Boomertowne...

[Maliki2]

I gave up...I don't even bother anymore. Nobody is getting anything...another scam....unfortunately.

 

[Mean Queen]

I never got my gift card and it's been way past time. I agree it was just another scam. The site wasn't enough to keep me interested without the rewards.

 

[Kycha]

I did check BT's forum a couple weeks ago. And nothing has changed. I think a few people received their gc's. But, I couldn't tell if that was a regular reward or for a special contest or something. I won't waste my time over there. But, I still have a smidgen of hope that the gc's will just suddenly appear.

 

[Deb_in_VA]

update at CompareRewards

Despite an Unsatisfactory BBB Rating, BoomerTowne Brags of Success, Plans for the Future

September 18, 2008 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Update: Minutes after posting this, I received the following email from Paul Brienza:

Becky:

Thank you for your e-mail.

While Laughlin/Constable was hired by the owner to develop and maintain certain aspects of the site, Laughlin/Constable does not own the site; was never responsible for any aspect of the points program; and no longer is working with the owner or manager of the site.

The owner has not returned our calls and has not left us with forwarding information.

Regards,

Paul

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Like many of you, I've been waiting patiently on gift cards redeemed from BoomerTowne.com from as far back as May 9th, gift cards that were promised in 6 to 8 weeks. Last month, I predicted that the end of BoomerTowne points was near, as the site's weekly newsletter had neglected to mention points at all. I haven't received any newsletters from the site in a while now. The silence is deafening.

What I'm hearing around the 'net is that some of the vocal complainers are having their accounts deleted. I'm owed $750 in outstanding gift cards from BoomerTowne and I realize I run the risk of losing it by posting further about BT, but since many of those points were earned on the backs of my referrals, who also are not getting paid, it was ill-earned gains anyway, and this is the least I can do on their behalf. So here goes:

I was really surprised when I stumbled across a September 5th article by a senior VP of BoomerTowne.com's PR firm, Laughlin Constable, on eMarketer.com. In "Social Networking for Baby Boomers," Paul Brienza discussed BoomerTowne and how it has succeeded in generating rich user content, as well as how health-care related advertising has "done very well." He also hints at upcoming changes in how the site will generate income (a switch from CPM, which is basically a flat fee they earn based on the number of page views, to specific advertiser-sponsored pages).

Of course, I was incredulous that BoomerTowne's PR firm was taking the time to discuss the site's success and its plans for the future at the same time that no one seems to be able to get a response from the company on when, if ever, members can expect their gift cards -- their rewards for generating that "rich content" of which Brienza bragged. In fact, BoomerTowne.com has an Unsatisfactory rating with the Better Business Bureau probably for that very reason. So, on Monday I sent Mr. Brienza an email and told him that I would be posting about this on Wednesday, and I asked for a response for the record. He didn't reply. I even held off until today to make this post, but I still (as of this writing) have not received a response.

Below is the text of the email I sent Mr. Brienza, whose full title is Senior VP of Interactive Marketing for Laughlin Constable. If anyone at Laughlin Constable reads this and would like the opportunity to respond, you can do so in a comment or feel free to email me.

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Dear Mr. Brienza,

I run a website (CompareRewards.com) that provides news and reviews of
rewards programs including one of your clients, BoomerTowne. No doubt
you're aware of the problems plaguing this website, in my opinion the
greatest of which is a complete lack of communication between site
administration and members, many of whom have been waiting for months for
their redeemed gift cards.

I read with great interest your September 5th interview with
eMarketer.com. There were several quotes in particular that I found
interesting and that I intend to post about on my website:

"We built an informational site, and found that people didn't necessarily
want to come back frequently to the site. They'd use it, learn
information from it and then move on. So we developed BoomerTowne to be
more of a social networking site that's rich in content."

Mr. Brienza, wasn't it the points system that motivated members to provide
the "rich content" you refer to here? The members are not being paid for
the content they contributed in good faith with the understanding that
they would be compensated for it. Isn't this a serious breach of ethics
at the very least, or perhaps even outright illegal?

Also, regarding CPMs, "We've done very well with the healthcare-supported
side...it works well when you have a drug company that can go to the
health section and put ads in context..." My question, as you can
imagine, is, if BoomerTowne has done so well with any aspect of its
monetization strategy, what is the reason, then, that no points
redemptions have been honored since May 8th? Were you overstating the
website's success to impress the eMarketer reading audience, or has the
website actually been far more of a disappointment, plagued by fraudulent
duplicate accounts, robotic clicks, and submission of inane content simply
to receive points?

And lastly, "[Advertisers will] be able to target these people, and maybe
not so much in the CPM or traditional banner standpoint, but more on a
sponsorship standpoint, where they sponsor various sections of a site, and
not just hit them with a 300 by 250." Can I take away from this statement
that BoomerTowne is retooling its advertiser strategy with the intent to
stay in business despite its debt to members? If that is the case, can
you give BoomerTowne members some insight into what they can expect in
terms of wait time for gift card fulfillment, changes to the points
system, and any future incentives planned for contributing the rich
content you intend to monetize?

Mr. Brienza, in case you haven't visited BoomerTowne's message board or
Googled your client's website name recently, you need to understand that
you have a full-blown PR nightmare on your hands. The sooner these issues
are addressed, the better your client's chances of salvaging at least a
shred of respect and good will from the population it intends to serve.

I will be posting my comments about your interview and the situation at
BoomerTowne on Wednesday. If you have any response for the record about
my concerns or if there is any other information you'd like disseminated
to BoomerTowne's membership, I would be glad to include that in my post.

Thank you for your time.


Sincerely,
Becky Ford
CompareRewards.com

 

[Mean Queen]

So the owners of the site just quit talking to their PR firm too? Thanks for posting the article.

 

[Deb_in_VA]

So the owners of the site just quit talking to their PR firm too? Thanks for posting the article.

YVW, it looks like they dumped the PR firm and just walked away from all obligations.

 

[Kycha]

Thanks for posting that Deb. Very interesting article.

 

[Deb_in_VA]

Looks like Btowne is completely gone. I got this message when I tried to get there:

The requested URL could not be retrieved

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.boomertowne.com/

 

[Maliki2]

Good, I'm glad they are done. I wasted enough time on that site to get nothing.

And I hope this is a needle in those who kept claiming that everything was ok and the site was different than the others. Who couldn't see this coming.

 

[Mean Queen]

Looks like Btowne is completely gone. I got this message when I tried to get there:

The requested URL could not be retrieved

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.boomertowne.com/

I just tried too and it sent me to a google search page. When I tried to click on one of the search links, it kept sendingg me back to the search page.

 

[Maliki2]

Whoah..I made it into the chat on Boomertowne!!!

Go here.... and log in..gets you in chat!

http://chat.boomertowne.com/index.aspx

 

[vanyel]

You can do some things on bt - but the discussion boards arent' available. Boy what a ****up!

I'm glad I quit striving for the 1500 daily points some time ago and just used what I liked on the site.

 

[eyor44]

I'm so sad. I loved the games, espcially the jig saw puzzles.

 

[vanyel]

You can still get to the site using malik's link and play the games from there, if you want. The chat was still active as of an hour ago, in fact, there's more people there now than there were in the last month or so.

 

[budbeerlady]

You can still get to the site using malik's link and play the games from there, if you want. The chat was still active as of an hour ago, in fact, there's more people there now than there were in the last month or so.

I did go and delete all of my Photos from there. It just made me feel better to do it! LOL!

 

[Deb_in_VA]

BoomerTowne Founder Herschel "Buzz" Peddicord Explains Site Closure

September 21, 2008 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Update, 4:45pm:

After being forwarded a copy of an email sent by BoomerTowne.com founder Herschel Peddicord to chat moderator CherBear67, I decided to email him myself with some of the questions I have been hearing from upset BT members on forums and in BT's own chat (still live at this link). He replied within the hour. My email and his response are below:


Dear Mr. Peddicord,

I run CompareRewards.com, a website that provides reviews and news of points programs like BoomerTowne. I've been following the developments with your site and am getting a tremendous amount of traffic from your members, all of whom are disappointed and hoping for some answers.

Is the site down permanently? Is it possible that the site could be sold and return at some point? Are there any plans to honor the cashouts that have been made up to this point, even at half or some fraction of their value?

At what point did you decide to take BoomerTowne down? Is this a decision that has been in the works for a while now? Have you been trying to find potential investors or to develop an alternate business model that might be more profitable?

Isn't it difficult to abandon the site just months after PC Magazine named it the #1 Website for Boomers? You have a reputation for being a shrewd entrepreneur; there's no way to make the site financially feasible?

I know these are a lot of questions and at no doubt a time when you're already upset about having to make some tough decisions. Any insight you could give me that I could pass along to your faithful members would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time, and I wish you the best.


Sincerely,
Becky Ford
CompareRewards.com


His response:


RE: Saddened by the news about BT -- a response if you could, please?
Sunday, September 21, 2008 4:37 PM
From: "buzz peddicord"
To: comparerewards@yahoo.com

Unfortunately illness, economic downturn, and mass cheating drove the company bankrupt. Several millions were lost by investors and even though we tried to sell and raise capitol, the lousy economy made that impossible. The investors including me lost millions of dollars trying to build a real community. When the economy went south companies quit advertising and income dropped to 10 percent of what it had reached. That combined with mass point cheating made it impossible to go on. No site that offers rewards will succeed as long as people devote so much time trying to beat the system. It tells you something about our society.


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My response to this: While most of the points-based rewards programs have gone the way of the dinosaur, there ARE points programs that have survived for years despite economic downturns and people trying to game the point systems. Gather.com has paid members for generating content for a few years now. Freeride has been up and down with different owners but is still at it (it's the first rewards program I joined, way back in 1997). MyPoints, the granddaddy of them all, is still very much alive and well. Even Memolink is still up after years of financial troubles. The difference between these programs and BoomerTowne? Sufficient staffing for moderating content and site usage to thwart cheaters. Limitations on memberships per household or per IP address, or proof of individual ID requirements. Point valuations that are sustainable over the long run, taking into account all overhead -- including referral incentives, with allowances built in for cyclical lulls in advertising revenue. Enough management staff in place to delegate projects when one person gets sick. (I'm sorry if that sounds cruel; I'm sympathetic to Mr. Peddicord's health issues but this was a *business* and he owed it to his members, partners, and investors to find alternate leadership in his absence.)

I spent a while in chat last night and again this afternoon, and while many of the BT members coming through chat expressed frustration and anger at being told by BT Help that no gift cards would be forthcoming, there were still a large proportion who said they were just sad at losing the community they had helped build. Several voiced an interest in continuing on as contributing members of BT if the points system was eliminated altogether. Alternate chat rooms and alternate forums were being discussed so that friends would be able to stay in touch.

It sounds to me like BoomerTowne met a need in many people that was more than just free gift cards. Perhaps with some retooling of the points structure, or reintroducing the site without points altogether (after a cooling-off period), the site could become financially successful. It seems an absolute shame that the top rated website on the internet for Boomers would have to go bust.

Click Continue Reading to read CherBear67's email to BT owner Peddicord, as well as his reply.


Continue reading BoomerTowne Founder Herschel "Buzz" Peddicord Explains Site Closure.

 

[Maliki2]

This should send signals and flags to all those that defended BT to the end. People were claiming that they had full confidence in BT and that they would be receiving their GCs. I for one am out $400 in GCs. BT is no different than Netwinner in my mind.

 

[Kycha]

This should send signals and flags to all those that defended BT to the end. People were claiming that they had full confidence in BT and that they would be receiving their GCs. I for one am out $400 in GCs. BT is no different than Netwinner in my mind.

You are right. Those people defending BT to the end are probably the same ones that defended Netloser to the end. I'm only out $50 in gcs. And I didn't contribute much to the site. So, no real loss to me.

I have read other people are going into their accounts and making copies of any pertinent information(account balances, faq, tos, etc) they can find and then deleting all their account info.

ETA: Nevermind. I just tried to get into BT through the chat link and can't. If anyone has another link, could you post it please? Thanks!

 

[sunshinegirl]

This makes me sad because it lends more credibility to the idea that "all rewards sites are scams," which simply isn't true. Unfortunately, it IS a really tough business because there is so much fraud. Too many people jump into starting sites that give rewards without understanding the industry.

For those of you who are so inclined, know that there are sites out there that do come through. It's usually the case that if it seems way too good to be true or you are earning too quickly, the site probably isn't that legit. If someone can explain the business model to you in a way that makes good sense, the site is probably legitimate. BT never made sense to me because they were paying an awful lot for content that was of little value. I worried that it couldn't last.

 

[murphnjamie]

I was sad to see it go because I actually liked doing the jigsaw puzzles everyday and checking out the discussion boards for the political arguements. I stopped going for points right after they changed the cash in rates for new people. I knew that wasn't good news. I figured I'll just play what I want.

If any other group wants to pick up the jigsaw puzzle they had on their site (hint...SR ) I"m there.