[OpenID board] Getting Membership Management Under Control

Nat Sakimura sakimura at gmail.com
Tue Jun 2 18:05:20 UTC 2009


I read it. Very bad. Need to check.

=nat

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 2:44 AM, David Recordon <david at sixapart.com> wrote:
> If you haven't read Carsten's post this morning, you should.  It looks like
> Carsten's membership now ends on July 1 and that we still owe him $75.
>
> I've left a comment on Carsten's blog and emailed Don, John and Marisa
> asking that we sort this out today.  Is Carsten's membership different than
> others or do we have a larger membership management problem on our hands?
>
> http://notsorelevant.com/2009-06-02/about-losing-a-supporter/
>
> Thanks,
> --David
>
> In February 2008 I happily joined the OpenID Foundation (OIDF). For
> the first time it was possible for individuals to join the OIDF and I
> was certainly among the first to join. While the annual membership fee
> of $100 was a little high, I thought it was only natural for me to
> join the foundation and support something that I believe in. This blog
> and Spread OpenID are document of that.
>
> By the end of last year the membership fee for individuals was lowered
> to $25/year. So I was surprised when I got notified by PayPal in
> February 2009 that $100 were transferred to the OIDF for another year
> of membership, starting April 1 2009. I was a little confused since I
> wasn’t aware that it was a subscription model, that was probably my
> fault, and that I was charged $100 instead of $25.
>
> So first I cancelled the subscription - the $100 for period April 2009
> to March 2010 were paid, though - and got in touch with David Recordon
> and Scott Kveton who are both board members of the OIDF. Obviously,
> something was wrong with the subscription model and I wanted to make
> sure this didn’t happen to other members as well. Also I wanted to
> work out a way that I only paid $25 as well. Both forwarded my email
> to Don Thibeau, who was appointed the executive director of the OIDF
> in February.
>
> Until March 21 I didn’t hear from Don so I got back in touch with him
> and asked about the matter. I got only a short reply, two short
> sentences without salutation or complimentary close (hey, he’s
> probably busy or that’s some cultural difference), that he was working
> on the issue with Marisa Kihlthau (of Inventures). Marisa got a copy
> of his reply as well.
>
> Since I didn’t get another information until May 2 I emailed Don
> again. Well, something happened in between: the end of my membership
> status changed from April 1 to July 1. Don’t ask me why, though. As
> you can guess, I was rather frustrated by the time and I wrote to Don
> that I didn’t care about the OIDFanymore and that he should keep the
> $100 for whatever period of time my membership was good for.
>
> Once again he replied that he was sorry and copied the email to
> Marisa. He wrote another email and asked if he could do anything else
> for me. I negated. Marisa also got in touch, explaining that the OIDF
> was under new management (wow, that’s news in May 2009  ) and that
> they were sorting the membership database, hoping things to be solved
> by the end of May. I should get in touch with her if I had any more
> questions.
>
> Until today nothing happened. No way will I get back in touch with
> anyone about the matter. I don’t care anymore. However I want to make
> the story public because I think it is a bad example of customer
> service. I will no longer support theOIDF as it is unprofessional and
> won’t accomplish much if all issues are dealt with the same way.
>
> I tried to support OpenID in many ways in the past and still think it
> is a great concept. But why should I waste more time, energy, and
> money?
>
> Annoyed, frustrated, disappointed!
> _______________________________________________
> board mailing list
> board at openid.net
> http://openid.net/mailman/listinfo/board
>



-- 
Nat Sakimura (=nat)
http://www.sakimura.org/en/



More information about the board mailing list