ANOVOS (DENUO NOVO) FOTK Armor Delivery Possibility

[Reno_Geek]

I talked to Anovos this last Monday and they said they would ship by the 22nd. Sounded like getting them in time for the film wasn't going to happen. They also had production problems with the helmets as well. Their lack of communication and handling of this has turned me off from buying from them again. I also wouldn't be shocked if they got delayed again.

[Peregrinus]

I do understand frustration and impatience. At the same time, I don't expect Hasbro-like volume and scope from them. At teh end of it all, this is playing dress-up. Yeah, we have self-imposed deadlines, but if one will die or lose one's job or someone will shoot one's dog if one don't get one's plastic soldier armor by X date, something has gone seriously awry with one's life. Could they handle things better? Absolutely. Are they learning and adjusting as they go? Most definitely. Was it worse before? Yup. Have they done better than Master Replicas or Icons or eFX in this niche arena? Yes and no. Master Replicas started off stronger, then choked. eFX was able to ride MR's existing moulds at first, but their original items have been mostly vaporware. I'm not sure if anyone even remembers Icons... And what was that other prop company in the UK that was making TFA stuff that fell on its face hard and is gone so drastically, there was a gravitational pull?

 

So yeah. I'll pick up my Black Series helmets from Hasbro, and more of Rubies' surprisingly awesome Boba Fett lid, and I will keep ordering here and there from ANOVOS as they have something I want after due consideration. Their Star Trek and BSG stuff has been ticking along just fine. They just have had to do repeated re-evaluations and readjustments of how they do things as applies to their Star Wars license. The consumer end and the license-holder end both were things they were unprepared for, and they're very much caught in the middle. I think they're doing a better job of getting out of that sticky spot than others would have (or have done in the past).

Edited December 1, 2017 by Peregrinus

[Reno_Geek]

My biggest gripe is lack of communication and when talking to them the lack of being honest where things stand. I was glad that they recognized an issue and instead of sending out an inferior product instead decided to make things right to the customer. To then not send out a simple follow up email every couple of weeks or so and when asked where things are being honest and instead being as vague as possible. It makes them look shady. Yes it dress up and not the end of the world if I don't get it in time for the next movie. Though when you think they were selling these a year ago and apparently didn't do any test runs on the manufacturing until the month they were to be delivered and then the lack communication. It just makes them look bad. I want them to succeed in this business. Though with this kind of customer service they will loose customers and bad word of mouth will drive others away.

 

[JonnieBear]

My biggest gripe is lack of communication and when talking to them the lack of being honest where things stand. I was glad that they recognized an issue and instead of sending out an inferior product instead decided to make things right to the customer. To then not send out a simple follow up email every couple of weeks or so and when asked where things are being honest and instead being as vague as possible. It makes them look shady. Yes it dress up and not the end of the world if I don't get it in time for the next movie. Though when you think they were selling these a year ago and apparently didn't do any test runs on the manufacturing until the month they were to be delivered and then the lack communication. It just makes them look bad. I want them to succeed in this business. Though with this kind of customer service they will loose customers and bad word of mouth will drive others away.
 

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I want their business to succeed. I honestly want them to be a successful business. I enjoy the idea of a company that can create some of the best consumer level armor kits and that will ship products with respectable timetables.

I would like to believe Anovos still has the opportunity to do this but it seems to get harder and harder to hold onto that belief the longer the waits get.

I run a business that produces and sells products to the consumer directly and their business strategy seems to be skewed by all means. They should be investing and completing a sellable prototype before they even take preorders. Not during the process of the design. They say the prototypes are completed but let’s be honest, they are not and only make matters worse when a problem arises.

They should halt any new prototypes temporarily until they catch up to their previous ones but they don’t. Instead they are distracted with other new toys to make and only delay the products that were promised to the consumer. This is frustrating and it makes me even more mad because they are terrible liars and the whole industry knows it. At this point I’m ranting. I have not asked for a refund and will continue to wait but my goodness, when will this madness stop??


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[Durbin]

Its sad to read so many comments about how poor their customer service is.

 

As a result of the delay times and just the lack of communications they lost out on me being a customer. I wonder how many more people have been put off and take their hard earned cash elsewhere.

 

In this day and age I'm surprised they can still get away with it. Would be very interesting to hear from someone from behind the scenes at Anovos. I predict its utter chaos with no one having a scooby doo whats going on.

 

[Reno_Geek]

This just came out from Anovos:

"We previously anticipated this kit to be available for a Fall 2017 delivery. However, it was determined that this is unfortunately not the case. This season our production team has been working closely with our manufacturers on remaking the armor molds in steel, as well as beginning preliminary test pulls with these updated steel molds. While the test pulls initiated thus far have proven the updates have successfully eliminated previous imperfections, we are still hard at work to complete the remaining test pulls. Thus, the armor pieces for this kit remain in the pre-production stage. In reviewing these details, we must update our shipping estimate to Winter 2017."


So we are looking at the latest March 20th of next year, now.

[JonnieBear]

Oh man......I wonder when they will learn. Don’t get me wrong, at this point, im just gonna leave my preorder as is and see how long this takes. I am honestly more curious about how long this will take than how good the pulls will be.


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[Harbinger[IPM]]

Vader and Bespin Luke took several years. With luck, they'll ship these out by March.

 

Otherwise could be awhile. Really hard to tell honestly.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Harbinger

[kungfugrip12]

Like all of you, I just got my ANOVOS Update email. I was SO excited thinking that it was finally shipping only to read the delay excuses. Truthfully their info doesn't even guarantee a ship date on Winter 2017 either. being in pre-production could take years (oh wait it already has...)

 

I REALLY want to cancel my order and just get a kit from the other folks listed on the board but those wait times could be just as bad. The only thing I've gained by waiting is that I got in on the early pre-order pricing. At this point I want to say f*ck it. Can someone please give me a compelling reason not to cancel. All I really want to do troop with comrades.  

[JonnieBear]

Oh man......I wonder when they will learn. Don’t get me wrong, at this point, im just gonna leave my preorder as is and see how long this takes. I am honestly more curious about how long this will take than how good the pulls will be.


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[Reno_Geek]

With the price I paid I am going to wait it out. If this had come out a month or more ago. I would be looking really hard at other armour on the forums and if I could get it in time for episode VIII. If I hadn't already invested the money and time into getting everything I would need for this Armour ahead of time I would be really tempted to just say screw it altogether. I spent a long time getting everything I needed financially in place for this. To them be let down again and again. I had talked to Anovos reps at cons they had been at several times before I purchased and several more times after the purchase. I talked to the rep that was at D23 and he swore up and down the Armour would be ready in September. I know I am ranting and no matter how much I do rant it isn't going to change the way they handle customer service or get the Armour to me any sooner.

[kungfugrip12]

1 minute ago, Reno_Geek said:

With the price I paid I am going to wait it out. If this had come out a month or more ago. I would be looking really hard at other armour on the forums and if I could get it in time for episode VIII. If I hadn't already invested the money and time into getting everything I would need for this Armour ahead of time I would be really tempted to just say screw it altogether. I spent a long time getting everything I needed financially in place for this. To them be let down again and again. I had talked to Anovos reps at cons they had been at several times before I purchased and several more times after the purchase. I talked to the rep that was at D23 and he swore up and down the Armour would be ready in September. I know I am ranting and no matter how much I do rant it isn't going to change the way they handle customer service or get the Armour to me any sooner.

I talked to Anovos rep at NYCC this Oct and the told me it was worth the wait. They also said it was shipping in Nov. Well I see that has come and gone. I also wonder how many pre-orders does ANOVOS have for this too?  I have everything else for complete costume ready minus pistol/blaster (but had started 3d printing pistol recently)

 

sigh...........

[Harbinger[IPM]]

43 minutes ago, kungfugrip12 said:

Like all of you, I just got my ANOVOS Update email. I was SO excited thinking that it was finally shipping only to read the delay excuses. Truthfully their info doesn't even guarantee a ship date on Winter 2017 either. being in pre-production could take years (oh wait it already has...)

 

I REALLY want to cancel my order and just get a kit from the other folks listed on the board but those wait times could be just as bad. The only thing I've gained by waiting is that I got in on the early pre-order pricing. At this point I want to say f*ck it. Can someone please give me a compelling reason not to cancel. All I really want to do troop with comrades.  

Well, you can always do what I did and pick up an OT TK kit to bide your time (and justify your Tier 1/pre-order savings to fund it).

 

I suppose the 'glass half full' with all these delays is we can build our FOTK's to Centurion standards from the start.

[bear0902[501st]]

They posted a new date estimate. Sadly



https://www.anovos.com/pages/first-order-stormtrooper-standard-kit-updates?utm_source=Pre-Order+Updates+List&utm_campaign=36259d532c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_12_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c1e41d0f71-36259d532c-306225785&mc_cid=36259d532c&mc_eid=12c5408c5c


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[Trooper Daddy[TK]]

How difficult is it to cancel an ANOVOS order?  Do they botch refunds as badly as they do shipping estimates?

[Big Deal]

That's a tough call. Since their shipping estimates are for their customers and their refunds are for ex-customers you can imagine where their priorities lay.

 

My 14 day refund took around 10 weeks if that helps. Others have received it faster, other slower. It's almost like scheduling isn't their forte.

[JAFO[TK]]

How difficult is it to cancel an ANOVOS order?  Do they botch refunds as badly as they do shipping estimates?

I gave them the 15 days, and an extra few days to let them prove their worth. When no refund appeared I emailed joe@anovos.com and I got my money within 2hrs!


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[Peregrinus]

I hadn't banked too heavily on the previous estimates. This one seems more reasonable given what their previous one said they were tackling, but even then I wouldn't be surprised if it gets pushed back to Spring 2018 (March to June window) or more. I took the payment plan option, spread out as far as I could. I have no problem making micropayments each month. It's also paid down far enough now that if I suddenly got the notification it was ready to ship, I could pay off the balance without any real difficulty. At this rate, though, it'll be paid off before the end of their current projected window, and then all I have to do is wait. Not like I don't have a bunch of other stuff to work on. That's never been a problem.

[Reno_Geek]

I have talked to Joe in the past. I went ahead and sent him this email. I'll update you if he sends a reply.

"Hey Joe,

Reaching out to you since customer service is lacking when it comes to answers on where a product is.

Myself and others are a bit upset on the slippage of the release date on the First Order kit I would like to see if you can answer any of these questions to help put everyone at ease when it comes to a date that these could be done.

The first notice sent out in September made it sound like you were just trying to produce these when the ship date was less than a month away. Were you made aware of this issue prior and waited till then to inform us? I know I made my pre-order last December. Is there a reason why this issue took 9 months to notice?

A lot of us would be a lot less upset if you were more forthcoming on ship dates up front and more frequent emails about where you are at in the process. We are a tight nit community due to forums and such. If you made the community part of the process in where you are at and the struggles you encounter. I think more of us would be okay with the way things are going as long as they are issues and not just poor timing or putting new projects ahead of ones that have already been done.

May I suggest having a person from your company part of the forums. A big one would be whitearmor.net.

There aren't a lot of companies doing what you do and as a community we want you to succeed. However the vibe we are getting from the infrequent communication, customer service giving vague answers and reps at cons promising ship dates that you can't deliver on is putting ones that have ordered trying to decide if they need to cancel an order and go elsewhere and putting off those that are looking to purchase from you into looking elsewhere.

From the hands on demos you have shown me at cons gives me high hopes that you will deliver the best product at the highest standards possible. Though with the poor customer service that I have felt you have given me and the community I am going to give other options a harder look next time I look at your products.

Sincerely,

Gavin Black"

[Peregrinus]

Unfortunately, one factor is how much of their production process they're allowed by LFL and Disney to disclose. My own feedback to them has been to just have a "coming soon" page for things that are planned or in-development, that doesn't go to live "pre-sale" status until everything is in their LA warehouse and has passed QA checks and is ready to get divvied up, packaged, and shipped. From there, it'd be a fairly predictable glide-slope, and they'd have an easier time making projections, and the consumers would have less frustration at delays that would have all happeened behind-the-scenes.

 

I also suggested a "friends of ANOVOS" private list that would get e-mail alerts when they were ready to begin the development of this item or that costume, and those folks could -- with all the caveats and warnings -- do the tiered pre-ordering and such... Just being cognizant that the shipping date when they pay is "someday". That would also cut down the number of casual purchasers who don't realize what a long potential wait they're letting themselves in for.

[biogradbooth]

I got an update from CSR. Figured I’d post it. Sadly I don’t know that we can trust it.

All parts have finished being produced and have been shipped to US warehouses for distribution to customers.

No further safety testing or approvals are needed.

Only conceivable delay would be customs.








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[Reno_Geek]

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Here's hoping!

[heartstopper85[TK]]

Good luck hope ya'll ya'lls kits come in, but I can't help but think I'm still happy for moving to Mimic

 

Little more time than I was hoping I'll admit and still didn't meet my personal goal but I think it will be worth it in the end

[devilmonking[TK]]

Who knows where the factory? China?