Can't believe I'm just now finding this thread. It's awesome to see all of the Woot folks commenting in one place. This is why I love Woot! They're listening and commenting.

I always imagined woot-offs as a well coordinated event. The way I'm reading their comments makes it sound much more chaotic.

"What time is it!?"
"Oh God it's 3! Did you hit the Barrels of Crud button yet?"
"Dammit Jim I'm a writer not a web guru! You need Carl."
"I can't do it, the camera hasn't sold out yet!"
"Bob I swear if you list one more woot-off killer!"
"They're calling for blood in the forums!"
"Don't let them see you cry."

Sure seems like a lot of fuss and bother for an incredibly minor issue. Oh well, I got some pretty awesome stuff for decent prices, and I'm pretty happy overall.

Thanks staffers!

Was just a little upset, it's hard to be upset after a woot off!

Last Post

Gabemax wrote:Last Post

Are you sure?

mothersnakes wrote:Are you sure?

No Monkeys! It will never be over!

agingdragqueen wrote:
But yes, suggestions- I'd love them. I've got a lot of freedom in my position to influence and know every facet of our business. We're working on making things fun again, but fun again for everyone who visits.

Shouldn't you be coming up with the ideas?

I just now discovered this thread (rarely do I venture into the World of Woot section), and Woot, I'll have you know that I'm still rather ticked about there not being any perks at all this past Woot Off. It'll not soon be forgotten.

I just found this thread and it's about time i get my say. I say why I'm never gonna bark bark howwwwwhimper just bark growl whine whine whimper. Dammit!

Well, let's see what happens this time.

mothersnakes wrote:Well, let's see what happens this time.

LOL, another less that stellar Woot Off.

Hill down they have.

jeepinmark wrote:LOL, another less that stellar Woot Off.

Hill down they have.

AMAZON buys Woot, Amazon turns woot into a Barrel of Crops....

So Long Woot.com

Done with WOOT!.....Buzz off Pen Is Cheese!!

I keep hoping they'll have another batch of winged pigs (pegapigs?) available... I need something new this year for the Christmas gift explosion since monkeys are the old has beens and piggies are the new hotness.

Well they did have pigs this time, just not pegapigs. But they _were_ kinda horny pigs, from a certain perspective, so though without the forehead protuberances that would mark them as the fabled 'unipigs' I think Woot! is setting us up for a triple play.

First winged pegapigs, then horny hornless unipigs, then sometime soon plain old terrapigs with no special features...

Oh My Fruitful Garden Oh My Fruitful Garden Oh My Fruitful Garden ponypigs!

Then all we'll need is the Sun Princess Sowlestia and Moon Princess Moonbutt unipegapigs to complete the ultimate collection.

Please make sure we can buy three each of these, Woot! Need enough for numerous nephews, nieces, siblings, cousins, etc. And get a move on! Got to get them all in time for Christmas and thats only 9 months away!

jeepinmark wrote:LOL, another less that stellar Woot Off.

Hill down they have.

I'm surprised. I don't think I've ever seen a wootoff last only 24 hours. There really wasn't that many items run through, since there were some slow sellers. No Bunnies Ogling Carrots no monkey. I was underwhelmed, again.

Hellmark wrote:I'm surprised. I don't think I've ever seen a wootoff last only 24 hours. There really wasn't that many items run through, since there were some slow sellers. No Bunnies Ogling Carrots no monkey. I was underwhelmed, again.

It's clear that amazon has killed woot. Oh well, maybe New Woot will be like the New coke or something.

wootyougot wrote:It's clear that amazon has killed woot. Oh well, maybe New Woot will be like the New coke or something.

There have been 24 hour Wootoff's in the past, and its not unusual for a Wootoff near one of Woot's "Special Dates" to not contain a Bunnies Ogling Carrots Sad but true.

OTOH I do harbor hopes for the Woot! Classic which may follow if your "New Woot!" analogy holds true.

duodec wrote:There have been 24 hour Wootoff's in the past, and its not unusual for a Wootoff near one of Woot's "Special Dates" to not contain a Bunnies Ogling Carrots Sad but true.

OTOH I do harbor hopes for the Woot! Classic which may follow if your "New Woot!" analogy holds true.

But last month didn't have a Barrel of Crops either. They've not skipped Bunnies Ogling Carrots on multiple wootoffs in a row before.

I'm not sure if Woot staff is reading or responding to these posts. It seems they've banished them to this forum so we can all vent without bothering anyone at Woot. But I'm going to have my say, anyway.

A Woot-Off with no Bunnies Ogling Carrots or Monkeys or Lights is almost unheard of. I can't think of another Woot-Off where NONE of those have surfaced.

Two in a row IS unheard of. Shoot, this one-dayer with the servers crashing didn't even get me excited. Usually, I turn on the Woot-Off Lights to notify everyone in the office.

I'm not going to threaten to delete my account. I'm not going to even really delete my account.

But Woot, if you're listening, I'm sad. That thrill when I'd wake up in the morning and find my computer locked up due to the Wootalyzer pop-ups and know that, yes, another Woot-Off is at hand, is gone.

The fun of ribbing TPW about another crappy Bunnies Ogling Carrots is gone. TPW is gone.

The February Woot-Off didn't even result in Shipping Confirmation emails so I could anticipate my purchases.

There are a lot of really good things about Woot that seem to be falling by the wayside. I won't blame Amazon.

TT has assured us that we'll be happy with the new model, promised to "make us smile" this week and, of course, April Fool's Day is coming up. I'm stupid, I'll hang for it and see what happens. I'm not going to get really excited about it. I'm not going to stay up all night to find out what midnight brings. If something happens, it happens. If not, then I haven't lost any sleep. Now, if TPW had made the same comments, I'd be setting my alarm for 11:55 every night.

The truth is, it takes years to gain a customer and seconds to lose one. I think you've lost quite a few customers already, Woot. These are people who will not only never come back but will pass along the message that Woot isn't what it used to be so don't bother.

Are you listening, Woot? There are some of us still hanging on and believing in you...Show us you've still got it.

Dearest Woot,

It is with a heavy heart that I pen this letter (but not with a digital pen). Many moons have past since I wrote you and I fear we both have changed much in that time.

I do not profess to have been here since the beginning of time. Indeed, my account is merely four years old. And while I haven't bought hundreds of things, I have been a faithful checker nearly every day in those four years. I have F5ed mercilessly through many Woot-offs, and even received one Barrel of Crops (which didn't have the stated minimum of items, but I said nothing since I was young and excited just to be a part of it all).

Nowadays, I still check everyday. But I fear the order of things has changed. Deals.woot is often first, as are (I admit) other sites. And sadly, main.woot has not held up well over the years. I don't know whether it is due to our new overlords (whom I welcomed and continue to welcome) or due merely to a saturation of the market which has caused "deal sites" to all fight towards the middle.

And now these two latest incidents. Two woot-offs in a row with no lights, no monkeys and no Bags Of Crap. I still enjoyed some of the products, but many have been high priced electronics that I felt uncomfortable purchasing at 3am, hopped up on Red Bull and FRS chews and without having time to adequately research.

I don't know if this is the end for us. I can't predict our paths. I will continue to watch you, but with each passing day and each passing woot-off, I move further away. Perhaps the good times and the Bags Of Crap will return, but I fear they are but distant memories.

zzzzz78759 wrote:(QUOTE)

Well put.

woot now serves the collective that is amazon.
They have been absorbed, and now the only thing left is the name.

zzzzz78759 wrote:I'm not sure if Woot staff is reading or responding to these posts.

Ohai!

zzzzz78759 wrote:It seems they've banished them to this forum so we can all vent without bothering anyone at Woot. But I'm going to have my say, anyway.

Super-secret: We love this forum and read it all the time.

zzzzz78759 wrote:Two in a row IS unheard of. Shoot, this one-dayer with the servers crashing didn't even get me excited. Usually, I turn on the Woot-Off Lights to notify everyone in the office.

I'm not going to threaten to delete my account. I'm not going to even really delete my account.

Oh good, we do actually want you (and others) to stick around.

zzzzz78759 wrote:TT has assured us that we'll be happy with the new model, promised to "make us smile" this week and, of course, April Fool's Day is coming up. I'm stupid, I'll hang for it and see what happens. I'm not going to get really excited about it. I'm not going to stay up all night to find out what midnight brings. If something happens, it happens. If not, then I haven't lost any sleep. Now, if TPW had made the same comments, I'd be setting my alarm for 11:55 every night.

I'm not going to promise happiness, because someone will be unhappy just to 'spite inkycatz' and be that person, so all I'm going to say is, do stick around. See what we've got planned, and tell us what you think. The Bundle of Carrots has been undergoing evaluation - all of it, and as we make various tweaks and changes, we're all about growing and changing and modifying stuff, but to make it work, we need the feedback.

So yeah, let us know, and in the meantime, remember we're here and always available to read your feedback on the forums, even if we can't reasonably reply to every single person.

trogas wrote: Perhaps the good times and the Bags Of Crap will return, but I fear they are but distant memories.

agingdragqueen handles three topics most excellently here: the Basket of Cats, taxes, and shirt prices/blanks.

But in case you're not in the mood to play clickeroo, here's the relevant part:
"Bunnies Ogling Carrots aren't cancelled forever, they just weren't in the last Woot-Off and we're reevaluating the process because of so many complaints about them or about not getting them."

inkycatz wrote:agingdragqueen handles three topics most excellently here: the Basket of Cats, taxes, and shirt prices/blanks.

But in case you're not in the mood to play clickeroo, here's the relevant part:
"Bunnies Ogling Carrots aren't cancelled forever, they just weren't in the last Woot-Off and we're reevaluating the process because of so many complaints about them or about not getting them."

I appreciate the response. I hope you know that was only 10% of my complaint. It's a general lack of quality, change in attitude, and the demise of true "deal" pricing. Used to be that woot-offs were extremely heavily discounted. This time and last time we saw products at or near comparable pricing on other sites.

trogas wrote:I appreciate the response. I hope you know that was only 10% of my complaint. It's a general lack of quality, change in attitude, and the demise of true "deal" pricing. Used to be that woot-offs were extremely heavily discounted. This time and last time we saw products at or near comparable pricing on other sites.

Well, not being a buyer I can't really address the discounting (or as you indicate, lack thereof), but definitely will make sure that gets passed on.

duodec wrote:I keep hoping they'll have another batch of winged pigs (pegapigs?) available... I need something new this year for the Christmas gift explosion since monkeys are the old has beens and piggies are the new hotness.

Drats! Well that makes sense, just as I get into something, it's already on the way out.

Forever untrendy.
Ready to die alone.
Woe.

Maybe if I try to fatten up the monkeys I can pretend they are pigs. C'mere, pink marker!

zzzzz78759 wrote:I'm not sure if Woot staff is reading or responding to these posts. It seems they've banished them to this forum so we can all vent without bothering anyone at Woot. But I'm going to have my say, anyway.

A Woot-Off with no Bunnies Ogling Carrots or Monkeys or Lights is almost unheard of. I can't think of another Woot-Off where NONE of those have surfaced.

Two in a row IS unheard of. Shoot, this one-dayer with the servers crashing didn't even get me excited. Usually, I turn on the Woot-Off Lights to notify everyone in the office.

I'm not going to threaten to delete my account. I'm not going to even really delete my account.

But Woot, if you're listening, I'm sad. That thrill when I'd wake up in the morning and find my computer locked up due to the Wootalyzer pop-ups and know that, yes, another Woot-Off is at hand, is gone.

The fun of ribbing TPW about another crappy Bunnies Ogling Carrots is gone. TPW is gone.

The February Woot-Off didn't even result in Shipping Confirmation emails so I could anticipate my purchases.

There are a lot of really good things about Woot that seem to be falling by the wayside. I won't blame Amazon.

TT has assured us that we'll be happy with the new model, promised to "make us smile" this week and, of course, April Fool's Day is coming up. I'm stupid, I'll hang for it and see what happens. I'm not going to get really excited about it. I'm not going to stay up all night to find out what midnight brings. If something happens, it happens. If not, then I haven't lost any sleep. Now, if TPW had made the same comments, I'd be setting my alarm for 11:55 every night.

The truth is, it takes years to gain a customer and seconds to lose one. I think you've lost quite a few customers already, Woot. These are people who will not only never come back but will pass along the message that Woot isn't what it used to be so don't bother.

Are you listening, Woot? There are some of us still hanging on and believing in you...Show us you've still got it.

Excellent post! Here here!

inkycatz wrote:Drats! Well that makes sense, just as I get into something, it's already on the way out.

Forever untrendy.
Ready to die alone.
Woe.

Maybe if I try to fatten up the monkeys I can pretend they are pigs. C'mere, pink marker!

Monkeys,where? I haven't seen any monkeys for a long time.

inkycatz wrote:I'm not going to promise happiness, because someone will be unhappy just to 'spite inkycatz' and be that person, so all I'm going to say is, do stick around. See what we've got planned, and tell us what you think. The Bundle of Carrots has been undergoing evaluation - all of it, and as we make various tweaks and changes, we're all about growing and changing and modifying stuff, but to make it work, we need the feedback.

So yeah, let us know, and in the meantime, remember we're here and always available to read your feedback on the forums, even if we can't reasonably reply to every single person.

Just remember that the unique offerings (BeOhSees, cultural collectibles, community postings) and significant discounting is what grows loyalty to culture. Otherwise, you're just another deal of the day site.
And those sites pretty much suck.

I was an original Ebayer (and stockholder), and they lost their culture too. If that's the way of Woot, I'd love to know right now so that I might move on.

zzzzz78759 wrote:I'm not sure if Woot staff is reading or responding to these posts. It seems they've banished them to this forum so we can all vent without bothering anyone at Woot. But I'm going to have my say, anyway.

A Woot-Off with no Bunnies Ogling Carrots or Monkeys or Lights is almost unheard of. I can't think of another Woot-Off where NONE of those have surfaced.

Two in a row IS unheard of. Shoot, this one-dayer with the servers crashing didn't even get me excited. Usually, I turn on the Woot-Off Lights to notify everyone in the office.

I'm not going to threaten to delete my account. I'm not going to even really delete my account.

But Woot, if you're listening, I'm sad. That thrill when I'd wake up in the morning and find my computer locked up due to the Wootalyzer pop-ups and know that, yes, another Woot-Off is at hand, is gone.

The fun of ribbing TPW about another crappy Bunnies Ogling Carrots is gone. TPW is gone.

The February Woot-Off didn't even result in Shipping Confirmation emails so I could anticipate my purchases.

There are a lot of really good things about Woot that seem to be falling by the wayside. I won't blame Amazon.

TT has assured us that we'll be happy with the new model, promised to "make us smile" this week and, of course, April Fool's Day is coming up. I'm stupid, I'll hang for it and see what happens. I'm not going to get really excited about it. I'm not going to stay up all night to find out what midnight brings. If something happens, it happens. If not, then I haven't lost any sleep. Now, if TPW had made the same comments, I'd be setting my alarm for 11:55 every night.

The truth is, it takes years to gain a customer and seconds to lose one. I think you've lost quite a few customers already, Woot. These are people who will not only never come back but will pass along the message that Woot isn't what it used to be so don't bother.

Are you listening, Woot? There are some of us still hanging on and believing in you...Show us you've still got it.

I agree, but I would blame amazon.

saschab wrote:Just remember that the unique offerings (BeOhSees, cultural collectibles, community postings) and significant discounting is what grows loyalty to culture. Otherwise, you're just another deal of the day site.
And those sites pretty much suck.

I was an original Ebayer (and stockholder), and they lost their culture too. If that's the way of Woot, I'd love to know right now so that I might move on.

I don't think we're in danger of losing our culture, so feel free to stay right where you are.

mothersnakes wrote:Monkeys,where? I haven't seen any monkeys for a long time.

I was actually referring to my personal collection, which is pretty small compared to pretty much everybody, but means plenty to me!

inkycatz wrote:I'm not going to promise happiness, because someone will be unhappy just to 'spite inkycatz' and be that person, so all I'm going to say is, do stick around. See what we've got planned, and tell us what you think. The Bundle of Carrots has been undergoing evaluation - all of it, and as we make various tweaks and changes, we're all about growing and changing and modifying stuff, but to make it work, we need the feedback.

Wait...What? The shirt prices changed?? Dang. There goes my argument against paying $10 for a "field trip" class shirt at my daughter's school ("I can get a better one from Shirt.Woot for the same price!").

Anyway, I'm not opposed to change. I understand we have to change or we grow stagnant.

But, as an unnamed politician (I refuse to discuss politics on a Woot forum!) has demonstrated, change for the sake of change is not always good.

You asked for my suggestions (and I hope others chime in) and here they are. I'm sure there will be others because I'm big on giving advice

1. I shop Woot for really, really good deals. Most of the stuff is useless to me but it's useful to someone...as long as it's a good deal. 10% off is not a good deal. 20% off is an okay deal. 30% off is getting there. Give it to me for 50% or more off and I'm going to jump on that odd thing that I didn't know I needed until I saw such a good deal on it.

If I can find it cheaper somewhere else, darned tooting I'm going to buy it elsewhere, especially since I have to pay sales tax (Texas).

And, BTW, you're not supposed to charge sales tax on shipping costs. Just saying...

2. I shop Woot-Offs for funky, off-beat, really good deals. I expect Woot-Offs (on all the Woot sites) to be either be stuff discounted from the "regular" Woot pricing or some funky, weird stuff you wouldn't find on regular Woot (monkeys, bucky balls, Hulk smasher things, etc.) because, well, the whole point of offering an item on a Woot-Off is to get rid of it, right? It's in there stinking up the warehouse, get rid of it.

Here's my Woot-Off stuff story.

Last year, I shopped the Woot-Offs every month. Good deals on funky stuff showed up, I bought 3. Kid.Woot, Wine.Woot, Woot, even an occasional Shirt.Woot or Woot Happy Hour (what happened to that, anyway?), didn't matter. I was in for 3.

Treasured Woot boxes were inspected, then crap was stored in the garage.

Thanksgiving came and out came the Woot boxes. Dozens of them. Big boxes, little boxes, stuff from Bunnies Ogling Carrots that I couldn't use but were still useful. It was an amazing sight. My house is small but the living room was literally filled with Woot boxes.

Then, my daughter and I went through them deciding who got what for Christmas. It was a mad frenzy of boxing, wrapping, applying ribbons, and tags. I think we had something like 15 Snuggies.

Stuff we couldn't use was donated to Blue Santa or other charities (I seriously have no need for a breast pump.)

Two HUGE boxes of gifts were then shipped north for Christmas. UPS Store put them in two boxes because the added cost of shipping them all in one was great - and, "these will actually fit through the door." OK, so I went a little overboard.

BEST CHRISTMAS EVER. Everyone had great fun comparing gifts. Since I have 3 nieces and two nephews, we got to mix things up pretty well (since I only had 3 or often 2 of each item.) There were useful things (emergency car kits), strange things (those M&M usb drives), fun things (Snuggies), and weird crap (Police Line Shower Curtains.)

That's what Woot-Offs should be.

3. No one is going to hang around waiting for a 1 cent "Doodlebops Get on the Bus" game if there's not a payoff. I'll be in for 3x $1.99 M&M USB drives (BTW, they're seriously cool!) if it'll bring us closer to that ever elusive Barrel of Crops.

If there aren't going to be some awesome deals, I'm not hanging out for the Woot-Off. If there's no Bunnies Ogling Carrots I'm even less interested. Sorry, but I'm fickle.

4. The all important Bunnies Ogling Carrots Truly, this is the big draw for Woot.

Forget the complaints about bots. Is there any REAL honor in getting a Bunnies Ogling Carrots without a bot? If the answer is no, then get a bot. If the answer is yes, then quit whining. Sheesh.

Pay attention to the expectations. Yes, the Crap Commandments state not to expect more than 1 bag and 3 crappy items. OK, then if I get 3 items, there should be at least one AWESOME item. If there are no truly AWESOME items, then there should be a bunch (as in way more than 3) of moderately awesome items. 6 Sansas? Cool! Even if only 3 of them work. Intersperse the really crappy stuff with the awesome (or moderately awesome) stuff. I'm okay with a random cable if I also got a Roomba.

I know you can fill 3000 Baggies - just keep out a few of each item from the Woot-Off.

And, really, bring back the letters. We haven't heard of letters in a long, long time. Before the Santa Sack.

5. Woot-Off Killers...the high end items. OK to have a few in the Woot-Off but not so darned many. We expect them at lunch time, shift change, and maybe overnight. As someone else mentioned, those are typically something one wants to research.

The TVs, iPod Touches, etc (I haven't seen those in a while, either) are fine. I've researched what I want and if I find a killer deal in a Woot-Off, so much the better! I've waited through 2 now looking for a TV, any TV. Nada.

So, there's my 2 cents - maybe more like $3 (plus $5 shipping). I'm sure others have other ideas.

zzzzz78759 wrote:
So, there's my 2 cents - maybe more like $3 (plus $5 shipping). I'm sure others have other ideas.

That was worth at least $5 to me, but since you're giving such a great discount, I'm in. ;)

Times change, and so do I....
Make WOOT cool again! Good Luck! :-)

inkycatz wrote:Drats! Well that makes sense, just as I get into something, it's already on the way out.

Forever untrendy.
Ready to die alone.
Woe.

Maybe if I try to fatten up the monkeys I can pretend they are pigs. C'mere, pink marker!

Wait until its time to start trotting... err shuffling out the zombie pigs. EVERY trend must end with zombies. I think the kissy pigs are already predisposed to The Change...

Inky, thanks for your participation.

DaveInSoCal wrote:Inky, thanks for your participation.

You're welcome!

It pains me to say this, but with all of the changes we've endured from woot over the past year (bag/monkey-less woot offs, shirt price increases, overall displeasure from the choice of products sold) it has become quite difficult to be as much of a woot-izen as I have been in the past.

Truly, I used to be an outspoken advocate of all things !, and was even pranked at Christmas by my family with "fake" bags for my love of all things woot...and it reminded me of how much I truly loved this site.

I hate saying it, but the only reason I've been checking the site every night (yes, I still do) is to read the write-ups.

It seems to be that the only redeeming quality left (other than those of you who post in the forums along with us commoners, we love you to bits) is the write-ups. So here's a thank you to the writers.

Thank you for continuing to give us reasons to check the site. Without you, our internet lives would have much less exciting punctuation.

-matt!