ANOVOS just canceled my order!

Karyudo

Karyudo

New Member
Man, ANOVOS is a terrible company.

I ordered an original stormtrooper helmet more than a year and a half ago, and was patiently waiting for most of that time. Most recently, I continue to see them introducing all kinds of new products, without fulfilling their obligations to people like me who had given them money long ago.

That makes me somewhat less patient: it's like, why are you working on new stuff, when you can't even clear the backlog from more than a year ago?? So I've been reminding them in the Facebook comments that some of us have been waiting and waiting and WAITING for the products they've been promised. Their answers have been uniformly useless: "Please bring this up with our customer service," outside of the public forum that makes them look bad. But when I contact customer service, I get "We thank you for your patience; the helmet shipped with the [much more expensive] armor kit is different; thank you for your patience; thank you for your patience." Exactly what a fraudulent, pyramid-scheme-like outfit would say.

Today, I bitched them out on FB once again.

Just checked my email, and they've cancelled my order "at my request." Well, that's a lie: I did not request that cancellation. I want the original stormtrooper helmet that I paid for in May, 2015!

ANOVOS is a terrible, terrible company.
 
You may have answered your own question with the 'again' statement.

You become a big enough pain to a company and they'll either take care of you or refuse to serve you.

Personally, i HAVE canceled an order with them and the process was ' say i want to cancel, and they said, ok, then you need to fill out this form. The form is basically what are you cancelling? Are you sure? Why? etc. At which point a few days after you hit submit you get your money back. This was back in the end of July. It's possible it's changed now, but I don't know.

If it is still the procedure, i trust you know whether you went through that or not.

I suppose that it's possible that in trying to cancel order 1234, they canceled 1233 or 1235 instead. The best way I found to address an issue was on their customer support site because it keeps a running list of the correspondence from both sides.
 
Nope, it was definitely unilateral on their part. And I'm sure it's because of my FB post this morning.

It pisses me off that they were happy to take my money back when they were trying to drum up interest in their business, and they've had the use of it for more than a year and a half. Now they think they can just give it back? I was willing to forgo the use of that cash if at the end I got a product. I'm NOT willing to just give a terrible business an interest-free loan for more than 18 months! If that's not fraud, it's still shady AF.
 
Karyudo said:
Nope, it was definitely unilateral on their part. And I'm sure it's because of my FB post this morning.
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So just to make sure I'm reading this correctly. You feel that because you got pissed off at them and raged on them on their social media that they canceled your order.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Most companies are about customer service and don't want negative talk or reviews. Guess they figure one out of so many not so bad?
 
MemorY said:
So just to make sure I'm reading this correctly. You feel that because you got pissed off at them and raged on them on their social media that they canceled your order.
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Yes, exactly. After just over nineteen months of waiting, I got an email saying *I* had requested to cancel my order, during the same morning I'd called them out on FB again.

I can assure you I did not request a cancellation. I want the helmet, and I want them to be forced to honor the contract they made by accepting my money for a pre-order!

I'd feel differently if they'd cancelled the production altogether, but of course they haven't: they're shipping original stormtrooper helmets with their armor kits. It smells a lot more like they set their pre-order price too low, and now they're trying to either out-wait or ditch as many dummies who gave them money as they can.
 
"it's like, why are you working on new stuff, when you can't even clear the backlog from more than a year ago??"

I imagine this to getting seated at a restaurant, placing your order, pre-paying for your dinner, then watching new customers continually come in off the street, place an order, get great service and a fabulous dinner, then leave all kinds of happy. ...and you're still sitting there after the restaurant's closed, with absolutely zero service.


...Seriously. You're both better off that they cancelled the order on their behalf. Spend your money elsewhere.

Buy from RS Prop Masters. Their bucket is infinitely better anyway.
 
craigjohn said:
Buy from RS Prop Masters. Their bucket is infinitely better anyway.
Click to expand...
Since the comparison is being made, just wanted to chime in here to say that in my experience (which is 3 transactions, first two TK lids, then a Scout, and finally a complete TIE suit/helmet commission), RS has pretty terrible wait times and customer service in their own right. I don't want to drag this thread off course with people responding with their own good experiences (plenty have had them, of course), so I'll leave it at that for now. Suffice to say, good customer service from purchase through to delivery is few and far between with all companies, seemingly.
 
Jagjaguwar said:
Since the comparison is being made, just wanted to chime in here to say that in my experience (which is 3 transactions, first two TK lids, then a Scout, and finally a complete TIE suit/helmet commission), RS has pretty terrible wait times and customer service in their own right. I don't want to drag this thread off course with people responding with their own good experiences (plenty have had them, of course), so I'll leave it at that for now. Suffice to say, good customer service from purchase through to delivery is few and far between with all companies, seemingly.
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He'd be ordering a TK bucket, which is their bread and butter - not a Scout helmet, which they're not even taking orders for right now. It'd probably be a 3 month wait to produce - which is a far cry from nearly 20 months going on two years. ;)
 
I feel to be fair, you should post what you said on their FB page along with any other correspondence. So far all we have is your side of the story. What if you were being abusive to their employees or making other inappropriate statements toward them? For all we know, you may have very well earned this treatment.
 
It happens, they get their feelings hurt, Sideshow banned me from their Newsletter for along time because I complained right here on therpf about the sculpting on, IIRC the Vader bust when it came out.....or maybe the Chalice of Kali.
 
KhalDrogo said:
I feel to be fair, you should post what you said on their FB page along with any other correspondence. So far all we have is your side of the story. What if you were being abusive to their employees or making other inappropriate statements toward them? For all we know, you may have very well earned this treatment.
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That's kind of what i was trying to say.

saying 'i bitched them out on their facebook page - AGAIN' is not a ringing endoresement, you know? It can be a fine line between 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease' and 'the a-hole gets kicked out of the store' type of thing.

You could see if GotMaul could look into it and see what has happened. But from the limited amount you've told us, it seems like it could very well be possible you said the magic word(s).
 
I suggest you contact their support to find out what happened. I'm sure they will put you right back on the list if it has been a mistake.
 
cboath said:
That's kind of what i was trying to say.

saying 'i bitched them out on their facebook page - AGAIN' is not a ringing endoresement, you know? It can be a fine line between 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease' and 'the a-hole gets kicked out of the store' type of thing.

You could see if GotMaul could look into it and see what has happened. But from the limited amount you've told us, it seems like it could very well be possible you said the magic word(s).
Click to expand...


This is why I suggested they're likely both better off Anovos cancelled the order on their behalf.
 
I can understand being frustrated by later products being delivered before older products, but the OT stormtrooper armor and helmets are made in different factories than the fiberglass or cloth items. If the vacuform factory doesn't have an available slot for Anovos production until a later date, do you expect Anovos to not deliver other products that have been produced by other factories because they have open spots in their schedule?

There shouldn't be any major holdups of the OT stromtroopers because of approvals since some have already been delivered. It's just a matter of getting more from the factory. Unfortunately they don't have much control over available production time at the factories.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
 
craigjohn said:
He'd be ordering a TK bucket, which is their bread and butter - not a Scout helmet, which they're not even taking orders for right now. It'd probably be a 3 month wait to produce - which is a far cry from nearly 20 months going on two years. ;)
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True, should be just about the quickest item from them. I'm currently closing in on two months since requesting the plaque/stand and shoulder cog patches they neglected to include, and confirmed that they have sitting in their shop somewhere though, so I've no idea how long anything might take.

I was mostly referencing the tendency of things to not necessarily ship out in the order they were received, particularly with my TIE commission I saw plenty being delivered within a few months, while somehow mine went over the 1 year mark, and even then pieces were forgotten. I can certainly relate to the OP's complaint with that. Frustrating but they (and Anovos) really probably are worth the headaches in the end. If it was all easy what fun would that be? :)
 
youre not the first person that they cancelled an order on. Who knows how the decide to cancel and order, how many times someone has to complain, or maybe its something a customer writes.

I know it sucks waiting for stuff especially if its past a due date. I'd talk to GotMaul and see what can be done. He seems like a decent guy to work with
 
@propmaniac Complaining to the BBB won't help, I believe, because Anovos currently carries an "F" rating. Directly from BBB (https://www.bbb.org/wisconsin/busin...s-in-kenosha-wi-1000018801/Alerts-and-Actions);

Pattern of Complaint On January 27th, 2016, the BBB sent a certified letter to ANOVOS Productions due to a pattern of consumer concerns received by BBB from consumers. In the complaints, consumers advised that they had not received their orders.
On March 14th, 2016 the BBB sent a certified follow up letter to the company after receiving no response to the initial letter.
As of March 28th, 2016 the BBB has not received a response or phone call to the pattern of complaints.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
tomm1999 said:
youre not the first person that they cancelled an order on. Who knows how the decide to cancel and order, how many times someone has to complain, or maybe its something a customer writes.

I know it sucks waiting for stuff especially if its past a due date. I'd talk to GotMaul and see what can be done. He seems like a decent guy to work with
Click to expand...

I've had 3 pre-orders cancelled by Anovos using the line " at my request" last year. This was after the FO TK helmet received in December 2015 was riddled with defects. Months of waiting for a replacement helmet went by so I contacted my credit card company and started a mastercard chargeback for the funds in the end after 6 months or so I was asked to destroy the helmet and send them proof of this before a new helmet would be sent to me. I STRONGLY refused to do this as I know of another guys experience going down that road and getting a new helmet in worse condition than the original. So in the end we came to a stalemate and Anovos refunded my other 3 pre-orders and I won the chargeback to receive a refund on my FO TK helmet.

I even had a face to face chat with Gotmaul ( Joe S) at SW CE last year and that has resulted with nothing new so I honestly wouldn't bother contacting him but that's just my opinion. It's sad but I think this is the way these popular prop/replica companies work now with zero customer service.
 
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