smedoz:
i doubt that the majority of people that got through are not going to use the products but repost them.
I fully intend to use both the soldering station and Arduino kit I put together to entertaining use, if it makes you feel any better. :)
Actually it does. It really would be cool to see how many people are going to use the stuff they were purchasing. I had a cart full of stuff, but didnt get to checkout. I still want to get the stuff, but probably will wait some time again. Frankly, the site is great, and the stuff i’ve bought in the past is really cool, but definitly a little pissed today.
smedoz:
i doubt that the majority of people that got through are not going to use the products but repost them.
I fully intend to use both the soldering station and Arduino kit I put together to entertaining use, if it makes you feel any better. :)
It’s important to note, however, that people who got the stuff just to re-sell it aren’t likely to be hanging around the forum. Those people are long gone.
how about a constructive discussion on what would have made this better or how it could be done differently in future?
starting… now…
If the goal was to target begginer hobbyists:
-have only certain items eligbile such as arduinos, certain dev boards, soldering irons, etc…
If the goal was to reward loyal customers:
-send (individual) coupon codes to the the contact emails from pervious purchases
-or at checkout, only have the free day discount apply to those with accounts pre-dating the free day announcement.
If the goal was expanding the customer base
-as someone else mentioned, offer a deep discount (i.e. 50% or more off first $100). I’d be curious to see what the median order value was… were most people just ordering exactly $100 worth of stuff (i.e. all free except S&H)?
sirscott71:
how about a constructive discussion on what would have made this better or how it could be done differently in future?
starting… now…
If the goal was to target begginer hobbyists:
-have only certain items eligbile such as arduinos, certain dev boards, soldering irons, etc…
If the goal was to reward loyal customers:
-send (individual) coupon codes to the the contact emails from pervious purchases
-or at checkout, only have the free day discount apply to those with accounts pre-dating the free day announcement.
If the goal was expanding the customer base
-as someone else mentioned, offer a deep discount (i.e. 50% or more off first $100). I’d be curious to see what the median order value was… were most people just ordering exactly $100 worth of stuff (i.e. all free except S&H)?
sirscott71:
how about a constructive discussion on what would have made this better or how it could be done differently in future?
starting… now…
If the goal was to target begginer hobbyists:
-have only certain items eligbile such as arduinos, certain dev boards, soldering irons, etc…
If the goal was to reward loyal customers:
-send (individual) coupon codes to the the contact emails from pervious purchases
-or at checkout, only have the free day discount apply to those with accounts pre-dating the free day announcement.
If the goal was expanding the customer base
-as someone else mentioned, offer a deep discount (i.e. 50% or more off first $100). I’d be curious to see what the median order value was… were most people just ordering exactly $100 worth of stuff (i.e. all free except S&H)?
thoughts?
But that would require more thought than just throwing up a blog post and crossing your fingers.
Yes, I’m a n00b as far as ordering from Spark Fun. I had hoped to get about $120 worth of stuff for a project I’d like to tinker with, but never spent the money because it’s more of an academic exercise than something that would be useful in any real-world sense.
I’m not upset that I didn’t get the discount. But I am disappointed that I didn’t even get a chance to get the discount because Spark Fun seriously underestimated the traffic they’d get. I always knew the odds were long, but I expected the site to work better than it did. I’ve got a few good deals on woot.com before, by getting the order placed quickly. And I’ve missed out on some deals there, but only because I was a bit slow on the draw, er, click - not because the server crashed halfway through my order (as SparkFun apparently did multiple times).
avio:
I would also urge you Sparkfun to take your lumps. If you try to delete
the negative comments it will make it that much worse. Customers have
a right to expect the website to work and a right to be angry after a
debacle like this. If you don’t see that then maybe you should rethink
your position.
With regards to the mini-controversy about “locking” the thread or deleting comments… I don’t think they were talking about censoring ideas. They were reacting to some of the very childish and otherwise obscene posts made by a few individuals in very poor taste.
There are plenty of ways to express displeasure, frustration, and anger without resorting to ASCII depictions of the male reproductive organ (personally I thought it was hilarious, though I understand why it was removed).
avio:
I would also urge you Sparkfun to take your lumps. If you try to delete
the negative comments it will make it that much worse. Customers have
a right to expect the website to work and a right to be angry after a
debacle like this. If you don’t see that then maybe you should rethink
your position.
With regards to the mini-controversy about “locking” the thread or deleting comments… I don’t think they were talking about censoring ideas. They were reacting to some of the very childish and otherwise obscene posts made by a few individuals in very poor taste.
There are plenty of ways to express displeasure, frustration, and anger without resorting to ASCII depictions of the male reproductive organ (personally I thought it was hilarious, though I understand why it was removed).
It is extremely clear that the SparkFun website was not prepared for this event. I can’t see how it could have been. The real trick will be on damage control from SparkFun. Obviously, there is no way that everyone could get their $100 order for free. That’s why they put a limit on the total dollar amount.
However, will SparkFun build more ill-will from this giveaway or more happy customers? Time will tell.
On a side note, ever since their announced server change a month or so ago, things have fun FAR slower than before the server change. It seems like a big step backwards.
-as someone else mentioned, offer a deep discount (i.e. 50% or more off first $100). I’d be curious to see what the median order value was… were most people just ordering exactly $100 worth of stuff (i.e. all free except S&H)?
Agreed
Anyone from Sparkfun care to chime in?
Offer me a coupon code to save a bit and I’ll load up my cart and spend $200 right now.
-as someone else mentioned, offer a deep discount (i.e. 50% or more off first $100). I’d be curious to see what the median order value was… were most people just ordering exactly $100 worth of stuff (i.e. all free except S&H)?
Agreed
Anyone from Sparkfun care to chime in?
Offer me a coupon code to save a bit and I’ll load up my cart and spend $200 right now.
Do that and most of the bad feelings will go away.
Oh yeah - also, Sparkfun - since I didn’t get in on Free Day, if you could be so kind as to cut me a check for $100 and just send it to me along with a personal apology, I’m sure I can contrive some rationalization for how this is good for your business. It would make me ever such a loyal customer, in theory, and it would ease the horrible burden of having gotten my hopes up and being unfairly denied my access to free loot by the big corporations and the UN sanctions levied against me and also the fact that you purposely arranged for your company to be halfway across the country from me, thus ensuring that I personally would not be able to reach the site while it was being hammered…
Do I really have to spell it out? I’m very worried that if I don’t, people will misunderstand, and think I’m being serious here… XD
I’m not too upset that I didn’t get anything, although I do wish Sparkfun would have more sales. I don’t think I have ever seen anything marked off to any percentage.
Regardless, I will be placing my order in a few days after everything calms down.
HappyKillmore:
…However, will SparkFun build more ill-will from this giveaway or more happy customers? Time will tell…
First time customer here. In spite of numerous attempts, never got to fully load a single webpage (even with in-line images turned off), so never even had a chance. As to whether it will influence my future buying decisions, I’d say no. I’m still going to shop around when I need to buy something. Did the process piss me off? Maybe only mildly, I took a chance, wasted several minutes and a bunch of mouse clicks and came up empty handed. Not the first time that’s happened to me nor will it be the last. I think it was a great marketing ploy, got SF a fair bit of attention and got me off my duff to visit their site (although I never actually -visited- the site). I think it would have been -much- more successful had it somehow managed to handle the mass of traffic more efficiently. Rather than building excitement, the process was just mildly irritating. Any hoo, congrats to those who got their freebees.
