Toyguru Mattycollector.com MOTUC News Thread April 2012

[bigsexy_j]

Scott,

This is what upsets me about your answering questions on the forums. At the start of April I asked about subs shipping together as was stated when I ordered. TG responded nope only after it renews. I asked on April 5 here, about combining shipping direct cut/pastes from his sites news section. TG says this forum isn't about answering shipping questions. Now someone else asks him about combined shipping here. Once again Scott can answer shipping questions again.

Which is it? You can or can not answer questions about shipping? Or if there is no evidence that Mattel/Digital River is changing what was said to customers and charging us more money you can answer it?

J

[kup]

It's just, Post what you want... be positive... be negative... to each thier own... Why give those who are down right NEGATIVE to the 5th Power (like me) a hard time. I used the "people have no scrote" statement very generally.

GEEEEZ!

The situation with Matty and Toyguru is NEGATIVE so I don't understand how anyone can be blamed for being 'negative' in their posts given the situation.

It's like 'Let's talk about the crash of the housing market and all the people who are now homeless but attack anyone who feels negative about it'

[Executioner]

So what happens to all us Int. customers who haven't received our Feb and stock yet and we get a defective figure?? There are no more Fisto or Sorceress figs left at all even for CS???

I just got my Sorceress not too long ago with a screwed up ankle and thats the end of it. I'm not paying to send it back and they have nothing to send me anyway.

The situation with Matty and Toyguru is NEGATIVE so I don't understand how anyone can be blamed for being 'negative' in their posts given the situation.

It's like 'Let's talk about the crash of the housing market and all the people who are now homeless but attack anyone who feels negative about it'

Post of the day!!!

[bowspearer]

How to answer a question without reading it (bolded in parts for emphasis):

Kobra Khan disaster

My Figure finally showed up, I orded on April 15th, showed up on May 6th, (florida)

this is what I got.
I was told to post this photo here for Toyguru.

I emailed matty and asked for a replacement. But, I got no response.
image.jpg

Toyguru's (lack of) response

Wow that is a pretty messed up box. If you wanted your fig mint in box you should contact CS for a return and replacement. You may also want to talk to your local mail carrier or whomever you use as shipping as this is not the way the boxes are mailed out. Clearly this was smashed during transit and not at our facility.

[MyBroGotAllMyFigs]

How to answer a question without reading it (bolded in parts for emphasis):

I love how he says "shipping as this is not the way the boxes are mailed out" --- WAH? YOU DON'T SAY!

[phantom1592]

How to answer a question without reading it (bolded in parts for emphasis):



Toyguru's (lack of) response

How is the actual figure in there? If he's in decent shape, call it a win. If your a MOC collector... you may want to trade with someone else on the forums who isn't a MOC collector. You'll probably get a quicker response

[Crusader]

I love how he says "shipping as this is not the way the boxes are mailed out" --- WAH? YOU DON'T SAY!

Spector should have been the 'master of kicking in open doors'

[the_ultimate_evil]

so having now read through the entire thread, basically the subs are fubared due to bad service and planning, and when next years numbers are even further down the cherry pickers will once again be blamed for not being true fans and getting one

[d*r*j*]

...the cherry pickers will once again be blamed for not being true fans and getting one

I'm guessing that the cherry pickers will be wiped out by then. I'm pretty sure that Stinkor and Spikor will be hot property in the upcoming months.

[mekaneckpain]

I still believe that people will still buy the sub. In fact, I'll bet the amount of subs sold for 2013 will be higher than 2012. Why, because people want the line to continue regardless of the lack of proffesionalism and quality that comes with the line. Sad... but that's how Mattel has us buy the Ku-Ho-Nays.

[scott metzger]

I can't see any way possible the sub numbers WON'T be down significantly. They were down last year without anywhere near the level of problems we've had just in the past few months. Now that Matty can't even say with a straight face that getting a sub ensures you actually get all of the figures, Matty is going to be bleeding subs. I'm genuinely worried as to whether the subs will reach the level to continue; I hope things are not that dire, but the level of QC has never been lower, the level of incompetence from DR and the level of not giving a flip from TG and Mattel have never been higher, so what exactly is going to entice more people to hop on for a year of abuse?

Look at me: I had a problem with the Fisto box with a Sorceress in it from BBTS, and got that straightened out with ONE, I repeat, ONE single e-mail to them. Why in the world would I even think about dealing with the bunglers at Matty again? I'm willing to pay the slightly higher prices at BBTS simply to aviod dealing with the inevitable problems I will run into at Mattycollector time after time. What could Matty possibly offer me to woo me back, short of dumping DR and replacing them with someone actually capable of running a website?

The naysayers have been warning for the past few years that the idiocy at DR was going to have an effect on sales eventually; welcome to "eventually."

[zodak74]

I don't see MOTUC lasting beyond 2013 due to low sub sales this summer. And it's ALL Mattel & Digital River's fault. Just like most of us have been saying all along. The death of the line won't be lack of good characters to choose from or even the rising costs, it's going to be because people drop the sub after all the b.s. they've had to deal with only a handful of releases into 2012. And the year ain't even over yet! Le sigh...

[cbomb23]

I don't see MOTUC lasting beyond 2013 due to low sub sales this summer. And it's ALL Mattel & Digital River's fault. Just like most of us have been saying all along. The death of the line won't be lack of good characters to choose from or even the rising costs, it's going to be because people drop the sub after all the b.s. they've had to deal with only a handful of releases into 2012. And the year ain't even over yet! Le sigh...

And who will this ultimately hurt? Mattel? Probably not they will just invest the money into another property and market it. DR/Mattycollector? Yep DR will lose a client, and Mattycollector will most likely collapse (or maybe it will be folded into Mattelshop.com, who provides lightning service, but maybe they don't offer international service?). The Four Horsemen? possibly as they will lose a property they are working on, but Mattel could put them on something else along with whatever they are doing DC wise or they could move onto more in house projects or another company's product? MOTU fans? Most certainly because if Mattel isn't making MOTU figures no one will be. Figure/Toy fans? Initially yes, but eventually these fans will find another property to put their money into.


I am closer to the latter, but I do like more than just the figures when it comes to MOTU, but I will also be investing in the sub as I love these figures and I want them to continue. Knowing that the sub is what is propelling the line forward I will continue to invest, and while my DR service hasn't been perfect anytime I've ever had a problem DR has taken care of it.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

I can't see any way possible the sub numbers WON'T be down significantly. They were down last year without anywhere near the level of problems we've had just in the past few months.

While the sub numbers may drop again due to poor customer service, and while poor customer service may have been a factor in the sub numbers dropping for this year, I think the biggest reason for this year's drop was probably a drop off of secondary market resellers signing up for the subs. Save for a very few exceptions, these figures haven't been holding any real value on the secondary market for some time now. While there still are some resellers buying these, the numbers probably dropped off more from that end of things than from any others. Also, the trend that I've been noticing as well is for the figures that are up for sale on ebay, most of them are being sold at "buy-it-now" prices so that the seller can at least get the amount that they need to make the sale worth while. If all of these figures were just being put up for regular auction and simply went to the highest bidder, most would likely go for less than they were sold on Matty.

So, I think you are overstating how much customer service issues were the cause for this year's drop in sales.


I'm not trying to make light of the many problems that continue to occur with Matty and DR (they are plentiful, I've dealt with a few of them myself over time, and some new ones have popped up since the start of this year), nor am I saying that anyone would be wrong for choosing not to subscribe again if they are fed up with dealing with the issues.

But I don't think the drop off will be as bad as some people are thinking it will be. Yes, the customer service issues suck, and are a royal pain to get fixed when they occur. But outside of widespread issues that effect a significant portion of a run of a figure (i.e. Swiftwind's legs), I don't think any one problem effects more than a small handful of buyers at a time. I'm not saying that this makes the problems right, or that more shouldn't be done to correct them (better customer service is a MUST for this line). But the point is that if most subscribers are getting their figures with no major problems or defects (outside of issues that effect the whole run of a figure like Roboto's shoulders), those people may feel that they have little reason to not want to subscribe again.

Time will tell which of us is more right about this. There are definate major problems that need to be taken care of. Regardless of how big or little the amount of people effected by these problems actually is, most of the problems, themselves, are unacceptable and the service in rectifying them needs to be seriously overhauled. But anyone who hasn't run into a major problem and still enjoys the line is more likely to sign up again.... and there are likely more of those people.

[dorrmann]

I can't see any way possible the sub numbers WON'T be down significantly.

I completely do.

Since day-of product quantity is down, and people are leery of buying subs, more and more are turning to the secondary market. They've already seen quick sell outs of several figures this year. They based their subscription order on 2011, which saw most figures stick around for days after they went on sale. I speculate that now that those are more limited, and more people are being forced (or choosing) to buy on the secondary market, they will increase the number of subs they buy this year.

[vertigoink]

I completely do.

Since day-of product quantity is down, and people are leery of buying subs, more and more are turning to the secondary market. They've already seen quick sell outs of several figures this year. They based their subscription order on 2011, which saw most figures stick around for days after they went on sale. I speculate that now that those are more limited, and more people are being forced (or choosing) to buy on the secondary market, they will increase the number of subs they buy this year.

True- plus there's the factor of the newer re-sellers who now think that the line is "Shadow Weaver Profitable" and perhaps will raise secondary sales even more.

[scott metzger]

Word of mouth is powerful; you lose some of the subscribers to bad service, and others who would replace them, new customer,s without which the line can't survive, hear about the problems and are put off. I was set to go with the Joe Club sub until I heard about the problems they recently had with credit card info being compromised, and I immediately changed my plans. The problems this year are MUCH worse than last, and there is a lot of talk on the net about it on almost every toy board that deals with the line, most of it bad. The longest thread on the Fwoosh's MOTU forum is the Matty complaint thread, just as an example.

I really hope I'm wrong, as I don't want this line to go anywhere. But I just can't see a lot of folks taking a chance with all the bad and well deserved publicity Matty is getting. Now, there could be an unintended consequence here that might help: I've seen other folks do what I did, namely dump Matty for a new "sub" pre-ordering from Big Bad. If e-tailers see a pattern in that, folks ditching Matty to deal with someplace that actually offers something remotely resembling customer service, the sub sales for the secondary market might go back up a bit. At least, I hope something like that happens, but I know it's a long shot. I just can't see any real indication right now that makes me think we're not heading for a big dip. I mean, I'm someone who has supported MOTU from the first wave they made back in the 80's through NA and 2002; if Matty can drive someone like me off, things aren't looking good...

[DJ_Convoy]

The situation with Matty and Toyguru is NEGATIVE so I don't understand how anyone can be blamed for being 'negative' in their posts given the situation.

It's like 'Let's talk about the crash of the housing market and all the people who are now homeless but attack anyone who feels negative about it'

A fine, fine post.

[mekaneckpain]

The secondary market will eat up the subs, then sell them to us. That's really what Mattel is counting on. So sub sales will be great. When Matty said sub sales were down in 2012, I think that was BS. They just tell us that and say that if the sub sales don't increase, the line will slowly disappear in so many words --- It's a sales tactic.

[bigsexy_j]

Well after TG was able to answer questions about shipping again yesterday I asked about combined shipping with 5 cut/paste from matty's news section saying they will. Again his answer is "this forum is for product questions, contact CS"

Well CS hasn't responded when i asked on Monday and 'evilskeletor' hasn't responded to me since February, the first time subs should have combined.

This new improved CS is doing great, with TG showing a shining examle of what CS should be

J

[Nekk-ra]

I do wonder - if there was a BIG drop-off in sub renewals in July, would that be enough for someone ABOVE Scott in management to want to know where their easy money was going? I personally doubt it, but when a small little number of us (if the insinuations of a few .orgers (ogres?) are correct) had our subs messed up in January, it DID attract attention. Not enough to make real changes, but it did get noticed.

[MegaGearMax]

Toyguru has answered some more questions and they are up at the front!

[bowspearer]

Toyguru has answered some more questions and they are up at the front!

Honestly, my response is one of "and you're mentioning this now?"

We all know that there's a new CS team, but seriously, the fact that they're working through a massive backlog of issues (which I imagine goes right back to December), is a pretty significant piece of info to leave out.

Seriously something along the lines of "sorry the new CS team has a backlog of a couple of month's worth of issues that they're working through as quickly as they can" would have been far less of a caned line and would have honestly reassured people rather than making them feel like their intelligence is being insulted.

The other thing is that I don't think Scott gets it. The problem we're having isn't just the CS team reached via email, but the call centre staff. The new CS team might be great at customer service, but the call centre are nothing short of incompetent and seem more interested in making problems go away than fixing them. Yet there's been nothing from Scott or anyone about sorting out the call centre who just don't email when they say they will or don't submit tickets to CS to investigate.

It's like there's a step there in the right direction, but there's a stack of ball dropping there which still needs to be addressed.

[MegaGearMax]

I don't see MOTUC lasting beyond 2013 due to low sub sales this summer. And it's ALL Mattel & Digital River's fault. Just like most of us have been saying all along. The death of the line won't be lack of good characters to choose from or even the rising costs, it's going to be because people drop the sub after all the b.s. they've had to deal with only a handful of releases into 2012. And the year ain't even over yet! Le sigh...

Sub sales ARE at the lowest point, but according to Toyguru, we're nowhere near DC Universe or Ghostbusters bad.

[bigsexy_j]

Here's my answer from their new CS team

Dear XXXXX XXXXX,

Thank you for contacting the MattyCollector.com online store.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, we are unable to
assist you with this issue at the MattyCollector.com online store.

Please contact customer support at:

1-800-524-TOYS (1-800-524-8697)

Sincerely,
Jacqueline D.
MattyCollector.com online store
Customer Service

Wow thanks for getting us this great new team. Glad all the legal was worth it.

J