Alright.... (sigh)...
I read this entire thread, very carefully, and I hope that my putting effort into signing up and posting means something. I/we really do care about our subscribers, advertisers and our reputation. That being said...
The reason I may come across as arrogant or as a **** on Pirate (which is totally unintentional) is because I am just tired and fed up with that place and I just do not even care anymore. Imagine if you had to wake up every morning and have your company, your dreams and the product you pour your heart into attacked and made fun of by a bunch of douche bags who have nothing to lose by damaging your reputation just for fun? ... how much would you enjoy that? Because of XOM, everything we do is under a high-powered microscope (which is understandable but frustrating, it's been 14 goddamn issues since then, 12 of them on time) and every time we stumble or suffer through a growing pain, we get to hear "Oh, here we go again, Tim is driving the company into the ground with his shitty business practices." That is not true, sometimes a speedbump is just a speedbump. Paper prices go up and down every day on wallstreet, advertisers decide not to pay their $10,000 invoices on time and subscriptions come in in waves. Some days the outflow of cash is more than the influx, sound familiar to any of you business owners?
We're trying VERY hard to keep this going and things are actually going well. It's 8pm and I have been in this office since 7am busting assholes to get issue 15 out the door. It is in press this week. You're just getting issue 14 in your mailboxes and as promised, we're blasting issue 15 right out on its heels. Please, give us some slack here? We're not screwing anyone, we're not lying despite what you read on Pirate. I have business partners and investors to answer to and i wouldn't be allowed to lie. We're just struggling like any new business. Don't forget my entire house is on the line with this company. I made my money in the dotcom bubble and it is all tied up in CRAWL. If this fails, I have to find a tall bridge to jump off of.
[ edited ]
That's all I can say. Everyone on that site who complained got a personal PM from me and left satisfied. Not one came back and still bitched after I PM'd, emailed or called them. I think i did quite well with all of them. If you have issues getting your magazine but fail to call us, how is that our fault? if I am bleeding to death and do not call 911, is it their fault I died? Come on, common sense.
We've had delivery issues. What are we doing to fix it? Starting this summer we're outsourcing all mailing, subscription services, renewals and customer service to a company that specifically handles that. Your calls will go to them, not us. They are white, not Indian. They will still answer as "CRAWL Magazine" but they are a fulfillment house who will handle all of that from subscription thru renewals and fulfillment. Your desire to have my shitty CS skills out of the picture will be granted.
if you still want to hate on us, so be it. I'm okay with haters being haters. We're doing our best and our best may suck, but we still put out a killer magazine, everyone seems to agree with that.
Wngrog, don't be so quick to say I don't want help. Call your buddy you referred me to. i called him, he cannot help me. You said he could print our magazine in China for big savings. For one, you wanna see delays, put 200,000lbs of paper on a boat floating in water LOL... two, it takes 4-6 weeks to ship his product from there, they cannot meet our newsstand deadlines. I did call, thank you for the reference but he can't help me. besides, i support US jobs so screw China.
if this isn't enough to make you happy the direct line to my desk is 253-857-2729 - if you refuse to call but still want to bash us publicly, I will add you to my mental list of douche bags I'd rather not have as a customer.
Kind regards,
Tim Piele, President
CRAWL Magazine
That was a freakin fun-ass shoot!!! How long does CRAWL own that stuff? 
So Ricky has a plate of food and is asked to leave... LAAAME!)
