SR Staff PMs Turned Off

[SunshineGirl]

As SR continues to grow, it becomes more and more important for us to track trouble issues and be able to give consistent answers. Over the last couple of months, SunshineCindy, SunshineGuy, and MissAngie have been getting literally hundreds of private messages asking questions like "When will my Netflix credit come through?" "Why didn't I get credit for my Daily Survey", etc?

First, it is hard for us to track who your membership number is versus your forum name. So a lot of times, we don't even have access to your account information when you ask these questions. Second, it is difficult for us to track what answers we are giving to which people when we are all answering them in different PMs. And third, it is administratively a huge time eater when we are answering questions in PMs that have already been answered in the forum.

Effective immediately, I have turned off the PM function for SunshineCindy, SunshineGuy, and MissAngie (mine has been turned off for months). This will help us to better track real trouble answers and encourage people to ask questions in the forum. If you have a legitimate credit question about an offer or shopping, please do open a trouble ticket and then we will have all of your account information at our fingertips. We will also be able to route the ticket to the SR staff member who can fix the problem.

As always, we will still be answering questions in the forum.

[bellanlivismom]

Thank you SR staff for all that you do!!!

[lanny76]

Sorry, I did send Cindy a PM the other day - but it was a question that I honestly felt like I didn't want to post in the forums, since it was more sensitive, I thought. I didn't precisely want to ask in the forums if my IP address was getting blocked by certain companies when I did offers, but I guess I should have anyway - esp since I just mentioned it anyway. And when Cindy graciously replied, I thot it only proper to send a reply by PM to the PM I got.
But if this was part of the last straw, I do apologize - sorry to have been a bother in any way.
Thanks for being open with us.

[arob414]

Thank you SR staff for all that you do!!!

I'll second that!! I don't know how ya'll do it and keep everything straight. I only deal with 19 people's questions about "stuff" and there are days that is 18 people too many.

[SunshineGirl]

Sorry, I did send Cindy a PM the other day - but it was a question that I honestly felt like I didn't want to post in the forums, since it was more sensitive, I thought. I didn't precisely want to ask in the forums if my IP address was getting blocked by certain companies when I did offers, but I guess I should have anyway - esp since I just mentioned it anyway. And when Cindy graciously replied, I thot it only proper to send a reply by PM to the PM I got.
But if this was part of the last straw, I do apologize - sorry to have been a bother in any way.
Thanks for being open with us.

This is definitely not targeted at any particular PMs. If it were only a few here and there, it wouldn't be so tough. :)

[mollyeilis]

With PMs turned off, can you tell us how to reply to a TT reply/comment without sending a PM?

When I first filed a TT I was able to sign up for email notification when it was replied to, and I vaguely remember going through "the system" to reply to it, but the last two (at least) TTs I filed I haven't been able to figure out how to get the notification, and haven't been able to find how to reply to it through the system, and was only able to do so with a PM.

Thank you in advance for clearing that up!

[bbangel]

See, now I was thinking more important things like how are we going to let Cindy know who we are when we win prizes! :rotfl:
Seems like a good move all in all.

[sunshinecindy]

Sorry, I did send Cindy a PM the other day - but it was a question that I honestly felt like I didn't want to post in the forums, since it was more sensitive, I thought. I didn't precisely want to ask in the forums if my IP address was getting blocked by certain companies when I did offers, but I guess I should have anyway - esp since I just mentioned it anyway. And when Cindy graciously replied, I thot it only proper to send a reply by PM to the PM I got.
But if this was part of the last straw, I do apologize - sorry to have been a bother in any way.
Thanks for being open with us.

Oh no, yours was an easy one to answer. LOL

Like Tricia said, sometimes we get PM's that have to go to other people ,and then we are sort of stuck in the middle and I'm afraid sometimes those questions go unanswered because they've been passed around and we don't know if it was resolved.

[jl8595]

See, now I was thinking more important things like how are we going to let Cindy know who we are when we win prizes! :rotfl:


LOL! Me too!!! I think that's the only reason I've ever PM'd Cindy!! :)

[~Kathie]

With PMs turned off, can you tell us how to reply to a TT reply/comment without sending a PM?

When I first filed a TT I was able to sign up for email notification when it was replied to, and I vaguely remember going through "the system" to reply to it, but the last two (at least) TTs I filed I haven't been able to figure out how to get the notification, and haven't been able to find how to reply to it through the system, and was only able to do so with a PM.

Thank you in advance for clearing that up!

This exact senario happened to me and recently with both Cindy and Angie.

I had messages in the TT that were questions I had to answer and the only way to do that was through PM.

So......how DO we reply to a TT message or question?

Thanks!

[m 'n c]

This exact senario happened to me and recently with both Cindy and Angie.

I had messages in the TT that were questions I had to answer and the only way to do that was through PM.

So......how DO we reply to a TT message or question?

Thanks!

The one time I needed to reply I had a button/link at the bottom of my open trouble ticket that said "respond". If you don't have that open an account question trouble ticket and reference the one you need to discuss.

[~Kathie]

The one time I needed to reply I had a button/link at the bottom of my open trouble ticket that said "respond". If you don't have that open an account question trouble ticket and reference the one you need to discuss.

Thanks Catherine!!

[askomsky]

The one time I needed to reply I had a button/link at the bottom of my open trouble ticket that said "respond". If you don't have that open an account question trouble ticket and reference the one you need to discuss.

Yeah the only time I had to respond to a TT I was able to respond through the TT. I was thinking the same thing, great how are we supposed to PM our info if we win those great prizes! :)

[sunshinecindy]

Yeah the only time I had to respond to a TT I was able to respond through the TT. I was thinking the same thing, great how are we supposed to PM our info if we win those great prizes! :)

We will probably open it up in cases like that for a short period of time.

[mollyeilis]

So Cindy, your answer seems to verify that there's no way to answer a TT through the TT, yes? Should I ever need to file another TT, I'll have to keep reminding myself...a few days went by when the last one requested a reply, b/c there was no way I could find to set up an email reminder. :)

[spring]

Perhaps we could have a sticky for TT questions/problems to alert Tricia, Cindy and Angie that we need to get info to them if other avenues don't seem to be working? That might alleviate some anxiety over resolving issues, and it would be one place that could easily be read by the "powers that be". Just throwing this out as a possibility. Personally, I've only used the PM for Cindy when I was purchasing something from BBB or the time I won a contest to give my name and address. I have not had to PM about any TTs. All have been resolved except one, and I know that one is a lost cause after almost 4 months.........I just won't order from them again.

[sunshinecindy]

So Cindy, your answer seems to verify that there's no way to answer a TT through the TT, yes? Should I ever need to file another TT, I'll have to keep reminding myself...a few days went by when the last one requested a reply, b/c there was no way I could find to set up an email reminder. :)
"I was thinking the same thing, great how are we supposed to PM our info if we win those great prizes! "

No, my answer was in respect to how to send me info if you win a game.

[m 'n c]

Perhaps we could have a sticky for TT questions/problems to alert Tricia, Cindy and Angie that we need to get info to them if other avenues don't seem to be working? That might alleviate some anxiety over resolving issues, and it would be one place that could easily be read by the "powers that be". Just throwing this out as a possibility.

From what I've read in other threads over the past few months is that Tricia would like to keep the boards free from TT issues as it discourages new members and ticks off the merchants/advertisers. Its one of those delicate balances between wanting to help members but not bite the hand that is feeding us ya know.

The best avenue when you have a question on TT is to just open an account question TT and reference the other TT via it and ask your questions or provide your info that way. The account question TTs have email notification set up as well as the respond button so that you don't have to keep opening new ones and angie closing out the same TT all the time.

[SunshineGirl]

Catherine is right. If you have a trouble ticket that can't be responded to, you can just open another general question one and put in your response. Then I usually go in and copy and paste the two together into one ticket. You can also use the help email address on the contact us page (help at sunshinerewards.com) and I will copy and paste the information into the trouble ticket.

When I tell someone to pm me about something in particular, I usually temporarily add them to my "buddy list." That gives them the ability to PM me. So no worries on the prizes. If you are every told to PM one of us about something, you will just get added to our buddy list for awhile until we can take care of business.

[mollyeilis]

Okey dokey.

So now I know to just open a question TT...but in case I forget (should I ever need to do a TT again), or for others who might end up as mystified as I was the last time I had to reply...can you pretty please put that wording into the TT replies you give us, when you ask us for more info?

:sunshine2:


Sorry to have hijacked for so long (I'm exhausted!) but it was really very befuddling when I had to reply to that TT the last time, and since PMing is what I ended up doing, this thread seemed the best place to ask! Muchas gracias!

[jnorth1007]

To be totally honest I would think that they have many more items to try to remember especially when it comes to TT's than you do LOL so I would think it would be easier for you to remember to reply in an account question TT then it would be for them to remember to include that in every TT reply they make. You might do 1 TT every couple of months or even once a month. They probably do 20 a day. Since the idea is to make things easier can we just all agree to make a note for our computers on how to reply to a TT response and stick it on our computers?

[mollyeilis]

I'm so sorry, I don't seem to be saying what I'm trying to say at all, for some reason.

What I am thinking is that it could be put in the official wording. Not that someone has to freehand it every single time. In a blurb that goes in automatically, or in the directions for TTs or something like that.

And I'm really trying to help out others here, not myself (I personally hope to never have a TT again). Not every member is reading this, or so I assume, and I know that owners of websites can't think of every single thing all at once, so I'm actually trying to help here (my amazon.com training, to help other departments, LOL), where I see something that could be made more clear, more apparent, and/or more intuitive and obvious, rather than having to search all over for something. :)

Just tryin' to help, not trying to bug people! :o

Toodlioo!

[SunshineGirl]

SunshineGuy and Angie met last night to talk about a possible solution for the trouble tickets that will allow people to respond when we ask for more information. Hopefully we'll see this in the next week or so.

[sunshinecindy]

SunshineGuy and Angie met last night to talk about a possible solution for the trouble tickets that will allow people to respond when we ask for more information. Hopefully we'll see this in the next week or so.

Wow, I'm glad. I was beginning to think turning off our PM's was making everything too difficult.:p