Dear Valued Franklin Goose Merchant,
We sincerely regret the strong dissatisfaction some people are expressing in your and other Internet forums regarding our recent announcement to issue a coupon instead of store credit to reviewers from a promotion in March 2010. We especially regret the impact on those promotion participants who followed the rules and wrote honest, heartfelt reviews.
While the promotion was offered with the best of intentions, it was admittedly poorly executed under former Franklin Goose leadership. While we paid for all reviews initially, and while the majority of the promotion was distributed, we later found there were many inappropriate reviews and scams by people that obviously did not have direct experience with these products. We eventually were forced to decline these reviews and offer 40% discount coupons instead of the store credit in order to continue as a business.
Less than 0.5% of the 8,000 people who participated in the promotion are involved in this campaign against us and our records indicate many of them were the worst abusers of the terms of the promotion. We have also noticed that a few are either direct competitors or affiliated with competitors of Franklin Goose. Yes, there are several involved who were honest reviewers, and we regret not being able to have the resources to filter the good from the bad to honor their credits. That is why we chose to honor 40% off an entire purchase. Ultimately, since so many of the reviews were illegitimate we were compelled to take down all of the reviews.
We believe very strongly in our store, our mission, the amazing products that we carry, and our community. We are aware that the voices of the few that disagree with how we have handled it is loud and may appear to represent the masses. We have had so many more approach us personally with understanding and conveying how much they appreciate our commitment to supporting the organic, natural lifestyle. In-store customers are excited to have us in Richmond. We receive private emails and Facebook postings of appreciation.
We are now operating under new leadership and are implementing campaigns to address these issues and strengthen the image of our company. We have strong growth plans for the future. We very much value our relationship with you and our customers. Again, we sincerely regret any frustration our necessary action regarding last year’s promotion has caused you or our customers.
What do you think about all this?
3 comments:
ridiculous. they claim to be able to filter that only 0.5% of 8000 people are against them right now, most of which scammed them? BUT they are not able to filter out the honest reviewers from those 0.5% (which doesnt that only come to 40 people?!)this entire thing just sounds ridiculous to me.
Uh, I'm pretty sure I've seen more than 40 infuriated people over the last few days! They are also saying they are the worst abusers?? I did see a few people who had $100, even over $400 in credit. But, if you use almost entirely natural products, it's possible that you could have used 80 or 90 of the products you sold. If I thought I would get $5 for a review, you're darn skppy I'd write an honest, thorough and heartfelt review. I already do that for free!!
I think it is ridiculous that they would pull this. I have used tons of the products they sell so I was able to review a lot. Especially in the health and safety area. For them to totally take the credits away and not even fulfill current orders is ridiculous. As far as anyone can tell, they are still under the same management as before with their VP being married to the parent company's VP. They seem really shady and I feel they knew exactly what they were doing when they started this. I don't think they planned on giving out all the credits, just enough to satisfy some people so they would write reviews. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the companies like GroVia who have completely cut ties with the goose. They will get my business from now on!
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