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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Why I Am Currently Disappointed With JewelMint...

Update 3/28: I've updated the post to reflect the correct sequence of questioning that occurred over on Facebook.

I'd like to take a moment to speak openly and honestly about my opinions on how JewelMint has handled the current issue with the Golden Ticket Promotion. I took a day off from blogging yesterday to take some time to really think about why this issue with JewelMint was weighing on me. In the past year that I've been blogging about JewelMint, it sometimes feels that their own self-proclaimed "mess-ups" can affect everyone  from their beloved members to fellow bloggers who spend many hours dedicating their time and sharing their love for the brand.

This past weekend, it was brought to JewelMint's attention by many over on Facebook that participants in their Golden Ticket Promotion were receiving 10% off promo code tickets instead of the minimum of one JewelMint credit the promotion that was promised. Based off of the official rules chart (as seen in this post here), it was also possible for all participants to win up to 4 additional credits and a chance at the grand prize: a tablet worth $120 to $300.

JewelMint's response on Facebook to these complaints was for all participants to email JewelMint customer care at customercare@jewelmint.com in order to receive their free credit.

While this was a prompt response, JewelMint members began asking about the remaining 44% of participants who should have received more than one free credit?

Someone by the name of Carl JewelMint responded to this on  Facebook (posted Sunday 3/25):
"Ladies, Please let me start by saying once again how sorry I am for the frustrations you've expressed around the Golden Ticket promotion. We value our amazing members so much and always want to provide you with the best possible experience. Throughout today, several of us at JewelMint have been pouring over all of your feedback and analyzing what's happened. A number of ladies have pointed out that by offering to issue just one credit to ladies who received zero credits previously, we weren't accounting for the possibility of more credits being included with the original Golden Ticket – or a grand prize. Our explanation there (which we apologize for not including) was that based on our analysis, our miscommunication/mess-up was primarily centered around the distribution of the "one free credit" Golden Tickets. In other words, a LOT more of them should have gone out. But regardless of that, it's very clear that we missed the mark and we've simply left too many of you dissatisfied. So here's what we'll do. Any customer who did not receive either a promo code for 1-5 pieces or one of the grand prizes with their original Golden Ticket will get re-entered into the promotion – please just email Customer Care with the subject line "Golden Ticked Redo" and include your order confirmation number in the body of the email. We will then re-enter those members into the promotion and they will receive promo codes for free pieces (and grand prizes) according to the posted breakdown (55% will receive one free piece, 20% will receive two free pieces, etc). For the sake of reaching a quick resolution for frustrated members, we will need all eligible members to send us that email by Tuesday at 11:59pm PT. We will distribute credits/prizes by Thursday at 11:59pm PT. On Friday, we will also email those members with a special gift. I sincerely apologize again for all of the frustrations around this promotion. We are working to make this right and appreciate your help and feedback, as always. We promise to continue improving and will definitely incorporate learnings/feedback from this into future promotions."
While this was another prompt response, but other concerns arose including variations of the following:

  1. For those whose packages shipped late and may not receive their package before the Tuesday redo deadline, should they submit an email for the redo without knowing the contents of their package?
  2. If a customer receives their package after Tuesday, did not receive their free credit(s), and wasn't aware of this redo, what will be the plan for this customer in honoring the rules of the promo?
  3. Will this same information you just shared here be send out by email, which is the same method that was used to communicate the original promo?  If not, how will this be communicated to those who do not frequent Facebook?
  4. What happens to those who received "XXXXXXXXXXXX" as their Golden Ticket codes?
Carl JewelMint later followed up with the following statement (posted Sunday 3/26):
"For those ladies that received a winning Golden Ticket with the code as all Xs, we are asking those customers to sign the ticket and email us a picture of the signed ticket. We will reply with their correct code. This applies to both JewelMint and StyleMint both. We realize that not all customers that participated in the promotion are on Facebook to see the announcement. We are working with our warehouse and logistics staff to figure out which orders were affected in hopes of reaching out to any other potentially affected customers. Now, for those select few that are not scheduled to receive your shipment until after the Tuesday midnight deadline, please still email customer care with your order number and subject line “Golden Ticket Redo”. We are hoping to figure out which orders are affected so we can be proactive and re-enter those members into the promotion that email us. A number of you made multiple purchases to increase your chances of winning. We plan to treat each one of your orders as individual entries."

In the meantime, I am still waiting for my Golden Ticket promotion to arrive in the mail - it shipped last Friday. I've also made a conscious effort to withhold from emailing JewelMint about the Golden Ticket promotion (at least until the last minute)...

Why? You ask? Well, because I still have not received an official email from JewelMint with official instructions as to the Golden Ticket issue. Additionally, "Carl JewelMint" is a separate account from JewelMint's Facebook page (it could arguably be anyone), and this official announcement did not come directly from JewelMint's Official Facebook page.

This is where my main issue with JewelMint lies right now: I've been waiting to see if JewelMint would hold true to their Facebook response regarding contacting all participants of the Golden Ticket promotion through the same method the promotion was originally announced.

It's currently Tuesday, March 27th. The time is about 1pm PST, and I'm still waiting to receive an official email from JewelMint in regards to this issue, my account, and how I could be affected by their recent mistakes.

This raises some serious questions, such as:

  1. What happens after 11:59 pm PST tonight when members who do not frequent Facebook or still have not been contacted via email receive their packages after today only to realize something is wrong with its contents?
  2. Is JewelMint still liable for offering those members (who have not yet been contacted) a chance at up to 5 credits after 11:59 pm PST tonight?
  3. And finally, why haven't all participants of this promo been contacted yet by JewelMint?

In my opinion, JewelMint could have handled their mistakes much differently. I feel that putting the responsibility on their members to contact them in response to their mistakes is very unfair...especially when there are still some members out there who have not been officially contacted by JewelMint and may miss out the 12:59 pm PST deadline tonight.

Please don't get me wrong. I love JewelMint, and I very rarely get into the negative here on my blog unless I feel the need to speak up. I personally felt that this was bothering me too much to go unaddressed, and I can only hope that future promotions go much smoother than this.

For now, I'll be waiting to see what happens, and I'll be sure to follow-up if anything else related this this issue arises. In the meantime, it's back to JewelMint blogging as usual, and all the reasons why we continue to love their jewelry...

xoxo, Lily

12 comments:

  1. Thank you for highlighting what has been an incredible blunder on the part of JewelMint. I truly hope they come up with a solution that includes all customers affected by this mishap. The promotion is a fabulous idea, in theory, just poorly executed. They can fix that, but need to do so, outside of Facebook, so all customers who participated can be included.

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  2. I agree with you on all points, Lily. Unfortunately, my faith in JewelMint is currently non-existent. I wouldn't be surprised this fiasco continues for a week or more after today because of members who didn't know about these changes but still received an improper GT prize. While my package did arrive earlier than expected so that I could make the 'deadline' for emailing them, there currently exists members who have no clue all of this is going on. As I see it, those of use who are speaking up on FB, tweeting, blogging (like you), etc are doing JM's job for them. It is unfair, and really diminishes the reputation of JM and BeachMint overall as a company. In my opinion, the path JM took to rectify the situation did not follow the original GT promotion terms, which were legally binding agreements. I still plan to submit a report to the California General Attorney's office and the Better Business Bureau. Hopefully my actions and the actions of others will ensure that JM will be accountable for their word in the future.

    -Chee, The Shoe Doctor, PhD blog

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  3. I agree with you Lily. I still have not recieved my package yet in the mail but I have been following your blog and I read about the situation where ladies where not getting anything from the promotion. So today I contacted Jewelmint and I told them about what I have heard and to see if anyway they could check to see if my order had a ticket or anything else included. Of course there was nothing included and they gave me a email to contact and I sent them a email and within a hour I had a credit to my account and information stating that I was also placed in the drawing. Remind you that I have not yet recieved my package. Long story but I think if you contact them and express your concerns they will do whatever they need to satisfy you.

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  4. I called them yesterday because I recieved A 10%off card with jewelmint. They gave me a credit and entered me in the drawing. This "free gift" will that be included for me too? I also recieved a card with xxxxxx for styleming, for one free item. It makes me mad that I have to send a picture to them so that I can get a code- why should I? I am very close to ending my relationship with them. I am only waiting to use my free credit and then it is over.

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  5. I just received my Golden Ticket package in the mail yesterday and of course there was just the 10% off code. I was planning on calling Jewelmint to complain today and was never actually contacted by them regarding the mix up. I emailed them today but obviously I've missed the Tuesday deadline so well see what they tell me. I also ordered something from Stylemint and received the same 10% off golden ticket. I really hope that they are willing to make things right other wise I'm not sure I would want to continue doing business with there companies. Thanks for your post about this mix up!

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  6. I just received my Golden Ticket package in the mail yesterday and of course there was just the 10% off code. I was planning on calling Jewelmint to complain today and was never actually contacted by them regarding the mix up. I emailed them today but obviously I've missed the Tuesday deadline so well see what they tell me. I also ordered something from Stylemint and received the same 10% off golden ticket. I really hope that they are willing to make things right other wise I'm not sure I would want to continue doing business with there companies. Thanks for your post about this mix up!

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  7. I mean, it's not about whether or not they're fixing it, it's about HOW. Seriously, if I wasn't a total troll and on the Mint pages the whole time, I wouldn't even know this was going on. The problem is that they create these "giveaways" to get us to buy what we normally wouldn't have. I ordered a SM tee just to get the free gift, honestly. I wouldn't have ordered otherwise, so it is frustrating when you do that and this happens.

    I'm actually surprised ANYONE got anything! We will see, shan't we?

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  9. I was contacted by the director of Beachmint last November after I posted on JM's FB. I ranted about the whole miscommunication (both internally and to JM's customers), delayed shipments, wording of the promotion, constant emailing existing members promo codes that's only for new members, glitches, etc. He told me that JM (Beachmint in general) is new and growing very rapidly as a company, and they are hiring more and more people to deal with the over whelming demands, and he assured me that JM is doing their best to solve the problems and to improve for future events.

    I'd seen some overall improvements regarding their customer service since then, but this Golden Ticket mess is just RIDICULOUS! It completely shows JM's incompetency to run a e-commerce company (there are MANY other e-commerce jewelry companies out there that have successful businesses). I totally understand that JM is trying to recruit new members and get existing members to buy more stuff, therefore they have constant promo codes, free gift with purchase, special events (such as the Halloween bag, Golden Tickets, etc). And it works! That's how a lot of us stock up on some of our JM pieces with lower than the $29.99/piece original deal.

    However, I really believe that JM's marketing strategy and business plan need some serious improvements. Some of the members commented that if we keep complaining about JM's events, then JM might not do events at all. Because after all, JM does not OWE us to give us any discounts. That's totally true, but I really believe that if you want to do something (promos, events), then do it well, don't just do it half a**ed and expect customers to be happy and keep buying from you.

    That's right, JM is a jewelery company that's growing very rapidly, and they do have some very nice and unique JM designs. However, I must address that JM would not have been a company it is now if it weren't for us JMers who spread the words and rave (sometimes even hype up) their pieces on our personal blogs, vlogs, Youtube channels, etc.

    The whole "email us a picture of your Golden Ticket, and we'll give you JM credits" "the rest will be entered into a new draw" just topped it off. You would think JM would have records of who gets what and just do automatic credit re-issues. I mean, COME ON! Do we really have to do your job for you?

    I really feel the whole "JM is a new company, thus mistakes are to be made" excuse is getting old. Mistakes? Yes, but what do you when you make a mistake is really what matters.

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  10. Thank you for discussing this, Lily, and I wholeheartedly agree with you on all things you were concerned about. I also want to thank Chee for keeping on them on FB - you did so much work to make them understand, no, they are not meeting the original terms, and you also worked hard to keep informing people. Like you say, you are doing the work for them!

    I have been shopping with JewelMint from the very beginning and the amount of money I've spent with the Beachmint brand is not small. I'd previously even defended them when others complained about other promotions, but this experience with the Golden Ticket promo left me seriously disenchanted.

    Concerned about their initial response ("we'll give you one free credit to only those who email & call it good"), I wrote a lengthy email to Jose Martinez, Director of Customer Service at Beachmint (jose@beachmint.com) on Sunday. I laid out how that was not abiding by what they themselves wrote as "Legally Binding Agreement" and "Official Rules," as they weren't including ALL the purchasers, and told him how communicating/handling this on FB alone is a poor decision. While it was impressive that I got a response almost at midnight, the content was basically identical (copy/pasted canned response) to Carl JewelMint's post, which was posted right before the email I received. I also later received a follow-up, also identical to Carl JM's post, after I pressed about those members who don't visit FB/will not receive packages.

    As there had been no Carl JewelMint on FB in the past (as far as I know), I can only imagine that this is a fictional character who was designed to make these GT-related announcements, to take the hit, so to speak. Appears more neutral than the familiar CS reps. I wouldn't be surprised if Jose M and Carl JM were one in the same.

    I was bothered, too, that these announcements were made in the "Posts by All" stream that get buried over time, and not through any of the JM's official channels. It still seemed to me like they were either not trying very hard to reach everyone, or worse yet, trying to minimize the resulting cost. (But shouldn't the cost of running a promo be calculated beforehand?!) They said they were trying to identify those orders that were affected, but I didn't get contacted about the StyleMint orders that were affected (yet to receive), so I must say they weren't very successful.

    The whole "send us a photo of the signed ticket" ordeal also left me severely skeptical of their record keeping ability. At one point Carl JM comments that they need to do that because they don't know which customer received which kind of ticket. If they had in fact initially run the promo according to the prize distribution chart for the most part (because their claim was that those 10% coupons were given to only those who were supposed to get the 1 credit coupon), they really should have a record of who received what prize, in case they have to show that to authorities. But the fact they have to basically ask each customer to show how many credits are on their ticket shows how poorly this was run. Sigh.

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  11. Actually, now that I've looked at the second email I received from Mr. Jose Martinez again, it says at one point, "(I made this post on FB a few minutes ago too!)". <- "I" being the operative word. This was right around 10:40 AM on Sunday when "Carl JewelMint" made the follow-up statement. So I'd have to conclude Carl JewelMint is indeed Jose Martinez. Maybe he is trying to prevent people from contacting him directly too much by hiding behind an alias. (Or do you think he'll say something like, "Well, my middle name is Carl!"?)

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