Interesting Tidbits from a Supposed Two Peas Staff Memeber

Matt Perkins said...



Hi Everyone!

I'd be happy to answer some of your questions. First of all, I'm glad I could help some of you out while I was working at Two Peas. I did my very best for everyone within what I was allowed to do.

Now I'd like to clear some things up. There was definitely no blacklist. If there was ever a time when someone received a promotion and someone else did not, it was all to encourage all to encourage sales.

Speaking of sales, I think many of you really really underestimate how much it costs to run an online scrapbooking company. After promotional coupons, loyalty discounts, free shipping, and merchandise which has already been put on clearance, there is not very much profit. When you need to pay rent on a warehouse, salary for your staff, etc etc, it can be hard to keep things afloat. It's a fashion based industry, so after something is not longer hot, a very large hit is taken on everything not sold in time. Many people don't realize that we were in fact a small business, and not a giant corporation. It's amazing to me that some of you expected full time moderators for the boards. This is just flat out unrealistic.

On the subject of the boards, I will say this. It was, even for me (someone who never had any stake in the business itself), incredibly infuriating to hear people be so entitled about them. An insider secret that I'm willing to give out is that most of the people who whined the most had NEVER placed an order. They were specifically at Two Peas as internet trolls who just wanted to stir the pot. As far as the NSBR goes, we hated it. HATED IT. The NSBR literally generated next to no sales. The only reason some of the bigger trouble makers were allowed to stay was because it causes a huge disturbance once you start to ban people. Basically, people would cause a shit-storm if we banned, and people caused a shit-storm because we didn't ban. At one point the decision was made to get rid of the NSBR, but they ultimately decided not to because of what it would do to the other boards.

As I stated I am very happy to have been able to help many of you. Some of you had been legitimately wronged, and I worked my hardest to make things right. Some of you, however, are absolutely freaking ridiculous. It was stressful to have anyone be able to go to the message boards and create a gigantic issue over the fact that we wouldn't replace your 50 sheets of paper that had a slightly bent corner. A discount was offered in that situation, but that wasn't enough for some people. If you want to shop knowing that a piece of paper is not going to arrive to you at 100% condition instead of 95% condition, then don't buy something as fragile as PAPER on the internet. If it was bad enough, of course I replaced it.

The loyalty program is something which we needed to change badly, as many shoppers were getting a 15% discount. Say what you will, but an unlimited use 15% discount was way better than any other loyalty discount being offered at the time. I did the math once, and ACOT's loyalty program comes out to about a 3% discount. Although was too good and needed to be changed, Two Peas went about it in the worst possible way. I was VERY heavily against not changing it in the way that it was changed, but I had no power. As someone who spoke to customers every single day, I was actually astounded at how this was implemented.

I have no info on what Jeff and Kristina are doing, and I have not spoken to either of them since I was let go.