What happened to the back up figures in case of a delay of the monthly figure?

[CicconeSC]

TG and Mattel have always stated that there would be back up figures to take the place of a monthly slot if for some reason that monthly figure was delayed due to shipping or some other situation.

Why are we not seeing this plan take effect for December?

At least they should send out product that is available and perhaps place Sorceress for December instead.

Obviously this back up plan must have disappeared or was never in place, because there will be no product for subscribers in December.

TG where did this plan go? Why are we not having another figure slotted in place of the monthly figure, obviously a problem has arose and the plan you said you always had should have been implemented.

[Ealo]

if i remember correctly, the back up plan were the variants; so it would have been BGEL? maybe it is because it is at the end of the year and if they were to just bump demo-man, then they can't just bump him in to next month's sub order as that is a new sub; meaning they'd have to swallow the postage costs as people aren't going to accept paying twice for a split order. this is just a guess though.

[Sabretooth]

I think this is not how the backup figures work. Mattel can plan a backup figure in case they know beforehand that certain montly slot will slip so they can plan for it and do something about it (this was the case with Faceless One). But in this case it happened apparently unexpected and at the last moment. In order to handle a situation like this they would need to have Sorceress (Jan figure) ready in warehouse already in December - this doeas not give finacial sense because they need to pay DigitalRiver for every day they have someting in store from Mattel. It would cost them lot of money to make sure to avoid situations like this.
I do not blame them.

[MOTU_Maniac]

One word will come out of TG's mouth: LOGISTICS

[Whiplash7]

You'll get your December product, just a few weeks later. It sucks, but it's not been cancelled or pushed back by a month. The back up figures were in case a figure slipped entirely, pushing everything back a month. That happened in 2009, and Faker was used.
I don't know why anyone would think they could just bump January's figure into December. If I had signed up for a 2012 sub, I'd be pretty ****** off if one of the characters I signed up to get, one of the biggest names in the franchise, was bumped backwards into a sub I don't have and replaced with Demo-Man.

[CicconeSC]

Well like I said we are charged per weight, so if they shipped BGEL now, Demo-man was already paid for to be shipped. There is no reason they can't be shipped separate.

[Angel-T]

BG Evil-Lyn will still be available for the day of sale, and as long as you don't order her with Demo-Man you should still be able to get her in time for xmas.

[CicconeSC]

Very true Angel, but for those of us who are subscribers...we already have her ordered. For instance I have two subs, therefore I could buy a third if I wanted her before x-mas, but I shouldn't have to...the weight of both figures has been declared on our invoice for December, so BGEL can ship now and Demo-Man shipped when he arrives without having an additional shipping charge for Demo-Man.

[Angel-T]

I'm a sub holder as well and I totally get where you are comming from. All I can say is thank goodness they moved the Star Sisters to feburary, January would have been so expensive with the Sorceress, Photog, The Star Sisters, Demo-Man and BG Evil-Lyn. You will also have the Wind Raider to look foward to this month,

[byinfernoslight]

January would have been so expensive with the Sorceress, Photog, The Star Sisters, Demo-Man and BG Evil-Lyn.

I - and others - have already been charged for Demo-Man & Evil-Lyn.

[DJ Force]

You can always buy some Wind Raiders and still have MOTUC goodnees under the tree for christmas

If you´re American or an international fan ordering via UPS, that is. In any other case - no new MOTUC for christmas.

[scott metzger]

A possible reason I posted on another thread:

http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...=218528&page=9

[vertigoink]

That's not how shipping logistics work. You can weigh as many items as you like but until they are actually in hand part and parcel to be shipped you haven't fulfilled the contractual agreement for a specific amount of goods for the customer. A company then has two options:

1. They delay ALL of the items that would ship with the item that is delayed and send them in the usual all in one order.

or

2. They send BGEL (and for ECTO subs Vigo) together and then eat the cost of shipping and freight charges on Demo-Man.


Which of the above scenarios do you think Mattel will go for?

Well like I said we are charged per weight, so if they shipped BGEL now, Demo-man was already paid for to be shipped. There is no reason they can't be shipped separate.

[DO4M]

That's not how shipping logistics work. You can weigh as many items as you like but until they are actually in hand part and parcel to be shipped you haven't fulfilled the contractual agreement for a specific amount of goods for the customer. A company then has two options:

1. They delay ALL of the items that would ship with the item that is delayed and send them in the usual all in one order.

or

2. They send BGEL (and for ECTO subs Vigo) together and then eat the cost of shipping and freight charges on Demo-Man.


Which of the above scenarios do you think Mattel will go for?

I guess the one that is logistically cheaper for them...
Now here's the big question:
Which is more expensive, Keeping the items on a warehouse for X amount of extra time, or shipping the non- Demo-Man stuff separately and when he comes shipping Demo-Man (With Mattel taking a hit on D-M's shipping costs due to their mess up.)

[Fearless_Photog]

If I had to venture a guess, I think the newer "all in" subscription model killed the original goal of using the quarterly figures as a safety net.

Under the old model, you were guaranteed only the basic twelve figures, so if a bonus figure was used in place of a figure that was late there's no harm as Mattel is not obligated to put out a bonus figure each quarter.

Under the new model, we ARE promised the four quarterly figures, so moving one of the bonus figures to the main slot doesn't actually fix the problem as they still would owe us a figure. Couple that with the fact that it's the end of the year, and there really is no way for them to slide another figure forward without breaking their promise to holders of the 2012 sub.

[Shadowcat]

I guess the one that is logistically cheaper for them...
Now here's the big question:
Which is more expensive, Keeping the items on a warehouse for X amount of extra time, or shipping the non- Demo-Man stuff separately and when he comes shipping Demo-Man (With Mattel taking a hit on D-M's shipping costs due to their mess up.)

They already pay for the warehouse space, as that's where they stock their extra customer service supply, the other brands that haven't sold out, etc. So, chances are, the space is paid for and wont cost them more to keep boxes there for another week or two. Regardless on if they rent or own the space, they can't guarantee how long they'll need a certain amount of space for. They have to look at worst case scenario, and worst case scenario is that they wont sell ANY product in a given month. Therefore, they have to pay for the space they'll need in a worst case scenario.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

TG and Mattel have always stated that there would be back up figures to take the place of a monthly slot if for some reason that monthly figure was delayed due to shipping or some other situation.

Why are we not seeing this plan take effect for December?

At least they should send out product that is available and perhaps place Sorceress for December instead.

Obviously this back up plan must have disappeared or was never in place, because there will be no product for subscribers in December.

TG where did this plan go? Why are we not having another figure slotted in place of the monthly figure, obviously a problem has arose and the plan you said you always had should have been implemented.

This plan hasn't really been talked about for some time, though as I recall, back when the bonus variant figures were not included in the sub, part of the "logic" behind that was if a regular monthly figure ever gets delayed, one of the quarterly variants would take it's place (or the next month's figure would be bumped up with a variant filling in that space or some other space down the line to get everything back on track).


Things are slightly different now that the bonus items are included in the sub. In theory, if something like this were to happen with the main monthly figure in the middle of the year, they could just simply sell us the bonus figure/oversized item and just ship out the delayed figure the following month with the following month's figure (thus not delaying the available items). Or, if they following month's figure were ready to go for some reason (despite the current month's figure being delayed), they could bump that one up a month and then sell the delayed figure the following month.


The big problem right now is that this is happening with the December figure. This is the absolute tail-end of the 2011 subscription.

Swapping around Demo-Man with the Sorceress (assuming that she is even ready to go) would cause it's own huge set of contraversy.

Sure, the people who have subscribed to both the 2011 and 2012 subs won't really be effected by this. But anyone who is only subscribed to one or the other will not be getting the figure that they were promised as part of the sub.

I could easily see how someone subscribing for the first time in 2012 (and who subscribed based largely on the initially announced figures for 2012) would get upset if they were no longer guaranteed a Sorceress figure and instead were getting an obscure concept character like Demo-Man (a character that some of those who aren't subscribed for 2011 just might skip if they don't care for him). That wouldn't go over to well.

And while Demo-Man doesn't have as large of a following, it is possible that some people who subscribed for 2011 but not 2012 might be looking forward to Demo-Man more than the Sorcerss, and would be disapointed about the switch. Granted, there would perhaps be some 2011 subscribers who would be happy about the switch, but the point is that a lot of arguing would ensue over the different opinions being expressed, etc.


So, as much as the delay sucks, it is the simplest solution to the problem. Everyone who subscribed still gets what they were promised, just a little bit late.

[iron_pride]

If I had to venture a guess, I think the newer "all in" subscription model killed the original goal of using the quarterly figures as a safety net.

Under the old model, you were guaranteed only the basic twelve figures, so if a bonus figure was used in place of a figure that was late there's no harm as Mattel is not obligated to put out a bonus figure each quarter.

Under the new model, we ARE promised the four quarterly figures, so moving one of the bonus figures to the main slot doesn't actually fix the problem as they still would owe us a figure. Couple that with the fact that it's the end of the year, and there really is no way for them to slide another figure forward without breaking their promise to holders of the 2012 sub.

I agree completely. Also, logistics...will logistics ever swing in our favor? I hope someday logistics will be friend not foe.

[scott metzger]

They already pay for the warehouse space, as that's where they stock their extra customer service supply, the other brands that haven't sold out, etc. So, chances are, the space is paid for and wont cost them more to keep boxes there for another week or two. Regardless on if they rent or own the space, they can't guarantee how long they'll need a certain amount of space for. They have to look at worst case scenario, and worst case scenario is that they wont sell ANY product in a given month. Therefore, they have to pay for the space they'll need in a worst case scenario.

But that contradicts what Mattel has said about the need for quick sell-outs; they've cited costs for DR keeping and storing the stock as part of the need for getting everything out the door as soon as possible.

Something screwy here...

[Mern-Ra]

BG Evil-Lyn IS the back up figure. But instead of giving us a figure on the 15th AS PROMISED, they're choosing to save themselves money and "ship both subscription figures together as promised".

[Shadowcat]

But that contradicts what Mattel has said about the need for quick sell-outs; they've cited costs for DR keeping and storing the stock as part of the need for getting everything out the door as soon as possible.

Something screwy here...

Well, I can't think of a warehouse that allows you to only store product for 2 or 3 days. I think Matty is BSing when they say that OR exagerrating. They have to store products somewhere, such as the ones I listed above. That's why when they have sales like they did on Black Friday, the product still ships from the Ontario, CA warehouse.

[CicconeSC]

That's not how shipping logistics work. You can weigh as many items as you like but until they are actually in hand part and parcel to be shipped you haven't fulfilled the contractual agreement for a specific amount of goods for the customer. A company then has two options:

1. They delay ALL of the items that would ship with the item that is delayed and send them in the usual all in one order.

or

2. They send BGEL (and for ECTO subs Vigo) together and then eat the cost of shipping and freight charges on Demo-Man.


Which of the above scenarios do you think Mattel will go for?

Obviously option 1, but Mattel could save face and keep some loyal fans from starting to question how many subs they will buy for 2013 if Mattel (who is a major toy company with billions of revenue) would eat the cost and pick option 2.

It would be a smarter choice for Mattel to do option 2, customer service is what keeps your consumers happy. You can have a great product but if your customer service is terrible, eventually the consumer gets fed up and leaves your company and tries another instead (in this case change what line they are collecting).

So, as much as the delay sucks, it is the simplest solution to the problem. Everyone who subscribed still gets what they were promised, just a little bit late.

Actually the best solution is for Mattel to provide the best customer service, thus allowing our products to be shipped now and Mattel taking the loss for shipping of Demo-man in 2012.

[vertigoink]

This man gets it ladies and gentlemen!

Obviously option 1, but Mattel could save face and keep some loyal fans from starting to question how many subs they will buy for 2013 if Mattel (who is a major toy company with billions of revenue) would eat the cost and pick option 2.

It would be a smarter choice for Mattel to do option 2, customer service is what keeps your consumers happy. You can have a great product but if your customer service is terrible, eventually the consumer gets fed up and leaves your company and tries another instead (in this case change what line they are collecting).



Actually the best solution is for Mattel to provide the best customer service, thus allowing our products to be shipped now and Mattel taking the loss for shipping of Demo-man in 2012.