Yeah, that’s a shame, and it’s why I think if you have to resort to something, going to social media (or filing a claim with your payment provider, which is what most people do) is fair game.

The usual applies (especially for group buys): be mindful of the claim deadline, and if you don’t trust the vendor to deliver a good product, be on time to request a refund of your order, and if you don’t get it, claim before the deadline.

If a preorder or group buy takes longer than the claim deadline from the onset, then think twice how badly you really want it.

It does seem to become a trend to share bad customer experiences online in the hope of getting them resolved that way. I think that’s fair enough, but it’s sad to see for sure - if vendors just reply to questions in a timely fashion, I don’t think we’d so as many of these posts.

I guess it’s good to remember that for every person complaining online, there are (hopefully) dozens who have no issues.

Group buys are a tricky thing to get right, and I say that as a vendor. Much respect to the companies who are able to do it right, but personally, I’ll try to keep them to a minimum. Much easier to sell from stock!