Your "complaints" link isn't working for me. I'm very interested in this as they've also sent me tees to review, and I didn't have any problems with them.
It's not very often I name and shame, people have to really do me wrong before I will and Dirty Microbe really have done in my opinion.
I mean fair enough if they haven't charged my card but I've been without the money for 2 months now!
James.
Laura
· 2 years ago
Thanks for the link. I'm very disappointed. I sent Christian an email, we'll see if he responds. If not, I will be letting my blog readers know about this too. I hate to think I'm recommending a company that takes people's money.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Put me down as another unsatisfied customer. They took my money 5/8/07 and I still haven't seen a t-shirt. I'm going to call my credit card company to do a chargeback tomorrow.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Yep, I'm another unsatisfied customer. Money's gone, no t-shirts in 6 weeks now, no response to questions.
Rangga
· 2 years ago
Laura, I've fixed the link; it should be useful to let Shirtshob readers aware over this problem.
and James, thanks for fixing the link :)
I wish everyone luck solving this problem; anonymous folk's advise might be useful: "call your credit card company to charge it back"
Brian
· 2 years ago
Same thing here. I'm starting to document the whole mess on my site and have been in contact with some other affiliates. I hope nothing tragic happened.
James
· 2 years ago
I've added a post to my blog too, with the sole purpose of I want people to find these stories when they search Google for Dirty Microbe, the more articles warding people off there are, the less likely people are to get stung.
People may well still be ordering today not knowing that they won't be receiving anything!
Regarding what you said Brian, I too hope nothing tragic has happened, however, in the world of business you can't just ignore the people that spent their hard earned money on your product!
Second rant over lol.
James.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
I'm the first anonymous poster above. I have now obtained a chargeback from my credit card company, and I have filed an online complaint with the BBB - I suggest that others do the same. Good luck!
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
I've put my feedback onto the icrontic site, i've had to joy getting through.
I've also got stung.
If i don't hear anything soon i'll be posting a Fraud Report and claiming my cash back via Mastercard. 2 months and 1 reply, after which nothing.
Andrew
· 2 years ago
another angry customer here. order placed way back in June, and I've seen nothing arrive, or had any replies to my 2 emails. i was expecting a late delivery seeing that I'm in Scotland, but this is rediculous; i want my money back.
Cheesepuppet
· 2 years ago
I've had problems with them too, they never sent the shirts I ordered in late May, and they never returned my email. Like others, I documented the whole thing on my blog as well, in the hopes that it would come up in searches for the company.
R W
· 2 years ago
Yeah, me too. I ordered on May 18th and sent 3 emails and a fax. Nothing. I googled Dirty Microbe hoping to find a phone number but I found this page. Wish I'd found it before. Thanks. I'm sad because that t-shirt was really awesome...
Marston A, SugarStats
· 2 years ago
Another pissed off customer here. I really had high hopes for them, especially with they cheerful web copy and talks about how much they are customer focused bla bla.
I ordered 4 shirts over 2 months ago, they took my money of course. No shirts yet.
I did however get 1 support email in early June from "Kelli" (one of the t-shirt models supposidly) saying they had a late batch and my order had slipped into it and they hoped to send it out at the end of the week. No response since then and I've sent about a dozen emails and a few faxes.
Now all I want is my money back. It is sad because they had great potential.
Anyones had any luck? Or successfully gotten their money back? email me:
marston@sugarstats.com
shatteredshards
· 2 years ago
Yet another bad transaction here. I had ordered my shirts 5/9, card was charged 5/10, and after three ignored emails, one being through their website's contact form (and I got a auto-confirm, so I know it was received), I did a chargeback with my card company on 7/19. The person who helped me couldn't believe it had been that long and they weren't responding or sending the merch.
For those of you who want your money back, there's usually a time limit on doing a chargeback (something like 60 days), so get in touch with your bank or card company ASAP. Don't bother waiting for DM.
Rangga
· 2 years ago
Thanks for our info, Shatteredshards -- that's very helpful
Amy
· 2 years ago
And another dissatisfied customer.
I've just sent them a third email explaining that I will be filing complaints with BBB and Geotrust (who provides their SSL cert) and also having my credit card company charge back the balance if I don't hear back from them next week. Call me a cynic, but I'm not expecting a response this time either.
shatteredshards
· 2 years ago
Amy, I'm not sure how much Geotrust would help (or even care), as a secure socket layer certification only promises someone would have a heckuva time hacking the site and getting your card info when you're sending it. :\
I think I'm going to file the BBB complaint, though, as I haven't done that yet but when I had checked their site they said DM had no reported issues.
shatteredshards
· 2 years ago
UPDATE - READ THIS
Doing some more reading, people are now claiming the phone numbers registered for both DM as a company and with the host for the domain contact info have been disconnected.
Go file a claim with your card company or bank now, I think DM's a lost cause.
Ulysses
· 2 years ago
I have just dugg your post. Please help digg it so others can be aware of it:
Dugg and blog-posted. Lets spread the word, people. Lets use the power of the masses of the internet to get the word out and prevent this scam from happening to more poeple.
James
· 2 years ago
I notice already this blog post is already second in a Google search for "Dirty Microbe" which is excellent. And a T shirt snob post is the 4th result for it!
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
I ordered one shirt from dirty microbe on May 20th. It's August 6th today and still no shirt. I've sent three emails to them and only got a responce from the first email (which was 6 days late).
Shawna
· 2 years ago
I also ordered my shirt mid-May. I did get a form message saying it was delayed and it would be out in 2 weeks and they'll be sending me a 20% lifetime coupon. I was patient, but when it got to be July, I emailed them. No response in a week. So I emailed them again. No response again. So then I filed a claim on my credit card (since they charged my card when they said it was delayed). My credit card company gave me a credit two days later, and I still haven't heard from the company. I cringe whenever I see the ads.
rangga
· 2 years ago
Thanks everyone for your reports, hope those would help others to aware
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Two months, no shirts and payment made via money order leaves me with an awfully bad taste in my mouth. I wouldn't care if they'd gone under and at least replied to my email explaining that they're done and I'm screwed. It's the complete lack of communication that really irks me.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Wow, this sounds awfully familiar. Two shirts, two months.. still no package in the mail. Looks like DM took the money and ran...
Damnit. I thought they were such a cool company too. ><
xazen
· 2 years ago
Yet another one here. Ordered in early July and still no shirt or reply from the company. Of course my card was charged. Linked to this post on my blog to help get the word out. Brilliant t-shirts and well-designed website don't make up for actually shipping the darned things...crazy college kids.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
ditto here. I ordered in late may, got one response to my (many) emails, and then nothing. The worst thing is, I've ordered from them 3 times before, and the only time I had a problem, they went out of their way to fix it - and it was my own fault.
It's sad to see a company fall so far.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
^same guy as above.
Their phone number's been disconnected.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
FYI, you can also look up the company information on sunbiz.org.
It is Christian’s company but his girlfriend Stephanie (AKA Effie) actually runs it. I am not at all surprised Christian is not responding to emails or that he has disconnected the phones. He reacts terribly to stress. Rest assured though he is not a thief; sooner or later (sounds like much later) all merchandise will be shipped. He is usually quite professional and I am flabbergasted he has allowed this to happen.
Somaut
· 2 years ago
Yep, Chalk me up too.
Shirt should have been posted july 29th, it's now august 27th and nothing. No replies to my emails either.
Pity too, I realy wanted that toast shirt.
James
· 2 years ago
Anonymous (post #33), you seem to know them on a more personal basis. Would you be able to get hold of any status update from them? All I want right now is to know what's going on!!
James.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Wish I could help you out, but I have not spoken with them in a while. I do know them quite well and can only reassure you will get your shirt (or a refund) eventually.
My guess is that their orders increased dramatically and without sufficient manpower, they fell way behind. Orders started falling behind in late May (according to customer blog posts) which coincides with finals at UF and SFCC. Since 75% of DM are still in school, they simply had too much on their plates. The smartest solution would have been to STOP taking orders, come clean about their lack of foresight, contact their existing customers with outstanding orders, and bust their asses to catch up. Now they will have to work twice as hard to not only complete the snowballing orders but to clear up their reputation as well.
Ha! But why should I care about their reputations?
James, I do hope it all works out for you though!
Rangga
· 2 years ago
Many online stores (the small ones especially) sell in limited basis to avoid this problem: not being able to handle too many order
Dirty Microbe can just say "T-shirt are sold out" in the beginning, or being honest that they don't taking any order for certain period.
I believe people will understand that small stores have their own limitation, being open is the best way. This is a lesson for DM and all tee sellers-wannabe.
Elisa
· 2 years ago
I got scammed too. I ordered a few t-shirts in May and I've yet to receive them.
I've e-mailed them and I've gotten the same excuse as some other peeps too, saying that the order probably got lost and that they'd re-ship it, but I haven't received my t-shirts and they've stopped answering my e-mails. NOT COOL!
Considering how much stuff I buy online, it's a real wonder that I haven't been scammed before, but I still feel violated, man.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Have fun!
Registrant: Dirty Microbe, Inc.
329 NW 17th St K Gainesville, Florida 32603 United States
Administrative Contact: Christian von Kleist, - cvk@zybx.com Dirty Microbe, Inc. 329 NW 17th St K Gainesville, Florida 32603 United States 3522145092 Fax -- 3522145092
Technical Contact: Christian von Kleist, - cvk@zybx.com Dirty Microbe, Inc. 329 NW 17th St K Gainesville, Florida 32603 United States 3522145092 Fax -- 3522145092
Domain servers in listed order: NS14.ZONEEDIT.COM NS12.ZONEEDIT.COM NS1.ZONEEDIT.COM
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
The website is down right now, so maybe they've finally given up.
I ordered a couple shirts from them back in May, and although they charged my credit card, I never got my shirts. E-mails and even faxed letters from my law office were ignored. I finally contacted my credit card company, who gave me a refund. I also wrote a complaint to the BBB. Hopefully they'll get the message that the "head in the sand" strategy isn't working and will either refund outstanding orders or fill them. Wish I had known how crappy their service was BEFORE I ordered online. Oh well....
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
It appears I have found a working fax machine number.
Administrative Contact: vonKleist, Christian contact-domain@zybx.com N/A 9999 SW 13th St. Gainesville, Florida 32608 United States +1.34958322972 Fax -- +1.34958322972
Technical Contact: vonKleist, Christian contact-domain@zybx.com N/A 9999 SW 13th St. Gainesville, Florida 32608 United States +1.34958322972 Fax -- +1.34958322972
Domain servers in listed order: NS1.THEPLANET.COM NS2.THEPLANET.COM
If someone does, can they pick up a "toast" T shirt for me! lol
I think one of the T shirt companies should re-make the DM t-shirts - I STILL want that Toast t-shirt!
Manny
· 2 years ago
Although I was never officially affiliated with or worked at Dirty Microbe, I'm a personal friend of the founders.
After receiving a MySpace message from someone trying to track down Christian about an order, I did a Google search and found lists of complaints on blogs and forums, including this one.
Dirty Microbe has been going though severe financial trouble for a few months and has recently gone out of business and filed for bankruptcy. The founders are scrambling to liquidate the company's assets to repay creditors, including outstanding orders. I'd advise anyone who is missing an order to do a chargeback as soon as possible.
Dirty Microbe was a very small company and unique in that they printed all shirts in house, by hand. I mean, so small that it was rare that more than two people were working at any given time in there. You can imagine the workload. Lack of manpower was one major reason they went under and I suspect the main reason for the silence now. It's hard to imagine how much time it takes to go through the legalese for bankruptcy plus all the other stuff that has arisen from the situation. The owners have pretty much been slammed doing that, and they were already way backed up on orders and support requests.
Tens of thousands of dollars were invested in printing equipment, web store design, signing artists, affiliates, advertising, etc... and subsequently lost. There was no scam -- believe it or not, order volume was relatively low and the value of all unshipped orders tiny compared to the investment. Many recall that Dirty Microbe shipped a lot of shirts before they went down.
I feel for anyone been burned by this, I've been shafted by buying stuff online before and I know it sucks. I've tried to advise the owners to make some sort of announcement so those looking for answers have some idea what happened, but they've been tough to get a hold of. I'm sure they're just trying to get past what has been the most difficult time of their lives.
I'm going to cross-post this on a few of the other blogs in hopes of getting some word out to do a chargeback ASAP, as there is a time limit on those.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Darn it! Same deal here...but really, the money isn't the issue, I want the shirts! They were really cool. Any idea if they can sell their designs to another company?
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
It's so strange to hear complaints about this company after having a pleasant affair with them in late December of 2006. I ordered the Nintendo Player shirt, talked to Christian a bit and he gave me a discount code to use for it. It arrived without delay.
Looks like the site's down now, but that isn't surprising, given that it was only 2 university guys working from home with it.
Dione
· 2 years ago
Damn shame. They had some great products, although by the sound of it, not a lot of business sense.
And thanks for the heads up from all the people who have spread the word on this company. As it happened, I went looking for the site, wanting to place an order, only to discover that it was down, and a Google search lead me here. So it's a bit of a 'there but for the grace of god' situation. My sympathies to those who got burned.
C. David
· 2 years ago
I'm one of the contracted artists, and while they were very prompt in paying me the initial contracted amount, half of the contract was to be paid in commission based on how many of my shirts sold. They found me, they convinced me to work for them, and they were very professional about the whole thing.
Unfortunately, I'm left with two designs that will now never see print, and a commission that I will never see either. I accepted a relatively small initial payment because of the promise of printing and subsequent pay that I never received.
I'm glad that I found this info so that I won't hold my breath any longer. I'm sorry that they went under.
C. David
· 2 years ago
Oh, and the only reason that I even thought about them was that I saw this shirt in an online ad, and it reminded me a LOT of the shirt that they asked me to make.
Same font, a 'hot' object with large, cartoon eyes, and everything. Could they have tried to sell the unused designs to other companies to make back some money?
Rangga
· 2 years ago
That's really interesting David and I feel sorry that your design left unused -- and probably used without permission! I think it's possible for them to sell your design
Another artist who contacted me via email (she don't want her name to be published) said that she have not yet received any payment from Dirty Microbe -- and still trying to contact them now.
sigh, it's really messed up man
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
and another one... T-shirt ordered Augest 6th. Money taken from Bank on 8/7. Email from DirtyMicrobe on 8/6 stating order was to be shipped on 8/18. Delivery to be expected in 3 days. GUESS WHAT??? Went there. Did that. Did NOT get the T-shirt.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Hi,
Let me first comment, how great your blog is. I found it while I was looking on the internet for consumer product complaints. During my search I have also found excellent and funny site about product complaints.
Check them out. You will like them.
Regards,
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Hey everyone, check out this site where I got an awesome deal on my latest UGGs. I believe I saved about 80 bucks. I Luv my UGGs!
Hey this happen to my friend trying to get me a shirt. My question to you all is why you haven't reported it? http://www.ic3.gov/ Report it! And if you paid with a card, report it to your card company as fraud. Blogging is great but it won't get your money back nor will it get that jerk who took it. If he is not going to respond to us make him respond to the authorities.
shatteredshards
· 2 years ago
Manny,
I'm sorry for being a skeptic, but if that were the case they needed to be HONEST with their customers instead of ignoring them for the most part and occasionally telling someone "Oh yeah, your order's coming, we promise."
Look at the comments here, people started getting screwed with May orders and it was still happening with orders placed in August. Continuing to charge people's cards and give the runaround for 4 months is just redicuous.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
The company is bankrupt, but before going out of business (through no fault of the comapny’s) it shipped as many orders as possible and told as many customers as it could to ask their credit card companies to return the money paid to DM. Check this link that gives a good explaination:
I’d be unhappy if I were a customer, but if you’re old enough to buy something online you’re old enough to know that things like this can happen and working with your credit card company can resolve your loss.
Anyone making threats or spreading rumors or lies should be careful. You may be on the internet and feel anonymous, but what you say online can come back to you in the real world where libel, slander and defamation of character exist.
James
· 2 years ago
"Anyone making threats or spreading rumors or lies should be careful. You may be on the internet and feel anonymous, but what you say online can come back to you in the real world where libel, slander and defamation of character exist."
That sounds like a threat in itself to me.
Most of us here aren't out to drag anyones name through the mud, we just want the goods we paid for.
It's all well and good asking for the refund through our credit card companies, but it's still a service we paid for and didn't receive.
I personally received no update on DM's situation, all of my emails were ignored (and I started sending emails at the end of May) and I had to piece together what happened from reports on the Internet, such as this blog and other ones.
Rant over. Again.
James.
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Gotta say, I'm disappointed that they weren't able to keep the business going. I had a wonderful experience shopping with them and found them greatful for the business and responsive to my complaints.
Does anyonw know who would be bidding for the DM portfolio? I'd love to see it picked up elsewhere, especially by a shop that made quality like DM. Over a year of hard use and none of my Tees show any sign of fading or losing their transfer.
James
· 2 years ago
I would be quite happy for a big company like Threadless or BustedTees to pick up their portfolio, i'd certainly buy "Toast" again, but I'd receive it this time!
James.
Domestic_Goddess
· 2 years ago
I just tried to go on there and it forwards me to a Christian chat site now. It really stinks that small companies like this do this sort of thing because it makes me weary of ordering from indie sites like this
Eric
· 1 year ago
Anybody know where I can get a "nobody reads your crappy blog" t shirt now?
All Comments
The correct post is here: http://tshirtisland.blogspot.com/2007/01/dirty-microbes-sample-tee-review-no.html
It's not very often I name and shame, people have to really do me wrong before I will and Dirty Microbe really have done in my opinion.
I mean fair enough if they haven't charged my card but I've been without the money for 2 months now!
James.
and James, thanks for fixing the link :)
I wish everyone luck solving this problem; anonymous folk's advise might be useful: "call your credit card company to charge it back"
People may well still be ordering today not knowing that they won't be receiving anything!
http://www.calamityjames.co.uk/rants/dirty-microbe/
I urge others to post on their blogs/forums too!
Regarding what you said Brian, I too hope nothing tragic has happened, however, in the world of business you can't just ignore the people that spent their hard earned money on your product!
Second rant over lol.
James.
I've also got stung.
If i don't hear anything soon i'll be posting a Fraud Report and claiming my cash back via Mastercard. 2 months and 1 reply, after which nothing.
I ordered 4 shirts over 2 months ago, they took my money of course. No shirts yet.
I did however get 1 support email in early June from "Kelli" (one of the t-shirt models supposidly) saying they had a late batch and my order had slipped into it and they hoped to send it out at the end of the week. No response since then and I've sent about a dozen emails and a few faxes.
Now all I want is my money back. It is sad because they had great potential.
Anyones had any luck? Or successfully gotten their money back? email me:
marston@sugarstats.com
I also documented it on my MySpace.
For those of you who want your money back, there's usually a time limit on doing a chargeback (something like 60 days), so get in touch with your bank or card company ASAP. Don't bother waiting for DM.
I've just sent them a third email explaining that I will be filing complaints with BBB and Geotrust (who provides their SSL cert) and also having my credit card company charge back the balance if I don't hear back from them next week. Call me a cynic, but I'm not expecting a response this time either.
I think I'm going to file the BBB complaint, though, as I haven't done that yet but when I had checked their site they said DM had no reported issues.
Doing some more reading, people are now claiming the phone numbers registered for both DM as a company and with the host for the domain contact info have been disconnected.
Go file a claim with your card company or bank now, I think DM's a lost cause.
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Scam_warning_Dirty_Microbe_customers_are_not_receiving_their_products
http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Scam_warning_Dirty_Microbe_customers_are_not_"
Dugg and blog-posted. Lets spread the word, people. Lets use the power of the masses of the internet to get the word out and prevent this scam from happening to more poeple.
Damnit. I thought they were such a cool company too. ><
It's sad to see a company fall so far.
Their phone number's been disconnected.
It is Christian’s company but his girlfriend Stephanie (AKA Effie) actually runs it. I am not at all surprised Christian is not responding to emails or that he has disconnected the phones. He reacts terribly to stress. Rest assured though he is not a thief; sooner or later (sounds like much later) all merchandise will be shipped. He is usually quite professional and I am flabbergasted he has allowed this to happen.
Shirt should have been posted july 29th, it's now august 27th and nothing. No replies to my emails either.
Pity too, I realy wanted that toast shirt.
James.
My guess is that their orders increased dramatically and without sufficient manpower, they fell way behind. Orders started falling behind in late May (according to customer blog posts) which coincides with finals at UF and SFCC. Since 75% of DM are still in school, they simply had too much on their plates. The smartest solution would have been to STOP taking orders, come clean about their lack of foresight, contact their existing customers with outstanding orders, and bust their asses to catch up. Now they will have to work twice as hard to not only complete the snowballing orders but to clear up their reputation as well.
Ha! But why should I care about their reputations?
James, I do hope it all works out for you though!
Dirty Microbe can just say "T-shirt are sold out" in the beginning, or being honest that they don't taking any order for certain period.
I believe people will understand that small stores have their own limitation, being open is the best way. This is a lesson for DM and all tee sellers-wannabe.
I've e-mailed them and I've gotten the same excuse as some other peeps too, saying that the order probably got lost and that they'd re-ship it, but I haven't received my t-shirts and they've stopped answering my e-mails. NOT COOL!
Considering how much stuff I buy online, it's a real wonder that I haven't been scammed before, but I still feel violated, man.
Registrant:
Dirty Microbe, Inc.
329 NW 17th St K
Gainesville, Florida 32603
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: DIRTYMICROBE.COM
Created on: 21-Jan-06
Expires on: 21-Jan-08
Last Updated on:
Administrative Contact:
Christian von Kleist, - cvk@zybx.com
Dirty Microbe, Inc.
329 NW 17th St K
Gainesville, Florida 32603
United States
3522145092 Fax -- 3522145092
Technical Contact:
Christian von Kleist, - cvk@zybx.com
Dirty Microbe, Inc.
329 NW 17th St K
Gainesville, Florida 32603
United States
3522145092 Fax -- 3522145092
Domain servers in listed order:
NS14.ZONEEDIT.COM
NS12.ZONEEDIT.COM
NS1.ZONEEDIT.COM
I ordered a couple shirts from them back in May, and although they charged my credit card, I never got my shirts. E-mails and even faxed letters from my law office were ignored. I finally contacted my credit card company, who gave me a refund. I also wrote a complaint to the BBB. Hopefully they'll get the message that the "head in the sand" strategy isn't working and will either refund outstanding orders or fill them. Wish I had known how crappy their service was BEFORE I ordered online. Oh well....
http://theultimates.whitepages.com/search?l=von%20kleist&f;=christian&c;=gainesville&s;=fl&fid;=n&ft;=b<=b
Registrant:
N/A
9999 SW 13th St.
Gainesville, Florida 32608
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: ZYBX.COM
Created on: 10-Feb-02
Expires on: 10-Feb-08
Last Updated on: 19-Mar-07
Administrative Contact:
vonKleist, Christian contact-domain@zybx.com
N/A
9999 SW 13th St.
Gainesville, Florida 32608
United States
+1.34958322972 Fax -- +1.34958322972
Technical Contact:
vonKleist, Christian contact-domain@zybx.com
N/A
9999 SW 13th St.
Gainesville, Florida 32608
United States
+1.34958322972 Fax -- +1.34958322972
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.THEPLANET.COM
NS2.THEPLANET.COM
Registry Status: clientRenewProhibited
Registry Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Registry Status: clientDeleteProhibited
I think one of the T shirt companies should re-make the DM t-shirts - I STILL want that Toast t-shirt!
After receiving a MySpace message from someone trying to track down Christian about an order, I did a Google search and found lists of complaints on blogs and forums, including this one.
Dirty Microbe has been going though severe financial trouble for a few months and has recently gone out of business and filed for bankruptcy. The founders are scrambling to liquidate the company's assets to repay creditors, including outstanding orders. I'd advise anyone who is missing an order to do a chargeback as soon as possible.
Dirty Microbe was a very small company and unique in that they printed all shirts in house, by hand. I mean, so small that it was rare that more than two people were working at any given time in there. You can imagine the workload. Lack of manpower was one major reason they went under and I suspect the main reason for the silence now. It's hard to imagine how much time it takes to go through the legalese for bankruptcy plus all the other stuff that has arisen from the situation. The owners have pretty much been slammed doing that, and they were already way backed up on orders and support requests.
Tens of thousands of dollars were invested in printing equipment, web store design, signing artists, affiliates, advertising, etc... and subsequently lost. There was no scam -- believe it or not, order volume was relatively low and the value of all unshipped orders tiny compared to the investment. Many recall that Dirty Microbe shipped a lot of shirts before they went down.
I feel for anyone been burned by this, I've been shafted by buying stuff online before and I know it sucks. I've tried to advise the owners to make some sort of announcement so those looking for answers have some idea what happened, but they've been tough to get a hold of. I'm sure they're just trying to get past what has been the most difficult time of their lives.
I'm going to cross-post this on a few of the other blogs in hopes of getting some word out to do a chargeback ASAP, as there is a time limit on those.
Looks like the site's down now, but that isn't surprising, given that it was only 2 university guys working from home with it.
And thanks for the heads up from all the people who have spread the word on this company. As it happened, I went looking for the site, wanting to place an order, only to discover that it was down, and a Google search lead me here. So it's a bit of a 'there but for the grace of god' situation. My sympathies to those who got burned.
Unfortunately, I'm left with two designs that will now never see print, and a commission that I will never see either. I accepted a relatively small initial payment because of the promise of printing and subsequent pay that I never received.
I'm glad that I found this info so that I won't hold my breath any longer. I'm sorry that they went under.
http://www.bustedtees.com/shirt/thisiswhyimhot/male
Same font, a 'hot' object with large, cartoon eyes, and everything. Could they have tried to sell the unused designs to other companies to make back some money?
Another artist who contacted me via email (she don't want her name to be published) said that she have not yet received any payment from Dirty Microbe -- and still trying to contact them now.
sigh, it's really messed up man
Let me first comment, how great your blog is. I found it while I was looking on the internet for consumer product complaints. During my search I have also found excellent and funny site about product complaints.
Check them out. You will like them.
Regards,
http://deals.globalmusiczone.com/index.php?search=UGG&name;=UGG
I'm sorry for being a skeptic, but if that were the case they needed to be HONEST with their customers instead of ignoring them for the most part and occasionally telling someone "Oh yeah, your order's coming, we promise."
Look at the comments here, people started getting screwed with May orders and it was still happening with orders placed in August. Continuing to charge people's cards and give the runaround for 4 months is just redicuous.
http://www.troundup.com/2007/03/dirty-microbe-scam/
see the post by Austin.
I’d be unhappy if I were a customer, but if you’re old enough to buy something online you’re old enough to know that things like this can happen and working with your credit card company can resolve your loss.
Anyone making threats or spreading rumors or lies should be careful. You may be on the internet and feel anonymous, but what you say online can come back to you in the real world where libel, slander and defamation of character exist.
That sounds like a threat in itself to me.
Most of us here aren't out to drag anyones name through the mud, we just want the goods we paid for.
It's all well and good asking for the refund through our credit card companies, but it's still a service we paid for and didn't receive.
I personally received no update on DM's situation, all of my emails were ignored (and I started sending emails at the end of May) and I had to piece together what happened from reports on the Internet, such as this blog and other ones.
Rant over. Again.
James.
Does anyonw know who would be bidding for the DM portfolio? I'd love to see it picked up elsewhere, especially by a shop that made quality like DM. Over a year of hard use and none of my Tees show any sign of fading or losing their transfer.
James.
mjolnir_uru@yahoo.com