Here are
two groups that you should _never_ order fansub tapes from over the
internet:
FUSHIGI ANIME
FANSUB CENTER
FUSHIGI ANIME took 11+ weeks to send me three tapes that I ordered back
in January (I finally got them at the end of April). They cashed my
check the week after they received it, but never e-mailed me, nor tried
to contact me to tell me as to when I could expect to receive the order
I had placed. Their status page gave absolutely no help, as all it
tells is the name of the orderer, when they got the order, and simply a
"--" in the notes margin. When I wrote them and nicely asked them when
I could expect to see the order, the girl who answered, a "Sakura
Shinguji", informed me in a nasty tone that the were too busy to write
each person and let them know that they were backlogged, and that I
could expect to get the tapes whenever they had time to send them to
me. I wrote her back saying that it had been over eleven weeks and that
I had wanted to show some of what I ordered at my college's anime
gatherings before the end of the semester in May. Again, she replied
very arrogantly, saying that she does fansubbing as a favor to fans and
that I could just wait. At that point, I blew up and told her that if I
didn't receive my tapes by the end of that week, that I planned on
letting everyone on the net know never to do business with her again.
She replied back that she would send my tapes out, but to go ahead and
let everyone know because they wouldn't listen to me in all
probability. I ignored it and waited. I got my tapes by the end of that
week, and e-mailed her to let her know that they had arrived. She
replied back that she wouldn't do business with me anymore.
Go fig...as if it was my fault.
A similar thing happened with FANSUB CENTER this week. I had placed my
order at the end of March with them, and I got the tapes in this week.
When I went to play them, one of the tapes wasn't what I ordered (it
had TINY TOONS on it, which is a far cry from Virus vol. 1!), and a
second one had been swapped out with something I hadn't ordered either
(he gave me Virus vol. 3 instead of Fushigi Yuugi OAV series2 #'s3-4).
I e-mailed him nicely about it, and here's what he replied with:
TUESDAY, MAY 12th
------------------
>>So sorry... if you want to send it back, i'll redub it over for you.
(what u
>>got against tiny toons?) or i'll give you $2 off your next request.
>>
>>Stephen.
THURSDAY, MAY 14th
-------------------
>Hey Stephen!
>
>I'm sending out the Tiny Toons tape tomorrow, but I've already been
told that it's $3.00 to send it to you. You're offering me less than
that off of my next order, which doesn't seem quite fair. So, how about
you offer me $3.00 off to compensate for the money I'm going to lose,
you resend me the correct tape of Virus Vol. 1 and we're even?
>
>It seems fair to me. What do you think?
>
>- Jennifer
FRIDAY, MAY 15th
----------------
>>I know it's my fault by now it's gonna cost me $8??? that's
ridiculous. I do
>>this as a service to you anime fans. I'm already taking my time out
at no
>>cost, but now you want me to lose money from this??? BS! I'll do
what you said,
>>but I won't be accepting any more requests from you anymore.
>>Send to:
>>Stephen Mak
>>L. Flomenhaft & Co
>>225 W. 34th Street Suite 2008
>>New York, NY 10122
((This is when I lost my patience...as you'll see...))
FRIDAY, MAY 15th
-----------------
>Pardon me, sir, but your attitude leaves MUCH to be desired. When your
customer >is unhappy with your end product, you do what is necessary to
make them happy. >You say you're doing me a favor by fansubbing, but in
reality, I'm doing YOU a >favor by buying from you. I could simply take
my business, and my money, >elsewhere...which is what I plan to do in
the future.
>
>
>Also, whether you're doing this as a favor to fans or not is
irrelevant to this >issue. This is about a contract between you and
I...not you, I and the rest of >the >world. I PAID you for a service
(you accepted that deal when you cashed my check), >and you didn't
fulfill your end of the bargain. YOU were the one who screwed up my
>order to begin with. It isn't MY fault that you don't know how to
fill orders >correctly, and I will not pay twice for YOUR mistakes. I
already paid you once to >get the job done correctly.
>
>
>You know, I've dealt with MANY fansubbers out there, as I tend to
order a LOT of >tapes each month, and I've never had many problems.
Most of them are professional >about their services, and are always
willing to admit their mistakes and roll with >the punches. I have
double the amount to be "pissy" at you for in this instance, but >I
believe I've shown remarkable patience and restraint when dealing with
you...that >is, until now.
>
>
>First off, I ordered the FY OAV series2 #'s 3 & 4 from you (which you
have listed on your site as AVAILABLE) and I didn't get it. You excused
that as saying that it wasn't finished yet. My question: if it's not
done, why did you put it up on your site as available? That's false
advertising. Instead of the FY tape, I got Virus vol. 3 from you. It
was good, but not what I wanted - not what I PAID for. The real kicker
here is that you never informed me (either by e-mail, phone call or
snail mail) that you intended on doing the trade-off. You just
naturally assumed I'd want Virus vol. 3. Needless to say, I was upset,
but let it slide.
>
>Secondly, you sent me a tape with TINY TOONS on it, and not Virus Vol.
1, as I had ordered. I'm an easy-going person, so I figured it was just
a mistake and it's no big deal, so I e-mailed you about it nicely. You
added insult to injury by asking me to send back the Tiny Toons tape
before you sent out Virus Vol. 1 to me, as if insinuating I was lying
about the screw-up. How utterly non-professional!
>
>Thirdly, to top it all off - you wanted ME to pay to send the tape
back to you, and you were just going to record Virus over Tiny Toons
(which would have made the picture quality degraded). I was astounded
that you would consider doing this! What kind of business are you
running anyway?
>
>
>Overall, my experience with your "company" has been _EXTREMELY_ bad,
and I will >never do business with you again. Furthermore, because your
attitude clearly tells me that you have absolutely no idea as to how to
do business correctly, nor that a contract has any significant meaning
to you, I will encourage others not to do business with you as either.
I will recommend other groups, but not yours.
>
>
>As for this deal between us, I will not bother to send the tape back,
and you can just forget about taping Virus vol. 1 for me. I'm marking
it off as a loss, not worth my effort.
>
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Jennifer L. Mondazzi
Always end on a positive, so, here is a group of fansubbers that I
would _HIGHLY_ recommend:
TOMODACHI ANIME
- always timely, cute labels for binding, good quality tapes &
fansubs, accurate translations, very pleasant people, occasional
promotional stuff sent with tapes (like one time I got a Yu Yu Hakusho
cell!), not expensive
CHI ANIME
- always early on sending out your requests (got mine in exactly 2
weeks!), good quality, good translations, colored labels for binding,
sends a bonus PP Card just for the heck of it, pleasant people, not
expensive
SILVERWYND
- good quality, pleasant people, colored labels for binding, good
quality tapes, good translations, a little slow but worth the wait!,
not expensive
There are others too, but these are the top 3, in my opinion, that I've
dealt with (nased upon ordering from at least 10-15 seperate fansub
sources/distributors over the last 2 years).
- Rena/Maigrey
cc: CLAMP Mailing List, Sailor Moon Mailing List