I still love TwoPeas (Rant)

I always think it's sad when another scrapbook business closes. I agree, I don't know why people care if they sell on Etsy.

I really don't want to say this to be mean, but it's hard to read without paragraphs. Sorry, Tpgirl. No hard feelings.

Now that I have that out of the way, I feel bad for every business owner who has to shut down. It must be really hard for them.

I think most of the bad feelings come from being hurt by the stores closing. We all considered two peas home and it will take us a while to get used to it not being there. I also think that if they knew they would be closing they should have closed down purchases on their online classes so people would not buy the classes a day before they announced the store closing.

You have the right to your opinion and those who are angry do too. I think some people, over the years, have been aggressive and overly antagonistic towards two peas and other companies/scrapbookers. They often have good points, but their delivery is obnoxious and seemingly over invested in the demise of others...almost to a point of glee, but miserable people exist everywhere and in very corner of retail.

I think 2peas made a lot of mistakes, and I'm not a fan of the ostrich approach to ending the MBs without notice (but I realize it could possibly been an IT/bankruptcy thing), but I think they provided a home for all of us online and spearheaded so many trends. They also were able to hang on longer than almost anyone in the scrapbooking industry, so they did do something right at least part of the time.

I agree with you TP. It sucks that they shut everything down so fast, but as a small business owner, none of this surprises me and is understandable.

It always amazed me that people would be so upset with shipping times. There was this sense of entitlement that it should be shipped that day or the next. 2P's was still a small business and the more staff you have to pull orders, the less profit you make. I always chuckled to myself when folks would compare shipping times with Amazon. Ummmmm. Not exactly the same size business.

I never had a problem ordering from 2P's. I did have an error once by receiving the incorrect item. They gave me a credit and told me to keep the item. You can't ask for more than that.

I am sad that 2P's is gone and I feel bad for all those who lost their jobs. But, it is just a scrapbook message board. For us it was like a home. For them it was business. They didn't really owe us anything.

I think a lot of people are upset about the classes and workshops they purchased. I was able to download all my content. But other people will lose the stuff they paid for. Some people invested a lot of money on those classes.

There has been a lot of miss steps in the history of 2 Peas. Like when Kristina used a private board to talk trash about customers. I guess it was bad timing that a glitch made it viewable to the public.

From my observations, think there was a general lack of communication between management and the members that dated way back.  In the 13 years I was on the board, I never read the management coming out on the boards and asking people to shop at the store.  They pulled threads, they intermittently enforced rules against mentioning other stores, but they never to my knowledge asked for support.

i would have loved to shop at their store more.  I personally found it difficult to get an entire set of something from 2peas without having to go to another store to get other pieces of it.  I would have loved a preorder option, or a bank it option like Scrapbook Generations now has.  Never in the 13 years did I get asked why I didn't shop there.

And I don't think PennyScraps and CherryPicker left because of another member.

While you are correct that this is how most businesses handle closings, it does not make it right or fair to the employees who are trying to pay their bills and feed their families. It is a sad day, and I think most of us in the scrapbook industry recognize that any time one of our businesses closes, it's a scary day because we have seen a LOT of companies close down or being bought out. I've been scrapbooking for 10 years and was part of 2peas for that long, so perhaps the loss of 2peas is a bit more dramatic for those of us who were there for a long time, I don't know.

Personally, I'm relieved to hear some honest viewpoints/wonderings about what has gone on, because it seems that all the GG's have posted scripts on their blogs. Those scripts, while perhaps a portion of them may be sincere, really don't give the whole picture and you know the GG's must be upset that they are currently working on layouts and classes that will never be fulfilled on 2peas. They may have valid reasons all day long, but like several other posters have said, it doesn't make it fair or thoughtful of the very customers who have been loyal pea-ers for all these years. :-(

I have always been happy with 2peas for the most part until the last six months. Camille was my problem. Rude. Rude. and more rude. So no I don't feel that sorry for them, well maybe for 2peas I do, but not this person.

Oh and edited, I am still mad at the way they closed the message board down.

I'm curious to hear more about how Camille was rude. From my perspective she interacted very little on the MB - a huge 180* compared to Jamie.

I wonder what they thought of being trashed themselves on a regular basis!  Statements like this (no offense to you Crazyhare) about the "secret board" and what KW did actually write with the GG's (if you read it, NO personal information was actually traded or posted, the peas went off on their own on that one).

But really--almost daily, on their own boards, people complained and trashed two peas and the owners. So how is that any different?

I never trashed 2peas but how they handled things I'm NOT happy with but what's done is done and I think moving forward is the best thing. Putting energy into the GS board here and making it the best it can be would be a benefit to all of us scrapbookers/cardmakers.

Also I'm not sure how Camille wasn't embraced on the boards...I remember a post being started right before the announcement she had joined asking if she was replacing Jamie and once confirmed everyone welcomed her.
I also seen many Peas thank her on threads for helping them for answering a question.
I'm not sure how much more embracing you can do via message board.

I'm going to have to agree with the people that say they should have listened to their customers. They always said the people that used the message board weren't their priority. (And that is my paraphrase). But I purchased from them and used their board.

They chased a lot of people away when they changed the looks of them board the last time. People like Cherrypicker, who said the stark coloring of the board hurt their eyes and they would have to cut their time back. I personally didn't know her, but she had a legitimate complaint and they owners weren't willing to listen to why she was complaining. Lots of Peas left then to go to the Scrap n Yap board.

On the NSBR board, people fight and argue. But they also come together to help each other. Many a contest has been won by the power of the Peas. Too bad the Whites didn't realize the power of the group they started. If they could have only treated the Peas with respect. They would have had the biggest fan club behind them. But instead they alienated the group.

I honestly wish them the best. But I'm not willing to trust them with my money anymore. They knew for a while that this was going to happen. They could have found a way to make sure the people that paid for content got all that content they paid for. For me, that is my biggest complaint about them. Wilna Furstenburg posted that over 1500 people bought her Art Class 1 class. How many of those are going to lose the class videos? Ones that were supposed to be lifetime access. Of course everyone assumed it was forever. Not until they close up shop with a short notice.