Stay FAR away from this company if you have any expectations of receiving a quality, value for money product crafted with care and attention to detail. I ordered a bobblehead from these con artists on 7/8/2013, and paid them in excess of $150 to make me a custom bobblehead as a gift for a friend. Keep in mind, that includes a $10 upcharge just to have your head bobble (funny, what good is a bobblehead without a bobbling head?) and a myriad of other nickel-and-dime charges piled on. Now at checkout you have two options, standard and express service at 10-12 and ~8 weeks respectively (keep in mind, standard service isnt free, thats another 30 bucks on top of the bobblehead!). First off, pay very close attention to the language they use, they say excluding weekends which youd naturally assume means they dont work weekends, but no, when they say 10-12 weeks, they mean 70-84 business days. Dont order from them twelve weeks before you need it, you wont get it in time even assuming there are no problems with your order where you have to ask them to make revisions (another upcharge, if you dont pay $10 when you order for the right to have them make changes more than once, you get one proof and youre done, you have to hope they get it right the second time of youre screwed). So I placed my order under standard service as I didnt have a tight deadline for the product and figured it was no big deal. Then nothing for three months, not a single solitary email to let you know they know you exist, that your order is coming up for production soon, nothing. In fact, its hard to say how long I would have waited before hearing from them if I hadnt been prompted by a christmas promotion email they sent me to reach out to them about my order. I contacted them October 4th, got a response requesting my order information on October 7th, and a reply on October 8 with a link to my first proof where they claimed to have just sent me the pictures of the molding. One thing thats nice about them, everything is meticulously cataloged in their online systems, including timestamps. They had put photos of my model into their system as early as JULY 20th without a single mention to me as the customer to provide them with feedback. My model was sitting there, ready to be shown to me for two and a half months before I prompted them to get a move on by asking about my order. How much longer would it have sat there untouched and neglected? And so the proofing process began. An endless cycle of feedback and being sent low-resolution photos of the exact same piece again with no changes made and major details left out. I tried everything I could think of to get them to match their model to my reference photos. I tried providing additional photos, I tried explaining specifically what was missing, I tried praising what they had done while providing additional constructive criticism, nothing. Eventually on October 19 I decided enough was enough, I had no chance of having the bobblehead by Christmas if I didnt get things moving and that Id see about getting the missing detail added back during paint. It wouldnt be the same as if the detail was molded in but it would have to do. Enter the nightmare. I have to admit, their first proof was not too bad, though I didnt get to see it for another two weeks (November 4). The color bore no resemblance to the color of the reference photos with an almost pastel blue standing in for the royal of the reference, and the back of the model bearing no resemblance to the reference photos I provided them of the back. They made what should have been royal blue a stark black, even though the front of the same garment was pastel blue, gray was not used anywhere there was supposed to be gray, parts were colored black where they should be blue, blue where they should be gray, white where there should be other colors. It was done using three colors total and no minor details were painted! So what do I do? Well, Im a graphic designer by trade so I take their photos into Photoshop and paint over the various parts in the appropriate colors so that their painters could use it as a guide. What I received in return was a slap in the face. They took everything that was previously white and painted it gray, repainted some black things blue, and left others as they were, wrong. The worst part about this proofing process is there is no back-and-forth with them. You choose approve or disapprove, attach comments and pictures, and they reply with no comments/questions/clarifications and a photo of the current model. There definitely seems to be a language barrier issue with following directions, and I cannot fathom how they were unable to follow a detailed paint over of their own model! After the second paint proof, I lost hope. I asked them to review my comments from the previous proof again and was met with photos of the exact same paintjob as a response. It was at this point that I began asking what could be done about refunding my money as it had become painfully clear I was not going to be satisfied with the results. I responded indicating that Id like to speak to someone about a refund, and sent an additional email through their contact form requesting the same. I got no response to my contact form submission, and their proof people kept sending me the same photos over and over until they finally directed me to contact customer service. I told them that I had already to which they kept sending me photos of the same paint job until finally on 12/2/2013 they directed me to email info@1minime which I did. I once again received no response. Given no recourse and with my gift plan ruined, I contacted Paypal to see what could be done about filing a dispute with them and trying to get a refund. This is where the brilliance of the scam that 1minime / championevergreen is running really shines. Those 8+week production times arent because they need that long to process their queue and get to your order, no, the date on the photos proves they dont need that long. The production times are designed to push the date along past the point where you as a customer can dispute the charges so that if you, like me, are left out of pocket with their production team ignoring you, you cant get your money back. Its designed to scam the customer so that you have to choose between accepting the piece of garbage they make for you or having nothing to show for your money. It is just plain despicable. Even after ignoring me, they have hounded me for feedback an average of twice weekly for the past nine months. Well 1minime, heres your feedback, posted publicly for all the world to see. You know how to contact me if you want to change how this story ends, but I dont think youll bother. 1minime/ Related sites: championevergreen/ servicebobble/ OneMiniMe #1MiniMe #OneMiniMe #Ripoff #Scam #StayAway
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 17:34:37 +0000
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