To the Vendors 'Listening In'

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today - and I got my period - so my state of mind is not one to take a post like susanlynn's without a sound retort. I understand that vendors watch this board. I have my own business, so I understand keeping up on the competition and knowing what is going on out there. I cannot blame any business-owner for wanting to be up to the minute on what the brides of this very moment are looking for, concerned about, losing sleep over, etc. What better of a way to tailor your business around the specifications of today's brides.

Just let this be known. In 'listening in' and 'responding' - whether in a positive or negative manner, you lose the privelege of remaining anonymity on this board. You take the good with the bad. If we are being used by your company as unpaid employees that help you develop better strategies to keep you on top - then you had better be prepared for when that employee is disgruntled at 'work'.

If I were in the wedding industry, I would not read this board - because quite honestly I think it's shameful that you choose to listen in on a bunch of friend's confidential conversations. BUT - if I did decide to drop in once a week and do a search on posts on my type of business, I would take notes on what I had learned, and try to make necessary alterations in my company that might leave brides - whether on this board or not - feeling that they were treated with respect, and feeling that their money was spent with a firm that values the importance of a wedding.

As far as responding to a bride in person? How DARE you. How DARE you take information from our profiles that were set up confidentially by liweddings. A note to liweddings: the other thing I know from owning my own business is that the client is the most important person. I understand people advertise with you and that is how we have this wonderful forum. But I hope you keep tabs on the messages, the complaints by people like susanlynn, the fake bride posts - and watch the vendors that are overstepping their boundaries. A few more complaints like this one, and the women will find another place to go.

I wish no response from a vendor - any vendor on this post. I don't wish a response from liwedding know there is very little that can be done. I just want to know that the vendors reading this right now understand the gravity of the situation. This board is a privelege for you. Very few businesses have access to such personal information on what clients are looking for. You should be grateful.

Nicely put I agree with you 100%..Thanks for taking the time and speaking on behalf of the brides on the board...I couldn't have sed it better my self

I totally agree with everything you said. After reading your post, I took a look at Susanlynn's and got so pissed. I went off in my reply...

I agree with your comments to LI WEDDINGS.

So LI WEDDINGS --> What's your response? What do you think of the vendor's actions? How about posting a privacy statement so that new brides will know whether they should expect harassing phone calls if they choose to post here? I understand you guys are in a tough spot because you want to keep your advertisers happy --> but keep in mind that they wouldn't want to advertise here is there weren't brides like us around either? At a minimum, you could at least warn your advertisers that actions like the one that occured in this case are likely to cause much more anger, resentment, and lost business then just letting the situation lie.

Yeah - I'm loving the 'bold' text option

I really don't want to start an argument here and I am the first to jump on a vendor acting inappropriately.

But this is not a private board. Everything that is said here is out in the open. Your profiles are not private either.

I agree that its weird for a vendor to go digging around and tracking posts but I think we should all understand that there is NO PRIVACY on the internet. Please do not post anything you wish to keep private.

And this board is kept alive by the VENDORS who adverstise here. Not all of the vendors who lurk are paying customers so I can't say specifically about this vendor but lets not forget that LIWEddings has an obligation to keep its business running so it can't really do much about this situation. VENDORS keep the board running, BRIDES keep the vendors running. But LIWeddings can't alienate its sole income unless brides are willing to pay a subscription fee.

Thanks Jenny...I was actually directing that post more toward Dora who asked for a LIWedding response and action as well as the girls who may think that this community is indeed private.

I can completely understand your frustration and reason for you post.

Over a year ago there was a bride who threatened another bride that she was going to cause a scene at her wedding, so I took out my wedding date...but now it is required??

so yes...be careful what you say to anyone...

on another site my Fhs friends FW looked through my posts and saw something I wrote about her 'anonymously' and freaked out to my FH...people will spy and gossip and be mean...just the way of humans (our ability to be IRrational)...something to consider

Although we would like to think that the conversations that we have with each other are private and meant only to help other brides and pass along information that will hopefully help avoid furture problems for brides who have not yet encountered some situations. Some of us have made friends on this board that we can trust and that we look foward to sharing information with (sometimes personal) but the bottom line is that this board and our conversations can be viewed by anyone. Unfortanately we have to be careful about what we say b/c (as we all know) there ARE fakes on this board.

I think the real problem here (as it has already been stated ) is that this particular vendor had absolutley no business calling this bride about the information that he took off this board. Whoever this vendor is should be ashamed of himself. And personally (if it were me), after the wedding I would tell everyone what he did to make sure that this vendor does not do this again. My reason for waiting after the wedding is b/c this vendor is clearly unprofessional and can not take criticsm, whether constructive or otherwise. Who knows what he would pull the day of the wedding!

SonicStef:

I hear what you're saying about stuff not being private -- but I don't think that a vendor should look up a person's profile (which doesn't include our phone numbers) and contact us at home regarding something that we wrote on this board. I think that's harrassment.

As I noted in my comment to LI Weddings, They have to keep their advertisers happy -- but they should have some sort of 'ethical use' policy for brides & vendors that should be posted.

That's my opinion...

I am so up in the air about what do to about this, I am afraid to contact the manager of the vendor who did this,for fear of having my wedding day $%%^&$ up, I am so upset. I do appreciate all the feedback and support about this.... It made me feel better than I have for the past few days. Any help would be appreciated, if anyone wants to give me there e mail so I can vent and I will also know that no other vendor is going to see by letting me email you, feel free to leave it . I am afraid to write too much about what happened for fear that they know who I am now, and that they will call me again,Thanks soooooo much! Everyone has been so nice on this board to me helping me with my posts, I relay on it a lot. Thanks!

feel free to vent to me. If I had more info, I may be able to help better.

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