i dont think anyone is trying to unfairly vilify zavvi, i think most people just want a good service. i think most people just want the service to improve.
i dont understand those who take the position of the 'zavvi loyalist' or try to use damage control whenever zavvi have quite clearly fell short of what is expected of them... maybe those people are the 'anonymous' people who apparently use this board while also being employed by zavvi. i cant see any other reason why one would defend a companies bad practices, there is no benefit in it for you. for the only way we can get the service we want is by complaining when the standards arent met. everyone benefits from complaining and criticism when zavvi fall short.
its not just a case of zavvi falling short in this one instance, it has been going on for ages now, i think this is why people are so angry, not because of this one 'incident' ... with this particular release there has been a catalogue of errors... in a way it sums up everything that is wrong with zavvi, everything that needs attention.
1- lack of info. people wanted to know what the back and insides looked like. people requested more info and were met with silence.
2- after this lack of info and an existing black steel, people became suspicious that the art advertised was merely a place holder art.
3- people requested confirmation of products art and were indeed told the art was as pictures. this is poor customer service, because as we all know, the white steel doesnt even exist, so how did they confirm the image was correct. they didn't. this is plain incompetence.
4- people received black steel. not white as advertised. regardless of what zavvi loyalists say, this is false advertising. zavvi have a legal duty to ensure all the products they sale are as described. they failed to. its not customers job to pester zavvi for info when we suspect they are mistaken, but even so, many people did. zavvi had lots of opportunity to correct their error, but didnt. not until after 1000 or so were sold *lol*
5- people received damaged goods (scratched, production errors etc)
6- general shenanigans. they sold the item on ebay at an inflated price. when this was pointed out to them, they said it was a mistake and removed it. the result is lack of trust from customers.
many of these issues could have been avoided if zavvi would have taken customer requests for information more seriously. other issues such as damaged goods are effecting almost all of the releases.
we can either criticize, complain and bring about better standards or just shrug, make excuses for them and continue to be given a poor service....
you decide