Worse and worse. (addendum to "oh, this can't even be..

[tuatara]

This is the "Rich R." who stated a scant few hours ago in another thread that my order had apparently been canceled even though it was paid for months ago. Well, now I've gotten myself a proper username, for the purpose of relaying more bad news. I just checked my credit card statement online and I found out that I received another charge to my card on August 9th, since my last statement was sent. This sucks a lot. Especially because it pushes my credit card over its limit. I am really quite upset right now. And nothing can be done about any of this until Monday? Fabulous. Just fabulous. For weeks I would come to this forum and read everyone's horror stories and just thank my lucky stars that I seemed to have gotten through the gauntlet unscathed. Now look. Order cancelled, double charges...wow! I'm finally one of you! That's the best attempt at humor I can make right now.

[Denie]

I know how you feel. After nearly a month of sending multiple e-mails to AU, I finally got the $115 they double charged me refunded yesterday.

If your card is over it's limit I would suggest calling your credit card company right away and let them know of the unauthorized charge. They will not hold you responsible for a charge that is in dispute.

And to anybody from AU reading this...my order may still show the $115 charge as being disputed. I will call my credit card company today or Monday and let them know it has been taken care of.

[jmwoodward]

I'm glad that somebody finally got their refund. I was told that I'd have mine "definitely by the end of this week" but surprise, surprise the double charge still has not been fixed. I know, email Justin or email Ross, but I've talked to AU on the phone several times. How hard is it? Regardless of how this DVD turns out, I will not be ordering from AU ever again.

Jenny

[Denie]

I was told to email Ross too. I did...twice...no response, no money back. This past Wednesday I filled out one of those mscl customer service forms and my credit card was refunded on Friday. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that e-mailing Ross accomplished nothing except wasting my time. (He didn't even send me a reply!) I recommend to everyone having problems that you complete the service form. That appears to get the most prompt response from AU.

And I too will not be ordering from AU again. While I do understand that this dvd is a very unique situation that AU was obviously not equipped to handle, and honestly, one over-charge of my credit card does not bother me too much. However, the continuing lack of customer service and the fact that it took nearly a month to get my money back is unacceptable. I do not intend to "punish" them by contacting local government agencies, as some have suggested. Instead, my satisfaction comes from knowing that they lost at least one more customer. (And I shop online A LOT!)

I'm glad that somebody finally got their refund. I was told that I'd have mine "definitely by the end of this week" but surprise, surprise the double charge still has not been fixed. I know, email Justin or email Ross, but I've talked to AU on the phone several times. How hard is it? Regardless of how this DVD turns out, I will not be ordering from AU ever again.

Jenny

[Justin at AU]

Ross is currently going through the emails he gets as fast as he can, he then hand them to the appropriate person to take care of the problem. We it comes from Ross in the company it gets taken care of. Mike@anotheruniverse.com is the person who is handling the customer service form area, so email his directly is another good way to get something accomplished. Emailing both is the best however.

I know Ross had ann issue with accessing his anotheruniverse.com email account, but that has been ironed out and he is once again getting those messages and helping people with there problems.

Justin.

[Ross Rojek]

I was told to email Ross too. I did...twice...no response, no money back. This past Wednesday I filled out one of those mscl customer service forms and my credit card was refunded on Friday. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that e-mailing Ross accomplished nothing except wasting my time.

[/quote]

Maybe I didn't e-mail you directly, but I did have every e-mail I got checked and verified as to the status.

I figured people would rather have results than a response that just told them the same thing.

Other than this weekend when I was offline, I've been taking any e-mails I get about this and having someone hand check them for me and either give me a response (order ok, no extra charge on account etc.) or a "double charge has been corrected".

[Guest]

Ross -

That answer, while I'm sure 'adequate', is extremely lacking when it comes to customer relations.

If someone e-mails you (especially after having been told/counciled to do so) with a problem, and gets no reply, what is a customer supposed to think of that? ASSUME that the problem is being fixed? Assume that you read it? What if they'd asked you a direct question that merits an actual answer? Assuming gets us nowhere, fast.

Just like we all assumed we wouldn't get charged again and again for something we already paid for, having already trusted you with our credit card information, yes?

This is the first I've piped up here, but at this point I feel I HAVE to say something.

From my personal experience with this, I was charged for the DVD set in full, by April (one payment in March, second payment in April). Come August, I was charged another $80 out of the blue. Sends my account below zero. Check card, mind you, not a 'credit card', so you folks do, in fact, ~have~ my money; it's not being 'set aside' or 'authorized'... it's gone.

I notified your company immediately (at AnotherUniverse e-mail addresses; could never get an actual person to answer the phone - very slick!) and got no reply or reponse. I can't assume it was being fixed based on that, can I? No.

I found a link to the Drygrass form (here, in this forum, which I only discovered a about a week and some ago - remember not all MSCL DVD customers know of this forum!) and entered my information there. Got a couple of auto-reply-type mails indicating that my problem was looked at and 'processed'. That's it. This tells me absolutely nothing. That you know what it means is meaningless when the customer does NOT.

Eight days since that 'processing' e-mail, I still don't have my money back, and I'm still wrestling with the nightmare of missing the money.

I sent an e-mail to Mike & you (Ross), asking what (exactly) was happening with the problem being 'processed', and basically wanted to know where my money is. (After all, if you can take the money IMMEDIATELY, you can certainly refund it IMMEDIATELY, but that's obviously not what's going on)

So... while your presence here is surely appreciated, your understanding of the customer-perspective seems lacking. First and foremost, I think, customers want to be INFORMED. They want to know what's going on, and why. If they've been erroneously billed (again - and again, in some cases!) they want - and NEED - to know when and how it'll get fixed, and in no uncertain terms, to boot. This is a very serious matter and a lot of people will (rightly so) get upset about it.

'Trusting' that it'll get fixed based on obdurate silence is not the way to go, as the 'trust' has already been shown to be slightly misplaced to begin with (otherwise, there would never have been any overcharges).

AnotherUniverse doesn't exactly have the best reputation for it's handling of customer service issues anyhow, so surely you see that a lot of people will go into this problem assuming the worst?

My two coppers,

~ Rich D. (not registered yet )
~ W3210700

[Denie]

Ross -

That answer, while I'm sure 'adequate', is extremely lacking when it comes to customer relations.

If someone e-mails you (especially after having been told/counciled to do so) with a problem, and gets no reply, what is a customer supposed to think of that? ASSUME that the problem is being fixed? Assume that you read it? What if they'd asked you a direct question that merits an actual answer? Assuming gets us nowhere, fast.

So... while your presence here is surely appreciated, your understanding of the customer-perspective seems lacking. First and foremost, I think, customers want to be INFORMED. They want to know what's going on, and why. If they've been erroneously billed (again - and again, in some cases!) they want - and NEED - to know when and how it'll get fixed, and in no uncertain terms, to boot. This is a very serious matter and a lot of people will (rightly so) get upset about it.

'Trusting' that it'll get fixed based on obdurate silence is not the way to go, as the 'trust' has already been shown to be slightly misplaced to begin with (otherwise, there would never have been any overcharges).

My two coppers,

~ Rich D. (not registered yet )
~ W3210700

Rich - you took the words right out of my mouth! You were exactly right when you said that customers want to be informed. We want to know what's going on!

Maybe I didn't e-mail you directly, but I did have every e-mail I got checked and verified as to the status.
I figured people would rather have results than a response that just told them the same thing.

Ross claims he really is handling everything, which is great. But how are we supposed to know that when he does not even bother to e-mail back? For all I knew, he didn't even read my e-mails. And if he didn't read them, he couldn't fix the problem.

It is extremely poor customer service to assume that a customer does not want a reply. In fact, I think that it would be simple common sense to reply back to a customer to let them know you received their e-mail, phone call, etc., and are working on resolving whatever problem they might have.

IMHO, I don't think it's the billing/credit card problems caused by a compter glitch that is really getting everyone (myself included) so angry. I think it's AU's absolute lack of customer service. The fact that one of their employees just assumed a customer would know that he received an e-mail (how - via my psychic abilities!) and was working on the doublecharge proves just how clueless they really are.

[GordLacey]

I found a link to the Drygrass form (here, in this forum, which I only discovered a about a week and some ago - remember not all MSCL DVD customers know of this forum!) and entered my information there. Got a couple of auto-reply-type mails indicating that my problem was looked at and 'processed'. That's it. This tells me absolutely nothing. That you know what it means is meaningless when the customer does NOT.

I take full blame for the wording on the DryGrass site. AU didn't have any input into it, and they only saw it a day or two before it went into use. The emails that are generated when someone reads the problem, and when it's processed were written by me so I appologize for the wording in them.

That form was built in about a week; the same week I was packing everything up and moving to an apartment. While there was some thought that went into it, I'm sure it could have been better if I had more time.

Gord
P.S. Suggestions to make it better? Email me: gord@drygrass.com

[tuatara]

So, this afternoon I got ahold of someone at AU customer service (the oft-mentioned Wade, perhaps? I forgot to ask for his name) who at first figured I was calling to confirm the cancellation of my order. However, once I had explained to him that my intentions were quite the opposite, he checked my billing history, acknowledged that they actually owed me 80 bucks, and reinstated my order. He said that there should be no problem regarding getting the lunchbox and such, which is very encouraging (not just for myself, but I think to everyone). He also informed me that the overcharge had been marked for credit back to my card and that it would be processed within the next few days. Finally, he told me that they expected to have the DVD sets by the end of the month (sooner than the 17th, in fact). While I don't know if I should take that tidbit as a certainty, it's encouraging all the same. I would make note that, after sending two emails each to Mike and Ross Rojek over the weekend, I still don't know whether those did any good at all. I'm glad I at least posted here, however. It was very encouraging to read that others weren't giving hope, despite similar (or even worse) circumstances.

I just want to say that, though I've been rather stressed by all of these difficulties over the past few days, I don't wish to come off as confrontational or insulting to anyone from AU who may end up reading this. I appreciate the enormity and uniqueness of this release. Problems are almost certain to arise. I understand that. However, it seems to me that the best of impressions has not been made when it comes to creating a sense in customers that those in AU have any sense of compassion for those whose lives have been at all disrupted by these errors. I'll put it this way: It's one thing to be interested in rectifying these problems to ease your daily workload and to end the stream of complaining voices. It's something else entirely to be genuinely concerned for a customer's financial well-being and to desire to aid in remedying the distressing situation as soon as possible. For now, that's all I have to say.

If anyone is still reading this, thank you very much for your time.
Rich R.