....dilemma.
Jul. 15th, 2008 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
setraQuite a while ago, I placed an order from goodbye_money. (The longer I deal with this the more ominous the community title sounds.
We're not going to go through the issues that occured with placing and paying for the order, we're just going to start where we are.
Her FAQ states:
"DEADLINE FOR ALL ORDERS AND PAYMENT [is the] 20th of every month."
and
"I will make all these orders at once, and it should take a week or two to get here (less for Animate and Amazon orders, more for *pnish* goods probably). I will let you know as soon as I have the goods in hand."
My payment was sent and fully processed on 4/21/2008. I have paypal proof of this.
The item (HigaMyu) was released on 5/3/2008. (As stated here. (Unfortunately none of the official sites list the release date for this DVD any longer.
The goods in question are from Animate. So per her FAQ, it should have arrived to her at most 2 weeks after the release date. And to me some time 1-2 weeks after that.
On 5/10 she replied to a comment that I'd left about the musical on a different community telling me that:
"(OT--Animate sent me an email--everyone's copies are getting here in one big shipment next week XD;;;; Sorry for the delay!)"
I was surprised and fine with the slight delay. These things take time after all.
However, time passed and we heard nothing about the arrival of the DVDs, and there was no reply to my first comment or two inquiring as to the status of the orders.
Until 5/21/08 (Almost three weeks after the release date of the item and around the time I'd been expecting it to arrive).
She said:
Hi!
I got your comment on wondering what the heck's up with your order, and truthfully I'm in a kind of limbo right now :/
Animate can't/won't send me my order until it can fill everything in it, and apparently they're "getting goods from a vendor" right now, as they said in their last email, and so I can neither cancel my order nor make a NEW one ordering more unless I want to risk getting everything eventually shipped twice :/
Essentially, I'm kind of stuck until they send me SOME kind of notice--either that they can't get the stuff I need, or they've shipped it all. I'm REALLY sorry this is taking so long, and I'm actually going to have to stop taking orders until this gets cleared up, so please just be patient a little longer >_<
As soon as I know anything, I'm going to make a post to g_m about what I plan to do should anything fall through.
That seemed fine, any mail-order company can have problems. I commented twice to this post (on 6/11 and 6/17), just asking for any updates or reply as to the status, but received no replies.
Another week or so later, I sent a message to her personal journal:
Um... hi. Sorry to message your personal journal, but I thought maybe you aren't getting comments from goodbye_money to your email?
I was just wondering if there's been any news from Animate about our goods? I understand that you're very busy and this has been a dramatic process... but $140 is kind of a lot of money to me and I'd just like to know what's happening.
If it's more convenient for you, my email address is ********@*****.com (also my paypal address) or my Yahoo messenger name is *****.
Thank you.
She replied (on 6/27/08):
I get all comments from goodbye_money fine--it's just absolutely nothing has changed. My last post to goodbye_money mentioned that one of the orders had come in (this was a separate and actually much older back-order I'd made some time in January).
Animate successfully got that to me, so I'm hopeful that they'll get me my other orders soon (hopefully before I move since it'll be a real pain in the ass to have my successor have to pay almost $1000 in orders that I'm still waiting on).
There really is nothing I can do at this point--and like I've said, as SOON as I know anything I will post it, because I'm eager to put this whole thing behind me and hopefully never have it happen again (but this is Animate--I'm not holding my breath >_>)
I apologize for the wait, and will be looking at some way to compensate everyone for going through all this, but there's absolutely nothing I can do at this point since I've still got to PAY for this stuff myself :/
The moment I get so much as an email or phone call from Animate, I'll put it on G_M, but for now all I can say is, "Nope, nothing yet" >_<
It's now almost 3 weeks since that last email. And two and a half /months/ since the release of HigaMyu. I understand supply issues, but perhaps, just perhaps, she should be trying to contact Animate about this directly? Or re-reading their emails to be certain that they don't require a response on her part to follow through with the process?
The last 'official' communication from her to any of her buyers was on June 5th. (here)
Stating:
"Update on Animate Goods!
...Kinda XD;;;
I just received an email that one of the DVDs which had been previously listed as out of stock and was unable to be delivered because they were trying to get more from the vendor is ON ITS WAY TO ME!
...While this only applies to one of you, this is good news that they're finally getting me the rest of my order :) I will keep you all updated when I receive further notice!
Again, my sincere apologies for all this trouble -_-;; This is my fault in a big way, and I hope I haven't made a mess of anything for not planning ahead."
Prior to that she had mentioned the issues she was having with animate in this post on 5/23/08.
She still seems to believe that Animate will be sending these to her, but I have reasons to doubt.
For one, Animate now shows HigaMyu as out of stock with an indefinite re release or reorder date.
The other item (Ai no Kotodama) shows no availability issues.
She's also mentioned a couple of times that she's moving, probably in the very near future now, but hasn't given us any updates about the arrival (or not) of the goods or whether or not they would be able to be delivered to her at her new address.
Now, I understand that life is busy. I work in retail 45+ hours a week and handle a /lot/ of special orders for my store. I know that dealing with vendors is hard, that internet access can be hard to get, comments can be hard to reply to, etc. However... this is getting a little ridiculous. And she's posted to her journal numerous times in those silent periods, never mentioning anything about these orders or her move, so I don't know what to think.
So the question is... do I keep asking her about it? I've tried to be nothing but polite so far (though I know my impatience has come through more than I'd like), but I don't even get responses half the time and her replies aren't saying much.
or...
Do I start the Paypal dispute process? I mean, I think this is well past the point of the item/service 'Not arriving as described.'
I understand that she's having issues with Animate, but I'm not entirely willing to keep a significant portion of my money tied up in a venture with someone who doesn't appear too concerned with rectifying the situation.
Guh. For some reason it's on stressful days that I end up worrying about this stuff. Go figure.
EDIT! Thanks for the input (all two of you).
Yesterday, she left a comment intenipuri_myu about HigaMyu and her community:
Well, Animate's got the things in stock, they're just not shipping. I'm about to move, and I suppose since they won't answer any of my questions I'll just tell my successor not to pay for anything that comes to her, and go and buy everything at the store myself when I move up to Tokyo :/
As soon as I get settled in, I'm reopening :) If you aren't friended to it, I recommend doing so, because I'll put up a new post when the hiatus is over.
Today, I sent her another comment to goodbye_money:
"Hi again. Since it's recently come to my attention (from this comment) that you have no intention of paying for the open animate order that we've been waiting on for almost three months, I would like to cancel my order. On 4/21/08, I paid you $144.08 US for one Ai no Kotodama DVD and a copy of HigaMyu. (Paypal mayalynn@gmail.com - Transaction ID #3JH25280DG934953U)
Since I already owned Ai no Kotodama and had tried to cancel that before and there is no way that I'm going to get the first pressing of HigaMyu at this point, I would really like to have the money back. Situations in my life have changed and the money would be more valuable to me now.
Thank you for your efforts on our behalf."
(Viewing Link for the comments I have left to that post.)
Yeah, she shouldn't run around buying new MP3 players and talking about reopening orders when I've only slept like three hours. I get vindictive when I'm tired and hungry.
goodbye_money. (The longer I deal with this the more ominous the community title sounds.We're not going to go through the issues that occured with placing and paying for the order, we're just going to start where we are.
Her FAQ states:
"DEADLINE FOR ALL ORDERS AND PAYMENT [is the] 20th of every month."
and
"I will make all these orders at once, and it should take a week or two to get here (less for Animate and Amazon orders, more for *pnish* goods probably). I will let you know as soon as I have the goods in hand."
My payment was sent and fully processed on 4/21/2008. I have paypal proof of this.
The item (HigaMyu) was released on 5/3/2008. (As stated here. (Unfortunately none of the official sites list the release date for this DVD any longer.
The goods in question are from Animate. So per her FAQ, it should have arrived to her at most 2 weeks after the release date. And to me some time 1-2 weeks after that.
On 5/10 she replied to a comment that I'd left about the musical on a different community telling me that:
"(OT--Animate sent me an email--everyone's copies are getting here in one big shipment next week XD;;;; Sorry for the delay!)"
I was surprised and fine with the slight delay. These things take time after all.
However, time passed and we heard nothing about the arrival of the DVDs, and there was no reply to my first comment or two inquiring as to the status of the orders.
Until 5/21/08 (Almost three weeks after the release date of the item and around the time I'd been expecting it to arrive).
She said:
Hi!
I got your comment on wondering what the heck's up with your order, and truthfully I'm in a kind of limbo right now :/
Animate can't/won't send me my order until it can fill everything in it, and apparently they're "getting goods from a vendor" right now, as they said in their last email, and so I can neither cancel my order nor make a NEW one ordering more unless I want to risk getting everything eventually shipped twice :/
Essentially, I'm kind of stuck until they send me SOME kind of notice--either that they can't get the stuff I need, or they've shipped it all. I'm REALLY sorry this is taking so long, and I'm actually going to have to stop taking orders until this gets cleared up, so please just be patient a little longer >_<
As soon as I know anything, I'm going to make a post to g_m about what I plan to do should anything fall through.
That seemed fine, any mail-order company can have problems. I commented twice to this post (on 6/11 and 6/17), just asking for any updates or reply as to the status, but received no replies.
Another week or so later, I sent a message to her personal journal:
Um... hi. Sorry to message your personal journal, but I thought maybe you aren't getting comments from goodbye_money to your email?
I was just wondering if there's been any news from Animate about our goods? I understand that you're very busy and this has been a dramatic process... but $140 is kind of a lot of money to me and I'd just like to know what's happening.
If it's more convenient for you, my email address is ********@*****.com (also my paypal address) or my Yahoo messenger name is *****.
Thank you.
She replied (on 6/27/08):
I get all comments from goodbye_money fine--it's just absolutely nothing has changed. My last post to goodbye_money mentioned that one of the orders had come in (this was a separate and actually much older back-order I'd made some time in January).
Animate successfully got that to me, so I'm hopeful that they'll get me my other orders soon (hopefully before I move since it'll be a real pain in the ass to have my successor have to pay almost $1000 in orders that I'm still waiting on).
There really is nothing I can do at this point--and like I've said, as SOON as I know anything I will post it, because I'm eager to put this whole thing behind me and hopefully never have it happen again (but this is Animate--I'm not holding my breath >_>)
I apologize for the wait, and will be looking at some way to compensate everyone for going through all this, but there's absolutely nothing I can do at this point since I've still got to PAY for this stuff myself :/
The moment I get so much as an email or phone call from Animate, I'll put it on G_M, but for now all I can say is, "Nope, nothing yet" >_<
It's now almost 3 weeks since that last email. And two and a half /months/ since the release of HigaMyu. I understand supply issues, but perhaps, just perhaps, she should be trying to contact Animate about this directly? Or re-reading their emails to be certain that they don't require a response on her part to follow through with the process?
The last 'official' communication from her to any of her buyers was on June 5th. (here)
Stating:
"Update on Animate Goods!
...Kinda XD;;;
I just received an email that one of the DVDs which had been previously listed as out of stock and was unable to be delivered because they were trying to get more from the vendor is ON ITS WAY TO ME!
...While this only applies to one of you, this is good news that they're finally getting me the rest of my order :) I will keep you all updated when I receive further notice!
Again, my sincere apologies for all this trouble -_-;; This is my fault in a big way, and I hope I haven't made a mess of anything for not planning ahead."
Prior to that she had mentioned the issues she was having with animate in this post on 5/23/08.
She still seems to believe that Animate will be sending these to her, but I have reasons to doubt.
For one, Animate now shows HigaMyu as out of stock with an indefinite re release or reorder date.
The other item (Ai no Kotodama) shows no availability issues.
She's also mentioned a couple of times that she's moving, probably in the very near future now, but hasn't given us any updates about the arrival (or not) of the goods or whether or not they would be able to be delivered to her at her new address.
Now, I understand that life is busy. I work in retail 45+ hours a week and handle a /lot/ of special orders for my store. I know that dealing with vendors is hard, that internet access can be hard to get, comments can be hard to reply to, etc. However... this is getting a little ridiculous. And she's posted to her journal numerous times in those silent periods, never mentioning anything about these orders or her move, so I don't know what to think.
So the question is... do I keep asking her about it? I've tried to be nothing but polite so far (though I know my impatience has come through more than I'd like), but I don't even get responses half the time and her replies aren't saying much.
or...
Do I start the Paypal dispute process? I mean, I think this is well past the point of the item/service 'Not arriving as described.'
I understand that she's having issues with Animate, but I'm not entirely willing to keep a significant portion of my money tied up in a venture with someone who doesn't appear too concerned with rectifying the situation.
Guh. For some reason it's on stressful days that I end up worrying about this stuff. Go figure.
EDIT! Thanks for the input (all two of you).
Yesterday, she left a comment in
tenipuri_myu about HigaMyu and her community:Well, Animate's got the things in stock, they're just not shipping. I'm about to move, and I suppose since they won't answer any of my questions I'll just tell my successor not to pay for anything that comes to her, and go and buy everything at the store myself when I move up to Tokyo :/
As soon as I get settled in, I'm reopening :) If you aren't friended to it, I recommend doing so, because I'll put up a new post when the hiatus is over.
Today, I sent her another comment to goodbye_money:
"Hi again. Since it's recently come to my attention (from this comment) that you have no intention of paying for the open animate order that we've been waiting on for almost three months, I would like to cancel my order. On 4/21/08, I paid you $144.08 US for one Ai no Kotodama DVD and a copy of HigaMyu. (Paypal mayalynn@gmail.com - Transaction ID #3JH25280DG934953U)
Since I already owned Ai no Kotodama and had tried to cancel that before and there is no way that I'm going to get the first pressing of HigaMyu at this point, I would really like to have the money back. Situations in my life have changed and the money would be more valuable to me now.
Thank you for your efforts on our behalf."
(Viewing Link for the comments I have left to that post.)
Yeah, she shouldn't run around buying new MP3 players and talking about reopening orders when I've only slept like three hours. I get vindictive when I'm tired and hungry.
