Karen Morrow, Ray Romeo’s customer service lackey, is gone, and the number of stores are dropping. The “Sales Reports” with projected growths over the next few years are gone, which is good because Ray would have to generate more than 15 times the number of stores he now has (217) to meet his first goal on 1/1/2008.
His last newsletter was updated in February, and has now been removed, as well as the infrquently updated “Wagglepop Today“. He has even removed the “farewells and goodbyes” forum, which was used by sellers leaving Wagglepop for greener pastures.
His stories of having $75,000 to spend on advertising must not have been true, as well as his promises of “dramatic increases in traffic, registrations, sales, and listings” on behalf of that advertising budget.
The poor suckers that have believed Ray’s story so long may finally be seeing the real picture at Wagglepop. Shame on them for thinking that Ray could shoot rainbows out of his ass, rather than understanding logic.
The next phase will be Ray’s attempt at selling the wagglepop.com “property”. Ray valued the first Wagglepop site made with buggy Mewsoft software at $20,000 or $40,000 depending on the source of the information. How much will Wagglepop 2 be worth? And hopefully we don’t have to wait a year or two before Ray starts Wagglepop 3.
Following are the “new rules” for the Wagglepop forums, and the announcement that screwball Karen isn’t a customer service rep anymore.
UPDATE: 7/25/2007: More about Wagglepop HERE…
Click the jump for more information….
wagglepopCC2 10 Jun 2007 08:38
Hello Everyone,
I thought this weekend might be a good time to introduce myself to membership and discuss some current events. My name is Andrew Pittino, and I am the Director of Business Development & Customer Care here at Wagglepop.
The first and saddest point to discuss is the resignation of Karen Morrow as lead in Customer Care, effective immediately. With her permission, I would like to share some of what she told me about why she felt this was necessary.
Before I relate those comments, she did ask that I pass along her very best wishes to the majority of our members that have supported Wagglepop fully, that she has worked with through email and posts and that she considers not just members but friends.
After a long and very difficult discussion, she told me that she thought she was not “making a difference”, but instead was making no difference at all. She estimated that as much as 95% of her day had become about nasty collection disputes/referrals, policing malicious behavior, “refereeing” personal disputes, closing accounts, and weathering inappropriate vulgar language in Customer Care. She was “crushed” at how quickly people could turn from support to condemnation of our efforts.
The most telling of her comments was that she was no longer sure if the greater online selling community wanted a new auction site, or just a new auction site to complain about and villify.
Some of what has been posted on this board over the past 48 hours outlines for me what she was talking about. Instead of asking if she was ill, in a car accident, or otherwise unavailable, some have chosen to attack the site and close accounts, which I find absolutely shockingly disappointing, personally. For those that did inquire by email, we thank you for your concern for Karen, a friend to all of us.
While I did not normally have a daily interaction with the site, I did have some previous understanding of the increasing difficulties for Karen. However, after spending the last 48 hours immersed both in Customer Care as the lead and moderator here on the boards, my eyes have been opened, to say the least, and I have a very clear understanding of the difficulties and challenges. I will be making some internal policy changes to address much of that.
Prior to coming to Wagglepop, Karen was a long time employee of my marketing firm, a role which she will return to in two weeks. Karen was far more than just an employee for Wagglepop, she was the face of our company in many ways and had worked near around the clock for over a year, and in fact almost 18 months going back to the development stages of our site. She was courteous, patient, and sharply intelligent as your CC lead, and in fact many of the features we have were either suggested by, or in some cases, developed by Karen, such as the Red Carpet Customer Program.
In short, there is no way to replace Karen as we found her to be irreplaceable. In two weeks, she will return to retake her position in my marketing firm, and that is certainly a boost to the firm and a loss for Wagglepop.
In any case, site participation levels no longer support a full time CC lead and have not for a while, though we did our very best to provide that and were prepared to continue to do so until these recent struggles became more apparent. I will be “filling in” for Karen as we learn more about how Wagglepop is going to evolve. She has graciously agreed to train me (and some limited contract help) in the systems that provide service and support to membership.
Expect my presence on the boards rarely, if ever. Should a post need review, please report it through the email system. Customer Care response times will naturally increase but we will do our very best to be as quick as possible although “within 24 hours” will be more accurate than ever. As our full time CC lead, Karen was lightning fast!
I would like to publicly thank Karen for her incredible dedication and selfless contributions to Wagglepop over the past 18 months. I can hardly picture a better job, better employee, or better friend.
We will miss you Karen.
In related news, based on recommendations outlined in her exit report, we have streamlined the Community Help & Discussion forums, and will continue to do so over the next few days. Forums with less than 100 posts over the past year or forums which do not reflect their intent or purpose are being eliminated. This helps us to not only bring the community together more often, but in moderation. Other nonessential features that require a full time CC lead for either maintenance or creation will be pruned over this upcoming week. We thank you for your support while we make these upgrades and changes.
Regarding the “big picture”, we continue to make changes and adjust expenses so that the site better fiscally reflects the participation on it, and so that we can provide service and support to those that wish it.
Wagglepop is not nearly what we had envisioned in terms of participation and the incredible changes/partnerships that would have triggered based on those anticipated levels, but it is still a terrific cost effective site with incredible features and opportunities for online businesspeople.
If Wagglepop participation dictates a smaller specialized site, let’s make it the best one there is.
Andrew Pittino
Director of Business Development & Customer Care
The *updated* Wagglepop forum rules
wagglepopCC2 10 Jun 2007 14:28
*initial post updated*
Clarification of Board Participation Policy
The specific points for clarification are as follows:
1. Posts which are designed or appear designed to inflame or incite will no longer be tolerated, at the sole discretion of staff. Clarification of existing policy.
2. Posts which are outside of the “help and support” nature of the board will no longer be tolerated, at the sole discretion of staff. Clarification of existing policy.
3. Posts where members air personal issues with staff publicly will no longer be tolerated, at the sole discretion of staff. Clarification of existing policy.
4. Posts which “ridicule” other members or Wagglepop stated policy will no longer be tolerated, at the sole discretion of staff. Clarification of existing policy.
5. Issues with Wagglepop policy of an extreme nature should be sent direct to Customer Care. Public misbehavior or rudeness will no longer be tolerated. Clarification of existing policy.
6. Specific timetables concerning marketing will no longer be discussed by any staff member publicly on the boards in response to questions about marketing timetables. Clarification of existing Information policy.
7. Posts that are not constructive, courteous, and productive will no longer be tolerated. Clarification of existing policy.
*8. Posts about closure, impending closure, considering closure, or discussion of closure are not allowed and will no longer be tolerated. New policy. *note: updated 6/9/07
Additional clarifications:
*1. Posts (or entire threads as necessary with singular offending posts) that violate the existing Board Participation Policy and clarification points #1-8 above will be removed from the board, at the sole discretion of staff. *updated 6/10/07
2. Zero Tolerance Policy. Members who violate the existing Board Participation Policy will be immediately sanctioned by either board restriction, suspension, or termination.
—end clarification—
Andrew – WP Customer Care / Director of Business Development
Christine – WP Customer Care
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