The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[24KaratGold]

I have to say that I don't like ordering through the TSFL website. There are two good reasons to do so, and they are why I continue to do so even though I don't like the site and don't think it is user-friendly. I continue to use it because (1) the discount is nice -- including the case discount and the ability to order single servings of something as a sample, and (2) doing so benefits Nancy and Terry and Tim, and since I use this message board so much it seems only fair.

However....

The site is not user-friendly. It does not provide helpful information in an easy matter. I have had difficulty trying to determine what day my autoship is set up for. I have had difficulty in not being advised, when I place an order, that something is out of stock or on backorder, and finding this out only when the order arrives. That last is particularly a problem when one has carefully calculated how much product one needs for a given time period, or has planned out variety.

I have also, now, had difficulty in having duplicate orders shipped out after I went in to change an autoship order and replace it with a new one; instead of the one being cancelled, apparently, despite doing what I understand I'm supposed to do -- and have done successfully before -- they simply shipped out both the old order and the new order, within three days of each other. I called the TSFL number and while the lady was very nice and gave me a return FedEx number to send the two boxes that were delivered today back, it will take a week before they actually come for them, she says, which means that (1) the boxes are here taking up space in my house for a week, and (2) there is a charge on my credit card for a couple of hundred bucks that won't get reversed until after they get the boxes back, which could well mean I'll incur carrying charges on them.

Add this to the fact that whenever I reply to one of those "your order has shipped!" emails, I get back a "failed" notice because, apparently, there is no live email account on the other end, or no live body to see it. I received one of those emails yesterday telling me that another order had shipped, and sent back a response right away saying it was a mistake. Too late; the order showed up today, and so did the bounced email back to my in box. If this happened with any other commercial website with which I do business, I'd be canceling the credit card that they have info about and worrying about it being a scam. It is only Nancy's strong reputation here that keeps me from being truly concerned about it.

(Those emails are pretty worthless anyway. I've had them come the day AFTER the order itself has arrived. And they don't have any substantive information on them, such as what the order consists of.)

Autoship is a great idea, and the TSFL website is a great idea, but it needs to have the kinks worked out of it. One ought to be able to go to one's account and see all of the particulars regarding one's current autoship setup, and be able to make changes to the substantive order easily and intuitively. One also ought to be able to easily change the autoship date within a certain parameter on either side of the date -- say plus or minus a few days -- without risking the discount status. If I want to place an extra order early I should be able to do that without a problem. If I want to delay an order by a few days -- say I'm out of town or something and don't want the delivery when I'm not here to get it -- that shouldn't be a problem either, at least on a once-in-a-while basis. One also ought to be able to access one's ordering history for at least a reasonable period of time.

I love Medifast, love the products, love this site, and love the people who own and run this site. But I am not happy with ordering through the TSFL website, and if I continue to have problems with it then ultimately even the discount and loyalty factors won't be enough to keep my business there.

[Unca_Tim]

We hear you 24K,
And TSFL probably hears this every day, and tells us to be patient. The upgrade is supposedly coming soon.

I'll make sure the right people read this post....

Hang in there with us. We're dealing with it every day too....

[Nancy]

Dear dear 24 K ~

I thank you for your comments. Your points are right-on and we will pass them along with ours.

I do not have access to a master list of the pull, pack and ship dates for my customers that are on Auto Ship. I agonize daily about whether or not my faithful clients will remember to make their changes to their Auto Ship order properly and within the right time frame. I feel like I ought to remind them five days out from their ship date but then everyone sets up their own ship date and hopefully they have recorded it in their daytimer or on their calendar.

We placed a large pudding order a couple months ago when it was on sale, forgot to change our order for the next month when the sale was off and we ended up with a boatload of puddin’ in our front closet. We are finally getting down to the last three boxes.

I have experienced the out of stock issue for items on Auto Ship also. Argh. Please know that changes to Auto Ship orders can be made by calling the Customer Care Center at 1-800-572-4417. When you call, have your customer ID number, your order all ready determined and your Credit Card in hand. By phoning the Auto Ship changes in, the Customer Care Center personnel can advise immediately if the items are sold out.

When products are on sale, we all risk missing out on them when our Auto Ship date is toward the end of the month. All sale items are sold with the disclaimer, “While supplies last.” When MakeMeThinner is made aware that products are sold out, we let you know just as soon as we know. There have been times that I placed an order for someone including sale items and then half an hour later, the items are gone when I call to place another order but because I called the order in, I was able to notify my customer and make a substitution.

Thank you for your patience and loyalty, 24 K. This is a new feature and we look forward to improvements in the TSFL website. I apologize for the inconvenience you’ve experienced.

I am happy to place your orders for you. Just ring me up or send me an email.

[Nancy]

P.S.

I continue to use it because (1) the discount is nice -- including the case discount and the ability to order single servings of something as a sample

By the way, any time a person orders a product by the case, there is a 10 percent discount. The number of product items per case lots can vary from item to item, however. For example, the Medifast 55 and Medifast 70 shakes have 48 boxes (7 servings each) in a case; RTDs are packed 27 individual drink boxes per case; the Chai Latte and Multi-grain crackers have 12 boxes per case.

Single servings of products are sold for $2.50 each and it is a very good way to try an item without purchasing an entire box of it.

[24KaratGold]

So . . . eight days ago I was told I would have instructions on returning these two boxes within a week. Guess what?

This morning, on the telephone, around 8:45 my time, I was assured that I would have a phone call back from a supervisor "within an hour." It's now 11:20. Guess what?

I am NOT a happy camper.

[Unca_Tim]

24K,
Please don't take this as criticism towards your efforts to settle your order problems. This is an important topic to get out to all TSFL clients and you've done exactly what most people would think they should do.

The importance of a health advisor is to educate, support and motivate their clients and help them reach their goals. Another duty is to address and solve any order problems that may occur. All you should be doing is working toward your goal, and the stress and time involved in a problem such as you've had, should NOT be in the equation.

If you had contacted your health advisor 8 days ago, they would have given you the exact instructions on how to return your products. There's no reason for any TSFL customer to be contacting customer service for problems. That's what health advisors are for.

We know who to contact and how to get these types of issues solved quickly and will do whatever is necessary to make things right.

[24KaratGold]

Tim, I hear what you are saying. I do note a couple of things. First, on the automatic email that comes when an order is shipped, it says this at the end:

Please keep the following information for your records. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at 1-800-572-4417 or at customerservice@tsfl.com.

and then it is signed: "Best Wishes, The Take Shape for Life Team"

Now since Nancy is the one who set me up with the TSFL site, and to whom I gave my email and phone number and all to make it happen, and since I know that you all have a "team" there, I might reasonably have thought -- as I did think -- that I was in fact contacting my health advisor or someone who works with/for her when I called that number. If, as you say, I shouldn't be contacting customer service, then I shouldn't be told to contact customer service.

Also, had I known eight days ago that the staff at the listed phone number was not competent, I of course would have taken another path to get this resolved.

If I sound testy I apologize, but I am testy. I don't deal well with repeated incompetency. Anybody can make a mistake once. Making a mistake, then telling me that it will be fixed, then not fixing it, then telling me I'll have a phone call and not calling me p***es me off more than most anything else.

[Unca_Tim]

No Prob 24K,
You've got a right to be testy.

I had a hard time making that last post without thinking it was coming across as I was somehow shifting the blame to something you've been doing, but wanted to get a reply back to you ASAP, so you'd know we're looking at your problem for you.
Wheeh...that's a long sentence if it makes sense....

It's hard to get points across on a forum like this.

I'm going to look into your account and try to figure out exactly what's been going on with order confirmations and the contact numbers you've been receiving.

Do you have Nancy's personal 800 number? If so, give her a call. If not, I'll PM it to you.

[BerkshireGrl]

24K, I feel your pain I had a few mess-ups with the Customer Service at TSFL too... involving messed-up autoships and no calls back as promised, and then me herding them down like pigs in a tight pen. Frustrating, to say the least. And orders shipped to the wrong address too. Ok, I'm done venting.

So, I'll back up Unca Tim when he says just to call the Make Me Thinner Health Advisors, and ignore the CS people at TSFL.

Well, IMHO, of course.

[LilMsTexas]

Hey girl.........just wanted to chime in for a second and say I FEEL YA! I had one problem ONE TIME and told my health advisor Sue about it immediately and she fixed it immediately. Now I go online......figure out what I want....add it all to my shopping cart......cut and paste my shopping cart into an email and send it to her. She has all my information, and she makes my order, and that as we say is that! She tells me repeatedly to call her or email her and she will personally take care of me......and she does. I consider it a luxury. Tim is right.......getting my weight off is MY JOB and taking care of my orders is my HEALTH ADVISORS job and she does it splendidly

I can't handle incompetence........I mean I TRULY can't. I soooooooooooooooooooo know how you're feeling and what you're thinking. I can feel your fumes through my screen. So I'm sure Tim will get this straightened out and then I would never do my own ordering again if I were you. Which, by the way I don't Just like I don't paint my own toenails (well because I'm incompetent at that) so I let the professionals do it

I hope this all works out for you soon.....I'm sure it will.....because we got bigger and better things to concentrate on......like becoming AWESOME AND FANTABULOUS BABES!!

CHEERS sweetie,
Christi

[Nancy]

Oh, no! Here I go again; I am on my knees…PLEASE accept my apology.
I am sorry that I missed this post as I was away this afternoon and evening. Why is it that stuff happens when the office is closed?

I will be on the horn first thing in the morning. Please send a private email to me with your phone number so we can talk and I can get the full details before I call.

Thank you.

[scubaduber]

Hi Folks. If you managed to read through all of the posts in this thread up to this point, maybe the picture will come more into focus. I think one of the functions of the Health Advisor is to interface between Take Shape For Life, and the client (aka customer). Do you think all of this hassle with TSFL foul ups might be by design? Maybe it is a scheme to encourage clients to work with their Health Advisor. Let your Health Advisor be the "trail guide". With flashlight in hand, your Advisor will lead you through the brambles, avoid the potholes and mines, steer you clear of the wild beasts of corporate blunders, and lead as you go hopping down the Meditrail to your goal of better health and fewer worries.

[24KaratGold]

Nice thought, scubadiver, but if they don't want us to order through the website then, um, maybe they shouldn't have a website to order through.

I spend lots of money online, and I like being able to peruse and order at my own pace at my own hours. I don't know that I see a need to speak to my Health Advisor for every single what-ought-to-be-routine order (not that I don't love talking to you, Nancy! But when I do, it should be about more important things than "so, do you want apple cinnamon or french vanilla berry this month?").

My understanding is that TSFL is a Medifast company (meaning owned by Medifast), and Medifast trades on the American Exchange (ticker:MED). That suggests that they are in business to make money, and one way to do that is to broaden and improve their marketing, not make it difficult for the customer.

Finally last week they came and got these packages. But it sure generated a lot of consumer ill-will. If it wasn't such a great product, I wouldn't be a repeat customer to the site.

[Guest]

Scubabduber - Not sure if you're trying to be funny here, or what, but if so, you're way off line. We're all intelligent people here, and should be able to expect the same courtesy and customer service that any other company would give. I completely agree with 24Karat - if TSFL don't want people ordering thru their website, then they shouldn't allow it - PERIOD! Like 24K, I, too, do most of my shopping online, and under normal circumstances I would not continue supporting a company that has such poor customer service and such a non-userfriendly website. But as 24K mentions - I love and want the product and for me, it's a matter of health. Otherwise...........

[Jan]

I'm sooo sorry their are problems on the web site ( and there are!!) It frustrates everyone. We want all our clients to be happy clients losing weight and getting healthy. Our job among other things is to help you lower your bood pressure -- not raise it You can tell that everyone really cares about you and what happens by the quick responses of Unca and Nancy.) I must admit that these things raise our blood pressure too !T.S.F.L. is a young company and growing quickly -- they're tying to get everything running smoothly and hopefully soon things will be running great. The one thing we can all REJOICE about is the product -- it really works -- we are all losing weight and getting healthy. Our sugar levels are coming down -- really even our B.P's Please know that everyone is working really hard to try to remedy the situation and poor Nancy has been spending lots of time on her knees --- apologizing and otherwise
Jan