Sorry About Those Survey Problems Yesterday
Apologies to those who experienced errors with our survey yesterday. Our survey team was surprised by how many readers wanted to join the panel. The volume was so great that by the time they saw that we were approaching the cut-off mark and took down the one year offer, a bunch of readers were already in the pipe. The readers who joined that got error codes and were unable to get the annual sub will be recontacted and provided a link to sign up for the one year trial.
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Comments:
What exactly does the reader panel do, btw?
I like the freebie account. It does offer a lot of stuff the free account did not.
Have to love people who complain about something they were given for free.
I'm reporting you to the BBB for such an egregious oversight!
After filling out the survey I was one of those who was unable to take advantage of the offer. Today my
answers would considerably lower in satisfactory opinion.
How can the consumerist or consumers report not realize when they offer something for free the response will be overwhelming.
Just read any of these posts about free meal offers and the results speak for themselves.
@pegr: The used car info is a separate sub. Whether you have a paid or freebie CRO sub you don't automatically get access.
@Ben Popken:
I can appreciate that the used car sub is separate. Based on the messages I received, it appeared that the freebie account did not have access, while a paid account did. I'm sure you could understand that the impression given is that free accounts were somehow not as "good" as paid in this context.
A simple update to the text on the page might be in order to make sure that the reader understands the used car sub is separate for all users, not just free account holders.
Oh, and thanks for the quick reply.
@StuckinLansing: I immediately thought about the free denny's and kfc snafus when this happened. We'll definitely taking lessons from this experience.
@StuckinLansing: Difference is that the market for a free sandwich is much much larger than a market for free one year subscription to consumer reports.
And they were also probably surprised not by the number of people who applied, but at the rate at which they flocked to the survey. Probably expected a steady trickle of people taking the survey, as opposed to a whole bunch flooding in.
@MostlyHarmless:
Seems like they underestimated the amount of viewers of the site. And the power of deal sites...
@MostlyHarmless: I don't know, but knowing I'm in it makes me feel elitist and special. lol. As if I should have some kind of icon by my name that would denote such special status..
Or maybe, like SteveDave, a labcoat.
@MostlyHarmless: i was hoping it would be like a death panel.
jokes aside, i assumed it would be a group of 25-50 cnsumeristas who would help advise ben and meg as to what "we" want
Consumers Report definately knows now they made a good deal and consumerist readers/bloggers are
What of the readers that saw that they wouldn't get the year subscription and as such *didn't* join, skipping the 'submit my answers' portion after seeing that no codes were available?
Hey, look at it with a positive spin, the Consumerist is loved.. the turnout was more than could be expected, and they could have just given us a questionnaire with no rewards at the end but they didn't. They gave us a reward and for those of us who were locked out they are going the extra mile to get us a reward too!
I won't be using my reader panel code, I've already got my own subscription. I can send it back if you need, unless there is a restocking fee...
This survey must've been up for about five minutes because I blinked and missed my chance.
@MostlyHarmless: What, did you register it as a trademark or something, or did I miss that part of the commenter's code?
@MostlyHarmless: This is going to be awesome. I bet we get really cool leather jackets with Captain Moneycat on them.
@MostlyHarmless: Hey, I know where we can get all of the editors emails in case we need to launch an EECB.
@MostlyHarmless: I think mainly you guys will be baking things for us. Cupcakes, cookies, brownies when the weather is cold. That sort of thing.
@Chris Walters: We'd be cool with that as long as we get to damage some muffins along the way.
Actually, I will do it even without the muffins as long as you promise to let moneycat loose on gStein every time he ends something with "-ista".
@Chris Walters: I make very good brownies, and banana muffins. I make them without nuts though, so if you guys want nuts in them you will have to request them specifically.
Yay! I'll watch for my code. It's freezing in my office, but I'm all warm and fuzzy now :D
Ben, why do you keep ignoring my IMs, Emails, and Certified Letters asking how many surveys I need to complete for a labcoat. I've run this mock up past a few focus groups, and it tested positive!
Come on, people. Free subscription or no, we're all involved consumers who give a damn (or at least I think we are) and we are the target audience for consumer surveys. When I was one of those sad little teenagers standing around with a clipboard getting in the way of shoppers at the mall, I would have killed for a potential survey base as interested as we are. I'd have signed up to the panel even if the reward was something trivial like a Consumerist mug.
Not that I'm hinting or anything. :) The year's free subscription was a handsome reward and will pay for the time spent on the panel many times over, I'm sure.
@MostlyHarmless: I dunno, but I bet this will be as good as time I got a free membership to The Club Sandwich club!
Good news about the subscription, but will we still be able to join the panel? I was kinda really excited about that.
I would have expected with all the Consumerist stories about promos gone wrong, you could have done yours correctly. Guess I was mistaken.
@Ben Popken: Oh it's hardly the same thing. Nobody drove out of their way, nobody failed to bring food to work on expectation of getting free food elsewhere, nobody psyched up their kid for a special meal...
A subscription to CR's website is what, like $12 a year? I have auto-resubscribe so I'm not even sure. It's a great supplement to the magazine for us because it lets us quickly search product reviews instead of having to find that magazine from last summer where we recall that such and such was evaluated, and is that copy in the bedroom or the living room...
The pro-rated difference between a $12/year subscription and a meal, which most people ought to eat three times a day, is HUGE.
Whiners complaining about the error should suck it up and deal. You're doing just fine, Ben. I signed up and if I end up getting a year free on the site, faboo, but if not, I'm still keen to support CR and pay that wee $12 at renewal time again.
@Ben Popken: HA! For one day, you WERE Denny's and KFC... It could happen to anyone, but I bet you'll actually learn from the experience!
The main thing I was interested in with the Consumer Reports sub was looking at the car section. To find out that's not available even if I had of gotten a subscription is more than a little disappointing. I expected that The Consumerist would be the last group to play gotcha games. =/ Oh well.
@Xerloq speaks Portuguese, too...: Yeah - I already have a paid sub; I don't need the free one. I took the survey in the hopes that it would help you guys out. Same with offering to join the 'panel' -
@MostlyHarmless: Wasn't the frugalista article about trademark? Was my reference to trademark too subtle, or too obscure?
I'm not happy that the freebie is a lower class than "paid
subscription", as with a freebie account, I can't access detailed used
car info. It tells me I need a "paid account" for that.
So why is a freebie account second class to a paid account? When
considering the offer, there is no indication that a free account is
anything less than a paid account.