Originally Posted by Dual_Hares
I won't be cancelling this year in hopes they fix shipping rates but if they don't fix them I won't be subbing for next year.
I live pretty close to the border so I'm going to try picking up my packages across the line. I've resisted doing it so far because I hate changing addresses, credit cards, etc. with Matty. I'll probably do the rest of the year but after that I think I'm out.
Yes, I'm cancelling as well, as of April's shipment once I get Mallah and the Brain. Was going to cancel this month but had a change of heart because I'd be losing money on the Mallah figure that I had to pre-pay for and I figured I lost enough money over this. One of my friends is also cancelling his 6 subscriptions (1 Watchmen, 1 DC, 4 MOTUC) after April. Also, a guy I know with an LCS is cancelling 10 Filmation Subs because he saw all the complaints on the Matty boards about shipping. He already charged $30 to $35 on his stuff which I thought was fair compared to most prices I've seen but going by that math, he was barely making on average 5 bucks on each of those figures. To make the same 5 bucks, he'd now need to raise his prices to $50 to $55 depending on the figure and how badly he gets dinged on duties.
I'm leaning towards cancelling myself. I also hate the thought of it but as a consumer my only voice is my wallet. It's sad but they just aren't getting the message.
On Twitter @DualHares
Honestly, it's just blatant disrespect by TG and Mattel as a whole. I know we all appreciate the line cause we support it but in the end spending upwards of $40-45 for one guy this year in comparison to the $26 last year is just insane. There is no way with the amount they ship that they can't give us better rates then we are getting.
http://forums.mattycollector.com/eve...7/m/5001010218
I just saw this. I just don't get it. It sure must cost them a lot for labor if they need to charge us this much for shipping and handling. If this line was produced by a smaller company I would actually buy those comments but Mattel is massive and can easily work out better deals then we are being offered.
Last edited by cax16; March 21, 2013 at 09:25pm.
I do believe him that it costs what it costs to produce the figure and indeed, even with the cost increase, the figure itself is well worth the figure cost in my opinion. I also believe him that his hands are tied as far as shipping rates go this year because I believe in all honesty that they relinquished their control of shipping rates the moment they signed off the responsiblities of everything short of TG's appearances from time to time and the actual production of the toy. They didn't want to do it, they didn't want to do the footwork to hire someone to package and ship it. Here's this promising looking company called Digital River who offers to package and ship everything, even internationally and most importantly, they're cost effective for Matty. I wonder why... because once you've signed with them, they get to decide what your shipping rates are. They decide how they'll treat your clients over the phone. They'll update the website with whatever half-hearted graphic when they feel like it (although the web updates have had somewhat of an improvement made both visually and timeliness in recent time)...
That does not make very good sense, and especially for a business man. To only charge $30.00 or $35.00 on an item that costs $25.00 plus shipping??? Also, duty is not a factor and any tax he pays he gets back as an input tax credit at the end of the year. The filmation sub promises to be one of the lowest runs (per figure) so as a business opportunity to make some $$$ it is almost a guaranteed investment.
I am in a very good spot compared to a lot of Canadians. I only have a 15 minute drive across the border and have all my stuff shipped to the UPS store in NY state. Shipping is very reasonable and rarely do I get stung with HST when I bring them back. If I have to pay what you guys do on a monthly basis I would have dropped the line a long time ago.
The latest furor comes as the flaw in DR's armor was just shown with the big map shipping fiasco. No longer can they say that it is based on weight and destination. We all know now that it is a tiered scale based on number of pieces. I wouldn't expect any movement on the shipping front until closer to the end of the sub drive. I seriously think the 2014 year is in a lot of trouble and it is due to shipping costs. When the international fanbase falls by the wayside, maybe then we will get some action. Until then, there is zero reason for them to do anything, they already have people signed up.
Dude, do you know how many store owners charge $40 at the LCS and up and people used to complain? Also, what are you talking about? Subscriber rates in the past for MOTUC have been as low as $20 a figure and considering it used to cost $8 to $15 to ship 3 to 8 figures and the odd duty fees, I think that made perfect sense. How are the Filmation figures a guaranteed $$$ investment? A lot of people haven't even heard of Icer, Batros and Shokoti and since we're paying $40 to $45 PLUS brokerage fees as it is, how many of these do you think he's going to sell for $70? Being a business owner myself for many years, I know this: Sure he could write the interest off on his credit card, but in most cases, you never incur a loss for the sake of a write-off if you don't have a tax reason to do so.
It's not like these are Strobos that he can get some poor soul to shell out 150 clams for on eBay. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the designs and at least to me, they're essential to a collection, but I'm pretty sure that they're going to fall to the sidelines like the 30th Anniversary set. I don't see how it makes sense to challenge me on the issue of a LCS in my city when we're pretty much all fuming over something that you don't even suffer from as you already stated, you drive 15 minutes to get your stuff from UPS. You're not getting dinged. We are. We're angry and after getting poked by fak-or and the rest of the unsympathetic sods who have nothing better to do than to visit the Matty threads regarding international shipping and telling us why Matty reserves a legal right to rip us off, even what you just said is enough to set me off at this point so I'm sorry if I come across as aggressive but you really didn't pick a good time for that. I mean, really, what did it have to do with anything?
Yes, it's clear that Digital River charges for the most expensive to ship item on the cart as the base rate, then they each have a combined cost that removes around a couple of dollars per item added. I imagine the database is something like:
Name of Item: MOTUC Figure Base Ship Cost: $14 Combined Ship Cost: $11
Nothing is weighed.
I DON'T buy that this Map shipping issue was an error. I believe that Digital River tried to squeeze a few extra coins off of us and even Matty knew where they had to draw the line this time. Unfortunately, I was still dinged $3 to ship the damned map. Better than what we were charged before but that's not the point. It's also better to be shot in the leg than shot in the head, but both are unpleasant.
***UPDATED***
I just spoke to my buddy over the phone, he doesn't have 6 subs, he actually has 8. According to him, he was sucked in when they threatened the subs would end this year and bought some extra DC CIE subs to support the line. He paid $98 to ship the lot. Ouch.
Last edited by tHeMan; March 21, 2013 at 11:56pm.
Well if they did that then they deserve whatever is coming to them.
Anger aside, it will certainly be interesting come sub time this year. I'm genuinely curious how bad their numbers will drop, or if they'll remain strong because of brand loyalty and we'll all just be stuck holding the proverbial bag.
Either way, as there aren't many months this year with single figures shipping, I will likely stick it out for the rest of the year simply because of the Filmation sub. I'm with the crowd that thinks those figures will be stupid expensive on the after market because they won't be around day-of. You needn't look further than Fang Man to see that. If I didn't have the Filmation sub, I would likely cancel my remainder of the year including my Watchmen sub because IMO those figures are over priced. The jury is still out on 2014 but I highly suspect I'll be passing on the sub if the prices don't change. And then when TG comes crying about sub numbers, I will shake my head in disgust.
The tricky part is it's almost infuriating either way: if they change the prices next year to be more reasonable, it'll be frustrating as they could've easily done that earlier this year instead of ripping us off. However, if they don't, it'll be frustrating because we know their prices are a load of garbage and they're shooting themselves in the foot with their idiocy. It sucks.
Why would you take this as a personal attack? The filmation sub is guaranteed investment!! With low numbers and the secondary market on fire right now there is zero way they could lose money. And yes, I know they WERE $20.00 but you were talking Filmation sub. The numbers will work even for a Canadian business to re-sell them. People just don't want to deal with Matty or DR so they are going more and more to secondary sources.
Dude...I have zero clue why toys would make anyone as upset as you are. Seriously?! If they are that much of a stressor in your life why do it.
No, you said that a business man charging $30 to $35 for a figure that cost $25 plus shipping didn't make sense for a business man. I corrected you and said that he charged those prices on figures that cost $20 and the shipping was quite reasonable at the time. He's pulling out of the Filmation subs (his choice) because he simply doesn't think he'll be able to charge enough for them that people would be willing to pay to make it worthwhile for him to hang onto them because lets face it, not everyone is going to want them. To me, that makes sense. I'm a die-hard collector and I own every single figure in the MOTUC line thus far as well as all the weapon paks, the Wind Raider, 4 Shadow Beasts, Granamyr, all 3 giants, the 30th Anniversary line, etc. I own every single DCUC figure including all the crap they had in the Superheroes pre-DCUC line, Batmite, Giganta, Grundy, Cassandra Cain, Azrael, Batman Beyond, Gentleman Ghost, the S3 Catwoman, Two-Face, the light blue Superman variant. All I'm missing is the nude Cheetah variant. If the prices reach $60 for the Filmation figures, I simply wouldn't buy them. I'm confident that their scare mongering was enough to get the online toy stores to sub in for a few extras and the vast majority of buyers will not be having to shell out big coin for those guys. They're not Shadow Weaver. Dude is still stuck with all his 30th crap. He has the same 6 Photogs everytime I show up in his store. That's just sad. I'm not taking it as a personal attack. That's why I apologized as I knew I was already annoyed with the shipping situation and the heckling on the Matty boards. You know how when you had a really bad day and then you're talking to a friend about something that you thought was important and he corrects you on an extraneous detail like "Oh it didn't happen at 4:30, it happened at 4:32." and it was just enough to annoy you?
Toys don't make me upset. Getting ripped off on shipping and then having my intelligence insulted by those prescripted responses that Matty provides and then having our 9 page thread deleted. That's all very real to me. Granted that's not all that's going wrong in my life at the moment, but it's the thing at the moment, if that makes sense. Because it involves toys, does that take away any more validity to my emotional response? What if it was hard drives and it was an IT forum and I was angry at Seagate for ripping me off on the shipping and then I posted it on their customer service forum and others who weren't experiencing the annoyance that I was going through decided to exacerbate the situation. Then I discuss the situation with a friend and bring up how other business owners are also getting ripped off on their shipping and he can see that I am clearly frustrated by this but decides to recount some unrelated detail that I used to add flavour to my story such as how he didn't understand why Jimmy uses a standard HDD instead of a solid state drive and how he doesn't understand how an IT professional would still be using such a crappy drive on a performance machine. Maybe you wouldn't find that irritating, but at that time when I read what you said, I found it extremely irritating. You have no idea, sometimes it takes every ounce of effort in me NOT to blow up on the Matty forums when I get those half baked responses that TG gives and come on, I've seen you lose your temper on there on more than one occasion over a disagreement directly related to the toys themselves. As I said before, I'm sorry if I came across as aggressive but this situation is really annoying for me. I'd like to extend an olive branch if you'll take it and just accept that I'm not mad at you, I'm not mad at the toys, they're great toys, I'm mad at getting ripped off.
2014 is now the "All Star Year"....damn...
Now nobody attack me but...I think Matty is getting their shipping "deal" from DR...so when TG says "that is what it costs" I actually think he is telling the truth...that is what DR is charging them to ship the items....AND YES...it is too high....but I think they made the deal...and not a good deal....and they are stuck with it until a window opens...whatever and whenever that is...
I am sitting in front of my display...and I hate the extra money this collection is costing us...but damn there are some REALLY important holes to fill...I can't believe we may not get them filled...Multi Bot / Scorpia / Ninjor / Rio Blast / Scorpia / Two Badd / Horde Trooper...
Really going to have to think hard about a sub next year...$$$ or the ALL STAR YEAR....
Unfortunately I don't think anything we do is going to change anything...I think TG knows there is an issue...but there is no fix...
THANK YOU MATTEL + TOYGURU + FOUR HORSEMEN!
I LOVED THE ORIGINAL MOTU FIGURES, AND THESE NEW MOTUC ARE TRULY AMAZING!!!
MY Feedback Thread : http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...d.php?t=191572
Yes, exactly. That's precisely what I think has happened. Digital River is Matty's cheapest option. This I can believe. TG isn't saying that they're our cheapest option, he said they're Matty's cheapest option. They charge Matty peanuts, in exchange, they get to charge us whatever they want to make their money. When the company you're with treats your customers like scum but they only bill you out at 5 bucks an hour or charge a flat rate each month for unlimited services which may work out to pennies on the dollar which works out to hundreds made per hour in shipping overages for that company, where as a company that charged real shipping rates would bill you the labour hit directly at say 50 to 100 bucks an hour, the 5 bucks an hour sounds pretty good. Unfortunately, we get to suffer and line the pockets of their third party service provider.
I'm gonna stick it out with this sub, just need to sacrifice other toyline in the meantime I think.
It's funny how expensive collecting this line has become. I only started MOTU last year, and was able to backtrack most of the figure at less than cost. The most expensive I paid for was for an SDCC Grayskull ($102), Shadow Weaver ($60) and Wundar ($50). Now one figure cost $40!
Before MOTU, the one line I tried to complete was DCUC and DCSH, and again, the 2 most expensive figures I got was Batman, Catwoman and Mr. Freeze, yet back then it was like spending $120-160 every 4 months for one wave of figures. These days Im spending like $80-100 a month! Times have change.
BleedingCool ran the article about it!
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/22/shipping/
Very cool.
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I just went and bought a Pre-paid VISA card with $15 on it--switched my subscription to it... so that when they try and bill me for Snake Face, it'll fail and cancel itself.
That's a very good idea. Thanks! lol
- - - Updated - - -
That's awesome! I really hope we see some changes soon. Shipping might be the downfall of this line
Excellent. I hope someone posted that on Matty. I'm heading to bed but I'll check tomorrow and do it myself if it hasn't been done yet.
Hey guys,
anybody else tried this site:
http://www.shipito.com
saw it on the bleedingcool message boards, might be cheaper for us in long run....but I have no idea if their service is good or not....
What about reporting Matty/DR to the Better Business Bureau? Maybe that'll force them to get their act together.
My name is Pan . . . and I am the Man.
I don't know if they would do anything with regards to shipping, they would probably just tell us to stop ordering from them cause they shipping rates are out of whack.
The BBB doesn't do much to help.
I hope they get this shipping cost thing sorted out soon. I know shipping costs keep going up in the US, but DR shipping costs? Blargh. DOES NOT COMPUTE!
I'm concerned that DR s/h costs might do more to jeopardize the 2014 sub sales than anything else.
The BBB is more like a mediator between 2 reasonable parties, but they don't actually enforce anything. I wish they did, but they are just their to try to help. I have filed several BBB claims against businesses throughout the years, but rarely ever got anywhere.
MOST WANTED: Two-Bad, Ice Armor He-Man, Hydron, Flogg, Horde Trooper,
NA Skeletor, Ninjor, Sagitar, Master Sebrian, and Rio Blast
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