Thread: HauntedProps.com--NEED INFO!

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This has almost reached the ridiculously funny stage.

At least this thread will validate us if we need to dispute anything with credit card companies. Trust me - I've thought about the fact that I might have to print it all

My husband just got back in town and asked what was resolved regarding the prop I got that I didn't order. Frankly, at this point I don't care about that stupid thing as long as I do get the one I did order.

Everybody - really - send an email to him regarding disputing with your credit card company. We all need to unite on this and scare him. Then after we all finally get some sort of resolution (hopefully) after Halloween we direct him to this thread.

And never order from him again. I'm tempted to blog about it on my website, but then again, I don't want to be that mean.

He hasn't responded to my email yet.

Terms and conditions again don't mean squat if he doesn't follow thru. If it's been longer than his processing and delivery time is advertised, you are within your rights to cancel and go someplace else. You are being more than reasonable waiting longer than 2 weeks for either.

Make a record of any conversations you have had with him (phone, email, hatemail, brick, etc) including dates, times and any confirmation numbers and cancel due to failure to delivery within specified timeframe given.

When I cancel with a company, let them know they have 48 hours to respond and then I will dispute with my credit card company. If they have not debited the card, I make sure they know that I will dispute ANY charges they do try and place on the card immediately.

When flexibility and being nice don't work, set down YOUR rules and don't budge.

It would probably also be a good idea to turn him into the Better Business Bureau. Somehow, people need to know not to deal with this guy.


- Shawn
FrightTime Productions
FrightTime Productions - Home

Okay, he replied this morning. He's blaming everything on the suppliers, Rubies, etc. And it appears that a few things I ordered will not make it by this Saturday (the day of our party) and one thing will not make it at all.

He says he hasn't charged my card at all but I'm going to call the card service today and make sure.

Very apologetic ... but that doesn't help.

I have been sitting back and watching this thread.

I can in no way give excuses for this vendors obvious shortcomings this season. Having been a vendor in this industry for 6+ years I can say that it has been an extraordinarily busy one.

I really try to bite my tongue and never post on the message boards...

But one thing that is really disturbing to me and I feel the need to comment on is what I observe to be completely unethical behaviour by "Shawn - FrightTime Productions". He is a direct competitor to HauntedProps (I believe this is FrightTime's first year). He is making statements such as this...

"It would probably also be a good idea to turn him into the Better Business Bureau. Somehow, people need to know not to deal with this guy.
- Shawn
FrightTime Productions"

The post about saying he SHIPS OUT OF THE SAME WAREHOUSE is completely false! Yes, they do both BUY from Morris Costumes. But Joe at Haunted Props has his own massive warehouse and Joe buys from dozens of different sources not just the Morris Costumes warehouse.

I was a bit shocked when I read the post that they both ship out of the same warehouse! I got a picture in my head of FrghtTime Productions having a small corner of Haunted Props warehouse where he shipped out of and was walking around Joe's warehouse looking at his inventory status! VERY misleading and I feel very unethincal to post such things.

I'm truly sorry that so many on this message board are having a hard time getting their products from Haunted Props! I do know that Joe is a good guy and quite possibly in over is head this season. All I know about his business is what you know. But I have dealt with and met Joe personally and I do know that he will do all he can to deliver or make it right (granted... this may or may not ultimately make YOU the customer happy).

Doug.
FrightProps

Joe just called me and left a message saying I've been "trashing his company" which, of course, is not accurate. I've never dealt with HauntedProps before. I've simply been responding to posts on this forum from people who have been having a very difficult time and explaining what I would do in the same situation.
Obviously, I don't know Joe personally, nor have I ever had any dealings with HauntedProps.com
I didn't mean to offend anyone - and I am not going to bad-mouth Joe personally because, again, I don't know the guy!
Yes, I am a direct competitor to HauntedProps. Just liked both HauntedProps and I are direct competitors to Fright Catalog, Bad Planet, Nightmare Factory, HorrorDome etc. We all sell the same products.
If you can't put up with the competition and let things slide off your shoulders, then you shouldn't be in the business. You can't take things personally.

- Shawn
FrightTime Productions
FrightTime Productions - Home

Originally Posted by SouthernBelle

Okay, he replied this morning. He's blaming everything on the suppliers, Rubies, etc. And it appears that a few things I ordered will not make it by this Saturday (the day of our party) and one thing will not make it at all.

He says he hasn't charged my card at all but I'm going to call the card service today and make sure.

Very apologetic ... but that doesn't help.

He should know with out a doubt, in my opinion, if he charged your card. Not sure what "card service" is, but I wouldn't want to be turning that responsibility over to another company if I were a business owner. I would want to know at all times - maybe he's just meaning his merchant account, but like I said, he should know/have a record if he's charged your card.

I'm not big on companies making excuses - whatever problems they have - keep them to themselves, but do your darndest to give good customer service. My opinion is that we shouldn't know what is going on behind the scenes. I had a server do this recently at a restaurant - gave us the story about how the kitchen was yelling at her to pass the blame - not cool.

If he would have hired someone about a month ago to deal with the onslaught of emails and phone calls then I don't think we'd be here right now. Unfortunately, I think he waited a little too long and he's lost some repeat customers. He was very apologetic to me as well - and I know there are certain things out of his control - but if he had been in better communication along the way and also posted something on the website, it would be much better.

I know what it's like to be a business owner - my hubby and I owned an exotic rental car business for a while. We would bend over backwards to make people happy because word of mouth is the best form of advertisement. And sometimes stuff did happen out of our control - getting a phone call from a couple on a weekend getaway saying the Porsche (which was brand new) was leaking something was horrible. We trailered their car up to them returned every bit of their money even though they did enjoy the car for one day. We felt horrible. No excuses though - but make things right.

I hope for his sake this is just a weird blip and he's able to get back on track or that next year he'll hire someone sooner to help with customer communication. But I'll have to admit, I won't be testing the waters again.

Doug, you are right in that he seems to be a very nice guy. I was actually drawn to his site because I researched his name last year via Google and he seemed like a guy that does this because he enjoys it. His low prices just iced the cake for me.

That being said, if he wasn't going to be able to deliver goods by the dates that he said he would, he should have at least attempted to contact some (if not all) of his buyers and let them know so they could order elsewhere with time to spare.

I don't think anyone here has trashed him. This particular forum is here so that we can share our experiences about the Halloween companies we buy from and hope that others can benefit from those experiences. You have to expect that not everyone will be thrilled.

Well it was nice for you to have Joe call you about "trashing" his co, maybe he could email & call us as to our status, mis-shipped items & partial costumes,
but the bottom line is no excuse for non contact & resetting your stores website so that those items show as non purchasable until further notice of restock.
I could have bought from others while they had them..... I run 3 different biz's,no online, but never the less, i always stay in contact with my customers
no matter what time of day or night ! I return calls i miss & emails immediately. No one it trying to trash Joe,just sharing our experiences,misfortunes & frustrations
that Joe has created for himself. If this has been a unordinarily busier season,great, but hire help during that hectic part,which if anyone in this biz has been there
for a few years,should know...... just no excuses,let people know that they may not have it & let the customer decide to stay or shop elsewhere.
Lossing a little biz from honesty will get ya biz the rest of the time.