Memolink sent this response to a user when she asked about an outstanding prize. Interesting, eh?
Dear xxxxxxx:
By now you’re probably growing tired of waiting for the Memolink prize that you ordered several months ago. We know that we promised to have it to you within 24 weeks, but unfortunately, we are not going to be able to send them as quickly as we had expected. We’re very sorry to relay such disappointing news.
Until now, we’ve been able to fill overdue prize orders within the time frame that we had promised. Unfortunately, because of the troubled Internet economy many of our partners have gone bankrupt and our collected revenues have not grown as expected. To date, Memolink has written off nearly $1,000,000 in bad debt. This is advertising revenue Memolink will likely never see. Having stated this, I’m afraid I have some bad news as to when you can expect your outstanding prize orders that you placed in April, May or June.
Your current prize or prizes will now be filled as follows:
All April Prizes: No later than May 31st, 2002
All May Prizes: No later than July 31st, 2002
All June Prizes: No later than September 30th, 2002
All July Prizes: No later than November 30th, 2002
All August Prizes: No later than December 31st, 2002
The good news is that Memolink will now fill all of your new prizes, placed on or later than December 10th within 4-6 weeks. Furthermore, as Memolink’s business continues to improve, we will do everything possible to send out your outstanding prizes before the dates listed above.
Why are we doing this? It may not sound fair and we completely understand if you’re disappointed in Memolink. The bottom line is that Memolink cannot survive unless both our older dedicated members AND our newer members continue completing offers and keep earning points. We know that if we don’t send out prizes fast, you won’t have any reason to continue visiting Memolink and earning points. This is our only chance to catch up.
As most of you know, many of our competitors, other rewards or loyalty programs, have gone out of business because they were unable or unwilling to adjust to the drastic downturn in the Internet Economy. We, as a company, are trying to be realistic about how best to not only survive in these most challenging times, but also continue to grow and profit from the relationships we maintain with both our 1 million plus membership, and our current advertisers.
If we were to keep sending out prizes on our regular schedule (that we promised you earlier) we would never break out of the “24 week rut” and would always be six months behind. Plus we would continue to lose members if EVERY member had to wait 6 months for EVERY prize.
We expect that if all prizes are filled within 4-6 weeks going forward, our members will generate revenue for Memolink much faster and we’ll be able to catch up on prizes faster. This is our best chance to fill ALL prizes as quickly as possible.
I’m not telling you all of this in hopes to muster your sympathy or to list excuses as to why your prizes are still late. I’m telling you because as a Memolink member, you deserve to know the truth.
Memolink, Inc. has been in business since 1994 and we are confident that we will be able to serve you well into the future. We will continue to update you on new developments as we work towards catching up on all outstanding prize orders. Thank you for your continued loyalty to Memolink.com.
Best Regards,
David Asseoff
President/CEO
Memolink, Inc.
