edean44 wrote:Maybe they didn't include the Barrels of Crud because they're doing something special on the 29th. You know, since there's an extra day this month that only happens once every 4 years...

You can thank me later

I hope the staff read this message.

richmondhokie wrote:
Hint Amazon - without us - you wont have Woot.....

Ummmm, I think that IS the plan.. Drive us away, loose the sales, and close Woot's doors for good!

I get that you don't have to put a Barrels of Crud in every wootoff, I do. But to not have monkeys or lights as well just REEKS of one of those parents who is irritated at having children, doesn't really love them, and when the child complains about something, the parent (who doesn't get to boss around much in his life, so he takes every opportunity to boss his kid around) says, "Oh, you think your life is so hard, then how about this? How about you eat bread and water, and go to bed, ya little whiner. Then come back tomorrow and complain and see what you get."

In short you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. You're gleefully saying, "Alright, we'll show them who's boss, NO FUN STUFF this time. See how they like THAT!"

The problem is, this isn't a child/parent relationship. It's a business/customer relationship. Businesses never succeed by "teaching their 'spoiled brat' customers a lesson". It's basically the woot equivalent of giving us the finger.

What's so sad is that Woot really had something amazing going. They had captured lightning in a bottle. They somehow managed to create a perception of value out of what is essentially clearance-ing out inventory, with the really junky stuff assigned the status of a holy grail. That's gone. How many companies have spent hours around conference tables trying to figure out a way to create what woot had?

So if we don't have the fun woot atmosphere anymore, I really don't know why I should sit in front of my computer for three days ever again. The items in the woot off are just rehashes of items they offered the previous month. The deals aren't deals. The product rotation isn't even fresh. So if the lightning in the bottle is gone, what's the point?

Dadoboy wrote:Ummmm, I think that IS the plan.. Drive us away, loose the sales, and close Woot's doors for good!

I'm curious - if Amazon simply wanted to shut down woot, they could have purchased it and shut it down. And again, why would such a large company want to buy woot only to watch it slowly die by changing what woot once was? They had to know that people knew it was owned by amazon now. Why risk the bad PR?

To me, this is a classic case of a non-hip, uncreative group of people trying to buy hip. How would you like to be an employee of such a fun place to work only to have it undermined by a bunch of pencil pushers who have the no clue what creative is. It is a classic case of a company buying another and inserting their own business model. Ignorance is not bliss.

I hope many of you got in on the Band-Aid offer a few weeks ago.If you did, put a few on your boo-boos,tell your mom about it and get on with your life. I assume the vast majority of you will be back next WootOff.

edean44 wrote:Maybe they didn't include the Barrels of Crud because they're doing something special on the 29th. You know, since there's an extra day this month that only happens once every 4 years...

You can thank me later

No, this is not acceptable. I'll be at Disneyland all night. No wi-fi at Disneyland.

McDonald’® figured it out a long time ago. The loyalty of a customer is gained by providing them with a quality experience which one can rely will be repeated on their next visit. Whether at the same location or any location throughout the country and most of the world, if you close your eyes and eat your burger and fries you couldn't tell if you were in Manhattan or London.

Many people go to a particular restaurant and order the Veal Parm and only the Veal Parm because it is always what they expect it to be. They go someplace else and always order the Prime Rib because they trust they will have the experience they know and expect.

When the cook changes or the ownership changes, the expectation of sameness many times suffers and people drift to a new experience.

When I discovered Woot.com I found there to be a sense of community. A feeling of belonging to something special and in time I felt as though I could rely on the daily experience to feel the same. Warm, cozy, a bit warped at times, but mostly familiar.

The same goes for the woot-off. A member comes to expect a plethora of quality products that they have over time become familiar with and for whatever reason did not purchase, but now have a second chance. Maybe you didn't have the need at the time, but you hope that it comes up again on the woot-off, so you anxiously check in 50 or 60 times in one day in the hopes that your item comes up again.

Then there is the Barrels of Crud and the flying monkeys. They were the two things that were the signature expectation that sealed the deal. It was like that chocolate shake that really sealed the deal with your burger and fries.

I can not estimate how many people I have told of my experiences with woot.com. On one hand I am happy to know that I have shared with a friend something special and feel good when I think of the experience they will have... But then again, that's one more competitor for the Barrels of Crud

Bottom line... Amazon® is in business to make money and the reality is that your feelings mean nothing to them unless of course enough feathers are ruffled that their bottom line suffers. Often it is too late to ever repair the damage and the sameness is gone. (see Shirt.Woot.com)

Look at Netflix®. Talk about shooting your foot off! The unbelievable success and unique service was astounding! Then one day after billions of movies served and streamed they decided to increase the cost of the combined DVD and streaming service by 60%!!! One day your entertainment dollar buys you this, the next day your same dollar won't even buy you half of what you have come to enjoy and expect. Their stock and membership suffered due to the self inflicted wound. Netflix will survive, but their essence died that day.

Look at HP® and the Touchpad debacle. Their huge miscalculation of the intelligence of the consumer will not end them, but it did end the experience that people came to expect from them. HP will go on.

I, for one, will not be so bold as to exclaim that I will never buy from woot.com again. As long as they continue to offer a quality product and back it up with continued customer care and service. As long as the price is right. As long as the timing is right, I will still do myself the favor of buying from woot.com, or any of the other countless "deal-a-day" sites. What I will not do is hang on every item that goes by in the expectation of sameness. If it's meant for me to snag a deal, then I'll be here at the right time. If not, no big deal. What you don't know doesn't always hurt you.

That doesn't mean that I don't mourn the loss of a friend. I do.

A word or two of advice to capitalists everywhere:
1) Sameness and Quality make loyal customers.
2) Word-of-mouth works both ways.
3) Dance with the one that brung ya.

Don

"Fun is the one thing that money can't buy"
He's leaving Woot; bye bye.


* Clearly, some key decision-maker has either taken the money, and left - presumably to start the next big thing - or is on vacation in Hawai'i, and can't be bothered this month. Aloha.

I have been a member for quite some time. I don't buy a whole lot but it does seem that since the change I have been less and less interested in what I see on Woot, this Woot-off especially. The one thing I bought was just because it was something I was casually looking for and the price was right. Not great mind you, but right. The only way to hit Woot where it counts is to stop buying from them. Apparently though, very sub-par items sell out while we wait for better things. Someone is buying them? As long as someone keeps buying these Dot's Poetry Corner items then Woot will keep offering the awful stuff. (I would say cruddy but they don't offer crud anymore.)Gone are the days where I wake up in the morning and regret staying up until midnight to see what the Woot item was because it is sold out already. I can now wait until I am off work in the afternoon to buy from Woot because the items are still there.

andrewkl wrote:I think it has less to do with the Bag of Cuuuuuuuuuute! then the fact that the whole corporate culture at woot has de-evolved.

The "fun and unique" product offerings are all but gone. The pricing (by and large) is [...]

Gee, I wish I had read your post before I did mine. Great Minds and all...

Don

kin2all wrote:I'm curious - if Amazon simply wanted to shut down woot, they could have purchased it and shut it down. And again, why would such a large company want to buy woot only to watch it slowly die by changing what woot once was? They had to know that people knew it was owned by amazon now. Why risk the bad PR?

To me, this is a classic case of a non-hip, uncreative group of people trying to buy hip. How would you like to be an employee of such a fun place to work only to have it undermined by a bunch of pencil pushers who have the no clue what creative is. It is a classic case of a company buying another and inserting their own business model. Ignorance is not bliss.

Unfortunately, this happens all the time in corporate America. I once worked for a small wholesale insurance broker who was acquired by Wells Fargo.. They SWORE that what we had worked, and they wouldn't change a thing.

As I said... I ONCE worked for a small wholesale insurance broker....

Over a relatively short period of time, the Wells business model pervaded the one we had. The one that worked. The one that was profitable.

After 3 years, Wells Fargo sold that business unit at a loss...

Amazon acquired woot because woot was fresh. It was different. It was profitable. Amazon saw dollar signs. "But don't worry... We're not changing a thing!".

Over time, Amazon likely decided that the way woot was doing business wasn't a natural fit to their business model. They saw woot and the thousands of account holders as a new venue to move Amazon products. Slowly but surely, "Candi The USB Pole Dancer" was phased out, and cameras and the like were phased in. "Let's reach the demographic that might not buy at Amazon" they thought.

"But wait! We need to keep that carrot out there, so we can't dump the Barrels of Crud So, let's check out alibaba.com ands see what kind of crap we can buy really cheap from China, and get a ton of their crap. Sure, we'll put a broken Sansa in one or two of the boxes, but that letter woot used to send out? We can't afford to cut into our profit margins like that".

And so it goes...

I think that woot has passed over to the dark side, and the creators really could care less. They are STILL counting the money they received from Amazon.

Prediction: Since Matt Rutledge is probably restricted from doing so under a non-compete covenant, someone associated with Matt will take advantage of this small ground swell of dissatisfaction, and create another old school woot-like site...

robroy1974 wrote:Gee, I wish I had read your post before I did mine. Great Minds and all...

Don

From the looks of it Don, there are A LOT of great minds here today...

I was an active wooter for a couple of yrs then the takeover happened. I complained a lot back then when the Amazon happened and no Barrels of Crud or woot-offs were happening during the transition, especially on twitter.

Since then I have been checking out the deals, but not really contributing to threads, purchasing or giving The Great Wakkorotti as much as I used to. This past woot-off is a prime example of exactly why I stopped.

I'm really enjoying this thread though!

I personally only really buy things from shirt.woot, which is pretty unchangeable. But I have attended every woot!off for the last few years and wasted away hours of my life trying for Barrels of Crud#39;s. I'm broke, so I never could buy them, but there were really nice things offered at really discounted prices. Over time, even a non-buyer can see the trend of "meh" deals that have come about.

I love Amazon for Amazon. And I love woot! for woot!. No matter who owns them, they should be separate entities because, from a business standpoint, they are not meant to do the same thing.

lisaviolet wrote:No, this is not acceptable. I'll be at Disneyland all night. No wi-fi at Disneyland.

So you partake in a company who has been doing the "big business" dance for years but jeer at WOOT???

I have been to Disneyworld many times and never have I experienced that “1st time” feeling again. I usually find myself complaining about the prices, lines, weather, corporate greed, etc, or just griping about how the bad and disrespectful the crowds have become. But I keep going back (hitting F5, anyone?) and just have to watch out buying over-priced junk, ignore rude people, and realize that the corporation cares for nothing but my money…….

They're not saying "boo woot," they're saying "Boo-urns! Boo-urns!"

daniellecastelli wrote:I personally only really buy things from shirt.woot, which is pretty unchangeable. But I have attended every woot!off for the last few years and wasted away hours of my life trying for Barrels of Crud#39;s. I'm broke, so I never could buy them, but there were really nice things offered at really discounted prices. Over time, even a non-buyer can see the trend of "meh" deals that have come about.

I love Amazon for Amazon. And I love woot! for woot!. No matter who owns them, they should be separate entities because, from a business standpoint, they are not meant to do the same thing.

DING DING DING!!!

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

That last paragraph really sums it up nicely.

I wonder what the staff members think of all this negativity...

Most of them seem like a fun-loving bunch.

Personally, I think there's a lot of overreaction going on. Sure, there's disappointment, but most of those complaining will probably swing by the next wootoff anyway. I think everyone should calm down, take a nap, have a glass of wine or chocolate shake and breathe. We'll see where woot goes from here.

mothersnakes wrote:Been a member since 05. Never had any posts removed, yesterday I had two posts removed.They weren't profane nor were they redundant, but they were critical of Amazon.
What was fun for several years is now bland, and to be censored like this is just not worth it.I often stayed up to see what the new woot was or to follow a woot off.I don't think I'll be waiting up anymore.

Ditto. That is all.

Years ago, I used to think how fun it must be to get to work at woot. Filling up those old bags of crap had to have been a blast, and it showed! Now, I just feel bad for those employees that work(ed) at woot.

I imagine, there are more things that are less fun to do while working at woot. It also shows through more and more.

marceepauff wrote:I wonder what the staff members think of all this negativity...

Most of them seem like a fun-loving bunch.

Personally, I think there's a lot of overreaction going on. Sure, there's disappointment, but most of those complaining will probably swing by the next wootoff anyway. I think everyone should calm down, take a nap, have a glass of wine or chocolate shake and breathe. We'll see where woot goes from here.

Here's a hint...

Most businesses come out with a new attraction before they dump an old one, or two in Amazon's case. All you think-positive, tree-hugging hippies need to realize that the only thing to expect from the new woot! is a gradual decline.

andrewkl wrote:From the looks of it Don, there are A LOT of great minds here today...

Agreed!

I can't believe how many posts were made while I was preparing my thoughts.

WOW!

While I was disappointed there was no Barrels of Crud and no monkeys (is it too much to ask for the Giant Monkeys one of these days?), I've seen Woot-offs with no Barrels of Crud before. I think the one right before or after their anniversary last year did not have one. Which, makes me wonder if the 29th will be having something special.

Still though, I cannot imagine anyone who's been a round for a while cannot see that the Barrels of Crud have changed. While they used to be loaded with wacky/random stuff, they are now almost all literally the same thing. Small shirt/crappy USB toy/misc dollar store item/bag. The fun of the whole thing was getting cool stuff with "DEFECTIVE" stickers on it or maybe scoring something that someone else returned and you really like it. We all hoped that Amazon buying Woot meant *KINDLES!*(most likely broken), but instead it's meant nothing other than someone to blame for the decline in craps.

I have been liking Woot Kids though, there have been some pretty decent buys over there, I wish we'd get a random Kids Barrels of Crud sometime. While it would probably infuriate the masses, it'd be pretty fun (probably not).

marceepauff wrote:I wonder what the staff members think of all this negativity...

Well, I will say as long as folks can keep their expression within the rule set we've got here, by all means, express on.

Negativity has a place. Fun also has a place. I choose fun. (And there's your dose of philosophy for the morning.)

jsimon926 wrote:I hope the staff read this message.

We read everything, no worries.

ps. I like chocolate shakes. I also like wine. I'm not keen on chocolate wine, though.

jenandlaw wrote:what's the point?

Excuse me Sir, I don't get which the lightning in the bottle was, which is the cause that made you sit for three days waiiting to pay for junk

[quote postid="4881532" user="inkycatz"]We read everything, no worries.

I think it would be very helpful if, instead of just reading everything, someone from the staff actually COMMENTED on what has obviously upset a large number of your longtime customers - and why you guys did it.

The fact that you have staff people making jokes about it on Twitter is making it even worse.

Just sent a note to service@woot.com, asking them to close my account. Woot isn't even worth checking any more.

Well.. This explains it..

Woot Workshop
‏ @WootLive
Follow
@Boomdabah Too many people complained about not getting one. So now no one gets one.

Dadoboy wrote:Well.. This explains it..

Woot Workshop
‏ @WootLive
Follow
@Boomdabah Too many people complained about not getting one. So now no one gets one.

@Wootlive also claimed shortly after that they are prone to exaggeration. That's just adding insult to injury, because apparently some at Woot think that this is incredibly amusing.

I haven't read all the posts, but the ones I have read are people complaining that it isn't like the old woot and some wanting to know what the old woot was like. It doesn't really matter because woot is what the consumer has made it.

I remember back to the forum thread where woot let everyone know they sold the company to Amazon. If you can find that thread you will likely find all the answers to your questions.

Consumers are now all on the internet and deal-a-days are mainstream so the demographic has changed. I tried to cancel my account when AMZ bought woot, but left it in case something came along. I haven't bought anything yet, but maybe one day. I'm usually not drawn to the impulse buy as the price is never so far below the lowest on the net.

Here is a pro-tip from a used-to-be wooter. Always use the net to find out the lowest prices froogle.com, the find, com, etc...etc... You have to switch sites often and check them all too. Some sell out, some don't find the best price etc... Post up your results in the forum of the best price like in the old days. Never ever believe the regular or MSRP price - it's never realistic.

A good price is whatever someone will pay for said item. In this case woot is now popular so the masses are willing to pay more, so woot prices accordingly. It's just good business. If they stuck to the old woot model, most of the consumers would be upset because the good items would sell out in seconds as so many visit this site now. Popularity killed the old woot.

There are still some okay deals on here now and then, but it's rare to see the 50% off of the lowest price anywhere on the net anymore.

The old woot had some winner deals and a few loser deals. The loser deals and customer returns piled up and became woot-offs because they were taking up the limited warehouse space of the old woot. The woot-offs were very cheap, but usually crap. Anything they just couldn't move got dumped in to a Barrels of Crud and off it went. They were nice though and threw in some goodies to sweeten the deal, like a woot light or something. It was always worth more than the money spent to get it, but not always useful, lol.

I hope this helps anyone from the company side to the consumer side. Of course this is an opinion post by me so I hope it wasn't biased.

gusvonpooch wrote:I hope many of you got in on the Band-Aid offer a few weeks ago.If you did, put a few on your boo-boos,tell your mom about it and get on with your life. I assume the vast majority of you will be back next WootOff.

Likely so - But I find with each passing woot-off - my desire to hang on to the end dwindles with each month. Yes - I will (if I am not traveling or otherwise preoccupied (I don't turn on my laptop on the weekend if I don't have to)) be here for the next woot-off - but if I miss it - I wont be coming on here to complain that they didn't warn me first that a woot-off was on the way

nightveil wrote:some at Woot think that this is incredibly amusing.

Me think it's sad, sitting 3 days at the pc.

from Twitter....

@nweasel: @WootLive My coworker demands the Random Crap bag so that he can get back to work and stop refreshing the site. Do what you wish!

@WootLive: @nweasel The fiasco last time was so bad we've discontinued it.

Someone from woot please address this - if the Bundle of Carrots goes away - so does a ton of your loyal fan-base - granted the Barrels of Crud are not what they used to be - but the thrill of scoring one was the main driver for all the folks following

I guess the only real winner here is Three-Piece.
He took a quirky idea, nurtured a fanatically loyal community, and built it into something huge. Huge enough to sell for a tidy profit. Brilliant business model.

But Amazon, just like the imitators, will soon learn that "you can never go home."

Now, I'm not going to claim I'm giving up on Woot (likely won't have to.) But my declining purchase rate should say it all.

I believe the old adage says "just ignore it and it will go away."

BTW - a Leap Day surprise would go a long way toward calming the troops...

This is their way of punishment for all of the people who were constantly whining about no Barrels of Crud....................I was disappointed, but I understand why they are doing it.

azrhei wrote:

2. The Bag of Cuuuuuuuuuute!, or what you might get from it, is not in and of itself important. What it symbolizes, however, along with the Monkey, is the character of who Woot is and what what they are about. To just run a Woot-off, regardless of duration, and not having either of those things, is like having Christmas with no Santa Claus.

It doesn't matter if the show is real, or relevant, it is about tradition and what that tradition brings to the community. To be honest, in that regard I actually find that the absence of the monkey is more telling of a change in Woot than the absence of the Barrels of Crud . The Barrels of Crud I could see being cut for financial reasons or whatever else, but ditching the monkey makes it feel like there is no heart in the game.

Woot was a warm and fuzzy place. Now it seems so cold.

There is an element to that. In the days where we would miss out on the Barrels of Crud or if it didn't appear, we could be consoled with a nice new set of monkeys. Or a laugh because the woot-off closed out with some "FU" item like a foot pedal toilet flusher. This woot-off had no character at all.

That said, from my day one of being here, people have always said that they were upset about the Barrels of Crud and whatever and said they were closing their accounts, never ordering again, etc. They even made a calendar entry for those folks. And yet they were popular enough to get bought out by Amazon. That tells me that this is likely normal.