Every once in a while I get a heated (HEATED!) email from someone about some crazy thing we’re doing to them because they signed up on JibberJobber. Here’s a recent “I’m deleting my account because” message:
“Because you guys gave me the upgrade when i didn’t want it! I do not want to pay almost 10 dollars a month for this job website.”
There are two points here:
- We gave her an upgrade, even though she didn’t want it. When you sign up for JibberJobber and LOGIN FOR THE FIRST TIME we award you 14 days of premium. For people who DON’T WANT IT, let me apologize now for giving you this free 14 days. For everyone else who appreciates it, let me encourage you to use that time to import your contacts from Outlook, Gmail Contacts, LinkedIn, etc. And if you really don’t want it, just pretend you have the free level… no harm, no foul, right?
- She doesn’t want to pay almost 10 bucks a month for this. Really? Well guess what… NO PROBLEM. JibberJobber was designed to give you what you NEED for free. Forever. We don’t force you or strong arm you into paying anything, ever. You upgrade when you want, downgrade when you want. But the irony of this beef is this: how are we going to charge you? At this point you haven’t given us any payment information, or authority to charge you? It is not possible for us to charge you unless you give a credit card, ya know? We’re not scammers.
About a year ago I got an extremely heated, ALL UPPER CASE email from someone who was LIVID that we gave him the premium upgrade and the 14 day clock started ticking from when he first logged in.
I’m amazed that some people have great ideas while others offer no solution or suggestion, just very heated, passionate, disrespectful yuckiness.
Even though I have an official, legal company, I am not out to cheat anyone. I want to provide high value, and hope that some people will pay for it. It’s the old underpromise/overdeliver thing. I’m out to please, not hurt. Unfortunately, some people think companies are out to hurt and cheat them. That’s not me.
How does this apply to your job search?
Read this post: Are You Bleeding?
Do your communications with people, whether at a networking event, in the anonymous online world, in email, on the phone, or on your thank you letters, show your blood all over?
I would never, ever recommend or want to communicate with someone who craps all over me (they might crap all over the person I introduce them to, right?).
If you aren’t getting anywhere in your so-called-networking efforts, perhaps you are bleeding too much…
English must be a second language. You TELL people they will have upgrade for 14 days to explore and as a measure of thanks for signing up for JibberJobber. But, so what. It’s your fault for automatically upgrading them.
I just did some work for a company that requires you to put in your FCC license number so a software use code can be generated and e-mailed to you to activate the software. The field is right there and so is the short, one sentence explanation, right above the buy button. You’d be surprised how many people don’t put in the code. And then complain about the crappy service.
Sigh.