hembach.com

I got f$%*ed by PodBrix [updated]

It’s a well-established fact that I’m a big nerd, and have also become an uncontrollable Apple fanboy. As such, I’ve bought a number of products from PodBrix. They make t-shirts and figurines based on a mashup of Lego minifigs and iPod ads.

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p>Today was the release of their latest product: 1K Brix Macrofig, a 7″ tall plastic figure limited to only 50 units, the most exclusive run so far.

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p>Having specifially planned to be at my desk in time to get the page set up and continually reload the page like a trained monkey in the minute leading up to the 9pm launch, I was very excited at the chance to pick one of these up.

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p>When the cart became available I quickly added 2 units (the maximum quantity per person), proceeded to pay via PayPal, and only a few moments later I received my confirmations – woohoo! I’d done it! I had secured 4% of the total world production of this cool product for myself!

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p>Shortly after midnight though, I got an e-mail from PayPal notifying me that a full refund had been issued to me (e-mail address removed):

Dear Jens Hembach,

PodBrix (XXXXXXX@podbrix.com) has issued you a full or partial refund for your payment.

Please do not reply to this email. Email sent to this address cannot be answered.

Temporary Hold Information: A temporary hold has been placed on funds that were returned to your account because you used Instant Transfer to fund the original payment. The funds from this payment cannot be released until they have arrived from your bank account, which usually takes 3-4 business days.

Message From Seller:
Refund for PodBrix Order

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p>Who knows what that was supposed to mean. I figured it was a problem with debiting my chequing account, so I sent out another payment, this time from my credit card.

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p>Thinking everything was alright, I was getting ready to head to bed when I spotted this while paging through my spam folder:

PodBrix Customer,

You purchased a 1K Brix Macrofig from us a few hours ago. As you may have noticed the 1K Brix Macrofig sold out very quickly… in less than 45 seconds actually. This was partially due to the popularity of the product and partially because we had such a low run of 50 units.

Unfortunately because of the fast selling rate, our shopping cart software was unable to halt orders quickly enough after they exceeded 50 units. Basically we received so many orders so quickly (many in the first few seconds) that some later orders slipped through because the early orders were still in process and had not been removed from inventory yet. This meant that when everyone finally finished the checkout we ended up with too many orders. To make a long story short, we oversold the limited edition of 50 units by 18 units.

We are therefore forced to cancel orders for the last 18 units we sold. Your order is unfortunately one of these orders.

Not that it means much, but let me start by apologizing. I am aware that you may have stayed up till the middle of the night (depending on your time zone) waiting to buy the 1K Brix Macrofig. Certainly I can imagine your disappointment at receiving this e-mail. I am personally very sorry to have to cancel your order and we would like to try and make it up to you in some way.

Because of your inconvenience and disappointment we will offer you a guaranteed purchase on up to two units of the next PodBrix product to be released. We have some amazing new items in the works. I can’t speak specifically about what the next product will be, but a few days before the release we will send you a special e-mail and allow you to purchase up to two units before any other customers. If you decide you don’t like the next product, you can wait and apply this offer to any subsequent product. We will continue to e-mail you the option to pre-buy until you select a product you might like… or tell us to go away.

Again I apologize for your disappointment. You will receive an e-mail confirmation of your refund. If you paid via PayPal your payment will be refunded to your PayPal account. If you paid using credit card the charge will be refunded to your card.

If you have any further questions you can feel free to reply to this e-mail and I will respond personally to your concerns.

–
Tomi
http://PodBrix.com

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p>I cannot begin to put into words how upset I am. Not managing to place the order in the mad rush to be one of the lucky 50, that’s one thing, but getting a confirmation e-mail, only to be told three hours later “oops, my bad”?!? Argh. Granted, Tomi wrote up a very nice e-mail, but first dibs on one of the next products isn’t exactly what I’d call ‘making it up’ — I do still have to pay for them, no? How about a free 1K Brix Classic-T? That one’s not limited, where’s the harm? The 18 T-shirts needed probably don’t cost as much in total to manufacture as the sale price of just a single one of the ‘Macrofigs’. Sorry, I’m sounding like a bit of a ranting lunatic.

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p>The fair thing to do here would actually be to look at all 68 units that were allowed through, and limit the orders to one figure per order instead of two, working backwards from the last order, until enough people’s second figures were taken away to guarantee everyone that managed to get an order in before the cutoff at least one of the figures.

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p>Between this fiasco and the fact that one of the two Wozwear 6502 T-shirts I bought a while back has a stain on it from sloppy printing, I’m going to be very reluctant to order from PodBrix again. They make some very cool looking stuff, but the artificial exclusivity seems to come at the price of the quality of both the product and the service, which is simply not cool.

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p>Before finally heading to bed, tired and frustrated, I responded to Tomi at PodBrix with this note:

Hi Tomi,

I’m sure I’m not the first to write you that I am extremely upset about this, and will undoubtedly not be the last either. Technical issues aside, would it not be a more equitable resolution to reduce those orders of 2 macrofigs to one, likely freeing up enough to at least guarantee one figure to all those that put in orders before the system shut down? Otherwise you’re putting ebay resellers before true fans and collectors, which just doesn’t seem right.

Regardless, not that it will make a difference either way, but I have to say I’m quite disappointed, especially after my last purchase from PodBrix — 2 Wozwear shirts — didn’t work out too well either, with one of the shirts having unsightly white splotches of printing colour along the bottom.

Regards,
Jens Hembach

[Update: 2006-04-07 23:57]

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p>The saga continues. Tomi just sent out this e-mail. I’m quite pleased to see my suggestion was at least taken seriously, it does restore some of my lost confidence.

Hello Again,

I have received several suggestions on how to resolve the issue with cancelled orders due to overselling on the 1K Brix Macrofig product. Let me summarize the suggestions and respond.

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Suggestion:
Why don’t you simply increase the limited edition to 68 units and allow all everyone to purchase?

Answer:
We can’t do this because I planned for 50 units and we only have enough parts to create 50. Technically there are 50 and 1 prototype unit.

Suggestion:
Why don’t you offer non-numbered units to the people who you oversold to?

Answer:
Same as above. We don’t have enough parts.

Suggestion:
Why don’t you reduce any current orders for 2 units down to 1 unit. This way you would have enough units for everyone to get at least one.

Answer:
I thought about this, but only three people ordered 2 units. Everyone else ordered one, probably due to the high cost of the product. Two of the people who ordered 2 units have already had their orders cancelled. So this wouldn’t work unfortunately.

Suggestion:
Couldn’t you just cancel all orders, then allow only everyone who previously purchased including the oversold orders to vie again for purchase, but limit the sale to 1 unit each.

Answer:
This is very difficult logistically and would still leave 18 units oversold and make people unhappy. I know those people might not be you… but it would be someone else.

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In conclusion I thought hard about how to resolve the situation and I feel the current solution is the best we can do given the circumstances. I know it is incredibly disappointing and if I were in your position I would certainly feel angry and let-down.

I know you are not very satisfied with the idea of having the first stab at subsequent products. But I assure you that the upcoming products will be more desirable than the 1K Brix Macrofig… and they won’t be a big Woz or something of that nature.

Given the information I have provided you, if there is anything else we can do to make you happy let me know.

–
Tomi
http://PodBrix.com

07. April 2006 by jens
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