We were the pre-orders. Whenever they switch away from being "unavailable" again, it'll be to "in stock".
ANOVOS issues (ANOVOS ONLY discussion)
- Thread starter Art Andrews
- Start date
We were the pre-orders. Whenever they switch away from being "unavailable" again, it'll be to "in stock".
For what it's worth, I just sent the following to Chris Holm who manages the Lucasfilm Licensing.
If you're so inclined you may wish to do the same... Maybe enough squeaky wheels...
chris.holm@lucasfilm.com
"Hi, Chris.
I will be brief as I'm sure your time is quite valuable.
I am writing to you to day to inform you of the poor business practices and overwhelming lack of customer service at one of your licensed manufacturers. From what I have gathered from the community of enthusiasts like myself it will come as no surprise to you that Anovos productions is operating on the edge of fraudulent. I am a reasonable person and completely understand that the process companies like Anovos must go through from conception, to license approval, production, and eventually shipping is daunting. I have ordered numerous items from them over the years - not a single one was received on schedule. And I'm not talking about a delay of a month or two... I'm talking about years. That said when the item is delivered, I have been quite satisfied with the products.
Specifically today I am writing about an item that I purchased - A Han Solo Gun Belt, which I waited nearly a year to receive only to have it not fit when I got it. I immediately initiated an exchange process where they requested I send photos of the item to show it had not been used. I complied with all of there requests including holding on to the item for nearly 6 months while I waited for new items in the correct size to be in stock. When I received notification through a general website inquiry that the items were once again available I contacted my customer service rep to request my replacement. At that time I was informed that the items were not "IN STOCK" but that they were simply taking more pre-orders for a new production run. I was once again told to wait and would be informed when the new items arrived in my size. 10 weeks ago I received that notice. Within 24 hours I had packaged up the return item and shipped it to them and Paid for the shipping on the replacement. It has now been over 8 weeks since they received it and well beyond the 10 days processing their website states for shipping IN STOCK items. I have been in constant contact with my customer service rep and continuously given no legitimate excuse other than they are doing "everything they can to ship my item." I am nearly at the end of my patience. I would ask for a refund but I would really just like them to ship me my gun belt which they have IN STOCK.
I understand there is probably nothing that Lucasfilm can do about this as I'm sure you have much more important things on your desk. I just felt as a lifelong Star Wars fan it was my duty to inform you of how one of your licensees is treating your brand in respect to your fans and customers.
Thanks So much for your time."
If you're so inclined you may wish to do the same... Maybe enough squeaky wheels...
chris.holm@lucasfilm.com
"Hi, Chris.
I will be brief as I'm sure your time is quite valuable.
I am writing to you to day to inform you of the poor business practices and overwhelming lack of customer service at one of your licensed manufacturers. From what I have gathered from the community of enthusiasts like myself it will come as no surprise to you that Anovos productions is operating on the edge of fraudulent. I am a reasonable person and completely understand that the process companies like Anovos must go through from conception, to license approval, production, and eventually shipping is daunting. I have ordered numerous items from them over the years - not a single one was received on schedule. And I'm not talking about a delay of a month or two... I'm talking about years. That said when the item is delivered, I have been quite satisfied with the products.
Specifically today I am writing about an item that I purchased - A Han Solo Gun Belt, which I waited nearly a year to receive only to have it not fit when I got it. I immediately initiated an exchange process where they requested I send photos of the item to show it had not been used. I complied with all of there requests including holding on to the item for nearly 6 months while I waited for new items in the correct size to be in stock. When I received notification through a general website inquiry that the items were once again available I contacted my customer service rep to request my replacement. At that time I was informed that the items were not "IN STOCK" but that they were simply taking more pre-orders for a new production run. I was once again told to wait and would be informed when the new items arrived in my size. 10 weeks ago I received that notice. Within 24 hours I had packaged up the return item and shipped it to them and Paid for the shipping on the replacement. It has now been over 8 weeks since they received it and well beyond the 10 days processing their website states for shipping IN STOCK items. I have been in constant contact with my customer service rep and continuously given no legitimate excuse other than they are doing "everything they can to ship my item." I am nearly at the end of my patience. I would ask for a refund but I would really just like them to ship me my gun belt which they have IN STOCK.
I understand there is probably nothing that Lucasfilm can do about this as I'm sure you have much more important things on your desk. I just felt as a lifelong Star Wars fan it was my duty to inform you of how one of your licensees is treating your brand in respect to your fans and customers.
Thanks So much for your time."
cinderbike
Active Member
Anyone know anything about these gray market Anovos kits coming from China? Looks like the Praetorian Blasters guys and others are scooping them up and reselling them on Facebook.
Egon
Sr Member
I saw that too - not sure how I personally feel about the grey market stuff, but I’m surprised it took this long for that to pop up given how they’re manufacturing.
oblagon
Sr Member
Anovos probably isn't paying their bills to the factory, so they're selling off production items to cover the debt. Just a theory, but I've seen it happen before.
They should just start cranking product out and selling it, I bet THAT would get the attention of Lfl!
oblagon
Sr Member
Factories don't release product if their client doesn't pay for the production costs/labor. Most likely why Anovos doesn't ship anything.
I think you misunderstood, the factories should just start selling the product, the heck with Anovos or Lfl!
Just kidding!
Just kidding!
1) China refuses to accept the concept of copyright. They plagiarize many, many things, large and small, to pay less and/or try to claim it as Chinese. Cars, watches, sunglasses... They've even got a mock Starbucks -- same font and colors, different name. The factories have a track record of "well, we've got the tooling up -- why not knock out a few dozen/hundred/thousand more of these things we were contracted for and sell them ourselves?" activity. I've seen bad knockoff Rubies items from China, too. It's not just ANOVOS.
2) As I've said previous, I actually know several people who work there, mostly bottom to middle of the totem pole. While they are immensely frustrated at the various delays, both in-house and outside of their control, items not being shipped from China for lack of payment is not one of them. Impatience and anger are understandable reactions to all of this. Gossip-mongering shouldn't be the recourse, though. This is the internet, and rumors have a well-proven way of festering into something quoted as fact.
I don't know much about anything beyond the Star Trek side of things and the FOTK kit, so I can't speak to specific constellations of delaying factors for, say, the General Merrick helmet or the Kylo Ren ensemble. I can try to dig, but the limitations on them of what they can publicly discuss are even more well known to me than the general population of this thread. I'll be talking to a friend there and suddenly the topic of discussion will have to stop, because we've strayed into gag territory. They do their best to obliquely convey what they can, but that only goes so far. It drives them nuts, it drives me nuts, we're all fans so we want to nerd out about stuff, they want to share the successes and rant about the failures, and can't.
I know and have known quite a few vendors and shops over the years on several scales, from one person up to a few dozen actual employees (not including subcontractors). I have seen the whole gamut of legit and BS explanations and excuses. I have seen delays and setbacks of just about every imaginable kind. I have seen people go from being enthusiastic participants in this hobby to utter MIA in scarily short timespans. I have developed a pretty decent sense of when someone's trying-but-overwhelmed versus b***s***-scam-artist. It's why I stood up for Gio when he was going through a couple years of awfulness. Last I knew, he's pretty much back on track. It's why I've stood up for Cal, same general reason, and he's just back home from working out of state and looking forward to clearing the last bit of his backlog. SkyGunBro, KB, RT-Mod... I've seen what they've dealt with and how they handled it -- well or badly -- and stood by them.
Contrariwise, because of the same insights, I haven't been able to be as generous forgiving Dan Laws for his stuff, even though he's resolved it. I never had any interest in eFX, because I saw from the beginning it had some of the snootiest and self-servingest people out of Master Replicas, without the stabilizing presence of the others. I don't stand up for them at all. And MIMIC? Oof. That's a mess and a half.
So when I stand up for ANOVOS, it's not because I'm gullible or a shill or any of that. I genuinely know they're trying (and I've tried to get them to get a business consultant in to see what can be done to address at least some of this crap) and they're fumblingly trying to figur out as they go how to be a bigger operation than they started out as. I cringe every time I see them drop the ball, but I keep rooting for them all the same.
2) As I've said previous, I actually know several people who work there, mostly bottom to middle of the totem pole. While they are immensely frustrated at the various delays, both in-house and outside of their control, items not being shipped from China for lack of payment is not one of them. Impatience and anger are understandable reactions to all of this. Gossip-mongering shouldn't be the recourse, though. This is the internet, and rumors have a well-proven way of festering into something quoted as fact.
I don't know much about anything beyond the Star Trek side of things and the FOTK kit, so I can't speak to specific constellations of delaying factors for, say, the General Merrick helmet or the Kylo Ren ensemble. I can try to dig, but the limitations on them of what they can publicly discuss are even more well known to me than the general population of this thread. I'll be talking to a friend there and suddenly the topic of discussion will have to stop, because we've strayed into gag territory. They do their best to obliquely convey what they can, but that only goes so far. It drives them nuts, it drives me nuts, we're all fans so we want to nerd out about stuff, they want to share the successes and rant about the failures, and can't.
I know and have known quite a few vendors and shops over the years on several scales, from one person up to a few dozen actual employees (not including subcontractors). I have seen the whole gamut of legit and BS explanations and excuses. I have seen delays and setbacks of just about every imaginable kind. I have seen people go from being enthusiastic participants in this hobby to utter MIA in scarily short timespans. I have developed a pretty decent sense of when someone's trying-but-overwhelmed versus b***s***-scam-artist. It's why I stood up for Gio when he was going through a couple years of awfulness. Last I knew, he's pretty much back on track. It's why I've stood up for Cal, same general reason, and he's just back home from working out of state and looking forward to clearing the last bit of his backlog. SkyGunBro, KB, RT-Mod... I've seen what they've dealt with and how they handled it -- well or badly -- and stood by them.
Contrariwise, because of the same insights, I haven't been able to be as generous forgiving Dan Laws for his stuff, even though he's resolved it. I never had any interest in eFX, because I saw from the beginning it had some of the snootiest and self-servingest people out of Master Replicas, without the stabilizing presence of the others. I don't stand up for them at all. And MIMIC? Oof. That's a mess and a half.
So when I stand up for ANOVOS, it's not because I'm gullible or a shill or any of that. I genuinely know they're trying (and I've tried to get them to get a business consultant in to see what can be done to address at least some of this crap) and they're fumblingly trying to figur out as they go how to be a bigger operation than they started out as. I cringe every time I see them drop the ball, but I keep rooting for them all the same.
Simply put there is NO excuse for how they handle their buisiness PERIOD, none what so ever, end of story.
if you do have friends in the industry then you know full well what Anovos HAS done and what they are capable of.
You are not the only one who has friends in the industry and hears things I as well do to, and quite a few on the Board do.
Anovos has a rep for treating people horribly and doing some pretty awful things.
All one has to do is look at these boards and see what lame excuses and contempt they have for their customers.
Recent Case in point, the Next Gen Dress uniform debacle and the run around they have been giving that customer
if you do have friends in the industry then you know full well what Anovos HAS done and what they are capable of.
You are not the only one who has friends in the industry and hears things I as well do to, and quite a few on the Board do.
Anovos has a rep for treating people horribly and doing some pretty awful things.
All one has to do is look at these boards and see what lame excuses and contempt they have for their customers.
Recent Case in point, the Next Gen Dress uniform debacle and the run around they have been giving that customer
I understand all the delays with bringing new licensed stuff from conception through production and delivery...
What I can't understand is why it takes 2 moths to ship me something that is IN STOCK in their warehouse. I used to work customer support for an on-line retailer. If we had an item that was supposed to leave the warehouse but for some reason was stuck in the system we would have some one physically walk to the warehouse and pull the order and put it in a box.
It's just that easy.
Steve
The excuse I got was that they out sourced their shipping dept. ie, it was a co. That ships for many online retailers and thus was the “reason” for the delay.
Supposedly they did away with that so I am not privy to the new “Excuse” that I am sure they have now.
Your experience as well as many others that have been posted here perfectly illustrates just how far this Company has fallen.
Supposedly they did away with that so I am not privy to the new “Excuse” that I am sure they have now.
Your experience as well as many others that have been posted here perfectly illustrates just how far this Company has fallen.
oblagon
Sr Member
It comes down to money again. Wouldn't surprise me if they weren't able to pay for shipping until they sold another item.
Funny how they haven't had any preorders for any of the new Star Wars films and they keep having sales to try and blow out their stock.
Egon
Sr Member
I like all the products I've received from Anovos. I was definitely frustrated with the first run of trooper armor, as I think anyone who ordered that was. I've also ordered "in stock" products ands have gotten them shipped very quickly, (though that was years ago) and then recently "in stock" products took weeks to ship.
I don't particularly have a strong opinion on them either way, but part of me wonders if they're trying to release so many products (except new films, which might be a bad sign) to maintain revenue because it's a tough business. Pretty much everyone who has tried to do this scale hasn't been successful.
We've also seen people like Todd's have major issues with overseas suppliers releasing products, or just disappearing. That would be a bit of egg on the face of a larger company with a license as opposed to Todd's thats more or less, a mom and pop organization.
I don't particularly have a strong opinion on them either way, but part of me wonders if they're trying to release so many products (except new films, which might be a bad sign) to maintain revenue because it's a tough business. Pretty much everyone who has tried to do this scale hasn't been successful.
We've also seen people like Todd's have major issues with overseas suppliers releasing products, or just disappearing. That would be a bit of egg on the face of a larger company with a license as opposed to Todd's thats more or less, a mom and pop organization.
Crookknight
Well-Known Member
The way I see it, there is no "good" reason that prevents a product like the FOTK armor for being shipped for almost 2 years. From an outside view, I would say they are over extended and the money we have all sent them 2 years ago for the FOTK armor is long gone.
Just about 4 weeks away to the end of Fall 2018 shipping season. Can't wait to see my Kylo Ren Standard Ensemble by December 21st.
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