Should I be bothered?
 

OK, I may be barking up the wrong tree(s), but here I go anyway...

I am new to stamping, did it for the first time in late January. I had a SU workshop at my house in late February. I had a pretty good show and earned some free stuff. Now, since then I have bought more. Some smaller amounts ($25) and some larger ($140). I have scrapbooked for years and CM had a program where you would earn freebies after a card had been filled to $250 (or so). I have definitely had more than $250 in side orders since starting to stamp in late February. I asked my demo if anything like this was possible with her since I really want the From The Garden stamp. She suggested that I have another workshop. I am not going to do that right now... So, I placed the $140 order with her and I was kind of thinking that maybe she'd surprise me with the stamp. Nope. I know that she has a business to run but she just wants me to have more workshops and I don't really want to burn my friends out. I hope I'm not offending anyone with this question. Has anyone else out there had a similar experience?

Your best bet - since you spent $140 anyway - was to be your own workshop. An order of $150 qualifies you as a workshop so you would get to choose one level 1 stamp set and $15 worth of free items. I'm surprised your demo didn't suggest it to you.

Maybe I'm missing something here....correct me if I'm wrong demos.

I'm wondering why you didn't spend $10 more....$150 in catalog merchandise counts as a workshop with a free level 1 hostess set plus $15 free catalog merchandise. Did your demo mention this to you?

Unfortunately, SU does not have a program like CM where you accumulate $$ amounts for freebies, however, I think their hostess program is pretty generous...

I don't want this to come off the wrong way, but if you've been placing orders of $140, why have you not just spent the extra $10 and gotten that stamp as a FREE hostess set? You would have even gotten $15 in free merchandise on top of that....

LOL I see 3 of us had the same thought and were typing at the same time!

Hmmm, she told me that I needed to have a $250 catalog party...

I will say that she gave 10% off the order since she is not hosting any workshops in the month of May (she just had a baby). I know that she was trying to put a big order in and I'm sure she benefited from all of the hostess perks. But I would have rather paid that 10% and gotten the stamp.

Hi CAmomof2,
I am an SU! demo and as for the discount/freeby card that is something that is a special that an individual demo offers, but she should have informed you about adding the $10 to qualify for the hostess & $15 free.I hope this helps you understand better.

Why don't you sign up as a demo?
You don't have to meet your quota until the end of the first full 1/4 which potentially gives you 5 months if you time it right to get in an order that qualifies for a L1 set and freebies plus the BUMPER starter kit SU gives you.
You can chose all the stuff for your starter kit and if you decide that it's not for you, you could barter the business supplies for craft supplies.

Just another thought for the pot.
BTW If you don't like your demo's attitude to you as a customer you can always seek out a new demo-that's me with my demo hat talking.

Sam

I don't know why she didn't tell me about the $150 thing, I just re-read through our emails to make sure that she didn't. She said it was $250 that I needed. My merchandise total was $128.60. I would have ordered more cardstock to get to $150 if I knew that it meant I could get the stamp. To be clear, this is the largest side order I've made with her, all of the other ones have been much smaller. Thanks for all of your advice!

That's probably what you needed to get the particular hostess set you wanted.

Obviously your demo didn't suggest to add $10 more to your order for the extra hostess perks. I had a demo like that and I switched to a new demo who loves me and the business I bring her very much and always tells me all the offers and promotions. Hope this doesn't sound harsh to any demos reading this, but as a heavy spending customer I think it is only a good business gesture to let the customer know that while SU doesn't offer the same rewards as CM does, they do have their own promotions and let the customer know that. It seems such a shame that you missed out on at least getting the hostess perk.

Boy, am I snarky today or what?? :)

Sam,

You are so funny :-D . I wouldn't mind becoming a demo if I didn't have to worry about staying active. To be honest, I know nothing of that side of SU. I don't know what the commission is or what the minimums that I would have to order are. Maybe I should look into that... not sure it would be worth it for me though.

Deb,

I know, I just don't want to think that she witheld that info from me knowingly... :( You're right though, maybe I should look for someone new. Do you know if they even have to live near you? I mean, it's drop shipped, right? She has always had it delivered directy to her house so she can "sort it" for me.

no she doesn't have to live near you

I actually have a few customers in different states

Truthful.

Back in 2000, I went to a workshop where the demo didn't try to help me with an order. I went to ACM when I left-no I didn't order from the demo. *Julia Roberts imitation here-big mistake, HUGE* I then went to a party where there was a demo who was really helpful when I asked questions. That was the start of a great relationship. She always suggests, well if you did this you'd get this.

No, you can choose a demonstrator from anywhere in the US. I live in Ohio and one of my best customers lives in Hawaii- I always joke that I want to come and personally deliver her stamps to her, but alas, shipping from SU to her is much cheaper than an airline ticket for me.;)

As for some of your questions. The quarterly miniumums to stay active as a demonstrator is $300. Even if you don't to hold workshops look to see how much you are spending a quarter, consider if other friends or family members might also wnat to purchase from you, then decide if joining makes economic sense. Search other threads here for more information- both pro and con- or feel free to PM me.

consider that she didn't withhold info KNOWINGLY, so the alternative is that she just didn't know. you need a demo who's up to date with what's going on. i say change demos.

and i don't say that lightly. i had a CM demo for years, and i stayed with her even though we weren't a perfect match. i had an SU demo that took me off her mailing list, and never contacted me with specials... i eventually quit ordering from her. lucky me, i found a perfect demo after that. sometimes you gotta hunt a little.

just one other thing. she wouldn't drop ship if she combined your order with someone else's order... she might be combining orders to get the hostess benefits.

That's true. I guess I thought she'd be pretty good with getting me all that she could since our kids are in the same class. I was a PartyLite consultant for a few years and I always "worked" my order in a way that would get my hostess the most. I just assumed that's what other people would automatically do too.

I totally understand having the smaller orders shipped to her house, but she also did it for my workshop order.

I wonder if maybe she made a typo when she "said" $250 (unless she wrote it more than once, then I'd be meeved...)...you never do know.....but wow...to have been that close to the set you wanted and not know you could have just ordered a little more and gotten it..... but the fact that she doesn't have it drop shipped to you does make me wonder, especially with an order of that size.

Perhaps someone will pm you for your address and just send it to you to be nice...

Do you have a catalog? The hostess benefits are listed in the front of the book. It has to be $150 before shipping & tax. Like the other posters said, if you are having issues with your current demo you should consider searching for another demo. Good luck.

I just looked at my catalog. Now I feel stupid. I just took what she said as truth. Maybe she was having "new baby brain". I might check with her to see if I can order a little more and get it at this point. When I told her that it was a stamp that I wanted, she mentioned that she has a couple of extras right now. Here's hoping it'll work...

I am also a demo and have all orders shipped to my house. That way I can double check to see if the order is correct and if there is any damage that needs to be reported. I can also bag the orders and add a little something for my customers--just a small little something as a thank you.

Maybe your demo is a bit stressed with the new baby... I don't even have kids and I get overwhelmed sometimes with the stamp stuff. Being a demo can be a lot of work.

I would definitely tell the demo which hostess set you're interested in and see if she can amend your order. Maybe give her one more chance?? Just my two cents...

Hope you're able to get the hostess benefits that you deserve...
Hillary

I would probably give her a benefit of the doubt, esp. with a new baby. It could've been a typo. Also, it could be that since you had a workshop in the recent past that she figured you knew that $150 was a host level. Sometimes demos are sheepish to ask people to spend more, even if it is just a little - they don't want to be pushy.

Thanks for all of your advice ladies. I just emailed her asking if I could do anything, like order a few more things, to get the stamp. I'll keep you posted.

And yes, I know from experience that your brain turns to mush the moment you find out you are pregnant, even more so when you've had your third child!

This may sound harsh but if your demo has all your order sent to her house she is probably just adding the extra money to your order to reach the benefits for herself! So if you placed a $140 order all she had to do is add $10 to the order and she gets the hostess set and the free stuff for herself. If I were you next time I would just have the order sent directly to your house or find another demo who appreciates your business. Not trying to be mean or anthing but this is how is seems to me.

Hmmm.
 

I'd be finding a new demo! Did she have the order shipped to you or to her? Because I'd place bets that if she had it shipped to her, she added $10 to the order and kept the freebies. If she had it shipped directly to you, then there were no freebies to be had. ~ kbc

Kaylyn,

Everything that I have ordered from her has been shipped to her. I can understand what other people have said about her packaging it up for me and she did add a small stamp to everyone's bag from my workshop. That being said, I agree that she probably got some freebies from my order, maybe that's what the 10% off was? Either way, I don't feel like I was very informed about my options. Is that her fault or mine? Maybe some of both?

I had all of the orders shipped to my house. I cut all of my customer's new stamps for them in lieu of offering "freebies." But when someone was *that* close I let them know. And if they weren't close or they just couldn't make it, sometimes I would add my own order and offer the customer the choice of hostess set, the merchandise, or sometimes even *both* depending upon how much of my own I had to kick in, if she had placed an order before a special was announced, or had worked really hard hostessing in the past. Other times, I just gave away level 1 sets because the customer was looking for it and had been a regular orderer. (And really...how many sets of "Riveting" did I really need anyway?? :rolleyes: )

Sorry to be the bee-otch that I am...but methinks something is fishy with your demo. ~ kbc

It's smart to have things shipped to the demo - believe it or not, on occasion you might run into a person who bounces a check or what have you. It's smart business unless you know the customer. And, if you usually make smaller orders and your demo combines them, she is saving you shipping money by combining you smaller order with bigger ones. I would not automatically assume she is "cheating" you out $15 in free Stampin Up.

You can switch demos if you'd like, but I wouldn't make a big stink or assume outright this woman is taking advantage of you. You could e-mail her and say you just realized you could get host benefits with a $150 order and would like to add to your order.

Honestly, I'd give her the benefit of the doubt, especially if you've known her for awhile.

It sounds to me like this demonstrator wanted to make sure she could make her quarterly quota and offered a 10% off sale to her customers. She probably did combine orders to help her recoup the lost income because there are still costs involved, order forms, her time and gas money to deliver it. Everyone seems stuck on the "only add $10" and that is not accurate. Her merchandise total was $128.60 and I don't know if this is the price out of the catalog or accounts for the 10% discount? If it was the catalog amount, then the OP would have needed to order a minimum of $21.40 more in merchandise and also pay the shipping and tax on top of that (and her original shipping and tax would have probably been more if she choose this route than the sale her demo offered).

I don't think this demonstrator is making out as good as you think she is :-) She is probably just trying to keep her business alive with a new infant and figured the op was choosing to participate in her sale.

Hey, guys, CAmomof2 seems willing to give her demo a chance to explain what happened, and it really seems only fair that WE do the same. I don't see it being necessary to immediately assume she needs to dump this demo, lol. Perhaps by explaining to this demo (and it sounds as if you already have) and suggesting a remedy, the demo will understand the mixup and try to fix it. As you say, baby hormones flying around can do terrible things to a mind, lol!

IF it comes to searching for a new demo, I would suggest logging on to www.stampinup.com and clicking on the Demo Locator to find one close to you. As a new stamper, I really think you'd benefit by hands on, in-person demonstrations from a local demo.

Good luck with this demo! Let us know how it goes...

Tricia,

The $10 thing came from the fact that my first post said that my order was $140 when, in fact, it was $128.60. That is the merchandise total before the 10% discount. I do not believe that she did any of this to be tricky. I am sure that she was trying to put an order in to keep active for this order, and for that reason was giving the 10% discount. That having been said, I think that if my portion of a larger order was $128.60 it would be nice for me to get a little kick-back. Or at the very least a heads up to the fact that I was so close to getting a stamp that I had expressed great interest in. I am not trying to bash anyone here and I know that there are costs to running a business but it's not really my responsibility to have to worry about the cost of her ordering forms, is it?

I have corresponded with my demo and she was under the impression that I wanted the From The Garden stamp in ADDITION to the other set I'd be getting for free, and that's where the idea of a $250 show came from (??). Regardless, she has offered to clear this up by having me order the remaining $21.40 in merchandise and she will give me the stamp and allow me to pick $15 from her stock of supplies. I am happy with this resolve. I have learned from this experience that I need to be better informed myself next time I place a large order to make sure this doesn't happen again. I plan on using her again but if something like this happens again I will probably look for a new demo. I appreciate all of your comments and advice on this subject. Thanks to all of you.

Was your order before tax and shipping or after? My demo is really good to tell me if I am close to a freebie...but a lot of times the shipping and handling are so much that I am not that close to a freebie. That adds up really quickly. Just a thought.

That all makes sense and I totally agree. The only thing I'd say is that I pay the correct amount for shipping based on MY order alone. Thanks!

I actually use to have a demo that would try to tell "new stampers" that they had to have an actual workshop in order to get the hostes benefits. She only did that to keep them herself. She even told me that was how she got so much free stuff. She would also hold customer orders for up to 2 weeks until she had enough to send in as a party so she could keep the free stuff.
I dropped her after I found out what she was doing.
I absolutely hate to say this but there are a few demos out there that do do this to get free stuff that their customers should be getting. Please do nto get mad at me for saying that but I have seen it.

I really would recommend finding a demo that will help you get the most that you can, give you suggestions, answers questions and returns phone calls- I had that issue as well with the dropped demo of mine
And is there for you. Maybe after she gets use to being a mom with a little she can be that demo. Hopefully.
Good luck

FYI, the $128.60 was before shipping, taxes or the 10% off that she was offering. It was my merchandise subtotal.

I'm so happy for you that this worked out. SU is such an awesome company and you'll be very happy with your goodies. Happy stamping!