Need some help here with Blue Fontaine's

[agera94]

Hey guys, long time no see 

Wasn't too sure where to put this thread but here goes. I need some assistance in getting into contact with Zach Mueller and getting an actual response. I've tried his twitter, and I've tried contacting him via his website. Long story short, I haven't received my pledge from his kickstarter campaign. I've been billed for the full amount for a brick of his blue fontaines, and am yet to receive them since shipping out 2/3 months ago.

Amazon payments have been most unhelpful in this matter, I've even tried to get refunded however, they are stating that anything over 60 days of payment cannot be done. I find this very unfair as payment was taken all the way back in January this year. Production and shipping took over 6-7 months to carry out, which I completely understand. Yes I have done my survey 

I would have done a credit card chargeback by now, however my financial institution does not do this for Visa Debit cards 

Hopefully someone here is able to get directly into contact with him. I'm not here to belittle, or rubbish the guy. The sheer logistics of what he was carrying out would have been an immense task. I see this as an oversight, and my order simply has been missed amongst all of the others.

Cheers 

[Card Player]

Hey guys, long time no see 

Wasn't too sure where to put this thread but here goes. I need some assistance in getting into contact with Zach Mueller and getting an actual response. I've tried his twitter, and I've tried contacting him via his website. Long story short, I haven't received my pledge from his kickstarter campaign. I've been billed for the full amount for a brick of his blue fontaines, and am yet to receive them since shipping out 2/3 months ago.

Amazon payments have been most unhelpful in this matter, I've even tried to get refunded however, they are stating that anything over 60 days of payment cannot be done. I find this very unfair as payment was taken all the way back in January this year. Production and shipping took over 6-7 months to carry out, which I completely understand. Yes I have done my survey 

I would have done a credit card chargeback by now, however my financial institution does not do this for Visa Debit cards 

Hopefully someone here is able to get directly into contact with him. I'm not here to belittle, or rubbish the guy. The sheer logistics of what he was carrying out would have been an immense task. I see this as an oversight, and my order simply has been missed amongst all of the others.

Cheers 

I don't understand why you waited so long to inquire? 2-3 months ago? It's more like 5-6 months ago these were shipped! The decks and his profit are most likely long gone by now. How long do you expect the creator to hold on to their profit before someone says, hey wait a second, I never got mine? It sounds like your out of luck and Zach does not want to deal with this mess.

[agera94]

From what I had gathered from his emails, on the 5th of September, he was still shipping out the last of his fontaine orders, I'm also an international buyer so generally people will tell you to wait a month or two. I've been trying to contact him since early October as well but each has fallen on deaf ears. 

[Fess]

From what I had gathered from his emails, on the 5th of September, he was still shipping out the last of his fontaine orders, I'm also an international buyer so generally people will tell you to wait a month or two. I've been trying to contact him since early October as well but each has fallen on deaf ears.

Ouch, that's terrible.    I wish I knew someway that could help. I suggest comments and msgs on Kickstarter itself. People usually don't want to have negative comments, so they tend to try to do something to make that experience positive for the backer. Maybe contacting Kickstarter and seeing if they will light a fire under his pants. I really hope you get your brick.

[Rob Wright]

Maybe contacting Kickstarter and seeing if they will light a fire under his pants.

Ya,, good luck with that 

[Don Boyer]

He still works at Theory11, right?  That's one way to reach him...

I don't understand why you waited so long to inquire? 2-3 months ago? It's more like 5-6 months ago these were shipped! The decks and his profit are most likely long gone by now. How long do you expect the creator to hold on to their profit before someone says, hey wait a second, I never got mine? It sounds like your out of luck and Zach does not want to deal with this mess.

Um, it's Zach's mess!  He's responsible for making sure his backers get their stuff.  Nearly every deck company (and any smart crowdfunding project creator) will hold back a number of cards, not just for his personal use but to fix problems like this.  If he was out of them in a year or two after, I might understand, but that's not the case.  Even if he was out of decks, he could refund the money.  He's legally obligated to do so, used profits or not - within whatever the applicable statute of limitations would be.

[agera94]

He still works at Theory11, right?  That's one way to reach him...

I don't understand why you waited so long to inquire? 2-3 months ago? It's more like 5-6 months ago these were shipped! The decks and his profit are most likely long gone by now. How long do you expect the creator to hold on to their profit before someone says, hey wait a second, I never got mine? It sounds like your out of luck and Zach does not want to deal with this mess.

Um, it's Zach's mess!  He's responsible for making sure his backers get their stuff.  Nearly every deck company (and any smart crowdfunding project creator) will hold back a number of cards, not just for his personal use but to fix problems like this.  If he was out of them in a year or two after, I might understand, but that's not the case.  Even if he was out of decks, he could refund the money.  He's legally obligated to do so, used profits or not - within whatever the applicable statute of limitations would be.

Don't believe he works at T11 anymore :/ And yes what you say is correct. Even if he has run out of his cards, he is still legally obligated to fulfil his end of the contract and if not a refund would be met with welcome arms. I've attempted to get amazon payments to contact him but they keep telling me the same bad news over and over again.

[Don Boyer]

Don't believe he works at T11 anymore :/ And yes what you say is correct. Even if he has run out of his cards, he is still legally obligated to fulfil his end of the contract and if not a refund would be met with welcome arms. I've attempted to get amazon payments to contact him but they keep telling me the same bad news over and over again.

Ask around at T11 anyway.  They might be able to help you.  Meanwhile, I tried to reach him on his webpage - we'll see if he drops by here to explain the situation.

[agera94]

Don't believe he works at T11 anymore :/ And yes what you say is correct. Even if he has run out of his cards, he is still legally obligated to fulfil his end of the contract and if not a refund would be met with welcome arms. I've attempted to get amazon payments to contact him but they keep telling me the same bad news over and over again.

Ask around at T11 anyway.  They might be able to help you.  Meanwhile, I tried to reach him on his webpage - we'll see if he drops by here to explain the situation.

Thanks Don! I tried contacting him on his website too so hopefully we get a reply I can provide any information like transaction ID's from amazon payments if if he reaches out to you first. Best be optimistic about everything 

[DarkDerp]

Try his Twitter handle https://mobile.twitter.com/zachmonky  depending on how his account is set up you might be able to DM.

[agera94]

Try his Twitter handle https://mobile.twitter.com/zachmonky  depending on how his account is set up you might be able to DM.

Tried that several times already unfortunately. I just wish you could DM without having a mutual follow.

[Card Player]

He still works at Theory11, right?  That's one way to reach him...

I don't understand why you waited so long to inquire? 2-3 months ago? It's more like 5-6 months ago these were shipped! The decks and his profit are most likely long gone by now. How long do you expect the creator to hold on to their profit before someone says, hey wait a second, I never got mine? It sounds like your out of luck and Zach does not want to deal with this mess.

Um, it's Zach's mess!  He's responsible for making sure his backers get their stuff.  Nearly every deck company (and any smart crowdfunding project creator) will hold back a number of cards, not just for his personal use but to fix problems like this.  If he was out of them in a year or two after, I might understand, but that's not the case.  Even if he was out of decks, he could refund the money.  He's legally obligated to do so, used profits or not - within whatever the applicable statute of limitations would be.

Zach was let go by theory11.

Sarcasm... I guess we expect a project creator to hold on to stuff for years, just in case. They can't sell retail for years either, in case they end up selling the rest of their decks because someone might wait  5 months to a year to inquire about non receivables.  I don't know if he's even an official business entity, is he? I suppose this is the nature of the deck funding beast?

I always hold on to my purchase receipts so I remember what I've ordered and what I'm waiting for. The customer is always right? He should also be aware of what he has purchased and it's status. There should be a statute of time a customer had to reclaim a non receivable.

[agera94]

He still works at Theory11, right?  That's one way to reach him...

I don't understand why you waited so long to inquire? 2-3 months ago? It's more like 5-6 months ago these were shipped! The decks and his profit are most likely long gone by now. How long do you expect the creator to hold on to their profit before someone says, hey wait a second, I never got mine? It sounds like your out of luck and Zach does not want to deal with this mess.

Um, it's Zach's mess!  He's responsible for making sure his backers get their stuff.  Nearly every deck company (and any smart crowdfunding project creator) will hold back a number of cards, not just for his personal use but to fix problems like this.  If he was out of them in a year or two after, I might understand, but that's not the case.  Even if he was out of decks, he could refund the money.  He's legally obligated to do so, used profits or not - within whatever the applicable statute of limitations would be.

Zach was let go by theory11.

Sarcasm... I guess we expect a project creator to hold on to stuff for years, just in case. They can't sell retail for years either, in case they end up selling the rest of their decks because someone waited 5 months to inquire.  I don't know if he's even an official business entity, is he? I suppose this is the nature of the deck funding beast?

I believe you missed my original response to your original query. I didn't wait 5 months to enquire, I waited a reasonable amount of time from when the last of his orders were said to be shipping, to a reasonable international shipping time. On the 5th of September he was still shipping out the last of his fontaine orders, I'm also an international buyer so generally people will tell you to wait a month or two. I've been trying to contact him since early October as well but each has fallen on deaf ears.

To further elaborate, he has a legally binding obligation to fulfil his end of the contract, and if he can't then a refund is required. I'm not asking for my brick that I ordered if he's indeed out of stock, but if this is the case then a refund would be the right resolution.

Imagine you ordered a car from a manufacturer, and the car would be manufactured, and ready for release in a few months time. You've given your payment in full, and now you play the waiting game. You enquire a few weeks after the release date, and the manufacturer tells you to wait a few more weeks as it is being imported from Germany. Now a few weeks grows into a few months, and the manufacturer won't respond to your messages. You manage to walk into a dealership and confront a receptionist about this, who asks you, "did you really expect us to hold onto stock for this long, sorry we're all out."

Zach is also selling them on his website.

[Don Boyer]

Don't believe he works at T11 anymore :/ And yes what you say is correct. Even if he has run out of his cards, he is still legally obligated to fulfil his end of the contract and if not a refund would be met with welcome arms. I've attempted to get amazon payments to contact him but they keep telling me the same bad news over and over again.

Ask around at T11 anyway.  They might be able to help you.  Meanwhile, I tried to reach him on his webpage - we'll see if he drops by here to explain the situation.

Thanks Don! I tried contacting him on his website too so hopefully we get a reply I can provide any information like transaction ID's from amazon payments if if he reaches out to you first. Best be optimistic about everything 

I sent him a link to this topic.

Zach was let go by theory11.

Sarcasm... I guess we expect a project creator to hold on to stuff for years, just in case. They can't sell retail for years either, in case they end up selling the rest of their decks because someone might wait  5 months to a year to inquire about non receivables.  I don't know if he's even an official business entity, is he? I suppose this is the nature of the deck funding beast?

I always hold on to my purchase receipts so I remember what I've ordered and what I'm waiting for. The customer is always right? He should also be aware of what he has purchased and it's status. There should be a statute of time a customer had to reclaim a non receivable.

It does not surprise me.  He has on more than one occasion proved to be an embarrassment to the company.  I still remember when he was using his regular video feature to rip apart a magic trick that was being offered on T11's Wire.  He can have whatever personal opinion he wants, but when you're on the company dime during company time, you don't go disparaging your company's products.  It's like a Pepsi employee getting caught drinking a Coke during his lunch break - believe it or not, it's grounds for termination under the contract that every employee signs.  They don't want photos of someone in a Pepsico uniform having anything to do with Coke products appearing on the Internet, or worse, in a Coke ad.

But back to Zach.

There probably is such a statute - and it's probably measured in years.

That entire argument you made is rendered completely moot when you consider that they're in stock and for sale on his website.  He's not out of cards if they're still for sale, and then there's the holdout decks that most creators make, especially when the creator is a magician or a cardist.  We're talking about a project that was still shipping six months ago, and as an international customer, Agera has to add even more time to that total for anything from the US to arrive.  Every point he made in the previous post is valid.  Even the terms of Kickstarter say as much - backers get rewards or refunds, period.  Not answering his messages is downright irresponsible - it does him no good at all and damages his own reputation.  Would YOU want to do business with a company that doesn't fulfill its orders?  That company is "Zach Mueller".  Can he get away with it?  Probably.  But people in this community want nothing to do with people and companies that don't deliver as promised.

It would be great to have Zach's side of all this, but he hasn't yet responded to my suggestion that he check in here.

[Card Player]

Don't believe he works at T11 anymore :/ And yes what you say is correct. Even if he has run out of his cards, he is still legally obligated to fulfil his end of the contract and if not a refund would be met with welcome arms. I've attempted to get amazon payments to contact him but they keep telling me the same bad news over and over again.

Ask around at T11 anyway.  They might be able to help you.  Meanwhile, I tried to reach him on his webpage - we'll see if he drops by here to explain the situation.

Thanks Don! I tried contacting him on his website too so hopefully we get a reply I can provide any information like transaction ID's from amazon payments if if he reaches out to you first. Best be optimistic about everything 

I sent him a link to this topic.

Zach was let go by theory11.

Sarcasm... I guess we expect a project creator to hold on to stuff for years, just in case. They can't sell retail for years either, in case they end up selling the rest of their decks because someone might wait  5 months to a year to inquire about non receivables.  I don't know if he's even an official business entity, is he? I suppose this is the nature of the deck funding beast?

I always hold on to my purchase receipts so I remember what I've ordered and what I'm waiting for. The customer is always right? He should also be aware of what he has purchased and it's status. There should be a statute of time a customer had to reclaim a non receivable.

It does not surprise me.  He has on more than one occasion proved to be an embarrassment to the company.  I still remember when he was using his regular video feature to rip apart a magic trick that was being offered on T11's Wire.  He can have whatever personal opinion he wants, but when you're on the company dime during company time, you don't go disparaging your company's products.  It's like a Pepsi employee getting caught drinking a Coke during his lunch break - believe it or not, it's grounds for termination under the contract that every employee signs.  They don't want photos of someone in a Pepsico uniform having anything to do with Coke products appearing on the Internet, or worse, in a Coke ad.

But back to Zach.

There probably is such a statute - and it's probably measured in years.

That entire argument you made is rendered completely moot when you consider that they're in stock and for sale on his website.  He's not out of cards if they're still for sale, and then there's the holdout decks that most creators make, especially when the creator is a magician or a cardist.  We're talking about a project that was still shipping six months ago, and as an international customer, Agera has to add even more time to that total for anything from the US to arrive.  Every point he made in the previous post is valid.  Even the terms of Kickstarter say as much - backers get rewards or refunds, period.  Not answering his messages is downright irresponsible - it does him no good at all and damages his own reputation.  Would YOU want to do business with a company that doesn't fulfill its orders?  That company is "Zach Mueller".  Can he get away with it?  Probably.  But people in this community want nothing to do with people and companies that don't deliver as promised.

It would be great to have Zach's side of all this, but he hasn't yet responded to my suggestion that he check in here.

I've never bought anything associated with Zack. I did not even know he had a website or was still selling blue Fontaine decks for that matter. It's quite clear Zach is ignoring Agera but why? This behavior is completely the opposite of how I deal with people. But I also make it a point not to sell to international customers, unless by special request to a discourse member.

Personally I think there is more to this story. I would like to hear Zack's side.

[Don Boyer]

Personally I think there is more to this story. I would like to hear Zack's side.

As would I.  Thus far, he hasn't accepted my invitation to stop by and talk with us.  That's the worst, right there, because what ends up happening is other people end up telling your story for you, for better or worse, and it's often not the whole story.  You ignore an infection, it gets more infected and starts to smell.

[Justin O.]

Try private messaging him through Instagram. Any avenue right? Couldn't hurt...



Edit:  Better idea, lets ALL private message him through a single avenue and see if we can elicit a response...

[Paul Carpenter]

I don't understand why there are so many words in this thread. It is incredibly simple:

If he is ignoring you, the customer, then he's simply being a punk.

Customer service is not always easy to DO, but it is easy to UNDERSTAND. Follow through and get people what they pay for, it's not complicated. In these days of social media there are like 10 ways to get a hold of anyone, so it takes effort to purposefully ignore a customer.

[agera94]

Try private messaging him through Instagram. Any avenue right? Couldn't hurt...



Edit:  Better idea, lets ALL private message him through a single avenue and see if we can elicit a response...

Sent off some instagram ones too now, thanks for the suggestion. So I've done 2 instagrams, 2 new tweets, and a youtube DM today, hoping for the best 

Also just a little timeline for everyone:

2014:
20th January - Amazon Payment to Fontaine Finesses was successful
23rd March - Pledge Confirmation via Backerkit survey - postage address and pledge type confirmed
25th May - Production of cards finished.
12th June - 350 of around 1100 orders shipped
5th September - all parcels shipped out

Since the 9th of October I've attempted to get into contact with Zach via Twitter, Youtube, email, Amazon Payments and now, Instagram.

Still remaining optimistic.

Just to further add: I get that the logistical operation of shipping out over 1000 parcels would have been quite the nightmare, and it's very likely that it was forgotten amongst it all. I'm just hoping that Zach can be mature enough to respond to my concerns and a resolution can be sorted 

[Card Player]

5th September - all parcels shipped out

One last question... What else did you order with your decks?

I don't understand why there are so many words in this thread. It is incredibly simple:

If he is ignoring you, the customer, then he's simply being a punk.

This was the best thread I've seen on this forum in a few days, hence the activity.

I have a few theory's why Zack would ignore this customer, though I don't agree with it. I'm sure you can also Paul. Think vjose32. Not everyone deals with all customers the same way, although they should.

[agera94]

5th September - all parcels shipped out

One last question... What else did you order with your decks?

Just the decks itself no extras  , he's recently been shipping out card clips too.

[agera94]

Good news everyone, thanks to the suggestion of Justin O I contacted Zach on instagram and we're currently in the midst of getting things sorted now   

[Fess]

Outstanding news agera! 

[Don Boyer]

Agreed!  I'm happy to hear that Zach has finally responded and is setting things straight.

[Card Player]

Good news everyone, thanks to the suggestion of Justin O I contacted Zach on instagram and we're currently in the midst of getting things sorted now 

Mess with a guys Instagram reputation and he will run through walls for you.

Awesome to hear!