Apologizes to Stuart Semple, and Hoping for Better Culture Hustle
Dear Stuart Semple,
Thank you for your reply, and acknowledgement of my work! And I am sorry that I misunderstood that you replied to my open letter. So it was just my Instagram stories you saw and replied to me, that explains why you asked my order number.
And I am terribly sorry that I did not read the Kickstarter page thoroughly. So the LIT was only used on the prototype, and it will not be used for the final products. This means some of my criticism are based on incorrect assumption made by myself. This was my fault, and I apologize.
I am also sorry to hear about the terrible situations Culture Hustle had to go through. However that doesn't eliminate the irresponsibility of Culture Hustle not being able to communicate with the customers while taking money, and at least my last order made in this August has your name on it "Love Stuart" so you are still made to look like someone responsible in their operation at least back then.
And now that I wrote this far, let me write a little bit more.
The last human message from Culture Hustle was November 4th and it was like this:
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Dear Artist,
Thank you for your continued patience regarding your order. I understand that you are still awaiting an update and that you have not yet received your order or a refund. I sincerely apologize for the delay in providing you with a resolution.
I want to assure you that we are actively working to address this issue. I am personally looking into the status of your order and will provide you with a comprehensive update as soon as possible. Your satisfaction is very important to us and we are committed to finding a solution.
Once again, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.
Best regards,
S***** (name)
Culture Hustle Crew
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It was their answer for me asking for refund, so this reply is completely ignoring the point, and there is no message ever since. My subsequent messages (Nov 4th, Dec 1st) were ignored, and the credit card dispute was made on Dec 3rd, it was processed on 5th, and Culture Hustle shipped my order ignoring my will to cancel the order on Dec 9th. Amazing how fast they can work under a lawful pressure right?
And so I have no idea when those hardships hit Culture Hustle, and when this good "new support team" came in. But the new support team could roll back the bad their predecessor done by making a list of customers with unfulfilled items and send an apologetic message for the delay in shipping. Or make a list of customers who purchased a specific product and email them stating the delay in manufacturing. I know this is possible and very easy to do, because both my web shop and Culture Hustle are using Shopify. None of that was done.
But so do I understand correctly that everything you could do to improve Culture Hustle is already done? Then that is a great thing. If this is true, I am sure that those who messaged me regarding their orders not yet being shipped for many months, would be receiving shipping notification in no time.
And I sincerely hope that is true, and I wish you and Culture Hustle best. And I do hope to see you hopefully next year when I visit the UK for some watch show.
All the best wishes,
-Yu