Unshipped merchandise confirmed at AU.com (**OFFICIAL**)

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Jason R
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Unshipped merchandise confirmed at AU.com (**OFFICIAL**)

Post by Jason R » Apr 29th 2004, 9:50 pm

I just found out that there may be about 1,000 lunchboxes and bonus discs still in the AU.com warehouse from Justin, the last AU.com employee.

I am trying to obtain a fulfillment list, if such a list exists. I should know by tomorrow. The warehouse is being locked by the landlord on 5/10. I will try to contact the landlord to see if I can arrange to pick up the merchandise and transfer to temporary storage.

I will then sort through the list and try to find a way to get these items to customers. I don't know how many customers are involved and may need people to kick in some or all of the shipping charges. If the number is not too large, I might be able to finance it myself.

If you are in the Sacramento area and might want to help fulfill product, I might be able to come out for a week at the end of May to get this all taken care of.

Jason Rosenfeld
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starbug
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Post by starbug » Apr 30th 2004, 6:44 am

Jason,

Excellent news! If I could get my hands on a lunchbox I'd be grateful. I'd be prepared to pay shipping, definitely.

A couple of concerns:
- would the FBI require the lunchboxes for their investigation? I know that technically their investigation is about some bit of non-existent face recognition software...
- effectively by placing the lunchboxes in independent storage, are you not 'seizing' goods that technically don't belong to you?

Obviously I don't mind in the slightest that you seize the lunchboxes from RR and I'd be thrilled if there was some method to how they could be distributed. I just don't want you to risk doing something illegal... :idea: I'm sure you've thought of this already... just checking.

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Jason R
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Post by Jason R » Apr 30th 2004, 10:49 am

If we don't act now, the lunchboxes and dvds will probably be thrown in the trash by the landlord.

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Post by Justin at AU » Apr 30th 2004, 12:32 pm

I actually called the FBI and asked them if it would be okay to find away to get people their remaining lunch boxes and bonus disks. They said that would be a good idea if I could find a way to do it.

Jason R
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Post by Jason R » Apr 30th 2004, 1:15 pm

Welcome back from the dark side, dude. (I know you had no inkling of what was going on and that you worked from home, but the help is appreciated). I should say that the calls and emails I have received in the last week or two from former AU.com folks remind me of the Wizard of Oz after the witch melted.

Jason R
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Post by Jason R » Apr 30th 2004, 3:58 pm

Argh. Here is a quick inventory of what remains in the AU.com warehouse.

2500 Bonus Disks
1900 Lunch Boxes

This means that roughly half of the customers got the bonus materials. That's just pathetic, but in light of the other scams Ross was running, that's at least batting .500.

While I am happy that these were not, in fact, sold on eBay by Ross, it is going to be quite a daunting task to get these delivered to everyone.

I believe that I have to arrange to get these moved within a week, when a new tenant moves in to AU.com's old space.

Rather than place these items into storage, I believe that I might try to find a fulfillment company to take possession. If I can do that, they can store the items temporarily and also do a competent job of shipping them.

Now for the real question: how many people would actually be willing to pay S&H again for these items. They can rest assured that Ross will not see a penny of it, but I really think that with this volume, we need professional fulfillment services.

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starbug
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Post by starbug » May 1st 2004, 7:24 am

Jason,
count me in for S&H on the extra items...

Maybe a survey to the original list might work to find out from the rest.

:?:

I think you are absolutely right not to take this on yourself and instead find a third party to deal with it. the logistics of setting this up would be a nightmare for someone not equipped.

:D though... this is so cool.

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Post by kenickie » May 1st 2004, 12:28 pm

I'd be more than happy to pay shipping and handling again too. Count me in. :D
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Jason R
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Post by Jason R » May 1st 2004, 1:02 pm

I need advice.

I don't want to touch a penny. I want to find something like a mini-escrow service to handle the card charges if we need to charge s&h.

I had another idea, but it might be hard to approve. If BMG can donate 120 DVD sets, or sell them to me at cost of manufacturing, I can auction them with extra lunchboxes and bonus discs (it will not be possible to track everyone down because a lot of these old emails are now inactive), and try to raise the approximately $12,000 it will take to ship this stuff out.

I would need the OK of Disney too. I'm not going to risk getting sued.

If this seems too complex, I might just have to ask people to cover s&h. Rather than assemble volunteers, I'd like to have a fulfillment company ship them out. Even if it costs a bit more, this deserves to be completed competently and as quickly as possible.

Jason R
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Post by Jason R » May 1st 2004, 9:56 pm

This might help to imagine the number of lunchboxes at AU.

If stacked from end to end (the long way (9 inches), these lunchboxes would be as tall as the Sears Tower. :shock:

I hope to have a workable plan this week.

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Ding Dong! The witch is...

Post by ClarenceWorley » May 2nd 2004, 12:40 am

Jason R wrote:Now for the real question: how many people would actually be willing to pay S&H again for these items.
I'm down.

Funny, I hadn't even thought about the awful AU experience for a long, long time, 'til today when I noticed a little mscl.com URL among my vast bookmark list. I was taken aback with nostalgia and a few clicks later, to my surprise, RR has been arrested for fraud and the AU warehouse is full of MSCL merchandise. :!:
"I'm just an ordinary guy with nothing to lose."

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Post by allie » May 2nd 2004, 12:58 am

As much as it sucks, I would be willing to pay S&H for the bonus disk and lunchbox that I ordered in Feb 2002 and paid for in full but never received. I kept meaning to send an email to AU, and two weeks ago even found my original order number, but I'm a huge procrastinator and now it seems like it's too late!

At least I was never double or triple charged.
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Paying S&H again (what about non US citizens?)

Post by danorte » May 2nd 2004, 5:50 pm

"Now for the real question: how many people would actually be willing to pay S&H again for these items."

Hello Jason and everyone in this forum! Although I'm in Brazil, I was in the first pre-order list (back in God knows what year? 8-} ) I was not double charged and indeed got the DVD Set.

I would be willing to pay S&H again to get the Bonus DVD (I don't even mind the lunch box to be really honest, never did... Someone can even get mine, free of charge!).

However, I raise another question in my first post ever to this forum: How many of the other international costumers would be willing to do so?
I'd assume that first priority will be given to US citizens, as far as logistics is concerned that is the most logical move. But I still have faith that i might get what I (sigh) once paid for.

[]s

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Jason R
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Operation Lunchbox

Post by Jason R » May 2nd 2004, 6:17 pm

I think that USA will come first because the largest percentage are USA and because the postage is basically the same (depends on the method used though --zones will apply to UPS, etc). Easier to work out any kinks where tracking is available. That's the advantage of at least starting with the USA.

However, it is only right that everyone who was supposed to receive one has a chance to get it.

I believe that the cost for USA S&H will be about $7. Possibly less, but here are the costs:

+Postage (supposedly returns that went back to AU had $4.50 in postage)
+Freight -- I am having someone with a truck w/ a lift gate pick up the merchandise.
+Storage -- for as long as the project is ongoing
+Credit Card/Check discount. I plan to use paypal. This will make it easy to export mailing info to print labels and send tracking. This will also give people some sense of security. There is a small transaction fee with paypal, but I have an approved merchant account and have handled hundreds of transactions for my own company.
+Materials. I know that Justin said that there are enough cardboard boxes at AU, but I also want to allow for any other materials that might be needed.

We need to get all of this stuff by this week because AU gets kicked out of its warehouse on May 10.

I will also need people to volunteer to review my records, and I will also post the amount coming in and the amount going towards the expenses. I want to make it extra clear that I am not profiting from the situation.

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Post by Debs » May 2nd 2004, 7:23 pm

My God. So he was holding on to all this stuff? What for exactly, just to hammer home what a low-life mean b*****d he was?

Okay. So we now know what we paid for exists. But what about the people who cancelled at 'the last hour' but never received a refund?

Debs x
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