Rue La La Blunders, People Lose their Minds

So a couple of weeks ago, Rue La La was like, hey you guys, we are having a birthday party and with the celebration there will be some awesome items available for $5! All you have to do is share their post and log your email address, something I didn't mind doing... I am a Rue La La member already afterall! So you can fast forward a little bit of time, being an invite only sale, people were waiting for the date and time that it went live. At some point that I cannot remember, I saw a post with the date, June 17th, 2013. Like any normal person, I set myself a reminder because I didn't want to miss it. Hey, it's luxury goods for $5!

So yesterday was the blessed day. I got my reminder (I had actually forgotten) so I logged onto Facebook to see if they announced when the sale was starting. RLL posted something about getting an email at some surprise time during the day to announce when the boutique would open. If you scrolled through some of the posts on their Facebook page throughout the day, you could see that people were frustrated already because they didn't know when the boutique would open. I actually posted something on the wall, which garnered some feedback, mostly in support but also some naysayers as well:

Shortly after I posted that message, Rue La La sent the email that everyone was waiting for. The $5 sale starts at 5pm EST, 5 at 5, go figure! I like so many others planned to hit that sale hard at 5:00pm. Yay! Good deals! Well, 5pm came and went and soon it was 5:01... and every one of what seemed like 30 items was sold out. What a bummer! Buuuuuuuut, I guess that is what happens when my internet is slower than those other folks out there...I will say that I was disappointed that I didn't score anything; I mean who wouldn't be? There was a DVF bag that I wanted so very badly, but you know what? I didn't get it, then I went and cooked dinner and watched an episode of  Law and Order. I went on with my life. When I checked back in to see the happenings, I was immediately engrossed in the outpouring of, mostly, undeniably negative feedback to the $5 sale... engrossed and disgusted.

I took snippets of what I felt represented the responses that people felt the need to post on the company's Facebook page. They ranged from genuine disappointment in the very low quantities (hey, I hear that sistah) to the actual creation of a petition to stomp our feet and show Rue La La that we thought their birthday sale was unfair (imagine me pouting like an indignant child then refusing to cheer up)... unfair? a petition? Are we seriously asking people to sign a petition about this?

In talking to my friend, she mentioned that she was embarrassed for these people who were making such a big deal about not getting something from the sale. I will admit that I think that Rue La La did sell this as an amazing sale, not to be missed only to then leave a lot of people undoubtedly miffed that they missed it. Very low quantities was probably not the best way to throw an "epic" 5th birthday party, especially when people seemed to be pretty amped for it. That being said, I really do not think that the kind of responses that came pouring in were necessary. If you were to look at Rue's Facebook page, you'll see that multiple people spent their entire evening making it their personal vendetta to post repeatedly about how unfair they thought the whole situation was. I may have posted a little tidbit saying "hey guys, try to be constructive with your feedback and not be so mean because the poor girl who is their social media manager probably can't help this." I was barraged with insults and I simply had to delete the post. Animals they were, animals I tell you!

So what am I trying to say here? I'm saying WTF people. This reminds me of the disgusting behavior I once experienced at a Walmart on a Black Friday. People nearly tipped over a shopping cart that had an infant in it. This begged two questions, who the hell would bring an infant to Walmart at 4am on Black Friday? and who in the hell would try to tip that very same cart over so they could get a $5 hand mixer? That was the last time I shopped on a Black Friday and this is why I refuse to throw a temper tantrum because I didn't get my way during this sale. As much as I would have loved the DVF bag, I would never go to the extent of harassing the company (or rather the social media manager); that behavior is deplorable. Entitlement and very poor manners came to a head on the Rue La La Facebook page yesterday, and I just wanted you all to know how I felt about it. Congrats to those lucky few that snagged the deals, well done and enjoy. To those thousands that didn't snag something and went on with their lives, I also say well done. Rue La La was nice enough to give us the opportunity to snag a deal, they never promised us the world.