Hi everyone, Matt here from AusAni – and I’m here to make an announcement that has been a long time coming but something I’ve held off for as long as possible.

Since the establishment of AusAni three and a half years ago, I was always adamant that I wanted to offer deposit free Pre-Orders. As a collector I always enjoyed the freedom of committing myself to an item without having to throw money down straight up – I could commit and then spend six months saving up my dollars to pay for it at release. I desperately tried to make that work for AusAni.

In short, it hasn’t.

Despite my relentless emails to customers who have cancelled Pre-Orders, imploring them not to do so because it would wreck this system for everyone, my pleas have gone unanswered. Even after the wording changes I made to the site earlier this year making it clear that a Pre-Order was a commitment to purchase, the inevitable last minute cancellation of an item due for release within hours – without even the whisper of a word from the culprit – always left me frustrated. What many may not realise is that even though you cancel your order, I can’t cancel mine – and AusAni was never meant to have shelves of stock laying around and yet over the years I have accumulated many shelves of figures from customers who have cancelled pre-orders.

And so I’m left with no choice – as of now, all new items added to the site that have a pre-order period will require 30% of the sale price to be paid up front. That deposit is non-refundable unless in the circumstance where AusAni is unable to honour the pre-order or damage or loss has occurred in line with our Returns and Refunds policy.

Please note that this DOES NOT affect existing Pre-Orders you’ve already placed, and some items that we’re already listed prior to the change may still be using the old Pre-Order system. That’s fine, you can use which ever system is available against the item that you’re looking to order – we won’t force you to pay deposits on items that aren’t requesting that. There is going to be a transition phase where we will go back and change previously listed items over a period of time. But again, this will not affect existing Pre-Orders you may have already raised.

I do apologise for this of course, and I know we’re likely to lose customers with this change – but it’s either this or worse quite frankly. To all our loyal customers out there who do honour their orders, who always pay when that email comes in – thank you. I’m sorry that we’re moving a part of our policy that you likely found helpful. If anyone has any questions or concerns about this change, please don’t hesitate to contact us at contact@ausani.com.au

Thanks everyone

Matt