We’ve gotten a LOT of comments and emails the past few days about Zaycon shutting down. Many more than I expected — and many that have caused me to step back and consider how I handled this and what I should have done differently.
Some of you have written in very upset at me and a few of you have made some very strong accusations against me that were not true at all (things like accusing me of making thousands and thousands of dollars from them — which I didn’t! — or that I knew this was going to happen and scammed you all. Trust me, if you aren’t getting your chicken, you can for sure know that they aren’t going to be paying any bloggers any money! More on that below.)
But others of you have brought some things to my attention that concerned you or where you felt like I didn’t handle things well and I want to take some time to address your concerns, to issue you an apology and explanation, and give you further information and what I would recommend that you do.
Some Backstory
First off, I was really bothered when I discovered on Monday evening that Zaycon’s website was shut down and their social media accounts were gone — without any warning or explanation. It took me as much by surprise as it did you.
For years, I had heard nothing but amazing things about Zaycon. Readers had recommended them and friends had raved about them.
However, because I didn’t have personal experience with them, I held off posting about them other than mentioning them occasionally when people asked for ideas of how to save on meat.
Many bloggers encouraged me to signed up for their really fantastic referral program, but I didn’t because I didn’t have any personal experience with them. Even though so many people loved them, since I hadn’t tried them out, I didn’t feel comfortable doing a post about them.
My sister loved them, though, so I had her sign up for their referral program and use her own link when she would mention them. Her family lives on a tight budget and I was excited for her to be able to earn some free Zaycon credit from sharing her link in her grocery posts.
Near the end of last year, I believe, they started offering amazing specials to new customers. I began paying attention to these as they were incredible deals and I realized that they were so good that, based upon everything I had heard about Zaycon and how great it was, I should share these deals with you all.
I signed up for the referral program and we posted a few times at the beginning of 2018. However, soon after we started posting their deals, we got an email saying that they were closing down their blogger referral program and it sounded like they were tweaking some of their model because their business was struggling to be profitable as a result of the referral program and the incredible deals they had been running.
I’ve seen this happen with companies in the past and, in most cases, they will restructure how they operate and come back stronger. I decided we wouldn’t post about their deals again until they worked through their issues.
Sadly, it sounds like things were much, much worse than they made it out to be. I’m not sure what all went down, but I was just as shocked as you were to find out on Monday evening that they had shut everything down. I didn’t know much at that point, but I felt like we should post what we knew to alert you all.
An Apology
My goal is to always keep things upbeat and encouraging here. I never want to make this a place of negativity or criticism.
Because we didn’t know what had gone down with Zaycon and I didn’t want to speculate or be an alarmist, we decided to just state the facts and share what we knew in our post here.
Unfortunately, I had no idea how many of you had ordered from them recently and had paid them money and had not received your product yet. Had I known this, I would have probably approached the post differently.
I want to publicly apologize for upsetting many of you in my initial post and for not being more thoughtful and considerate in how I approached things. I am incredibly sorry that so many of you had ordered based upon my recommendation and aren’t going to get your order. I’m also so sorry that there is a possibility that some of you might not be able to get your money back.
An Explanation
I also felt the need to address some of the accusations swirling about me. Some of you have sent me very hateful comments accusing me of making thousands and thousands of dollars posting Zaycon deals and saying that it’s not fair I collected this money from them and left you all out to dry.
First off, while they did have a great blogger referral program, because I only posted about them a few times, what I earned from them was very small in comparison to what many bloggers who have personally used them and promoted them for years made.
In addition, because they had set up their program to only pay us a month or so after people actually picked up their meat and because people usually were ordering at least a month or two or three out, we only received two payments from them.
So all this to say, if you ordered through my link and didn’t get your order, we also didn’t get any referral money for it. But while we won’t ever be able to collect this money (and I would never want to collect it if you didn’t get your order!), you CAN likely get your money back by contacting your bank.
What You Need to Do
Based upon the information that has come out in the past two days, I would move well beyond suggesting what I initially did: that you consider contacting your bank or credit card company to dispute the charges.
Instead, I would strongly urge you to contact your bank or credit card company to dispute the charges. We’ve already heard from many people who have gotten their money back. I am hopeful that you will be able to get your charges reversed, too!
What We Can Learn From This
My biggest takeaway: Even the most reputable of companies can be experiencing financial issues that catch us all by surprise. Always make sure that if there’s any risk involved or you are purchasing a product that you won’t be getting for a few months, that you purchase it with some form of payment where you can dispute the charges.
As for me, I am committed more than ever to continue to vet companies and do the very best I can to bring you only the best deals from companies I feel I can stand behind.
Thank you for your patience and grace in the middle of this mess. I am so grateful for each of you!
