Hey everyone!

Boy am I glad I randomly went to Blu's blog today. They just launched Audrey and Marlow and are doing a 24 hour sale for $100 (plus $100 to not host with them though). Not that I want everyone to get one, since I am, but I have to share the news for others looking for a site

Check out the blog for details:

http://bludomain.com/blog.cfm

they have had the sale on for the whole month of december. all sites are 50% off as well.

Yeah, I was about to do George with the sale, and now I'm undecided and harassing my husband at work to go look at the new site and tell me what he likes, lol.

i dont like that new site they just launched.

Which one? Or both?

the new one they just launched today, not the other two

I was referring to Audrey or Marlow, even though they are versions, they are very different

Regardless, I just bought Audrey and am thrilled!

Did you get it already? I bought a site on Thursday last week, later I received a contract and sent it back but still haven't heard anything else. Really would like to have my site up by Jan 1.

~rc

I gave them all the information and got a promise for tomorrow at midnight. I've heard that promise hasn't been happening, but we'll see

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I haven't heard anything so I'll keep my fingers crossed for me too I did not order one of the new templates though so maybe they are batching through those sales first.

~rc

I wish ya'll the best of luck getting them in a timely manner. Bludomain has been LESS than prompt lately.

That would stink for you!

They said on their blog that they were trying to catch up and get to everyone by midnight tonight, so, we'll see!

I actually loved Marlowe and sent my contract in today. I hope I get it soon

I'm glad you're making progress!

I can't get anyone to respond. How long did it take you to get a contract and how did you go about doing it.

Arg. I swear the new $100 sites launched the day after I paid for Madison.

That's what I get for going with Blu after all the crap I read though. The only person to blame for my website misfortunes is myself at this point. Although in all, $100 fit my budget for now and will give me a MUCH nicer site than what I currently have...lesser of two evils at the moment I guess

FYI - This just on the BLU Blog:



So looks like probably Monday.

~rc

hehe yeah my deadline is coming up/past (depending on time zone), but I won't harass them until Monday. Not like I'm quite ready with all of my pictures/text anyway


Edit: well, the files appear to be on my site, and they have setup the database and such... just no email yet. I may start messing around anyway lol

Edit: awww, a password!

Edit: that was way too easy to guess ><

I just bought the Marlow site because it was still on sale. I guess they extended it? This will be my first web site....what have I got myself into???

For those who have not yet purchased a Bludomain site, you may want to hold off....I had a HORRIBLE experience with them. I purchased a site from them at the beginning of November, and a month and a half later they still didnt have the admin set up for me to begin working on it!!! I finally gave up last week and asked for my money back. They were horrible about returning my phone calls, and although polite on the phone, still didn't make any progress on my account. Actions speak louder than words. I ended up going with portfoliositez.com and LOVE them! I would definetly check them out. Just my 2 cents.

your not serious, are you? over a month and a half for just the control panel?

i have never had that problem, but, i have had the problem of getting a template that has tons of kinks. kinks that should have been worked out before the release. at some point down the road, i think i would prefer a custom site, designed by the guys who did, i think, chris humphreys? i may have the name wrong.no, i just checked, he had his created by livebooks.

I am serious. I will say that we were planning on hosting it and not Bludomain, but still. They told me that I should have the admin in 1-2 days! I figured if their customer service and turn around time was that horrible before I even got to start working on my site, that it probably wouldn't get much better.

this is what i dont understand - they are overwhelmed right now, yet, they have a sale which will generate even more business to overwhelm them even more - they are giving poor customer service to the new clients and are only doing themselves in. weird.

I don't what I was thinking but I bought one and haven't heard from anyone in 3 days...LOL I guess I knew that would be the case going into it but it's still not a word? Maybe they could have atleast setup some sort of auto email system saying thank you for the purchase, welcome...etc. Oh well, It's done on a credit card so I can cancel it if I get too PO'd.

Yeah, the Monday on their blog changed to Wednesday


I haven't heard back yet either, but I've been editing the template anyway, lol. There are definitely some bugs, though

I got an email @ 12:24AM this morning saying that it will be up by Wednesday. Hey, they made contact!!!!How can you edit your site? if it's not up yet?

you get a link to your control panel, which you use to enter your template and edit your site. you set it up before you go live. (color choices, gallery names, loading photos, etc.).

I checked and my new site is there, but I haven't gotten an email with my login password yet. Any ideas on what it could be? I am SO ready to get this site up!

how did you check to see if your site was there?

On my ftp site. It's a folder titled "madison" Also, www.cindymillsphotography.com/madison and www.cindymillsphotography.com/madison/bluadmin
But, I need a password.

This is frustrating. How long could it take to email me the instructions and passwords once they have the site installed!!!

Yeah, I did http://www.url.com/template/bluadmin/index.php


Blu always uses the same password, /wink wink

so what would be the address if you already had a website and was getting a new site under the bludomain hosting plan? eventually i will move my domain to the blu site... but not initially... any ideas?

Still nothing for me. I faxed my contract back on Dec 24th...have emailed and even opened a support ticket to try and find out if they even have me in the system and nothing back. Nada. Zip. Zilcho. When I sent my contract I checked the 'invoice me via paypal' option and I haven't received the invoice yet...

So...not sure what to do next but today I'm going to start looking at other options and see what happens.

Hard to believe, but not unexpected based on the other feedback I've seen.

~rc

So I've emailed several times and still nothing. I just realized that they never sent me a contract. But there is the template on my website. Weird? I am such an impatient person so I will just have to deal with it I guess.

What contract?? I ordered my site by using the "buy it now" button and it too me directly the Paypal website. I paid for it and got a reciept. What contract????

That's what happened to me too. I'm hosting with another provider. Maybe the contract is just for those hosting with Bludomain?????

No idea, I only got that from looking through the files on my FTP.




And yeah, I never signed a "contract" per say, just gave them all of my super secret login info. Some sort of communication certainly would be nice from them, arggghhh!

I chose to host with Blu so who knows. This whole thing is a joke to tell you the truth. Can't say we weren't warned....lol

I just traded emails with someone there named Samantha (email on the blu blog) who I think is director of client services and she said that they don't do the contracts and faxes anymore...even though I ordered mine online 12/21 and they emailed me a contract and asked me to fax it back. I guess it must be a recent change.

She said if I hadn't heard back then they didn't receive my contract so I need to go to the website and buy online. She also said I could get the sale price that I signed up for last week.

From her emails, it sounds like she is working hard to improve customer service at BLU and hopefully she'll be able to make some changes for the better.

She also said if I ordered now on the website and hosted with BLU I would have my site by tomorrow midnight, if I hosted somewhere else it would be the following day.

~rc

Nothing against Samantha. I am sure she is a nice person, but my experience indicates that if you want to host externally, you are not a priority. Following day sounds very optimistic. I called it quits at 43 days.

Just an update for those also a bit frustrated.... :0) This is actually our second web site with Blu, we bought one in 2007 and decided to purchase a new one for 2008 just to keep things fresh. We didnt have any trouble at all with our first Blu site, but this one is taking significantly longer to get up. We've emailed back and forth with Samantha about 4 times, and she's promised it will be up tomorrow (wednesday the 2nd) by midnight- not what I was hoping to hear but at least we're getting a response. If it happens (or doesnt) we'll keep everyone updated!!

So I got a call from Samantha and she got me all fixed up. Evidently the problem was my yahoo mail. She said that yahoo spam filters kick out their emails alot. So if you are not getting emails back from them then try another email address. They may have replied and you just didn't get it. That was the problem I had. They were trying to reply to me, but my email was kicking it out.

Yes, when I finally did get an email from them it was in my Bulk folder. I think the 'love' and the BLU probably give it a high spam score. (love and mispelled words are two biggies)

Anyway, I am supposed to be up by midnight tonight so we'll see.

~rc

Well my site is up and now I get to start the tweaking process, which is new to me. I'm excited...my first website!

I have to say I was worried when I bought Madison last year, but I have actually had amazing customer service with Blu. So many people warned me not to use them, but I have yet to encounter a problem. The only thing I didn't like was they charged me an extra $200 to set up my client proofing on Madison when it would've been cheaper just to buy a template with that already included. Oh well, live and learn.

If you are worried, I know many people who use Bigfolio and LOVE them. They are more expensive, but worth it.

I hope this helps.

-Erica
www.ericaferrone.com