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Pin games indeed.

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Pin games indeed.

xdattax

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So I get this email a minute ago:

Dear valued Pinopolis Pin Game Customers,

We are notifying you because you have placed a pre-order on 1 or more of the following series:

1. Greetings From Under the Sea Series
2. Diva Villains Series LE 500
3. The Little Mermaid 6 Piece Puzzle Set LE 300

The above series have had numerous challenges in the approval process with Disney. These challenges have continued to slow production on all other series. We have decided it is in the best interest of production to cancel the above series until further notice. You will receive a full refund that will be processed immediately.

We thank you for your patience as we transition out of our pre-order process and shift to fulfilling orders immediately, or having exclusive releases that you will be able to access directly at your local Pin Master. We appreciate your loyal patronage and we look forward to bringing you many more stellar releases without the wait!


Sincerely,

The Team at Pinopolis Pin Game

~~~~~

I am not amused. I had several pins from those on order, including a co-op with someone on insta. Good thing I paid GS and this person is trust worthy. I’m so annoyed. No Ariel pin and no Maleficent pin for me. And I’m pretty sure the card i used, the account number has changed due to “suspicious activity” a while back.

I’m not sure I’m going to ever be ordering again from this company and I’ve got a flock of them on order currently besides these that have been canceled. I wonder what they’re going to do, if anything, besides refunds to make it right. Otherwise I foresee a lot of lost faith.


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I, too, will not be ordering for Acme again. I've been waiting on the Genie pin since September. They have never, EVER, emailed me any sort of update. I have always had to go to one of the people on Facebook. Who last time said, "I don't know. Maybe soon."

I get that being officially tied to Disney constitutes some red tape. But this is ridiculous.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk
 
The main issue is offering pre-orders on something not even in production, which they have said they will no longer do but the damage is done. If a product is not already final and in production you cannot in good conscious sell it to the public for a number of reasons. What if Disney never approved a particular pin? Or the art had to change? Or the factory fell out? Or, like actually happened, it took way longer to produce?

I'm still patiently waiting for my pins but I feel like they owe those who don't cancel something as an apology...
 
I'm still patiently waiting for my pins but I feel like they owe those who don't cancel something as an apology...

I’m not canceling my other orders, I’m plenty patient. But it seems there hasn’t been a lot of communication on these. Hell, some fantasy pin makers are better at updates. What my gripe is it feels like promises promises and nothing. Some of these pins were due late last year.

Like I said, I hope they make it right because unhappy pin collectors are a loud bunch could very well will take their dollars elsewhere.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I received this email too. I went back to look and there are 4 pins in my order which will now be cancelled.

It is not even close to good business to pre-sell, delay for months and then cancel orders. Makes me wonder if traveling to their Las Vegas pin event is worth it. If they cannot get the pins in that they promised last fall, how are they going to stock the lanyard LE 200 trading pins. I just see showing up in Vegas and being told lanyard trading has been cancelled since the pins were not xxx (xxx = approved or produced or delivered... pick your delay excuse.)
 
I, too, will not be ordering for Acme again. I've been waiting on the Genie pin since September. They have never, EVER, emailed me any sort of update. I have always had to go to one of the people on Facebook. Who last time said, "I don't know. Maybe soon."

I get that being officially tied to Disney constitutes some red tape. But this is ridiculous.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk
I just saw that they will be shipping pins this week. If your pin was the Genie and Aladdin on the varpet with treasures around. I ordered the Ariel and Stitch one so I have waited to. Still happy that we will at least get them now!
 
Oh goodie, a preexisting thread for me to rant in. :D

I swear I will never be ordering from them again - at least not until all of last year's pins have finally been sent out and their "no pre-orders" policy is put into effect. If by some miracle things are actually being run competently by then, maybe I'll buy a pin here and there. But I seriously regret ever purchasing from them in the first place. It's not even like they make pins for anything I actually collect, but I bought a couple of the Princess Dreamers anyway because they looked cute and I figured they'd make good traders. It's been 6 months now (HALF A YEAR!) and any meager update I've ever gotten has been obtained by going to their Facebook page - they don't reach out to their customers at all to inform us about delays or keep us in the loop. And the timeline is constantly being pushed back with different excuses (or no explanation at all.)

I know the Chinese New Year has a big effect on pin factories and could have slowed down several of their late 2017/early 2018 releases, but their December update said that the Dreamers were already "in full production" and scheduled for "late January." CNY was in February. So what gives? Why, as of late May, are they STILL in production??? I get that sh*t happens, but at least give us the truth and stop stringing us along.

I just feel like they're always giving us the runaround and constantly evading answering our questions honestly. I'm normally very patient when it comes to this sort of thing (I've worked retail and have been on the receiving end of horrible customer abuse MANY times, so I always go out of my way to be extra kind and understanding as a customer myself.) But I went to check their FB page yesterday for the first time in a while, and seeing this comment pretty much sent me over the edge... first of all, the comment is in response to the May 24th shipping update, which says that the Dreamers pins have "2 more weeks in production." (Sure, Jan.)

AdXtbgr.png


Um... what?

Ok, so I go to their Instagram page, and sure enough, there are images from an event posted a whole month ago with people wearing lanyards that feature all of the Dreamers, as well as a ton of other pins that have yet to ship because they're "still in production" or "still being approved by Disney" or whatever, like the Villain Divas, Taste of Royalty, Princess Profiles, and Classic Cut-Outs.

gtalHd4.png


mDVGbGP.png


So what is Pinopolis' response?

OJsLTDV.png


WOW. "I'm sorry you feel that way." Along with yet another reiteration that you have to come crawling to THEM for answers - even when it comes to why pins you've already paid for are being given away at events. And oh yeah, I really want to come to you guys for customer service when you've got such a warm and welcoming tone like that... they make it sound like we, their paying customers, are some annoying burden. Imo the OP's comment certainly did not warrant a response with this kind of attitude - she was calm and reasonable and had a perfectly valid question.

Apparently someone else on the Pinopolis staff realized how rude and passive aggressive this first reply was, because another one popped up a little later:

44Um4TO.png


I personally don't consider it a "fun incentive" to dangle pins for trade that plenty of paying customers have been waiting half a year for, even if they are PPs or APs. Am I blowing this totally out of proportion, or does it tick anyone else off that they would be insensitive enough to do this? Talk about playing games with us - "buy our pins, then show up to our events over the next few months and try to find them! It's like a scavenger hunt! Fun!"

Ugh. I would just ask for a refund already, if I thought they would actually get off their butts and process it. I wish I had a Facebook account so I could give them a piece of my mind, too. But I don't, which is why you guys have to hear it. xD /rant over

EDIT: Oh yeah, and what are they doing trading pins that are allegedly still in the "approval" process with Disney, like the Divas...? Couldn't they jeopardize their licensing agreement with that kind of stunt??? Ack, someone with a Facebook account get on there and call them out! xP
 
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Oh goodie, a preexisting thread for me to rant in. :D

I swear I will never be ordering from them again - at least not until all of last year's pins have finally been sent out and their "no pre-orders" policy is put into effect. If by some miracle things are actually being run competently by then, maybe I'll buy a pin here and there. But I seriously regret ever purchasing from them in the first place. It's not even like they make pins for anything I actually collect, but I bought a couple of the Princess Dreamers anyway because they looked cute and I figured they'd make good traders. It's been 6 months now (HALF A YEAR!) and any meager update I've ever gotten has been obtained by going to their Facebook page - they don't reach out to their customers at all to inform us about delays or keep us in the loop. And the timeline is constantly being pushed back with different excuses (or no explanation at all.)

I know the Chinese New Year has a big effect on pin factories and could have slowed down several of their late 2017/early 2018 releases, but their December update said that the Dreamers were already "in full production" and scheduled for "late January." CNY was in February. So what gives? Why, as of late May, are they STILL in production??? I get that sh*t happens, but at least give us the truth and stop stringing us along.

I just feel like they're always giving us the runaround and constantly evading answering our questions honestly. I'm normally very patient when it comes to this sort of thing (I've worked retail and have been on the receiving end of horrible customer abuse MANY times, so I always go out of my way to be extra kind and understanding as a customer myself.) But I went to check their FB page yesterday for the first time in a while, and seeing this comment pretty much sent me over the edge... first of all, the comment is in response to the May 24th shipping update, which says that the Dreamers pins have "2 more weeks in production." (Sure, Jan.)

AdXtbgr.png


Um... what?

Ok, so I go to their Instagram page, and sure enough, there are images from an event posted a whole month ago with people wearing lanyards that feature all of the Dreamers, as well as a ton of other pins that have yet to ship because they're "still in production" or "still being approved by Disney" or whatever, like the Villain Divas, Taste of Royalty, Princess Profiles, and Classic Cut-Outs.

gtalHd4.png


mDVGbGP.png


So what is Pinopolis' response?

OJsLTDV.png


WOW. "I'm sorry you feel that way." Along with yet another reiteration that you have to come crawling to THEM for answers - even when it comes to why pins you've already paid for are being given away at events. And oh yeah, I really want to come to you guys for customer service when you've got such a warm and welcoming tone like that... they make it sound like we, their paying customers, are some annoying burden. Imo the OP's comment certainly did not warrant a response with this kind of attitude - she was calm and reasonable and had a perfectly valid question.

Apparently someone else on the Pinopolis staff realized how rude and passive aggressive this first reply was, because another one popped up a little later:

44Um4TO.png


I personally don't consider it a "fun incentive" to dangle pins for trade that plenty of paying customers have been waiting half a year for, even if they are PPs or APs. Am I blowing this totally out of proportion, or does it tick anyone else off that they would be insensitive enough to do this? Talk about playing games with us - "buy our pins, then show up to our events over the next few months and try to find them! It's like a scavenger hunt! Fun!"

Ugh. I would just ask for a refund already, if I thought they would actually get off their butts and process it. I wish I had a Facebook account so I could give them a piece of my mind, too. But I don't, which is why you guys have to hear it. xD /rant over

EDIT: Oh yeah, and what are they doing trading pins that are allegedly still in the "approval" process with Disney, like the Divas...? Couldn't they jeopardize their licensing agreement with that kind of stunt??? Ack, someone with a Facebook account get on there and call them out! xP
Very interesting.

When I spoke to someone at the company the tone was similar... Not really apologetic at all and no true customer service.

Did anyone else sees the promised free "we're sorry" pins based on how much you spent. The more you spent the better the free pin. I have spent a lot and I have not seen a single"we're sorry" pin.

I am trying so hard not to be negative, but afraid I am failing miserably.
 
I ended up making a Facebook profile a couple of days ago in order to join my school's roommate-finding group, so I just left a comment on the aforementioned post and called them out for trading the Diva Villains at that event, even though they supposedly were never approved by Disney. We'll see if they reply (and what excuse they give this time.)
 
I ended up making a Facebook profile a couple of days ago in order to join my school's roommate-finding group, so I just left a comment on the aforementioned post and called them out for trading the Diva Villains at that event, even though they supposedly were never approved by Disney. We'll see if they reply (and what excuse they give this time.)
They are really good at not replying. Good luck in your quest.
 
They are really good at not replying. Good luck in your quest.

I'll just keep posting the same comment until they ban me from their page. xD Lol. I wanna put some public pressure on them rather than sending a complaint privately, which obviously hasn't worked for any of us yet.
 
I'll just keep posting the same comment until they ban me from their page. xD Lol. I wanna put some public pressure on them rather than sending a complaint privately, which obviously hasn't worked for any of us yet.
You would think the culmination of all the private feedback would result in significant customer service changes... sad they have not figured it out.
 
Yesterday, I obtained the cell phone number for Lisa (Lenny's wife) who is the one handling Pinopolis. If you all want to gather and send me a message with all your questions, I will text them to her and let you know her response.
 
Wow... first of all, I just sent a request for a refund (I'm done), and realized that it hasn't actually been 6 months since I placed my order, as I originally thought - it's been 8. That is 2/3rds of a year. I wonder what Disney would do if they found out this company was representing them so poorly, operating with borderline fraudulent business practices, and angering their customers (who are obviously loyal Disney fans who spend money on their merchandise.) Would they pull their licensing agreement?

Also, when I was leaving another comment just a while ago, I noticed that Kim had replied to their rude and passive aggressive comment to point out just how rude and passive aggressive it was, and that they are actually violating our consumer rights, and legally we are all technically entitled to full refunds at this point. And they DELETED BOTH COMMENTS (the rude one and her reply.) Glad I got a screenshot! I'm shocked that they haven't deleted my own comment about the legal shadiness of them trading the unapproved Diva pins.
 
Hi, just a guy who's been waiting months for these pins as well here. :)

Is it weird to say that I'm alright with waiting? These pins (in my opinion) are much better than many of the other WDI, DSF, and park pin releases. Plus, the pins are available online, at all times, and to everyone. Hopefully, their process will become more efficient as time goes on and we all know that once a pin drops for our collection I'm sure the majority of us would order it regardless of the wait.

Just my opinion, I would like to see some more LK pins at some point though. They have such a talented art team, I can't wait to see what they come up with! :D
 
Hi, just a guy who's been waiting months for these pins as well here. :)

Is it weird to say that I'm alright with waiting? These pins (in my opinion) are much better than many of the other WDI, DSF, and park pin releases. Plus, the pins are available online, at all times, and to everyone. Hopefully, their process will become more efficient as time goes on and we all know that once a pin drops for our collection I'm sure the majority of us would order it regardless of the wait.

Just my opinion, I would like to see some more LK pins at some point though. They have such a talented art team, I can't wait to see what they come up with! :D

Not anymore... they announced a while ago that they're switching to only selling pins on-hand at events. I think they said that there might be the occasional online release further down the line, but it's unclear how those will work exactly, and they won't be happening anytime soon (at least not until all of the current pre-orders have been shipped, and some of those are still estimated to take months.) They've definitely decided to overhaul their policies regarding online sales due to this fiasco with all the pre-orders. Which is ultimately a good thing; to their credit, at least they've listened to our complaints about the ethics of selling pins before they've even been approved by Disney. I just hope that eventually they can still work out a way to make some pins available to those who don't have the luxury of traveling to these events.
 
Hi, just a guy who's been waiting months for these pins as well here. :)

Is it weird to say that I'm alright with waiting? These pins (in my opinion) are much better than many of the other WDI, DSF, and park pin releases. Plus, the pins are available online, at all times, and to everyone. Hopefully, their process will become more efficient as time goes on and we all know that once a pin drops for our collection I'm sure the majority of us would order it regardless of the wait.

Just my opinion, I would like to see some more LK pins at some point though. They have such a talented art team, I can't wait to see what they come up with! :D
I want to add to this just a little, especially on the wait times. Something we don't realize, the artwork for the pins we get is usually done up to a year in advance of when they are sold to us. We don't know that struggle, because they just come out and we can go buy them, we're spoiled!
The merch process for Disney takes as little as 6 months, or up to a year and a half sometimes!! Perfect evidence of this is with something like Moana. There is a lot of the merch of Hei Hei using his OLD aggressive design! Because they sent in all the designs for the merchandise before his character made that change. They work on the art for a piece of merch, they send it to a factory in China, they do a test run, test items are sent for approval, then changes are made, then another test, and so on until the approvals come in and the final run is made. Pins obviously I don't think gets as much redo (things like clothing and toys can be redone A LOT), but this process still takes time. (Random side note, the WDI pins are created out of a different factory than the other pins released, isn't that kind of interesting?)
And I've been waiting on a few fantasy pins for over 6 months, there were some big changes in China at the start of the year, one of the major pin factories moved along with all the time off they take for Lunar New Year and a lot of other holidays in the spring, so there have been some major delays. We've seen delays in other areas of official pins too, what with the sudden break for the Park Pack, and even the new Hidden Mickeys (we can only speculate on why these things took so long, so who's to say that issue didn't add to it).

I know it's SUPER frustrating to pay for something and wait so long and be in the dark. But I think that's what happened here, these aren't items with a fast turnaround time, but people don't know about that. The lack of communication is fairly justified, but I've also learned in dealing with fantasy pins, that the factories DON'T provide a lot of updates, they don't like to do it, and when you pester them about it, they will make your pins take longer to make...
I'm also kinda thinking about stuff like Game Stop, where you can pre-order games up to a year in advance sometimes, but it's also easier to cancel a pre-order and get your money back...
 
Wow... first of all, I just sent a request for a refund (I'm done), and realized that it hasn't actually been 6 months since I placed my order, as I originally thought - it's been 8. That is 2/3rds of a year. I wonder what Disney would do if they found out this company was representing them so poorly, operating with borderline fraudulent business practices, and angering their customers (who are obviously loyal Disney fans who spend money on their merchandise.) Would they pull their licensing agreement?

Also, when I was leaving another comment just a while ago, I noticed that Kim had replied to their rude and passive aggressive comment to point out just how rude and passive aggressive it was, and that they are actually violating our consumer rights, and legally we are all technically entitled to full refunds at this point. And they DELETED BOTH COMMENTS (the rude one and her reply.) Glad I got a screenshot! I'm shocked that they haven't deleted my own comment about the legal shadiness of them trading the unapproved Diva pins.

Time to report them to the BBB!
 
Wow... first of all, I just sent a request for a refund (I'm done), and realized that it hasn't actually been 6 months since I placed my order, as I originally thought - it's been 8. That is 2/3rds of a year. I wonder what Disney would do if they found out this company was representing them so poorly, operating with borderline fraudulent business practices, and angering their customers (who are obviously loyal Disney fans who spend money on their merchandise.) Would they pull their licensing agreement?

Also, when I was leaving another comment just a while ago, I noticed that Kim had replied to their rude and passive aggressive comment to point out just how rude and passive aggressive it was, and that they are actually violating our consumer rights, and legally we are all technically entitled to full refunds at this point. And they DELETED BOTH COMMENTS (the rude one and her reply.) Glad I got a screenshot! I'm shocked that they haven't deleted my own comment about the legal shadiness of them trading the unapproved Diva pins.
Hello. I am the one that deleted the posts. It was not our intent to be rude or passive aggressive. We are working as hard as possible to get all pins in hand and shipped out. The delays from the China manufacture are unfortunate. Plus the entire process was longer in all pins than expected. We are correcting this by no longer selling pre-sale pins. It will take us a little bit to get caught up. We know the wait was too long. We are adding an extra pins to orders for the delay. We know this does not fix the issue, but it is the least we can do. We hate to see cancelled orders but at any time you feel you would like a refund we will always honor that!

The recovery from this delay will be as fast as we can possible go. Please know that we are a newer company working through grown pains. We have hired on a customer service rep (Kristi Sova) that will handle any and all questions or concerns. You can reach her anytime here or by email at kristisova@live.com

Again. We appreciate your business more than you know and hope you can understand that we will work for you as swiftly and effectively as possible! Thank you!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
Hello. I am the one that deleted the posts. It was not our intent to be rude or passive aggressive. We are working as hard as possible to get all pins in hand and shipped out. The delays from the China manufacture are unfortunate. Plus the entire process was longer in all pins than expected. We are correcting this by no longer selling pre-sale pins. It will take us a little bit to get caught up. We know the wait was too long. We are adding an extra pins to orders for the delay. We know this does not fix the issue, but it is the least we can do. We hate to see cancelled orders but at any time you feel you would like a refund we will always honor that!

The recovery from this delay will be as fast as we can possible go. Please know that we are a newer company working through grown pains. We have hired on a customer service rep (Kristi Sova) that will handle any and all questions or concerns. You can reach her anytime here or by email at kristisova@live.com

Again. We appreciate your business more than you know and hope you can understand that we will work for you as swiftly and effectively as possible! Thank you!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Thanks for the update and clarification.
 
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