Our team at Frankston created a display featuring Cardplai music download cards and the latest issue of jmag which features cardplai next to the counter. This is a clever promotion. Cardplai is struggling to gain traction – promoting with a music title is designed to attract the appropriate demographic to the offer. The alternative is to leave Cardplai cards on display near our card department where they get lost.
We introduced Cardplai to the newsagency through Tower Systems for no compensation. We specificaly sought this as we wanted to ensure that newsagents received maximum possible return. Now, months on, others are on the Cardplai wagon. I hope their support is pro bono. If it is not, it may limit the extent to which newsagents benefit.
What has happened to Cardplai? I cant contact them and I want my deposit back! Anybody any ideas?
Good Luck. No reply to our emails or telephone calls.
I am glad I didn’t join. I could smell another Bill Express.
Dean, It’s not another Bill Express because they did not suck millions of dollars from newsagents based on an endorsement from the ANF and based on lies.
Cardplai looks like a business which is struggling due to undercapitalisation. They have made and are making some dreadful mistakes.
Still glad we didn’t go with them either.
One factor in that decision was the pushiness of the salesperson who was in charge of signing us up. When they sound and smell desperate, that’s when we run a mile.
Sometimes a gut feeling is the right call.
I’m with Martin, how do we get our cash back. We give these guys a go and fork out a deposit, then they go hide under a rock and keep our money.
Mark if they are so undercapitalised what has happened to all the deposits? I cannot give this junk away, my customers are saying why pay money for things you can download for free and I am starting to agree. I’ts just more shit sitting out the back of the shop and more money missing. Stupid me again.
Smelt a rat as soon as soon as I saw Plai. Is that like Yoplait/Cardplait?
Seriously, when you have to bankroll the business your dealing with there’s a problem. A shark on the Gold Coast was doing a similar thing a few months back. I had to pay him a hundred a month to be in an exclusive promo that gave me a web presence, drive more customers etc, etc, blah, blah. Don’t call me I’ll call you…..
My cardplai stand has been sitting out the back for 3 months now and I’m probably just going to throw it out on the weekend when I have a clean up.
Just another word of warning on rip off merchants. I had a man come around about 6 weeks ago trading under the company name Toy time. Anyway he was selling sun glasses which he had with him and said that the fancy stand that comes with it will be delivered in the next few days. Also as a sweetner he said his company would also give 2 mountain bikes to run as a promotion to give away for free to help entice customers to buy.
Seeing as the stock was there I stupidly handed over the cheque for the glasses and you guesses it, the fancy $2k stand and bikes never arrived so now I’m stuck with the glasses and will have to buy my own stand to display them.
In hindsight I was silly to hand over the money but given the stock was there I had no reason to believe the other things wouldn’t show up. Not to mention the man wouldve been over 60, closer to 70 years old and what seemed to be an honest up front bloke. Just goes to show con artists come in all shapes and sizes. I called him twice within 2 weeks of buying them and he said there were some delays with the stand but assured me it was coming. Of course it never.
I just wanted to post this so nobody else gets sucked in. Remember the name of his company is Toy time and I’ll be happy to name him if that is allowable.
have tried several positions in the shop, just isnt attractive to customers, think it is an out of date business model and way overpriced, plus the music that is available id pretty crappy, we should be happy that we only lose the deposit, can just turf the stoc out as it has no value and did not cost anything. Things are worth a shot, sometimes you win sometimes you dont.
i have tried a few areas to display the cards even on the counter but have only sold one of them, they are now out the back and like marg will more than likely throw them, least they were not that expensive to get into
I know of stores selling three or four cards a month so it is not a dud producet in some areas.
In terms of the deposit, I see this as a risk I took. Gee I see more dead stationery and gift stock in newsagencies than this.
Mark, 3 to 4 sales a month is a dud stock, we will write off cardplai like other bad investments and will view future offering from the people who pushed this with extreme caution in future.
Luke, you took the words right out of my mouth. Selling a lousy 3 or 4 units a month for the return you get can be seen as nothing but a dud.
Mark, it shouldn’t/ can’t be seen as a risk. A risk is when you pay a deposit on something with no gaurantee you’ll see that money again should the product not take off as was hoped.
Given that cardplai promised all deposits would be returned if you’re not satisfied with the product for any reason then how could that possibly be seen as a risk? You don’t like it? well u get your money back no worries at all, simple as that….or so we thought.
If you ask most here then I’m sure most wouldn’t have taken up the offer WITHOUT that particular promise.
Marg, I meant risk if the company went bust.
As I noted, newsagencies have tons more dead stock than the $100 for Cardplai.
So is the company officially bust Mark? If so how are people still selling 3 or 4 a month? If not then why won’t they take our calls and where is our money?
As for the dead stationary issue, you may right in that we all have some of that but it’s hardly comparable. That dead stock is products that we chose, it was all our doing so it’s our fault do to speak.
It was brought under the pretense that if it didn’t sell then we’d be reimbursed the money we handed over in good faith and promised would be returned by another party.
When we by something off our own bat and and it doesn’t work we do and have to take full responsibility for it. All we’re asking is the cardplai do the same thing and take ownership of the mess they created.
Given what has been written on this and Tower’s blog (via links on this thread) Mark, I guess there would be some expectation that you would have (had?) a reasonably close relationship with the company in question.
Surely what with “exclusive” newsagency start-up deals via your software company, direct links to their website etc. etc, you would still have some contact with them – or at least have some knowledge of what’s going on?
Seems that you’ve taken the softest approach on this issue as well, by downplai-ing the issue.
A downside, I guess of partnerships involving the potential cash of your clients?
well, well, so finally we hear about CardPlai’s fate…
am glad we decided not to jump on the bandwagon as gut feelings plus based on previous itunes sales in our shop + demographics, we decided not to ‘donate’ $100 towards the exciting venture.
Yes, compared to ‘dead stock’ in our shop the $100 is not much to lose but it’s the principle.
We all thought $100 is meant to be refundable should we not sell any and wants to get out of the deal altogether.
Or are we being duped by fine print again!!!
I wasn’t satisfied about the given answer in my previous comment about the minimum 20 sales per month so that capped my decision in not signing the dotted line.
By the way as Marg pointed out, the dead stock is purely our own choice, knowing we may not sell all .
However people have taken on CardPlai on their promises, much like Bill Express.
Mark, we had cardplai and had an arrangement where we had no money down. We sold 0 in 3 months then threw the range in the bin. We first saw dramas when the stock didn’t arrive when they promised it would. I assumed that it was a Tower assisted product and didn’t really worry too much as we invested nothing to get the range. It seems that they played one newsagent against the other and pocketed the money.
If they are still around why have they not responded to any of the posts, not taken calls nor responded to other communication?
Y&G, Yes, this was a Tower exclusive product for the first couple of weeks. Then POS Solutions demanded it, started a public vilification campaign on their blog and got it.
As I have said from the outset, our role was to help the company work with newsagents from a technology perspective. This was done free of charge. I neither sought nor was provided any special benefit or commission.
They also sought and received support fromm the ANF.
My relationship with Cardplai was close prior to launch. It beacme challenged once problems emerged aveter their launch.
I have no knowledge if they have gone bust.
I’ll not, again, this is nothing like Bill Express.
Mark, I never suggested that you profited unduly out of it. If it seems I have, then please accept my apology.
Y&G you say it seems I have taken the softest approach. I have had the same troubles everyone else has had in contacting them. When I have had contaact I have been harsh. I recommended them. They got in based, in part, on my goodwill. They have abused this.
Sorry for splashing the thread but just had to note that England’s finest cricketer this summer, Rudi Koertson, is not appearing in the 4th Test. Hooray!
No one pays for music on the internet.
They and others have done the same to many in the industry. It shows that we are all looking for additional ways to enhance our instore offer in the face of national competition. I just hope that the next ‘big thing’ that comes along we don’t all bury the idea before it starts due to these types of operators.
Mark, yes I did say, at least in this particular thread, that you have come across as downplaying cardplai’s abuse of agents.
Saying what you just have, however clarifies things. Thanks.