Hi all,
I'm sorry if some of you think we have had an 'attitude', though it puzzles me how that came across.
See, the reason why we have decided to no longer set dates and give specific answers on many things (such as this) is from hard lessons learned - which is precisely that if you do so and it does not happen, some people get annoyed.
So we have a choice:
- Give specific time frames to appease people, and bear the complaints when (as often they do) things don't happen as planned
- Be more vague about things, and bear complaints now that we're not being specific enough
Hmmm.... bear complaints NOW, or LATER?
I wish there could be a third option:
- jump into a time machine, go back in time, and not have said anything in the first place (anyone have tips on how to do this?)
On a more serious note, all we can say (and keep saying) is that it's been something we've been working on all this while. When do we expect to have it ready? Well, we expected it long time ago, and almost launched it. But technical problems came up (basically, we had to change our underlying checkout/shopping cart platform for the sake of long term stability reasons) which put us back to square one, and later on, other urgent matters came up and very rudely cut the line in the development process. So again, when do we expect to have it ready? I would like to say within a month or two, but I've thought that before and it didn't happen, so how can I responsibly say anymore?
What will the discounts be? Again, we have some ideas what we think it will be now, but we often decide differently just before implementation. If I say something now, even if I word it as loosely as possible (like "we expect", or "we hope to have it ready by" etc.), don't you think people will think that it was something we "promised" and get annoyed when it's not the case? Also, what are the terms of getting the coupons? How many points, and what other criteria? (cos points is not the only criteria for some of the larger discount items). Frankly, they have not even been fully decided yet, and will only be decided shortly before launch, and will probably be changed or tweaked further just before launch.
I hope you guys will have more understanding of our predicament, and realize that sometimes, things don't go according to plan. But you can rest assured that we are working on it and hope to get it out asap!
PS - I've tried to be as light-hearted about this as possible. Nothing I said was intended to be flippant, so I hope no one takes it wrongly! This has been something of concern for me for a long time too already, so you can be sure that I take it very seriously!
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