Customer Comment

Steve writes in today to say:

"Seems I am never disappointed with the Robert’s Anime Corner Store. I have always found the anime I am looking for and many I have never heard of Helping me to grow my collection of over 150 anime movies and box sets and still growing. The site is easy to use and navigate through. And the only time I had a problem is when I mistakenly ordered Ah My Buddha twice. And in just a few days my mistake was corrected and Bob who was helping me was very cool and to the point. Other web sites I have been to where hard to speak to or just didn’t respond to my E-mail. Thanks again and I will continue to let my friends know of your great store and of my experience with The Robert’s" Anime Corner Store.

Thanks so much Steve, we appreciate it! :-)

Customer Comment

Today Kerry writes in to say:

I love your site. Every time I order from the site I get exactly what I ordered a few days later. That is what I call excellent service. You guys have a permanent customer on your hands here : ) you guys are awesome and I appreciate your hard work to send it to your customers all over. Don't ever change your service. I will be ordering from you guys for a LONG time to come.

Thanks again sincerely.

Kerry C.

We do try VERY hard to make sure your orders ship out quickly and as complete as possible. Sometimes in this biz it's harder than you might think.

Thanks Kerry! We REALLY appreciate it!

Customer Comment

A really nice e-mail from Kyle regarding our packaging:

Happy New Year!

Got my order in today, and when I saw the box, I feared the worst. Looks like it took it pretty bad from the USPS (I wont say the worst, because I have received just pieces of cardboard or paper labels from them in the past).

Thanks to the superb packing, the two NIS special sets were unscathed. I am a big fan of the post office, I think for what they accomplish with as little hiccups as occur is amazing, but it is nice to know when a package gets on their bad side there is some pretty effective protection!

Will be sending more of my business your way in 2011!

Kyle B.

Thanks Kyle! Much appreciated! :-)

Customer Service Fun with Helen

I always look forward to post Christmas holiday customer service. People are always SOOOO nice after the holidays.

This week I've been exchanging e-mails with 'Helen' from hell, who wrote on Monday:

I purchase Now and Then Here and There complete collection 650 min. This is what your ad stipulats, however there is only 325 min. on the copy we recieved (3) dvd total, we could've purcased this from AMAZON. WE, my son and I feel we were misled into this purchase, Robert's Anime Corner Store really should no better, you state you don't sell BOOTLEGS but it's allright to mislead your customers, BAIT and SWITCH. We feel let down. Helen M.

WOW. To be sure, the listing on the site was incorrect at 650 minutes, probably because someone here used the template for a 26 episode series rather than a 13 ep series when the new listing was build for ADV's re-release last year. We fixed the listing right away. Sorry Helen, it happens.

So here is Helen, who has never bought from us before, cruising around the net looking at this title and seeing the same old thing from every site. Then she, unfortunately, comes across our site. Not only does she find the item listed cheaper than anywhere else she has previously looked, our version miraculously seems to contain twice the number of episodes ever produced - nevermind the part number and box art is exactly the same as what she saw everywhere else - so she decided to take the plunge and drop her $20 bucks over here at the corner.

The above e-mail is the first of several she sent, each one successively worse in tone and language in response to each explanation and apology I tried to send her. Where she is coming up with that stuff about 'bootlegs' (really?) and 'bait and switch' (not here sweetie) I have no idea. Not once in 7 e-mails does she ask for a refund or a return, or any other resolution, or responds to any remedy I offered to the problem, she just rants on and on about how we supposedly suck.

Yesterday I went ahead and issued her a full refund anyway, since it was clear it was the only way to resolve the issue. But is wasn't. After 3 more really ugly rant e-mails today, we went ahead and flagged her account and banned her from the store. She'll be maybe the 4th person we've ever done that to in 13 years. I archived her e-mails into our 'hall of shame', and I'm sure Amazon, Brand X, or whoever else will be happy to take care of her in the future.

I'm sorry Helen, sorry to see you go so soon. But seriously, happy holidays, and please - seek help.

Customer Comment

A recent comment from one of our customers that ties into that little Amazon post I made awhile back:

To whom it may concern,

I recently purchased the 2008 Naruto manga box set from your store on amazon, and I just wanted to write to let you know how impressed I am by the care and professionalism displayed by your business. I was very pleased with the speed at which my order was processed and delivered; and just as your description read, the set was in mint condition still with original shrink wrap around it. Even before I opened it it was clear just from the way it was packed that great care was taken to insure my order was properly protected. But what really made the difference to me (as simple a thing as it may be) was the fragile handle with care sticker on the box. Something I'm sure wouldn't be there if I had received this same package from amazon directly. It's small things like that that matter to me, and distinguish the difference between a vendor who is simply going through the motions to make a profit, and one who genuinely cares about their customers. So on summation I say thank you for your consummate professionalism. It was truly a pleasure doing business with you and I will most definitely look to do business with your store again in the future.

Sincerely,
Dean D.

Thank you very much Dean, and Happy Holidays to you and your family!

Customer Comment

Comment sent in yesterday by Chris in regards to our fix to his Birdy set problem:

"Thanks Bob!

I'll be looking forward to getting the fixed version so we can continue watching Birdy the Mighty.

For what its worth what distinguishes a Great Company from an average company is not whether they encounter problems, but in how they handle and resolve problems as they arise.

I submitted my problem and you provided me with the solution in the same day and to me thats more than outstanding! So should the subject ever come up whether your company is so-so or a Great One you have my highest endorsement and future business.

Hope everyone at RAC has a wonderful Holiday spent with family and friends.

Thanks!
Chris P."

Thank YOU Chris! :-)

Customer Comment

From Frank today:

"I want to thank you and your staff for delivering exceptional and personalized customer service, it's always a pleasure doing business with you folks and I'm especially happy that I receive my orders within two business days. It pays to live close to your warehouse. Most importantly, I love the fact that you have a flat rate for UPS deliveries. There's quite a few times that I can find a number of items whose unit price is cheaper than your prices, but when factoring in S&H, I end up saving some bucks. You can put this into your customer comments if you like. Thank you."

Thanks Frank! VERY much appreciated!

Customer Comment

In retail, the usual daily line of communication with customers can be skewed a little bit negative. The reason is that when you are doing a good job, you almost never hear from anyone. Many times only when someone has a problem or complaint do they usually write in, so a larger percentage of the daily e-mails that come in are geared in that direction.

But sometimes it's different.

Today Hiromichi writes:

Hello Robert and the rest of the Anime Corner Store crew. This is one of your long time customers, Hiromichi Mori. I thought I would just send you an e-mail to personally thank you for the many years of amazing customer service I have received from you. Honestly, I should have done this a long time ago, but I somehow never got around to it. Anyway, I always enjoy purchasing my anime from you, since I know the prices are always great, the selection is plentiful, fast shipping, and top notch customer service. I honestly can't remember exactly how many years I have been purchasing from your store, but it has been a very long time(probably like 9 - 10 years or so). This is a testament to how much I value your store and the service you give. As far as I can remember, I've only ever had several issues with products I had purchased from you. You guys promptly answered my e-mails and fixed the issues ASAP, which really makes me happy. It shows me that you truly value me as a customer and actually care. I really appreciate it. Whenever a friend or acquaintance asks me where they should buy anime online, I always mention your store. I might as well lead them to the right place, right? They always tell me later that your store is great and are glad I told them about it. I don't blame them one bit because it's honestly true. By the way, I noticed you don't really post random customer feedback on your newsletters anymore. Not that I'm asking you to put my feedback on one of them. I'm not sending you this e-mail to "gain attention" or etc in any way. ^_~ Well, I guess I'll end my rant here. Once again, thank you for your continued excellent customer service and allowing me to have an awesome place to get my anime fix. I will continue to buy from your store for years to come and also keep recommending you to people that ask. I truly, from the bottom of my heart, appreciate what you do for me and the rest of the anime fans out there. You guys are great! Take it easy.

Thank you VERY much Hiromichi, we needed that today! :-)

Is it Extortion? You bet it is.

I've been having a little customer service fun with a rather prickly customer over the past couple of days who placed an order for a few figures last week, and then waited a couple of days after we shipped it to write in and tell us he felt like we should have applied the Octoberfest 10% coupon to it because he feels he's been a good customer in the past. No mention of any discount was made on the order or via e-mail prior to us shipping it.

At the time he placed the order our Octoberfest offer had been over for more than a week. I mentioned that his order did qualify for his recurring customer coupon (which he didn't use), and went ahead and applied his 5% coupon, but we had to credit him for the amount since the order had already been shipped and closed. He then got REALLY MAD and said he was well aware of those coupons, but did not use it because he expected a larger discount. I looked up his customer history notes and showed he has done this two other times in the past. He threatened to return the order if we didn't grant him the 10% discount, which boils down to about $20 bucks over what we already credited him.

I told him to return it.

He said a lot more than that actually, most of it pretty nasty, but I'm not going to waste time posting it here. I gotta tell you folks I'm pretty easy going when it comes to these sorts of things and will pretty much bend over backwards for any of our customers, but as soon as you start calling me names it's all over.

So the only thing I'm going to say here is that placing an order, letting us fill it, and then holding it hostage threatening to return it or charge it back if we don't grant you a big discount (i.e. refund) after the fact in an amount that is not currently being offered to anyone else is, well, a good way to get banned from the store for life.

Ya got that - Jack?

Boy, I'm glad it's Friday. :-)

Ahhhh, Monday Mornings...

Jeremy writes this morning:

"A style of animation developed in Japan, characterized by stylized colorful art and often adult themes. Huntik is not an anime, a crappy American show, this is a seriously disgusting trash you guys even carry it. I ask you guys do something about this, remove it from stock, or give some relief from this outrageous incident."

Yes, outrageous indeed! We simply could not have gone another day without knowing his thoughts on the subject... -_^

UPDATE: It actually gets better. I wrote back to Jeremey and said:

"Hi! We do carry several shows that aren't technically Anime per our customers request. Huntik is one of those that a few customers requested that we carry."

Jeremy then wrote back:

"Thank you for responding, however this does not fulfill my request that something be done about this, can you allow me to speak to your supervisor? Thank you for your understanding."

He wants to speaks to my supervisor. Poor Jeremy clearly has a screw or two loose.