How BPAL lost my business today

[martygreene]

BPAL (black phoenix alchemy lab) makes the perfumes I like.

Today, they lost my business. I posted a few days ago about a price hike which was happening. The direct quote from the announcement is:

"We have done our best to make this as painless as possible. To that end, the following changes to oil prices are in effect as of the inception of Carnaval Diabolique on August 3rd, 2006"

Note that a date is given, the date which is tomorrow, not today.

The update went live today. The prices went up today. The update went up approximately 6 hours early. Upon seeing this, and questioning the price change and citing the above, the response I recieved from the owner of BPAL was:

"Here's the deal. As most of you know, updates usually go live around midnight PST. I have been awake until 4.30am for three nights in a row, and have been getting up at 8am. I'm overworked, very tired, and wanted to get the update live while I was still coherent. This is not some nefarious trick engineered to wheedle $2.50 more out of the masses. The update went live roughly 6 hours early. Not a week, not a day. I apologize if this is upsetting to some people, but my eyes hurt, I need some rest, and there is pretty much zero chance that I am physically capable of staying up til midnight.

I hope everyone enjoys the update as much as we enjoyed putting it together. I'm going to hop into the tub and try to slap myself awake."

So, I can no longer afford BPAL, and I am no longer able to order the couple bottles I was going to get, so as to have full bottles of scents which I recently sampled.

Thanks BPAL, it's been fun, but I don't do business with people who can't keep their word. That's bad business.

EDITED TO ADD:
Oh, and after my and other people bringing this up in the thread on their forum (albeit run by third-party folk) about the aformentioned update, our complaints were moved to the "hijack this! the completely off-topic thread" thread. Thanks for the double slap in the face. It seems people are split- 2/3 on the side of "WHEE! New things, new prices early? eh- NEW THINGS EARLY!" and 1/3 on my side of "uhh, bad business much?".

Comments

[icprncs.livejournal.com]

She has a reputation as a drama queen of the highest order, and the attitude permeates their customer service. They were pretty nasty to me last year after they lost an order that had included a free bottle and they wouldn't make it up.

I screwed up how I paid for the order I made yesterday. I've e-mailed to ask how it can be fixed, but if they tell me that I'll have to cancel and re-order at the higher prices, that'll be it for me as well.

[bitter-moss.livejournal.com]

Hello random person! I saw a post of yours in vegancooking (and may I saw its great to see a darkly-inclined fellow vegan :)). I adore your layout - did you customize it? If so how - I would dearly love to add bats or cats to the Po layout myself, as you have...

[martygreene.livejournal.com]

I'm not strictly vegan, I do eat dairy and fish on occasion, but I do enjoy vegan food and was strictly vegan for some time. Alas my wonky body is full of strangenesses, and certain nutrients in ther alternative forms just don't cut it for me, so fish and dairy are back. Not that I mind terribly- I do like me some good cheese and a bit of sushi once in a while.

Anyhow, yes- I did customize my layout myself. There are a few communities here which are very helpful s2expressive and s2styles are the two that were most helpful for me. Check them out. The bats and such are images I made myself or manipulated from illustrations in one of my favorite childhood books.

[bitter-moss.livejournal.com]

Well every bit counts, I think :). I'm not the strictest vegan out there myself, for eg. I'll eat eggs when they come from my friend's chickens - but I do try to look at the big picture, buy organic when I can e.t.c. I think an 80% vegan is better than an un-thinking omnivore chowing down on Maccas!!

Thanks for the community names!