Thursday, January 11, 2007

STR club news...[you won't believe a bank could be so, um....

...what's the word? Dumb?]

Tina and Kaci at Blue Moon Fiber Arts have had a busy weekend, but not for reasons anyone expected. The people at their bank seem to have lost their collective minds [details below]. As a result, the Blue Moon website's been down all weekend, and they've had to scramble to find a new way to accept payment and reprogram their whole website. But they've got stuff under control now...if you're a Blue Moon lover/supporter, you probably want to know what's what, so here's the message the girls sent out last night:

The sign-up for the Rockin' Sock Club 2007 has been a resounding success. So much so that our bank thinks we are running some type of elaborate yarn scam and is refusing to accept our members' money! So, you know what they are doing? You are not going to believe this. They are sending all of that money back! Unbelievable and astounding!

Here are the details. Within the next ten days, all of you who signed up for the Sock Club by paying either $210.00 (domestic) or $240.00 (international) between December 31 and January 5, will be getting a credit back onto your Mastercard or Visa. It is the Sock Club only, all other yarn orders placed will go through and you will be receiving your yarn soon.

Do not panic!

Everyone affected by this incredible situation is guaranteed their spot through the end of January, including those on the wait list. After you receive your credit, just go to our website and use your same registration number to pay for your Sock Club (yet again). The website is temporarily under construction in order to install the new bank’s (who has guaranteed us they will have no difficulty accepting your money!) system. The site should be back in full swing in the next couple of days. In the meantime, you can view products and place phone orders.

If you have any problems, call or email us and we will gladly help. Keep in mind that there are a lot of you involved! It is going take us some time to sort through the mess the bank has so graciously created for us. Remember, those of you that ordered other products from the Blue Moon website during this period are fine. It does not affect your orders! It is the thought of a Club for knitting socks they cannot get their heads around.

This certainly is NOT how we envisioned starting the New Year, the launch of our website upgrade and the 2007 Rockin' Sock Club! We cannot apologize enough for any inconvenience this causes you. To honor all of your dedication and patience, we are including a coupon in your first shipment to help compensate for this.

So, knitting comrades, we can choose to look at this in many ways (and believe me we have run the gamut on this one). Disbelief, shock, outrage . . . it has been a surreal experience for us. This is not just about us here at Blue Moon. It is about knitters as a group. We are extraordinary people. We have seen our power when rallied . . . large fundraising for great causes, KAL’s across the planet, and standing room only at knitting-related gatherings. Because of this, the Rockin' Sock Club 2007 will prevail! We will have a blast and knit awesome socks that will be the envy of all nonbelievers!

We thank you so very much for your support, and community. There will be more (much more) to say about this saga in the first shipment’s dyer’s notes!

Our socks are still rockin',
Team Blue Moon

posted by amy [Knitty] @ 9:15 AM 7 comments

Comments:
So many of my entrepreneurs friends have encountered problems with banks.. So I am not really surprised by that ! Behold the power of the yarn on the Net !!!
# posted by Blogger Sam La Tricoteuse : 10:37 AM, January 11, 2007
 
Wouldn't it be wonderful if knitters, en masse, wrote friendly letters to this bank, not "nyah nyah, you lost the best sock yarn people in the world," but something that says the same thing in a positive way: "wow, isn't knitting great? and popular? we're wonderful people, there are a lot of us, and we spend lots of money on fabulous yarn! have a good day now!"
# posted by Blogger normanack : 12:28 PM, January 11, 2007
 
OTOH, if this was the result of some random hacker getting a lot of credit card numbers and charging them up, and yours was one of the credit cards, you'd probably cheer on the bank for being so proactive.
# posted by Blogger Emy : 1:32 PM, January 11, 2007
 
From my current experience as a bank auditor, it does not sound like the bank made this decision based on security reasons. The bank is only processing the transactions, which for some reason they deemed suspicious. I'd love to hear their reasoning. ;-)
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 1:48 PM, January 11, 2007
 
I read about this elsewhere and was amazed! The power of knitters eh? While it was good to see the bank being pro-active, I'm sure there would have been a much smarter way to approach this situation rather than shutting them down.
# posted by Blogger Gaile : 3:30 PM, January 11, 2007
 
wtf?!!!
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 8:29 PM, January 11, 2007
 
Gaile's comment above expresses my thoughts better than I could.

But, I can't deny that a vindictive part of me would *love* to send letters to the bank as described by The Yarn Harlot:
"The ladies at Blue Moon also (and this demonstrates to me the depths of their class) have declined my offer to provide each and every one of you with the address of the bank and the Bank managers email address, so that you (ALL of you) could provide him with an expansive email detailing your feelings about sock yarn, his behaviour and the relationship between the two.

I would not have had that amount of class."
# posted by Blogger Amy McWeasel : 1:50 PM, January 12, 2007
 
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