To Jason: A Journey of one DVD order (and its problems)

[Roger R.]

I'm writing this for two reasons: One, this is the place to submit valid complaints and Two, I want this to be my documentation of my order since I have, once again, resolved all issues. And since the shipping date is still about a month away, I'm concerned my order will, once again, get screwed up. Because there are a few defenders of AU, and consider those of us with complaints whiners, Jason (and other bigwigs that matter) can verify my order by Roger R. in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (his wife is writing this). I will be as objective as I can throughout this "journey" but my frustration will be apparent. Sorry it's going to be so long...

1) Signed petition.

2) On February 12, I received an email stating my preorder had been cancelled due to credit card problems.

3) On February 18, I received an email stating my preorder had been received and processed. In the email, there was an order number that was different from the DVD order number I would receive later. The $20 was actually withdrawn from our check card on February 19.

4) On February 27, I received a mass email from Mike McCulloch, confirming my order, although no name or order number were given.

5) On April 12, we were charged $69.98 for the remainder of the purchase. Like most others (if not all) I received no notification of the charge or verification of my order.

6) On May 17, I received an email from Jason stating there was a problem with my order. Roger's name and order number accompanied this email. Looking through our records, we had paid in full already. I emailed Jason back, explaining the situation. The weekend passed with no response, so by middle of the next week, I had to find some other contact. (My email tends to be lost in cyberspace....also, after preordering from AU, I was plummeted with emails from porn and insurance companies, so I blocked all those senders. I might have inadvertently blocked your email, even though I received (and continue to receive) all the mass emails. Go figure.)

7) So I called AU late that same week. At first I was a bit concerned because I only got an answering machine, even though I was calling during business hours. I continued to hit redial until somebody picked up. I have no idea who I talked to, but after explaining the situation, everything was fine. He had no idea why I was sent that email. My order was secured.

I was still very optimistic. Although I never received an email, everything was cleared up and my order secured in a polite, timely manner.

9) Ironically, the very next day I received a letter in the mail dated April 12 from AU. Although Roger's name and order number did not appear on the letter (as all of you well know) in bold print it did state "You are receiving this as a receipt of your purchase." So I kept it, thinking it was important or significant somehow.

10)No news is good news (so I thought).

11) My husband and I decided to go out to eat at the end of July. We pay with the check card and it's declined, even though Roger checked the balance that same morning (thank goodness we had our checkbook). We called the bank. The Comic Store had charged us $115. I had not been checking this website at all, and never received any emails. Upon visiting this site, I realized the $115 was for a DVD set of MSCL. I also realized that double-charging appeared to be a problem with lots of people. The bank told us to call AU, and have them send the bank a letterhead voiding the purchase. My husband called AU. At this point, I can only report his biased opinion of the phone call. Quite frankly, I was more concerned about him cancelling the order altogether than questioning the motives of AU (he's convinced that this has been a scam from the word go). So I don't know who Roger talked to, but this person said they wouldn't be sending the letter to our bank, nor could they even guarantee the charge would be voided (but they'd "try"). Due to my pleading, Roger did check the status of my order and was told despite the double-charge, everything was fine and I would be getting the lunchbox DVD set.

12) Upon reading the mishaps about the double-charging, I emailed Jason because that's what he wanted, even if you took care of things yourself. I never heard from him, not that I necessarily expected to.

13) We were unable to use our check card for about a week, but then the money was there and the charge was gone. I never received any notification, much less an "oops...sorry" letter.

14) On August 16 I received an email stating I owed AU $69.98; my order number was not in the email. Since it was a Friday night, I couldn't call, but I chose to fill out a customer service form via this website to AU's site. I have yet to hear anything back from that.

15) On August 19, the following Monday, I called AU a little after 11 central time. First I had to redial for over 5 minutes before Wade answered, who immediately put me on hold (I refuse to use their answering machine crap). I watched two segments of The Young and the Restless (plus commercials) before hanging up and trying again. This time I was put on hold for only a little over one segment of Y&R before Wade took my call. I was informed that I didn't owe $69.98, but the $20 preorder (look back at numbers 3, 4, 7, 9, 11). I was completely baffled...afterall, to be charged the $69.98, didn't I have to have the $20 secured before....? Be that as it may, Wade continued to tell me that they tried charging me on July 23 and was declined (probably because they had recently charged me $115) and tried again in August and was declined again. A side note: why wasn't I notified of the declined charges? Wasn't it Ross from AU that said AU is charged transaction fees everytime they charge a card? I don't feel bad...had I been notified of the first decline, you would have never tried again in August. I won't even mention the fact that AU has run amuck with credit card numbers, double and triple-charging people. But back at the ranch, the only way to rectify the situation was for me to fax out a bank statement. When I pulled out the letter I received (look at number 9) Wade said no, must be bank statement. Okay, if that letter meant nothing than AU wasted money on paper, ink, envelopes, and stamps. I must also say that I was rather snotty and rude to Wade at this point, and I did apologize to him (it isn't his fault, but it is SOMEBODY'S fault). He claimed I was mild compared to some of the other calls he had taken. I informed him we'd be calling back that afternoon. Wade said great, he wanted to take care of the situation.

16) Frustrated, I went to this website and checked out the forum--something I had never done before. While I can't say I was surprised at all the problems others had, I was amazed at some of the incidents that continued to happen, and these are just from people that know about the forum. I simply skimmed it, and was confused by all the different people to contact if you were experiencing problems (I didn't bother to check when Jason's returning). I emailed GordLacey, explaining the situation. I have not received anything as of yet.

16) When Roger got home, he was not happy about it and refused to send out a bank statement. While he's looking through our withdrawls, I called AU again, at 4:05 PM my time. Buddy answered immediately. I explained the situation to him (he knew nothing of it...he's either pleading ignorance or absolutely no documentation was made on my earlier call). He did agree with me about having to be charged the $20 first and almost okayed everything until he decided to put me on hold. When he returned, I got the same response from him as I did with Wade: bank statement. When my husband heard me speaking of bank statements, he took over the conversation and asked Buddy how they keep records there at AU. He also questioned why we were never notified of the declined charges. Essentially, Buddy pleaded ignorance to every question asked, so we got a fax number and before hanging up, Roger told him that we were closing our account so AU couldn't continue charging us for stuff we've already paid in full for.

17) Roger called the bank after hanging up with AU. They are aware of our problems with The Comic Store charges. We do not want to send out a statement with all our charges on it (lord only knows what AU would do with that information) so Roger asked if the bank could simply send out a letter verifying the charge. She said fine, and the bank would be faxing out the letter the same day we called.

18) I called AU this morning (August 20) at 10:21 AM, and was put on hold until 10:36 AM. Wade answered and remembered me; in fact, I was on hold because he was talking to my bank. Apparently, my bank did not give a specific date or time on the letter, and he couldn't get that information from them. However, he said my order was cleared even though he'd probably get in trouble for not having another fax from my bank with more specific information. Exasperated, Wade said he wanted this to be done with. Who the hell doesn't? He said there were notes all over my order--just ship out the DVD. I verified that I would be getting the set with the lunchbox (again) and asked him to read the shipping address they had listed for me. It was correct. I asked him if I could be sent an official letter DECLARING my order was good to go. He said he couldn't promise that. (I'm not getting my hopes up.) I reiterated to him that we would be closing that account so if any more attempts to charge my card failed, they'd know why. Wade actually said there would be no reason for any other charges....hmmm....and really sounded like he wanted to get off the phone with me. (Wade should really think about getting another job. I guarantee AU is not paying him enough to deal with irate costumers; he'd be smart to transfer all complaint calls directly to the CEO of AU.) And that's where my journey ends. For now.

If you actually took the time to read this, you can imagine how much time I have wasted either worrying about my money or my order, emailing people, and calling AU; I know some of you have had to deal with much worse issues. I hope I never have to add anything else to this forum, but due to my previous experiences, this will not end until my DVDs are playing on my TV and that lunchbox is sitting in my house. Someone else, somewhere on this forum, brought this up before: if we're experiencing this many problems with AU billing us, how in the world are they going to send out the right orders to the right addresses? And the problem is this: no one would accept this atrocious behavior from any other company or store. We would take our business elsewhere. But we don't have that option...we're stuck. And that is what I can't stand! We're at the mercy of AU until we get our purchases. I am not seeking revenge with this message, nor am I planning to sue--I am not even seeking justice. I just want my DVD set and I never, ever, want to hear the name Another Universe muttered again.

[sameritech]

Excellent message. Unfortunately, the story sounds all to familar.

FYI:
You can call your credit card company and tell them to reject any future charges from AU and/or thecomicstore.com. I called today so hopefully I'll only have to deal with the outstanding erroneous charges and no new ones.

Have a nice day.

[GordLacey]

I emailed GordLacey, explaining the situation. I have not received anything as of yet.

Wow, this is a big surprise. I have answered every email I've received except one from "Pam" who emailed me and then emailed again asking me to ignore the first message.

You also said that you emailed Jason and didn't get a response, but he too answers all his email. I was in the car with him in LA and NYC while he checked messages on his phone, and I was across the table with him at Burger King in LA while he answered an email on his PALM pilot.

I'm not disputing the fact that you emailed myself and Jason, but I know if we received the email we would have responded to it (probably that day).

Could you try emailing me once again (gord@grygrass.com) so we see if your email is working properly.

Gord

[Roger R.]

I tried emailing you with the address you just gave me. So be looking for it...

[GordLacey]

I tried emailing you with the address you just gave me. So be looking for it...

Nothing yet...

If you have more than one email address try emailing me and the other address, or email gord@drygrass.com and bluefrog007@hotmail.com (I never use this address, but I'll check it to see if something has gone through).

Gord

[Anakin]

Gord, I guess the email he sent was lost because there is a typo in your first reply. The email should be gord@drygrass.com instead of gord@grygrass.com

[GordLacey]

Gord, I guess the email he sent was lost because there is a typo in your first reply. The email should be gord@drygrass.com instead of gord@grygrass.com

Doh! I still should have received the very first email that was sent, and Jason should have received the ones to him.

Gord

[Roger R.]

Okay...I'll try again! I'll attempt both emails, so check and email back if they work. In case they don't, I wasn't attempting to be sarcastic about my mail being lost in cyberspace. I have a sister and a friend who have told me more than once that they never received my email. So I was being serious about that! So if you took my remarks about not getting a response as flippant, sorry, but that was not my intention. Modern technology doesn't always work...

[Anakin]

In case your friends also never receive your email, it is suggested to try another email service provider to try sending email instead, the email lost problem may also come from the email service provider. One of my friend also encountered the similar problem recently, and it was solved by using another email to send out.

Hope your email problem as well as the DVD problem can be solved very soon.....
Hope all MSCL fans can get the DVD very soon.....