Tuesday, April 7, 2009

BREAKING NEWS! ProvoCraft responds to missing word art on Life's a Beach cart

Here is the official ProvoCraft statement regarding the missing word art on the Life's A Beach Cartridge.

Provo Craft is always excited to see customers respond to our newest Cricut cartridges. We also understand that our Cricut users want to see the new cartridge images as soon as possible. We try to get our retailers these images as soon as we can, to get our Cricut users excited about the upcoming products. These sample images are generally created prior to the cartridges actual production.

During the development process, it is sometimes necessary for Provo Craft to make changes to the original preproduction artwork. Provo Craft does not guarantee any image will make the final cut on to a cartridge until the cartridge is actually completed and in production.

It has recently come to our attention that some Cricut users are upset that Provo Craft changed some of the artwork on "Life is a Beach." While Provo Craft strives to make sure that the most accurate information is available for users to make informed decisions about our products, Provo Craft reserves the right to make changes to artwork without any notification.

We try our best to keep the retail websites that publish images and information about Cricut cartridges up to date with the most current information as possible, but sometimes we are not always able to do so. Because of this, Cricut users should always refer to the Provo Craft website for the most recent and accurate information available.

We appreciate all your support of Provo Craft and its products.


As addressed by AdminBecky on the ProvoCraft website today on THIS THREAD. See this post for more of the back story of this problem.

Suffice it to say, people are STEAMING MAD! One woman is going to sell all her ProvoCraft products over this. Lori Willett on the above thread does an outstanding job summing up most people's feelings by this statement:

Becky,

Thank you for your response. I appreciate that it must have been crazy once this all hit yesterday, and, coming from a long career in corporate America, I'm impressed that ProvoCraft responded so quickly.

Please understand that what I'm about to say isn't directed towards you. I know you're doing your job, and you did a great job of keeping everyone in the loop so we knew that PC was working on the issue.

My friends who purchased things like Silhouette were immediately given the ability to cut items from the all sorts of sources. They purchased their machine, and with the exception of a few accessories, their purchases were done. We chose to go with Cricut, knowing that we would continue to invest in cartridges. We knew that going in.

But somewhere along the way, I think most of us came to realize that this machine is a lot more expensive than we anticipated. The price of cartridges doesn't go down very quickly, and the "Solutions" cartridges are simply cartridges with fewer images and fewer features, not really a bargain.

Along the way, we've heard from lots of our friends who switched over to SCAL and love it. We were loyal, though, and we felt that we should continue to give our dollars to ProvoCraft and support the company who created such a wonderful machine.

What does PC do in return? They give us rewards points but charge such outrageous shipping/handling that we don't want to even redeem them.

They have lousy customer service when we call. There's not enough help, and when someone finally does answer your call after you've waited 20+ minutes, they haven't a clue as to what to do to help you.

They have a website they don't maintain with any regularity, and anyone interested in PC products could never rely on that website for information. The only way to find PC products is to look at retail sites. As late as yesterday afternoon, I could not find a single reference to the LAB cartridge on the PC site. Yet the e-mail says that's where I should have looked before I bought? Maybe I'm dense, but if the information isn't listed under "Cartridges," how exactly am I to look it up?

Now this. Does PC wonder why the total uproar about LAB? It seems like the absolute rage coming from the end users didn't match the issue, right? We'll, that's because we've had it. This was the last straw for many of us. PROVOCRAFT - No one else! - released the images for this cartidge. Totally within the control of PC when it's released and what is released. PROVOCRAFT set up retailers with this phony list of images and gave them permission to pre-sell. These retailers are wonderful, many of them small businesses who rely on us so they can remain in business. You failed them, and you failed us.

Mistakes happen. I don't know why the images were released and not included in the cartridge. Was it a mistake? Was it a concious decision? Don't know, don't care. But what you did was bait and switch, pure and simple. You advertised, through multiple retailers, a product. You set a price, you provided the specifications. Then, only AFTER the items were purchased and the end users complained, did you happen to mention that you had made a change.

In my book, that's illegal activity.

Can GM advertise and sell a car with 38 features and deliver a car with only 28, saying they have a right to make changes?

Can you sell me a house with 8 bedrooms and then after closing tell me the house really only has 5?

Can you sell me a shirt with two sleeves and put a sleeveless shirt in the bag for me to take home?

I'd say NO.

Shame on you. Shame on ProvoCraft. You've lost me as a customer. At this point, I wish I had purchased a cutting machine from your competitor so I would have saved the hundreds of dollars I've spent along the way supporting PC. I won't do this again. I will not give you my money in the hopes that you will sell me what you advertise. PC has no integrity, and I for one can't support such an organization.

You ought to be ashamed.

Lori Willett


It will be interesting to see how this plays out on the message boards. Frankly, I am disappointed because I like the last row of word art that wasn't included on the cart.

6 comments:

  1. Good job Joy! This was a really interesting post. I'm on the fence here... as a stout Provocraft defender, I have to say that even I can't defend this one. I, too, am disappointed in the 'switch & bait' tactic that seems so evident. AdminBecky
    didn't even 'apologize' for the extreme disappointment much less the anger that this has caused. She didn't even 'explain' WHY the images were not included. She basically said... too bad, we changed our mind and we don't care if you don't like it. (I can even imagine her sticking her fingers in her ears and blowing raspberries at us all! LOL!)

    Tammy

    btw: love the new look on the blog!

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  2. Well Said! I hope Provocraft feels this decision right in their wallet.

    -- LindaBabe

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  3. I think I have bought all the Cricut stuff I plan on buying.

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  4. I've been scrapbooking for over 13 years. I've seen products come and go. I love my Cricut. It is the best invention ever! I don't think people remember paying $200 for a font with Quickkutz....for one size....and paying for each die. Same thing with Accucut and Elllison dies...($1000 a font) If you are that miserable...sell your cricut. I appreciate everything provocraft has done and will continue to buy each cartridge. This is just my opinion. I just can't believe that you can buy a die cutting machine for under $200?

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  5. I will "ditto" everything Lori Willet said in her email except that I have easily spent close to $2000 with PC - not hundreds! I'm generally VERY VERY patient and understanding with businesses and willing to give them 2nd chances, but I'm beginning to feel that they don't give a flip about any of us that are current customers. Even when I do get a response from my numerous emails to them about problems, it says nothing helpful and it's full of incorrect grammar and spelling - NOT a professional image at all!

    Someone(s) at PC needs to go back and take Business 101 courses.

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