MrJazz wrote: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...

"just ignore it and it will go away." Am I assuming you are referring to the concerns of the patrons of woot - if they do IGNORE - we will go away......

I'm a double black (square and triangle) Wooter and my disappointment with this last Woot-off was that in 3 days of a Woot-off, there wasn't a single item that I had the urge to purchase.

Where were all the cute novelty toys? I missed the unique impulse buy items. Missing was all the Geek specific items. And my Flying Monkey collection didn't get a chance to grow.

And to top it off, I have two discount coupons from Jumbowoot that I wanted to use but didn't.

Woot, you let me down this time. Please don't do it again.

One item that I haven't seen mentioned is that the last Barrels of Crud was much more like the ones of old, (other than the ones where the Warehouse Monkeys miscounted the numbers of craps), with much more variety than had been the norm lately.

I have to wonder if the Barrels of Crud didn't become a victim of it's own success, they only have so much defective stuff around, so they had to buy cheap junk to fill the expected bags if they did them every month and birthday and April 1st and increase the quantity to try to increase the chance of people getting one. At 3500 bags a month and 3 items, thats 10K+ items a month they had to come up with. The bags became a bottom line cost.

If they reduce the Barrels of Crud to every other Wootoff or even just 4 times a year, whatever is needed to build up a pile of real junk in the corner of the warehouse that they need to get rid of and use that to fill the bags and bring them back to their heyday... then I'm cool with that. They get rid of crap, we get bags of it, that would make them truly worth fighting for again.

JMHO.

agingdragqueen wrote:It just wasn't in this last Woot-Off.

"The fiasco last time was so bad we've discontinued it." - that seems pretty permanent- not a one-time thing......

If you are among the whining masses who feel "betrayed" because you anticipated woot would do something it never said it would do (offer the chance for you to get $8 worth of crap in the most recent woot-off), vent and get over it.

Then you might want to consider why you found yourself so emotionally invested in crap in the first place. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Random comments from a long-time wooter that's probably put a few staffer kids in a better daycare or something...

1. Neverevereverever believe something posted from @Wootlive on twitter. Have you ever actually READ the writeups? They make stuff up for a living!!>??!

2. If Woot was still like the old days, they would've died out a long time ago and the crappage would've died out with it.

3. Any business must grow and change in order to remain successful.

4. In order for the crappage to remain elusive, the Standard Operating Procedure must be shuffled up once and again. Relax, it's a cash cow for the business and will be back. They get $12000 everytime they sell out at 1500 so I'm sure it's not gone forever.

5. As for censorship and deletions in the forums, that's a mod thing and nothing at all to do with Amazon. If I'm not mistaken, the mods are volunteers so it's not like Amazon is paying them to remove certain posts.

6. Some of you people watch WAY too much television while constantly hitting F5. Try turning it off and go outside for some Vitamin D and we'll see y'all in about 6 weeks or so... or 3... ya just never know!

Let the bashing commence...

peachtek wrote:
If I'm not mistaken, the mods are volunteers

There are staff members specifically designed for community these days (like me!)

Just throwing that out there.

As my one of my esteemed colleagues would say:

richmondhokie wrote:

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

Of course, WOOT has the records to see what percentage of Barrels of Crud purchasers also purchase other items.

They may have found that all those Barrels of Crud were not attracting users that actually bought other items.

It would be interesting to see where that ratio falls, in my case, it's about 5:1 (Other purchases (from all sites) to Barrels of Crud purchases.

I also have to second the comment on how all the high dollar items in the wootoff are slowing things down... I also am not dropping $100+ dollars on something without some research and since it's a Wootoff, I can't be sure the item will still be there 10 minutes later, so no point in researching it... Wootoff items need to be more impulse items, IMHO.

#disappointed

I feel like I am in the candy aisle at the grocery store with a thousand screaming children all saying the same thing. You are not automatically entitled to a candy bar just for going to the store with your mother, even if she bought you one every single other time.


OMGWOOTNEWBLOLKTHXBAI GOODOLDDAYSYOUKNOWNOTHING!

patriot14 wrote: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…….

Where did I jeer? I'm disappointed, I'm not leaving forever. This was the first Woot! Off in my memory that didn't end with something special. The "not acceptable" comment was because I might not be able to play the F5 game in hopes of scoring another bag of useless stuff. (It's all in the chase.)

As for the Disneyland experience? Well, suffice it to say that I'll be meeting up with friends, it's not like I'm going alone. People I only see a couple times a year who live around the L.A. area (I'm in San Diego), one who lives in Texas and I haven't seen in three years (and she's one of those "rude" people you speak of, an incredibly short fuse in a crowd).

As for the first time feeling at Disneyland? We get it when a new member joins our little group and we get to see the parks through new eyes. And we feel special because we're so Disneyland smart. *laughing* (We've been annual passholders since the 80s.)

As for the overpriced junk? I'll agree with you there, don't buy much of it anymore. We rarely come home with souvenirs anymore.

No Bag of Cuuuuuuuuuute!?
This what I have to say about that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85LUuF6ZXaU

I've got lots of stuff to catch up on, so I'll leave you with this fun little video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5U-YT-mRmI

maui wrote:If you are among the whining masses who feel "betrayed" because you anticipated woot would do something it never said it would do (offer the chance for you to get $8 worth of crap in the most recent woot-off), vent and get over it.

Then you might want to consider why you found yourself so emotionally invested in crap in the first place. Move along. Nothing to see here.

I get as tired of these kind of posts as your type do of the "whiners'" posts. I think the whiners are as much of a "masses" as the "company liners" like yourself. It's always the same line with you: get over it, they never promised anything, it's only 8 bucks, woot can do whatever they want, pack your bags if you hate it, you don't buy enough stuff anyway newbie, etc. etc.

The fact is that w00t! is a major brand, who others in the business all look at as the poster child for this kind of business model (thus the Amazon purchase). EVERYTHING is based on the loyalty and sales generated by people who are here to get something they can't get elsewhere, and of course there ain't much you can't get elsewhere EXCEPT a Barrels of Crud or something random and weird or, importantly, a sense that you're more than a consumer, you're a part of a "community," whose needs and gripes and sense of humor are appreciated and might even change the direction of the company, if even just a little bit.

I realize that you need to keep things random and unpredicable to some degree, but couldn't you have made the "No B_O-C" Wootoff a 2 day event, instead of keeping us hanging for 3 days? I, for one, will be much less enthusiastic in the future. It is just the reality of how I will allocate my time to the many competing demands. While I have reaped immense pleasure from the pursuit of Barrels of Crud in the past, it has typically been a one day commitment of time for a two day wootoff. For the occasional 3 day wootoff, the need to spend 2 days glued to the screen was offset by the virtual guarantee of at least having a chance to score one.

As one of the thousands of loyal Wooters and Barrels of Crud seekers, we are all very happy to let the process be 'luck of the draw', but for this one we did not even get the 'draw'. Bad show Woot!

I'll reiterate MY feelings:

I'm not upset at the fact that there was no Bag of Cuuuuuuuuuute! in a 3 day woot-off. They are never promised, nor are they guaranteed. When they ARE offered, I'll bet the vast majority of you here today vent your frustration over the fact that when one IS offered, you didn't score one (courtesy of "woot's lousy servers" - don't you understand that is by design???)...

I was a bit peeved that the woot-off ended with a video camera being up for 4+ hours, rather than ending it on a high note with a monkey, or other woot-signature type item. That was just cruel of woot and showed no forethought or concern for their loyal customer base (I'm sure they had monkeys left over from CES 2012)...

woot is not obligated in any way to offer us a $3 bag of junk, but they sort of DID condition us to expect it at certain times. That it didn't show up over the past three days is no reason to pound your fists and demand an explanation or threaten to cancel your account. Maybe there will be a bag on 2/29. Maybe not. Maybe in the next woot-off. Maybe not. April Fools Day? We'll see..

What has me pissed more than anything is the fact that I posted in the forum this morning, as many of you did as well, and my posts were deleted by the mods. TT claimed the posts would be moved here, but many were not.

It is that censorship that has me upset more than anything. The fact that our displeasure was summarily ignored. For anyone to say that "Amazon did not order this, the mods are volunteers", I have news for you: someone told someone else to get things under control... I have seen derogatory posts removed from woot and many other forums, and they do indeed deserve to be removed if they are inflammatory. The posts removed today were from angry customers... CUSTOMERS....

I do hope that someone other than the mods are reading these posts, and understand they are alienating their customers in various ways, and eroding their fan base.

Dear Woot,

It's not healthy to hold it in.

Sincerely,
Dr. Doo

ThunderThighs wrote:Here, I have one you can borrow. Just return it when you're done.

What a good sport! I hope the head dude notices that.

And I hope your not taking the personal stuff seriously. You have a job to do and if you don't do it, there's someone in the unemployment line who will.

To be honest, I'm not that disappointed. I have yet to get a Barrels of Crud and in the future I hope to get one just for the heck of it. Yet I did buy some things from this last woot-off...not much...but a few things. I wish I could sit there the whole time so I could have gotten the other items I wanted.

None the less, I was content.

inkycatz wrote:There are staff members specifically designed for community these days (like me!)

Wait... does that mean you WERE paid by Amazon to delete certain posts. Ooh... the plot thickens!

Actually, I was talking about the mods that I normally see in the forums though in retrospect I guess I only remember seeing you and TT this time around. At any rate, good to know. And I've never actually gone and read the job descriptions you linked to. That was most awesome, thanks!

tnode192 wrote:
I also have to second the comment on how all the high dollar items in the wootoff are slowing things down... I also am not dropping $100+ dollars on something without some research and since it's a Wootoff, I can't be sure the item will still be there 10 minutes later, so no point in researching it... Wootoff items need to be more impulse items, IMHO.

So true. I never minded the occasional high-priced items that came through previous woot-offs because it seemed they only had to get rid of a few of them; but this go 'round there seemed to be a ton more high priced projectors, cameras and camcorders than per usual. *shrug*

Also, since there are a few staffers hanging around this thread, I just wanted you to know that I'm having a baby boy in May and if you could go ahead and toss an origami stroller into my next Barrels of Crud I'd really appreciate it.

peachtek wrote:Wait... does that mean you WERE paid by Amazon to delete certain posts. Ooh... the plot thickens!

Actually, I was talking about the mods that I normally see in the forums though in retrospect I guess I only remember seeing you and TT this time around. At any rate, good to know. And I've never actually gone and read the job descriptions you linked to. That was most awesome, thanks!

I looked through the list to see if I could find an IT job...alas, I there were none

EDIT: SQL DBA Developer <-- this is the only one I'm mostly qualified for. Just need a few more years experience on MS SQL Sever.

You have to remember to stock up for these three day woot-offs...

andrewkl wrote:I'll reiterate MY feelings:

I'm not upset at the fact that there was no Bag of Cuuuuuuuuuute! in a 3 day woot-off. They are never promised, nor are they guaranteed. When they ARE offered, I'll bet the vast majority of you here today vent your frustration over the fact that when one IS offered, you didn't score one (courtesy of "woot's lousy servers" - don't you understand that is by design???)...

I was a bit peeved that the woot-off ended with a video camera being up for 4+ hours, rather than ending it on a high note with a monkey, or other woot-signature type item. That was just cruel of woot and showed no forethought or concern for their loyal customer base (I'm sure they had monkeys left over from CES 2012)...

woot is not obligated in any way to offer us a $3 bag of junk, but they sort of DID condition us to expect it at certain times. That it didn't show up over the past three days is no reason to pound your fists and demand an explanation or threaten to cancel your account. Maybe there will be a bag on 2/29. Maybe not. Maybe in the next woot-off. Maybe not. April Fools Day? We'll see..

What has me pissed more than anything is the fact that I posted in the forum this morning, as many of you did as well, and my posts were deleted by the mods. TT claimed the posts would be moved here, but many were not.

It is that censorship that has me upset more than anything. The fact that our displeasure was summarily ignored. For anyone to say that "Amazon did not order this, the mods are volunteers", I have news for you: someone told someone else to get things under control... I have seen derogatory posts removed from woot and many other forums, and they do indeed deserve to be removed if they are inflammatory. The posts removed today were from angry customers... CUSTOMERS....

I do hope that someone other than the mods are reading these posts, and understand they are alienating their customers in various ways, and eroding their fan base.

I read it.

Well said.

and you are right about the customer thang.

Old Brick and Mortar Retail adage that still applies here " The customers are the ones that are actually paying the salaries."

ThunderThighs wrote:Here, I have one you can borrow. Just return it when you're done.

It's comments like this, "trying" to be funny and "helpful" that just show me that woot of the past is Long gone, my account only says 2 woots, my wife's says over a 100. Both will be closed.

So punishing customers as you say is bad business model so I hope that was not what they were doing. Forgot to link post I was referring to here so below is from geekypanda13. 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.

Now I believe but not positive as I have only been here a short time that wootoffs used to occur only once every 3 months. This is a good way to get rid of inventory every quarter and boost sales. Now they are 12 times a year. So I could see how quality is not what you would wish to see every month. The only thing I wanted from what was posted this time was the tron mouse but I was out at that time so well having one item up there you would like or need is not to bad I would think.

As for the deals I noticed that most the time I see something on woot and I go and price it other places and it is only slightly better price. This is ok if I need it now I would buy it if not I wait tell it hits my price point. Things sold so it was at someones price point during the wootoff so business model still works.

As for no Barrels of Crud Monkeys, woot lights. Some have grown to expect them as there is usually one or more of them in a wootoff and as Pavlov proved with the dogs. We human animals are just as programmable to expected results. When the results vary from expectations some will need to vent.

Happy wooting and may the next daily deal or wootoff contain what you are looking for.

Yeah it's to bad that Amazon took over woot. It's your typical corporate has no clue what the reality is at ground level situation. Amazon cheapened woot terribly. I tried to get some people interested in Woot with the Barrels of Crud but when a friend took my advice and won one, the contents were the worst ever, not even fun, entertaining or creative. Woot cares only about money now. Back in the day, woot had a great idea and vision that brought them up to the status of one of the best sites to check daily. Not anymore, it's getting old. Amazon . Com is the bread winner why put any effort or attention to woot? Welp amazon, we'll help you sink the woot ship, i wont be telling anyone about woot and won't be buying many things from amazon either. As a community, lets pull out support and funding for Amazon and Woot. Even the write ups are starting to get old and annoying. The Barrels of Crud Is the ONLY reason Woot exists, otherwise, it's really a junk yard selling outdated an sub par items with no true discounts. Woot blows. Sorry, if a company doesn't treat it's loyal community right, there will be backlash, disorder and rioting!

wodowooter wrote:I read it.

Thanks... I was hoping that some of the guys in the corner offices at woot or Amazon would have read it... But you're a good start :-)

It all comes down to the Amazon take over. It would have been nice if they told people in the beginning that there would be no Bag of Crud. That is why I will not be dealing with Woot anymore. Very deceptive. According to their poll, they knew that at least 30% of the people wanted the Bag, yet they said nothing about it not being available. Bite me Woot, you wasted my 3 days off by your deception!

brettmagnetic wrote:It all comes down to the Amazon take over. It would have been nice if they told people in the beginning that there would be no Bag of Crud. That is why I will not be dealing with Woot anymore. Very deceptive. According to their poll, they knew that at least 30% of the people wanted the Bag, yet they said nothing about it not being available. Bite me Woot, you wasted my 3 days off by your deception!

See, now THAT is the wrong position to take. woot's daily polls are supposed to be fun. They are in NO WAY supposed to be scientific.

When did woot promise you there would be a Bag of Cuuuuuuuuuute! in this woot off? Or ANY woot-off for that matter? And why are they obligated to issue a disclaimer BEFOREHAND to let you know that there WON'T be one? Of course, that would send half of the customers packing, figuring that there will be no Barrels of Crud and keep the OTHER half hanging on, figuring that woot is pulling a fast one.

With that rationale, woot should then be obligated to tell us exactly what day and time during the next woot-off we can expect a bag.

There are plenty of reasons to be angry with woot/Amazon, but the fact that they didn't tell you on Tuesday that there would be no Barrels of Crud shouldn't be one of them.

Sadly, I only found one item to purchase. I then went back through the Woot "Home" community page, and saw several things I wanted, and missed, on that site. With the Wine Woot off, Kids Woot Off, Home Woot Off, and always Worst Ever Woot Off, have the hell can I keep up! I have a life, and it's impossible to track each item.

It would be nice to just have the best of the best on regular Woot again. Take an enforced break and make us go on over to the Wine Woot, Kids Woot, Home Woot, but make that separate again, or happen on other dates. More traffic for Woot, less confusion for us!

Regarding the monkeys, I missed them too, but have a few, and love to give them as gifts. With all the history of cat pics and Woot, how about making some old timers happy with something new. Hissing cats, and Screaming Moneys?? Woot caped Cats might save the Woot World!

Slydon wrote:I write most of the job descriptions, so thank you.

It is sort of frustrating to work for hours and hours to provide some fun stuff hidden all over the site and then hear Oh My Gookie! WOOT DIDN'T SELL ME SOMETHING THEY DON'T HAVE ANY FUN LEFT AT ALL but you know what? Every day I see at least a few people, often names that I've never seen before, posting in the comments or in the blog posts or on Twitter or Facebook that something I wrote made them happy. And I could be just shooting low, but if I get one person smiling, I feel like it's worth the work. So you get to be today's, peachtek, and thank you.

I can't speak for the crap department and the decisions they made, but I do know that when we sell the Bag, we also get page after page of "Woot, you sold out, cancel my account immediately because I didn't get one!" Even when we try games and codes to eliminate the bots and give long-time users a chance, there's still so much anger from people who seem to think they should be entitled to plastic straws, a cracked VCR. and a photo of "Jaws" from Moonraker. I don't know what it is about this little bag that makes people so angry but I'd very much like it if that wasn't the only reason people came to the site. And, thankfully, there are a great many people who don't think that way, and come for deals and fun.

Everyone in my department works hard to provide some fun for people, and it's cool if you don't care for it, but it's sad you think all we've got to offer comes with a price tag attached, especially since we've done Bagless Woot-offs a few times, well before we were acquired.

That having been said, I'm sure it'll show up again when you least expect it. Please try not to be mad at us when that day comes.

Thank you! All you have to do is give us hope that you still care about us and hear our cries. However, We need the Holy Grail to pop up during he woot offs. It's become mandatory!

Slydon wrote:I write most of the job descriptions, so thank you.

It is sort of frustrating to work for hours and hours to provide some fun stuff hidden all over the site and then hear Oh My Gookie! WOOT DIDN'T SELL ME SOMETHING THEY DON'T HAVE ANY FUN LEFT AT ALL but you know what? Every day I see at least a few people, often names that I've never seen before, posting in the comments or in the blog posts or on Twitter or Facebook that something I wrote made them happy. And I could be just shooting low, but if I get one person smiling, I feel like it's worth the work. So you get to be today's, peachtek, and thank you.

I can't speak for the crap department and the decisions they made, but I do know that when we sell the Bag, we also get page after page of "Woot, you sold out, cancel my account immediately because I didn't get one!" Even when we try games and codes to eliminate the bots and give long-time users a chance, there's still so much anger from people who seem to think they should be entitled to plastic straws, a cracked VCR. and a photo of "Jaws" from Moonraker. I don't know what it is about this little bag that makes people so angry but I'd very much like it if that wasn't the only reason people came to the site. And, thankfully, there are a great many people who don't think that way, and come for deals and fun.

Everyone in my department works hard to provide some fun for people, and it's cool if you don't care for it, but it's sad you think all we've got to offer comes with a price tag attached, especially since we've done Bagless Woot-offs a few times, well before we were acquired.

That having been said, I'm sure it'll show up again when you least expect it. Please try not to be mad at us when that day comes.

You as a staff said what I did with a grocery store analogy. I may only be a newb with 1 woot under my belt (from this wootoff btw) and you part of the corporate conspiracy, But perhaps my newb eyes see what "some" of the tainted vets can't.

oi vey