Oct 24, 2007

Odds & Sods

Good news, the "toothpick in the cake" line has been removed from the ePrize "Careers Page." Glad that cooler heads have provided some fairly well-written job descriptions.

In other news, I hear that there's a harrowing TV commercial on the air featuring Michigan native Jeff Daniels touting the benefits of Michigan businesses. The commercial also stars ePrizer Alesya Opelt. I have yet to see the spot but have been told that "once you see it, you'll be scarred for life." I'm hoping that this makes an appearance on the ePrize Blog soon!

And, a fond adieu to the big group of Quality Assurance staff that were let go recently. Maybe this explains the existence of some broken links and items that otherwise should have been caught... (Psst, lots of broken links on the "In The News" page of the site -- 9/10/2007 CNNMoney.com, 8/4/2007 Detroit News, 7/31/2007 Detroit Free Press, etc). I'm sure everyone that was canned so gracefully will land on their feet. They're always a need for quality assurance.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

I know that no one would ever admit it but between Caffeine's layoffs and the QA purge... is business not as good as it should be? I hope that isn't the case -- I don't want my stock options to lose value!

Would have posted earlier but had to stop my eyes from bleeding at the thought of that commercial.

Anonymous said...

This blog could either be seen as grousing or as innovation. This reminds me of a line that "scratch any cynic and you find a frustrated idealist". For all the lip service eprize pays to innovation and change it ends up being just that.

techprof said...

What do you think caused caffeine to fail, was it the concept or the execution. Or was the business model
just a flop. How much was invested in the flop, and what impact did that have on employees stock options.

Unknown said...

That's quite a barrage of queries, techprof. I can only give the same opinion that I have all along -- Caffeine was somewhat doomed from the start as it was the same idea that failed under the moniker "SweepsXpress" years prior.

This "jello mold sweeps for the little guy" should have been spun off into its own business and not done under the ePrize banner in any way, shape or form. And, from there, it needed the complete support of all those involved, especially those in charge.

During my tenure at ePrize, SweepsXPress was always a pet project of JL's (one that RL never hid his distaste for) but it was the kind of "pet" that JL wanted to feed once in a while and never really give the care and loving that it needed to survive.

Even a tamagotchi needs love.

The idea of the "eSweeps made eSay" was a good one, it just wasn't ever given the proper backing.

No idea about the amount of money, the implications to the business, et cetera. If anyone feels like giving the answers, I'm sure it'd be enlightening. I just hope that employees didn't "pay" for mistakes made that they didn't have a say in.

Anonymous said...

Just got back from the MFF conference over at Schoolcraft that ePrize and Organic sponsored. There were some high points and a few low points. Just a word of advice to the ePrize guys that presented... 1) It's always nice to have a deck/structure to present. 2) Feel free to proofread your deck if you have one. You're at a conference representing your company; you should eliminate the glaring spelling errors from your presentation.

Anonymous said...

I was at that conference and it was good to see the Multimedia group represented by someone who could actually put a sentence together. in the past they've had some rather mush-mouthed leadership.

Anonymous said...

Nice to hear someone noticed the QA shake-up. I can tell you we did land on our feet and we are doing GREAT. But it will be hard to trust an employer again. The QA purge had nothing to do with business, and we were told as much.

Unknown said...

...Because you should always believe what upper management tells you. They have no reason to ever lie and would never mislead an employee...

Happy_at_ePrize said...

So if the QA purge was not about business, did they tell you what it was about before they let you go? The people that were let go were doing great as far as I could tell. It was a shocker for all of us in production.

Anonymous said...

Another thing that Linkner is feeding folks is that you won't be moving down to Detroit with QuickenLoans.


"One company expected to come with Gilbert is ePrize L.L.C., a Pleasant Ridge-based company that got a $32 million equity investment from a consortium of local investors in 2006 that included Gilbert. 'When he says, Who’s going with me? I have the feeling he’s looking right at me,' said ePrize CEO and founder Josh Linkner. 'It’s certainly something we’re considering, but we’re not ready to make any announcement. We’ve been able to take some more space in our building, and that buys us a little more time.'"

Wouldn't that be a bitch -- touting how cool that Pleasant Ridge location is for years and then moving down to Detroit...

techprof said...

Beware of those who speak with a forked tongue. Remember what the native indians where promised, then thrown into reservations.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone shed any light on ePrize rules? It has been stated on a message board that I am on that only one person in a household can enter one of their sweeps. That if more than one person enters from the same computer they all will be disqualified. Even if the rules say one entry PER PERSON per day. This is confusing. If ePrize only wants to see one entry per IP address then why don't they say so or say only one entry per household?? Also, someone said that ePrize has a black list and if you are on there you are wasting your time entering because you won't win. Any info??

Unknown said...

This isn't really the forum for this kind of discussion, last anonymous. You should probably stick to the sweeps boards. There's more info, too, over on this post

Anonymous said...

for Happy at ePrize. the qa people were told they were no longer "culture" fits. the new lead didn't like them and didn't want them on his team.

Unknown said...

Nothing more humiliating than trying to put that kind of bullshit down on your Unemployment Application.

Reason for dismissal? "Wrong Culture."