If you’re a regular follower, you know that I frequently post contests on Listen to Lena! The contests are posted with the best intentions; I am offering a prize in exchange for your readership. Sounds simple enough, and thankfully, I’ve never been scrutinized, ridiculed or downright threatened by those who didn’t win.
That’s why, regardless of how you feel FabFind handled their $10 iPad event (and let’s be honest, it was less than satisfactory – but are blowout sales ever perfect? Have you been to a L’Oreal Warehouse sale on the first day? Chaos!) the reality is that when thousands of people are fighting over a very limited inventory, things are going to get ugly.
Everyone has a right to their opinion, but at a very high level, I will say this: Yes, the deal was legit. Yes, the deal was hyped disproportionately to the inventory on hand. Yes, the website did crash and burn, and was poorly equipped to handle the high volume of traffic. Yes, FabFind should have thought through the logistics of the promo more carefully. Yes, the YouTube video sucked eggs.
On the flip side: No, FabFind did not force you to spend the whole day beside your computer. No, FabFind did not promise iPads for everyone. No, you do not have the right to threaten, heckle or ridicule anyone just because your outcome was less than desirable. (To the readers who e-mailed and left respectable comments – even if you were royally peeved – I thank you. Your feedback is always welcome and valued.)
In my humble opinion, if you couldn’t log onto the website, the most obvious decision would have been to shut down your browser and go about your day. That’s what I do when I see a huge lineup on Boxing Day – I throw my items onto the nearest table and go shopping somewhere else.
Regardless, I welcome reader feedback and can certainly sympathize with your frustration, as I too was concerned about the security of the website, and frankly, wanted a $10 iPad dammit! But all things equal, I do like FabFind – we all know I can’t say no to a deal!
The CEO of FabFind, Bill Heilmann, spent his Sunday chatting back and forth with me about the event and it’s ensuing firestorm. Here is what he had to say:
First I would like to apologize for what transpired this past week. In an attempt to do something exciting for our customers, we completely fell flat on our face. We’re sorry if any of you ended up frustrated or spent valuable time chasing after something that seemed unattainable; that was definitely not our intention.
Anyone who has purchased from us before knows we are a first-rate company that offers phenomenal deals. To date, we have given away more than 20,000 free certificates. Our intention is always to do something nice for customers. Unfortunately, in an attempt to run a promotion that highlighted the fact that we deal in limited quantities, we seriously frustrated the customers whom we normally serve so well.
Throughout our promotion we encountered a multitude of issues. The first was customers’ unrestrained enthusiasm. From the second the deal was announced, our phones started ringing off the hook. Despite the fact that we are an online company and informed everyone that the deal wouldn’t be available until 11am, people showed up at our office at 1 am to purchase iPads in person. Reps from our internet provider (who will remain unnamed) showed up asking if they could buy the iPads in exchange for faster service. We had friends and family inundating us with text messages begging to buy. People offered us $200 cash. Yet, we turned them all down because it wouldn’t be right. We said we were selling $10 iPads to people, and that’s what we were intent on doing.
Then the site traffic came and it brought us to our knees. To give you some sense of what we dealt with, it was a 1000% more traffic than what we saw when we gave away Free Yogen Fruz. It was insane. And no matter what we did technologically, we couldn’t seem to fix the issue. At one point, we even considered calling the whole thing off because we weren’t sure whether we would be able to sell ANY iPads because of the tech issues that we were experiencing. But we had an obligation to follow through no matter what.
So we started trickling out quantities hoping we wouldn’t blow up our servers. As some people experienced, our system occasionally shut down in the middle of a purchase transaction because quantities were immediately sold. The system, which seemed like it was toying with people, was merely doing its job. But you can rest assured that all credit card information was completely secure the entire time.
Despite our attempts to assure people that we were selling iPads for $10, everything was met with skepticism and cynicism. Quite frankly, the promotion brought out the worst in some people. One of our fortunate purchasers ended up receiving hate mail. I can only imagine, Lena, what would have happened if your purchase had gone through. How unfair would it have been if people accused you of wrongdoing? The truth is that your post was 100% accurate: iPads were sold at FabFind for $10.
The question on so many people’s minds is this: how many did we actually sell? We sold 12. In addition, we gave one to charity. We recognize that may seem insufficient to some, but no matter how many iPads we had, it wasn’t going to be enough. We gave away 7,000 certificates for free Yogen Fruz and that didn’t meet demand.
For the customers who were understandably disappointed by our performance on Wednsday, we’d like to offer this: anyone who writes in to support@fabfind.com and puts “I’m a customer. Treat me right” in the subject header will receive 200 rewards points for free. It’s our way of saying “We’re sorry.” I’d like to personally thank everyone who has written in to us and we look forward to serving you all in the very near future. Happy Thanksgiving and Stay Fab!
Bill Heilmann (CEO, FabFind)
Well, I can certainly testify to FabFind’s impeccable customer service. 200 rewards points will earn you $5 towards you next FabFind purchase, so grab ‘em while you can, and here’s hoping your next FabFind experience will be far from a flop.
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