On-again, off-again for years... “official” fanclub appears almost lifeless
Written by Lars-Erik_Olson on March 13, 2006 to Fans.
NEW YORK (UPDATED) - 
Roxette's "official" fanclub (ORFC), located in the Netherlands, seems to have come to a full stop. While there have been numerous other times over the years when the fanclub became dormant, only to spring back to life so it seemed to some when there was something new to sell or a series of concerts to attend… this time it appears that – as one of their members put it – "the lights are out and the door has been locked."
Even with the fanclub's history of sporadic activity in mind, many fans are once again expressing concern because there has been no outward communication from the ORFC "team" for quite some time and no news updates on their website since November.
One only needs to listen to the chorus of complaints and comments appearing in The Daily Roxette's SmallTalk section and on the Run to Roxette forum (a site operated in cooperation with TDR) to quickly understand that this lack of communication has been interpreted by many as the fanclub having gone out-of-business.
"We can't say anything about it yet," said Iris van der Staaij, one of ORFC's officers, when contacted by telephone yesterday by TDR. "We're negotiating with others who might want to take on a larger role."
The fanclub announced curtly in November that their "fanshop" was closed. No explanations were given, and apparently, no merchandise has been shipped since. Frustrated, angry and nervous fans have reached out to EMI, d&d Management and this newspaper to investigate what has happened, since they have already paid for their merchandise. For months now, no one has been able to get a response from anyone in charge, even though TDR has learned that some members of the fanclub staff have continued to regularly visit these online forums.
d&d Management sent out a message in response to some fans the other day, saying that they are looking into the matter but that the fanclub staff does not reply to mails, and that they therefore need more time to investigate.
"Unfortunately we are aware of the situation and are desperately trying to reach the people responsible for the fanclub to find out what's going on," the management firm wrote in an email to Sandra Muller of the Netherlands. Sandra is still waiting for Marie Fredriksson's "Kärlekens Guld" box set which she paid for back on September 6th. She says she feels "as if she's been cheated."
Tobias J of Sweden tells TDR "they owe me €20 that I probably never will see again, and I know for a fact that they owe many other fans a lot more. What makes me really upset is that they don't seem to care at all." Tobias ordered a video from the fanclub in May last year and paid for it in advance. He then received a mail saying that the video was no longer available but he would get "store credit" for the amount paid – something he says he really didn't want, but had no say in. Tobias ordered a few singles in September, and after that he has heard not a word from them. "I've mailed them lots of times, and looked for them in every forum I know they use, but nothing. Oh, I got one reply once, saying that they had had mail server problems. But if a mail server is down, the mail bounces," Tobias concludes.
Tobias' and Sandra's cases are just the tip of the iceberg. Many other fans report unfulfilled orders totalling 30, 60 – even 100 Euro.
Iris claims otherwise, saying that she thinks "the people complaining are quite a small group." She does, however, admit that the outstanding orders "have been delayed quite a long time."
"You can assure people that everyone will get what they deserve," she told TDR. A meeting is scheduled next month at the home of Eugène Commandeur, the group's current president, to discuss their future. "The only thing that's clear," Iris states, "is that the outstanding orders must be sent, of course."
Should the ORFC choose to disband, it wouldn't be the first time an "official" Roxette fanclub has done so. Running a fanclub can be a very time consuming process, and many such "clubs" are actually operated as for-profit businesses. Such an "official Roxette fanclub" in the United States folded over a decade ago when Roxette's star faded a bit in the U.S. and the club was no longer a profit center for the company running it. Some fans suspect that for a long time now, the perceived rewards no longer seem to merit much of an effort from the ORFC.
Eugène, according to Iris and Ronald den Ouden (with whom TDR also spoke), is currently on vacation, and was therefore unavailable for comment.
Update Jan 30: After this article was published, Official Roxette Fanclub released a message about the subject on their website.
Update Feb 13: The two weeks that the fanclub staff requested and promised to have news out have passed. However, there's still no news.
Update Feb 19: Three days after our latest update the fanclub posted a new message on their website. While the message doesn't give any new information about the fanclub's situation and future, customers with pending orders are promised all their items will be shipped "next week." This means, in some cases, more than six months of waiting for items ordered and paid for. "I won't believe it until I have my CDs in my hands," says a customer from Germany who prefers to stay anonymous, "I have received the same messages from the fanclub before and in the end they never shipped what I ordered. I hope this time it's for real, though."
Update Mar. 3: Not a single order has been reported as having been delivered yet (either directly to TDR or on our affiliate forum, R2R).
Update Mar. 13: According to a message from Sarah, a fanclub spokesperson on the R2R forum, they discovered today that two large bags of merchandise being sent out to fulfill pending orders have sat dormant at the post office for a week and a half due to "a strange miscommunication between the FC and TPG-post (dutch postcompany) about financial issues." Apparently, there was a lack of funds in their account to pay the postage. Sarah reports this issue is being addressed "as soon as possible."
Additional reporting by TDR News Editors Thomas Evensson and Judith Seuma.
Other articles with the same topic
- Fans in Buenos Aires plan big Rox20 party with support from EMI (December 9, 2006)
- Former official Roxette fanclub still owes money to its members (September 28, 2006)
- Roxette tribute band Hot Joy forms in Argentina (September 25, 2006)
- "Roxette" to possibly play live vs. (Dancing) DJs in Australia (September 8, 2006)
- Roxette's management decides not to endorse another "official" fanclub (March 27, 2006)
120 comments
sleepingSingle said on January 28, 2006 09:21:
Good that you picked up that topic...
I just wanna say that they owe me (and many other fans) the reviews we paid for, cause we are still members. I don´t expact ot get some money back...
Well, we don´t we create a “new” fanclub?
May be TDR could be the official rox fanclub?!?
I would not hasitate to be a part of the new fanclub, to be a part of the “headquoter”...
rox-kuryliw said on January 28, 2006 10:33:
roxette themselfs should fund the fanclub to be honest. They make enouh money from us to be honest. Interent is the way forward for bands.
mbatalla said on January 28, 2006 10:42:
I think it have no sense that the OIRFC is placed in Netherland. It would be easier that all it cames from Sweden...
And I think Roxette never had a real Fanclub. It was a Fanshop with some magazines that you know.... from time to time...And always with some rox and related activities..
that’s my humble opinion
Harplinge96 said on January 28, 2006 11:29:
“We’re negotiating with others who might want to take on a larger role.”
How long they are already looking for that and why not telling us? Why was it quiet and calm around them all the time and only when the staff could meet Per they had time and there was a little bit on the net?
If I see that I don’t have the time etc. anymore I have to make things clear very soon and don’t wait until it is like it is now! Now everything is in a mess, fans are disappointed etc.
I really hope everything will be solved soon. I wish Roxette a good FC, whoever it will do it! The old staff or new ones. I don’t care as long as it is a good one again.
I quit my membership already some years ago as it wasn’t the FC I wanted to be part off (not enough ideas in my opinion and the reviews came to late or nothing at all, had problems with the shop etc. etc. etc.). If the new FC would be a good one I would also think about being a member again.... I want one who cares for the fans!!!
Have they ever did a review for the GT Tour? I think they were on the Gt birthday party and on the concerts....
What about Maries latest album, the exhibition etc... SOAP!!!!! There was so much you could write about!
What about competitions, meetings etc.???
camillarox said on January 28, 2006 14:45:
@ Lars-Erik and team: it was about time you brought this to the light!
I can already hear the so-called meeting they are supposed to have next month: “Hey guys, SOAP international launch, Roxette’s come back and 20th anniversary.. we will have to sacrifice ourselves and work for a couple of months so we can get our freebies, then we forget about the FC for another year. All agree?” Of course they will be gone again as soon as everything is over. Sorry guys but nobody believes you anymore.
What I wonder is: will Per&Marie and Dimberg be stupid enough to fall for it and to be laughed at their faces again? Or will you be decent enough to admit you failed and that you don’t care anymore, and stop damaging Roxette’s image and cheating on the fans?
One of the best sentences:
Iris claims otherwise, saying that she thinks “the people complaining are quite a small group.” She does, however, admit that the outstanding orders “have been delayed quite a long time.”
Good customer-service-oriented thinking! You should feel sorry and bad and worried even if only ONE! of the members/customers is not happy with your services.
Pascal said on January 28, 2006 16:27:
There’s no need for a Roxette fanclub.
TDR & official sites : news
CDON, CD-WOW, Amazon, ... : albums and singles
sandyam said on January 28, 2006 19:14:
Very good article!
I am very happy that all this fanclub mess sees the light of day now. It’s been going on for too long.
daniel_alv said on January 28, 2006 19:17:
why don’t they just make TDR as a official site instead?
per_mson said on January 28, 2006 20:06:
@daniel: Because they don’t want it I guess. As long as they are independent they are allowed to write whatever they want, which is not the case with an official status.
Great article btw! :-)
steven said on January 28, 2006 20:34:
“why don’t they just make TDR as a official site instead?”
Because that would mean certain Mods would have to clean up their act too.
Harplinge96 said on January 28, 2006 21:05:
Daniel, I alos think the same as per_mson. But maybe the FC and TDR could coorperate together.
I’m sure the mamagement would take the TDR moderators for the FC as they are doing a good job otherwise they wouldn’t get emails and news from the mangement. But for me it is Ok that there will be still TDR with all the news and a FC on the other side.
Sparvogamarie said on January 28, 2006 23:29:
Excellent reporting TDR, what a well informed article.
I know the guys who ran the Roxette fanclub, and they are all good decent people. However, they are also just regular people who are living their own lives and not terribly interested in running a fanclub. I know that a couple of the leading members have children now, and the girl who ran the fanshop for a while had a very busy career.
I always thought the fanclub should be run by professionals, other bands have management companies for that sort of thing. The big problem with fans running something like this, is that fans lose interest when “real life” takes over. They are also not terribly professional - during the Room Service tour they were in charge of handing out the backstage passes. Per and Marie specifically stated that they want only fans who have never met them to win the passes. But I happen to know certain people who HAVE met them MANY times won passes if they were friends with the FC. That really sucked because I have friends who never met Rox who missed out, while others got to meet them for the 25th time.
BTW, lol @ Steven.
Max-Tob said on January 29, 2006 08:26:
@Sparvoga: best reply I’ve read in ages around here. It’s so definitely absolutely true what you’ve said about fans having ups and downs in their interest for roxette (usually a “down” doesn’t even become an “up” anymore) which sadly but truely leads to a chaos when it comes to “business”. Ppl there were running the fanclub because of their enormous personal interest in roxette&related stuff; when the personal motivation gets low, it’s probably difficult and quite embarrassing to tell the others “hey, I’m kinda of tired of per, i don’t feel like updating, writing, shipping, replying anymore...won’t you guys find someone else instead?”...Usually it’s very hard to admit the decreasing of interest even to oneself, so of course the outcome is awful sometimes because the others still having a high interest in roxette tend to blame you directly and indirectly for your “unfaithfulness”...
A fanclub runned by fans is indeed a business after all; but it has a different engine from any other organized and economically-motivated activity: huge and deep personal interest. It goes just fine as long as people are kind-hearted and motivated. It tends to go down when people do not feel like being themselves anymore in such a a circle...I don’t know anyone from the Official fanclub, but if you said they got kids, i guess their interested naturally decreased to 0...And once the problems appear (other fans complaining, other sites complaining, the rivals complaining, even d&d management complaining) it becomes a vicious circle: you can’t keep up, you don’t even feel like giving explanations on something that simply leaves you cold or even annoys you, you feel like being miles away from the problem etc. etc. Of course that from a reasonable angle these reactions are just non-sense...after all, fans all around the world have been cheated or delayed and no one can accept that, not even the guilty ones I guess, under some normal circumstances. But this is different: it happened because their commitment to the fanclub was dealing with fan-love, not with manager brains. In my opinion, they should have stepped out at some point and say to the world: “we can’t handle it anymore for some reasons; find someone else please”.
Baby-C said on January 29, 2006 11:03:
@ Tobbe and sparvogamarie:
You are both absolutely right. I can also to some point see the reason for the fanclub not working as it should for the last years. Sure they have personal reasons for not being able to, or even wanting to, keep the FC running. But, I can not accept the fact that they haven’t been honest with us from the beginning when they realised that they didn’t have the time to continue and said “hey, we can’t do this anymore for... some reason.. is there anyone else that want to take over?”
And.. a huge reason for them NOT to take the step and let someone else take over, I think must be that they still wanted the advantages that comes with running the official FC, because they propably still fans, just not that interested in commiting their spare time to make other fans happy.
camillarox said on January 29, 2006 11:26:
@ Baby-C: “And.. a huge reason for them NOT to take the step and let someone else take over, I think must be that they still wanted the advantages that comes with running the official FC, because they propably still fans, just not that interested in commiting their spare time to make other fans happy.”
I think you hit the nail on the head here! :-)
It’s pretty obvious as well. The fanclub has been going downhill for at least 2 years, only to come to life when Per and later Gyllene Tider went on tour.
Harplinge96 said on January 29, 2006 11:35:
Yes, of course they had personal reasons, too. Esp. the last 3 comments were very good in that point.
About winning meetings. I’ve heard (so I cannot tell you if it true as I wasn’t involved!!!) that they had also tickets to the concert in London 95 and instead making a competition under the fans they went to the concert themself...
Personally I like the idea more that Fans are leading a FC, but I think it is just fair that you give your responsibility to another person if you see that your interests have changed.... for which reason ever. Your are pregnant 9 months e.g....... Enough time in my eyes to find someone else....
And here it goes also about money and an image for other persons. That is a point I believe you just can’t say “I don’t feel like that... I just keep my mouth shut and see what is coming”.....
I don’t know the FC staff personally. Just met Iris and Ronald during a FC meeting for a second to ask something and the meetings were always great!!! So I can’t say anything against them and that is also not my intention, but the way all of them behave in case of the FC ist not OK.
Maybe one of them has a busy career now, but they can she go to the GT Birthday party, the GT Tour, the Interview with Per etc..... Why isn’t the career so busy at all then she can get such stuff?
If I see something doesn’t fit to my personal life anymore, for which reasons ever, I have to give the responsibility away. Everything else is not OK!
You are right, they are not professional, but they took a responsibility with taking that job. Imagine that would go to court how they react since month (or at least non-react), but take the money, stop inform people etc. I am not sure if in this case the court would say”You know their lifes changed and they are not professional. You cannot expect them doing a good work then. It is your own pity.”............
If there will ever be a FC leads by Fans again, I think the management shoudl control more what they are doing.
CRIZ said on January 29, 2006 13:29:
Well, getting childrend is natural, loosing interest too. Life is changing all the time. But why didn’t they tell us???? That’s the main point I don’t understand. They just disappeared.
Harplinge96 said on January 29, 2006 13:53:
True words in just one line!! I also think that is the MAIN question!
Kiwein1 said on January 29, 2006 14:17:
Sad enough for those who still have to get some money back from the FC (amounts around 1-50 Euro)...
CRIZ said on January 29, 2006 14:49:
@Kiwein > that’s right..
..and I was so stupid too and renewed my membership last year..Not my best idea it seems...
ngriffioen said on January 29, 2006 16:46:
It’s a lot of hard work managing a fanclub and it’s all voluntary and not paid for. We shouldn’t forget about that. The freebees is what they got back in return of their efforts. And I know myself how many hours went into managing the FC. It has been good for years, and it’s true that the last few years it’s too quiet. I can imagine the fanclub is down now. Ronald and Iris got a daughter last year and Eugene and Marielle got a premature little girl! Life has more aspects than only the fanclub for them, people raising a family will know what I mean ;-). So it might be time to stop and Roxette’s management has to arrange that I guess. It’s hard to keep everyone satisfied when you run a FC voluntarily. And they were totally dependend on the cooperation of the management and EMI.
Besides, I know how much effort they’ve put in the fanshop and there are many happy fans who got exactly what they ordered. The stories we hear are of the things that went wrong. Logical, that’s how it usually works in life. And I know they do intend to give everyone the things they deserve. It’s sad that people paid money for something they didn’t receive. I hope this can be solved soon. But when the nagging and complaining of fans is the only thing you get back, I can imagine you are not really motivated anymore. And believe me there was always something wrong. It’s time to move forward, I hope for better times and a renewed Roxette fanclub who-ever will run it! I’m glad TDR is still up and running and providing us with the news whenever it becomes available. Thanks guys!!!
Harplinge96 said on January 29, 2006 17:24:
Good and neutral words!!! :-)
Yes, of course they did also good things. No doubt about that. They had also good ideas and I believe a FC is hard work which takes a lot of your freetime. I think that can nobody ignore that there have been really good times as well.
And if you get a little family you have other priorities in life. For sure!!!
I just wished they would solved that problem earlier. But as it seems evertything will be worked out somehow....
Have fun! :-)
xarrrr said on January 29, 2006 18:27:
wow.... its nice to see how two faced some people can be. yes, so the people running the FC may not have as much time as they used to (family etc... personal life!) but still, they have not had the same support from EMI etc... for a while now. its nice to see how people that the fanclub have let win meet&greets, release party tix etc... are showing their “support” right now. real nice.
klair said on January 29, 2006 18:43:
Nice one Xarrrr & ngriffioen
Not defending or slagging anyone off, but there is ALWAYS 2 sides to every story
Just my thoughts
Harplinge96 said on January 29, 2006 20:32:
Yes, every story has two sides... well mostly...
And I’ve never won anything from the FC so you can count me out ;-)
Baby-C said on January 29, 2006 20:37:
@xarrrr:
I feel a little bit guilty here. Sure, I have won my share of meetings and tickets from the FC and ofcourse I’m happy about that. No question about it. They’ve done a really good job with that. Ofcourse they did.. they got free tickets aswell, and a meet & greet contest only means that they get to meet P&M or Gyllene Tider at every time the m&g was to take place.
But the fact is still there... they could have communicated a lot better with it’s members, they could have found someone else that could take over a long long time ago, before the ship started to sink on it’s own. Then maybe the FC could have been saved. Now.. I think it’s hard for anyone to take over and get the water out of the boat.
And.. there might be a good reason for the management, or EMI, or whatever, to not be as supportive the last years. Ever thought about that?
camillarox said on January 29, 2006 21:10:
@ xarrr: a fanclub is supposed to organise such contests, meet & greets, arrange tickets, et cetera for its members. They haven’t done any special favour to anybody, just their work.
klair said on January 29, 2006 21:39:
@ camillarox : yes of course a fanclub is ’supposed’ to organise such contests, but many people are saying that there is no point to a FC. If there is no FC, then no contests - the other emi sites only concentrate on Swedes (such as the recent M&G london trip with Per was for Swedes only) and that is not fair on everyone else in the world. At least the FC contests are for everyone - and if that isn’t ’special’ or worth keeping, then, well, I think there is something wrong in your thinking.
And on your earlier post - the FC *DO* care, they are just struggling to sort the problem out. But it *IS* being sorted, and the management *DO* know, even before TDR decided to have their say.
Kiwein1 said on January 28, 2006 07:59:
Nice words and a good article, LEO! Actually I always thought being part of an official fan club must be something to be proud of. In times of internet it must be possible to renew the OFRC soon with new and fresh people who stand for it.
And I really hope that ppl get their stuff soon!
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