And I thought only the liberals in our government were interested in punishing achievers. I have been a Tupperware representative for over a year. In that time, my online business has managed to sell a good deal of product and I have recruited several dozen new salespersons.
Tupperware has created a web site system whereby any rep can have a Tupperware sales site. Every site begins with \”my.tupperware.com\” and is followed by the representatives name. In my case, the url looks like http://my.tupperware.com/dealofday
In the spirit of innovation, I sought to build a better web site that would look less like a homespun Geocities site and more like a professional Tupperware site. I registered TupperwareDeals.com and began marketing their product, to great success.
A short time later, I received an email from Tupperware\’s legal department informing me that I may not use the domain TupperwareDeals.com as it infringes on their trademark name. Fine. Good. Dandy.
So I registered PlasticBargains.com and recreated the site to sell the Tupperware product. Permission was granted and I spent money to build this site.
Apparantly, the legal department didn\’t really understand what they were approving, as a short time later, I received ANOTHER kind letter from them informing me that my \”dedicated\” web site was in violation of their terms of service. I was told that \”permanent web sites for the sales and promotion of Tupperware products were not permitted\” and that I should use the inferior web site provided by Tupperware. Fine. Good. Dandy.
Not content to use their medieval web site, I decided to incorporate my PlasticBargains content into my existing WorldVillage.com site, thereby adhering to their requirement that my web site not be solely dedicated to the marketing and sales of Tupperware. Since my Tupperware page on WorldVillage.com was just one page among hundreds, I hardly think this constituted a dedicated site.
Surprise, surprise. I received notice this week, AFTER my Tupperware site had been temporarily shut down, that I was once again in violation of their terms of service. The reasoning I received from legal department? Since many distributors would seek to promote Tupperware products on their unprofessionally designed Geocities and Lycos web pages, it may be confusing if they allowed a professionally created site to exist.
What we have here is incredibly backwards thinking! They are punishing someone who is innovating and successfully selling product because they are afraid of the idiots that will do a poor job designing their sites! I am beginning to wonder if Tupperware takes lessons in running their business from the government…
So, I am a bit frustrated. I\’ll get over it. Now go buy some Tupperware so I can be happy again. Remember, it\’s all about the burp.