Groovy Game Gear has crappy communication and is slow. (Mod edit: Disputed, read

[likwidtek]

So, I ordered some parts from both Lizard Lick and Groovy Gamers the same time the same day. By the time I received the package from Lizard Lick, Groovy Gamer Gear had not even shipped my order. No communication, no apologies, even after I reach out to them to try and see what's going on.

They ignore your emails and I SERIOUSLY encourage you guys not to give them your hard earned money. You'd think in this economy they'd be hungry. I guess not.

Edit:  The owner replied to this thread.  Mentioned that it was because they were moving this weekend.  Still there have been many others on this forum and KLOV who've had very similar experiences.  My opinion, if you need it in a hurry, get it elsewhere.

My only beef was no communication.  They could have put a message up on their website or an autoreply on their email.  I understand crap happens but no communication is a cardinal sin in business.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

You know, most of tge vendors here are just one or two guy shows.. There was a graphics vendor gettinging grief because of no communication. Turns out he and his daughter were in the hospital following a cart wreck.

I Dont know what's the case here, because I personally had a good experience and communication with ggg, but there's always a chance of the unexpected.

[Dazz]

I've never had any issues with GGG.

[leapinlew]

I've ordered from GGG lots. All successful transactions.

[severdhed]

GGG is great...i understand your situation, it always seems to take a few days longer to get stuff from GGG than it does from lizardlick or ultimarc....however you always get your stuff, it is always packed very well, and the products are great.  They are a small operation, alot of stuff to do and only a few people to do it.  I know it sucks when you have to wait to get parts, but they will come and you will be happy with them when they do...just be patient.  

[likwidtek]

One week to process (not ship) an order though?  Honestly if they're that busy, then they can afford to hire more help.

Even still, if they would even reply to my repeated attempts at requesting information, I wouldn't have made this post.

I'm sure I'll get the product however their service is horrible. 

[leapinlew]

It's Sunday evening. Were you expecting the package to arrive today?

Chill out, have a beer. You'll live longer.

[likwidtek]

It's Sunday evening. Were you expecting the package to arrive today?

Chill out, have a beer. You'll live longer.

Of course not.  However within the week of emailing them, it would have been nice to receive a response.  Please actually read my complaint.  As I said, the lack of communication is the offense here.  I'm under no illusion that this is a world where ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- doesn't happen.  Ran out of something.  Got busy.  Misplaced the order.  However, as a business owner, I know full well that this is a cardinal sin.

I'm sure who ever runs it is a good person. I'm not attacking them personally. Maybe some day they'll respond to my emails. I'll post back if the situation ever gets resolved.

In the meantime, I'm pulling all of my links and recommendations to them.

[Well Fed Games]

Sorry you didn't get an email response, but keep in mind this is a specialty company dealing with very niche things... I am glad they exist at all. I ordered a week ago and my order status is still "processing"... but my last order came in fine, and I expect this one to as well. And I will say that about 2 weeks ago, I emailed Randy with a (stupid) question, and he responded same day. So your experience may be uncommon.

[rackoon]

I have made about ten transactions with them and all went well.  :applaud:Its been about a year since the last. Maybe he is just having a rough month.

[yotsuya]

I've ordered many times from GGG (last order was about a month ago), and the processing time varies, but again, we're not dealing with a big chain/multiple employee business here.  It's summer time- Randy's probably on vacation (hopefully it's that and not like what happened to poor John).

He's been nothing but standup with me, and I'd buy from him without hesitation.

[fallacy]

No one likes to wait for things you order on-line. It holds up your project process. The worst part is that all you do is dwell on it.. playing it over and over in your mind what you are going to do once you get that part.

Wish there was a rule if it arrives are your house a week after the time you purchased it would be half off. Getting tired of having things arrive at my house 3 weeks after I purchased it.

[CheffoJeffo]

Are we really complaining about a one week turnaround for specialty items during summer and calling it "serious" ?

Really ?

 

[Louis Tully]

.

[Hoopz]

What's the big deal about him expressing frustration about lack of communication?  He's not complaining about the order per se but the lack of response from the vendor?  This isn't the first post recently where someone has become frustrated about a lack of communication and gotten jumped on by the masses.  Effective communication is a key component of any business.  Cut the OP some slack...

RandyT has pointed out a few times that while his business serves our needs, the home arcade market is not the only facet of his business.  He takes pride in his work and his products.  That being the case, if something has come up that's going to delay shipments for a period of time or delay him being able to respond to emails, it's not that difficult to update the website or put an auto-reply message on his email account.  There's also the possibility that the emails got caught in a spam folder, but I don't think that is a legitimate excuse any more.  It shouldn't be that difficult to go through a spam folder to catch any real communications. 

I, too, have ordered from GGG and had success with their products.  I think the OP will be happier once the order is received (of course).

[syph007]

I just got an order from Randy this week.  No slower than normal.  I will say though that he does not communicate too well.  I've sent emails asking questions about his products and never ever once have I had a reply, and I end up asking on the forum instead.  I don't care enough to make an issue of it, since I can get what I want from him, and get questions answered here.  When I've ordered, I've never had any complaints though, prompt service for shipping etc, which is why Ive never hesitated ordering.

[RandyT]

Let me start by apologizing to the OP for not getting back to him (although I'm not exactly sure who he is without an order number or something to identify him in the "real world".)

Some of you know this already, but we are in the midst of a transition.  GroovyGameGear is moving to a larger facility to better serve it's customers, and to keep us from going insane as the inventory of new parts piles up around us.  The new facility is 4 hours away from our previous one, and yours truly has newly found respect for big rig drivers who make their living on the road, as I have been the one behind the wheel of of an '97 Expedition with no A/C, attached to a 6,000lb trailer for roughly 40 solid hours (so far ).  When I'm not driving, I've been loading / unloading the weight in that trailer, and processing the orders as quickly as we can, without sacrificing the quality GroovyGameGear has been known to provide.  So far, it's been going pretty well, with the exception of a blown brake line which forced me up on a curb to avoid a collision with the vehicle which stopped short in front of me when it occurred.  Scary stuff.  As you might expect, it takes time to get the systems set up with new mail servers and such even after we manage to get them moved, and into an office where they can be used easily.  Our first priority has been in the processing of orders, so those systems were the first to go online.   We have also been moving ourselves, but the business, and our customers, have been given priority, as it should be.

The good news is that that we are now operating at about 90% and our backlog of orders had a huge chunk taken out in the last few days as this has been our primary focus the moment we became functional again.  As expected, there are a few items in our catalog which were inadvertently left behind and are not yet at our new location, and orders with those items on them are experiencing a short delay.  After today's 13 hour exercise, this should be remedied.  While I'm gone, Lisa will be a busy little soul pushing out more of the backlog, so we are making progress, and will be back to "normal" soon.

I understand that little of this should be of concern to our customers, and we have been trying very hard to insure that it would not be.  Unfortunately, a few snags along the way have made the process take a few days longer than we expected, and while many have been notified of any delays, we have apparently missed a few.  We will be working to remedy this and appreciate your patience.  If you have not yet received a response, please send me another email and I will try to make sure you get an answer.  

Thanks again to all of you who have patiently supported GroovyGameGear through our growing pains, and we look forward to providing you a better experience from our new facility now, and in the years to come.

RandyT

[CheffoJeffo]

What's the big deal about him expressing frustration about lack of communication?  He's not complaining about the order per se but the lack of response from the vendor?  This isn't the first post recently where someone has become frustrated about a lack of communication and gotten jumped on by the masses.  Effective communication is a key component of any business.  Cut the OP some slack...

I don't think the big deal is about expressing frustration -- it's about posting with a flamethrower without providing any details about how attempts were made to contact GGG.

Did the OP send Randy a PM here before posting here ?

What is up with the inflammatory wording ?

If the worst part of the OPs life is that he hasn't heard from Randy in a week, then dude is tempting fate and pushing karma by advertising.

[Necro]

Uh oh - did GGG get bought by RAM controls?  Is RandyT = Dave = Jim = whatever?  DUN DUN DUNNNNNN!!!!  Is this a scam!?!?!?!


 

Just kidding.  Give it some time - I understand the frustration as well.  Did you try calling?  (Can you?)   And PM him here...he'll get back to you.

[Santoro]

Another +1 for GGG.

I know there are rare times when due to various business travel or family obligations it can take up to a week or so for me to action orders.  So far my customers have been nothing but gracious in these circumstances.  Posts like the first one in this thread bum me out.  

[Hoopz]

What's the big deal about him expressing frustration about lack of communication?  He's not complaining about the order per se but the lack of response from the vendor?  This isn't the first post recently where someone has become frustrated about a lack of communication and gotten jumped on by the masses.  Effective communication is a key component of any business.  Cut the OP some slack...

I don't think the big deal is about expressing frustration -- it's about posting with a flamethrower without providing any details about how attempts were made to contact GGG.

Did the OP send Randy a PM here before posting here ?

What is up with the inflammatory wording ?

If the worst part of the OPs life is that he hasn't heard from Randy in a week, then dude is tempting fate and pushing karma by advertising.

The OP responded and said that he was just trying to hear back from them via email and it had been a week. The "Contact us" link on the GGG website doesn't provide a phone number so the logical assumption is that email is the preferred method of communication.  What more should the OP have said? 

I also don't think a PM on a website should replace an email sent directly to the vendor.  Granted, RandyT is very active here but the protocol that I would follow would be to reach out to the vendor via the vendor's site first. 

RandyT responded and let people know about the situation so that's great.  Without being critical, I'll suggest that a major move like that could have been posted on the website and here so that customers would know that a delay may be expected in communication or order fulfillment, the move was to streamline efficiencies for the business, etc.  Setting the expectation for a little hiccough that may or may not happen may have avoided frustration for anyone.

[ChadTower]

Meh, no email for a whole week, a little bit annoying, but not "let's flame the guy publicly" annoying.  Vendors have lives too and it's vacation season. 

[RandyT]

Vendors have lives too and it's vacation season.  

I wish I was on vacation....on the bright side, I don't need a gym membership anymore

RandyT responded and let people know about the situation so that's great.  Without being critical, I'll suggest that a major move like that could have been posted on the website and here so that customers would know that a delay may be expected in communication or order fulfillment, the move was to streamline efficiencies for the business, etc.  Setting the expectation for a little hiccough that may or may not happen may have avoided frustration for anyone.

We did everything in our power to make the move "transparent" to the business.  We achieved that goal in a major way, by having the operation down only a couple of business days, affecting the tiniest minority of the current orders.  Unfortunately, it only takes one issue to prompt a thread like this one.  It's unfortunate, but it happens.  All we can do is press on and try not to let it happen again, and we will.

RandyT

[ChadTower]

Vendors have lives too and it's vacation season. 

I wish I was on vacation....on the bright side, I don't need a gym membership anymore

Yeah.     Why did you move the new place four hours away?  Light warehousing can't be that hard to find.

[RandyT]

Yeah.     Why did you move the new place four hours away?  Light warehousing can't be that hard to find.

If you see what we bought and what we paid for it, you'd understand .  I'll try to posts some photos when we get it set up fully.

[Hoopz]

Vendors have lives too and it's vacation season. 

I wish I was on vacation....on the bright side, I don't need a gym membership anymore

Yeah.     Why did you move the new place four hours away?  Light warehousing can't be that hard to find.

Must be making room for all the Novagems that are in stock now.   

[nakeworks]

I can sympathize with the TS.  No communication sucks.  But its not worth getting the BP up.

I seem to have had better luck getting responses from Randy by posting here than thru emails.  That said, I am grateful Randy is there and am willing to be patient for a few days (weeks?) more because there too few places to find this stuff.  Keep up the good work.

Then again, I'm a laid back kinda guy

[Cakemeister]

Come on, you guys....

[jtslade]

From a marketing perspective a post like this is gold!

One there is an upset customer, that is his perception, nothing you can do about that. He has expectations from vendor's like Andy at Ultimarc, which everyone knows that he has from 6-8 androids on his staff that fill orders.

Second, look at the outpouring of prior customers that say they experienced great service from GGG, it means a huge deal.

Third, GGG found this thread and responded to it in a positive and professional manner.

Businesses spend millions and millions just to try and get feedback (hopefully negative!) from customers. A negative letter or email or forum post is gold, it is an opportunity to win back a customer, foster new ones, and show your firm in a positive light.  

Feedback from customers is vital!

[DaveMMR]

Another +1 for Randy. Ordered from him twice and he even corrected a mistake I made in my first order free-of-charge.

[ark_ader]

GGG is the best, with 100% customer service.

The OP needs to chill out. 

[Vigo]

I'd be a lot more understanding of the OP's problem if he didn't title the thread "Groovy Game Gear sucks" A bit harsh for a 1 week delay, no? I've ordered from major online retailers and had longer delays.

[Necro]

Yeah.     Why did you move the new place four hours away?  Light warehousing can't be that hard to find.

If you see what we bought and what we paid for it, you'd understand .  I'll try to posts some photos when we get it set up fully.

Wait...I was kidding.  If you post pictures of RAM controls stock sitting in your warehouse...well...then I need to get to the casino's quick.

[hypernova]

Another +1 for Randy. Ordered from him twice and he even corrected a mistake I made in my first order free-of-charge.

Try your comprehension again, there, pbj!  

[likwidtek]

We did everything in our power to make the move "transparent" to the business.  We achieved that goal in a major way, by having the operation down only a couple of business days, affecting the tiniest minority of the current orders.  Unfortunately, it only takes one issue to prompt a thread like this one.  It's unfortunate, but it happens.  All we can do is press on and try not to let it happen again, and we will.

RandyT

That's good enough for me I suppose.  The only thing I can suggest is that it would have been nice if you had posted something on your website about the move.  Like I said, I fully understand that stuff comes up.  It's just ignoring the emails that bothers me.  And to be honest from this post and from people over at KLOV it's very common for GGG to ignore emails and to be very slow on processing.  My only point was, if I can get the exact same parts for the exact same price from your competitor who has a 1 day process time compared to a week, what is my motivation to buy from you?  Maybe that sounds jerkish but it's the truth.

I get that I'm in the minority here as I don't know you personally and we aren't friends but this is just business.  I'm sure if you and I were buddies I'd order from you anyway but I just wanted my parts and wanted them quick.  If your business was unable to provide that quick service, a quick email would have been nice.  That's all.

[likwidtek]

I can sympathize with the TS.  No communication sucks.  But its not worth getting the BP up.

I seem to have had better luck getting responses from Randy by posting here than thru emails.  That said, I am grateful Randy is there and am willing to be patient for a few days (weeks?) more because there too few places to find this stuff.  Keep up the good work.

Then again, I'm a laid back kinda guy

As silly as it sounds, maybe in the contact section of his website he should recommend contacting him HERE and not through the website.  I didn't find him through this website so I had no idea I'd have better luck here rather than through his business. 

[Nephasth]

I get that I'm in the minority here as I don't know you personally and we aren't friends but this is just business.

It's not so bad being the minority around here. They save the seats in the back of the bus for us and we get our own drinking fountain.

[cigardude]

I know that I am new here and all but I've contacted GGG recently through their web site contact form and it took days for an answer. I ended up coming here for info and I ended up getting a different product from a different vendor. If I got an automated email from the form that I filled out saying that you guys were in the middle of moving or on vacation, ect., I would have waited it out and would not have came here to get info. I know $40 in parts is nothing but just saying, that would have been some extra beer money in your pocket.

Does this mean that I will never order from GGG? Probably not since I will need some more parts down the road.

[Mikezilla]

Im kind of with Hoopz on this regarding how easy it would have been to put an out of office reply on the email or something to indicate you werent available to be contacted, or put something up on the website. No communication would have irked me as well, but as I have heard before, Randy has always had an amazing track record. I havent bought anything from him yet, but I wouldnt hesitate to do so considering how well respected he is around here.

AS Vigo stated, I also would have titled the subject differently, and not exactly said they suck considering it was only a week. Thats a little harsh. 2 weeks maybe, but damn, 1 is a little quick to say that GGG sucks.  

[Donkbaca]

yeah, and sometimes its nice getting a cool drink from that fountain instead of the kool-aid everyone else is drinking.