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[Two Headed Boy]

Following my reply to the initial post, I discovered the merch@amandapalmer.net email, and promptly had a friendly reply from Rachel. I am satisfied with the response and wonder if I jumped the gun by contributing to the angst about this issue.

Had I used this email in the first instance rather than repeatedly used the 'contact' link on the website ( which did not get forwarded to the correct people) I doubt I would have been as frustrated.

I am now looking forward to receiving my order, and thank those who are clearly working very hard to clear the backlog.

I, too, have had a friendly reply from Rachel regarding my outstanding Ukulelehead order; in fact I've had two in the last three days. So, like you, at least I feel I've finally reached the right address 

[Agonistes]

Would it be silly to devise some sort of overseas "staging areas" for our European and Aussie friends? Not gobs, as that would require way too much overhead, but it would provide a stopgap for customs delays, etc.

i can see in the future how that would be very feasible.  i would imagine it to be more difficult at the moment if there are limited merch supplies, however, or 'limited edition' type products, like the aforementioned vinyl pressings, and so on.  it could be a clusterfuck getting the merch distributed in the first place, and it would require more web space when customers have to go to their part of the world's page to order, but it would increase the chances for certain releases not available overseas, a special product here that you cant get there, increasing collectibility of merchandise and increased trading of such, and any smart company could save themselves a crate of stuff for the e-bay store, as well, when it's worth three times the original price.

i would think the main appeal of this sort of product would be the collectible aspect.  as cd's go the way of 8 tracks and everything's digitalized, you buy a cd now because it's packaged well and it is a keepsake.  you don't NEED it.  you give it space on your shelf because you are attached to it.  same with vinyl, of course, unless you are the sort of audiophile who digs the vinyl.

[Shock G]

I remember fellow fans posting about problems with
the third party firms that Amanda and Brian use in
the past to fulfill orders and ship them.

I remember at least two such firms in the four plus years,
I've been a fan.

It might help the newer fans,
if those of you who had order problems
with the old outside firms reminded us of them here.

Links to threads here or on one of the older boxes
would be adequate.
(e.g. http://www.theshadowbox.net/ddbb/
{I don't have the URLs handy for older than that})

Len, but by making it in house they should be trying to avoid those mistakes since they know what causes issues with the fans.

I just read through the top board and saw a lot of the issues and beyond random merch/CD packaged being delayed a common thing seems to be e-mails that aren't returned.  If you are putting your name on it and making the operation in house the outcome should be boosting the customer service if nothing else.  If they are learning the ropes and having issues with suppliers initially that information should be relayed to the customers.  The ability to do that is one of the big advantages of doing it in house since you control the customer service not some business which has many others to deal with and might not care about your account enough to give it the time/resources.  If you spend a good chunk of money and a product is months late already and you send an e-mail and get no response then it will cause a lot of anger and frustration as can be seen in many of those posts.  There are many other posts that aren't pissed off about the time but just want to be kept in the loop.

[Mitholas]

Would it be silly to devise some sort of overseas "staging areas" for our European and Aussie friends? Not gobs, as that would require way too much overhead, but it would provide a stopgap for customs delays, etc.

I actually think this would be a great idea. At least for album releases etc. I think you guys know how the fanbase is divided between continents and I think you can estimate how many albums are sold on seperate continents, so it would be good to divide the stock up, at least initially, and let europeans have an option that isn't extremely expensive for shipping, and that doesn't take months to arrive. You can still allow shipping from US to Europe for things sold out in the European store, or things you never intended to stock there in the first place  as a back up.

Although I think the shipping fee for the t-shirt and album bundle is very reasonable at the moment, the Ukehead shipping I think cost about as much as the actual item.

[lentower]

I remember fellow fans posting about problems with
the third party firms that Amanda and Brian use in
the past to fulfill orders and ship them.

I remember at least two such firms in the four plus years,
I've been a fan.

It might help the newer fans,
if those of you who had order problems
with the old outside firms reminded us of them here.

Links to threads here or on one of the older boxes
would be adequate.
(e.g. http://www.theshadowbox.net/ddbb/
{I don't have the URLs handy for older than that})

Len, but by making it in house they should be trying to avoid those mistakes since they know what causes issues with the fans.

I just read through the top board and saw a lot of the issues and beyond random merch/CD packaged being delayed a common thing seems to be e-mails that aren't returned.  If you are putting your name on it and making the operation in house the outcome should be boosting the customer service if nothing else.  If they are learning the ropes and having issues with suppliers initially that information should be relayed to the customers.  The ability to do that is one of the big advantages of doing it in house since you control the customer service not some business which has many others to deal with and might not care about your account enough to give it the time/resources.  If you spend a good chunk of money and a product is months late already and you send an e-mail and get no response then it will cause a lot of anger and frustration as can be seen in many of those posts.  There are many other posts that aren't pissed off about the time but just want to be kept in the loop.

one problem noted (maybe in a different thread)
was merch buyers not using the right contact email address.  

improving the websightS to minimize this has to be occurring.

it would help, if you aren't having your email answered,
to post what email address you are using, and if you remember,
where you got it from.

[Shock G]

I remember fellow fans posting about problems with
the third party firms that Amanda and Brian use in
the past to fulfill orders and ship them.

I remember at least two such firms in the four plus years,
I've been a fan.

It might help the newer fans,
if those of you who had order problems
with the old outside firms reminded us of them here.

Links to threads here or on one of the older boxes
would be adequate.
(e.g. http://www.theshadowbox.net/ddbb/
{I don't have the URLs handy for older than that})

Len, but by making it in house they should be trying to avoid those mistakes since they know what causes issues with the fans.

I just read through the top board and saw a lot of the issues and beyond random merch/CD packaged being delayed a common thing seems to be e-mails that aren't returned.  If you are putting your name on it and making the operation in house the outcome should be boosting the customer service if nothing else.  If they are learning the ropes and having issues with suppliers initially that information should be relayed to the customers.  The ability to do that is one of the big advantages of doing it in house since you control the customer service not some business which has many others to deal with and might not care about your account enough to give it the time/resources.  If you spend a good chunk of money and a product is months late already and you send an e-mail and get no response then it will cause a lot of anger and frustration as can be seen in many of those posts.  There are many other posts that aren't pissed off about the time but just want to be kept in the loop.

one problem noted (maybe in a different thread)
was merch buyers not using the right contact email address.  

improving the websightS to minimize this has to be occurring.

it would help, if you aren't having your email answered,
to post what email address you are using, and if you remember,
where you got it from.

Even if that is true for a majority of cases team chaos would still have the E-mail addresses they sent confirmations to.  They should have been sending updates when products that were paid for are many months late.  As I said in the first post one of the big things that should have come from making this in house is costumer service should improve since it is no longer just some random account to a company who has many to deal with and nothing personally invested in any of them.  But if a company did do that they would be losing clients left and right due to such poor service.

[mpage]

I received my T-shirt today and e-mailed my appreciation to Rachel. My contribution to this post is now complete. I have more faith and confidence that future purchases will go well.

[Zoe Amory]

I got my AFP holiday hoodie bundle today (well, my older sister got it since she ordered it for me and now she thinks I am practicing voodoo because my mother keeps getting Tasmania and Tanzania mixed up and neither she or my sister really understood what exactly it was I had her order for me), considering I ordered it like 2 or so weeks before Christmas and it had to be shipped all the way to Finland I'd have to say I have no complaints. 

I do have a suggestion, but I dunno if it's possible everywhere. The reason I have to ask my friends or family to order stuff for me is because I don't have a credit card. I do pay my bills and stuff online with the online banking system so I was wondering if it were possible to use that to order?

Basically like you go to the order screen, pick up what you want&give your info and choose "online banking" and your bank (which bank exactly depending on which country you are in of course) would pop up, you sign in, pay for your stuff and checkout.

I don't know how difficult that would be to make actually happen, I just know it's possible, I've ordered a bunch of stuff like that but only from within the same country I am in.

Well, aside from having to ask someone else to order the stuff for me (which is basically my fault anyway) I can't say that I really have any complaints. 

[AlwaysATourist]

I got my AFP holiday hoodie bundle today (well, my older sister got it since she ordered it for me and now she thinks I am practicing voodoo because my mother keeps getting Tasmania and Tanzania mixed up and neither she or my sister really understood what exactly it was I had her order for me), considering I ordered it like 2 or so weeks before Christmas and it had to be shipped all the way to Finland I'd have to say I have no complaints. 

I do have a suggestion, but I dunno if it's possible everywhere. The reason I have to ask my friends or family to order stuff for me is because I don't have a credit card. I do pay my bills and stuff online with the online banking system so I was wondering if it were possible to use that to order?

Basically like you go to the order screen, pick up what you want&give your info and choose "online banking" and your bank (which bank exactly depending on which country you are in of course) would pop up, you sign in, pay for your stuff and checkout.

I don't know how difficult that would be to make actually happen, I just know it's possible, I've ordered a bunch of stuff like that but only from within the same country I am in.

Well, aside from having to ask someone else to order the stuff for me (which is basically my fault anyway) I can't say that I really have any complaints. 

Can you do that via paypal.com? 

[Zoe Amory]

Doesn't Paypal require you to transfer funds over via credit card?  
I don't really know, that's just what I've gathered from Paypal, maybe I've misunderstood. ..which happens more often than I'd like to admit.

EDIT: My mistake, maybe this'll teach me to read thoroughly before wondering about stuff outloud

[vicvic]

My red ukelelehead arrived on time and in good condition, so at least when ordering/shipping goes well, it goes well. Hopefully the people who had bad experiences with ukelelehead will get to experience the good side in future orders.

My only request for future orders is that *if possible*, I think it'd be better if we weren't charged for an order until it ships...in the unlucky chance that things get delayed (although that doesn't sound like it will happen with Down Under, considering the vinyl's not for sale before it's printed), I'd feel better if I hadn't already paid for something that isn't on its way.

[guuurrrrrllltakeiteasy]

I ordered bundles from the online store in the passed, my first order took place after everyone else's orders got a little bit crazy. I was worried mine would be lost in the post as well, but it arrived on time, and I've ordered again and still had mine shipped on time. I really hope everyone else's orders eventually arrive at their doors.

[astrozombie1971]

With regard the correct email address being used. On the order conformations I recieved,it said any problems please contact ..and it gave you the team chaos address.So I used that,repeatedly to very little response.Then we are informed much later to use the..Merch address.As if it was us who where emailing the wrong address.We were using the address we where told to.I have used the merch address and had very quick responses,none of my orders yet,but the responses where quick with this new address.What I dont like is the implication that we never got a quick response because we emailed the wrong address,we never,we emailed the address you told us to.Another glitch in the system we have to pay for with our dissapointment and the wearing thin of our patience.As you are probably  aware from other posts,Im very unhappy with all that has gone on with the items Ive ordered,just dont try to shift the lack of return communications on us,the frustrated ones waiting for what we paid for,in the dark and pissed off.

[insignifikunt]

My red ukelelehead arrived on time and in good condition, so at least when ordering/shipping goes well, it goes well. Hopefully the people who had bad experiences with ukelelehead will get to experience the good side in future orders.

My only request for future orders is that *if possible*, I think it'd be better if we weren't charged for an order until it ships...in the unlucky chance that things get delayed (although that doesn't sound like it will happen with Down Under, considering the vinyl's not for sale before it's printed), I'd feel better if I hadn't already paid for something that isn't on its way.

this is possible unless they wanted to know how many people wanted an item before making it. like if there wasn't 1000 people wanting vinyl, maybe they'd only choose to press 500?

[Mitholas]

I'm sorry to bump this topic, but I do have a remark regarding the Down Under record. I got the record in good time and all, a few weeks after having ordered it. But then I only got the download for it a week or so ago, which completely defeats the purpose of the download.