After some thought, I will finally share some of the details of an hour long phone call I had with Charlie at Anovos in late March, 2019. There are a few details from this call that I’m holding off sharing at this time, but I promise I will share more as soon as I can.
I am the one who created the extensive Anovos Jyn Erso Gloves Post describing the serious manufacturing issues and what caused them, and how they can prevent them. I hope people have found my post helpful!
Anovos Jyn Erso Gloves Received, Horrible Quality! PHOTOS
Anovos has not handled anything particularly well, especially customer service and transparency. I had to go through Stacy Barninger at Disney who was in contact with their CEO to eventually force a phone call from someone at Anovos. I received a call from Charlie at Anovos on March 30, 2019, and the call literally started with him casually, but rudely saying he just created a new phone number and if anyone else got it, he would know it came from me. Ironically, the very next thing he said is that he didn’t understand why I felt the need to call Disney to establish communication with Anovos. So I reminded him that they had turned off live chat for 2 weeks of “maintenance”, and pointed out that he was calling me from a disposable Google voice number, only to immediately scold me not to share his number with anyone, so communication clearly wasn’t a strong suit of theirs.
He then said multiple times that he was sure I had never reached out to Anovos, because their system shows no record of communication or requests from me. I said I would gladly send him an email of the chat transcripts and copies of communications, to prove I have in fact been quite diligent in my unsuccessful attempts to reach Anovos. He then said they don’t do that and explained that obviously no one at Anovos can give out any email addresses or they would get inundated with communication from concerned customers. Another red flag. I responded by telling him it’s not my job to solve everything about how they should run a business, but if he doesn’t trust me and doesn’t have an email for me to send proof, that is a problem. I even said there are temporary email forwarding services, but such services, much like disposable phone numbers, only validate the serious concerns of customers.
He eventually realized he spelled my name wrong, and found the record of my multiple unanswered requests and messages. For a while, the conversation went very well. He shared some info on new prototypes they are working on, some of which still have not been announced. We discussed the serious problems with the Jyn gloves in great detail for at least 30 minutes, and discussed how to prevent those issues with that factory. He did say that no one had complained about the quality, but several people were upset that they were made of Leather. He then said he can’t help it if customers can’t read the description of what they purchase. I thought it was offensive for him to talk to me about other customers, particularly because he was completely wrong. I told him “those people” were probably upset because they did read the description, which originally said the gloves would be made of “Faux Leather”. I told Charlie that while most would think of that as an upgrade, someone who doesn’t wear leather (dead baby animal skin) products would be rightfully upset that the only item Anovos has sent them is made of Leather, contrary to the description. It’s funny that Anovos simply forgot what they had originally promised, since it was such “a long time ago”.
It came up in the conversation that he took over Reggie’s job of sending delay updates about 8 months earlier. We talked about how they could improve, and I explained that people would be happier with regular and honest updates. The community is rightfully upset when you take their money as an interest free loan, and don’t even update them or give them a way to reach you.
I wrapped up the phone call pretty quickly when he sarcastically said he would like to be working on a delay update right now, but instead he had spent the last hour talking to me. At that point I reminded him that he took over updates 8 months earlier, and hadn’t sent one since August of the previous year, so that was a pretty piss poor excuse. I said I think I explained enough design and manufacturing issues with the Jyn Gloves, and how to fix the manufacturing processes that caused each problem to warrant the time he spent on the phone. He actually apologized several times then, and said he was very appreciative of the help on the gloves, but overall he seamed a bit clueless. I said I’ll do him the favor of getting off right now so he can start working on those updates, and that I expected to see them soon as a result. He apologized for “coming off rude”, but I reminded him of how rudely he had started the call about his phone number, plus accusing me of never contacting them, and not giving an email. He said he was very sorry., and I’m positive he could tell I was very pissed at the end of that call. Coincidently, it was just a few days later that the April wave of delay updates from Anovos were sent on April 5, April 9, and April 10. These were the first updates since August, and included the extensive blog about the status of the Kylo Fabric issues, plus the No Refund Policy Change.
It is comical that Anovos doesn’t understand why people complain they are unreachable, unless you want to buy someone else’s preorder slot and send them more money.
