A few days ago, I saw a post on MyCoupons made by one of the forum moderators that said that people could earn EXTRA points by joining the Six Questions rewards program by clicking through their link. This simply isn’t true — you get 25 points to join and 50 points to confirm your email no matter what link you use to join Six Questions. Because I have butted heads with MC’s mods in the past and didn’t want to fight with them again, I bit my tongue (hard) and didn’t say anything. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I thought they were just misinformed and felt sure someone would correct their mistake.
Then when a user replied and said she was concerned that she didn’t get the points — she had used MC’s coupon link to join but the coupon text suggested a code was required, and she didn’t see one — I had to reply. I said, “Don’t worry about it, everybody gets 75 points to join; you don’t even need to go through MC’s link for it.”
Guess what? The mods deleted my response. And their original, UNTRUE, post is a sticky at the top of the forum.
This really ticks me off — it proves that they knew (or at least they NOW know) that they’re not telling the truth about their link being worth “extra” and will just delete anyone’s response that points it out.
Now, MyCoupons’ site is a business; I understand that. (Believe me. I’ve got an MBA. I’ve taken a business class or two, you might say.) They’ve put in tons of rules to make sure that people use their links to purchase any bargains they let us post about. BUT…it’s one thing to say, “please don’t post competitor sites,” and “no posting to say use a rewards program when you take advantage of this deal,” BUT it’s TOTALLY DIFFERENT to intentionally allow a misleading ad to remain that on their site AND to delete any posts that indicate otherwise.
This is just bullshit, as far as I’m concerned.
There are MANY OTHER DEAL FORUMS out there, and yes, some of them do have strict rules, BUT they do not need to intentionally mislead you in order to get your business. The powers-that-be over at MC need to understand that, like any other forum, MC is only as good as its users. You can’t treat your users like crap and expect they’re going to keep coming back for more. It may take their forum becoming deserted for them to remember what got them there.
Don’t know any alternatives? Let me point you in the right direction: BigBigForums.com, FatWallet.com, DealofDay.com, SlickDeals.net, MagicClickClub, DealHunting.com, TheFunPlace.com (Funtasia’s), FishingForDeals.com, TechBargains.com, BargainShare.com, Dealideal.com, DealCatcher.com, RefundSweepers.com, SmokingHotDeals.com, FreeSampleSite.com (YourDailyFreebies), CyberTightwad.
If you have others, please respond and I will add them to this list. Am I over-reacting? You tell me. For me, it’s the last straw. I can’t take any more of their heavy-handed dictatorial bullshit. Protect your business interests, sure… but don’t continue to tell people, “You’ll earn extra points with our link” when you KNOW it’s not true.
Update, 4/28: After the MC mod who made the post responded to my inquiry about the falsity of their “extra points” claim with, “Any questions should be directed to SQ,” I did approach one of the owners of SixQuestions with my complaint yesterday. Today when I logged into MC, the post, and the coupon, had been changed and the words “extra points” removed. Two lessons from this: 1) The SixQuestions owners were conscientious and honorable enough to quickly address the falsehood of the claim, and 2) MC was unwilling to take the initiative to clarify it because it wasn’t in their financial best interest to do so. Kudos to SixQuestions… and shame on you, MyCoupons!
Update #2, April 28: After further consideration, I removed the word “LIED” from this post. I think MyCoupons actively mislead their users by deleting my response which pointed out the problem, and by not acting quickly to clear up the confusion over the offer. This is primarily what I’m complaining about, and I think my complaint is being ignored because of the inflammatory term “lied.”
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Becky,
I’m sure you remember back when they wanted everyone to pay to use their board. That was the end of it for me. I still have an account over there (I THINK) but I use that board so rarely that they may have deleted me. I didn’t like their practices back then and I don’t like them now. I am glad you have a backbone, speak the truth and point out scammers to us no matter what the scam.
Lying is lying pure and simple. I’s sure they detest people such as yourself, myself or any other “self” out there that cares to have a shred of morality.
Keep up the good work and don’t worry. Good comes to good just as bad attracts bad. They’ll get their due and you won’t have to do a single thing. You know the old adage about giving someone enough rope and sooner or later they’ll hang themselves.
Regards,
Newy
Face it…MyCoupons is a multi-million dollar tiger and you are a cheap little mouse.
They have more viewers in a day than you get in a year.
You need to “get a life”.
“You need to get a life.” Very intelligent response there, Simon! And how exactly does that address the issue that I posted about?
A comment on your update. I helped a friend of mine who has an online store. He wanted to buy a little advertising from another website. It was up to him to write what he wanted the ad to say. The website obviously had to approve it for anything illegal – porn, hate, etc., but the ad was up to him. I had helped him write it. It would make sense that if anything was changed the advertiser asked that it be done.
I’m going to do some checking on these boards myself. I imagine they’re pretty much the same. The person buying the advertising does the ad writing. I will let you know of my findings.
That may well be true. HOWEVER, I notified the MC mod that made the post that the text was untrue. I even went to the trouble to cut and paste from the SQ site AND from MC’s own coupon, that MC wasn’t offering any “extra” points as they claimed in both the MC coupon and in her own post. Her response? “Any questions about this should be directed at SQ.” In other words, “So? I’m not changing it.” Less than 24 hours after I notified SQ, both the coupon and the post were changed. SQ took care of business. They are a responsible and honorable organization. Draw your own conclusions about MC.
Again, in my one experience the ad part was OUR responsibility. If there would have been a discrepancy it would have been our resposibility to change it and then notify the website we advertised with.
It sounds like that six comments or whatever site farked something up and you just really want to blame my coupons for it. It’s good that it was caught and changed.
I hope if I ever help write another ad and I mess it up there won’t be a “Becky” ready to crucify me and whatever website we advert with.
Something else. You alerted them to a discrepancy. Are you 150% sure that no one at my coupons contacted them as well? I had to give my contact information when submitting my ad. I would think everyone else does too.
I’m still contacting a few boards in your list on procedure. It’s going to be slow, dial up sux.
Wicked
I did not “crucify” SixQuestions. I didn’t post anything negative about MyCoupons until they deleted my original public response about the discrepancy and took no action. They indicated they were unwilling to take action even after I contacted them about it privately. And yes, I do think it was their responsibility to clarify it. This wasn’t just a link on their website. One of MC’s mods made a post, under her own name, containing the text. They took an active part in the advertising. Now if the text was written by someone else, that’s fine. BUT when notified that it was incorrect, they should’ve acted on it. Not shrugged and said, “Well, any questions about this need to be taken up with the advertiser.” MC has a responsibility to their members NOT TO FALSELY ADVERTISE. They may have not done so at the outset, but they did so when they continued to run the ad knowing it was false.
And in my most humble opinion, RELATING THE FACTS OF THE SITUATION is not crucifying MC. They did that themselves by their own actions (deleting the public response and not acting on the private one).
Best wishes — sorry we see the situation differently,
Becky
Becky the ad IS UP TO THE ADVERTISER!! What about that don’t you get?
You said you notified that website. How do you know someone at my coupons didn’t notify them too? You know for sure it was solely you that brought the thing down? You said the coupon was changed and the post was changed. I didn’t see it and if I did I wouldn’t remember what it was. You sound like you know for a fact no one did ANYTHING but you and you’re taking sole credit for any action. You don’t know that either.
As far as crucifying, my opinion, yeah. Your posts here try to paint my coupons as so horridly awful. I don’t think you know a whit about advertising at some of these places yet you can pass judgements. I would hope that if I ever type up ad wrong someone will just let me know and not have to write a nasty article about it somewhere.
if this is what this site is all about, maybe I don’t need to come again. Other sites have just as much information on progarms as this one.
Wicked
Hehehehe…yeah, I do know a thing or two about advertising. I have an MBA. You know, a Master’s in Business Administration? From a little school called LSU. No, not Harvard, but it’s not the Podunk Country School of Bidness, either.
I’d be glad to quote you Ambrie’s exact response, but she’s deleted my account and I can’t get to it. It was (as verbatim as I can recall), “Perhaps they changed their signup offer after submitting the ad. Any questions would have to be directed to them.”
To me, that doesn’t mean, “Thanks for letting me know, I’ll check into it.” That was the morning of the 26th. Nothing happened that day. Nothing happened during the day of the 27th. But curiously, within a few hours of my email with the SQ owner, the coupon and post did change. Draw your own conclusions.
It’s IRRELEVANT who wrote the copy, don’t you understand?? What DOES matter is that, when notified about the discrepancy, MC did NOTHING but delete my response. When I followed it up again the next day with a PM to the mod, they inferred they’d do nothing. That’s irresponsible! They did nothing for at least TWO DAYS from when I first told them about it!
Don’t like a site where the WM gives you LOTS of information, not just info that benefits her financially? Don’t like a site where the WM doesn’t kiss ass but calls it like she sees it? Hey, like you say, there’s lots of other boards out there. Go for it! But when I see a website mistreating their users, I AM GOING TO POST ABOUT IT. And you’ll also notice — go back through my archives, I’ve been at this a while — when I see a website treating their users well, I POST ABOUT THAT, TOO.
I get a couple hundred hits a day without yours. If you don’t find something useful here, please, by all means, go elsewhere. With my economics background, obviously I’m a proponent of the free market. I think that’s why MC ticks me off so bad — they refuse to share ALL of the information people need to make good decisions.
Hope you have a useful remainder of your day off on a site that better mirrors your opinions and inclinations!
Sincerely,
Becky Ford
Sorry, I still don’t see anything that’s so horrible to warrant this tirade. I don’t think anyone expect you to kiss ass. Just because a change was made a whole couple hours after you emailed someone doesn’t mean a thing. You’re assuming you’re the only one that did anything and taking all credit. Bully for you make yourself looke extra good!
I like a wm that knows how to tell the truth without flinging insults and assuming everything. You think someone that keeps spouting their education might know how to do that. You may not expect anything financially but I’ll bet you’re hoping people will use them there referral links to sign up for program with to benefit who? You.
It’s not irrelevant who wrote the copy. Your very first post comes across as you blaming coupons for the whole thing. That they wrote that ad just to get people to sign up through their site. And in rides the Beckster on her big white horse to save the day. Give me a break.
The whole point is there’s a LOT you don’t know. You didn’t know that the person that submits for an ad writes the thing!
All I’ve discovered is that you have a huge gripe with my coupons and you take it out on them here. It doesn’t matter if you have all the facts, this is your by-God site and you’ll say what you want true or not. Real nice coming from a 36 yr old educated person.
Screw it. I like my coupons it’s a good site. I’m signing up. big big and my coupons.
You complained about my coupons policies. I’d like to be pointed to where you’ve ranted about other boards that have the same policies. Because you are fair, right? You give equal gripe where gripe is due?
Wicked
Hmm…so your problem isn’t that I complained, but that I made a “tirade” out of it? So, is a 20 line post okay, but a 40 line one is too long? What constitutes a tirade, exactly? And how many lines of my tirade have simply been in defense of YOUR accusations? Heck, I didn’t think I went on all that long originally. Did you see the “tirade” I wrote on Memolink???
(My faithful readers know which one I mean…hehehe)
And I’m still waiting on the dates of those posts where I violated MC’s terms by posting my URL. You made it sound like I was a flagrant rule-breaker and then didn’t back it up.
I’m full aware of who writes the copy to an ad. I’ve written quite a few of ‘em myself! The post I responded to, where my response was rapidly deleted, was made by a forum mod. It wasn’t apparent it was written by an advertiser. And to me, it doesn’t matter. Once notified it was incorrect, it should have been immediately changed. They had a moral obligation to investigate and did not.
Other forums (BigBig, for one) DO allow you to post, “Here is a great deal, and don’t forget to go through MyCoupons for an extra 500 points.” MC doesn’t. So I don’t have a gripe with BigBig.
Do you know of a situation when BigBig continued to allow an ad to be posted after being notified that it was wrong? PLEASE let me know, I’ll go off on them, too.
You think this is about me blowing my own horn? Perhaps you didn’t read my article very well. I posted about this situation on 4/26…when MC hadn’t done anything about it. My purpose was to let people know that MC had been told there was a problem and their only response was “Take it up with SQ.” I found that irresponsible, and I still do.
I updated the post this morning when it was resolved…to show that SQ immediately responded when it was brought to their attention, although MC did not.
Anyway….while this has been fascinating — it is always refreshing to hear a different point of view — I do need to log off and attend to other things. I hope you find all the information you need on MyCoupons! There are a bunch of really nice users there. Shame the board administration has to be the way it is…
Best wishes,
Becky Ford
Hm… this is a tough one. If I understand correctly, the ad (run by SQ on MC) said that a person would get extra points (at SQ) if they signed up through MC’s link. Is that right? Or wait, was it an ad or was it a post? Because that makes a BIG difference!
Becky, your article says you “saw a post on MyCoupons made by one of the forum moderators” offering extra points. If that’s accurate, then it is NOT SQ’s responsibility. If it was (or even APPEARED to be) MyCoupons’ own words promoting SQ, then they need to make sure the information is accurate.
Now if this was a “paid ad” from SQ, then MC has an obligation to run it as-is, and SQ should be responsible for awarding the extra points that were promised. But regardless, if someone questions the ad, MyCoupons still has an obligation to investigate! To say “take it up with the advertiser” is irresponsible. But are they lying? Well, that depends on who knew what and when they knew it. You (Becky) believe that they knew full well that people wouldn’t get extra points for using their link, but left it up to entice people to join. Maybe, but that’s just your conclusion.
The bottom line is this. Should MC have investigated rather than blowing you off? Absolutely. Did they knowingly use deceptive wording to attract people to sign up? Maybe. But even if they really didn’t know, they still should have investigated rather than playing dumb.
Becky, I told you I found one and it was an old one. If any of your posts have been edited or deleted I won’t be able to find them now will I? You know that. If I want to go through all your posts at a later date, I will.
As far as waht you said about Bigbig and allowing them to post about my coupons, that’s FALSE. You try typing out my coupons over there and it gets x’ed out. Those deal boards don’t allow other deal board advertising too. If you complain about that with one board as you do in one of your posts here why can’t you complain about them all? This is what I mean about you. You complain about actions at one board but then list other boards with the same policies how great they are? Jaded much?
You still don’t know if my coupons did anything about the link or the post. You won’t admit that either. You’re assuming You think it was all about you and your notification that got everything changed. If anything your big problem should be with that six place for wording the ad wrong!
It couldv’e been a mistake on several parts but you can’t see that either. I don’t see your honesty at all I see angry opinions and nothing you can prove.
I’ve notified the moderators at big big twice on two different issues that weren’t correct on their site. The issue was handled and I wasn’t contacted back. So I guess that makes them wrong? I don’t even know if it was me that alerted them first. But I certainly didn’t run off to my own little corner acting like I was all that.
I think you have a valid complaint that’s buried under a bunch of “let’s see how much I can crank on my coupons” crap. Just posting the complaint though wouldn’t have been dramatic enough though.
You can’t admit there’s things you don’t know and didn’t know to start out with but I guess that doesn’t matter a whole lot to you.
I hope other boards will be better for you because if this is how you are on the rest, won’t be long before you’re out of them as well
Wicked