Hi guys. Just saw this petition from their facebook page.
Link: http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/redpawpaw-com-au-stick…
Feel free to sign it
Petition for RedPawPaw to the ACCC: Stick to the original contract of FREE POSTAGE that people agreed to in March 2014
easternculture on 25/07/2014 - 23:21
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Cheers TA
Hopefully ACCC can fine them for bait and switch
I hope so as well. I read few reply and comments on link you posted and it seems RPP (Red paw paw) is hell bent on charging delivery charges regardless of how many people sign that petition. Hope they will be taught lesson by ACCC.
20 people have reported her to ACCC and they just ignore them.
ACCC won't do anything.
Why do they exist at all?
The ACCC does not take on every complaint that comes into the agency. They also have an Enforcement and Compliance Policy on their website which shows which matters have a better chance of getting looked at over others.
Unfortunately the ACCC does not have the resources to get involved in every matter that gets referred to it and instead directs its resources to matters that cause the most harm. EG if you have two competing matters whereby one involves shipping for sample products to peoples home and the other matter involves actual household staples, which do you think will be the higher priority.
let me counterpoint for a second
if they miscalculated and they cant continue doing this without going bust, why push this to the bitter end?
will the ACCC force a company out of business?
i'm not great friend of business but it seems a bit selfish on the part of people there
I agree with this too.
I'm not too sure about the details, but if the company offers a refund for the unused months then I don't see what the problem is. I assume they are offering a pro-rata refund.
Most new business models that offer a very attractive price don't last long. I am sure this idea would have come across a majority of its customers when they signed up.
How do you squeeze money from a person who has none?
they got an entire refund (even for the ones they received) not just pro rata.
A pound of flesh.
ACCC ignore all complaints.
They are a toothless tiger.
Why do they exist at all?
no they just don't take individual complaints. they often take big breachers to court, but they aren't going to take a company to court over your $5 worth of goods. its not even worth the time it takes them to read the email.
also theres a lot of false equivalence there
they say that its a hidden cost like bank hidden fees or bait and switch and that they should force the companies to subsidise the postage since they are sending samples
errmm????
paw paw made a mistake, thats all
And the complaint over bait and switch should go to nsw fair trading, so ignoring it is the correct course of action.
Don't waste your time with the Petiton.
Sarah Constin (owner and CEO) has already said she has seen it, and will under no circumstances change her mind.
Online Petitons never work, anyway.
Would be more effective to email the brands they "love" each month & tell them you won't be buying their products due to association with a scam like RedPawPaw. ACCC & online petitions won't do anything.
Though in saying that, personally, I'd just take my full refund & call it even. Got to be a bigger problem out there somewhere…
its not a scam. it was just an unsustainable business model and you weren't scammed out of anything. you got a bargain and then you got offered a full refund. you got free things you didn't lose any money = not a scam
I feel like people are overreacting to this. I can understand its annoying but you all are acting like you have been robbed and you haven't.
Scam should have been in quotations, I'd been reading their FB site & loved the ACA/TT feel of torches & pitchforks at the ready. Caught up in the moment & missed my grammar, fairly unheard of on the internet I know, but does happen.
You're right though, I wasn't scammed out of anything, nor did I lose any money. But your also wrong because I never got a bargain. Therefore nor did I ever get offered a refund. Or get free things. Also, not entirely sure which "you all" I'm a part of, but I'm neither annoyed, nor acting like I've been robbed. Might have been a bit hard to see from atop your high horse, but the point I was making was to take the full refund & call it even. No worries if you disagree, but I'm standing by it.
I chose not to sign up for this because I didn't think it was sustainable. Really lucky to get a refund, its not what I thought would happen but still crying theft?
if you knew how this would turn out from the start, that you pay for 12 months in advance then end up getting all your money back and 2 months free - I guarantee more people would've signed up.
This poor woman has tried and failed (like any of you are perfect and have never failed) and your all trying to take the last crumbs off her table. she admitted defeat and did the best she could by you which is better than most would do, leave her alone. I find it disgusting the attitude of entitlement and no regard to her if she lost her job/business and still picking at her - like your all poor and desperate for some small samples? I doubt it.
The relentless attack on this company at all cost does seem to stink. Whoever started that petition needs to get a life. It's just samples, jeez. It's a business model that has become unsustainable clearly due to it's own popularity (although how they figured it was sustainable in the first place is beyond me, given the price of postage these days), they've offered a refund. What more do people want, blood?
Maybe you should direct that to the petitioner who really has her knickers really in a twist about the injustice of it all and how she plans to exact her revenge using the ACCC as her wingman.
The constant endless entitlement of some users and the applause they receive for it is the sole change I dislike since I joined this great site.
wow, I expected to get negged off ozbargain for that rant. I resisted saying it on the actual post the other day but seeing this just made me angry.
im sure she already feels bad, don't push people because you never know how far your pushing until its too late and you regret it, this lady is only an individual and bullying her is not right.
EC the new activist ozbargainer.
I 100% agree with kwaker, everyone needs to get over this and move on. I honestly feel that the petition is a little pathetic.
I'm trying to decide what the real situation with this business is, because we're all just guessing. Given that the companies involved pay RPP to distribute their samples and for the feedback surveys, as well as providing the samples for free, and that we consumers are now being asked to pay $12.50+ per box when everyone knows the real cost is half that at most, I'm not sure what the extra costs she's trying to cover are. My guess is that at $5 a box RPP wasn't making enough of a profit, hence the price hike. It's her business decision, and while people may be angry, justifiably, I don't think that will change anything. As for her 'trial by social media' well, live by the sword, die by the sword
And correct me if im wrong, with Auspost postage contracts, dont they pay a fixed "bulk" postage price per parcel which is significantly cheaper than the normal postage rates for "One" Parcel.
If so, why are they charging customers full postage price. Are they trying to make money from postage cost?
Well they're certainly not making money any other way…
They get paid from the advertisers for market research.
Im also pretty sure they sell your details and product preferences to marketing companies too.
this is typical of the mindset of people who signed the petition
"i dont actually know how your company works but in my mind you guys should find out a way to send me my samples for the money i paid"
what if there's no way to make this work? what then?
Gosh people, stop overreacting…You are getting a full refund if you are an annual member and if you are unhappy with the new deal then you can always cancel your membership…So where is the problem?
The problems pretty simple. We have hundreds of people that feel that they are obligated to get what they paid for, even when the director of redpawpaw clearly stated they are in a very fast downward spiral to bankruptcy. OzBargainers are deadset valchers and have nothing better to do than to stick their dirty noses up at these people clearly aware of what their actions are doing. The person that started this partition is completely selfish, and needs a very quick reality check if they put them selfs in the frame of mind of redpawpaw. Imagine being in a tug-a-war with the bank, but your mortgage was on the line. I bet these people would be crying out for help! Pathetic idiots, they aren't Australian either. They have Australian citizenship without the Australian morals.
Obligated partition valchers. They're the worst!
Apparently this is the 'Ozbargain Life' now, quoting from another thread.
Using coupons, going for freebies, jumping on price errors and getting free groceries from pricing errors, etc. etc
We must take advantage of everything (including price errors), even if that means putting the business into bankruptcy. If the business makes a human error, we must expect them to give us $30 gift vouchers for wasting 3mins of our life to click 'checkout', or we'll boycott them 2 weeks to teach them a lesson.
While bigger businesses like Woolies or Harvey Norman may be able to afford the loss of honoring the price errors (probably by increasing pricees in other areas), I would assume many smaller business can't afford it. Forcing small business to go out of business is exactly what the big guys would want, less competition for them, its an unfavourable state for customers too.
Its like theres a war between merchants and customers. Also, the amount of whining and sense of entitlement on some threads is just unbelievable.
end rant.
Sense of entitlement is the problem
Australia post charge $7.2 per delivery for under 500gsm, so their past model simply do not work
Even if they are getting paid to send the samples
- Initial Sample
- Custom Redpawpaw freight box including printing of shipping labels
- Fee's from payment gateways (PayPal, Credit Card Transaction Fees etc)
- Wages of employee's (Customer service, pickpacking, marketing, etc)
- Server, and I.T cost's
- Lawyer costs to create contracts for these big companies to actually pay up to RPP.
Let's be honest. How does $5 merely cover this. I do know RPP receive money for surveys etc, but that's if the customers actually do them. Bad business planning, but people should realise this was a "not so simple mistake" as it really isn't hard to see it wouldn't turn out well, but just accept it for what it is.
Stupid petition is now closed. Apparently everyone should continue to harrass them via Facebook and Twitter. Because samples are so important to life! And everyone should keep their word even if it sends them down and out broke.
I'd be embarrassed to put my name to that petition. It's just scabby and mean to smaller businesses just trying to survive basically. The culture here is getting sad.
What i find more disturbing is that some ozbargainers posted links to her personal details. I don't care about ozbargainers jumping on some of the big business for small things but they went after the lady was just beyond ridiculous for such a petty reason. Disgraceful. Get some morals people.
Grow up OP. You got a good deal. The company is about to go bankrupt if they continue to offer it. If you had lost money then I could see you complaining but that hasn't happened. I guess they could have just shut down and everyone loses.. that could have happened.
EC likes his petitions lol…
First box was fantastic, had a good range of samples, 2nd box bit of a disappointment.
That being said, they did offer a full refund, so a great bargain for us that got 2 boxes, can't really complain.
What got me was their packaging - put all their items in a RPP box and then put that box into another box - that would've cost them a bit!I told them about the excessive amount of packaging, they could have also scaled down on the size of the box. Surely the catalogue could have been half the size, aswell?
Maybe the sample companies paid for the catalogue, but agree it was quite large and very glossy.
Have received back the refund in full, so kudos to them for following through. It was fun getting the samples, but it was a lucky dip as to how much you would use.
I got my refund and I am happy that that option was offered up front without anyone having to chase for it.
This is more than I can say for some other companies where you have to fight tooth and nail to get a cent back.There is difference between consumer rights and consumers thinking they are right
I heard they're giving a refund to people who choose to cancel their subscriptions. I have chose to do so however after checking my credit card balance I've found out that they've taken out 50 dollars instead of refunding me. What should I do? Their facebook page no longer exists either.
EDIT: Never mind, I read it wrong it turns out the $50 was when I decided to subscribe to them.
I have asked for refund.
Done. Thanks EC.