Yesterday ASIC moved to clarify the rules about comercial ventures that are crowdsourced. It makes interesting reading, and I think is quite clear that certain types of crowdsourcing can be considered a 'pre-purchase arrangement', and can thus be covered by consumer law. The whole statement is here.
Ms Gusset has advised that all prepaid orders for her Ton of Wool crowdsourcing venture have (finally!) been dispatched, excpeting several people who have not supplied addresses. I'm glad to read this, although I'm still not clear why it has taken a year to complete this work, as 50 were apparently sent out this last week. It's left a bad taste.
Not all prepaid orders have been sent out - I and at least one other person I know of have been sent unsolicited refunds because we dared to ask questions on the Ton of Wool Ravelry thread (in the Q & A section, no less). Apparently I was too "negative" and she only wanted positive comments and questions!
you bet it's left a bad taste.
Posted by: Sally | August 15, 2012 at 02:34 PM
I can't fathom HOW it was suddenly possibly to send out those last 50 orders unless a fair proportion were refunded instead. The yarn or fibre had to have ALL already have been dyed and ready to package and send (dyeing and drying is time consuming, particularly in Winter), which begs the question why it hadn't already been sent? Why was she holding on to it?
Really great project that has been extremely poorly executed.
Posted by: Jenny | August 15, 2012 at 07:49 PM
I also received an unsolicited refund rather than the yarn I'd hoped to purchase, in my case for saying (10 months after paying my money and still with no yarn) that I was looking forward to getting the yarn & not dealing with ms.gusset again.
Bad taste is right - I'll never deal with ms.gusset again, and I'll certainly be a lot more cautious about any future crowdsourcing ventures I'm thinking of participating in.
Posted by: Alison | August 16, 2012 at 09:10 AM
I also had a very unpleasant experience with ms gusset about eighteen moths ago when I paid for two skeins that were never delivered (despite ever-increasing creative excuses ie "oh, I posted them but they were returned because the label got wet." I eventually got a refund after about four months, but was made to feel like I was a whinger and it was all my fault! Never again.
Posted by: Polioandme | November 29, 2012 at 12:52 PM