I have had good experiences with Sideshow customer service and they are known for their quality and customer relations. However, I was having a conversation with a fellow collector who brought up an unresolved customer service request for a piece he purchased through Sideshow from Prime 1. A P1 Venom. He received this piece recently (which is awesome as I also have it) but it came with a broken tendril. He placed the usual request through the Sideshow customer service request and received a response back in a few days.
Sideshow responded that they unfortunately did not have a replacement piece and offered 3 options:
- Wait while they contact Prime 1 Studios on his behalf for a replacement. Also mention of limited replacement stock and that the process can take significantly longer.
- A full refund.
- Credit. A very small credit.
He selected wait. A month goes by and he sends a message to the customer service rep and this is where it gets interesting. The response was that "unfortunately at this time we do not have any update from Prime 1 regarding your inquiry" and that he would get a message from them when they have an update. What do you mean no update? Like they just didn't respond? Checking if they can offer a replacement? What does that mean?
The big question remains. Will he get a replacement? That question was sent back to the CS Rep.
Did the CS Rep not get any response back from Prime 1 and it just goes into a blackhole waiting area?
With the increased interest in Prime 1 products I thought it would be a good idea to raise this question and perhaps start a conversation on what options collectors may have as it relates to Prime 1 customer service. I read some time ago that collectors with similar issues were told to reach out directly to Prime 1 to help Sideshow with getting a response back. Does anyone have any information or which contact to use? This would be useful to many of us should we also encounter this problem.
P1 Venom is a collaboration piece between Sideshow and Prime 1. If there are communication issues for this, what happens for pieces where Sideshow is only the distributor?
Raising my red flag of concern.