A little while ago I mentioned the I am 8-bit store, which carried t-shirts and such based on the intriguing collection, including a limited edition t-shirt based on Sean Clarity's Excitebike painting. My wife, sweet person that she is, ordered one of the shirts as a surprise for February 13th (our engagement anniversary).
The shirt never arrived.
I emailed the store email address (store@iam8bit.net) to follow up, but never received a reply. With a little digging on the website, I found another email address for jon (also @iam8bit.net) and sent him a note that was even in tone, but expressed some frustration from the lack of response. When he heard that we had been charged for the shirt over a month ago, but the item never arrived, he kindly wrote the following:
Well, I feel your frustration -- and I'm not quite sure what happened. So here's what we'll do. We'll ship the shirt off immediately, complete with a bonus for your patience. And I'd also be happy to refund your payment. Does that work for you?My sincere apologies. We're a small operation that is, well, somewhat overwhelmed with the popularity, so things seem to have fallen through the cracks.
Cheers,
// jon
A nice note, I thought, I wrote back, stated that we were happy to pay for the shirt and support a project that's probably not exactly swimming in funds, and that we were looking forward to receiving the package. I thought the matter was nicely resolved, a simple mistake rectified, no harm no foul. That email exchange happened on February 8th.
It is now March 10th. And still no shirt. No email response to my follow-up inquiries for a tracking number. No refund of the purchase price *instead* of the shirt. Nothing.
So, a simple warning to those out there who might consider doing business with this group. Don't. I hate having to write a rant about bad business, especially when it probably stems from simple incompetence rather than maliciousness, but I would hate to have what appears to be an endorsement in the previous post lead to others losing their cash.
UPDATE: Jon replied swiftly to my latest email, refunding me my money and offering to overnight a shirt. Perhaps more importantly, he said that they had instituted an electronic package tracking system, which we can all hope will prevent these sorts of headaches in the future.
So, we'll see. Hopefully they've fixed their issues. Assuming the shirt actually arrives, I'd say that at least their customer support is fair.
Posted by Jason at March 10, 2006 4:59 PM | TrackBackJason--
Unreal. I am going through the EXACT same thing with them right now. Same shirt, same lack of delivery, same responses, only I never got the offer of a refund like you did. I'm reporting them to Paypal on Monday. I already got the "sorry-- I'll send it out tomorrow" email. Twice. SHADY. Let me know how it goes, because right now I'm out $25. Ridiculous.
I meant to ask you if you were having a similar experience. I'd be sure to email "jon @ iam8bit.com" again and tell him you are reporting / recalling funds at PayPal. We'll see if my shirt arrives, but at least I know he put the refund through. That's the most important part.
Posted by: Jason at March 11, 2006 3:12 PM | Permalink to CommentI am very frustrated too--I ordered the iam8bit book for my boyfriend's birthday. I put the order through at the beginning of June, his birthday being in the middle of July. I thought I'd have plenty of time, but by the time his birthday came and went, no book! I emailed this Jon twice, and I got the same type of response. It'd "be in my hands very soon with a bonus gift." It's the middle of August now, and still no book. I can't even file a dispute with PayPal (they say they don't handle this kind of transaction for some reason.) I have emailed and requested a refund, but I haven't gotten a response yet. How did you get your refund? I would very much like to know!!
Posted by: Becky at August 6, 2006 6:14 PM | Permalink to CommentBecky,
I just emailed several times and, eventually, blogged my complaint. I received my refund fairly shortly after that. I'm sorry to hear that they are still having trouble with their store. If you paid via Paypal with a credit card, can you dispute the charge through your card?
I couldn't dispute anything with PayPal, but luckily the iam8bit store agreed to give me my money back. BUT they had the NERVE to say "We're still going to send you your item as an apology." Yeah right, 3 months later and I still haven't gotten it! DON'T BUY FROM THEM!!!
Posted by: Becky at September 6, 2006 5:21 PM | Permalink to Comment