why do feed providers fuck with their customers?

seems to me that one of the most important things a feed provider could do is to keep track of the feeds and how they work on their webmasters' sites. to do this, they could make their own dummy paysite member area with .htaccess and link to the feeds just like their webmasters do - then check them every day.

after all, if people are paying you for a product, they shouldn't have ads - hotel or otherwise - on it that they don't even get a commission for.

collegeboyslive - some plugins won't even let you use their paysites without an active un/pw. why would they refuse? do they think you're planning to put it on a password trader board? :wacko:

I can't speak for everyone else, but we use individual folders for each plug-in client. This allows the client to pick and choose what they would like to have on the page: IE a banner of their on our content that only their customers can see. For this reason alone, we cannot just have a "dummy paysite" area, because everyone has a different product. And that's not even getting into the logistics of different packages. Not all sites have the same package. Some have more options (for a higher price) and some have a basic package.

As I have stated earlier: the webmaster does not have to check to see if the plug-in they are licensing is working, because their customers will do it for them. Any time there is a problem, unhappy customers will email. Webmasters, not knowing there is a problem, will in turn email me. I will then fix the problem.

Many times, customers will email me directly, since I have a support email address at the bottom of the main page on every plug-in. It has worked perfectly well, so far, and I expect it will continue to do so in the future.

Zak... I feel ya on the "webmaster password" thing. I run into the same problem.

Rocky

(PS: another alternative would be to remove the .htaccess on each plug-in client folder and check for problems... however, that creates even more of an issue if there is an .htaccess problem that re-routes their users to the main page of the product... something that has happened to us before.)

the average paysite that doesn't have a more personal approach might - might - here from 1:15 - 1:30 regarding a plugin with a problem. that is if it doesn't play.

a lot of guys hate popups, and they simply quit. i've worked with two programs where we emailed all cancelling members. there was a similar situation, and no one wrote to us because they all felt 100% sure it was our plugin. they were offended. it took days - and a higher than normal level of cancels from new members - before one member wrote an angry email saying we never used to have popups, and letting us know that he cancelled because of it and that he was very disappointed we should do such a thing.

if you had "dummy paysite member area" with all the products linked, you could easily go to each page it was linked to each day. seems to me it's not our members job to police the member area - but maybe that's just me.

Okay call me thick here but what does it matter which feed the customer gets or what banners they add? I'd say simply dumping the feeds into one dummy paysite to check your end would make perfect sense and insure the quality of service.

I'd also say that waiting for a customer complaint is just not good business sense. Upset customers isn't fun, and most businesses will tell you that for every complaint that they get means that roughly 10 upset customers simply walk away without complaining.

Now don't get me wrong, it is your biz model and you do what you feel works for you, just seems to me that being aggressive in preventing complaints would make better customer service than after the fact. Sort of like closing the barn door after the animals have all left.

but like I said, I am thick.
just my opinion

Ian

No, no, no... don't get me wrong. After reading the explainations of your "dummy site" to include all of the feeds and client links on one page, I actually like the idea and am working on a way to implement it.

I agree about the angry customer logic: 1 angry customer = 10 angry customers. I have been in customer service most of my career and I know that is truer than true.

SO we are now working to ensure preventative measures to assist in the running of the feeds to make sure that problems (such as the one brought up by Dawgy... not specifically against me, I need to remind everyone who has been attacking me... but against everyone who uses pop-ups in plug-ins as a whole) are solved before they even begin to be "problems".

Thank you all for your input. It is appreciated.

:-)

Rocky

I have never had a problem with Rocky and his feeds and he has literally bent over backwards for my company. I started in this business in 96 and honestly have never had a company help me out so much. I stand behind Rocky 100% and I really think it sucks that something that was a problem was never brought to Rocky's attention by email, phone or anything. It was brought on the boards by someone who isn't even a client of his attacking his company and causing him to lose customers. I had a problem with the AEBN feeds awhile ago and contacted them again and again and the problem wasn't fixed and other webmasters were having the same problem so that is when it becomes necessary to post on the boards. Rocky explained and corrected the problem but he still lost clients because of it. I really think this type of problem should be addressed by contacting the owner and then maybe posting on the boards. I trust Rocky and his feeds 100% and don't even feel the need to check the feeds.

Mark

mark, i disagree. i this webmasters should know if there is a feed that might be popping up ads in their member area. if a content provider isn't able to keep track of their feeds due to outside elements, i think potential users should know that.

i could be wrong, but i think dawgy is a customer of that feed.

rocky may be a very nice guy - i don't know him - but this was about something that can affect people's businesses. it's not about friendship or personal loyalty. as it was, this thread allowed us to help him find a solution to what i perceive as a problem.

if everyone trusted rocky so that they never checked his feeds, no one would know there were hotel popups on this feed. accidents happen.

i am mistaken - dawgy is does not use that feed in his member area.