Burn Your To Do List

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

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.

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

Really not recommended business practice... ;-)

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.

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.

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 !

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 =)

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.

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.

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.

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

I'd be interested to know too.

The problem is that good quality costs money - and I think they're aiming for good quality.

Problem is they're trying to offer good quality at a "mass-market-friendly" price. Hopefully they can find the right balance.

Is it true that BYTDL has been sold and Rachel Rolfe is no longer managing it? I hear it sold on Flippa for 200K.

Has anyone had experience with the new owners?

I have unused credits and wondering what to do with them. Seems we loose all credits if we cancel.

Can we downgrade the membership?
Tom