Tuesday, July 26, 2011

We are running a short promotion (as everyone does) as a membership type of incentive to join our club. We are giving a FREE Angler 2 for new members from one specified date to another (August 15th, 2011). Today, I am going to speak my mind. There are days that I am to the point where I have no clue what to do to please people or what on earth they expect. I am in the middle of sending out our Newsletter, and I received this comment from a member:

Sooooo....the people who joined first are left out in the cold without an Angler 2? Great way to reward us.
I honestly don't even know the amount of patterns we now have in the club that are FREE to members for a small fee of $39.95 for an entire year, as we continue to add and add and add + a 60% discount on the patterns in our store. I just added 9 more the other day that are FREE to members. I do know, however, that we also just added five new videos to save people time and money who have how many rulers for $19.95 sitting in drawers that are never used?
Would I write this to another designer in the industry who has a sale from one time to another? NO! Would I write this to L.L. Bean who I might have purchased a sweater from yesterday - and today they had a sale on the same item I purchased yesterday? NO!
Hopefully BLOGS are a place where you can get personal feelings down on paper. I have no clue how to please people like this. I do not think that anyone is exempt right now from what is going on in this country with the economy. I understand the economy is not good in very many countries right now.
If anyone, as a human being, who has a business they have to work at from 9:00 a.m. until midnight 24/7 has any clue about how to please people like this........please tell me!!


12 comments:

  1. Sometimes all you can do is let it go. You are doing your best and will never please everyone all the time. You are a generous and giving person. Complainers will learn sometime that life is too short to spend being petty.

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  2. I agree with Patty. You have to release it. I joined a few weeks ago and have been very pleased with all the free content for members. I have saved lots of money on your patterns that I pay a fraction of the cost being a member. I haven't made my way through all the videos as yet but am looking forward to using all the good tips found on them. Just keep doing what you are doing and don't let the negative chatter into your head. I miss being in Ga. I am a native and moved away 11 years ago. Lots of family still there and am looking forward to visiting my sister in Loganville in a few weeks so we can do some quilting projects together. Keep up the good work!

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  3. Pam...don't worry a BIT about this, you continue to do what you do. You sacrificially give to us all these patterns at a FANtastic annual membership price!

    Have no idea what this person is upset about, but I'm sure it is not you, the source if her frustration is just being taken out on your company....you TRUE friends don't put a second thought to this!

    Hugs!!!
    Kim ♥

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  4. Hey, you guys are great. Today was my little granddaughters Birthday. Kids were napping here. I have to keep The Incredible Hulk away from the kids - he's never been around kids. New members pouring in (very appreciated) and I guess I let this one nail me.
    I have a hard time understanding sometimes what makes people think like that. Robert and Susan and I talk about that kind of thing a lot. We just don't understand it.
    Today also I was very homesick. Bad timing I think!! Love you guys!

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  5. Oh good grief. I bought 2 anglers a couple of days before you started this promotion. Did I kick myself? (well, maybe just a little bit :) But I know how hard you work, and someone who has the nerve to complain needs to go shop at their local quilt shop. I had to pay $24.95 for a pattern for the Saturday Sampler, and let me tell you...the directions are NOT nearly as clear and concise as yours are, Pam. And it's full of mistakes! That $24.95 is getting purdy darn close to a year's membership at Pam's Club where I can download patterns to my heart's content. FREE. Shake it off, dear... You can't please everyone all the time! But as I have said before, you have tons of adoring fans. Don't let one nasty-tempered, greedy person color your world..not for one minute! Hugs :)

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  6. Monna, thanks. It hit me at a bad time. We just did a huge upgrade on the membership side of the website because a lot of folks were having problems joining. This new one really works great, but I get 4 different sheets in with each membership that have to be filed in different places on my computer. The problem is that they don't all come in together. They are mixed up so I have to hunt for them. That sort of threw me today just trying to figure that out.
    98% of the time I ignore that stuff and I really don't get that much of it. On top of it, I was trying to find a time to take a shower before we all went out to dinner tonight. That never happened, but hey! Who knew except me? Had fun anyway! Thanks again!

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  7. Oh, Pam...I guess people are really on the edge with their nerves these days and just blurt out without thinking. You guys are so giving and such good people! You have been a great inspiration to me! I was in the hospital recently with palpitations. Then came back from vacation to find out I was let go from my job. All that with having lost my oldest daughter and my husband by the time I was 46. But you know what?? I find joy and contentment in my sewing craft...quilting. Your patterns make me so happy! I wake up with ideas and make the 'bad' stuff just take a seat in the back...stay just as sweet as you are :) Nancy (ps - watch for my photo of one of your feathered friends!)

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  8. Dearest Pam, don't bother with all those ungrateful comments. Just be yourself alright. Take care and all the best. Nonie Abdul Salam

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  9. Hello to all of you. Thanks so much for the nice comments. Just got another really hateful one this morning.
    I don't know about all of you, but I posted something yesterday that may have offended some folks, thinking it was political and it's not. Robert and I are scared just as everyone is, but we are not taking it out on the people who are trying to help us.
    We were sitting on the porch this morning after breakfast (in the heat) and talking about the effect of this mess in our government and what it could do to us. According to surveys of the people I work with in the quilting industry, 90% of all quilters are 55 years of age and older. Many rely upon their Social Security checks. I can tell all of you that the effect this would have on the quilting community in the U.S. would be catastrophic. And if it happens it could force many publishers, magazines, shops and manufacturers out of business.
    Am I scared - you bet I am, but being hateful to others is not the answer. I really appreciate your support - all of you.

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  10. Quiltmama - all the way from Malaysia. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your kindness!

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  11. Pam, You are so right about things being very scarey right now. Those of us who rely on Social Security have a great deal to be concerned about, and whether they know it or not, so does everyone else in this country. But we must not give in to fear, nor must we give in to the barbs of those who are so fear-and-anger-based that they feel they must hurt those around them at every opportunity. You must indeed, let it flow off of you and let it go. The only thing we can do to make a real difference in things is to keep on being as kind, as giving, as understanding, as loving, and as grateful as we can each moment of every day. We can only extend grace and goodness to those around us, whether they be our families or our friends or our business acquaintances...like the ripples in a pond, it will and does move out away from us and have a beneficial effect wherever it lands. That's what you do when you provide those of us who visit your website with the opportunity to keep sewing and quilting for far less money than other quilt designers. That's what you do when you offer us the benefit of your and your husband's incredible gifts of creativity. That's what you do when you teach us how to do more with what we have, doing it more easily and more skillfully. Every day you reach out from your heart give an enormous amount to all of us. It matters, believe me. It makes a difference, trust me.

    I have never understood what the source of the ugliness that I have seen increasing over the years from people and they way they communicate over the internet. I am saddened that there are so many out there who feel compelled to lash out at others, to be unkind, rude, vulgar, hateful and cruel. I know you receive some of that, and I know it hurts. But I have learned with great certainty over the years that those who engage in such behavior are defining themselves far more clearly than they are those to whom they deliver their invective. Remember when you get that hate mail, it's all about whatever stuff they have inside of themselves. It's not one bit about you.

    Keep up your spirits. Gird your self with optimism, kindness, understanding and grace--which is what you are all about, anyway! Keep on doing what you're doing--there are so many of us out there who appreciate it enormously. You have been a great inspiration to me, all the way up here in Alaska, for a number of years. Thank you for all your generosity. Thank you for the faith you show in those of us who can only aspire to quilt and create as much as you do.

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  12. Oh My! I haven't even had time to read posts. Have been working from 9:00 a.m. until midnight. This one made me cry. I have no words. May you all be blessed with nothing but love and good in your lives. Robert and I are going home to Colorado in October, and we feel so truly blessed.
    Thanks so much.
    Pam

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