Egon Spengler
Master Member
Double standards man...
ANOVOS just canceled my order!
- Thread starter Karyudo
- Start date
Uncontested
Jr Member
I doubt it, seeing as how they are back to 'pre-order' status with Jyn's outfit.
P.S. THis is why I complain here and not Facebook. I know if they got my name at this point they'd probably cancel my order too. I'm at 2 years and 2 months waiting for the Snow Trooper.
Egon Spengler
Master Member
I've seen people on this board grab pitchforks and torches for sellers on here taking orders for new items while still not getting items paid for out to other members. I still remember forever ago a big mess with Matrix coats being paid for and not made and people waiting forever for them. I don't get why an outrage exception is made for Anovos. Sure, maybe the stuff they make is amazing, but it doesn't really matter if they keep screwing their customers around making them wait years for items. They have a F Better business Bureau rating for a reason and it's not because someone is a butt hurt fan boy. People are waiting ridiculously long times for their stuff. A friend of mine waited a year for his item. It wasn't a suit of armor, it wasn't some overly complex full costume, it was an imperial officer hat. Yeah there are good ways and bad ways to talk to customer service reps. I've worked in retail and it's true that being nice can go a long way, but it blows my mind how many people excuse the delayed items of up to a year or more as some how okay. It's not. Especially not coming from a licensed company. If you got what you ordered and you're happy with it, that's awesome. I'm glad you did, but that doesn't make it "okay" that others have been waiting years.
Timmythekid
Sr Member
Why? Have you been behaving like a rear-end in a top hat to their CS people? Anovos isn't in this game to maliciously cancel orders, so I've got to think if you're worried that they might proactively cancel yours, I can only imagine you've got some concerns about how you've behaved publicly. As a more general note, there's a very peculiar thing I've noticed in the last few years when people deal with CS staff. The old chestnut seems to have morphed to "The customer is always right...therefore I am totally justified throwing a tantrum and acting like a complete rude little tool to customer service reps. Because they can, and will be motivated to produce a plastic spaceman helmet out of their rectums for me. But now, because I'm mad, it should be free. With some apology money. Because 'ME'.". Nope. Here's the thing kids, good companies will always try to appease unhappy customers as best they can. ALWAYS. But....BUT...they will ALSO stand behind their people when that unhappy customer becomes abusive. Customer service reps are NOT there to be your punching bag if and when you go all Veruca Salt on their behinds. You want to get nasty? Fill your boots, but no company is REQUIRED to put up with your nonsense, and you should expect to be politely exited.
cboath
Master Member
No one is saying he shouldn't be upset.
It's the way you conduct yourself when upset that is the issue.
If you log in to CS chat service and after the 'Hi, my name is Fred, how can I help you?', and you launch into a diatribe that starts off, I'm very very very mad at you, you suck, give me stuff you worthless company, etc. You paint yourself as a problem and that's what is going to be seen by customer service. The goal is to get them to recognize you HAVE a problem not that you ARE the problem.You state your problem and move from there, you don't go in guns blazing if you expect something to be worked out.
The OP was about him getting his order cancelled without him cancelling it. It wasn't simply to express anger and frustration at it taking 2 years. Those threads already exist. Then it got combative after people pointed out why CS just might have an issue with him.
It's the way you conduct yourself when upset that is the issue.
If you log in to CS chat service and after the 'Hi, my name is Fred, how can I help you?', and you launch into a diatribe that starts off, I'm very very very mad at you, you suck, give me stuff you worthless company, etc. You paint yourself as a problem and that's what is going to be seen by customer service. The goal is to get them to recognize you HAVE a problem not that you ARE the problem.You state your problem and move from there, you don't go in guns blazing if you expect something to be worked out.
The OP was about him getting his order cancelled without him cancelling it. It wasn't simply to express anger and frustration at it taking 2 years. Those threads already exist. Then it got combative after people pointed out why CS just might have an issue with him.
ANOVOS went from doing a modicum of work with Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica costume stuff to taking on the Star Wars high-end-costume stuff in addition to. They at first followed the same practice that had worked with those other properties... But let's face it, Trek fandom has faded substantially since Voyager went off the air, fans of Enterprise and the Abrams reboot films have not been of the same hardcore-costume-wearing-nerd variety as of old-school Trek, and you can hang an exponent on that for the niche-ness of their TOS BSG stuff. They also had much more control over the materials for those properties. Custom fabric runs, in hundred-yard rolls stay on hand for a while with the business they were getting. Only a few pieces of hardware, like rank pins and such. Can't even remember if they offered the BSG pilot helmet, but that would have been the largest hard-costume piece they had to deal with.
With Star Wars, they got hit with a tsunami. Orders of magnitude more interest, a crap-ton more costumes to prioritize, analyze from scratch, flowchart, master, and get into production, and a whole new level of out-of-their hands corporate approval, for everything from finallized designs to packaging to safety to frikkin' box art. All of it has to be run by both LFL and Disney before it can move forward. Early on, they were operating the same as they had before, and ultimately had to face the reality that that business model* wouldn't work for their Star Wars line, and they've not only completely reworked their approach, but are still doing so. They've stopped doing the tiering system, they've stopped taking pre-orders before the masters have been fabricated, and are mostly waiting 'til the finished product is at least on the boat, if not on-site in the US. We honestly have no idea how early they were privy to new designs from TFA or Rogue One, and most of the things they've rolled out since their initial batch of shopped-around proof-of-concept intended offerings (Bespin Luke, Han holster rig, Snowtrooper, etc.) have been pretty prompt in delivery, minus a lingering nonzero number of issues.
[*Taking pre-orders to gauge relative interest and offering deep discounts for those who get onboard early, all well before the finished item has been locked in, let alone made in quantity. Worked for, for instance, the Star Trek uniforms they made locally from fabric that was relatively easy to source, and a corporation whose approval process was hand-wavingly simple.]
But even without talking to people from ANOVOS on a daily basis, I know they're doing everything they can think of to fix those remaining problems -- people who ordered the same thing around the same time, one getting the thing, another still waiting, for instance; resolving whatever lingering unforseen issues have held up their earliest offerings -- that sor tof thing. No one sets out to let their customers down. No one likes admitting they made a mistake or screwed up or underestimated their capabilities. I know quite a few fan fabricators who would rather focus on trying to get caught up on their backlog than sit at their computer for hours a day answering impatient or irate customers, and I imagine the CS folks at ANOVOS dread getting online to see what each new days has to offer.
My own personal CS experience (on the giving end)... I was the assistant manager of the comics side of a comic and gaming store. One of our pull-box holders special ordered a Diamond Select statue of Dawn (the one that came out in '98). It never showed up. He was frustrated, but understood once we placed the order it was out of our hands. I was at SDCC for the trade professionals preview night that year, and a bunch of shop owners were hanging out that evening and I overheard discussion of this statue. They were complaining that Diamond had drastically underestimated demand and shorted just about everyone who had ordered. One shop owner was mad that he only got two of the five he had ordered for his display case. When I mentioned we'd only ordered one as a special order for a customer and never got it, they were livid. Everyone agreed all shops that had ordered should have received at least one before divvying up any multiples. Regardless, the next day I called the customer and told him what had happened at the distribution end, and told him now that I knew they were out there we were going to start looking on the secondary market. He had ordered in good faith, and I was going to try to deliver before admitting defeat. We found one about a week and a half later, and I let him know. He wanted to know how much above the original list price, and I told him he had ordered a hundred-dollar statue and we weren't going to take a penny more (well, plus sales tax, obviously). While he was mad at first, he treated me civilly and recognized it wasn't my fault. If he had, I would definitely not have gone out of my way for him.
The scale of all of this is definitely larger, but I can guarantee you ANOVOS don't like the fact that they've got customers waiting going on three years for stuff that they never expected to take so long to get completely fulfilled; if they could do more to resolve it than what they're already able to do and doing, they would; that their waiting customers are angry and increasingly impatient; and that what they crave most right now is patience and understanding. They're not trying to screw anyone over. They're not pyramid-scheming things, not using old pre-order money to pay for mastering other pieces, not setting out to defraud... They are getting better and better at delivering product. I can't profess to know what the persistent hangups are on those still unrealized early offers, and I'll echo others with knowledge of the issues of scheduling time at Chinese factories as to why some later orders of a product have been filled, while some of the same product remain outstanding. But apropos of that, I don't know what peculiarities of their order-management "system" sees orders being filled almost randomly, regardless of order date.
I should also say, I don't have a dog in this fight. I have not yet ordered anything from ANOVOS, but I appreciate much of what they've offered thus far. If they do Rogue One Stormtrooper armor and/or Tank Driver, I'll likely be all over that. But everything else thus far has been stuff I'm either nor personally interested in, or have already taken care of to my satisfaction.
--Jonah
With Star Wars, they got hit with a tsunami. Orders of magnitude more interest, a crap-ton more costumes to prioritize, analyze from scratch, flowchart, master, and get into production, and a whole new level of out-of-their hands corporate approval, for everything from finallized designs to packaging to safety to frikkin' box art. All of it has to be run by both LFL and Disney before it can move forward. Early on, they were operating the same as they had before, and ultimately had to face the reality that that business model* wouldn't work for their Star Wars line, and they've not only completely reworked their approach, but are still doing so. They've stopped doing the tiering system, they've stopped taking pre-orders before the masters have been fabricated, and are mostly waiting 'til the finished product is at least on the boat, if not on-site in the US. We honestly have no idea how early they were privy to new designs from TFA or Rogue One, and most of the things they've rolled out since their initial batch of shopped-around proof-of-concept intended offerings (Bespin Luke, Han holster rig, Snowtrooper, etc.) have been pretty prompt in delivery, minus a lingering nonzero number of issues.
[*Taking pre-orders to gauge relative interest and offering deep discounts for those who get onboard early, all well before the finished item has been locked in, let alone made in quantity. Worked for, for instance, the Star Trek uniforms they made locally from fabric that was relatively easy to source, and a corporation whose approval process was hand-wavingly simple.]
But even without talking to people from ANOVOS on a daily basis, I know they're doing everything they can think of to fix those remaining problems -- people who ordered the same thing around the same time, one getting the thing, another still waiting, for instance; resolving whatever lingering unforseen issues have held up their earliest offerings -- that sor tof thing. No one sets out to let their customers down. No one likes admitting they made a mistake or screwed up or underestimated their capabilities. I know quite a few fan fabricators who would rather focus on trying to get caught up on their backlog than sit at their computer for hours a day answering impatient or irate customers, and I imagine the CS folks at ANOVOS dread getting online to see what each new days has to offer.
My own personal CS experience (on the giving end)... I was the assistant manager of the comics side of a comic and gaming store. One of our pull-box holders special ordered a Diamond Select statue of Dawn (the one that came out in '98). It never showed up. He was frustrated, but understood once we placed the order it was out of our hands. I was at SDCC for the trade professionals preview night that year, and a bunch of shop owners were hanging out that evening and I overheard discussion of this statue. They were complaining that Diamond had drastically underestimated demand and shorted just about everyone who had ordered. One shop owner was mad that he only got two of the five he had ordered for his display case. When I mentioned we'd only ordered one as a special order for a customer and never got it, they were livid. Everyone agreed all shops that had ordered should have received at least one before divvying up any multiples. Regardless, the next day I called the customer and told him what had happened at the distribution end, and told him now that I knew they were out there we were going to start looking on the secondary market. He had ordered in good faith, and I was going to try to deliver before admitting defeat. We found one about a week and a half later, and I let him know. He wanted to know how much above the original list price, and I told him he had ordered a hundred-dollar statue and we weren't going to take a penny more (well, plus sales tax, obviously). While he was mad at first, he treated me civilly and recognized it wasn't my fault. If he had, I would definitely not have gone out of my way for him.
The scale of all of this is definitely larger, but I can guarantee you ANOVOS don't like the fact that they've got customers waiting going on three years for stuff that they never expected to take so long to get completely fulfilled; if they could do more to resolve it than what they're already able to do and doing, they would; that their waiting customers are angry and increasingly impatient; and that what they crave most right now is patience and understanding. They're not trying to screw anyone over. They're not pyramid-scheming things, not using old pre-order money to pay for mastering other pieces, not setting out to defraud... They are getting better and better at delivering product. I can't profess to know what the persistent hangups are on those still unrealized early offers, and I'll echo others with knowledge of the issues of scheduling time at Chinese factories as to why some later orders of a product have been filled, while some of the same product remain outstanding. But apropos of that, I don't know what peculiarities of their order-management "system" sees orders being filled almost randomly, regardless of order date.
I should also say, I don't have a dog in this fight. I have not yet ordered anything from ANOVOS, but I appreciate much of what they've offered thus far. If they do Rogue One Stormtrooper armor and/or Tank Driver, I'll likely be all over that. But everything else thus far has been stuff I'm either nor personally interested in, or have already taken care of to my satisfaction.
--Jonah
From an outsiders perspective, if I'd ordered an item 2 years ago, and then a company started making new items and shipping them faster than mine, not to mention ship the item I'd bought with something else faster, and to people who'd ordered after me - I'd be quite upset. I believe tat's the case for OP here, he purchased a ST helmet but Anovos is already Shipping Helmet + Armour?
If it was me, I'd be mightily pissed, but would've handled the CS part differently. Understand OP's frustrations, but would've asked why that ^ is the case. If they can't help then ask for an answer from higher up, because I don't understand how it's excusable. Contractual obligations from Disney/LFL to get new products out faster is a ****ty business practice.
Have to agree with the opinion that if I had the money to spend with Anovos, it would only be if the item was ready to ship.
If it was me, I'd be mightily pissed, but would've handled the CS part differently. Understand OP's frustrations, but would've asked why that ^ is the case. If they can't help then ask for an answer from higher up, because I don't understand how it's excusable. Contractual obligations from Disney/LFL to get new products out faster is a ****ty business practice.
Have to agree with the opinion that if I had the money to spend with Anovos, it would only be if the item was ready to ship.
Uncontested
Jr Member
No, but your assumptions are cute. I suspect as implied by the OP and others that ANOVOS has essentially suckered us "Early Adopters" as part of a Ponzi-like scheme where they used our money as an initial investment to do OTHER things than get the product WE ORDERED to us, saying "Hey Disney, look at all this money we made" to get stuff like the Rogue One items made (for example). Rather than deal with that reality, I suspect now that they've had their interest free loan for 2 years from me, they'd rather just give the money back than fulfill their obligation since I like many others am frustrated to the breaking point and am not willing to give them a pass on these forums like so many of you apologists are.
This nonsense about "Well X company is worse" or "Its the norm to wait a long time" is complete and utter bull and has no place for a business that's under Disney, sorry, not sorry. Thats the reality of the situation. They should and need to be held to a higher standard. If I wanted to wait 2 years for a product I would have ordered from someones garage or some other company with a poor reputation, not a company that is supposed to be professional and licensed directly from Disney.
So while you rant and rave about Customer Service people being treated badly I'm going to sit here and bash Anovos until the day I get my product because the way that this has gone is utterly unacceptable and people need to know about it, and thats why I think they'd cancel my order if I was putting this on Facebook.
If you get your products...it's not a scam or ponzi scheme.
I waited over a year for my Kylo Ren helmet. I ordered with tier 1 pricing knowing there was going to be a delay but with my investment I'd get my helmet at a cheaper price. My Vader still hasn't shipped.
I hope no one here wants to build an accurate Boba Fett costume. You think 2 years in a long time to wait?
I waited over a year for my Kylo Ren helmet. I ordered with tier 1 pricing knowing there was going to be a delay but with my investment I'd get my helmet at a cheaper price. My Vader still hasn't shipped.
I hope no one here wants to build an accurate Boba Fett costume. You think 2 years in a long time to wait?
Leonidas280
New Member
I cancelled my Anovos ST helmet kit order last month over many of the same sentiments being expressed on here. No issues with the refund, and they had it to me within about 10 days. Considering that there are other ST helmet options out there, I figured it was time to move that money to another project. I don't blame Anovos for the unforseen delays, as they seem to be getting better with shipping out newer items in their lineup, on time. I understand the older orders like mine were a part of their growing pains as they launched and expanded their business. No harm, no foul for me.
cyberpyrot
Sr Member
Here is my 2 cents I have been building a Boba Fett costume from scratch the amount of time research and money that goes into it is huge. I have been working on it now for 2 years. Also extreme wait times are not acceptable unless disclosed up front. Anovos has done this enough to know what the average wait time will be. Why they don't they put 2 + years to ship on there website? It is because they know they wont get the backing they need to produce. I for one think it would be wiser to put the long wait time on the site upfront and let people be pleasantly surprised if it gets developed sooner. So in short Anovos is being dishonest when phrasing "Estomated 4 Qtr 2017" when they very well know it will be 2 years later.
This. This right here.
If you are this unhappy, don't be a jerk to customer service reps, just ask for your money back. They will give it to you.
They are delivering products. They are giving refunds. It is not a scam or a Ponzi scheme.
If you want your product you have to wait. Period.
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And if you want neither to wait nor cancel your order, you are just prolonging the problem for yourself. Many people here have explained he situation, many have recommended the many fan-made replicas. At this point it seems that you simply WANT to gripe and bellyache. If you truly can't understand any of the reasoned points people have made then there is nothing for you.
cboath
Master Member
First off, the said at the time, full suits to ship first. Helmets only, later.
Second, the fact that newer things are going out faster is irrelevant. You don't hold up one product because another isn't complete. This isn't a case of one factory making everything. It's much more likely a different one is a making each item. In some cases multiple companies are making pieces for a single ensemble. So, if company A can't fullfill their Vader piece, yeah, you hold the whole thing back until all pieces are in. You DO NOT hold back your Deathtrooper helmet, for example, because the stormtrooper helmets don't exist. And, there are ample examples in this thread of why items get pushed back.
Most importantly, no one at all said that the OP didn't have the right to be upset. The case was, you don't take it out on the CS rep - whether directly or indirectly. That's what people are calling him out for. Not for being mad, but for how it was handled.
Sourdoh
Sr Member
With Anovos track record for delivery, I think that perhaps their Customer Service personnel are fairly tired of dealing with disgruntled customers who use terms like "you Turkeys" and worse. After dealing with this and the flame job on FB, I guess they just decided to pass on trying to assuage the situation and pulled the plug. At least they didn't disappear into the dark of night dragging a sack of unreturned payments behind them (which has happened with wearying regularity over the years).
You bitched (repeatedly). They canceled and refunded. End of Story.
(True Story)
(True Story)
syllander
Active Member
Haven't heard nearly this kind of backlash from Fettpride and that guy owes me( and several others) over $1500 worth of Fett gear. His was a scheme of selling 10 and shipping 1. That, is a scheme. Anovos has had some failed go's at particular pieces. At least you had an option to get your money your money back.
Lt Washburn
Sr Member
Just so there's no confusion. I'm not talking about being nasty to a customer service rep. Just being justifiably angry at a company who took money and didn't deliver and saying so. Someone can do that calmly without being nasty. Also, I don't think the OP was talking to an employee, but posting to a social media site. If he was swearing at somebody on a telephone, then that's a different matter.
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