Open letter to Customers of SV Games (Consumer Complaint)

[Greybar]

I'm so used to the "we won't charge your card until we ship" policy that I guess I was thinking it was either standard or US law. I know that internally they cannot realize that as revenue until they ship (Generally Accepted Accounting Practice in the US) but with most small operations I suppose that's a distinction they don't make.

john

 

[Sir Whiskers]

I have a similar situation. I ordered three items weeks ago. Completely forgot about the order until I saw the bill on my credit card statement. I contacted the company via email, got a response within 2 days that the items were currently out-of-stock and would come in within a few days. Two weeks later I received one item. I plan on contacting SVGames on Monday to cancel the remainder of my order and try to straighten out the billing.

I'm so used to the "we won't charge your card until we ship" policy that I guess I was thinking it was either standard or US law. I know that internally they cannot realize that as revenue until they ship (Generally Accepted Accounting Practice in the US) but with most small operations I suppose that's a distinction they don't make.

Whether required by law or not, it's incredibly bad practice to bill for items that have not yet shipped. Why? My example above. It's too easy to bill customers for items that never ship, which forces the customer to put in the effort to rectify the situation. It also gives customers the impression (true or not) that a company is trying to "pull a fast one". This type of experience will lose a company customers in a heartbeat.

I don't know the specifics of SVGames' policy on billing orders, but I'm extremely disappointed that the company expects me to pay for something before they've even confirmed they have the item and that it's on its way to me.

 

[Breakdaddy]

<Hijack>
Ladies and Gentlemen, take this as an example, you should always support your FLGS. :-D
</Hajack>

Unless your LGS is not so F :\

 

[Psion]

Unless your LGS is not so F :\

Or "F" stands for something other than "friendly."

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Unless your LGS is not so F :\

Or it doesn't have that old supplement or module you finally decided to pick up.

FLGS's are great for gamers, and we should support them with our dollars. But they can't do everything.

 

[DaveStebbins]

I'm so used to the "we won't charge your card until we ship" policy that I guess I was thinking it was either standard or US law. I know that internally they cannot realize that as revenue until they ship (Generally Accepted Accounting Practice in the US) but with most small operations I suppose that's a distinction they don't make.

I believe the answer they gave in the past (this is from my admittedly faulty memory, so please take that into account) was that since their storefront sells both electronic material (which can be downloaded immediately) and hardcopy material, they must charge for everything immediately.

This makes me very glad that RPGNow was set up as a completely separate shopping entity from James' hardcopy materials storefront.