Got gypped by someone at Kasamba...

$55!!!

No small sum to me.

I added to my profile the following sentences:

"When you get a reading from me, you are paying me for my time, not content. Please keep this in mind."

Will this hurt biz, do you think?

Just wondering what other people think of that system - I know there's really nothing Kasamba can do, but I mean REALLY!!

Well, I know what they could do.

They could make the transaction one that HAS to go through instead of giving people the option to withold payment.

Yes?

I'm not sure what 'gypped' means, and cannot reconcile the first two sentences with what follows.

Did you think that paying $55 was not worth the reading? Or are you quoting someone who complained about having to pay $55 to you for a reading?

...but let me add a comment about the suggestion of the added sentence your profile that suggests that payment is for time, not content.

On the one hand, I agree that charges can be calculated by time spent. On the other, I disagree that the person paying for a reading is intending to purchase your time, rather than content.

After all, if any of us spent $55, worked out by time, with any services (whether computer advice or counsellor), the cost will be judged not on the amount of time spent, but whether the content warranted the time spent and costs incurred. In that sense, there is some legitimacy in allowing for payments to be with-held if the service did not appear to warrant the charge.

Of course, this is often not with-held in other areas of life, and in reading Tarot in particular, is something that is so much more difficult to legitimately withhold, despite the sense that the reader has somehow less legitimacy to receive payment then either counsellor or advisor.

I had someone do that to me, too, danubhe, and Kasamba sent me a reply (all in their own good time, mind you) saying they expect us to work it out with the client ourselves. What I did was write to the non-paying client saying politely and professionally that I had given them my best effort for the time spent, the question they had asked, and what the cards said and that they didn't have to like what the reading had said, but they did have to pay for my services. After quite a long time, they finally did pay.

If you look at the front page of Kasamba, you see where they give the clients 100% a guarantee of satisfaction so that really doesn't help their readers, in my opinion. The client is told that they don't have to pay if they don't like what they get, in other words. That's really not fair to those they're hiring to do readings. I didn't read for them for more than about three months before I quit. I joined a website called wahm.com and there was quite a bit of discussion on their forums about money their readers had been "stiffed" out of, some of them to the tune of hundreds of dollars. I remember one of them had been refused $300 in one month and Kasamba hadn't helped them to resolve it any more than they helped me.

Oh, and by the way, when I reported it to Kasamba, in addition to telling me they expect their readers to settle things themselves, they told me they had been unable to contact the client themselves.

I hope you can get the money owed to you, but don't expect Kasamba to be any help to you.

No, I don't expect them to help me, either.

I feel strongly that the act of reading in & of itself is recompensible. Not sure what jmd was getting at, there...

Hi Danubhe,

I can see why you're mad about this but then again, what do you expect Kassamba to do?

It's made clear when you join up to these things that if someone isn't satisfied with a reading then they can refuse to pay.
With live readings and email readings you get your payment upfront so it gets rid of this problem but even with email readings, if the client felt that I hadn't answered their question I would refund them their money.

A client isn't just paying for your time or you could sit there for 10 minutes and say nothing, they are paying for the reading.

It's a difficult one but I can sort of see both sides of this... If the option is there for the client to not pay if they are dissatisfied then you can't really moan if they don't pay.

The answer I guess is to stick to live or email readings but that may not be an option for you.

(((((((((Danubhe)))))))))

Frustrating as it is, it is a risk in any business where the customer is having something created and the end result is not known. There is always a chance that the customer's expectations wont be met. That is not to say that there was anything wrong with the reading, Danubhe, it is more a comment on customer expectations which can sometimes be quite unreasonable.

I work at a jewellery shop (have worked at jewellery shops for 20 years) where we do a lot of custom pieces. We provide sketches or wax models to give the customer a visual of the end result, but even then there is an occasional customer who somehow has something quite different in mind that was not communicated properly. Prices are worked out based on the labour time and the cost of the materials. If the piece is not in the end what the customer wanted we wouldn't force the customer to buy it. Why? What business wants an unhappy customer walking around complaining about the "awful" piece of jewellery they bought from said business.

It just doesn't feel right to take money for something that someone is so unhappy about.

Usually we would make the piece again (at no extra cost to the customer) or if we felt we just were never going to please this "difficult" customer we would write it off as a loss. Obviously every attempt is made to avoid these situations and it doesn't happen too often, but in business, you win some and you lose some. It's all part of running a business.

If I were you, I would offer this person another reading with payment up front (if that is possible through the Kasamba system). I'm still not saying that you did anything wrong, and maybe this person is not going to ever be satisfied, but something has to be done to try to turn the situation around, learn more from it and possibly have a happy customer who will appreciate your double effort (maybe even come back for more!!)

I have seen very difficult customers turn into happy repeat customers once they see that you will make very effort to guarantee their happiness.

All the best,
Ruby7

This is excellent advice - & as an artist, I understand perfectly what you are talking about.

I can't contact the customer unless they allow it, most unfortunately - which of course is not the case here. But I will keep in mind what you say & see if I can apply it later on.

The biggest problem with Kasamba isn't that the customer who isn't satisfied won't pay just once and the readers aren't accepting the policy of 100% satisfaction. I've owned a couple of businesses and I'm with the rest of you who say it's better to work with the dissatisfied customer here and there. The problem is that there are people there who scam the readers to the tune of hundreds of dollars sometimes, getting reading after reading from the same reader but then refusing to pay. The reader doesn't know this has happened till it's too late and a bunch of readings have been given and then Kasamba turns a deaf ear. Then the scammer just changes ID's, comes back, and hits someone else, but in the meantime, the reader has been ripped off. There are some people who actually get addicted to having tarot readings done and those are probably the offenders.

I feel that, since this does happen and fairly frequently, it's not fair to the readers, (from whom Kasamba is taking about half their money and without whom Kasamba wouldn't be making their millions, mind you) for Kasamba to continue with that "100% satisfaction or you don't pay" policy. I don't feel that should be stated on the front page even if they want the readers to adhere to it. They could tell the readers to follow it, but not make it a huge loophole on the front page for clients to scam readers through without Kasamba providing at least some recourse. That's bad business on Kasamba's part, don't you think?

Now, the flip answer that I'm sure is in some of the minds who will be reading my post is the same as what they say about abused women------"well, you keep doing it so you must like it" or words to that effect. Think again. For some of us who are disabled, it's one of the few ways we can earn a little extra money to get by with and we keep doing it because we need the money, not because we like getting scammed and then ignored when we complain to Kasamba. I can read for the public here in my town, but in other towns, readers can't do that, as in danubhe's case.

Lyric said:

I feel that, since this does happen and fairly frequently, it's not fair to the readers, (from whom Kasamba is taking about half their money and without whom Kasamba wouldn't be making their millions, mind you) for Kasamba to continue with that "100% satisfaction or you don't pay" policy. I don't feel that should be stated on the front page even if they want the readers to adhere to it. They could tell the readers to follow it, but not make it a huge loophole on the front page for clients to scam readers through without Kasamba providing at least some recourse. That's bad business on Kasamba's part, don't you think?
.

Click to expand...

I agree, don't think that they should have that posted on the front page since it puts the idea in a customer's mind whether it was there before or not. I can also see that it would cause dishonest people to ask for readings with absolutely no intention of paying. Kasamba should support their readers better and Kasamba should pay the readers for their time regardless. Shame on Kasamba.

Ruby7

Can I get this clear.
I have seen that readers there offer their services at X ammount for a given time span.
So, if someone gets a reading, they don't pay up front, they pay later, If they want too?

And there is nothing to make them pay?

If that's true, it's an outrage.
What if someone come with a question 'Does he love me?'
And the cards say no. he don't, he loves someone else.
Well, if you tell them that they are hardly going to be happy, are they?
Yet it's hardly the readers fault for reading the cards honestly.

This would make readers want to tell the client only what they want to hear.
like Yes! he does love you!

How can you trust a reading off someone who has a financial investment in telling you what you want to hear?

It's a load of crap, that's what this system is.

I wouldn't read there and I wouldn't get a reading there.

I wouldn't read for anyone who might not pay me if they didn't like what I said.
I read for people for free if I want to, not if they do.