ENS Merch Store Feedback & Review

đź’¬ General Discussion
1

I am leaving this review regarding my experience with the ENS Merch Store, after speaking to another person with a similar experience and reading Nick’s comment below noting the lack of sales figures, status updates, and potential revenue payments to the DAO.

Prior to the Merch Store launch, I actually tested their platform and uncovered multiple UI/UX issues. This was unpaid work, but significant enough to push back the scheduled launch. Needless to say I thought the ENS merch store had a lot of potential to be meaningful.

Following launch, on October 21, 2022, I used the crypto payment option to purchase an ENS hat for geocities.eth. Etherscan transaction. I paid ~$100 in ETH (based on todays prices) but I never received my hat.

After a month or two, I submitted a form on the website to raise the issue. I received no confirmation that the form was submitted/received nor a response. I informed a Steward about my experience and ended up chalking it up to another web3 growing pain, accepting the loss.

However, after reading Nick’s comment, I decided to write this review, but felt I should make a second good-faith effort to resolve this through the Store’s formal channel and submitted a 2nd form on April 26, 2024, specifically requesting a refund.

This time around I received an email response the same day asking if I would accept the hat instead of a refund. I replied that I preferred a refund, but if they had record of making/shipping the hat then I would just accept the loss. Thereafter, they confirmed they “dug” up the order and that I would get a refund, which I received on May 17.

The ENS Merch Store reflects on ENS just as much, if not more, than the team funded by the DAO running the store. After learning about a 2nd community member having a similar experience, which they said was only resolved after contacting a Steward “a dozen times” to intervene and reading Nick’s comments I felt I should give this review.

I don’t think it’s my place to make specific suggestions, but perhaps this may start a productive conversation leading to actionable improvements with an emphasis on responsibilities owed by 3rd parties receiving payments from the DAO.

4 Likes
2

I’ve been raising the issue for ages now

@AvsA you promised to have a look :wink:

3

Thanks for the post @ENSPunks.eth. I’m sorry to hear your experience wasn’t great.

Over the last year we’ve heard the feedback about the Merch store. We informed General Magic in March that we’d be cancelling the Merch Store service.

We’ve been in the process of offboarding them and properly informing the community.

There might be other merch stores that are spun up in the future, but that specific endeavor has ended.

I’m sorry you didn’t take the hat, it might have been the last one delivered through that process. :grin:

4 Likes
4

I’m not surprised, I got a bunch of DMs following my post from people with their own experiences and some just sharing their own ideas.

I hope so, based on the DMs I got, it would be a shame to throw the baby out with the bath water.

I bought the hat to support, but turns out there are some people really passionate about Merch. Multiple people shared their ideas about promo and raising ENS awareness, to sharing examples of other stores offering merch they love wearing (for example AAVE).

Knowing what I know now I wouldn’t have posted, but here we are and my biggest takeaway is there are people here just lurking, they have a lot of passion for ENS, a desire to contribute/participate, but despite all that they are electing to self-censor.

If more passion, participation, and ideas are desirable, it’s probably worth exploring why potential contributors willfully don’t participate despite their desire to do so.

The DMs I received also got me excited enough that I purchased AAVE merch - and I don’t even use AAVE - this is an example of what a good merch store can/should do for ENS through word of mouth. I understand there are priorities, but I hope the Merch store doesn’t go completely on the back burner.

3 Likes