I've been frustrated with the double charge issues, but I should clarify something, because part of the danger of something like double charges, or non-charges is that AU.com starts to get blamed for everything else.
Let me just summarize the situation:
1) The delays in production are 100%
not the fault of AU.com. The clearance issues were unforeseen even by BMG.
2) When there were a lot of customer emails, AU hired me on to provide assistance. They obviously cared about improving things, and soon Gord and I will unveil the new customer service page, which makes it much easier to do things like change addresses, send submissions, and also to get responses from AU.com.
3) AU.com is a fairly small company. This DVD project became much larger than they originally expected, and really overwhelmed them. I don't think anyone but me and the MSCL.com crew really believed how big it would be. When I initially talked with AU, they spoke about hopefully reaching 1,000 -1,500 orders.
That said, I believe that there is no excuse for overcharges. There are excuses, but they ring of the "dog ate the homework" variety. I have followed up with AU.com, but I also followed up with the merchant account people themselves. AU.com is going through the errors and correcting them, but it seems like the most effective way to fix it is simply to call AU directly if you find a problem.
AU.com will ultimately be judged when people stick their DVDs into their players in preparation for their 13 hour veg-out marathons. They have between now and the ship date to learn from their growing pains. From my conversations with them, they seem pretty intent on making good.
No retailer ever took on this kind of project before, so I must give them some credit for that. I was there when retailer after retailer turned me away. Now that really
sucked. You can blame them for the problems, but also realize that they are an important part of why this set is even happening. BMG was content to let the show collect dust. Steve Cooper at BMG even told me that there were plenty of times when he wanted to kill the project, but AU were tenacious (read: pains in the ass) enough to stop him. I can call them pains in the ass, because I am a pain in the ass myself, and it truly takes one to know one.
Jason
Denie wrote:I'm trying not to think about all the shipping probems I know we're going to have. It's been quite a while since the beginning of the pre-order and AU still cannot get their billing issues worked out. Are we to expect their shipping procedures to be any different?
I will be so happy when this is all over, I have my dvd, and I never ever have to deal with AU again. This is one customer who will definitely not be returning to them for future purchases.
