Facebook, Check it Out, Fiasco...

This just makes me so angry. As a coupon user, I feel very much violated by this viral marketing campaign gone bad. I'm sure their damage control dept is working overtime with this one and it should be. I wish a major news source would pick this up and go viral on them for creating such a mess. They should apologize and quit placing blame on anyone but themselves.

You can read about it here, here or a great report here. If you're a couponer it's worth the read.

I'm just lucky we went to the cabin for a 4 day weekend and I didn't have access to the internet otherwise I may have printed them and used them.

I'm normally pretty passive about most things, but this just burned me up. Vyrl Mkt, the company who set up the Facebook application called Check it Out, has this info on their website.

"Social networks – Facebook, MySpace, Ning, LinkedIn and more –
are the new playing field where consumers are won and lost.
Dramatically increase your conversion rate
by matching offers with interested consumers
via our patented vyrlmatch system."

and this...

Great news! We've begun the initial rollout of Check It Out,
our new Facebook application!
If you're signed up on Facebook,
check it out
save money and tell us what you think!

Well... here's what I think! (My email to Vryl Mkt)

Mr. Wayman and Ms. Leonetti,

It is with great disappointment that I feel the need to respond to your recent release of coupons on Facebook's Check it Out application. While I did not find out about these coupons until late Monday (August 18^th) and therefore did not print any, I am still embarrassed and angered by your handling of the situation.

Trying to capitalize on how fast marketing spreads through social networks is a great idea if you had done a little research first. Anyone with even limited knowledge about internet coupons would have been able to warn you about unlimited printing and PDF’s. You should have known coupons with the high values you offered would be redeemed in great quantity. If you had wanted to limit the print of them you could have used a system with security measures similar to Coupons.com or SmartSource.com that only allows 2 prints of each coupon. They seem to have little trouble with people taking advantage of them. High dollar coupons on great products limited with Bricks printing technology would have created a great deal of positive excitement.

I am appalled at VyrlMkt’s attempt to point fingers and place the blame on the consumer, the legitimate users of these coupons, by labeling them as "hackers" or "scammers". This statement came after representatives from the company had claimed many times that these were indeed legitimate coupons and would be honored. It's not as if people didn't question their validity outright and come to you requesting proof of authenticity time and time again.

Many people, including myself, use coupons regularly to save money. We pride ourselves in getting good deals and FOLLOWING THE RULES. Most couponers take the rules very seriously and find coupon fraud to be reprehensible.

Your actions have punished legitimate couponers and grouped everyone under an umbrella of suspicion. I'm sure many couponers redeemed your coupons at their favorite stores in good faith and are now left feeling like criminals because you decided to rescind the offer and call them invalid. Many people are now embarrassed to show their faces in the stores they frequent for fear of being labeled negatively or worse yet, potentially face charges of coupon fraud.

I sincerely hope you do the right thing and reimburse the stores that honored your coupons. Your marketing mistakes should not be their financial problem. In case you don’t know it, many stores do not send in their coupons for reimbursement right away. They often hold them and send them in batches. I don’t know how one could tell when the coupon was accepted when determining reimbursement.

You have tarnished reputations, created quite a fiasco and potentially created more hurdles for using LEGITIMATE Internet Printed Coupons. In my opinion, YOU have scammed couponers, retailers and manufacturers by implementing your poorly conceived viral marketing campaign. Shame on you!

Sincerely,

Me