Spero Toys

@yolk  Yeah, the customer service end seems to be total trash. Fair to point out that it doesn't seem like Jason has the time or inclination to really be involved in that side of things - which is pretty ridiculous since it's his business. The primary person you're dealing with on the customer service end is Adam, who as far as I'm aware is not even an employee of Spero. He's just a friend of Jason helping him out.
So you've got a guy that doesn't necessarily have access to all the information, and isn't an employee, dealing with complaints and problems. And you have an owner that pays basically no attention to that side of the business. Not a GREAT way to do things.

For those interested in my own ongoing saga with Spero:

Most recently with the ongoing 'please just give me proof of a refund' stuff, I got an email in November from Adam saying he doesn't have the info I need and would pass it to Jason, and CC'd Jason in the email. Given the holidays and everything, I was STILL trying to approach this like a reasonable person and I gave them until late January to get back to me.
No reply.
So I sent another email at the end-ish of January stating that I still haven't heard back from -NOVEMBER- about an issue that's ongoing since the end of July, and that I'm not really asking for much. As with all my previous emails, I was absolutely polite and didn't accuse anyone of anything. Just said I need the transaction ID and some other info so I can track down the missing refund since I was -assured- that the refund was sent to me and I was taking that at face value.
Got an email back a day later -once again- from Adam with Jason CC'd in the response saying Jason would need to handle it because he doesn't have access to this information.

So that's the end of January. I waited to email them both again until yesterday - February 25th. An entire month of, once again, radio silence from these guys. And I have no problem admitting that this email, AFTER EIGHT FUCKING MONTHS OF THIS, was not polite. I'm not going to bother looking it up, but it was something like one sentence that amounted to 'it's been eight fucking months, this is goddamn ridiculous.' 

Fastest reply I've ever gotten from them. But it was just Adam telling me that using bad language won't make it go any faster, and then lecturing me about how Kickstarter says no refunds and Jason is refunding my money at his discretion and at a personal loss to him since Kickstarter takes a piece of the funds it collects.

Is this guy on fucking glue? Jason -has the figures that he sent me-. They were returned to him. I never even saw more than the box they were shipped in. The idea that he's LOST money by getting the figures back, not refunding my shipping cost (even if he did refund the purchase price, which I don't think he has), and being able to re-list the figures on his site for more money than they cost during the Kickstarter, is the stupidest fucking thing I've heard so far this year.

And to have the fucking TEMERITY to lecture me about my tone or my language and to even say 'won't make it go faster' when they've taken EIGHT FUCKING MONTHS and still haven't resolved a very simple request (or, in fact, issued the refund they claimed to have made). Won't go any faster, Adam? It certainly can't go any fucking slower, can it?

Spero did basically everything wrong here. They used a shipping carrier they were asked not to use (due to 'brokerage fees') and that they agreed they wouldn't use. When they used the wrong carrier anyway, they also used the full amount of the KS order on all the forms, despite sending less than half the order, resulting in custom fees and brokerage fees on the FULL KS order amount despite, again, sending less than half of it. Then when the order was shipped back to them on my refusal to accept it (because it was bullshit and I shouldn't be incurring extra costs for their fuck ups), they issued an order cancellation and 'refund' that never appeared on either of my credit cards, and have since basically refused to do ANYTHING about it even when all I asked for was the transaction ID proving the refund was issued so I could track it and figure out what happened.

I've actually been, in my own estimation, extremely respectful and calm during this entire thing - particularly in my communications with Adam, so that dickish reply pissed me off something fucking fierce. After eight months, having the audacity to act like all is well and I'm just being rude, and taking no responsibility, not even an apology for taking this long and constantly ignoring me - because apparently giving me a refund, if they ever do so, is some kind of favor that I should be grateful for? Adam can fuck all the way off with that attitude. Prick.

Jason used to be on the ball back when the company was much smaller, bummer.

Unfortunate that you're having to deal with all that. I dealt with Adam once, and it was through that initial incident where full orders weren't shipped properly. That was luckily quickly resolved, and in that additional shipment it was FINALLY sent through USPS. Hopefully this is done on a go forward.

Since I dealt with a similar situation recently, the thing about the monetary loss to Jason through the refund comes from shipping. When an item is re-sent to the seller through a rejected package it results in them being charged the cost of the shipping plus the additional fees the package incurs on the way back. I can't recall if he would also have to cover the initial brokerage charge or not, but he would have had to cover the brokerage (and the rest of the customs like taxes) back to him from Canada.

Anyways, bad situation all around. Idk if you're aware of them, but I had an order with NMC Toys before they shut down. I've likewise had to deal with a conversation that lasted over a year, along with tons and tons of ignored messages, just for him to ship an order. I opted for the honey and flies approach, and though I did get really spammy at one point, I did finally end up getting my order. In my case I knew I was dealing with a bit of a con man, so it's a bit different than this case where I assume everyone is doing their best. Ignored messages are far from ideal, but like you said, I don't think he's even an employee, so he's probably got his own stuff going on. It would be ideal if someone was being paid full time to do this, but I assume there isn't that kind of money to go around.

About the new toys themselves, wave 5+ is looking quite nice. I assume a lot of those are stretch goals since this will be a KS again. I do love reptiles, so I may have to go in for a few of these. Hope to see a turtle at some point. Still haven't even opened up all my original ones...

The truth is, these kinds of customer service issues were seemingly common on their Facebook page too. I'm sure the vast number of orders went okay, I know mine did, but that doesn't excuse the rest.

To be fair in their latest interview they said they were aware of some of that and have better systems in place, and are using a 3rd party shipping warehouse for the kickstarter orders so that things should go more smoothly. They also said they figured out International Orders so that the customs issues wouldn't happen again. I think Adam may be helping him a lot with those sorts of things.  But we'll have to wait and see how it goes. 

My problems were minor compared to many, but I don't have enough confidence or desire to jump on another Kickstarter from them. I placed an order for wave 3 back in August. It was listed as "In Stock" when I placed the order (that has since been corrected) but it really makes me second guess giving them money so far ahead of a ship date.

I also placed an order for wave 3.  I don't remember if they were "in stock" or not.   They went out of stock right before their sale, so I assumed they made the newest wave "out of stock" to disqualify them from the sale.  But they never went back in stock.  I think they made a recent post of their wave 3 shipment arriving, so I assume they'll start processing them soon.

With the line being carried by BBTS and Amazon, I'll likely place any future orders through either of those vendors.    No money tied up until they ship.  Plenty of time to cancel.  Like Super7, I just won't order through Spero in the future.  Easier to deal with a 3rd party.

Posted by: @threash

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Jason used to be on the ball back when the company was much smaller, bummer.

Was he? The first time he messed up with the shipping carrier after being warned was the 'deluxe' 4" Kickstarter. To be TOTALLY fair to Jason on that one; I also refused that delivery. I didn't ask for my money back or anything, and Jason actually paid the brokerage fee so the figures would be delivered to me. He -absolutely- lost money on that sale. No denying it. The brokerage fee was basically the same as the actual price of the figures (so .. no lesson learned on Jason's part, I guess).

This time is just so much more egregious, and involves significantly more money. I think maybe the worst part is that I actually love the way the 6" figures turned out and I was so excited to get some. Even with all this bullshit, I was fully planning to use the entirety of my refund to buy Spero figures from BBTS - meaning I would have used all that money, but gotten fewer figures, and I was perfectly fine with doing it.

Now? I don't want to give Spero a single dollar. Too bad, too. My son would flip his shit if I showed him that new fox warrior. And he was mega excited for the white tiger KS exclusive that I included in my order for him. Stupid way to lose a customer.

Posted by: @theknightdamien

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Was he?

I mean, the one time I had an issue back when he made 1/18th figures it was solved instantly and satisfactorily by him personally. That doesn't mean he didn't screw it up in the first place, just that he took care of it.

The Kickstarter campaign is now open!

ANIMAL WARRIORS OF THE KINGDOM™ Primal Series 2! by Jason Bienvenu — Kickstarter

The Kickstarter is interesting. It doesn't appear that you save much money by supporting it (unless you choose one of the larger all in options). And I don't think retail price is going up, since the Kickstarter states retail will be $84 for 2 figures and a weapons pack (so I figure $35 per figure and $14 for a weapons pack). 

No new reveals as of yet. Unlocks re hidden for now.

I was really hoping the early info on the two-packs was wrong. As it stands now, I'm gonna sit out the Kickstarter, there are a few figures I want but none of them are paired together.

I see someone pointed out in the comments it's due to tooling costs but I'm not dropping $85 for a figure I want and another figure I'm not that interested in.

Free Gresch!

I'm in! Looks like it should fund, given it goes into April. (fingers crossed)

More than 330 backers in just two days, it's 85% there. Hoping we'll see some of the unlocks as well. I'm all about that bulldog figure, and the lady cat's cool, too.

Final update for those following my ordeal with Spero; I did finally got my money back after a brief email just saying 'something with Shopify, we figured it out.' So... I don't know. I can't say if something really went wrong there, or if that was a 'yadda yadda' way of brushing off not having sent the refund - no idea. I do know that it's obvious this was the first time in eight months anyone had bothered to CHECK to see what was wrong because it doesn't seem like it actually took very long to figure out.

I guess the take away would be that I do appreciate Spero doing the right thing and following through, but I also do still think it took monumentally too long and was unnecessarily onerous on my end to deal with. And considering it didn't even come with a 'sorry about that' at any point during this entire eight month process, I'm still extremely unimpressed.

Will I ever get Spero stuff? I don't know. Definitely not from Spero. From BBTS? I'll need to step back for a while and not think about it and see how I feel once I'm not still simmering with annoyance. Definitely not backing any Kickstarters from them ever again, though. So there's that.

@theknightdamien 

I'm glad they finally came around. That was a black mark on their record. Still is, but at least there was a resolution.

I do hope you are able to try a figure eventually. The build quaility is really good in my opinion. Well articulated and durable.  They beat out even Hasbro in that regard. The Customer Service and communication is where they have fallen short. Hopefully they are taking this sort of thing more seriously. 

I am tempted to jump in for the Feline figures only. Cat fan, and already have past absurdities like cats as weapons for 6" figures and cats with their carrying cases transforming in battle mecha. Plus these might be nice to pit against the 4H bird warrior figures...

I notice there is a Feline head set - but I am struggling to figure out which bodies they might match to - did they provide any guidance on that, like these were alt-heads for figures X, Y and Z? Any help would be appreciated.

Appreciate the feedback on the storefront, will stick to BBTS.