Mild Mannered Marketer Has A Rant....

I agree completely!

I hate paying for something and then finding out that I have to jump through hoops after I already pay.

If they want you to opt-in to additional list why not make them bonuses that you can get if you decide to opt-in.

It's called Co-reg. and of course the buyers are gonna hate it and the sellers are gonna love it. Problem is it's gray hat at best...

It would seriously piss me off too. Once I pay, I expect to not have to jump through any more hoops to get my product. I realize that entering my name and email address isn't much of a hoop, but it's the principle of the thing.

I'll be p***ed of too! If it is the bonuses, I would not mind but it if it is the core product of what you purchase for, of course I would be unhappy!

This kind of stuff happens all the time....Grey hat my foot...straight shooting blackhat.

Been there...done that.
Paul

If It's Paypal, you could make a case aginst what is being done. They forwn on this type of tactic.

I think most of the payment processing companies would too.

Thanks,

John

Hi Colleen,

this practice leaves me feeling pretty flat and like Bill I generally unsubscribe.

Cheers
Andy

It sounds like a great way to GUARANTEE you don't have any repeat customers.

- Jared

I guess that you have been taken for a ride. I wouldn't like to be in your position, imagine paying for a product and finding out that you have to carry out certain tasks before you are allowed to download - frankly a load of gyp! Did you get in touch with the webmaster and rant to him/her? Perhaps, they may be able to make an exception in your case.

In order for you to see my reply to your post, all you have to do is fill in your name and email.

I can see were this would tick people off and it would definitely get my blood boiling, but that being said, if they were upfront on the order page and said what was expected before the purchase then I probably wouldn't have a problem. Would be nice to be told this kind of thing before hand...

Mike Hill

That to me is automatic refund time. If someone has to use hijacking tactics to sell, I don't think I need what they are selling and seriously doubt that the quality of the product will be what I'd hoped. People who sell quality don't need to deal like that. Better check that PLR stuff and make sure it's not
plagiarized.

Hey Colleen,
It's very annoying when these pop-ups come up for extras, but you know sometimes they can be very humorous. I got one today and it was so polite it made me smile but I know exactly what you mean, you're all excited about buying a product and wham, the nerve of some people !
How dare they ! Its not fair ! Shouldnt be allowed ! Good Ranting.

Anyway, thanks for inviting me to this forum which i heard a lot of good things about. Will poke around some and see what i can learn from this IM and maybe review on my site.
Cheers, nice to see what you look like.
CS

I don't think this is the right way to do it. They should have a "no, thanks" option instead of forcing buyers to join up. It's about managing customer expectations, and getting them to put in more than they'd expected is no good.

You're right. If you paid for the product, you should get the product without doing anything else.

It would be different if it were one of those "free" offers where you get something free in exchange for joining lists.

Since you paid it obviously wasn't. You have a right to be frustrated.

I've had this happen recently too, it is really annoying and personally I think enough reason to ask for your money back. I don't mind having to opt in once, but that's it, you shouldn't have to opt in more than once to receive a product that you've paid for. Really, you shouldn't have to optin at all if you've paid for something.

Please tell me you got a refund?

I go into a restaurant and order food paying up-front for the meal. The waitress comes over and politely says I must fill out a survey before she can get my food.

Man that P's me off.

Louis

Yes. That's bogus. If you are not getting all of your product promised after paying for it then I would email the sellers and ask for the rest of product.

If they refuse without the names of your friends, then cancell the order. period.

No matter how much you wanted it. I wouldn't give this jack a quarter.

Stick to your guns, Colleen.

Good Luck,
Robert

So many of these people doing it now. I have bought WSO and they want me to sign up for their list first.

Hello Colleen,

Get your refund. Very bad service. They should at least make the opt-in optional instead of a must.

Hey Coleen
I am with you on this one. Not fun. I think you should contact the seller anyways and give him/her a piece of your mind.

I was actually waiting for someone to make- "They do it because it works" type of post. Couldn't see any. It is nice to see everyone is on the same page here. I think with enough complains they will stop doing these.

Louis, you cracked me up. Can you imagine what would really happen if they try to pull it off in a restaurant. lol

Tanvir

Hi Everyone,

I agree with your comments i hate not being able to download products that i should have had free or paid for. I like many others do not stay on their list if after emailing they do nothing.

Christine

Hi Colleen,

Love your work! Very important P.S. at the bottom of this post...

I completely agree. In fact I purchased a high-ticket item earlier this year that came with "$3000+" worth of bonuses - 12 or 14 in all I think - some of you may know the one I mean... only to discover that many bonuses required sign-up to separate email lists etc.

I picked up two that I was particularly interested in and let the rest slide right by. They made no difference to my decision to buy.

It's good to read rants like this one. It reminds us all to stop and take stock before using a certain tactic in our own marketing.

Always apply the "how would I feel about this?" - or more importantly - "how will this make my customer feel?" question. If you focus on delivering awesome service, (which includes not p*ssing your customers off), the money will take care of itself.

Cheers

Steve
P.S. Speaking of delivering awesome service - Colleen is someone who sets the gold standard.

This is my completely unbiased, no affiliate links or anything plug for Colleen's outstanding BlogInferno product. It is hands down the best resource on blogging I have come across, and I've read my share of eBooks. :^)

If anyone reading this hasn't picked up a copy of Blog Inferno from Colleen, do yourself a favor and grab it while it is still priced at a fraction of what it's worth. I can't believe the content in this - 147 page eBook, video tutorials, awesome USEFUL bonuses (that you don't need to give anyone else your email for!), and on and on and on... - go check it out - I haven't made my 15 posts yet here at Warriors, so it's www-dot-blogInferno-dot-com and you'll see what I mean! Excellent!

Hmm Let me play devils avocate here

I'm wondering whether you are referring to John's Santa deal, if so, much of the stuff on there has been specially commisioned by the contributing marketers at their own expense. (I didn't join in because the ebook I had commisoned for it wasn't ready).. If its not new stuff, they are products which they are still selling on their own sites.

Basically these marketers are asking you to optin to their list to offset the cost of what they have spent or are losing in sales on the products they have contributed.

Is a forced optin right or wrong to get the product you paid for? well some people think it's fine.

Personally I don't like it either and its something I don't indulge in. I don't see the point in filling my mailing list with garbage emails.

I contibuted to Vince Tan's recent firesale and this is how I did it.

I had a really nice squeeze page made where I offered an upsell for my membership site at half price. (I made about a dozen sales). I also offered an excellent inducement for people to optin to my list for a further free gift. (Notice this was not an obligatory sign up and I got a couple of hundred subscribers out of it with more trickling in every day).

At the bottom of the page, they clicked on a link to get the product they had paid for and everyone was happy. (No forced sign up)

Could I have gotten a lot more sign ups if I'd made it a forced one, of course I would, but then I would have to have dealt with the hate mail coming my way.

Forced optin is one of those things you have to study and decide for yourself whether it's effective or not. (I've decided not). Personally speaking, I was very happy wth the results of the squeeze page I submitted on Vince's sale.

Cheers
Kim

Hi Colleen its Garry Woods here, I know where you are coming from on this one as I too have been caught but only once, and never buy from any of those guys again I just delete that sought of salesmanship its a real rip off and I will not tolorate it at all, now I only have a very select few who I bother with, I will buy from you, also from Kelly Stone,Sara Brown and Tony Sheperd, and the Roads Brothers no one else because I trust them all Jinger jinger.

Regards Garry W.

Regards Garry

ya collean i agree with it really sucks wen u pay & if u dont get the stuff for wat u have beeen paid if money is gone doesn't matters but the hopes that we create inside abt the thing we buying wen it fails really gets hurted .

I've bought into a few mega deals like this previously, and while it's not a tear-my-hair-out process, it does make me much more selective about the bonuses I want to download. And even then, I unsubscribe from almost all these marketers' lists afterwards unless they are providing value in their newsletter.

It would be nice to let any potential customers know that sign-up(s) is/are mandatory to claim the bonuses, though.

~ Sirius

Yeah, that turns me off from buying from them again...

I like the quick & easy ones....