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Customers say they still haven't received Christmas gifts from Atlanta-based company

ATLANTA — An Atlanta company is urging irate customers to be patient. Thousands of orders expected in time for Christmas won't even make it for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The company is PupSocks. The six-month-old company puts pet pictures on pairs of socks.  It recently relocated to an office in Colony Square.

"There is no response.  If you reach out to them there's an automatic email that says, "We'll get to you when we can,'" said customer Erinn Grier.

She has not received a pair she ordered for her mother as a Christmas present.

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Joy Behar featured Pup Socks on "The View" in its holiday gift guide. A Facebook group has now emerged for those complaining that their socks are missing.

"The story was my story, over and over: "We placed an order. We're not getting them. There's been no response,'" said Grier.

"You just never know what the demand is going to  be and what is going to catch on fire," said Morningside mom Katy Stout.

Stout's kids received twopair in time for Christmas. They'd been ordered by friends in Washington, DC.  She didn't know of the trouble others have been having.

"They should get their money back, or their socks."

Company founder Zach Zelner told Channel 2's Consumer Investigator Jim Strickland the company had been inundated with 198,000 orders. Zelner said there are 8,000 to go before they are caught up.

The Better Business Bureau has been following company for less than a month. It already has an F rating.

Zelner said there's a team dedicated to making things right.

The company sent Strickland this statement on Thursday:

"PupSocks was founded six months ago out of a tiny 2-person office. We have grown to 23 employees in the Atlanta office. We had more than 160,000 orders throughout November and December, and are rushing to complete those orders and shipping them to the customers. Many of the orders will go out tomorrow. By early next week, all delayed orders should be printed and shipped.  
 
We were extremely surprised by the overwhelming success of the company and have done the following to provide customer support and satisfaction. We have added two manufacturing facilities who are working 24/7 to complete the orders and have hired more than 22 customer management team members to respond to each customer inquiry. We have apologized on the social media pages and in our responses to customers for the delays in shipments and lack of communications. We are doing everything we can to rectify the situation on all fronts. If the customers are not satisfied, we will work with them to provide them a product that meets their expectations.  
 
Part of PupSocks commitment is to give back to animal welfare charities. Currently we are following up on our commitment to support two charities here in Atlanta: The Ahimsa House and the Humane Society of Atlanta. We have revised the website because we are developing an overall philanthropic strategy and want to broaden our contributions. We will also work with the Better Business Bureau to show how we are committed to customer service for every single order.  
 
We have improved our systems so that we will not be having these delay, shipment, and quality issues in the future. If you review our official website and social media pages, you will find videos and posts of gratitude for our product and service. Quality products and customer service excellence is paramount to the PupSocks team. "