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In early February of 2002 the company Another Universe ("AU") announced that they were releasing the entire season of the TV show 'My So Called Life' on DVD.
This project had become financially viable after more than 4,000 fans expressed interest in this product. After receiving an announcement about the upcoming release of a special DVD collection with bonuses, most of the fans gladly agreed to pay a $20 deposit to reserve a copy. The remainder of the cost (to a pre-order total of approx. $100) was to be paid later once the disks had been manufactured and were ready to ship.
In mid March some customers noticed that, without authorisation, the remainder of the balance had been removed from their bank accounts. Requests to AU for an explanation of this were not answered but on March 26th AU announced that due to the nature of their Credit Card billing system, the entire cost of the set would have to be paid in advance. Many of the customers who had placed a $20 deposit (and had not already been billed the full amount without being asked) agreed to these terms specificaly because they were told by AU that the DVD set would not be available at other retailers. In addition, AU implied that additional DVD sets might not be manufactured in the future. This money was paid by customers who trusted AU's publicly posted promises.
Soon after many people began reporting that they had been billed twice and in some cases three times. Despite repeated communication with the customer service staff and also the CEO of AU, Ross Rojek, many people have not received refunds for their unauthorised overcharges despite having paid two or three times over for a product they had not yet received.
The release date for the project was pushed back from June to September with little communication from AU. September came and went and then on October 4th a MSCL.com forum member pointed out that Amazon.com appeared to be selling the MSCL DVD box set. It was confirmed that AU had licensed the distribution of the product to other vendors and that AU was now no longer the sole agent for the DVD set. AU modified their advertising by stating they were the sole distributor of the "special" set, which included a certificate of authenticity, lunchbox packaging and a bonus DVD. The DVDs, initially advertised as "exclusive", were now going to be available at a vastly reduced sum. Many of us had paid for this set (in advance) thinking this was to be our only chance and believing it to be exclusive to AU as advertised.
On 10th October it became apparent that the company who had been asked to make the special edition packaging had not been paid and were refusing to complete the order. Then we were informed that the bonus DVD and lunchbox would not be ready to ship with the DVD set. The two items that were now being used by AU as the justification for describing themselves as the 'Exclusive distributors' were now not going to be shipped with the DVDs. At the time of writing, the status and shipping date of these bonus materials remains unclear.
Many people were reluctant to cancel their order with AU, knowing that receiving a refund would be a long and traumatic procedure. These customers were well aware that many people that had been overcharged have not yet received a refund. Others chose to cancel and buy the box set DVDs from another vendor at the greatly reduced rate, but without a guarantee they would receive a refund in accordance with their cancellation request.
The DVDs were finally ready for distribution in November, 2002. By November 15th, only half the people (some of whom had paid up to $300 in overcharges) who ordered the DVD had received them; the rest were to be (in AU's terms) part of the "second wave." As time passed, there was no indication of the second wave having shipped out to customers. The other retailers besides AU (e.g. Amazon) had stock of the DVDs and had begun shipping them. Customers in the USA had also been able to purchase the DVDs from brick-and-mortar retailers.
Therefore, at least half the people who ordered from AU, paid more than the agreed amount and in advance, made this entire project possible and hoped to get an "exclusive" item received it much later than people who purchased the set store-bought or ordered from other retailers who offered better shipping delivery dates.
We would like to bring this to the attention of anyone considering using AU for any online transaction. Many of the MSCL customers feel so strongly that AU has not been forthright about why this project has gone so terribly wrong that they have reported AU to the Internet Fraud Complaint centre run by the FBI.
We the undersigned feel that AU is at best untrustworthy, unprofessional and incompetent.
Bear in mind that they have so far:
- Frequently double and triple charged Credit Card accounts and refused to offer refunds in a timely manner;
- Failed to meet each and every one of their projected release dates;
- Failed to pay vendors for goods.
- Failed to answer most email requests for order or refund status.
- Failed to refund the vast majority of the double and triple charges they made - leaving many customers a reported $100-$400 out of pocket;
- Failed to refund outstanding money from many cancelled orders
- Left many people - who were instrumental in seeing this DVD made without copies while other vendors have shipped and delivered.
- Failed to communicate directly with customers.
We would encourage you to learn from our misfortune and please check the links provided for more information on this issue before trusting your business and credit card details to Ross Rojek or Another Universe. |
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Though this is not strictly limited to people who purchased the DVD box set of 'My so called life' from Anotheruniverse.com a vast majority of those who did so are sufficiently vocal about the poor level of customer care shown by AU that it has inspired this petition. Note: your email address will not be used or given out to any other party and is used for confirmation purposes only. |
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sponsor and do not in any way reflect the views of iPetitions.
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sponsor and cannot be held liable for any damages or injury or other
harm arising from this petition. In the event no adequate sponsor is
named, iPetitions will consider the individual account holder with which
the petition was created as the lawful sponsor.
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