Customer Service/Digital River issues

[Larry Waters]

How about this?

-DR cancelled my sub back in March because THEY screwed up the withdrawal (over $2000 in the checking account at the time).
-When DR reinstated it, they were "unable" to give me the UPS shipping that I initially had.
-I asked why, "I don't know."
-I've been putting up with Newgistics incompetence since then.

The other really cool thing is how my sub has NEVER shipped any sooner than the day after sale day.

Let me guess..."We're taking steps to correct this.", right?

How about correct it now?

[zodak74]

I would like to second that last complaint:

My subscription was canceled back in February due to a mix-up on DR's part, and when I had it reinstated I too was switched from UPS shipping to USPS via Newgistics... and when I requested to have it switched to the more reliable and faster UPS shipping, they told me they were unable to do so. So for the duration of 2011 I have had to deal with substandard shipping each month when I originally opted for UPS when I first signed up in summer 2010. This error should have been fixed for all subscribers without subscribers having to follow up with DR about it.

[slackrguy]

The Mattycollector online shopping experience has....

Craptastic shipping times, by that I mean my product not shipping/leaving the distribution center until 3-5 business days after my initial online purchase.

[jastiles]

Sub orders should be processed according to shipping speed. People who pay extra for fast shipping should have their orders shipped first, otherwise what's the point?

I pay $20 for 2nd day air because UPS Ground takes forever to get to me, but my sub figures haven't even shipped yet and people in CA have already gotten theirs?

[ash]

One other thing... customer service should have access to our accounts through some sort of internal system. They should not ask me for my password.

[SmittyCent]

- Allow sale day figures to ship out with subs. This is the reason I did not purchase one.
- Online trouble ticket system. Allows you to submit your issue online while issuing you a claim number. You can then check your claim status through given number eliminating many phone calls.

[okydoky]

Adding to my list:
-DR's fiasco with the All-Star sale post SDCC. This shows that DR is truly uncapable of handling large quantity of orders.

[Uncle Montork]

One other thing... customer service should have access to our accounts through some sort of internal system. They should not ask me for my password.

THIS! They asked me for my password too. They have NO BUSINESS needing it! No other company asks for your password to fix something on their end!

[Bravestar]

DR tells us things that are patently untrue, such as "You're figures have shipped, or You won't be charged or etc..." You call back the next day or later on and they have no idea what you are talking about.

HOURS, yes, HOURS of waiting time trying to get someone to talk to.

No matter who you talk to, no one seems to have any answers or know what is going on. Including Supervisors.

Shipping delays can be ridiculous for many of us.

DR only uses "Catch all Answers" such as Be Patient, or We will look into it, or just flat out LYING to you and tell you your problem is fixed when it clearly is not and they just want to get you off the phone.

Many of us no longer use subscriptions because of the continuous mixup with Digital River and their customer service and shipping problems.

[Barbecue17]

- Customer service offers poor solutions to problems: When I initially contacted DR about being mischarged for Man-E-Faces and Megator what was "Fred's" response? "Sir, I am going to cancel your order for the Club Eternia 2011 subscription, then you can go back and place the correct order again." Does that sound like a legitimate solution? It wasn't even worth trying to solve the problem over the phone because the CS rep did not speak English very well.

- Changing cards/ choosing a default card is ridiculous. I set my new credit card to serve as my default card for the sub, but DR kept charging my older debit card. I couldn't remove the debit card and eventually had to just edit the debit card to have the same numbers and expiration date as the debit card.

-Shipping orders together should not be an issue. No other online retailer I have ever dealt with has had problems with this. There is no reason that I should be willing to commit to a $500 + subscription and still get nickeled and dimed on shipping for extra items that aren't included in my "all-in" sub.

[chaosMonkeyPoo]

I've had problems getting replacements for defective (or in one case a missing) figures.
Usually within the 3 or 4 days I'll get a response to the email I send notifying them of the issue, but its along the lines of "This is being reviewed by our escalation team. Please allow 24-72 hours for a response from our escalation team." but then I never hear anything back. I'll email them again asking whats the status of the issue and I'll get the same response saying I'll hear from the escalation team within 2 or 3 days. And the process goes on for a while.


The first 2 times I've had this issue they do eventually hook me up with a replacement (those times with a figure I never received, and then with a Panthor that was assembled incorrectly). I'm still going through this with the issue of a damaged Swamp Thing figure from the SDCC sale a month ago.

I've also had the wrong credit card charged issue as well. For some reason a once or twice I've had an old credit card charged even though the card on my account is a new one (and the card they charged hadn't been used on Matty in nearly a year the last time it happened).

[thehorde]

-The people at the GO-MATTY customer service number need to know the product, they don't!!!.
-They need to understand the language better, much gets lost in translation.
-Be trained to FIX problems not say "we'll get back to you in 3 days", then just send a cut and paste form letter that has NOTHING to do with the complaint/issue.
-The customer service people blame the customer for the problem!!!! big no-no!!!
-Customer service needs to understand what the subscription is AND how they work!

[Keldorwasframed]

I tried changing my payment method for my sub and, while it showed I had a new default card, it still charged my previous card. Also, this was in march, so it wasn't the pre-authorized payment from when I first got the sub.

[Firefly]

They need to dump the over seas GO-MATTY call center and open up a bigger one in the states. The customer service is pretty worthless via overseas and via e-mail.

The website also needs to get this WSOD taken care of.

[CaptainMendoc]

1. More options for shipping. As an international customer it would suit me best if each item was shipped separately, but charged at the same time. I have to pay import duties on packages worth $25 or more into the UK but not on less, which rewards me for 'cherry-picking' individual figures than have sub orders sent as one. Also, My credit card is charged $1.50 for each individual overseas transaction I make so I would appreciate it if I could be charged at the same time for separately shipped items.
2. Remove the credit card charge and refund and charge again system for the first subs figure each year. As explained in (1.), I am repeatedly charged a $1.50 fee for each individual overseas transaction.
3. Options to pay with Paypal. This would eliminate the $1.50 transaction fee in (1.)
4. Different and better captcha software. I usually cannot decipher the security words to the captcha's satisfaction.

[batman1180]

I've had problems getting replacements for defective (or in one case a missing) figures.
Usually within the 3 or 4 days I'll get a response to the email I send notifying them of the issue, but its along the lines of "This is being reviewed by our escalation team. Please allow 24-72 hours for a response from our escalation team." but then I never hear anything back. I'll email them again asking whats the status of the issue and I'll get the same response saying I'll hear from the escalation team within 2 or 3 days. And the process goes on for a while.

This. The couple of times I have had to call for a replacement I have experienced the exact same issue. I finally gave up trying to get a replacement Man-E-Faces because it was such a headache.

[lizardman]

hi scott, thanks for open this thread, my problem is that every month i haven´t receive my mails of confirmation or delivery. i receive the figures but not the mails. and second....what happend with the order history??? is gone?? there´s no match up with my purchases.

thanks scott you doing a great job.

[Seamatty]

*Shipping prices are way too high for the length of time that the items take to arrive.
*According to the website, one of the "perks" of having a sub is that your items will ship around 2 days prior to the sale date. Mine have never shipped until after the sale date.

Other than that, I've only had to contact Matty's number twice, once the system gliched and i ordered Buzz-off 7 times, they immediately cancelled all of the ones i didn't want. the other was a had a bad figure and they shipped a new one out right away at no extra charge so i don't have the hate that everyone else has for their customer service.

Thank you Scott for being approachable and doing what you can to address issues that come up with the line. great job.

[Kowl]

#1 Hire a company that keeps customer service in the United States. In this failing US economy, we need those types of jobs back home.

#2 Hire (or delegate) an actual Mattel employee to work full time to address these your online communications/issues. One well-trained, diligent US employee can do the work of 10 DR India call centers employees. Therefore, outsourced labor is not cheaper in the long run (1 US salary vs 10 India salaries).

Sorry if anyone thinks this is racist... it's not... it's just nationalism.

[Jor-El]

ORDERING:
- Having to start an order from scratch if an item is sold out. Should be an option to remove sold out item from cart.
- Get rid of or get a better CAPTCHA system. Some of them are just unreadable.
- More info on why your credit card isn't working. I had to scour He-Man.org for such info. Should be on Mattycollector.com.

SHIPPING:
- Ship items in order they are placed. If I order 5 minutes after a figure is released, I'd expect my order to be tended to before someone else who ordered 2 hours later.
- Provide more options for international customers. There's no real "in between" option. We either pay by figure (international post) or pay by increment (UPS). UPS is great to get things faster, and to be tracked, but if ordering only a couple of items, it is far too much to pay. Int Post is fine, but surely there can be a trackable option?

CUSTOMER SERVICE:
- Fire your first line support, or have them escalate anything above a simple query. They clearly do it anyway, 3 emails in.
- More options for international customers to contact customer service. Even providing "how to call us from [this country]" info would be great. Only had to do it once, but it took an hour how to work out how to contact them via phone.

[Dark Sorceress]

i got alot of sdcc stuff on the site and my total was $102.15 but DR hit me for $102.15 2 times i called DR they told me it was my bank not them so i called my bank they called DR and DR told my bank that they *DR* did charge me 2 times and would send a refund and they did... for both charges and that was 30 days ago they still have not got the money from me and the # i have for them no longer works and still no emails back from them....so i guess i got my sdcc stuff for free?

[Mern-Ra]

Rectify the fact that people who pre-order SDCC exclusive items have to pay tax while those who buy them at the show do not. (And no, having to pay the tax is NOT a fair trade-off for not having to wait in line at the show, especially considering the fact that the pre-order lines this year were quite long.)

[Animator]

*Updates to mattycollector.com should be the one place where all current info resides.
I changed my address (a couple weeks before I moved) on the site, but DR had no information of this.

*DR needs to send confirmation e-mails on any "resolution".
I tried calling everyday to get my address changed, and each time they said it would be done (even though every day was like starting over. I felt like they would say whatever just to make me feel better and get me off the phone. If there was an electronic paper trail, I might be able to have better proof of issues that were never resolved.

*there needs to be a way for DR to contact UPS early on if a package is shipped to the wrong address.
When I found out this happened, I called UPS when I knew the package was still a few days out from being delivered. They said only the sender could have the package put on hold, so I called DR and they said they would e-mail UPS and send me a confirmation. Again, I felt like they just told me a lie just to get me off the phone.

I felt I did all in my control to avert this problem, but Digital River dropped the ball and as a result I didn't get my subscription for August. Just really frustrating.

[Princess Adora NJ]

First, thank you for taking the time to read and compile everything for Scott. Like many members , I too have had my fair share of problems with DR.

1. When you change cc info, they don't honor it, instead the go to the orginal cc info. It doesn't matter if you call them or change it online. During this time, the ablilty to change methods of payment can be important and DR doesn't understand that.

2. Unable to understand CS when I call. I understand that outsourcing is part of business, but when the call center - it's hard to understand them and they don't understand how the subs work. And when you as to speak to a supervision or another person who speaks better english so I could understand what they are saying-- they put you on hold for over ten minutes and then disconnect you.

3.Damage shippments Since Feb., I haven't recieved a shippment that didn't look like it went through hell and back. In fact my last shipment, with Man-E-Faces and Megtor came wide open and my invoice was missing. Someone had place 5 white address labels to seal the package.

4.Shipping prices are too high can some tell me why shipping USPS cost close to ten dollars. When I return my roboto by UPS it only cost me five dollars for next day delievery Dr is shipping in bulk at a reduce rate, why isn't the saving past on?

5.Change in shipping method due DR canceling sub I did have UPS until I change my cc in Feb and they refused to put me back to my orginal shipping method. I won't go into details since other members gave similar details.

I hope these issues get address, the Mattycollector.com 's admins have been great with helping me deal with DR, but i can't be the only one who have these problems.

[shadowfall1976]

1) The lack of shipping options, I hate Cornerstone, it takes forever, it says it
comes from Ontario....I live in Michigan..right next door, and it goes all the way
to damn Nevada before it starts coming here, and last time took over a week to
get here more like a week and a half, with really horrible tracking updates,
sometimes for days at a time with no updates. I would gladly pay a little extra
for UPS or something as an option, something much faster and reliable. I get
3 day or 4 with BBTS.com with UPS, for the same $$$ as MC.com charges...come on.

2) Faster order processing, I get that there are tons of orders, but I mean
seriously, 4 days to get a shipping confirmation?...on a non release day....or week...
$8 something is decent, but not worth the long wait we suffer for confirmation, and for it
to actually get to our doors, and for the horrible Tracking updates.

3) And like others I see no clear way to change addresses and card info.

4) Better English speaking help, would be nice, had similar issues with HP,
couldn't understand a word..now serioulsy how the hell is that supposed to
be customer service, when you (the customer) can't have a conversation
without repeating or ......
s l o w l y__t a l k i n g__t o__b e__u n d e r s t o o d.....can you hear me now?
when you want instant results, and those results to be carried out with some
semblance of a confirmation. Most of us Matty collectors are English speaking....
couldn't we get the same courtesy when we call in for supposed help?

5) Get another provider altogether.