Another Pawstar Warning

[kayay.livejournal.com]

I first learned about Pawstar at an anime convention. Their prices were fair, quality good, people seemed friendly, and I didn't find any complaints about them online at the time, so I decided to order a couple things from them online in addition to making a purchase at their booth. I wanted a gift sent to an international friend, emailed them to make sure they shipped to the country in question, then placed my order on May 13, 2008. Total costs including international shipping were a little over $40, after which I received the following confirmation email:

Please note that our items are hand made, and as such, take time to manufacture. Allow 1-2 weeks for items such as hats and leather goods, 3-4 weeks for all other items. Complex or multiple item orders may take longer to fill. We only ask that you be patient; the quality is well worth the wait.

Keeping in mind that orders could take a while, I waited. And waited. And waited. Three months later I started to send emails requesting the status of my order. Had it been shipped? Was there projected completion and delivery date? I also tried to contact them via their “contact us” form on their webpage. By December 9th, 2008 I was upset and insisted they, “Contact me immediately.” By January 16th I’d had enough and asked for a refund.

Friday, January 16, 2009
I never received my order and have not gotten a reply to any of my email inquiries, via yahoo or your site. Let me know if it was ever shipped and if so the record of it. Otherwise I'd like a refund. Thank you.

Emails were doing no good, so I hunted for a phone number or physical mailing address, but their site lists no phone number or mailing address. Since the transaction had happened so long ago, I figured Paypal couldn’t do anything and I had to suck up the loss. That's what you get for being patient.

Then today the package arrived. Nearly one year since the order date my small order finally arrived, yet there is still nothing in my email inbox from Pawstar. There was no notice of the package being sent nor apology for the 9+ month processing time. At least I finally got their mailing address, so if anyone else needs to contact them here it is: Pawstar, 3203 Springbrook Rd, Pleasant Prairie, WI 53158. Being a business making this information public should not be an issue.

I’m willing to wait for a quality product, especially when it’s a small business, but there is no excuse for ignoring a customer for a year. If they are ill or bogged down with work they should contact their customers. If they find conventions more profitable, then stop taking internet orders. If they have time to update their My Space they have time to tend to their paying customers’ emails. Thus, I advise people to avoid dealing with Pawstar, especially online, although bad vendors shouldn’t get your business at conventions too in my opinion.

Wondering if this happened to anyone else, I discovered the following which have been mentioned here before, but I wish to post it again as an FYI:

• Furaffinity Thread
  
• Deviant Art
  
• Earlier Post on Artists Beware
  
• Hat ordered in 2006

[ETA] dA link fixed.
If you have a dA account and find this bad business practice, please vote for the dA news article linked above to draw more attention to the problem.

Comments

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Approved, but you need to fix your DeviantArt link.

[mialattia.livejournal.com]

Pffft, geez.

A business should at LEAST send an automated e-mail if there are issues. I've always gotten excellent customer service from companies that honestly have more reason not to respond than Pawstar does. Sorry for the pain in the ass; thank goodness you eventually got it.

[fyremane.livejournal.com]

ive met and spoken with these people myself, its a husband/wife/and mother team at least two of them have a full time job other then the pawstar. I had dealings with them at Midwest Furfest, I orderd a custom hat from them on saterday of the convention, and the had it for me Sunday Morning when the delears room opend.

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

THIS.

[kayay.livejournal.com]

They did seem really nice, hard working people which makes this all the more disappointing that they ignored every single email. I was planning to confront them at the next local con in April, emails and Paypal information in hand, and confront them face to face.

Conventions may be where they make a significant amount of money since they list quite a few on their site, so maybe they make con orders priority. I don't know, but two hats shouldn't take nearly a year if they're healthy and have time to make enough stock for cons.

[spdora.livejournal.com]

AHA! I remember these folks!

Yeah, I bought a hat from them on eBay. They did the same thing to me as they did to you. Not as long of a wait, it took about 2 months to send me something that should have taken a week, as the hat was NOT custom, and had already been made.

[kayay.livejournal.com]

I noticed that in their ebay feedback they have quite a few comments about super slow shipping for items that they already have in stock and lack of communication. Many of those still give positive feedback though because of the quality of the items is good.

Even assuming they go once a week to the post office to send orders then another 7 to 10 days for the post office to deliver, an ebay item from an experienced seller shouldn't take more than 3 weeks in my opinion.

info

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Administrative Contact:
Grace, Scott pawstar@pawstar.com
Pawstar
3203 Springbrook Rd.
Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin
United States
2627057070

My case with them

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

Thankfully, I had filed a Paypal suit just in time (I gave them as much time as I could before filing and sent several emails,) I JUST got my money back 2 days ago from a transaction in early December, and not a single response from them, even through Paypal's system. Paypal sided with me, agreeing that the tracking number they gave me was invalid, and this was after waiting and waiting for them to respond! All I wanted was an email, a reassurance or something, instead I got months of frustration. I don't care HOW good quality the stuff is, the fact they think it's okay to treat people (much less, paying customers!) in this manner.

I don't care how small a business they are, there was NO excuse for not contacting me the way they did. According to their site, the wait time is 1-2 weeks for hats, not 9+ months! If nothing else it's extremely dishonest advertising. Then, to ignore not only emails, but four Paypal resolution messages (which, if someone can point out plausibly how they can miss those while still taking payments no problem I've got some swampland in Death Valley to sell...) they've really got some nerve!

From the number of people in my own post and commenters on DA, I think it's around $400 total missing (although I just got mine back through paypal so perhaps less.)

To the people who keep defending them: they're no better than thieves; regardless of the good transactions they've had. It just takes once of walking away with someone's money to be a thief; no amount of good transactions they've had will take that away, and in this case there are a group of people out of money with no product and no notice.

I've been trying to get my evidence together against this company so as to contact the conventions they're selling at on the page and tell the convention staff what's been going on (unless these other people see resulotion)...We'll see how lucrative they find conventions then. Googling "Pawstar" and "problems" has some hits in addition to what is listed here. I suggest others do the same.

Re: My case with them

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

I can't figure out how to edit comments...I'm finding the links I'm referring to from google have since broken O_o there was a link to someone missing 90 dollars worth of merchandise who had ordered in august and still had nothing in early February on an anime board.

I also meant, I suggest others who have been screwed to contact conventions.

I'm still pissed because there was no reason I should've had to fight for my money back. I don't consider what I got back a refund, as I had to fight tooth and nail and call paypal twice (they wanted to wait even longer and see if the priority tracking number from December was still in-transit *headdesk*). If they had ever intended to give me a refund, there's a little button to press that gives it instantly and reverses the paypal fees and everything. My time is valuable, and the money was needed. Instead they alienated me as a person and wasted my time.