Ann The Gran Community

As promised, we've made some changes today to our Free Designs section. Users of our site can now search for free designs by keyword and browse by category and contributor. Also, we will be adding 10 new designs per week to the New Designs category. If you are an Ann's Club member, you will notice that, in addition to these great new features, download speeds of free designs will have also increased.

If you are not an Ann's Club member, there are still 500 randomly chosen designs that can be downloaded at any one time. This group of 500 designs will change periodically, so if you see a design you like and it doesn't have this download icon beside it, that means it is not available for free download for non-members at that time. If you return to the site at a later date, it is possible that the same design may be available for download to non-Club members.

We understand that this change may cause some inconvenience for some of our users, and we are committed to helping everyone adjust to the new system. It is important to remember that, for more than 11 years, AnnTheGran.com has incurred the full cost of providing the enormous amount of internet bandwidth that is necessary for our users to download what is now approximately 5 million embroidery design files per month. It is thanks in large part to our paid membership base that we have been able to offer the service free for everyone. We recently decided that it would be a much fairer system to ask those who have enjoyed the free service for many years to bear some of the cost.

It was important to us as we made this change that the designs remain free - what is no longer free is full access to all the designs all the time. Even though costs of our bandwidth are getting higher all the time as our userbase grows, we made sure that, for those among our users on fixed incomes, there was as wide a selection of designs as possible for which we would continue to offer completely free access. It is our sincere hope that, for those among you in this situation, you can continue to find what you need on our site.

BB

I just got online and saw the new free design format.  I tried to do the searches but just get returned to the original screen advertising the new format.  Please let me know how to access the free designs.  I am a club member.

Thanks,

Mike

I thought the new designs were randomly added. 

I found one, but I was not looking for just the new ones and I am not sure this is how it is meant to be (selecting new).  I selected a designer and a mix of designs came up.  One had the download icon.

I thought the idea was to select a certain category or designer and if there is a new design, so be it. 

tiger71:

I just got online and saw the new free design format.  I tried to do the searches but just get returned to the original screen advertising the new format.  Please let me know how to access the free designs.  I am a club member.

Mike, please make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page, where the results of your search should be displayed, sometimes in multiple pages. You should be able to download the designs from there without any difficulty.

Pattiann:

I thought the new designs were randomly added. 

I found one, but I was not looking for just the new ones and I am not sure this is how it is meant to be (selecting new).  I selected a designer and a mix of designs came up.  One had the download icon.

I thought the idea was to select a certain category or designer and if there is a new design, so be it.

Pattiann, these are not new designs in our Free Design section, they are the 6000+ designs we've always had. We hit a button and the system randomly chooses 500 of them for download for everyone. When you do a search or look in a category, those are the ones with the download icon.

If you look in the New Designs category, search in Free Designs for "new designs" or click the link in my post in this thread, you'll see the 10 new designs we've added, and you'll see 10 new ones added there every week (ie. there will be 520 in there by the end of 2009 - we already have them picked out). These designs have never been available for free download before and are all professionally digitized. As a result, they are available for download only to Club members.

BB

Hi, I am a member and unable to down load free designs, Help!

Linda

I tried to download free designs but it kept saying I was not a member although I signed in and it looked ok

HI,

I have always downloaded free designs without a problem, but now its telling me not allowed by non members. You really did change.

Judy

Hi BB

I do receive all newsletters from you, does that mean that I am a member and can download these "free" designs?"  I tried to download some of the persian cat ones but it tells me I'm not a club member? Do I need to subsribe and pay a subscription fee

I cannot download the free designs (for example butterflies). Wenn I download there is only a card gift to download, not the design.

I have been trying for two days to download a free design.  I am a member and am also signed on to the site but I keep getting a message that you have to be a member of Ann The Gran club in order to download free designs.

Can you help?

 Thanks.

I tryed to download a free design as you told me but i keep on getting the message that i am not a member.

I am a member but why don't i have to give my password anymore?

eva

Thanks for your comments, everyone. I am not a support person, which means I'm not qualified to answer some of these questions, so I would suggest that those of you having difficulty who cannot find answers in these forums contact our Support Team at support@annthegran.com. They will be happy to help you, whether you are an Ann's Club member or not.

One important thing to clarify - just because you get our newsletters and promotions by e-mail, that doesn't mean you're an Ann's Club member. It means that you are registered on our site and that, when you registered, you checked the box that asks if you wanted to receive updates from us. You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from these notices at any time. Ann's Club membership is a paid service with many extra benefits (click here for information), but it is not mandatory to enjoy our site. You can still download 500 free designs, read forums and blogs, and shop in our online store without being a member, and we are still very happy to have you as a visitor.

BB

Hello Ann

I have tried to download some of your free downloads but after signing in and entering my password, it informs me that the design that I have chosen is for Members only.  What has gone wrong???

Bluey

Hi Ann,

This happened to me also.

Kay

Hi Ann

Hi i am a member on ann the gran and i dont like this new way about the free desighns because we are all having the same problem that we cant download the designs even though we are members

WHAT DO WE DO ?

KERUSHA MOODLEY

I have tried to get some of the "free" designs for download. But can't seem to find the few that non members are allowed. I have really enjoyed your site, and would join. But am laid off right now, and just can't afford to join. I guess I will have to find a new site to use. Hope others don't have as many problems finding your freebies.

I love the new format for finding free designs.  It is nice to be able to qualify what I want, hit a button and there it is.  I went into the free designs wanting something Oriental for Chinese New Year.  I entered Oriental, hit a button and there they were - nice and neat and tidy.

Thanks for the new format,

Claudia

I am also a VERY  unhappy customer.  This is the most confusing way of doing business that I have ever seen.  I can't find anything anymore.I understand about having to pay for the increasing costs of bandwidth, and needing to recoop some additional costs from your customers, but when the website is set up like this, it just makes me want to go away and go somewhere else. 

Why can't you set up the site the way it used to be, but just limit the free designs to 500 for the given time?  The way you ohave set up things now, does not encourage me to make any purchases, single or otherwise.  I appreciated  (VERY MUCH)  the free download designs and was just about to become a bonafied member, but as long as the site is set up this way, I will not join.

It would also be very very nice to have format options for the free designs.  Some people don't have and/or can't afford the software to convert formats.

I am just so very disappointed.

Pam Boyles

One consolation that I can provide - conversion software is free - http://www.pulsemicro.com/ambassadordownload

I have no comment or issue with change, especially regarding free merchandise.

Others may comment differently - this just my opinion.

 I do not understand all the hullabaloo over accessing FREE designs.

What you did was loose customers. I used to be more willing to make purchases from this site because of using the free designs. NOw, I have found another site that will be getting my business.