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Consumer pain points? Archived From: Hot Deals

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alert mods    

I have been a member for a long time now... and I find it impossible to find anything really useful or relevant in the hot deals thread in one quick visit.

It used to be that one visit for a few minutes would have me evaluating new products, reading about the benefits of seven jeans, clicking links that actually worked to products that were good deals that I could actually order.

In the past year, I have visited less and less frequently. Today for example, there is a post about a $6 camera on the front page, and it is there because it keeps getting bumped up from people saying "this camera sucks and isn't worth the money", not a hot deal at all! Then, to go actually look at the camera, the link doesn't work, and then I have to copy and paste just to go see what camera is getting such crappy reviews so I don't go buy one elsewhere.

As far as thanking the op in a thread, every time you do it bumps the thread, makes it more likely to get on the front page, where someone with limited time like me might see it and actually get in on it, instead of seeing just a bunch of junk people are negging and arguing over stuck there.

With the front hot deal a totally useless deal most of the time, I have to go wade through the forums. I see locked threads, reposts, and yet, I get a lot of deals from threads marked repost because the commotion they cause actually gets them bumped up, while the original thread has recieved no responses and is nowhere to be found in the forums!

If a deal gets green, bump it. If the deal was worth posting twice, bump the original thread while you delete the repost thread. If a deal sucks and all the responses are bashes on the op, don't bump it to the top of the forum!!

The idea of having the ops link activate CashBack is essential for me. I miss out on CashBack all the time in my rush to go get the deal. I can't count how many times I have missed out, and I wouldn't want to think about it honestly.

I would love to be excited about waking up and checking the hot deals forum for my deal of the day again, instead of forgetting about it half the time and being disappointed when I bother the other half the time because while I was wading through the locked threads, reposts, and horrible or worse, dead deals that keep getting bumped up to the top, I was missing out on the one great deal that fell to the 8th page while I was reading and finally found just after the last person got the last one. Nothing like missing a deal to make you want to forget about FW for a while and revisit when you calm down!

Another example of a deal that has been in the top three pages of the hot deals forums for at least a week now:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/886605/
This is not a hot deal!! I don't want to see it, I can't get in on it, and after wading through pages and pages of junk I finally got to the area where it becamse apparent why it keeps getting bumped, a consumer problem, not a hot deal!

Oh, and one more thing, I am tired of seeing the same deal that could be posted under one thread split up into competitive threads, like today, there is one post for a Columbia jacket womens, and another for a different jacket from the same site also Columbia but mens, these should not be separate, it is one site offering deals on Columbia jackets, so make them one thread!!

And, this is really irritating!!
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/897548/
the ops link won't work from my computer, so to see the deal I need to copy and paste, but can I??? NO! So to find the deal I have to hope someone mentions the name of the store somewhere in the thread... not to mention having to read the entire thread to find the mention... yeah, and then if the deal is dead, well that was a good five to ten minutes wasted...


alert mods    

footn200 said:k000 said:footn200 - I have a suggestion. I am not trying to put you on the spot, but I have seen many such threads in last one year, and I am glad to see many of the things implemented.

But in the spirit of accountability and acknowledging that we all are really contributing... a list fo ideas that you plan to take away for action would be great. So, could you please share a list of ideas that you take away from this thread.

Thanks for you effort

Let's get FW back to our glorious days again
Yes! And thanks for noticing many community ideas have been implemented. I've been preaching ask/listen/acknowledge/act which is what we're trying to do.

Short Answer:
Yep, I'll update this thread with a summary list of ideas we're taking away.

Long Answer:
I looked back at my inquiries of our community over the past year or so, and see several where I asked about something in particular (modern, search, modern again, mobi), and I refreshed our suggestion thread in FatWallet forum. Either looking for suggestions on a specific topic or our site in general, those were a little different than what I'm looking for now.

At our annual meeting we determined to clean up our interface (mostly outside forums; think homepage, help, my fatwallet, Cash Back shopping, coupons, etc) and among other things to also get going on "new products" which might become great new features here at FatWallet. That's what I'm getting at in this thread.

We'll review all the pain points, frustrations, needs/wants, etc then prioritize them with your help... then stir up possible solutions (products, features) and choose the top one or two to develop a plan for. One or two big things. Different things than what we already have.

While there's plenty of opportunity to improve what we have *cough<search>cough*, and we'll continue doing that, I'm looking here for some big new opportunities to serve consumers. I hope that helps explain the difference.

I'd be happy to put "the list" back in front of y'all for your comments when we get to that. Likely a list of pain-points/problems for your consideration first week of February (I'll be out of town next week). Then we'll ask y'all for possible solutions/ideas, list 'em back to you, prioritize, and move forward.

EDIT to add: There are suggestions in this thread we'll act on even if outside the process described here. All are appreciated.

Here's a summary after consulting members, staff and current research. We will be considering these and brainstorming possible solutions over the next few days. Remember, actual choice and implementation of these ideas will take time. We're looking for game-changers. As such, we may not be completely transparent with our strategery.

MANY great ideas surfaced to improve our current features. Given a little time, I'll group them up and perhaps put back in front of you as a poll to see what you're most interested in us spending time on.

Thanks so much for helping us help consumers!

“Problem" summary
General
1. Limited Time
2. Limited $
3. Inconvenience
4. Confusion
5. Frustration
6. Fear & Uncertainty
7. Lost value

Shopping-Specific
1. Search doesn’t work. Can’t find what I want. Takes too long to find what I want. Don’t know if site has what I want, or how to navigate. Can’t find help.
2. Too many steps to determine (and transact) the ultimate deal.
3. Need to go other places to find, confirm, or complete best deals.
4. Can’t search multiple stores for reliable product, availability, and price info.
5. Going to any site for price info or C.B. is not always convenient.
6. Can’t get “ultimate deal” (C.B.) at places like Amazon.
7. C.B. process: uncertainty, and lag time between transaction and reward.
8. Forgotten rebates.
9. Scams, fees, and security concerns.
10. Forums aren’t for everyone. Finding data requires uncomfortable engagement.
11. Can’t see product images.
12. Shipping cost and time (esp. to Hawaii and Alaska).
13. Unknown order status.
14. Unknown product availability.
15. Not understanding or listening to what I want.

FatWallet-Specific
1. Too complicated & hard to learn.
2. Forums tone.
3. Search.
4. Getting C.B. from forums is time-consuming and frustrating.
5. C.B. process requires too many steps and takes too long.
6. C.B. links are unreliable.

 

Solutions (before we even asked)
1. Add suggested search terms with number of results.
2. More detailed search, with narrowing options.
3. Clear “Relevance” option on search results page… default ‘entire site’ by relevance?
4. Repost/similar topic checker.
5. Easy/intuitive “keep in mind for later” function (favorites you can find).
6. ‘Thank you’ button.
7. Standard format for topic titles.
8. Offer points/rewards to valuable posters.
9. Better CB rates (bottom line $).
10. Add a rep system.
11. Extend ‘most recent topics posted in’ on Today page (first/next/previous 20).
12. Make people give reason for red.
13. Limit voting/rating to topics (not replies).
14. Allow turning the ratings (results?) on or off.
15. Darker site look (as an option).
16. Direct # to US-support Dell (and all merchants).
17. Alphabetize list(s) of forums.
18. Hover to show store’s current C.B. rate.
19. Display ‘Consumer Alerts’ prominently.
20. Encourage newbies.
21. Be less invasive (move threads less, etc).
22. Improve interface so people know how to use the features we have.
23. Add retailer ratings (from us or somewhere) into quick summary.
24. Force geographical info into posts limited by such.
25. Referral incentives.
26. Hover on titles in topic list to see more of post.
27. My FatWallet (customizable) page.
28. Expand RSS offerings… including RSS of search results (categories?).
29. Expanded retailer ratings… or “disappointment factor” for reneging.
30. Free shipping.
31. Shipping to Hawaii and Alaska.
32. Clarify value presentation (homepage, header, ?).
33. Posters to share earnings.
34. Quicker scan of deals (to see best ones easiest).
35. Limit to OP, QS, and FlashChat.
36. …then auto-lock threads with no OP participation after 5 days
37. FW branded store.
38. Move dead deals out (quicker/more reliably).
39. Mods getting pied.


alert mods    

1) If csahback links are added automatically, then the OP ought to get a payout... I realise that CashBack can't link to a single post, but some kind of profit sharing ought to be implemented ... even if it's only "1c" per qualifying click...

2) Built in Rebate Tracking system
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