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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 18, 2020 16:07:57 GMT
Anyone heard from Paul. I actually like him while the site was good back in the day. He was very helpful. Even though the name of our forum has changed, it would really be nice and "beneficial" if Lulu sent a rep to let us know what was going on at Lulu. None of the cheerful hype "We're so excited" crap but the truth. Someone here was told an email would be sent out letting us know of a certain update. It wasn't. Missing books, still no monthly report given, just a spreadsheet. A total of the income is better to me. Books are taking forever to get listed and it's very haphazard. There used to be an order to the listing. First Apple, then Barnes, then Amazon. Usually all within three or four weeks. It seems to me a company that wanted to stay in business would take the time to communicate with it's customers. Not write on Facebook, add links to the site, but actually email or text people and apologize or let them know what is going on. There would be so much more forgiveness if they did. It's like someone not showing up for work. The don't call and let you know why. How would you feel? But if they call and let you know why then things are different. Common sense should be we're losing all of these people, maybe we need to let them know we are sorry and will compensate them somehow. But no one comes here to let us know anything. It's so frustrating.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Nov 18, 2020 16:39:24 GMT
Anyone heard from Paul. I actually like him while the site was good back in the day. He was very helpful. Even though the name of our forum has changed, it would really be nice and "beneficial" if Lulu sent a rep to let us know what was going on at Lulu. None of the cheerful hype "We're so excited" crap but the truth. Someone here was told an email would be sent out letting us know of a certain update. It wasn't. Missing books, still no monthly report given, just a spreadsheet. A total of the income is better to me. Books are taking forever to get listed and it's very haphazard. There used to be an order to the listing. First Apple, then Barnes, then Amazon. Usually all within three or four weeks. It seems to me a company that wanted to stay in business would take the time to communicate with it's customers. Not write on Facebook, add links to the site, but actually email or text people and apologize or let them know what is going on. There would be so much more forgiveness if they did. It's like someone not showing up for work. The don't call and let you know why. How would you feel? But if they call and let you know why then things are different. Common sense should be we're losing all of these people, maybe we need to let them know we are sorry and will compensate them somehow. But no one comes here to let us know anything. It's so frustrating. Paul hasn't logged in here since 23 June 2020 [his last login].
One guess is that if there's no good news to relate, then for someone in marketing it's much easier to remain silent than face potentially angry clients.
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Post by potet on Nov 18, 2020 20:27:14 GMT
The funny thing is that all Lulu had to do was adapt the Cover Wizard to the new system, and keep the rest. Instead they upset everything to come up with a paltry version of what it used to be. How strange and ironical!
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Post by benziger on Nov 18, 2020 21:07:44 GMT
But also on his blog it seems to have become more of a monologue: What I thought while reading, others have already written as comments - unfortunately without answer:
I agree with the two (unknown to me) gentlemen. An answer in the blog would have been nice. Or should I write: would have been correct?
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Nov 18, 2020 21:39:10 GMT
But also on his blog it seems to have become more of a monologue: What I thought while reading, others have already written as comments - unfortunately without answer:
I agree with the two (unknown to me) gentlemen. An answer in the blog would have been nice. Or should I write: would have been correct?
Would have been correct is accurate.
Without Self-Publishers, Lulu Press Inc doesn't really have a business. From a business perspective it rationally follows that in order to stay in business and make the profits required to stay in business one business partner [Lulu Pres Inc] needs to work with the other business partners [all the Self-Publishers] in order to make certain all the customers [those buying the various products offered by the Self-Publishers] are getting what they are trying to purchase. |
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 18, 2020 22:00:30 GMT
I agree. Which is why I started this thread. It is taking forever for Lulu to respond to requests. Getting our books back online is taking forever and I'm sure they knew about it. Being honest goes a long way in creating trust between customer and business owners. I still have trust issues with monthly reports, something I spoke to Paul about once. He said that they have someone come in once a year to audit the sales income making sure it's correct. I can never understand why the sales never fluctuate. It's almost always the same each month. Writing more books doesn't seem to increase it even though they are selling. Lulu knows we are here. Would it hurt so much to have Paul or Chelsey come here and explain truthfully what is going on and what to expect. I remember reading the FB messages. It was full of hate and anger. Many were leaving, suing, or giving up. But there is nothing in their monthly videos except the usual cheerful nothing to see here crap as usual. Almost one year to fix a two day update? How much revenue did they lose? If it were my company I'd be begging people to stay. Apologize and even ask what can I do to make the site useful to you, not this is how I want it. Common sense would have told them that removing the old cover wizard was going to hurt many people. Flash support isn't going away until December.They had all of this time to fix that. If the covers sucks so will sales. No cover wizard will contribute to that. In my honest opinion the website is now a plain ugly site with no personality. Cutting out the forum was a huge mistake. I'm sure many still aren't aware of this forum and have no way of getting help. Support now takes weeks to respond and you know they aren't going to help someone design a cover. They have gotten rid of their services due to complaints about over priced work that turned out bad or not on time. Many complaints on BBB about this. Since they are doing away with Coresource I see a decrease in sales as well. I've seen on my report where I made sales to some of these out of the way websites overseas. One was 24symbols.com. I just found all of my books missing there as well. I seriously wished I could go to KDP. The profit is much better for any sales on Amazon. But lulu has gotten rid of my files which they used to store. I no longer have many of them on the pc. The lack of communication is probably the most disheartening. It shows a total disregard for their customers.
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 18, 2020 22:47:03 GMT
As far as discounts are concerned, you can sign up for email notifications that let you know when these are and the code to use. Whether they are on time or not I don't know.
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 18, 2020 22:50:08 GMT
They just added my latest book to Barnes. No preview, no description? Who's going to buy that? Ebook still not on there or Apple. Christmas around the corner sales going down the drain. Sheese
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Post by BlueAndGold on Nov 19, 2020 1:18:08 GMT
With all the whining and screaming and theorizing and ranting (deserved, admittedly) he probably saw nothing but grief awaiting him here. As he stated, his position at Lulu had nothing to do with operations and systems and there was nothing he could do to correct the issues and complaints. If you recall, he did try to pass good information (or, at least, the corporate line) for awhile but all it got him was abuse. Why subject oneself to that? In the same position, I would have turned my back on this place much faster than he did. I'm not partial to pitchforks, torches, and ropes either.
As Sphinx said, "One guess is that if there's no good news to relate, then for someone in marketing it's much easier to remain silent than face potentially angry clients."
Bingo!
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 19, 2020 1:42:24 GMT
True, I can respect that. Taking abuse though is part of any job. But again you're right it wasn't his job. My comment wasn't really about him so much just wondering if anyone had heard from him or anyone about when and if things were being fixed. This income is all some people have and why there is so much anxiety. I walk two miles getting to work rain, snow , or shine. I live out in the country and the buses are a mile away. So I'm working hard to make this work so I don't have to do that anymore. It would just be nice to know when things would get back to normal is all. And hearing from Paul again would be nice  One of my favorite quotes is though" Enlightenment is found under the upraised sword. Between life and death, peace is found. Dash in! |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Nov 19, 2020 23:07:22 GMT
True, I can respect that. Taking abuse though is part of any job. But again you're right it wasn't his job. My comment wasn't really about him so much just wondering if anyone had heard from him or anyone about when and if things were being fixed. This income is all some people have and why there is so much anxiety. I walk two miles getting to work rain, snow , or shine. I live out in the country and the buses are a mile away. So I'm working hard to make this work so I don't have to do that anymore. It would just be nice to know when things would get back to normal is all. And hearing from Paul again would be nice One of my favorite quotes is though" Enlightenment is found under the upraised sword. Between life and death, peace is found. Dash in! Paul, by interacting with Lulu Press' clients [all the Self-Publishers] was in that sense taking on the duty of facing potential abuse from clientele. Being a spokesperson entails the potential for others to be angry with you for a company's poor performance.
Perhaps you should be looking forward to the eventual new normal, since the old normal won't be returning. |
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Post by JesusNinja on Nov 20, 2020 3:07:16 GMT
"New Normal" is not really a term I agree with or believe in. Once "normal" changes it is no longer normal but something else entirely. Unfortunately the new normal is costing many of us much needed income at the worst possible time. I have three part time jobs trying to make ends meet. I walk to work for two miles just to work one to four hours, never knowing how long it will be. The second job was seasonal and no longer available. The third is my books at lulu.com which I receive most of my income. Hours at work are being cut down now as it's the slow season. And Lulu's screw up now has many of my books missing from multiple sites for two months now. Meaning less sales and potential income for me to pay bills. So my anxiety over lulu is warranted. I don't really have time to wait for a new normal. Posting here seems to get faster answers than asking support as I'm still waiting five weeks in as to why my books are still missing. So asking here if anyone had heard from Paul or anyone from Lulu was just a was to hopefully get answers. I know I'm not alone in my anxiety as I've read others comments here about the very same problem. But as you said I have no choice but to wait..
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Post by tasmanianartist on Nov 20, 2020 3:08:01 GMT
True, I can respect that. Taking abuse though is part of any job.
No, this is not included in any 'job description', unless the job is specifically titled as 'dealing with irate customers'. Any 'employee' is hired to do a specific job, and unless specified as 'taking abuse from irate customers', is not hired to be thrown to the wolves. There's a 'behavioural advert' on Aussie TV '...no one deserves a serve - we are only doing our jobs...' - in short, 'treat employees with the appropriate respect'.
I've not followed threads that included posts from Paul, but if he was subjected to abuse from 'livid Luluers', I can fully understand that he simply no longer shows up. Especially not in a public forum, which by default means being publicly humiliated by being abused.
I have on a number of occasions 'lost it' in email conversations with employees, and when I did, I always stated that my gripe was directed towards the company and not toward the particular person emailing with me, and if I sounded angry to forward it to management as I in no way mean to insult the employee who is only doing his/her job. (Even in the case of the Amazon and IRS 'shootout at the corral' way back when in dim dark history). But I've never blurted out abuse to someone in a forum - and if that happened here to Paul, don't expect him to come back.
@retread-Retired-Cameron - LOL, indeed ... '... the eventual new normal, since the old normal won't be returning...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2020 9:54:51 GMT
I joined a day after Paul and I remember the posts involving him. Yes there were concerns, like not being able to sign in to Lulu and problems with the new covers etc. However no one abused Paul here. He tried to respond to the concerns we were having with the update. Up until he stopped responding to posts, he made every effort to be helpful. I think he hoped (like the rest of us) that Lulu would get it right, but the problems continued. Lulu still haven't got it right!  PS I remember when we had the Lulu Forum, Paul was extremely helpful to me. I hope he is well. All the best Paul. insert code here |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Nov 20, 2020 12:54:48 GMT
"New Normal" is not really a term I agree with or believe in. Once "normal" changes it is no longer normal but something else entirely. Unfortunately the new normal is costing many of us much needed income at the worst possible time. I have three part time jobs trying to make ends meet. I walk to work for two miles just to work one to four hours, never knowing how long it will be. The second job was seasonal and no longer available. The third is my books at lulu.com which I receive most of my income. Hours at work are being cut down now as it's the slow season. And Lulu's screw up now has many of my books missing from multiple sites for two months now. Meaning less sales and potential income for me to pay bills. So my anxiety over lulu is warranted. I don't really have time to wait for a new normal. Posting here seems to get faster answers than asking support as I'm still waiting five weeks in as to why my books are still missing. So asking here if anyone had heard from Paul or anyone from Lulu was just a was to hopefully get answers. I know I'm not alone in my anxiety as I've read others comments here about the very same problem. But as you said I have no choice but to wait.. While I've never made enough money from writing to make a spit's worth of difference, I understand money being tight and difficulties in earning enough to get by from jobs as aren't always there.
Lulu Press' old normal way of doing business is gone for good, and its new normal way of doing business hasn't arrived quite yet, which is frustrating when you depend on that as part of paying bills.
The only thing I can offer is perhaps drop a suggestion at Lulu Press about one of their staff dropping by here. It may or may not work since there are a lot of ticked off Lulu Press clientele who aren't getting any more answers than you are. If nothing else, try sending him a Private Message if you haven't already.
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One of my favorite quotes is though" Enlightenment is found under the upraised sword. Between life and death, peace is found. Dash in! 
