The Reply from Stampin' Up!

I shared my letter to Stampin' Up! with you the other day. Well, they did reply to me. Here's what they said:

Dear Christy,

Thank you for contacting us with your comments regarding our recently announced Color Renovation. We are sorry to hear of your frustration, but appreciate you sharing your feelings with us. We want you to know that we approached this decision carefully, because we know how important color is to our customers; we researched color for close to two years. We looked at trends in fashion, design, paper crafting, home décor, and more. Color trends tend to cross over several markets—what you see as the must-have colors for clothing or home decorating often carry over to paper crafting. We reviewed the sales histories for each color. We found that several of our colors just didn’t sell. And if we’re not selling them, that means our customers aren’t buying them. It’s simple supply and demand: no demand = no reason for supply.

We all know that colors and styles are constantly changing and cycling—and Stampin’ Up! wants to stay on top of current trends. We feel that a large majority of our customers will appreciate having the most current colors available for their crafting. In order to remain a viable company, we must adapt and change with the trends. If we didn't we would cease to exist. We will; however, respect whatever decision you make regarding your future as a Stampin' Up! customer.

Again, thank you for your e-mail. Please let us know if you have additional questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Melissa
Stampin' Up!®
Demonstrator Support


After receiving this response, it doesn't feel to me that they heard what I was saying. I thought that my letter was pretty clear that it was them going back on their word that I was most upset about. Yes, the whole change of the core colors is frustrating, but I will get over that. It was their not doing what they said they were going to do that was my core issue. But that was never addressed at all.

Yes, I understand that they have looked at things and are having to change things...they made that clear that it didn't make business sense to keep selling what they are not, in fact selling. OK, I can understand that.

But where was the "We are sorry that we had to change what we previously told you and all of our customers and demonstrators."? I guess that was what I was looking for more than anything else.

So now I feel just as frustrated as before I wrote the letter to them. I wonder if they understood what I was saying at all. Or even read my letter completely or just skimmed it? Or was I just ranting and wasn't really as clear as I thought in the letter.

What do you think? Was I clear in stating that not doing what they previously said was the problem? Or did it seem that the actual color changes is my problem? So the real question I guess I am asking you is: Did Stampin' Up! respond adequately to the concerns I expressed? Or did they only answer the smallest part of what I said?