We try to remain unbiased in the majority of what goes on in the wide world of cloth diapering – particularly where there are “unfolding” scandals or “breaking” news type events. But there is a tide of email coming our way from disgruntled participants over on the Crunchy Cooperative board.
Most people are fairly accustomed to the notion of charges being included in PayPal transactions – but apparently this “common knowledge” has escaped Jodi, one of the CC’s hosts… to the tune of nearly $3000 since PayPal altered their fee structures in February of this year. And now she’s trying to get “donations” to cover her losses – but how they can be considered donations when people are getting messages that say if they don’t “donate” they’ll be banned from CC altogether is a mystery to us.
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- sorry, our screen cap condensing missed Enwrapture and Enwrapture Special Sale off the list.
It is understandable that there are a lot of ladies out there with their tights in a twist about this – it’s one thing to charge a fee, it’s another thing entirely to ask for it retrospectively. The posts and quotes we’ve been sent are confusing at best – some implying PayPal basically charged Jodi retrospectively for fees that should’ve been collected on not-so-personal transactions over the last six months, others clearly showing transactions where fees were collected. In any case, PayPal’s policies regarding fees are pretty damn clear:
4.5 No Surcharges. You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as a payment method. You may charge a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services, as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge and is not higher than the handling fee you charge for non-PayPal transactions.
Fair enough, charge a “handling fee” or whatever, build 2.9% + .30¢ into the price of your “discounted” co-op items – but really, running around like you didn’t realize you were “losing” that money on every single transaction you handled (nearly $90k worth of transactions, for what it’s worth) after six months? That’s just bad business… and tantamount to lunacy. The internet is packed with calculators and helpful tools to help the mathematically-impaired folks out there work out the “fees” on any incoming transaction. We’re huge fans of ppcalc here at Poop HQ.
Add to all of this the fact that Jodi is no stranger to accepting “donations” to cover her own mistakes, and it’s easy to see why some of our tipsters are straight-up outraged:
Lost the yarn, didn't charge the fees, whatever the case may be eventually you'll need to donate to cover her ass...
Note: it’s true, we usually won’t post screen shots from “private” boards (where you have to be a logged-in member to view the posts in question), but because this is a little more than “drama” and highlights something that has been smoldering away in the background since PayPal changed their policies back in February, we decided it was worth putting the various shots we’ve been sent out there for your consideration.
UPDATE: July 5th
This morning, we received the following message from the person posting comments on this article as “momof4″:
Thanks for the message, sorry we won't just delete the article because it bugs you.
We’d like to point out that we have a number of “fact checkers” at our disposal, and over a dozen people sent us virtually identical screen shots from CC the day the PM for fee payments was issued. Since then, we’ve had plenty more and all those we published have been verified by at least three people as being 1. real, 2. in context and 3. still online.
There is one quote we would’ve loved to publish but it was from a deleted post we could NOT verify. Sure, drama can be fun, but that isn’t the only reason we’re here – we know what we’re doing, we aim to inform AND entertain. And unfortunately for you, Jodi and any number of asspatters who are bound to come in here whining about how unfair we are, this piece absolutely fits the bill for Poop on Cloth. It is important that people know their rights, policies of companies they frequently use and more importantly, whether the people they’re giving money to can be trusted with it.
I figured that since we paid a co-operative fee, it probably equaled out. The co-op fees came to twice what my 2.3*.30 or whatever was. If I made a mistake, I wouldn’t expect everyone else to fix it.
I have been reading this thread over the past few days, and immediately I called bs. There is not a chance in he11 that she didn’t know those fees were coming out. The first month? Maybe. I’ll give her that much. But for 6 months? No f’ing way. Then to turn around a demand the “fees” is just wrong. Even better, they are now censoring anyone who questions the thought process of ANY mod, host, or Jodi. They will call you out on it, publicly bash you, and then delete the posts. I wish I had a screen shot of said crap. She just needs to own up and accept that she’s an airhead. If it was her in our position, she would think the same thing. Oh to live in oblivion.
I wonder how happy she would be if this found its way to Paypal, asking people to send her donations for paypal fees.. She effed, now she wants everyone to pay, plus she wants donations. I’m so glad that board rubbed me the wrong way & I never took part.
That’s what happens when its not your first, second, or even third priority. You will suck at what you do. You will be rude and mean and tell people all the time your excuses that you have a family. well, lady, we aren’t hostesses and we didnt sign up for it. You did.
It amazes me how she is so worried about recouping the fees but doesn’t apologize for her $3000 error. You are running a business and you chose to allow the payments to be received that way. ypur problem and no one elses.
You would think she would have already known about this since she has been ‘battling’ paypal for so long about this very issue..
This has scam written all over it.
She said she never received the email from paypal. They said they sent one. Thing is, she could have seen it all along…she just never looked at any of the transactions in paypal as long as the email notifications looked fine. But still, if you can’t tell $3000 is missing, then there has to be extra money being charged and pocketed for you to not see it. In coop land, money in *should* equal money out, minus the fee.
i told her straight up that i would not be paying her any “back fees”. unfortunately, i am involved in 2 coops with her right now that she has already tacked on the “new” fees to. why should we be responsible for her poor bookkeeping skills?
i am also curious to know what PayPal thinks of CC bullying us into paying THEIR fees…
dude, that would seriously piss me the fuck off to have to pay for her mistake. luckily the only co-op i did over there (and there will be no more for me) was klean kanteen and was done directly through spaver.
for which she gathered a $3 coop fee for and never touched the products. that right there is why I never participate in the spaver ones she runs
dude, i didn’t even realize that there was a coop fee on that one! grrrr….
Yeah, shes pretty much telling people to break the Paypal rules because she was breaking them.. What an idiot.
I simply cannot understand how someone wouldn’t know that they were being charged fees for 6 months. Not to mention, this change was all over everywhere for months after it happened. Even if she didn’t see the email from PayPal (and I know that I got one, myself), how do you not notice that much money going out over what you thought was happening?
This does not pass the sniff test. I don’t think I would do any more business with her if I were part of CC. Best case, she is a really poor business woman; worst case, she is a scammer. I wouldn’t want to take the chance.
Here’s what I find interesting
1. that someone can go 5 months without realizing thousands of dollars went poof from their account. How can you pay for coops out of said account without realizing there weren’t enough funds there to cover the transactions? OR there were enough funds, which tells me the various other fees they collected were enough to cover what Paypal took out.
2. that not only did Paypal send out blanket emails about the changes in their terms of use and it was the ‘talk of the town’ for quite some time but if your account is flagged they contact you at least twice before taking fees out of every transaction. Somehow Jodi missed all of these messages from Paypal, the hoopla on various boards including CC, or choose to ignore them.
3. that Jodi supposedly contacted PP and was told coops could accept payments as ‘personal payment owed’ and not have fees taken out yet it’s explicitly against Paypal’s policy to run coops. I’ve heard of people being contacted by PP and their accounts threatened simply because a payment they received had the word ‘coop’ on it.
4. many people have donated funds who didn’t owe for fees, many people have donated above what they owed for fees, yet it’s being said if you don’t cover your retroactive fees you’ll be kicked off the board. She’s expecting people to donate to cover her mistake plus what everyone owes too? Now if that doesn’t scream scammy I don’t know what does.
Bottom line- if you suck at record keeping and live with your head in the sand don’t expect everyone else to bail you out. I’d be embarrassed to admit I had almost 3 G’s taken from my account and didn’t notice for five whole months.
um, yeah, i won’t be going there anymore. plus, their co-op fees seemed a bit excessive to me. just sayin’
Didn’t Jodi leave another board because she wasn’t allowed to run coops there? I always hate when people do that. It just screams that they can’t handle running a coop and usually they are not worthy of handling my money for anything.
The one coop I did through Crunchy took so long my child grew 2 sizes above what I ordered before I received it. Never again.
Shady shady shady.
I was going to participate in the bumpy orbit labels on CC but then saw it’s been open since February while they try to fill enough orders to reach the 20% discount. I googled and found a 20% off coupon and ordered on my own. No coop fees, no STM+STY, no waiting 5 months just to order the dang things. And I can know for sure that 5 months from now no one’s gonna come banging on my door demanding I pay additional fees or be kicked out of their club. For some things I can see how a coop could be beneficial but I’d rather not take a chance with someone who can’t properly handle their transactions.
I was too. I eventually dropped because the discount wasn’t worth the wait for me. That, and Andrea is sllloooowwwww.
What a shitstorm. I saw this on we’d and was baffled. Just logged on and realized I had the “strong-arm” PM too. I responded saying I didn’t participate inane coops and wouldn’t send fees even if I had. The threat of banning has seriously pissed me off. That board is so poorly run … Andrea is beyond slow with shipping. I ordered something in August, she lost it, I got my refund in Decemberafter repeated requests from me. Never again.
wow~!
I participated last year in a CC and it took them four months to get me my items. I complained and was told that if I complained again that I would be banned. That was my last participation with them.
CDN (Cloth Diaper Nation) also has co-ops, not as many as CC, but they’re well run and you can suggest co-ops you’d like to see. You do have to have been a member for a certain amount of time before you can join co-ops though.
I’m participating in my first co-op on CC right now and am not happy. Besides DS and CC, where else can I find CD-related co-ops?
live journal has them. There’s a group for co-ops called lj_coop, and they run things from time to time.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/co-opmania/ This yahoo group runs some good and fast co-ops.
Wow. That is ridiculous!! Deleting that website from my bookmarks now…! Good thing I’ve never done anything on there yet! phew. Thanks poc!
ug! and thats why I dont like cc, my first thought is she needs $ and is doing this as a rouse…………….. frustrated- theres hc coops and I think CDN has some too
Glad I was never apart of any CC co-ops.
Nobody should have to pay for someone’s mistake. Especially since they’re obviously an idiot, and shouldn’t run co-ops.
This whole thing confuses me because for some reason I have a recollection of reading something on CC a few months ago where they specifically said that the hosts were getting dinged for all transactions, regardless of type, and that you needed to always add fees. I don’t think my brain made it up- so I thought this was something they were aware of for a while now. I guess not. I have run plenty of co-ops in the past and I’ve always looked into the amount I received after fees to make sure everything was adding up. I have made mistakes in the past, but I usually ate the cost up since it was completely my fault for not tallying things correctly. Not to the tune of $3,000, but if you know you eat your mistakes, you’re going to be meticulous in figuring exact fees, shipping, etc. I am very upset to hear that they are demanding others to pay fees on transactions that were complete 6 months ago or else face being banned? No thank you, it’s not our faults that someone wasn’t paying attention carefully, and I will not be participating in any CC co-ops from this point forward.
I can’t believe the amount of people that are just paying! Hey you people! I need about 3 thousand dollars, please send it to: omgrudumb@yahoo.com. Make sure that you send it as personal (so you can’t file and get it back) and I’ll make sure that you are still my friend.
OMG, rofl.
I just sent you $3000. Did you receive it?
Oh Mags, you’re a genius! We can take donations and set up a relief fund to send calculators to mathematically-challenged coop hosts everywhere!
So now that everyone has given the info that they felt like showing POC and made CC look horrible lets look at some facts. There is no scandal and proof has been given that fees were taken without knowledge. People were complaining that they did not receive the emails and requested that a mass pm be sent out. Jodi formally apologized for the ban piece and stated she never had any intentions of doing that, if you lost that much money wouldn’t you be upset? Several apologies and proof have been given out so you may want to get some correct info before bashing people and boards. Many of these complaints are from people who are not even active on the board and decided to make a scene for attention. As for the post above about lost yarn, Jodi NEVER requested money for that, perhaps whoever posted that should have posted the complete truth!!!! Another member did that all on their own and members donated at their own free will. AGAIN JODI NEVER REQUESTED ANY MONEY FOR HER MISTAKE! I cannot believe the amount of bull in this thread that has been taken out of context. I will be contacting an administrator on here about the drama and lies due to not posting the entire truth and only using screen shot for posts that will add to the drama. If you don’t like something then just leave quietly, causing drama for your own attention is really ridiculous.
Really? So should we also submit the posts in which one of the hosts told us that any and all comments questioning the validity of the “mistake” would be deleted? Should we also submit the posts in which this same host publicly bashed a member for stating what SO many of us wanted to say? Even went as far as to be a child and call her a bitch? Really? I don’t think you would want that. I am active on the board, and can vouch that what has been posted here is quite true. See it how you want to see it. But if you were to take an unbiased step back, and look at it from unclouded eyes, you too would agree with what’s being said.
I read the post about deleting posts and it had nothing to do with the mistake. It was about people making personal attacks, nothing to do with the matter at hand. This is where things get out of hand, when a post is taken and then reworded elsewhere. No posts that did not contain personal attacks on members were deleted. Any questions about the matter are still there and have been addressed. What about the several apologies and proof posted within the thread? No one seems to be mentioning that of course. Everyone will see this how they want and that is where it should be left. To each there own opinion, but taking info and changing the meaning and leaving out the whole conversation only causes drama. There is a post above trying to accuse Jodi of taking money and donations for yarn when she had nothing to do with it, how is that the truth at all? Some one had a kind heart and did that on their own.
Are you serious???? Are you saying that my posts got deleted because I was attacking people?????? You are a liar momof4. I don’t care how active I am right now, I was VERY active with CC before and there is a reason so many have become inactive. I was not attacking anyone! I was questioning things and honestly, if it hadn’t smelled so nasty and been so wrong, I may have helped out, so that involves me. Try to get your facts straight and stop posting BS that others can smell a mile away. How dare you!
Oh, that really ticks me off that people are going to lie about the deletion of posts like that. What a ruse. You must have your head so far up…..ah forget it.
Exactly. It’s like if you’re not all buddy buddy then you can’t speak out against the masses. No one spoke ill of anyone. She just happened to be the one person who spoke out and got shot down for it. Really. She was questioning the situation, for clarification, and got yelled at for doing so. Ridiculous. If we want to question HOW ON EARTH she missed $3000, we should be able to ask, public or not. We deserve answers, and it should not matter if it looks like we’re questioning the integrity of someone. I can tell that was not her intention, but the MOD shot back at her and twisted her words around. We are not crazy for wondering how someone lost $3000. We should be aloud to ask with no one bullying us afterward.
questioning the situation and the integrity of a person are 2 different things. Many have questioned the situation and got answers, all posts are still there. Only mean spirited and uncalled for posts were deleted. INCLUDING posts made by any mods. It isn’t like only posts questioning the situation were deleted, in that case there wouldn’t be threads with all those pages on there.
I’ll tell you right here.
I’m questioning either her intelligence or her integrity. I’m so glad I was already basically done with CC before this happened.
Thank you. I’m assuming you all are talking about me, because I did post what I thought and no one else stated the same things, so it must have been me. I appreciate you backing me up and yes, I was questioning some things about this. I got the emails, I would have donated had it made sense and had any kindness to it, so I felt I had the right to ask questions, the answers I received PROVED that they didn’t deserve a dime from me.
I would like to see the bitch post so if anyone would like to email me, my email is kelliedn at bugaboobottoms dot com
thanks!
I went back and re-read it. She didn’t call you a bitch outright. Instead, she asked why were you bitching and then said all you did was post in the thread to bitch. My mistake for interpreting it incorrectly. (however, in my head, it is one and the same as calling someone a bitch. I understand for others it’s not the same thing. My hubby pointed that out to me. Lol)
Was I the one called a bitch? I know I was the one that posted when no one else would, but I must have missed the bitch post. Gee, that sounds like a thousands times more attacking then anyone else.
The fact is, my posts were deleted, not because they were attacking, but because the Admins wanted to bury what I was asking about and pointing out in the hopes that others wouldn’t think of the stuff I was thinking of because of it. Anyone on the cloth diapering/co-op community knows I say it like I see it. I am honest, I am sometimes harsh, but I am NOT mean and I do NOT attack unless attacked first or lied about. Asking hard questions is NOT an attack. And deleting them without forethought is only a cover up.
The admins were rude, they were bullies, they were selfish, they were insensitive and they didn’t care one little bit.
Not until this all went public, now they just really seem to care soooo much! I don’t believe it for a second. I believe they are just covering their asses.
I got a personal apology from Jodi, and Jodi ONLY, and that was only after I sent all the admin a message asking them why I was getting a blanket apology after the way I was treated when they are apologizing for the main thing I was trying to point out and that I felt I deserved a personal apology after what they did. I have not heard from any of the others.
So I don’t really think they truly care. This is just one more thing to try to cover their butts.
For anyone who is interested, we were graciously given a copy of the deleted post in the original email wave about this whole thing, and now we’ve been able to send it to Kellie herself for verification, here it is…
Everyone who has looked at this post here at Poop HQ (including three people who run boards that host frequent coops) thinks there is no reason for deleting it. Our CC experts estimate as many as three pages worth of posts have been deleted from the thread in question… THAT is
.
Jodi absolutely did request money for her mistake. Her name was on the pm that went out to everyone (that stated banning would happen if people didn’t send money), plus she added just fees to people’s totals on co-ops that haven’t shipped yet. (mutts are one).
momof4 Please note, we didn’t say Jodi requested the donations for the misplaced yarn fiasco, we just pointed out that she accepted them. She could’ve quite easily posted “Hey ladies, thanks but that’s not necessary”, refunded those contributions and simply owned her mistake.
that’s funny because i had this in my pm box sent from jodi “Those who do not pay for
their items will be banned from CC.” sure sounds like we were being forced to pay for her mistakes.
Momof4: there is drama. Calling someone a bitch for questioning this crap is drama. Deleting posts in a public thread b/c they are “unpleasant” is drama.
Asking for $$$ b/c of bad record keeping is drama.
As I said to you (as admin at cc) this whole thing has *really* pissed me off.
By the way, I am NOT the administrator at CC. You are mistaken and may want to get your facts straight before posting things like that.
Omy bet? Only b/c this was public did the apology go out.
apologies were out before anything was public just to clarify. Those members who are active and read threads will know that. Public threads would be available to anyone for reading not only members. Rules clearly state that posts should be respectful. Rather than banning deleting posts out of respect for other members happened. Life will go on and I’m really not going to waste anymore of my time justifying to people who choose to read what they want and ignore posts that could possibly rectify a situation.
Actually this post has been up for 2 days and the apology didn’t go out until last night, so you can’t sit there and tell us that the apology went out before this was made public – that’s bullshit. So…yeah.
Wrong again. Apologies via PM were sent TODAY a full day after this post. Apologis on threads were posted last night, again after this posting.
I have never participated in any of the CC co-ops and I received that same message too. Then an apology. I am soooooo glad I never participated because I think its absurd to expect ppl to pay retroactively. Situations change and people who were financially able to participate in lots of $$$co-ops several months ago may not have that same luxury now therefore not being able to pay massive quantities of fees. What are they gonna do to the members in that situation hmmm? Ban em cus Jodi fucked up and now they just don’t have the $$$ to cover HER mistake?
Are you serious???? Are you saying that my posts got deleted because I was attacking people?????? You are a liar momof4. I don’t care how active I am right now, I was VERY active with CC before and there is a reason so many have become inactive. I was not attacking anyone! I was questioning things and honestly, if it hadn’t smelled so nasty and been so wrong, I may have helped out, so that involves me. Try to get your facts straight and stop posting BS that others can smell a mile away. How dare you!
sorry about the double post, did not realize I could reply directly to a comment.
http://www.mycrunchymama.com
runs some cool co-ops too.
Small forum with NO drama
What a huge mess. So glad I have never done any thing with CC.
Wow. Just wow. Yes, I am on CC and Yes, I sent money. It is money I have sent to EVERY OTHER COOP I have EVER participated in, I jsut did it up front. Normally I have to cover PP fees and there is a coop fee besides. I will continue to do coops with CC because I can get things I couldn’t get otherwise. I believe and trust Jodi in this and I am a little appalled at the hatred and anger here over this. I guess I would say, either send money or don’t. If you don’t, then it seems reasonable that you probably don’t want to participate in more coops there or can’t afford to send the money at the point. Jodi gets that, I get that. But please don’t go stirring up drama. That seems like gossip to me.
I don’t pay people because they messed up.
And I don’t break the PP rules and assume that everyone else in the business that I run is going to do the same. That’s incredibly dishonest.
CC is not a business – and PP was contacted regarding the fees last year and CC was told that the personal payment owed was the correct way to do it.
I’m sorry, but CC IS a business. The hostesses collect and distribute monies. Where do these monies go? Products, various packaging materials, transportation costs (both shipping and fuel), costs of running and maintaining the board, and a wage for time spent (even IF it is only a few cents…it’s still a wage). It has customers (members of the board) and suppliers (various companies, including WAHMs). Even if it were to operate at a loss, it is STILL a business.
How so many (not just you.
) can say that this is not a business just boggles my mind. Not all business make money. A very large percentage lose money. Even more are nonprofit businesses/organizations. You can change the stripes on a cat…but a cat is STILL a cat.
Hatred? Not seeing that.
I’m still confused–you will or will not be banned from crunch coop if you do not pay these fees?
According to the most recent “apology” PM sent by lovingmy4 on CC, NO ONE will be banned over this particular debacle concerning fees, requests for donations to cover fees, etc. It’s slide 21 in the show above, or click here to see it.
There will be no banning from CC at this time – this was stated in the apology PM.
“At this time” why so many open ended words. There should be no banning regarding this period.
“There should be no banning regarding this period.” that is precisely what “at the time” means – there will be no banning regarding this matter – it was clearly stated in the apology that was sent out. Banning will still occur for things like spam.
Well, if that is what you mean, that is what you say. “at this time” gives the impression that it could happen later. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
Okay I can mark off another place I’d never participate with. The coop forums I’ve been part of were SUPER organized. Thank gawd for that. The last thing I need to worry about is some fool making special ed prank calls, clearly, since they cannot manage funds. The fees aren’t difficult to figure out. HELLO.. bread makes you poop? great, go count to potato. No, I don’t know where potato is on a calculator.. BUT if you use ppcalc, it will tell you. LOL
Apparently Jodi is now making a data base showing everyone what their fees are complete with first and last name.
Which is again, baffling. As each payment to her *should* have had the username in BOTH the subject line and message when it was sent. There should be no need to publish real names. Period.
Jodi is not publishing anyone’s personal information. Also the papyal history would not show the username/info in the exported data – I know that it doesn’t on mine – as I did an export to see what I had participated in during this time period. That means that the data she is compiling would have to cross checked with every transaction manually. But again – Jodi has not, now does she intend to post personal data on the MEMBERS ONLY board (which by definition is not public)
Or she could just email each person their total individually, rather than publishing personal info on a board which, while not public, is poorly managed enough that spam monsters sneak their way in almost every night.
Spam is promptly deleted as soon as any Mod logs in. I am so gla you suggested the personal email to each acct – it is an excellent idea!
Jodi is trying to make sure she does not upset anyone further regarding their personal information.
Okay so you have “fact” checkers. Have any of the Admin here on POC actually registered and read any of these threads? Because if you are as “accurate” as you claim to be, with your multiple verification processes, then how could you, the Admins, not notice that the date on the Re: Donations for CC thread as being from LAST year…. you know 2009 and completely unrelated to the current day issue? Now that is just poor journalism to not note a date and even poorer journalism to limit the “proof” to just one side.
Did Jodi mess up by not checking those Paypal transactions? Yes, I know that, you know that and I’m sure Jodi knows that too. People make mistakes, to err is human. And lets visit reality where over half the boards are still collecting payments on co-ops as personal… I’m not going to name them, but I just participated in one about two weeks ago. People have been quite confused as to how these payments are to be handled since Paypal has been very ambiguous in their wording year after year and constantly changes the rules.
Was the wording on the email/PM strong? Yes, it was. I do not know Jodi, but know that when I’m under stress things don’t always come out as I mean them… pressure/stress/panic are strange bedfellows; for some they are the impetus to do better, for others they hinder clear thinking. Even before the apology was issued by PM today, an apology was on the board in multiple places written by Jodi herself and she had already assured people that there would not be any banings. Where are those screenshots? Again all your “proof” is very one sided.
And to the subject of Co-Ops in general. I’m sure we all agree that we participate in them in whatever group or forum to save money by buying as a group. The women who run these co-ops do their very best to save us, the participants, the most money possible. At times, that does mean “things” (ordering, payment collection, order and payment submission and ship to host/ship to me) takes a bit longer. The host can only make the these “things” go so fast; whether it be participants who are slow in paying or companies… and I include WAHMs too… who take longer than previously quoted to make or obtain said product. How is this the host fault? They can’t ship what they don’t have. And while I’m on the subject of host(s), the $1 to $3 dollars collected to run these co-ops does not net them a living wage at all. Those funds are used to buy packing supplies like polymailers, tape, ink and labels and for some to help purchase the gas used as all the other supplies are: to get items in the mail to us the participants. I don’t run co-ops, I don’t have the temperament to deal with late payers, but I do and have run a WAHM business since 2003 and know that these items can add up fast.
I’ve seen various conversations, especially in recent years, on who actually makes a living WAHMing … as in earns a wage at least equal too the minimum wage and not many do. That is how I see a co-op host. They are providing a service for which they make little to no money on, but they still do it to get us what we want and at the sacrifice of their time, family and life in general.
I have no problem with Jodi trying to recoup these lost fees. Yes, I did send and I plan to send more of my own free will and I did in fact read all the deleted posts yesterday. No one was ever called a bitch… again poor journalism at work, get your facts straight. It is one thing to question a situation and it is another to question the integrity of a person. People came to the board with guns blazing with their self righteous attitudes never once having an inch of compassion, only seeking to be right at all costs. If you are not participating in the activities of a board on a regular basis, co-op or not, then unless you are defending your own name, you really have no business being self righteous in the first place pretending to speak for the masses when in fact you are not nor were ever asked to.
So now that you’ve had your day in the spotlight go home and next time bring the whole story.
In closing, I for one will continue to purchase items through Crunchy Cooperative. As I said in the beginning Jodi did make a few errors, errors I’m sure she will learn from and that will only make her a better co-op hostess.
“People came to the board with guns blazing with their self righteous attitudes never once having an inch of compassion, only seeking to be right at all costs”
One more line of BS. I had compassion, but I also had questions. Just because you missed me trying to be kind through the questions doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. I did not have GUNS blazing. I asked questions that everyone should have asked. Do you LIKE being bullied, do you like being threatened? Do you like being treated like a child you must obey? Because that is the way you were treated. And honestly, I would have been fine, had someone, ANYONE realized that the message was unacceptable and apologized and made the correction when it was brought up, but, nope, that is when the self-righteous attitudes kicked in…from the admins, not the ones questioning them. It has been like that for years on CC and I see nothing is ever going to change. It took it going public for an apology and a correction to be made. That reeks of BS. If they really cared, and it was really an error, it would have been realized much sooner.
1. Two of “us” have read the entire, albeit shrinking, thread… as have three of our regular contributors and at least twelve people who sent in quotes and screen captures which you see posted in the slide show. The majority of what remains there now is asspats and hi-fives.
2. We know those “donation” posts are from 2009 because we have the power of literacy as well as a current calendar. We did find it interesting that the “woe is me, CC costs money to run” type of thing has been ongoing, that this recent call for “donations” wasn’t really a new trick over on Crunchy Cooperative. It is a pattern.
3. “Guns blazing” is a particularly silly allegation when the original PM was so heavy handed.
You are mad at us for raising the BS flag against someone (or a group) that you are fond of, and that’s fine. You are entitled to your opinions… funnily enough, so are our readers and contributors.
“You are entitled to your opinions… funnily enough, so are our readers and contributors.”
And that we can agree on. Good night ladies.
How many mistakes does Jodi have to make before you lemmings get a fucking clue? There are all kinds of issues with her not getting people’s items to them in a timely manner, her sending yarn to the wrong people, and now this? I knew she was bad news when she was back on DS but I honestly didn’t know she was the owner of CC til earlier this year. And bullshit CC is not a business. You can’t say that the entire 3$ fee you charge for co-ops goes solely towards printing labels and shipping. Money for your time makes it a business.
Holy crap… $3 co-op fee? sounds to me like someone is making a nice wage running co-ops… now we know why she didn’t notice $3000 missing; she’s raking in the bucks for running the co-ops…
Actually, that was a co-op fee from Hyena Cart… one I’ve been charged there more than once. You are barking up the wrong tree.
no one on HC is begging for a handout, claiming to be financially ruined by the big bad meanies at paypal.
Look around a bit, someone got screwed when participants did not include their fees. Donations have been asked for… how is that any different?
link please? you’ve put a lot of work into finding ways to justify Jodi’s behavior. have fun with that. it doesn’t change the fact that doing crap like threatening to ban people (especially when others are paying more than their share) is outright thuggery.
i’ve never been charged more than a buck for doing a co-op on hc…hmmm
I have no problem paying a coop fee for items that come to you to sort and mail to me. Where I have an issue is paying coop fees to jodi or another host where the items are dropped shipped. Or to Jodi when she uses spaver to host coops. She doesn’t touch the products. So for those coops she does make money off of them.
She absolutely makes money for those coops. I’ve run two in my time and didn’t charge a penny for my time. They also were drop shipped … As some on cc are too.
I don’t care if she makes money but do not lie about it.
Two co-ops you say? Then you must be the expert on all things co-op. Gold sticker for you.
You said you’ve never ran them, so don’t point your finger. Now if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black, I dunno what is!
she never claimed to be an expert. she was mearly stating facts that she ran two and NEVER charged for her time. just because someone pissed in your cornflakes this morning…
Never claimed to be an expert.
What i am saying is do not lie about what is going on.
And I’d love got Jodi to tell her side of the story here.
Funny you say that. That’s ALL Kellie was asking for was some explanation! And it was viewed my the MOD that she was doubting Jodi’s integrity. No, if someone goes missing $3k, my money or not, I’d like a story!
I was sent several messages asking me to donate to Jodi’s “cause”. I was informed at the same time if I did owe fees and did not pay them I would be banned. Me, I was told this. I came onto the site to get more information as I was informed in the message that I could find more info on the site. The info I was looking for was not there, and as I was reading trying to find this info, I realized what was happening with the extra donations, and I realized, if I donated, I would be adding over and above, because anyone who owed and did not pay would be banned, so surely most if not all would be paying due to the threats.
THAT ALL MAKES IT MY BUSINESS! You want my money, I want to know WHY!
I chose to not donate after getting my questions “answered” (if you can call it that) and reading about the excess amount of donations. Just because I chose not to donate, does not make it less my business. They made it my business by involving me. Anyone who received that message *or those messages as the case may be*, it became their business the moment it hit their In Box. You don’t ask for donations, then when people have questions, say, well, it’s not your business anyway since you don’t OWE anything. Just because I wasn’t required to pay and would have been donation, it’s not my business? Uh uh, that is not the way it works.
1. Any “proof” posted to CC would just serve to show that this Jodi person is an idiot.
2. I highly doubt that PP ever told anyone to send $ payment owed to avoid fees- the fees they charge are how they continue to exist.
3. $90K is a hell of a lot of $ to be funneling though your PP account. I don’t blame PP for one second for treating it like what it is- a business.
What is going to happen to the “extra” people sent? And why did the amount of money keep going up? It was $1000, then $1800, then $2000 and seems like it leveled off around $3000. Just curious. If everyone is sending their fees (and it seems like most people are) and everyone is sending “a little extra” seems like that’s going to add up to a LOT extra.
When I initially saw the thread I said I’d send a little. Then I realize I had no participated in ANY of Jodi’s co-ops, then I got the nasty pm, then I decided not to send a penny.
that’s what I’d like to know.
Before the posts were deleted, I was informed that she would “probably” use the extra, “if there were any” to go towards maintaining the board and such, so even though people wrere donating for one thing, it would “probably” go towards something else. I can’t remember exactly what they said as the tone was so defensive I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the wording.
I used to be an active member of CC. I have to admit that I really do feel sorry for Jodi in this. She really had to have a moment of panic when she realized she was missing so much money. I am a mother of 5 like she is, and I know how hard it is to keep everything straight sometimes. However, I hope she learns from this experience. I quit ordering from CC because there was already too much drama. I got sick of the whole whining that the hostesses don’t make any money when the fees were so high. I figured up one coop, and discovered that Jodi was making about $400 (I can’t remember which one it was). That is not working out of kindness, that is a decent paying job. Secondly, there was already a lot of drama. I felt like I had to be very careful because if I said one thing wrong, I was going to get jumped. It was almost like we were required to kiss up and I resented that. There was an awful lot of arrogance and even bullying. One of my coops took 4 months when it was only supposed to take a few weeks. If anyone complained, they were jumped. It’s like any other business. If the customer service is lousy, go somewhere else. That’s what I did. I hope Jodi takes this as a little humble pie. That said, I also hope others will stop calling her names (like idiot) as that only brings them down.
I just dont understand how Jodi has “missed” these fees?! If she has money coming in for 3 co-ops at staggering times then pays for co-op#1 then 2 and then goes to pay for co-op #3 wouldnt she notice that she is short because of the damn fees????? I am assuming that her PP account is tied to her bank/credit card so again shouldnt she be noticing that she is PAYING for co-ops out of pocket bc she is short due to fees?!?! Something really isnt adding up!
I don’t see how she hasn’t realized that amount of money missing until now myself. I do understand that she runs so many coops that she continuously has money coming in, but eventually I would think it would come to a halt. And one would think she would have noticed things weren’t adding up.
Also if you click on payments recieved you can see right away if fees were being taken out.
You get who sent you the money, gross, fee and net amount.
How can you not pay attention to that stuff for so long? I’m beginning to question this even more.
She said she doesn’t take the time to go to paypal and open each transaction so long as the email matches up for the correct amount owed by said person. And since PP didn’t show the fees being taken out in the email, she never noticed until further looking into it.
OK, so let’s give her that. She never clicked on an actual transaction to see her net amount. Fine. But what happened when she paid for said coops out of her PP account? She would have had less money than anticipated to the tune of $2700 or whatever the final number was. And it wasn’t that she realized money was missing, she heard of another host being charged fees so she thought to check her account too. Only way I can think she never noticed the funds missing is either she wasn’t paying for the coops out of her Paypal account or the coop fees she charged were enough to offset what Paypal was taking out in fees.
She has 2 pp accounts. Ones funded and the others for cc’s.
Even if she had two accounts, and even she was overcharging enough to stay in the black, she would have had to keep horrible, horrible, or maybe *no* records at all for $3k to just up and disappear. Which is all fine and good, but if one is going to run their business that way, then for heaven’s sake don’t come back crying to hundreds(?) of customers for one’s own mistakes.
A simple excel spreadsheet would have saved her all this grief.
My guess is because she was charging enough above her cost that it was enough to offset the fees PP was taking out and still leave her in the black.
JustMe – yes, that is the consensus. That she was charging so much above that she didn’t notice it coming out. And that is still $125 a week. All to NOT answer messages in a an appropriately fast manner. Shouldn’t have to wait for days to get a response. Shouldn’t have to wait for a week to ask again and still not get a response. Shouldn’t have to fight for 2 1/2 months for missing yarn and have to beg for answers.
Someone who posted interest in a co-op told me that they were told to look at a past co-op for pricing info, in the meantime they had contacted the company about it themselves and were told it was 11 per item regardless of size. The previous co-op Jodi had run had each item discounted but not what the company had told her. How’s that for making money? I half wonder myself if the coop price is actually even less now and that they are bumping it up just a bit.
I just don’t see how she thinks people would just up and believe her, all.the.time! I’m one to doubt people, even if I trust them, if what they’re saying sounds fishy. And I will go do my own research such as this person you’re talking about did. It’s ridiculous if in fact she just gave a tiered type of discount rather than a lump sum discount. And then pocket the rest.
Whoever said above, I agree she MUST be making money off the co-ops to not realize she was $3k in the hole. If you’re using $2,000 to pay for a co-op, $2,000 should be coming out and nothing should be left.
can you explain this again? please? i think i am missing something.
I won’t participate in any co-op that charges above a 1.50 fee. IF they are shipping the items themselves.
Sure sounds like she is pocketing a good amount of money….
If her time is so precious that she needs to charge $3 a person, then she needs to do less coops. Most of hers cost $2, though.
So now Andrea is out $1400…WTF. Come on this is getting even more crazy.
Yeah, I just came to post about Andrea and her $1450. Sigh.
So Jodi is out $3000 and Andrea is out $1450 and someone else is out $175.
Uh, huh.
So that means Andrea had over $50,000 go through her account for personal payments that weren’t paid by credit card. That’s a little more than 1/2 what Jodi had and Andrea doesn’t even run nearly as many coops that jodi runs. I wonder if anyone has actually gone back through the old coop threads to run totals to see what is really up.