Thread: HauntedProps.com--NEED INFO!

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Originally Posted by Lordgrimley.com

WOW! I don't think he was promoting himself at all. Where the hell did that post come from? He stated the guy may be working on his own. Man you must have read something into that I didn't.

I think JGC was talking about Fright's previous posts. A few of those did seem self-promoting but really that doesn't matter. This thread is about member's dissatisfaction with Haunted Props and/or their products ... not with each other.

I agree. Obviously, no one wants people to think things about them that aren't true. I just said stuff, I guess, that was misconstrued. I didn't mean anything negative by anything I posted and I wasn't trying to steal anyone's customers as I have my own.
As for HauntedProps, a lot of things happening are beyond Joe's control. Things can and do happen that will cause a hold-up especially at peak season where we are right now. It's NOT a good feeling to feel completely overwhelmed at peak season.

I don't know for sure if that's the case at all. I'm just saying if it were the case, it would not be out of the ordinary in the world of online Halloween stores.


- Shawn

Ok. I'm tired of people making excuses for bad business practices. Even though Frighttime was not promoting his business in his last post so what if he does. I would even go so far as to call him a poor businessman if he didn't try to gather a customer base from the poor service of another company. It is business and free enterprise at its finest. If a company in an industry is unable or unwilling to fill the needs of its customers other companies will fill the void. There is nothing wrong if a store owner sees someone in need of a product or service a customer really needs and then providing it. I am sure many of the people who have ordered from companies and are not sure if they will receive their items in time would rather cancel and order from someone who does have the item or can answer the phone. That way they know they will get the item by Halloween. Its great that some companies are so busy they can't handle the orders. That is fantastic. But if they can't fill the orders or attend to the customers the customers will go elseware. Personally if we received such high volume that I couldn't handle it my butt would have been on the phone with a temp agency the next day and have new employees in 24 hours. There are tons of people looking for jobs right now. If you want to have razor thin margins and become the Walmart of the Halloween industry you have to be prepared for the orders. I am not how that Grandmother story relates to any of this at all. Yes it is a really sad and depressing story and I am sick that someone would ever do that to someone but let me give you a better example of what is happening:

Lets say you live in a small town with a mom and pop hamburger joint. McDonald's opens a new store in town with really low prices and customers begin to flock to the store. Before long the Mcdonalds has so many customers the line at the drive thru is a 30min wait no matter what time of day it is. Customers begin to complain that the wait is too long. You could go to the mom and pop store and pay more for a burger but you know it will be quick with good service. Do you honestly think Burger King or Sonic would stand back and congratulate Mcdonalds on a wonderful new store. Hell No! They would have built a store on either side of the Mcdonalds.

Remember if they can't deliver the product someone else will. If I tell you a product is out of stock and you want a refund I will give it to you within 24hrs. I have even helped people find products on other sites if we are out of stock. Its called customer service and I will make no apologies filling orders for a customer when someone else can't.

Okay, let's try to put this TOTALLY back on track.

Larry of HP, are you still watching this thread? Do you have anymore info to share with us about HP and whether or not we will be getting our items?

Originally Posted by SouthernBelle

Okay, let's try to put this TOTALLY back on track.

Larry of HP, are you still watching this thread? Do you have anymore info to share with us about HP and whether or not we will be getting our items?

OK guys, I am here. As I said, I understand people are upset. I doubt I need to say this, but I am not Joe and if you'd like to contact me privately I can prove it to you. I am a freelance web developer and business owner who has been working on HauntedProps.com and doing design and marketing for them for the last few years. I have my own e-commerce site in a different industry with my wife, and I run one for another client of mine in yet another industry. I am taking on a larger role with HauntedProps.com, because I see the potential with the site and I would like to be sure that issues like we are seeing now end with this season for good. Unfortunately, I was not in a position to head these issues off earlier in the season, but I am trying to help with the results and prevent anything from happening in the future. Starting in 2009 I am going to be MUCH more involved with the operations of the business, focusing on the site design, marketing and customer service. I have not been online here for the last 2 days because I do have other responsibilities that I needed to attend to, but I will try to check back regularly to keep up with the discussion from now on.

The problems we have faced this season, while incredibly frustrating, all tie back to one thing: supply. This is a record-breaking season for the ENTIRE industry, and that also means the manufacturers. Our responsibility in all of this was in selling product that we fully expected to stock, and then not getting it in because the manufacturers were backed up. That is not an excuse, however. I know that items that were not in stock should NOT have been listed as in stock just because we expected them to be in stock. This is one of the most important changes I intend to implement in the offseason. We are going to specify which items are IN the warehouse and which are on ORDER from the manufacturer. This will not help us get them any faster, of course, but at least you'll know when you order it that it isn't going to be shipping immediately because it's not here yet.

I would love to hear any other suggestions that people would be willing to give me to help make things better in the future. Please understand this is a major transition year for us. If you are not willing to give us another chance next year, I can totally understand that. But all of these issues were created by situations that occurred before I was able to take on this larger role with HP. Issues that will NOT happen again, now that I am in a position to control them. I will be reading this, and I look forward to hearing from you guys.

Thanks for your response Creatureman. I can see that the public discussion is not helping. Just to clarify, I said I would be taking on a larger role in 2009. As of October 2008, I am a self-employed freelance web developer and the other responsibilities include working for other clients. I do think posting here creates somewhat of a firestorm, so I'm going to lay off on that. Anybody that has a legit issue that they would like help with, please feel free to contact me privately at lfulk@hauntedprops.com and I will do my best to bring it to the attention of the HP.com staff-member who can most help you. Thanks to those of you who have been very understanding thus far, especially SouthernBelle and others. Good luck getting your items on time, and i'll try my best to help

WOW,just got back from the race track (we won in our class WEEEE),this thread has more horespower than my 650 hp 64 GTO......... i agree this is getting a little twisted.........I have now confirmed with 5 other suppliers that the main factory making the creature reachers are lagging for whatever reason,as for the best suggestion larry,Joe needs to "freeze" those items that he does not physically have in his warehouse that HE sees himself.Selling back ordered stuff that all supplies are backed up on is the main thing joe can prevent.I can go on his site & still order any of these items that are unavailable right now.........this is one place to start squelching the fire.As for the others stuff,I Zombie says that they are way behind.

Psssst ... hey Larry. Don't worry about CreatureMan. He'll be much calmer after his stroke.

LMAO!

No offense, CM ... just trying to lighten the mood around here. As I stated before, all you can do is wait. All WE can do is wait. If we get the stuff, great. If not, let's just hope we don't get charged for it. And if we do get charged for it, we can always dispute it. And if we dispute it and lose, then we can all rent an RV, drive up to NY and beat Larry AND Joe about the face and head with some of these damn Creature Reacher arms I got layin' all over my garage. They must be good for something!

And hey, Joe did make sure I got the 3 body bags I ordered so it's not like we won't have a place to stuff the bodies when we are done. (We'll only need 2 but I'll bring the third just in case CM has another stroke along the way.)

LIGHTEN UP!

Trust me when I say life is too short to sweat this stuff. I'm bummed that I didn't get everything by when I needed it but hey, I'll make my haunt happen anyways.

ummmm, Larry, i DID e-mail you personally at your email address... 2 days ago. Asked where my order was that I was assured was shipped on Monday and would arrive this week. I've not gotten a response... or a package. As a matter for fact, as I stated in a previous post, after a person call from Joe, it turns out that my stuff wasn't shipped at all.

So, while I still have faith that you and Joe are seperate people, and that you really are attempting to help out here... let me say that the whole reason this post was started and is now up to 15 pages (mabe 16 after this one... who knows) is because of lack of communication. Items not in stock, items backordered, unanswered email, unanswered calls. It's all about the follow thru. If you're going to lay it out there and offer to help, and offer your email address if someone has a problem... make sure to answer the emails you get before offering any more assistance.

Offering for people to email you for help, when you've got unasnwered emails for help already in your inbox is the same as offering items for sale when you already know they are backordered or delayed... which is why we're all here in the first place. Isn't it?