BEWARE: Art on Demand

[bulldoggrl]

Just a heads up to everyone out there. My husband tried to buy my some canvas prints from Art on Demand kiosk at World of Disney in CA. He waited and waited, there was supposed to be a 2-3 week lead time on the prints. So after the 3 weeks had passed, he called and called, and finally got someone at the Art on Demand office. She said "well...they SHOULD be shipping this week." Weeks later, still nothing. He called and called some more, no answer. He finally called WOD to hopefully get some resolution. Turns out, Art on Demand is a separate company that contract in with Disney. WOD staff got a memo last week saying they were ceasing the Art on Demand service, and the company would be contacting customers to discuss refunds. Well, we obviously still have not heard anything. My husband spend hundreds of dollars on these prints, and we are very afraid it is all going to be lost if the company has gone under. He is putting in another call to WOD right now, since they are the one that processed payment, and we were unaware that we were dealing with an outside company.

So just beware, I would not purchase anything from the kiosks, if in fact they are still located on property.

I will keep you all posted on our outcome. Wish us luck.

 

[Disney Dreams]

Thanks for posting this. There was a very recent discussion about all the great things one can order from Art of Demand.

I hope you have a positive resolution to your situation.

- Dreams

 

[Leshaface]

Oh gosh that sucks!

I'm sure everything will be settled in your favor!

 

[nonzerosum]

Good luck. Be persistent and hopefully Disney will come to your aid.

 

[bulldoggrl]

Just googled "The Art Group", which is the company that runs the art on demand kiosks, and they were just bought out by Pyramid International, finalized July 20. So if Disney can't help us out, we will be making a call to them. At least they're bought out, and not going under...

 

[blackjackdelta]

Good luck, I have used this service numerous times.

Jack

 

[jtown]

If he used a credit card, file a dispute with your credit card company. It sounds like you're close to the 30 day mark if not past it already so start that ball rolling today. The limit might be 60 days but I'm not sure on that. Your credit card company will be able to tell you how their dispute process works and how long you have to make the initial complaint.

If you made the purchase with a credit card, I strongly suggest you start this process while you continue to attempt to get the company to deliver the product. You can always re-authorize payment in the event that they finally come through but the window for disputing the charge is very small and you'll lose a lot of leverage if that window closes before you have either the product or the money in your hands.

You're past the promised delivery date, you've made multiple attempts to contact the company, they're no longer responding, and you still haven't received the product. Should be pretty straight forward.

 

[pixiewings71]

I was going to say the same thing that jtown said, if he used a cc contact the cc company and let them know what's going on, they should be able to help you.

 

[Eeee-va]

I'm sorry to hear that! But I agree; if at all possible, I'd dispute the charges. Otherwise, hopefully the new company and/or Disney will take care of it.

I hope they're not selling "Art on Demand" in the meantime while all these problems are going on!

Good luck!

 

[tink2dw]

When that place won't sell a tink picture to me right then and there, my radar went off red lights and bells, we walked away right then never looking back!!!

 

[jtown]

When that place won't sell a tink picture to me right then and there, my radar went off red lights and bells, we walked away right then never looking back!!!

The concept obviously isn't a scam. This operation has been in place for a while and was working just fine with many happy customers. Unfortunately, they're not handling the transition to new ownership very well. I've handled a few medium and large format printers over the years and it's not a quick job to run off a single poster-size print on specific media with custom framing. The requests are queued until there are enough to consume a full roll (100, 200, 500, 1000 feet) of a particular type of media then they're printed, cut, mounted, and framed. That's all done off site someplace where labor is cheap then the product is shipped to the consumer.

If you just want a poster to tape to the wall, that's an entirely different class of product. You can buy mass produced Tinkerbell posters for five bucks.

 

[bulldoggrl]

The concept obviously isn't a scam. This operation has been in place for a while and was working just fine with many happy customers. Unfortunately, they're not handling the transition to new ownership very well.

I completely agree. We've used this service before with excellent results, we were not afraid of them or anything, which is why this is so unsettling! I hope it all get figured out, and I wish more than getting our money back we could get the prints!! But it does not seem like that will be the case, unfortunately. We're waiting to hear back today from the company (Disney said they would forward our message along...I'm unconvinced we'll get a call), and we have 60 days to file a dispute with our bank, so we'll give them a little more time and then file. Unfortunately it was Disney that processed our payment, not the other company, so we feel it is Disney that should refund our payment, and so far they do not seem willing to do so. Ugh. My poor husband was just trying to get me a super awesome birthday gift, and then this mess!

 

[bulldoggrl]

The hubby heard back from Disney today. They explained that the program has been suspended and they are processing refunds. They said it will take a couple weeks. At least it is an answer. Anyone know where we can get canvas framed prints of the dueling ghosts now, since AoD is no longer, at least for the moment?

 

[Mike_M]

Oh I am not happy about this. I've been waiting a month now for my HM ride poster to get here. I called a week ago and they told me it was sitting in the shipping room ready to go out. Nobody was answering yesterday. Obviously I was being fed a line of BS.

What irritates me the most here is that I have been looking forward to this item for some time as I already have a POTC one and this one was going to essentially complete the set for me. Having to settle for a refund and do something with the gaping hole on the wall where it was going to go is not what I would prefer here.....Damnit.

 

[Kittyskyfish]

The concept obviously isn't a scam. This operation has been in place for a while and was working just fine with many happy customers. Unfortunately, they're not handling the transition to new ownership very well. I've handled a few medium and large format printers over the years and it's not a quick job to run off a single poster-size print on specific media with custom framing. The requests are queued until there are enough to consume a full roll (100, 200, 500, 1000 feet) of a particular type of media then they're printed, cut, mounted, and framed. That's all done off site someplace where labor is cheap then the product is shipped to the consumer.

If you just want a poster to tape to the wall, that's an entirely different class of product. You can buy mass produced Tinkerbell posters for five bucks.

Thank you for posting this. It helps me to understand the situation by learning about the production process.

 

[bulldoggrl]

Oh I am not happy about this. I've been waiting a month now for my HM ride poster to get here. I called a week ago and they told me it was sitting in the shipping room ready to go out. Nobody was answering yesterday. Obviously I was being fed a line of BS.

What irritates me the most here is that I have been looking forward to this item for some time as I already have a POTC one and this one was going to essentially complete the set for me. Having to settle for a refund and do something with the gaping hole on the wall where it was going to go is not what I would prefer here.....Damnit.

Yeah, we got fed that same line "Oh, it should ship this week."

And I understand how you feel, I really wanted my dueling ghosts more than anything. You may have good luck on ebay with the ride poster though...

 

[Disney Dreams]

The hubby heard back from Disney today. They explained that the program has been suspended and they are processing refunds....

Great news! You said that Disney processed the payment, but that the other company (used to be that one that) processes the order. I bet Disney is having a nightmare trying to figure out whose orders have been filled and not yet received vs. whose orders need to be fully refunded.

Did they say if the service is being taken over by someone else soon? Then you could wait a bit and get your artwork. I hope this is the case! I know how it feels to have your heart set on something that becomes unavailable. I hope you can get your print.

- Dreams