If you follow us on Instagram or Twitter, you saw a cryptic post referencing Ponzi schemes and multi level marketing and who even knows what kind of Bernie Madoff stuff we're up to. None, really.
We've never done ads, and the few times we've done team sponsorships it's worked out poorly and we've hated it, so we're not doing that. And since most of the wheels we ship are branded with the name of the rim maker instead of our name, whatever branding we might have on there makes almost no impact. But we've got this army of super happy customers who kind of love to evangelize about what we do, so how to make use of that...?
We've got it!! Bottles! Everyone loves a nice water bottle. So why don't we brand a water bottle with who we are (November Bicycles) and what we do (Custom handbuilt wheels) and send a pair out with every wheel build we ship? And better yet, let's include a coupon code with one of them, so you can hand the bottle to a friend and say "November builds great wheels, you should get some, and here's a bottle with a code for $25 off when you do order them." And better better yet, let's track the codes so that when one of your bottle codes gets redeemed, we send you a new bottle to replace that bottle, with a new code so you can start the whole thing all over again.
So actually it is kind of a Ponzi scheme.
We don't 100% know precisely how well this is all going to work, in theory our platform supports this but in practice we haven't done it yet so we'll see. And we got a lot of bottles but we didn't get THAT many so we might run out in 3 weeks (which, if it happens, hooray). But the upshot is that if you've got wheels coming, you've got bottles coming too. And if you love your wheels, and you will, then spread that love would ya?
Unfortunately, we can't offer to retroactively ship bottles to previous purchasers. We've priced the bottles for sale at a ridiculously low $10/bottle, delivered. That doesn't even cover costs of the bottle, mailer, and shipping (shipping alone is about $7). If you've bought wheels in the past, thank you, and our bottles are as good a value as our wheels. Thanks for your understanding.
We might run out of bottles at any moment, or decide the program isn't giving the necessary returns, or discontinue this at any time. It's also limited to retail sales of new wheels.
13 comments
Has November ever deleted comments?
If so, why?
Jay – Your second assertion is just plain false. Your first point, if your last initial is P (only person it could really be) is also untrue. In any case, if our pricing is good and correct, which it is, why do we need to be giving stuff away? If we were charging $1800 for the wheels we sell for $1300, sure. But we’re not. There has been one comment deleted in the history of the blog, and it happened recently. It was more or less an ad hominem attack against a new product, with either a commercial or ignorance bias, and it had no place.
Hey Pugsley, don’t expect too much from them. I have bought 6 sets of wheels from November in since 2010. I got a set of tubeless valves from them once….but it was like pulling teeth to convince them.
Also, they delete comments that they don’t like. Lame.
Sorry, but we can’t offer free bottles retroactively to previous purchasers. Hopefully that’s as understandable as it should be. We’ve priced the bottles at a level that hardly covers costs. They’ll be popular and we could charge more and make some money on them, but we’re not. Thank you for understanding.
I always seem to miss out on the best Ponzi schemes. How do I get in on this one? (I bought wheels 2 years ago, sigh, and they are wonderful).