Festival Net - Website Store question

[TheSycamoreBoutique]

Does anyone else here have a page/storefront/presence on Festival Net ?

I have been signed up with them for years (many, many years) but when they went to a paid format (once a year fee) I did not give my payment information and figured my listings would just be removed.

All these years I haven't had a single inquiry via their site, but this year I have suddenly started getting email notices nearly daily that someone is "trying to view your shop items" ... please update your payment information.

Today I got a new version "Trying to purchase your shop items", 3 or them in a row about 5 min apart.

I sincerely doubt it.

All these years without a single customer contacting me via their site and after all I never entered my payment info so I don't think anyone can even view my shop items (that was what the first round of emails said) much less attempt to purchase anything (and certainly not 3 times per hour as the emails indicated).

This little trick on their part has convinced me to NOT update my payment information, ever. If they are willing to send emails with fake visitor stats then I wouldn't trust them as a selling venue anyway.

Most annoying.

[JustMeToo]

I've never heard of them, but my warning bells would be going off all over the place, as well. I would remove myself from the site, since you're not getting anything from it anyway!

[WhimsyBits]

I didn't even know you could have shop on their website. I would think it's a little funky too.

[SampsonMetalCraft]

Someone is trying to steal your credit card info. Mark all those emails as spam and don't open or respond to them.

[TigersandDragons]

Should be easy enough to test if your shop and items can be seen, or if there is an actual cart.

[TheSycamoreBoutique]

Tigers

Probably because I was logged in I couldn't test it out. Going to have to log out and try it again, sometimes a site won't let you log out.

FYI - Festivalnet.com shop name Deesseboutique

[TigersandDragons]

If you clear your cache, then you will be logged out.
I looked at all the bath and body products, except soap and didn't see any under your shop name.

[TheSycamoreBoutique]

Tigers

Thanks for checking, most appreciated.

That is exactly why I am annoyed with them - they are sending fake information. Nobody is looking at or trying to purchase my stuff because they can't see it (not that I plan to remedy that). So the notices are total bull and actually fraudulent.

I am sure they instituted some type of software to send these notices out to members who had a free page but never re-upped for the paid version.

It would be one thing to send reminder emails, it is another to state that there are actual real life customers trying to view / purchase my products .

Very deceptive plan on their part but I am sure it worked on some members and they paid the fee worried that they were missing actual buyers.

I can just see those sellers now wondering where all those phantom customers (like 3 o r 4 notices a day) went to now that they paid their fee.

[TheSycamoreBoutique]

Hmm, interesting development.

I actually do see one of my product photos showing up on the main page. The African Black Soap (which I am out of at the moment).

http://festivalnet.com/mc/1399/Handmade/Bath-Body/Soaps

When you click the photo you get this message -
Account update required for products to be shown, please contact this member.

All well and good - it does entertain the possibility that somebody did just view my item- maybe even a few times.

But I got 7 "trying to purchase" notices this morning - all in a row. I sincerely doubt there were 7 interested customers who bothered to send a message all within a 1 minute time frame.

And the "trying to purchase" email is definitely a hoax because nobody can get far enough in the process to put it in a cart and that is what the email states they are trying to do.

Hogwash.

[TheSycamoreBoutique]

I finally sent them an email and called them out on it.

7 messages in one minute is getting a bit over the top.

[TigersandDragons]

You stated that your shop name was Deesseboutique
not Sycamoreboutique.
So when I was looking for body products, I was looking for the name Desseeboutique.
Sycboutique is the name that appears under the African soap.

The system does tell you to contact the member, if you want the item. There are people out there who could be frustrated enough to keep trying.

[BlueHandsBoutique]

thanks for convincing me not to sign up.