Anovos is Outta Business and Star Trek Fans SOL

[Maurice]

Preorders are always a red flag for me because it indicates the company can’t afford to make the goods, so if anything goes wrong in production the money goes poof. My suspicion in Anovos was using preorder money to fulfill previous orders and were always playing catchup until the hole got too deep.

 

[mthompson1701]

It's been a little over a month since I tried to contact ViacomCBS, and I haven't gotten any response back from them. I don't know what else to do at this point. I'm getting very frustrated with this whole thing, and starting to regret my purchase. It sounds like reaching out to the new company wouldn't do any good. Anovos said there would be an announcement in September, and that's long since come and gone. There's still no new information that I am aware of.

 

[Dave Femiak]

Anovos support web link is still active. I submitted a request back in Sept 2021 and was told basically that they "were working on it". I've updated and resubmitted ... who knows, right?

 

[STEPhon IT]

Preorders are always a red flag for me because it indicates the company can’t afford to make the goods, so if anything goes wrong in production the money goes poof. My suspicion in Anovos was using preorder money to fulfill previous orders and were always playing catchup until the hole got too deep.

A tough lesson I learned the hard way; it didn't occur to me preorders was in that fashion.

 

[Dave Femiak]

A tough lesson I learned the hard way; it didn't occur to me preorders was in that fashion.

Shouldn't be but I'm guessing that's exactly what was happening. And the result is it sucks to be us

 

[1001001]

Preorders are always a red flag for me because it indicates the company can’t afford to make the goods, so if anything goes wrong in production the money goes poof. My suspicion in Anovos was using preorder money to fulfill previous orders and were always playing catchup until the hole got too deep.

Pyramid scheme...

 

[publiusr]

Preorders are always a red flag for me. My suspicion in Anovos was using preorder money to fulfill previous orders and were always playing catchup until the hole got too deep.

Just like Madoff

 

[STEPhon IT]

Shouldn't be but I'm guessing that's exactly what was happening. And the result is it sucks to be us

Well... I was surfing the anovos supportsesk and alas it's gone. A white page with 403 Forbidden on it. Is there any other avenues to go?

 

[publiusr]

Nothing but cobwebs there. I have this vision of hackers saying “let’s rip off trekkies…reform under a similar name ——and bilk them again.”

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Well... I was surfing the anovos supportsesk and alas it's gone. A white page with 403 Forbidden on it. Is there any other avenues to go?

Maybe you can tweet Alex Kurtzman about the issues with Anovos and how it's screwing over Trekkies, or maybe Rod Roddenberry, Gene's son?

He might know where to redirect your complaints within the Greater Star Trek Bureaucracy at Paramount Plus.

 

[KennyB]

Maybe you can tweet Alex Kurtzman about the issues with Anovos and how it's screwing over Trekkies, or maybe Rod Roddenberry, Gene's son?

He might know where to redirect your complaints within the Greater Star Trek Bureaucracy at Paramount Plus.

Add https://twitter.com/jvancitters?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author this guy if you go the Tweet route..........really doubt it does anything.........but who knows.

 

[KennyB]

Reminds me of Master Replicas when they fell...............have you joined this group of 1000 members in the same situation?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/495986727191802

 

[137th Gebirg]

Pyramid scheme...

It's worse - it's a Ponzi scheme.

Pyramid schemes are a kind of multi-level management (MLM) architecture, where people in the "up-line" get a commission for what people in their "down-line" sell. People are required to keep an inventory of stuff to sell to their "down-line" with monthly sales and recruitment quotas. The "capstone" person at the top of the pyramid makes a metric ass-ton of cash for doing nothing - all commissions based on what everyone else below them are doing.

Ponzi schemes are using someone else's money to pay for something that's either already supposed to be paid for or paying it forward to something that doesn't exist yet. The latter is what took down Bernie Madoff.

Usually, when people enter into Pyramid arrangements, they know what they're getting into. People never know when a Ponzi scheme is occurring until it's too late to get the money back.

And yes, Anovos sounded like a Ponzi scheme. Sad. Many of the products they advertised looked REALLY good.

 

[Dave Femiak]

So ... I'm now totally confused. Back before Anovos went away I had a number of outstanding pre-orders with them - including a pre-order for the Wraith of Khan Landing Party jacket (that one hurts), one for the Capt Kirk Bomber Jacket and one for the Capt Scott bomber jacket.

These jackets were supposed to come with the insignia on the jacket, captain's rank etc. But if you wanted to add the "pip" and pins showing years of service you had to order them separately. I just got a package delivered today (Feb 15, 2022) containing 2 packages of the pips and pins and stuff. Honestly I thought the package was something totally different. The address shipped from was "APL", and and address in McAllen Texas - sender Joe Criesi. Came international priority airmail (to Canada).

I was totally floored to receive this. So this Joe Criese - looks like he may be with a fullfillment / logistics company? Anyhow ... wow totally caught me off guard.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm. Pre-ordering. Reputable booksellers do offer pre-ordering on unreleased books from reputable publishers. And I believe the same is true for audio and video recordings.

Some years ago, I offered a batch of hand-made Christmas tree ornaments for sale, each one made-to-order. I required pre-ordering, so that I would have the individual specs and the total number of pieces to make, but I refused any attempts to pay for them before they were at least well-along in construction, in order to avoid having the product turn into vaporware.

And I also made the plans and instructions freely available on my web site.

 

[Dave Femiak]

Hmm. Pre-ordering. Reputable booksellers do offer pre-ordering on unreleased books from reputable publishers. And I believe the same is true for audio and video recordings.

Some years ago, I offered a batch of hand-made Christmas tree ornaments for sale, each one made-to-order. I required pre-ordering, so that I would have the individual specs and the total number of pieces to make, but I refused any attempts to pay for them before they were at least well-along in construction, in order to avoid having the product turn into vaporware.

And I also made the plans and instructions freely available on my web site.

Honestly I was skeptical at first but way way back - before Anovos had the Star Wars and Marvel licenses - I had purchased without issue TNG Command tunic, exchanged it for a different size because their sizes were very ... precise. After that I purchases BSG Duty Blues and other things without issue. So when the opportunity came to pre-order I wasn't as worried - and they did delivery on things back then - eventually. Usually much later than anticipated but they were received. And the quality was outstanding.

These days I've pre-ordered a variety of things from different sellers - most usually with a deposit only to start the process, a couple times with no deposit at all.

I don't know what to make of this - maybe a small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel (and it's not a freight train?) ..?

 

[fireproof78]

Hmm. Pre-ordering. Reputable booksellers do offer pre-ordering on unreleased books from reputable publishers. And I believe the same is true for audio and video recordings.

Some years ago, I offered a batch of hand-made Christmas tree ornaments for sale, each one made-to-order. I required pre-ordering, so that I would have the individual specs and the total number of pieces to make, but I refused any attempts to pay for them before they were at least well-along in construction, in order to avoid having the product turn into vaporware.

And I also made the plans and instructions freely available on my web site.

You just have to know the seller, or company and make the judgement call. Hasbro is currently doing pre-orders, especially on larger items, and they have been doing OK for fulfillment.

 

[Kor]

Yes preorders are very common practice in the collectible toy market.

Kor

 

[The_Ghosts_of_Wolf_359]

Hi Gang,
I just got that same package of pips and squeaks rank insignia from the same address:
"APL", and an address in McAllen Texas - sender Joe Criesi"
I was very confused until I saw the above post with the same address? Light at the end of the tunnel? I know that the Anovos artisan Star Trek Discovery Ship models were being prototyped at a location in Texas if I remember correctly? If anyone remembers differently, let me know. If true, there might be a glimmer of hope, maybe?

 

[Dave Femiak]

Hi Gang,
I just got that same package of pips and squeaks rank insignia from the same address:
"APL", and an address in McAllen Texas - sender Joe Criesi"
I was very confused until I saw the above post with the same address? Light at the end of the tunnel? I know that the Anovos artisan Star Trek Discovery Ship models were being prototyped at a location in Texas if I remember correctly? If anyone remembers differently, let me know. If true, there might be a glimmer of hope, maybe?

I'm trying not to get my hopes up - waiting on around $3000 of stuff from them. Maybe I'm the eternal optimist ... maybe a glimmer ...