jabez

I think she had a great idea and began her business well.
She,however, does not have the personality to create good will and handle customer service.
I venture to say that most who had no problem with her "style" very likely have some of the same personality traits that she has.
Please read me correctly here, I'm not saying that those who "support" her are rude and abrasive,but if they took a DISC personality assessment test they very likely are "high C's". My wife is a "high C" and she tends to like exact structure. Yet, she has learned how to develop her versatility. Why? Well, because she wants our relationship to work.
BFT was definitly set up with strict "high C" type structure. I tend to believe that its owner created BFT in her "own image". No problem with that.Yet, she refused to be versatile. She strictly focused on her site being orderly and analytical at the cost of overall loyalty. Without that loyalty the number of new new shared information started to dwindle and new competition appeared .
Orderliness and self-discipline are great strenths of this type of personality. But,taken to the extreme these stregths lead to weaknesses;BFT became too rigid, too sensitive to criticism and even took on a suspicious nature.
What she needed to do was to adjust to those who didn't have the same traits. .
IMHO,it's the business that has the onus to do the adjusting. If not,expect to lose many customers.
I wish Sheryl well and I hope that she hasn't had any serious family or health issues. To spite a previous post here,there's no evidence (just speculation) that this has happened.
For some of us who went to that site many years ago and even contributed money (let alone information) ,we look at this "season" of BFT's decline and simply shake our heads;it could have been much more.

rmiller774

I fully believe that if your wife hadn't developed her versatility to your satisfaction " because she wants our relationship to work", you would have developed the necessary changes in your personality to protect that relationship. Most guys would, including me.

BEAV

Throughout her periodic absenses over the past year I have always given consideration to possible health/personal crisis you touched on. But whatever the crisis (or non-crisis), at the very minimum she could have posted some sort of message in her administrators forum announcing her absence. Such an announcement wouldn't even have to disclose the reasons, however personal, for time away from her website. Merely "I'll be away from the website for an undetermined amount of time while I attend to personal business" would have been most welcome. Instead, she simply does a vanishing act one day, only to reappear at a later time as mysteriously as when she left. To me, that speaks volumes that you have no consideration whatsoever for your supporters. If it were my business, I'd never disappear without some sort of message to my customers, health/personal crisis or not.

And lets not forget she's been seen posting on other websites during her absenses from BFT. While she's certainly free to do so, it's hard to swallow the personal/health crisis argument that she's "unable" to communite to her supporters when she's simultaneously posting elsewhere.

A small, family run restaurant I used to patronize for a number of years closed rather abruptly a few months ago. The last time I pulled up to the site all I could see were "closed" signs in all the windows. Wanting to know more, I walked around the building until I found a friendly sign that said after 30 years they were finally "hanging up their skillet" and entering retirement. And of course a big thank you to all their patrons for their years of loyal business.

A simple "thank you" to her supporters would go a long, long way. But she obviously chooses another road.

KathyWdrf

But if she had done that (and/or posted a message that she would be taking a leave of absence), she would be criticized for that as well.

Folks, let's be honest here. Sheryl, for a lot of you, is just someone you "love to hate."

Not defending anything she has or hasn't done, just making an observation. @:-)

lo2e

At the risk of sounding like a third grader (I am a third grade teacher, BTW, so I know), "SHE STARTED IT!!!"

Sheryl seemed to bring hate upon other people simply for not completely understanding why people couldn't/wouldn't do what was asked of them. Even if they didn't know they were being asked to follow a specific protocol for posting, they were made to feel stupid if they made an attempt to ask a question or create a useful post that might benefit someone else.

As has been said and resaid and resaid and resaid and resaid and... anyway... she is/was free to follow whatever business model she chooses, and it simply cannot be denied how invaluable a resource it was before this "crash". But even the site's greatest fans would be lying to themselves if they were to say that she didn't ultimately play a role in its demise.

And seeing as though it is reasonable to assume, based on past history, that she monitors posts on FT, nobody can say we didn't try to help her make things better.

BEAV

No doubt you're right in some people's case. Personally, she was nasty to me from my very first post when she scolded me as if I were a 3rd grader. I had just discovered the site, and, although overwhelmed by the amount of information, was very interested to continue. I placed a bid request (this was long before the days of bidding through her links), and after two hours of no response, decided to go it on my own. When I updated my post with my bid results, she tore into me like there was no tomorrow, accusing me of wasting her time (by asking for advice, then trying on my own). Remember, this was my first post. No such thing as "welcome to BFT!" Being a newbie, I was naive enough to think the site employed paid moderators that were literally standing by to "work" requests. I chalked off her initial abrasiveness as someone who was just having a bad day. Again, being naive, little did I know such treatment of her customers was pretty much the daily rule over there.

So any posting on the subject doesn't come out of hatred, but rather complete amazement how a business person can expect to run successful company the way they treat their customers. Unlike people discussing the business tactics of any given airline, Proctor & Gamble, McDonalds, etc, the difference here (with BFT) is that it's owned/managed by one person. By that account alone, discussion takes on attacks that can be deemed personal. No one would bat an eye if Starbucks had strange business tactics that caused people to take pot shots right and left on message board forums. But I see discussing BFT no different than discussing any other business.

Fraser

CarolDisney1

There are other considerations. My "dislike" of Sherly actually has very little to do with her BFT boards. (I just ignored her "did you bid via A-B link" and somehow avoided getting banned) However, I saw her in action on another board where she was just a poster. If anyone DARED to disagree with her, the frenzy that followed was pretty funny. Of course she eventually got a dose of her own treatement there and was BANNED! So it's not her "business model" IMHO she REALLY believes she is perfect and the rest of us are not.


(Although she does appear to have banned the entire company where I am working right now!)

Jeeves

After a long absence, I visited BFT and got some good info and ended up with a nice winning bid for a Disneyland trip. I posted my results and after two weeks have not been bothered by any of the moderators. That's how it should be and I hope it continues.

gleff

Unfortunately the site seems to have fallen into a good bit of disrepair, the hotel lists are really no longer accurate/up-to-date.

Not that you ever should have relied on them ... but now more than ever ALWAYS check yourself what rebid zones are for your particular situation, and DO NOT rely on BFT. I frequently see zones listing 4* hotels on BFT but only 3* options on PL for instance.

Non-NonRev

And also check the zones themselves for changes (such as the combination of Coral Gables and Coconut Grove into a single zone - two very different areas (albeit clse to each other geographically). Taking the few extr moments to check the current zones will avoid possible unpleasant surprises.

hammie

Annoyed with Better Bidding...really?? Repeated emails to enter PL through savingsbarn.com after only 1 post? I find that hard to believe, the moderator at BetterBidding is great. The title format is more uniform at BB and using the search function is much easier on BetterBidding. Plus, they have maps on the BB site, for example, if bidding in New York City, you can see the locations of many hotels and get recent winning bid information. It is a much friendlier site, the moderator really goes out of his way to help those who have never bid before.

rmiller774

No informed Priceline bidder would even consider using the BFT Hotel Lists to determine free re-bids. The currency of the Hotel Lists is immaterial with respect to determining free rebids. If one reads topic #9 on the BFT Hotel FAQ's he will see the following warning in bold print re the use of the Hotel Lists: "The Hotel Lists should never be used to determine your free re-bid zones..." The hotel lists mainly show what lodgings have been or might be obtained by BFT bidders using Priceline. So everyone CAN rely on BFT if they are willing to follow Sheryl's instructions.

ecaarch

DING! DING! DING! We have us a winner!

B1

Why would I make it up? I had never heard of Savings Barn and had no interest - after all I was posting information (Hotwire amenity list corrections) for others to use. And I stopped posting after the emails - these were not a BB PM but emails to my registered address. On the other hand, I post frequently at BFT, and have done so for a long time. Sheryl was always courteous and she even added one of my posts to her FAQ. Her notes were always PMs at the EZ In Box, not emails. Since she's not been there, KeenWink and others have been gracious and have even written nice notes about the information I posted (I'm not B1 other there - it was taken). I guess we each have our own view from the keyboard.