

Hi Everyone,

I signed up in early February for their La Creme De La Creme membership package. On February 10 I assigned them to do 110 articles using 99 of my credits. On February 15 I got a note that said that they would need to be broken into separate tickets, which I did that day.

So far I have received only 30 of them (of which 10 did not follow the naming instructions I had written and I'm waiting on those edits). I have made inquiries as to the status but have not heard back from them since last week - which were assured to me to be done in 15 days time when I assigned them.

The article I did receive were very well-written for the most part so I have no complaints on that end. The major complaint I have is with the turnaround so far, and the uncertainty that my articles will be done in a timely manner, while the next billing cycle comes up and I get charged again without having my previous load of credits utilized.

My opinion is that they are over-tasked and certain tickets are not getting any attention. If anyone from BYTDL reads this please take note of my tickets:

1435
1434
1433
1432
1430
1429
1428
1427
1426

Anyway, the content they produce is good but the output has been somewhat of a let down overall. If they are more consistent in the future I will continue to use the service but at the present moment I have too much uncertainty.

Also, the fact that if you cancel before you have used your credits you lose them makes it seem like I am being held hostage, especially since they are not delivering what they have promised so far.

MikeyHeu

Sorry cypherlock - not sure what you are trying to say.

So if you place an order with me for $400 and I promise you delivery of work in 15 days, but after 30 days you have only received 25% of what I have promised that's okay because people have families and holidays?

What an awesome business model. I should start one myself.

RussGu3

Ok, time to chime in again.

I forgot to mention previously that due to the growing pains BYTDL had, my first two jobs (WP installs) were late.

I didn't say a thing about it, but Rachel wrote to me personally and said that the installs were free, because they went over the 30-day timeline.

Was I disappointed? What do you think?...

Another order I put in for a series of 20 niche and keyword/topic specific articles. They came back within 2 weeks and were of excellent quality.

Disappointed yet? Not a chance...

Then, the icing on the cake (so far) was another WP blog install that they had problems with. You know why? I forgot to forward the domain to the proper DNS.

The blog was installed, but it wouldn't work properly - obviously.
So, once I figured that out and set-up the DNS correctly, I let them know the job was done and the problem had been my fault.

Little did I know, though, that I couldn't access my WP-Admin, due to some MySQL/password issues.

But since I already told them the ticket was closed, I decided to try to figure out how to login by myself - doh!

I messed around for an hour or so, perusing the WP help forum, but didn't find the solution. Oh, and trying the reset password function wouldn't work, because it wasn't my email the new password would be sent to, it was the installers (to be remedied in the future).

So, I put the project on the back burner for a few days...

Anyway, today I get an email from BYTDL saying they had fixed it. And the message provided my new login!

Care to guess how I felt about trying the new login info and instantly accessing my new blog?

In this section of the forum, the majority of the reviews are either almost entirely positive or almost entirely negative.

Human psychology says folks usually won't take the time to comment on something they don't feel strongly about.

So, this highly-positive follow-up post is provided to possibly offset some of the negative reviews above.

Because for my part, I'm happy with BYTDL, their evolution, their services, and their staff. I'm happily staying put.

One last note: It seems to me that in serviced-based companies, client expectations must be assertively managed right from the start. And from what I read of the complaints above, there was a pattern interrupt between what BYTDL was offering and what the clients expectations were, early on. This seems to be working itself out now, both through this forum and the regular re-issue of their services and price list. Keep up the good work, Rachel!

MikeyHeu

Ok I got a response from their team:

"Michael,

Thanks for your patience in advance. I went through all these tickets and realized that the writers that had been assigned them for some reason fell off the face of the earth. I am so annoyed and can just imagine how you are. I reassigned each and everyone of them awhile ago and will be getting updates each day from providers until they're done. As providers are not mandated to work over the weekend (they use their discretion), I'll make sure its done before next week wednesday

Sonya
BYTDL Manager"

So at least they are making efforts to follow up.

MikeyHeu

Russ I'm glad you had a better experience and hope mine will turn out the same eventually. The reason my frustration was heightened is the fact that $370+/month is a lot for me to spend and that expectations which are set in terms of the sales pitch and marketing were not met.

So in business, when I purchase something it makes sense that I will disappointed if the service or delivery does not meet the expectations promised.

Imagine ordering Fed Ex and having it delivered 30 days from now. Most people would be furious.

I will say this - their content has been excellent and I'm hoping that their staffing issues and ticketing issues will be resolved so they can deliver on their promise. Iron those things out and it's a great service.

Aristocratic

I sent this to support back in January and for lack of motivation to keep up with the membership anymore, I canceled at the end of January. But my sentiments are still somewhat the same:

1. I can understand Rachel's point of forfeiting the credits on cancel because she can indeed be screwed in the deal as well. How? Her a la cart is more expensive than the monthly fee so if I were to join one month, assign all my credits, and then cancel, I am getting the better end of the deal because I am spending less and she is earning less.
That being said... it is not fair to us as the client to have to wait 30+ days to be able to evaluate whether or not a membership is going to be worth sticking with. People cancel and join all the time; they join because it is a concept they think they will benefit from and cancel when they find it is not a fit for them. But when they join and don't get what they joined up for and paid for until the end of the month comes around (which incidentally just so happens to be when they are to pay for the next month), I can see how one might feel slighted.
That being said... from what I understand from this thread, the turnaround times are getting better thus giving everyone a chance to 'evaluate' the site for what it can do/offer.
That being said... my experience I suppose was with the minority of people who did have to wait 30+ days to get anything from the team.

2. I would not want to be in Rachel's shoes. To have more people than can be taken care of may be a dream for some, but the reality is quite hard. That is why I suggested to Rachel that the membership slots slowly open rather than having an open membership. I think it's best to take care of the members you have and ease into a larger membership base so that you have satisfied customers all around.

3. My experience with Rachel and her team as far as individuals go was fine. They do not claim a 'higher ground' and are willing to admit their short comings. In the beginning when I was getting no updates, I admitted to them that I'd feel better about not getting my orders in so quickly if I at least knew what was going on; if they could at least update me more. And so they did.

Still... I was one of the first batch to join in December. I placed my order for 40 articles on December 6. 10 articles in 4 different niches. At the time, they did not have the ticket system they do now. I had to email the order. I didn't have a problem with it. On December 9 they said they would have the order completed in 4 days. On December 20 (11 days later) they apologized for the delay and extended me 3 free credits. I work on many projects at a time sometimes so it was not a big deal at the time so again I waited. January 4 they got back to me and finally delivered me some articles...6 total. In almost 30 days, I got 6 of the 40 articles I ordered. In the meantime, I didn't think to use my other credits because I was just going to let them roll over to the next month. After all, I could see her team was swamped with the order I had already placed and I had yet known about the policy of forfeiting the credits on cancel. Since I had no plans to cancel upon joining or even midway through the month, I hadn't asked!

So when I asked what I could do to assure a quicker service with my next order, they told me I should split my orders up in groups rather than clumping them all in one ticket. Yet it was not I who did that. They implemented the ticket system after I put in my order and it was they who clumped it up in one ticket. A poor response to something I had no control over.

I got the rest of the articles over the period of two days--January 7,8 (almost the 9th actually). This was in excess of 30 days. Did I cancel my membership? No. I figured it was just a startup site working out the kinks and Rachel did say they were going to implement a quicker service for higher credits (I would have gladly paid more for expedient service). Rachel did also extend the promise of a refund that she has noted here and stayed good to that word.

So when I started Jan, I had a little more credits to play with and a little experience with the system under my belt. I submitted tickets for most of my credits to see if I could evaluate other areas of the service and see if I could still use the membership for other avenues instead. It was still a very good deal for the price and I so wanted to hang on to it. January proved to be an improvement a little, but not much nor enough to make me want to stay another month.

1. The first order I placed in December and finally got a month later was well written. Some of the articles were too list oriented for my liking, but still good writing nonetheless. I edited one article and submitted it to Ezine and gained Expert Status off that one article on a new account.
2. Subsequent articles were hit or miss. I expected professional and informative (as noted on the site at the time...I don't know if still is as I haven't been back in awhile) and got colloquial instead: articles written in the 1st person telling some la de da story that was pure fiction. Hardly informative.
3. Bookmarking was quick and I did notice they stuck. I did score a few hits from the links so that was fine.
4. Linkwheels I didn't get to fully see because it was one thing and another with them. They told me once they could write an article and then use it for the linkwheel then they came back asking me for the article to use. When I said I didn't have one readily available and was waiting for the other order to finish to even have one, but that I could get one for them if they needed, they replied that they'd get back with me to get the needed info. A month later they replied that they would need an article from me! I canceled and voluntarily forfeited my credits for those orders.
5. Craigslist posting I canceled and forfeited as well because I did not feel comfortable giving my login info to them. This was my own insecurity so I can't really comment much on that service overall.
6. Article rewrites were not bad quality, and timing was not bad for the most part either. One order I submitted Jan 8 and did not get until Feb 28, but the other 3 I submitted at the same time I got back on Jan 13, 15. But they were unique. And not in the push button fashion; they looked as though someone read my article and rewrote it in their own way which is the best way to do a rewrite imo.

Rachel did make attempts to right the wrongs in my account, but I thought it best to cancel my membership so she could focus on others and not be giving out more complimentary credits. I am an honest person and it just did not feel right to have credits build up more in my favor when I truly just wanted the work I requested and in a timely manner.

Would I join again? Certainly. In the future if I see the service reviews have improved. I think for the concept, it is not a todo list burner; do not use it for projects you mean to complete soon but rather for projects you aim to build later down the road. Rachel and her team are very pleasant to deal with, it's just the service overall that needs to be tweaked.

Would I recommend the service/membership? Not at this point. It has potential though.

eprofit

After a long hiatus from this forum an IM I returned and the Burn Your To Do list thread caught my attention. Hesitant, I carefully read and read and base on reviews and service promised I decided to join. I did so based on my budget and specific work I needed done, which was for the most part article writing.

No sooner did I join in January, I found out by accident (was not notified) the prices went up significantly. I waited for a batch of articles and it wasn't until I inquired about the long time frame that I was told the writer bailed out.

Another service I wanted was no longer available. So then I ordered a linkwheel and I did not receive all the spokes and had to keep asking what happened to the rest before it was delivered. Frustrated, last month I canceled and sent an email to Rachel for a solution but it has been over a month now and I have not heard back yet. I use a small portion of credits. Yet I am still getting their email with new credit balance of 46.5.

So therefore at this point I can just say bye bye to the money I spent on this. This was not a good experience for me. This is only my personal experience. I would rather not post here but I sent Rachel an email a month ago and have not heard back.

Amanda_Davis

I'm interested in how this is working out too - interested to use their services.

CBrooks

Here is my experience with this service so far: ordered a batch of articles about 40 days ago. Haven't received them yet (I've been told they have had to reassign them a few times, due to problems with writers). Unfortunately, with the monthly charges accruing, at this point I am essentially paying for them not to do the work. Having said that, the support people at BYTDL have been quite nice, although slow to reply, and seem to understand my frustration.

Nic Lynn

Anyone ever do one of their "Rocket" backlink packages? If so, how did it work out for you?