The Ultrasonic Subliminals Blog

In my last blog, I wrote about what happened to me concerning Lulu.com. Basically, one day I logged in and saw that all my files were gone… all my products were gone… all my sales histories were gone… all my payments were… gone.

I looked for a phone number.

No phone number anywhere.

I looked for Live Help.

Found out in the Forum that they decided Live Help wasn’t helping their bottom line, so… they chopped it. No live help.

What’s left? E-mail.

So I send them an e-mail. Surprisingly polite, too, considering that they just “lost” 50% of my monthly income.

I get an automated response back. “We’re sorry, but due to a larger than normal amount of problems, we won’t be getting back to you in our normal 1-2 days. See ya.”

So I wait. Three days goes by. Five. Ten. Fifteen.

Nothing.

I am keeping tabs on what’s going on with my account on their site. The only thing that’s there the whole time is a project called… “Test”.

Nothing.

I write to them again, this time being a lot less polite. (Still not letting loose, because that usually isn’t productive, but still.) No response at all.

Then I have my partner, Andrew, inform me that one of my customers tried to download a large product from the subliminal-shop.com site, and it failed for him, so he purchased the product from Lulu.com and wanted a refund.

*Insert sound of needle being torn off a record player*

What?

Lulu is still selling my stuff, but I am not able to access it?

I’m not getting paid for it?

And the store is having trouble with downloads completing occasionally?

This means that not only do we have to find and fix the problem at the download shop (we’re very much on that puppy, let me assure you!), but now Lulu has been paid for my product, and I don’t get the money… and I have to refund what I did get?

In other words… I don’t get paid, but my customer has to pay for it?

In other words… Lulu screwed me AND my customer?

He got his refund. We stand behind our products and our money back guarantee. But that was money out of my pocket because he didn’t ask for help directly from us… we could have sent it to him another way, and he wouldn’t have had to spend that money again. We may be having slight technical difficulties, but we do have backup and redundancy plans. If you have a problem with a download, just say so. We will do what it takes to make it right.

I went straight to Lulu.com and canceled my account. Why? Because I could not think of any other way to get them to delete the products I had there, which they were now illegally selling and not paying me for. The cancellation page states that they will delete all digital files you have uploaded within 24 hours of deleting your account, as long as none of them have been purchased within that time. This gives the purchaser time to download.

Okay, makes sense. So I deleted it, and then I discovered in his e-mail a download link, from Lulu, which he put in his e-mail proving he had made his purchases. Lo and behold, there’s my storefront… with all my products… still being displayed… still available for the world to see… still available for purchase.

Why, pray tell, was I not able to see them when I had an account?

Let me tell you, this got me very upset. I just hoped and prayed that the would all be deleted in 24 hours.

Were they?

Nope. Of course not. That would make sense.

Days and days later, and Lulu is still happily selling my things. After I have canceled my account. Just go there and do a search for my name – Shannon Matteson – and you’ll see my stuff still there, still available for purchase.

Don’t buy it from Lulu. If you do, and you need a refund, they won’t refund you. And neither will I, because I can’t refund you money I don’t have from an illegal sale of my property.

Let me be very clear. I am glad to refund legitimate purchases, for legitimate reasons. But I can’t pay my bills and refund you money that you didn’t give to me. And if you purchase my intellectual property from Lulu… you are not giving your money to me. I don’t have an accoun

You may or may not have noticed, but the download store has been back up for a little while now. We have been optimistic that our efforts have fixed the poblems we were having, and have been waiting and watching closely. So far, they appear to be entirely gone. Whew!

Recently, I have been trying to decide what to do about CD orders. I get those occasionally… even though I thought I had closed down the whole store (Except for customs). My stock on Kunaki is being deleted as I do not order copies…and the amount of wok it ecomes to build and upload this man CDs to Kunaki is prohibitive. I would need a dedicated staff for that. So I decided to let them go and focus on downloadables instead. Now I have a printer that can print directly on CDs, so from how on, if you really want something on CD, you can make a special order, but I will be manufacturing the disc and packaging it myself. That’s how I used to do it back at eBay – I use high quality CD-Rs (diamond dye silver inkjet printables) and they will still come in DVD cases, but there will not be printed inserts. Designing, printing, and cutting the inserts would put me back into the same bind as before. However, while it may not be as flashy as before, it will be the same program, and same quality and effectiveness. It will also allow me to ship with a more complete set of instructions. I prefer dealing with downloadables, but if you want something, and .mp3 doesn’t work for you… we can do a CD. Still $19.95 a copy, of course.

The day before yesterday we had one of our more active customers tell us that he wanted the entire Writer’s section of programs. He quoted the 24-48 hours thing, and said “Clock’s ticking!” Wow. I cannot tell you how hard we worked to meet that deadline… I thought my eyes were going to explode. (They still might!) So here’s a clarification. We want to please our customers, but the 24-48 hours is for 1 to 3 programs at a time. Not seven. Yes, it is possible… but seven in one day almost doubles my previous record, and puts me in genuine concern for my ocular health. Three per day is the maximum. So if we don’t have it in the download store, and you want it, ask and ye shall receive. But please limit your requests to three titles at a time… I am no good to anybody if my eyes explode.

That said… the entire Writer’s section is up. I could not have done this without the diligent work of my partner Andrew, so I’d like to thank him for cutting his date short to come work, and kicking butt and getting things cranking.

I’m going to try to do one or two titles a day as possible, so there’s always new stuff for you to come see. However, I am also starting a photography business, so I am not sure if one or two a day will always be possible. As for my photography business, you’ll finally get to see what I look like, if you haven’t seen me elsewhere, because I’ll be able to do a professional self portrait now. (Andrew is in a different state – he’ll have to do his own portrait. lol)

One more thing I would like to point out, after having a long conversation with one of my customers on IM is that some of you look at all the titles we offer and you become skeptical about some of them. I’d like you to know that I do not build anything I do not think is possible to make wok with subliminals, but that not everything is going to have the same level of effect for everybody. Titles hat repeatedly raise flags for some people include hair regrowth, penis enlargement, and unlock psychic abilities. Well, do they work? Sure. But not necessarily for everyone. Penis enlargement seems to lose effectiveness as the user’s age goes up – younger guys get better results on average than guys who are in their forties and later. Some guys see fantastic results, and some don’t see any. Hey, we know that is the case, and that’s why we have a refund policy. Try it, and if it woks for you, great. If not, say so, and we’ll refund you. It’s pretty much the same with hair regrowth. Age, type of baldness, etc. all play a factor. Andrew tried it, and it does not seem to have done any better (or worse) than other treatments he tried, but he didn’t get the results he wanted. Some guys do, some guys don’t. Subliminals are not a panacea. So if you try something, and it does not wok for you – after using it properly (according to the instructions) feel free to ask for a refund.

The only thing we don’t offer a refund for is custom or customized subliminals, and the reason has to do with the fact that each custom job is unique work. Economically, it’s no sweat to offer a refund for a non-custom job because we know that it’s going to be around 1 in 5,000 who ask for a refund. But when hours go into producing a single title that nobody else can buy… a refund would be me working my butt off for free. So if you’re considering the purchase of a custom, or a customized subliminal, please make sure you have at least tried our free stuff successfully first. We love our customers, and we want to please you all, but I cannot work for free. So… make sure you are comfortable with the results you get from our other products before you order a custom, or customized, subliminal please.

And last but not least, an update on Lulu. Since they still have not taken my products down, I opened my account again a while back, and asked them to re-connect my products. After waiting for weeks for an answer, the answer I got back was this:

Dear Shannon,

Thank you for contacting us!

We have received your inquiry and are assigning it to a representative. Please note that due to increased growth, higher volumes of requests may result in temporarily longer wait periods for resolution to your issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and would like to assure you that your issue will be handled as quickly as possible with the utmost care.

To help track your support inquiry we have generated a unique Case number. Your Case number for this issue is (number). Please use this code in any further communication.

*All emails related to your new Case will also include a Reference ID in the subject line and body. The reference ID is used to link emails to your Case. Please do not remove this ID, and please remember to include it on all correspondence related to this Case.

Since Lulu is a free site to use we will not offer support on any applications or document creation software. If you are having formatting or document type problems please use the Community tab.

Please add Lulu.com to your “Allow” list inside whichever email Spam/ Virus Software you use. If you don’t you may not receive responses from Lulu.com

Thank you,
System User
Lulu Enterprises, Inc

Your comment:
I had all the files disconnected from my account… but they remained on lulu for sale. I contacted you about this, but got no response. To get my files deleted, I cancelled my account about a month ago. My files are still for sale, and you sent me $(number) from what I presume is what sold after the files were disassociated. Since you plan on selling my files regardless, I might as well get paid for it… please re-associate all the files by author “Shannon Matteson” with my new account. If you need further proof of ID, contact me. You have my SSN already.

Shannon

ref:00D56zQ6.50056kHGH:ref

The response is dated 6/30/2009. The request for help that you see in the block quoote was sent around the 6/2/2009 mark. I am still waiting.