When does Coming Soon become theft?

Coming Soon... Maybe

Last December my partner and I went christmas shopping,he wasnt sure what to buy me so he gave me a huge shopping spree at Armidi. Whoohoo would be most peoples response except for one thing ...Coming Soon. Armidi was running a Gift certificate promotion at the time and in small print the cards said available for use in January.

January comes along no word. Finally at the end of Feburary Armidi posts a shopping web site that is a sneak peek and can be used by people holding their gift cards. So I giddily rush over to the store to buy some of their latest releases but to my dismay you can not purchase in the store only from the website.

I personally hate shopping this way but off I went to the website to purchase the wonderful new items and sadly they werent there only the older items where there. Against my better judgement I purchased the new hair I wanted with additional funds and waited patiently for the new items to be added to the site.

Waited, waited and waited........

March 2008 Armidi announces more releases andtheir team expands yay! Surely now they will get the new stuff up and get the cards working in the store. Sad face no they dont.

April 2008 more new releases, May 2008 more new releases June 2008 August 2008.... and more waiting.

As the releases have come out I have sent ims, sent notecards asking for help with no reply. I again check their shopping website now you cant even buy the old items it just says Coming Spring 2008....

Today I finally had enough and sent 32 ims to all the Armidis, Lola Marquez and Liam Oliver, 5 of the 32 where online 1 responded to me then an hour later I got 1 other response. THe following are the responses with their names removed.

[15:04] Sparkle Skye: Can you please tell me when is it you plan to honor the gift certificates purchased last year
[15:05] Armidi: Hi, You'll need to IM London Armidi for more information. I'm sorry, i wish i could help
[15:07] Sparkle Skye: I have and never get a reply
[15:07] Armidi: oh hmm
[15:08] Armidi: well, as far as i know, we should be able to get the gift card system up and running again in about a month. We're currently working on it right now
[15:08] Sparkle Skye: it was supposed to be up in January
[15:08] Sparkle Skye: I have had these since december last year
[15:08] Armidi: it was and we had a website where you could do your shopping online
[15:09] Sparkle Skye: with all old items
[15:09] Armidi: but we took it down to work on it
[15:09] Sparkle Skye: this is really bad customer service I see products released an no one bothers to let us holding gift certificates know what is happening
[15:12] Armidi: I'm sorry, I will let the necessary people know about your feelings. All I can say is to be please be patient. We're working on it and it is worth the wait. I can tell you that
[15:12] Sparkle Skye: sorry I dont feel that way thanks anyway

[15:12] Armidi: have a good day

The second response I got was this:

[15:03] Sparkle Skye: Can you please tell me when is it you plan to honor the gift certificates purchased last year
[15:57] Armidi: Hi! The giftcards were useable last month and past months, you will be able to use them again soon :)
[15:58] Sparkle Skye: you never put up the new merchandise there
[16:05] Armidi: The newer items will be added when you can use the giftcards again.
[16:06] Sparkle Skye: are you aware that this has been 9 months of you saying coming soon and none of the new merchandise is put up?
[16:14] Armidi: We manually redemmed giftcards for new items earlier this year.
[16:21] Sparkle Skye: there was never an offer on your website to do that

There was no further repsonse, they never posted on their website that they were redeeming manually and never responded to my requests for service nor did they offer anything today but that I should wait...

Its Coming Soon you know

*****UPDATE*****

Within an hour of this posting I received a response from Liam Oliver expressing concerns about what I posted here. I agreed not to post any my conversation with him.

I agreed that I would post any clarifications of the responses I received from either of the Armidi's that responded to me, if they are sent to me.

After a lengthy discussion I have been refunded my balance of my gift card, received an apology for how this was handeled and been assured that the web site will indeed be up and running soon. I was also told they will also be doing their best to reach out to those who have not been able to redeem their cards.

Darling little Flower hats

This gown really put me in mind of a starlet from the the 40's so I also made a darling little hat to go with it. The flower color changes on touch and is adorned with pearls, diamonds, fur and a whisp of face netting. There are 4 hat variations included in the set the light teal fur the dark and the come with and without the face netting.

Sparkle Skye Designs

Jewelry by Alienbear Gupte

Customer Appreciation Gown Set 2

Dark Teal Fur

Set 2 of the rewards gown is now out. This week I did a small train for the gown and a luxurious Fur stole with drape. I wasn't sure abut the fur shading I ended up doing a darker fur with some darker shades of blues and greens in the fur and a lighter fur teal as well. Since I couldn't decide which I preferred some of the group members took a vote and dark won by a very small margin so it is the rewards gown for $1L

There where some who kept switching their vote so I decided I would release the second set at a extremely discounted price for the group while set 2 is out. Creating the extra pieces for this set was really inspiring the next set should be just as fun as this one. I think it has taken a very demure sophisticated gown and made it very glam with a bit of sultriness.

Light Teal Fur

How do I get the Gown?

1. Visit the storeSparkle Skye Designs
2. Put us in your profile picks making sure the "show in search" option is checked
3. Wait 24 to 48 hours an then come back to the store and you will be able to pick up the gown from the vendor.
4. You will need to wear your Sparkle Skye Designs group tag as well.

**Important make sure Show in Search is checked in your profile or you wont be recognised by the vendor.

If you already have us in your picks Huurrray!

You can pick up the gown right away!
This set will be out for a limited amount of time only, I will not give it out once I remove it, The only exception to this is if you were on my picks list prior to this announcement and maintained it.

Sparkle Skye Designs