Yes, i realize that the store is very slow due to the many people checking out the Trick or Treat deals but i have to say i am very disappointed in how Rendo has decided to deal with this by tacking on a $5 minimum purchase condition.

When i first logged in i was ecstatic to see all the wonderful freebies and there was no $5 thing, yet when i go to check out 15 min later they change it on me  >(

Horrible trick Rendo, makes me not want to buy ANYTHING from you in the near future with this so close to my mind.

some may say $5 isnt much but when your on a tight budget every cent counts!

**What the.... wow... $5 minimum, im glad i got what i could before hand!
And to me $5 is impossible and thinking the halloween treats where FREE... then there not free.

Wow now im totally dissapointed.... shakes head and walks away unfreakinbelievable
**

wow. this amazes me. :(

THis pissed me off, From the time I got home until 7:15 pm EST it was no Minimum...

Thanks, change my name to Ben Dover.

hmmmm, well I am not sure what to say.  I am one of the vendors that had a 4 models sent to the Freebie section for this Trick or Treat.  I was shocked at how many people downloaded just our offer.

You must know that this was and is an incredible offer to all.  I would not be dissapointed at all.  Especially seeing all the free stuff everyone is getting.  To pay $5.00 for all the great offers really is not alot, even if you are counting pennies, please take no offense.  

So far I have not made any money's off of this offer and I did not look to make any, and yes, we count our pennies too.   Of couse we always hope we will earn something, but I did realize there was a possiblility I would not.  Myself and others worked really hard to give this offer to all of the community.  I sure hoped it would have been better recieved after seeing what happened earlier today. 

This server almost came to a hault because of the traffic.  And all of it was for free to our community. 

I am sorry you feel you were taken.  But really that is not the case.  Sharen

**And i thank you for your items... and to everyone else. They are all fantastic, i managed to get mine before i had to pay for free items!

BUT, when it said FREE earlier, everyone jumped, YAY, excellent, now $5 to pay?

When you have no money and find it impossible to actually pay $5, FREE is fantastic!

sighs

**

I do understand, really I do.  Sorry for any inconvience, Sharen :-(

PS:  I do know that you are all thankful for the items, I did not want you to think I am being caluse.  I am truly sorry for any disappointments.

Shame on you Rendo!! First u state FREE, then u make half of my cart dissappear, remove the free items and now u say we must PAY! I will not buy another thing from this site. Unethical, downright dirty. Thanks to the vendors,ur freebies were really nice, (note the word FREEBIES), however I will pass. I put FREE items into my cart,buy the time the server loaded my page HALF of them were GONE, and now rendo decided that they are not free, I now have to PAY for them!! FALSE ADVERTISEMENT!! Curses to you rendo, you have now lost my business.

i think my problem was that they advertise it for FREE, as in you dont have to pay ANYTHING.

Free doesnt mean you have to spend some money to get the items -  call it a deal if you want but dont advertise them as free items if you are going to charge us for them! That just really ticks me off.

and by "you" i ofcourse mean Renderosity as a whole.  I understand your view SAMS3D and i really appreciate the stuff sent in by the vendors but I just cannot make myself spend the money when there is false advertsing going on. And the items were free in the beginning but because of bad servers due to load massive slowtimes happened and the customers got punished by a $5 minimum condition.

" With a five dollar minimum purchase in the MarketPlace, we are giving away so much stuff for free it's scary!" 

those two phrases dont belong in the same sentence!

I for one emptied my cart and will only get the freebies from those who pulled their products because of this.

While I truly appreciate all the vendors went through, Im terribly sorry rendo, but I agree. changing the offer mid stream is mind boggeling.

I looked in this morning when these items were actually free and the servers were struggling so I figured I'd come back and look through and pick up some stuff later. Now the "free" is $5?!
Not funny. 

I understand your disappointment......but before anything is said under stress....please take a moment.

I went over this in my head, if I went to a store because an advertisment came to me in the mail and stated that an item was free that I really wanted, and found out it was not totally free, yes, I would be upset.  But that would be for something I wanted. 

Nobody new what was offered at the time this came through.  I know it is not a good explanation, but please don't be so upset.  Think about the vendors that labored for a week to get things ready for you all.  We will work this out...it has not even been 24 hours.  Give us a chance before you bolt.

Sharen

Hmm, I didn't know about any offer until a short while ago when I asked why the site was so slow. I didn't get a news letter announcing it.

But I did check the homepage and it shows that you have to pay $5.00 to get access to the days free stuff. Apparently by the sounds of it it will be ongoing with different free stuff  each day until Halloween and you have to buy $5.00 per day to get access to the current days free offers.

The fact that some are saying that the items were actually available for download for a period of time without having to spend a $5.00 minimum sounds like a mistake on Renderosity's part. Perhaps there was  an error in the coding because of miscommunication and once discovered it was changed.

However, I do agree that it is bad form to change it in the middle. If there was an error for today, they should have left it  and changed it for tomorrow and followed up with an email announcement with the correction.

Q: When is free not free? 
A: When its Rendo's Trick or Treat!
Granted, $5 is a small price to pay, but
1)the "Entry" page makes NO mention of a min. purchase

1. By changing the goalposts, you really p...off your loyal members & your artists, who provide these goodies for free
2. this is really bad practice to lure in customers & hide the fee.
3. And what happened to P3 of the items that were there originally?

Others may do this, but I always thought that Renderosity was an ethical, customer oriented business. 
Perhaps its time for a rethink.

I had my cart loaded up with freebies, but because of the slowness of the site I figured I would wait a few days and then download when things calmed down, now I come back to the site to find that what was free  you now have to pay for,  VERY UNFAIR tactics, some have to pay for the freebies, others got them free.  It will be a long time before I even think about purchasing another product from this store due to your bait and switch tactics,  I will shop elsewhere where freebies are exactly that  FREE.  If you are trying to alienate your customers you have succeded. 
I would also like to say thank you to the vendors for trying to give your customers a free item, and if your products end up in another store I will gladly purchase them their.

I for one am mad because in the 2 hours it took for me to view the 3 pages of freebies ( and YES there was absolutley nothing saying that there would be a $5 charge, neither was anything mentioned about different freebies each day) then the page to load so I could checkout, Rendo decided to CHANGE the freebies and the TERMS!! That in any other buisness would be a breach of contract!! I sincerly appreciate all the work the vendors did. And from what I understand, the vendors are offering these as limited time FREEBIES!! The definition of a freebie is that it costs me the customer absolutly nothing. I am not going to PAY for "bundle of freebies". How is that any different than going to ebay and seeing the vendors products for sale? Or paying for a "subscription" and getting access to several items? I AM STILL PAYING FOR THEM!!! they are NOT FREE!!! Unless Rendo reverts back to the what was being offered this MORNING, I will no longer do any business here.  Once my trust is broken,it's hell to get it back. As of now I have no faith or trust in a dirty underhanded move as this. And obviously I am not alone. Perhaps it's time Rendo takes a lesson from DAZ and LISTENS to their customers, least they lose a lot of pll who would otherwise be happy here. JMHO

This actually turned out to be a good deal for me.  As I have only been a member here for about 4 months I totaled up all the purchases that I had made and realized that I have been spending way too much money.  Every little purchase adds up quick when they are all added together. 

Now that this brokerage has decided that they would rather upset their customers instead of honoring their mistakes, it makes it easy for me to save money.  There are plenty of other brokerages and individuals out there to buy from so they will get my money from now on.

I am truly sorry to the vendors that I have purchased from and ones that I have never purchased from that this also hits you with lost revenue but it is a principal issue with me.  I hope vendors will look at this poor decision by this brokerage and consider other venues for their products.

Trick or Treat?

I'm getting the sense that not many people are feeling treated but rather the opposite.

Bad move Rendo

Kudos to the vendors who have pulled their freebies because of rendo's greediness. And yes Rendo, that's exactly what you are doing, being GREEDY. 

This is wrong. First it took me over 3 hours to browse the pages and add what I wanted to my cart, I understood this... crowded server.. no problem. Then  I kept getting error pages when I tried to check out, so I just decided to wait and let the traffic slow down and now I am told I have to pay $5.00 to get the freebies???? What kind of BS is this, I'd love to have the things in my cart, and if I had be told up front that there was a $5.00 minimum, that would have been fine also, but I feel like Renderosity pulled a fast one on me, and there fore just out of principle I will probably just empty my cart. Don't get me wrong, the items offered are all well worth $5.00, and more, it's just the idea of saying free... then tacking on a charge, especially since it seems some people managed to get the items without the $5.00 charge. In plain language, this just stinks!

as for those thinking the "Free" was a mistake, it wasn't .. not only was there no mention of a charge on the home page, or the Entry page to the "treats" I recieved a newsletter from Renderosity advertising they ....and I quote.. "lots of free stuff to give out". So no there was no mistake, only the realization by Renderosity that they could make money from the gifts that the vendors intended to be given freely. I say again, this stinks!

When they first suggested this to us I was thrilled. I loath little thumbnails and I was pretty excited to do good promo's for our freebies. It was in all respects as it was presented to us a brilliant opportunity to get a taste of our products into as many hands as would take them. Because we were going to be able to do good promo's people were less likely to have to download nearly everything and sort through later because they could see if it was something they would really like. However, a surcharge on my free products makes really saddened and frustrated me. At my core it offends me to see someone else charge someone to take a gift from me.
We did two products partly, because I wanted to have something for nearly everyone and partly to see if daz users really are that outnumbered. A charge would surely skew the potential download numbers and sort of devaluates gathering numbers that way.
In the end my partner and I decided to remove our products so we could in fact give them away free now rather than after the promotion. They are now on our website and should show up in the regular freebie venues in a day or two.

Thank You Khory_D! I'd like a list of the vendors that did pull their gifts from this farce of a Trick or Treat give a way(?).  I just cannot believe this, I'm very disappointed, not only because I'd really like to have some of these items, but because I feel like I've been tricked by a trusted site, well, they used to be trusted. I just refuse to be duped into buying what was suppose to be a gift.

oh, and where are the mods?? Why is no one responding to this outcry from their customers?
Do they really think this will die down or be forgotten?

I am one of the lucky members who got away with REAL freebies. In the 3 pages of freebies that were there when I visited, I found 33 that I liked and I was able to check them out of my cart. As soon as I checked out, I realized I had forgotten a few that I wanted to go back for. So I went back and browsed through the 3 pages of freebies again. This took a LONG time. Put the 4 freebies in my cart and started the checkout process. At the end, I got an error message that I was trying to checkout with less than $5 purchase. Note that "TRYING TO CHECKOUT" as if I was a thief or something!!!

I did NOT appreciate.

I do appreciate the 33 freebies I got (well 32 because one of them doesn't work although it might be because is has been retired by the vendor). And for them I thank the vendors who made them.

For the others, I want to also thank the vendors who offered them because I know it is not their fault if Rendo decided to change the rules after the game had started.

Well they'll just sit in my cart til they change their minds. I didn't need any of what I finally got to pick once the server stopped erroring out on me and a whole page of items dissappeared.  If they're not free no loss here but no gain for Rendo either. I'm not hunting through the market place to fine one $5 item to spend money on for freebies and I'm certainly not going to do it DAILY til Halloween!!!

Mine will be listed in the freestuff section in a few days time.  Until then it can be downloaded here

"I'd like a list of the vendors that did pull their gifts from this farce of a Trick or Treat give a way(?).  "

Most have not publicly stated that they have pulled products. I know that a couple will have theirs in the regular free stuff and a few on their personal web sites. The only name I recall for sure is Zai who has posted a link over in one of the daz threads about this.

**I would still like to thank all those that have done this, the freeies are awesome. Thank you again. I was a lucky onr too, but still that is not fair to others who missed out on that.

Thank you to the vendors who are truely going to make them free HUGS TO YOU ALL
**

I just posted this as an opinion on the Bait and Switch special.  I wonder if this will get approved?  What does everyone think my chances are. :cursing:

First off I would like to thank the vendors who had particapted in this. 

Now to my real feelings about this.  It is complete and total BS.  Not on the Vendors part but on Renderosity's part.  This was not even a trick but a scam.  This morning when this went live there were no strings attached.  No $5.00 required purchase for the free items and three pages of items to choose from.

Their mistake or "bait and switch" has left a bad impression about this sites honesty.  It has been discussed in length at other sites and even some vendors who were to originally participate have pulled their items to give them away elsewhere as this was there intention all along.  No strings attached.

As I know this probably won't last on this page please read in the Community Center forum on this site and on another big site (one where a ceratin guy just made his debut) to see what is really being said and where a couple vendors so far have posted links to their "free" items.

@Lillaanya, thank you very much for making your gift available.... free, it was one of the ones I had loaded to my cart  :)

I posted almost the same thing, in the opinion section under the entrance, over 2 hours ago, mine still hasn't shown up, so I dont hold out much hope for yours either, lol.

I'm really disappointed to see vendors who condone this behavor by Renderosity, they made these things as gifts, but since Renderosity decided to "sell" the freebies, that's OK?? I dont think so, no matter how you look at it, those of us who couldn't check out this morning due to cart errors and a slow server got a raw deal, and I am really ticked off about it, and what makes me even madder, is I know that the people who run Renderosity could give less of a d @ m about how we feel, and there will be enough folks who pay the $5.00, they will think it's OK, so I fully expect this to be the norm from now on, freebies for sale.  I'm sorry to keep ranting, but this really ticks me off!

Just had a thought here... Rendo keeps a commission out of every sale made by the vendors' products right? Then how will the leftovers from the $5 per batch of freebies per user be distributed among vendors who participated in this "Sell a freebie event"?

Since i work full time (not computer related), i did not see the promo 'till i got home. By then, they had the buy something stipulation (there were only 2 pages of freebies by then). Since i never knew about the no strings free thing ('till i read this thread), i willingly bought a lower priced item i needed and recieved a bunch of free stuff, from the wonderful vendors whom generously provided them.  I personally can't gripe about it.

Please don't be cross with the vendors who remain in the promotion. Some of them no doubt feel if they say they will do something it is important to follow through on that. Very reasonable really and I have to admit qualms myself about pulling out even though I felt strongly we needed to do so. Also, many vendors don't have other easy options for placing these products. A fairly large file would eat up the download availability from the file locker fairly quickly and so forth. Not everyone has their own web sites and so forth. Some may well be hoping that the situation can have a positive resolve in the end and are willing to stick hoping to see that happen.

I do understand absolutely the frustration. I was going to wait a couple of days myself to try and download anything rather than put any more stress on the servers so I am as SOL as anyone else who didn't get through the process before the changes today. I have to hope and pray that rendo will not think that the cover charge is an acceptable way to encourage vendors to create free products for holidays. I was really looking forward to doing some unique christmas give aways for all of the places we sell. But, that would not encourage me in the least to do any exclusive products for this venue.  You see part of the value of freebies to vendors is getting as many people as possible to know you and your products and hopefully like them enough to keep looking out for you. Preventing anyone and everyone who might ever be a potential customer from getting them is counter productive for the vendor.  The other value (and sometimes the best part) of freebies is the joy of giving, and the hope that you got the chance to make someone else happy.

"Just had a thought here... Rendo keeps a commission out of every sale made by the vendors' products right? Then how will the leftovers from the $5 per batch of freebies per user be distributed among vendors who participated in this "Sell a freebie event"?"

Your trying to make a funny right? -ducks and goes to bed to pretend today never happened-

lolll @ Khory_D... I was not trying! It WAS funny!!! ;o)

I am in no way cross with the vendors.  Hell I spent over $50.00 just last night from 5 vendors.  At the end of last month I spent over $70.00 on ratracer products that where going to be pulled when his store was closed.  Before that over $200 during the wale of a sale.  It goes on and on since I have become a member here.  I just won't be purchasing here any more.  If vendors sell elsewhere then I will purchase elsewhere.  If they don't then sorry.  I will not support a marketplace like this. 

I do appreciate the vendors that have taken their freebies elsewhere.  I hope enough noise from both vendors and customers might make them take notice and they will undo the mess they created.

I have to agree, it's nonsense paying for something that WAS advertised as free. Hasn't every other Halloween give-away been just that?
Just who is getting to keep this $5 a person amount anyway? I doubt the vendors.
If rendo was brick and mortar, they might have false advertising to deal with. Nice to not be regulated, eh?

When was the last time any of you charged trick or treaters for the candy, can you imagine the looks from parents.
No one would come back to your house, so maybe people just shouldn't visit this house anymore.

Anyway thanks to all the vendors who are showing awesome character, and uploading somewhere else. I will be buying from all of you more often.

Thanks Khory...we're hanging in there. The only reason I came to check on things is because the servers were so slow and I felt bad that people couldn't get their toys. I had wanted to just ask if I could load it up somewhere else or if it HAD to be exclusive for a period of time. Skimming past the $5.00 thing and backing up to re-read what I thought I saw made my mind up for me. I pulled my product immediately after making sure I was under no obligation to keep it here.

It's late here so I will see what I can do to place it somwhere off my business servers first thing in the morning. I have corporate clients on that box which I refuse to put at risk of a high volume slowdown because of this turn of events. With 100 downloads just in the few hours it was up, I'll sleep better tonight NOT posting it yet here.

But you have my word, I will have it up for FREE for mass download within 24 hours. No strings and no fees. You guys deserve better than this.

Thanks so much to the vendors - those who created the wonderful gifts and particularly to those pulling them to offer them REALLY for free.

I am truly hoping the someone from Renderosity will look at this thread, realize the mistake, and put things back the way they were originally so that their customers don't feel, as I do, that they have been victims of bait and switch.
 

Quote - Mine will be listed in the freestuff section in a few days time.  Until then it can be downloaded here

thanks that is very nice of you.:thumbupboth:

i diden't get any download at all. got to the first page.. and thats it. i couldent get in because of all the ppl browsing.

Quote - hmmmm, well I am not sure what to say.  I am one of the vendors that had a 4 models sent to the Freebie section for this Trick or Treat.  I was shocked at how many people downloaded just our offer.

You must know that this was and is an incredible offer to all.  I would not be dissapointed at all.  Especially seeing all the free stuff everyone is getting.  To pay $5.00 for all the great offers really is not alot, even if you are counting pennies, please take no offense.  

So far I have not made any money's off of this offer and I did not look to make any, and yes, we count our pennies too.   Of couse we always hope we will earn something, but I did realize there was a possiblility I would not.  Myself and others worked really hard to give this offer to all of the community.  I sure hoped it would have been better recieved after seeing what happened earlier today. 

This server almost came to a hault because of the traffic.  And all of it was for free to our community. 

I am sorry you feel you were taken.  But really that is not the case.  Sharen

im sorry but you are not right!
we where told that the items would be for free. and now you will have to spent 5$ somewhere in the marketplace.. that seems to me that sombody would earn money on your free items.. hope you get my point.

and nobody every said that it would be like that. they only said that there where free items.

What I would like to know is where does the $5 go? If the freebies are with any $5.00 purchase then that does not help the vendors who supplied the freebies at all.

Interesting lack of mods and admins on this forum; not that I can blame them. This is quite the firestorm and poor Sharen is standing all alone taking all of the heat. I guess my problem is that I have spent about $50+ in the past month here and it was nice to see such a free offer like this. I picked up a couple of things before the surcharge was implemented, though. I just felt at the time that my spending here at R'osity was being appreciated. Well, I'm certainly not going to leave here over this. Compared with everywhere else the prices are pretty nice and the customer service (aside from this issue) has been excellent.

This is very disheartening to say the least.  Money is not the issue for me, it is the principle.  I just went and (gack!) totaled up my purchases in the almost year I have been shopping here....just over $1100.  (Man, hubby will kill me if he reads this post!)  If the requirement of a $5 purchase was there from the start, I would've happily bought one of the millions of things on my wishlist and been on my way.  But unfortunately, I read the blurb before entering the list of treats (not showing a monetary requirement), and tried placing numerous lovelies in the cart.  After being bombarded with sql errors...I got an error of one of the treats (cute lil Wizzle)  no longer available?!  So I figured it was due to the gobs of traffic and thought I would let the servers have a rest from my trigger finger.  I come back later anxious to get my hands on some generous gifts and lo and behold now there is a requirement?!  This is very deceptive and leaves a nasty taste in one's mouth.  So I'm afraid I too will be leaving this store (regretfully).  This is truly unfortunate for myself and some of the best vendors around.  I had so much yet to buy, but will not support a store that employs such miserable tactics.  Many thanks to all the vendors that have took time and energy to create wonderful gifts for the community.  I wish you all continued success and hope to see you in stores I will frequent.

I didn't mind paying a few dollars for something  I already had in my wishlist, to get some good items for free. But then, I hadn't been aware they'd originally been completely free. Anyway, many thanks to all the vendors who contributed.

But where on earth are the Rendo admins and store staff?? They should be here, answering these questions. It's very odd that they aren't.

"But where on earth are the Rendo admins and store staff??"

...Avoiding this thread like the plague ;p  The minute one of them attempts to post anything, a bunch of people are going to pounce on them. They probably realize that no matter what they might say they're going to get abused by a lot of upset shoppers. I know that this thing they have done is crap but SOME (Notice emphasis on the word 'some') of you need to chill out a bit. I can understand the complaining. I agree with you and I believe that the Staff here should get an ear full but to up and leave the site, com' on. That's a bit extreme. I can't think of the last time anything like this has occurred. And it's not like the prices are better at Daz because they're not... they're higher. And it's not the Vendors faults that this has happened but if people stop buying here in mass groves the Vendors will feel the punch as well.

Look back at the deals R'osity has offered in the recent past. One day they offered 20% of anything; then it was 15%; then 25% and so on. And after all of that they offered a 25% discount, AGAIN, and a freebie for simply taking the community survey of which you were entered in to a drawing that could have gotten you a $100 shopping spree. I saved a lot of money shopping here the last couple of months... did any of you? So those of you who are ready to leave R'osity over this... take a step back and breath because you might just be forgetting the times this place has come through for you. Now if they do something like this again... well... I'll help you pack.

Really pleased to get up to this news................NOT.

I submitted my products in good faith that they would be free to the whole community from the 20th to the 31st and to find out that Rendo now want people to pay for them is just a complete kick in the teeth.

If anyone still wants my freebies ten please visit my blog - they are up on there for FREE as I intended them to be!

Quote - "But where on earth are the Rendo admins and store staff??"

...Avoiding this thread like the plague ;p  The minute one of them attempts to post anything, a bunch of people are going to pounce on them. 

Undoubtedly true, but it goes with the territory. Far better to stick head above parapet and admit awful mistake was made than crouch down in the bunker! Because I do think this was a mistake, not a con or a scam or anything like that. Just a misunderstanding at Rendo central, in all likelihood. I just think it would be better if they stuck their collective hand up and said so.

Wow I was not expecting to see this. I am a vender, but did not have time to get any freebies done Due to computer problems and that my Mother in Law is visiting right now But I knew the trick or treat event was going to be happening and was looking forward to it, Halloween is my favorite time of year.  I tried to get everything added to my cart yesterday but gave up trying to check out figured I would take a look back though everything today and check out when the servers were not as busy. And I see the $5.00 charge to get the freebies? How are they free now? I agree, though $5.00 is a bit hard I would not be upset if Everyone had been told about this before hand, the venders and if the 1st statement had said only a $5.00 purchase can get you some treats. Now to add more freebies later on and you have to spend $5.00 again??? Not to mention many got a lot of these for free yesterday?? This has me pretty upset as well and I am sorry to all the venders and customers who are affected by this and worried how many will not buy from here because of this, that affects the venders and the MP. I feel this was a bad idea and a lot of people are upset by it. I have no idea if I will be able to get any of the freebies I have wanted right now I just can not spare $5, $10 to $15 just to get stuff I do not really need but wanted :(
Just my 2 cents

Meh, what a mess.

I came home too late to ever know things were truly free but since my cart was loaded up with around 70 dollars worth of merchandise I was not too phased. However it is rather poor now that I finally checked my mail and saw the stuff was indeed advertised as free and seriously ... I spent I guess a good 2-3k USD here ( in under a year ) and am now seriously considering to tune down my spending on this particular place because I do not agree with such ethics. Advertise something as free well stick with it and keep it free even if it brings certain hassel with it.

My freebie is now on my own website in the Freebies menu

http://www.digitaldesktops.biz/marketplace/