Is Tentacle Grape Soda Real? Because Their Shipment Dates Aren't
Really, grape soda with a tentacle hentai theme (don't Google it if you're not sure what we're talking about, especially if you're at work) just makes sense. Sex-starved tentacled monsters getting it on with anime vixens just cries out to be packaged as a grape drink and sold. But one reader, Lincoln, says he bought his own 6-pack of the drink back at the start of the year and has yet to see it.
Hello, I just wanted to let you guys know what's up with this Tentacle Grape soda. I preordered a 6-pack of the soda January 3rd and shipping was supposed to start later the same month. On Feb 14th, I received an email letting me know my ordered had been shipped, hooray!
I checked the USPS tracking they had given me the following Monday and USPS said they hadn't received the package yet, but that the tracking info had been sent to them. Later that week I checked the tracking info and it still says that USPS had not received my package. Whatever, it seemed like a smaller company so I figured I'd give them some slack.
Over the next few weeks, I kept checking the tracking info and USPS still hadn't received the package. It is now nearly a month after I was told my order was shipped and USPS tracking shows the same info.
I did some research and can't find anyone who has received their order. Couldn't find pics of it online, no reviews. I found 1 tweet from a jpkeith who sounds like he had a similar experience: "all laughter that would be evoked by tentacle grape soda is now gone, birthdays are over, and it's been lost in the mail for a month."
Their website doesn't list any contact info, but does have a feedback page. I have left them several messages (yesterday asking how I could get a refund) and have yet to get a response back. I have the feeling that I've been scammed, as well as anyone who ordered this fun sounding, but possibly nonexistent product.
We've left some "feedback" for them via their online form asking what's up.
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Comments:
I've seen ebay scams similar to this. They send UPS or USPS information to expect the package for shipment and most people just assume that means the package is in transit. Then they just hope that appeases the consumer long enough to not file a report in time to get paypal protection or any kind of refund. Some also disappear in the time it takes you to realize it's a scam and makes ebay or paypal or whoever eat the refund costs.
Whether or not that is the case here has yet to be seen but it does look suspicious.
Darn it, how do I make a quote on this site? I really wish we had an edit button.
@hypochondriac: they still need to communicate with the individuals who gave them money back in January, though.
Just use a normal html blockquotes tag for your next quote. Example: [www.w3schools.com]
I'm in literally the exact same boat - bought as gifts for 3 friend's birthdays, said birthdays are long, long past now, received the shipping info, it's never been updated, never received a response from them, either. At this point, the name of this beverage is becoming very apropos...
Test comment...stupid reply bug.
The website's WHOIS listing is as follows, but it looks like its mostly faked.
Registrant:
Illusion Television
305 Madison ave. #449
New York, New York 10165
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. ([www.godaddy.com])
Domain Name: TENTACLEGRAPE.COM
Created on: 08-Dec-08
Expires on: 08-Dec-09
Last Updated on: 12-Dec-08
Administrative Contact:
Television, Illusion dekker@dandalimited.com
305 Madison ave. #449
New York, New York 10165
United States
(212) 123-4567 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Television, Illusion dekker@dandalimited.com
305 Madison ave. #449
New York, New York 10165
United States
(212) 123-4567 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.DREAMHOST.COM
NS2.DREAMHOST.COM
NS3.DREAMHOST.COM
A Business Week write up on this "Illusion TV"
Illusion Television LLC provides television programming services. It offers live action, anime, comedy, and reality shows on television; and news, interviews, music, science, fashion, furnishings, art and gadgets, and fiction and comics on Web. The company also provides new technology, online services, and music and movies. It offers its services to New York City, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Seattle, Houston, and Los Angeles markets. Illusion Television LLC is based in New York, New York.
A quick Search of the Secretary of State in NY yields no results of this LLC being registered with the state of NY.
That's too bad. I might actually have ordered some and kept the bottles with my beloved Jones..
Sounds like this is a breach of the mail order merchandise rule: [www.ftc.gov]
I'd say chargeback while you're still able to and file a complaint with the FTC.
Hmmm. I predict an anime-fan web site full of download-able labels you can print and stick on a bottle of Welch's grape soda and re-sell on Ebay.
That's really too bad. It's a hilariously stupid product name that I would have gladly plugged to friends.
One thing about the USPS system...packages with delivery confirmation show as "package not received" until someone scans it along the way. I've had packages stay in that status until they were delivered. Not saying that's what happened here, but it's a common problem with their tracking -- it's not the same system as UPS or FedEx.
Purple Tentacle gets his own soda, but Green Tentacle or the Evil Meteor don't? What a bunch of tuna heads!
Wow.. tentacle Grape. That's win!
@Raekwon: Actually the tracking is not really good. I have gotten things that still are "in transit" or the shipping info was received.
I DO NOT think that it is a scam. I think that the problem here is that the Tentacle Grape soda was broadcast all over the internet and preorder sales went way above what they originally expected and what their soda producer could handle in that time.
I know when we are hit hard with many unexpected orders at the business I work our shipping dates can be pushed from two weeks after order date to six weeks after order date. Its a good and bad thing to be very busy.
@ latkadog
Your Internet sleuthing is good but you needed to look deeper. At the bottom of the Grape website is © 2008 Mnemosyne LLC. Further investigation reveals that company (also with no contact info) to have 3 products (including the Grape one) but also an old video game called Rubies Of Eventide. That website is pretty much blank but their wiki page reveals their forums to still be active at http://forums.eventide.net/forums/ubbthreads.php
Of course, the registrar contact info for both the LLC and the Eventide game website is the same person (Julia Howe, different that the info you posted), but the listed phone number has been disconnected.
If you look at the registrar information for the dndlimited.com address, you'll see that's registered to;
Domain Name: DANDALIMITED.COM
Registrar: INTERCOSMOS MEDIA GROUP, INC. D/B/A DIRECTNIC.COM
Whois Server: whois.directnic.com
Referral URL: http://www.directnic.com
Name Server: NS0.EXPIREDDOMAINSERVICES.COM
Name Server: NS1.EXPIREDDOMAINSERVICES.COM
Status: redemptionPeriod
Updated Date: 04-mar-2009
Creation Date: 21-jan-2004
Expiration Date: 21-jan-2009
All in all, I believe that a bunch of people got ripped up and hopefully they used their credit card so that chargebacks apply, but ultimately if I were them, I'd get a new card issued to me.
@LiquidGravity: Right, but presumably your business follows the law in notifying customers if the delay extends beyond the statutory 30 (or 50, depending on how your stuff works) days or returning their money. Lots of businesses have delays. They don't keep the money and become impossible to contact. This is 60 days past payment for an item that nobody anywhere seems to have received. Whether they meant well initially or not, they've become shady.
Where's Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne? They need to save us from some evil soda.
@Raekwon: Also, for what it's worth, the above image of the product is probably a CG render. Looks like one, anyway.
Maybe some of this info might get you some answers. This appears to be their marketing firm.
Illusion Television
305 Madison ave. #449
New York, New York 10165
United States
646.530.8348
@Applekid: while we're on the topic of "how to Consumerist" how do i put things inside pointy things? (and what happened to my preview?)
A trust pipl.com search of the dekker e-mail address pulls up this website:
It has contact info - It's from 2006 and may be outdated.. but here's the info:
R. Dekker Dreyer
dekker@dandalimited.com
Danda Motion Pictures Ltd.
305 Madison Ave. #449
New York, NY 10165
V:(212) 465-2503
F:(212) 957-1912
Furthermore: An archive.org look at Dandalimited.com will bring up even more info.
@Gstein:
< = <
> = >
Nothing too magical, just some old notepad html stuff that will. not. leave. my. brain. alone.
@FuryOfFirestorm: IIRC, Green Tentacle likes fruit juice and wax fruit and the Evil Murderous Purple Meteor just drips.
Ew.
I ordered this in November or possible early december of 2008. They charged me 15 bucks for shipping and another 15 for the product. I came back late january to see what was up with the product. I see the that shipping was pretty much slashed in half. I sent an email through Pay pal asking for a refund of half the shipping cost or toss a bottle or two extra to make up for it I never got a reply. So on Feb 14th I got an email much like the one posted saying shipping info was sent to the post office, one month later here we are with no product and the 30 bucks still out of my bank account. This will be the first and last time I do business with these guys. Infact I'll let some people I'm associated with in the industry know about the shoddy communication as well as the smoke and mirrors of this company.
Not sure what it's worth but Illusion Television, LLC was a Florida corporation, but is currently inactive.
Viral marketing project that has expired. I'll bet they never intended to take orders for the -not- real product, then some brain-dead executive type noticed how much money was coming in.
They had meetings and told everyone "this things got legs!" and proceeded to start production based on a marketing idea from an anime cartoon based on an anime cartoon from Japan.
That's like me trying to sell Fantastic Four Pizza!
HFS! I didn't know, so I googled...I'm at home. WTF is that? Who buys this? I don't get Anime, I really don't get Anime Porn.
So confused.
Where are my Dave Chappelle quotes?
I ship packages for my company and on occasion we ship something and UPS picks it up... and then it falls in some sort of Black Hole that exists in that brown truck. The Black Hole In The Brown Truck (BH/BT) has swallowed a number of packages.
I know that at our company, we do not check the status on every single package. If a customer doesn't call and let us know their package has gone missing, we just don't know.
It seems odd that a company would go thru all the trouble and give a UPS tracking number, as it means creating a shipping label and therefore incurring a cost, just to rip people off.
The most likely reason is they're a bunch of freaking stoners.
The @latkadog:
The guy who created that artwork (the cartoon) is a long time member of fark.
I don't know if he has anything to do with this or if this is just a joke.
/his comic is not safe for work
Hi everyone, this is Dekker Dreyer. We have a HUGE number of back orders to process and last week we went so far as to stop accepting new orders while we finish the backlog. We're in the process of streamlining the system, but we've mailed most of the outstanding orders. There are still approx. 500 in the cue and I've personally started packing some of those myself using USPS priority mail to help our fulfillment team get on top of it.
Lol, Illusion Television is one of my old companies, it's a cable network on over 50 affiliates. I haven't been involved with it in well over 9 months, but if you have carriers like Fios you can see the new owners have been up to.
We're plowing through it. It's obviously a real product, people have sampled it at conventions and thousands of people have received their soda. We're closing out this backlog as quickly as possible and apologize to anyone who didn't get their soda in a timely manner.
Also, on International orders... we've received a large number of them. We can not ship them. Beyond the issue of customs, as this is a food and beverage item, the shipping cost is so far beyond what we are charging that we just can do it. We've refunded hundreds of international orders and believe that the vast majority have been dealt with, but if you have an outstanding issue please contact us and we will begin the process of tracking the order down in our system for a refund.
That's impossible, the brand launched on 12/31. Google it.
There's as Facebook group where people are communicating.. With pics of REAL product. It was all over NY Comic Con in February so its not a scam.
Tentaglegrape.com ..click NEWS. Pics of real product in very public places.
@Jakuub: When I first heard about this soda I had planned on buying some as a gift for a friend of mine, who is a hentai aficionado.
After reading this I'm glad I didn't but I am wondering if the change in purchase policy posted in the comments above now means stores like BevMo or adult bookstores would be able to sell the beverage.
Yes, there's a rumor that it'll be in delis and anime stores shortly. (Can we get some lovin' for the intl folks too?) The facebook group(s) have activity so its worth hitting up if you're looking to speak directly to the peeps in charge.
Hmmm... Dekker here... I'm a little confused as to why consumerist didn't approve my comments yet, but that you guys for posting them here. I wanted to add that Tentacle Grape was a pre-order custom bottled item. [kotaku.com] - it clearly said so on all of our materials. We didn't even get a single bottle of soda until around the 20th of January. At that point we needed to plow through these orders, which were more than we had ever anticipated. We had another slight hold-up for weather in the North East and waiting for more soda to be bottled, so it's been a difficult learning curve. I'm not sure why it's so difficult to find the Mnemosyne contact information. It's been clearly posted on my personal website for some time and I believe it's listed in several others places, since we have been getting phone calls.
Wow, that's my letter! I see now that Tentacle Grape's website has a big post about them having a major backlog they're working through. Would have been nice to have gotten an email saying shipping/order fulfillment, whatever, was running behind schedule
From the websites Whois info:
Administrative Contact:
LLC, Mnemosyne info@tentaclegrape.com
PO Box 4668 #23260
New York, New York 10163
United States
2017937763 Fax --
I too have not received my shipment. I emailed the address listed on the paypal receipt with my information, and was promptly contacted by one Julia Howe.
She informed me that half of my order couldn't be sent, and that I should do a Request Money via Paypal to get that part of my money back. The other half of the order has shipped, and the confirmation number shows activity.
The address I have been using with Julia Howe is dev.cyr3n@gmail.com, so if you have any outstanding orders, shoot her an email and she'll be able to help you.
If you actually receive your item...it will prob be broken or all leaked out.
There was no "fragile" sticker or stamp on the outside...and the box has no padding...just six bottles of the soda. No newspaper or bubble anything.
I had two good bottles out of six. I ordered 2 six packs but they only shipped one 6 pack.
I think we need to all get together and file a class action law suit...what do you guys think?
Where can we get all the ripped off customers together?
Looks like they updated there buy page. This is what shows up now [quote]Tentacle Grape is currently ONLY accepting Wholesale orders for events, parties, or retail. Please inquire with wholesale AT tentaclegrape.com for information.
We're putting all new orders on hold while we complete shipping on any outstanding orders. This is what happens when your product gets farked. Your fulfillment pipeline can hit some snags. Sorry for the inconvenience, we'll be back to regulat sales soon. [/quote]