I am processing those as fast as possible. Some from this fiasco have managed to get refunds that they should NOT have received until after the supplier takes action. Them having done that has seriously effected my ability to process some of the refunds that should and will be made.
That sounds like a thinly veiled threat not to get the credit card companies and PayPal involved. By your own admission, you got in over your head ("I am working diligently to get both resolved but, unfortunately, the scope of each of these messes is just overwhelming and together pretty unmanageable" post 780) which means YOU can no longer take care of the issue in a timely manner. Telling people not to get their credit card company involved after this amount of time is like committing a crime and telling the victim not to call the police, it's only for YOUR benefit, not the customers. You are trying to cover your ass, and so are your customers. I get that, and I'm not blaming you for the situation happening in the first place, but I truly believe you are TRYING YOUR BEST to do the right thing, even if it's not coming across that way to the people involved (or just spectating).
When you disappear and dodge personal messages for long periods of time what do you expect other people to do? If I ordered something from Amazon that was broken, and tried to contact them for over a week to no avail, I would probably just file a charge back and not think too much about it, it's not a personal fu*k you to Amazon, it's just one of the easier options of recourse.
I think everyone in here is an adult and very capable of standing up for themselves. You posting some things in here is going to have zero effect on the final resolution. Maybe less than zero, if that is possible. So in the end, you are not standing up for anyone. You are just stirring the pot.
It seems like people are pussyfooting around you so they don't piss you off and not get a refund. You've mentioned a couple times, in ways similar to the post above, not to get anybody else but you involved, or they might not get refunds.
I'd be interested to know what your business insurance situation is. If the Chinese supplier decides not to do anything, what happens then? You seem like a genuinely intelligent, and good, person, I assume you wouldn't be doing something like this without some sort of insurance, or fall-back plan to cover yourself in the event something happened that was out of your control. I apologize in advance if this paragraph (or any of it) sounded sharp, it's not intended to be, but I really feel that some of this needs to be said.
I have a small business that operates locally, as well as ships stuff around the country, so I really do feel for you, Mike, and for the customers; I've been on both sides of this one. Something like this would sink my company, undoubtedly. However, I carry product liability insurance, which I imagine would take care of this without too many issues. That might be something to consider if you're going to continue doing large "group buys".
Feel free to respond to this, but I would prefer if you put that energy into a solution instead.