Evidence of how bad the problem has gotten of late.

[bowspearer]

In the recent strike thread, someone brought up that there's no way of knowing how bad the problem is with DR, however I have proof of how bad it has been in the past week with the Fisto mess.

With my own personal order problems, I went from having to have 2 tickets generated for replacements to having to have 2 tickets generated for refunds (their system stuffed up and I was forced to have my Voltron stuff on a separate order).

The first lot of tickets were generated on Wednesday April 4 (AEST) and after learning about Fisto, the second lot of tickets for a refund were generated Saturday April 7 (AEST). The second of the first lot of tickets ended in 100, while the first of the second lot of tickets ended in 393, meaning that in the space of less than 3 days, 292 tickets (not including mine) had been generated for problems with orders- in other words DR were notified about almost 300 problems with orders in that time which they had to generate tickets for (as opposed to being able to fob someone off with canned lines like "please wait for your order").

It's possible that a fair number of those had nothing to do with Fisto or MOTUC, however given the timing of it all, that's debatable.

I just thought people might find this info interesting.

[bezem]

Digital River issues tickets for many things; Mattycollector being one of the items they handle. I don't think they have different tickets for everything (software downloads from various vendors they work with), I think it's one general pool and the ticket number tells the CS Rep the info they need (product, issue, etc). I'm not defending them, I just don't think we need to start another 'DR is the Devil' thread, do we?

[Executioner]

'DR is the Devil' thread, do we?

Yes we do.

[kup]

As much as I believe that DR is incompetent, I cannot constitute this as 'evidence' of it.

[Jinxieman]

Another one!

How many of these threads do we need here? I'm getting sick of reading the same complaints and issues in multiple threads spanning multiple forums!

[shadowfall1976]

Get used to it, it's been happening since I've been here, nothing new....

I mean Swiftwind had like 10 different error threads, but many times people do bring up new things, no matter how many similar threads pop up.

Yes we do.

And congrats on the 666th post of yours there , there's another member here that would love that one.

[MegaGearMax]

Another one!

How many of these threads do we need here? I'm getting sick of reading the same complaints and issues in multiple threads spanning multiple forums!

Digital River is bad, man.

[shadowfall1976]

Digital River is bad, man.

How bad is Digital River?

[Jinxieman]

I understand the issues with DR. I've had my own frustrations with them. I cannot defend them, but it seems like the same handful of people are filling the board with the same complaints in new posts and threads here and on Matty. I'm just getting tired of reading the same, justifiable, complaints over and over. The flood of complaint is causing me to loose sympathy for people and their frustrating experience, and just roll my eyes when I see new complaint threads.

[d*r*j*]

...the same handful of people ...

It appears that the loudest few don't even have major issues. I don't think that slow international shipping is a real issue, I'm in Australia and think that DR shipping is great. I would rather pay $5 a figure and wait 3-8 weeks than the alternative... BBTS charge $20 to ship a $5 GI joe.

[bowspearer]

As much as I believe that DR is incompetent, I cannot constitute this as 'evidence' of it.

Almost 300 order problems in the space of 3 days for a fairly niche ecommerce provider, considering the timing of it, isn't evidence of significant problems?

Another one!

How many of these threads do we need here? I'm getting sick of reading the same complaints and issues in multiple threads spanning multiple forums!

Actually this is more, "here's some evidence which is telling" than a straight out DR rant.

The fact is that there are often claims of the problem being isolated and limited to a few individuals. I thought putting this evidence out there in a way that was visible, rather than being buried in a thread, was interesting as it tests those claims and gives people in an official capacity the chance to notice it and challenge or clarify the evidence.

It appears that the loudest few don't even have major issues. I don't think that slow international shipping is a real issue, I'm in Australia and think that DR shipping is great. I would rather pay $5 a figure and wait 3-8 weeks than the alternative... BBTS charge $20 to ship a $5 GI joe.

So you don;t think shipping times blowing out without an explanation is a big deal (in the case of those of us who had issues with Feb orders) , or the fact that people are still waiting on orders from December and January? Also there's a difference between issues with shipping costs and actually ability to deliver items. I'm happy paying $30 for priority mail international when I know items I've ordered will actually arrive.

You're half right when you bring up the shipping though as there's more to it than only the shipping. The big problem is that the CS team at 877-GO-MATTY seem more concerned with shutting people up than fixing orders. When that happens, it exacerbates the problem because it goes from simply having a company screw up to having them screw up then try and screw you over about it.

Further exacerbating that are the fact that Evil Skeletor is supposed to intervene in said cases but doesn't even respond anymore and Toyguru gives spin when people turn to him in desperation when they feel they have no other port of call left.

Again though this thread wasn't set up to rant about Matty, simply to provide some interesting evidence in a visible way. I'm simply addressing your point as you bring it up.

[d*r*j*]

... I'm happy paying $30 for priority mail international when I know items I've ordered will actually arrive...

There is a very fast shipping option, it is also tracked. It costs about $45... but the more you order the more reasonable it becomes. There are collectors in Australia that use this service for group buys...
To say you are willing to pay for better shipping, when you obviously had the choice and didn't, just sums up most of your recent outrage.

[kup]

Almost 300 order problems in the space of 3 days for a fairly niche ecommerce provider, considering the timing of it, isn't evidence of significant problems?

We all know that DR is horrible but as mentioned, do we really need a new thread for this? It's not really telling us anything that we didn't already know and it doesn't have much weight as evidence even if you believe it does.

You know what's the real evidence? All the different people who are having problems and posting them on their appropriate threads causing them to exponentially grow in pages. That is more indicative of all the Matty/DR problems than random posts addressing a single issue which ends up looking more like whining than anything else.

[bowspearer]

We all know that DR is horrible but as mentioned, do we really need a new thread for this? It's not really telling us anything that we didn't already know and it doesn't have much weight as evidence even if you believe it does.

You know what's the real evidence? All the different people who are having problems and posting them on their appropriate threads causing them to exponentially grow in pages. That is more indicative of all the Matty/DR problems than random posts addressing a single issue which ends up looking more like whining than anything else.

Right so there being 300 new tickets submitted for Mattycollector in a 3 day period which the Fisto/Sorceress stock levels were announced to be exhausted isn't concrete evidence of there being a high number of order issues being raised in that very short time frame?

Furthermore let's look at what I actually said. I said that in the course of my own issues, I uncovered some hard evidence in the space of a specific timeframe. The only other thing I mentioned was how I came to have that information and that was to preempt the inevitable demands from people about how I'm obtained that info to begin with. On top of that and FYI I had a mod in a PM encourage me to bring this evidence to light and make it known, so clearly the staff here think that this is anything but "whining" as you put it. In fact the only thing in this thread which seems to constitute overt complaining are those people who are attacking me for simply posting information, in a visible way, that a mod encouraged me to share.

Honestly, considering that your post here is somewhat of an overreaction to nothing more than my starting a thread which simply stated a concrete piece of information (including how I came by it) and which was encouraged by a mod; I cannot help but wonder if you're projecting issues from a forum I recently walked away from (due to the behaviour of certain individuals there) into this thread.

I wont name the forum as per this forum's rules, but if that is the case, then perhaps you should do us all a favour and leave those issues with that forum where they belong. If you are incapable of that, then perhaps you should simply avoid interacting with me on here.

There is a very fast shipping option, it is also tracked. It costs about $45... but the more you order the more reasonable it becomes. There are collectors in Australia that use this service for group buys...
To say you are willing to pay for better shipping, when you obviously had the choice and didn't, just sums up most of your recent outrage.

Right so now we're blaming customers for having shipping issues with DR? Also considering I'd ordered from DR numerous times at the lower shipping cost other than slower shipping times, why did I have any reason to expect anything other than slower shipping? Furthermore if I waited the 5 weeks it usually took to arrive before contacting DR, how am I being unreasonable? Funny how the two people attacking me here are from the forum I recently left. Like I said, I honestly can't help but wonder if you and Kup are projecting issues from said forum that should be left there.

[Executioner]

Get used to it, it's been happening since I've been here, nothing new....

I mean Swiftwind had like 10 different error threads, but many times people do bring up new things, no matter how many similar threads pop up.




And congrats on the 666th post of yours there , there's another member here that would love that one.

Thanks. I'm surprised the puritanical attitude of this forum hasn't banned everyone's 666th post.

Satan rules.

[Barbecue17]

The first lot of tickets were generated on Wednesday April 4 (AEST) and after learning about Fisto, the second lot of tickets for a refund were generated Saturday April 7 (AEST). The second of the first lot of tickets ended in 100, while the first of the second lot of tickets ended in 393, meaning that in the space of less than 3 days, 292 tickets (not including mine) had been generated for problems with orders- in other words DR were notified about almost 300 problems with orders in that time which they had to generate tickets for (as opposed to being able to fob someone off with canned lines like "please wait for your order").

It's possible that a fair number of those had nothing to do with Fisto or MOTUC, however given the timing of it all, that's debatable.

I just thought people might find this info interesting.

I think it is interesting info and the first time I have seen this brought up. Would anyone who deals with Digital River in any other capactity (purchasing software, etc.) be able to shed some more light on this? Just how large of a company is Digital River? Is this a pretty standard number of CS- tickets for a company of this size, even if they are not all MOTUC or Mattycollector related?

[bowspearer]

I think it is interesting info and the first time I have seen this brought up. Would anyone who deals with Digital River in any other capactity (purchasing software, etc.) be able to shed some more light on this? Just how large of a company is Digital River? Is this a pretty standard number of CS- tickets for a company of this size, even if they are not all MOTUC or Mattycollector related?

The other interesting thing to me is, if these tickets were just for Mattycollector for example, how many of them were MOTUC related and how large are their runs on MOTUC figures? Depending on where you end up, it could be nothing or it could be an embarrassing figure for DR.

[fball13z]

so does everyone really need to start a topic like this?

and as far as your proof, If i sat here and told you I have had zero issues with DR from day 1 (which is true), I would be called a liar for calling that "proof"

but I am not going to start a topic on how amazing DR is, b/c I know they are not amazing, they have some major issues, but people need to stop acting like every single person that buys toys from matty is having nothing but issues

[scott metzger]

It's likely that the tickets are issued across the board for all the business DR does, not just Matty, so it's hard to really say how bad this is. They do a lot of Microsoft stuff, so that alone might account for a lot of this.

Point is, the tickets aren't the real issue. DR had a very bad rep before Mattel hired them. They were involved in several fraud investigations, although the actual fraud charges were made against the companies they represented, not DR itself. There are scads of complaints across the web that sound very familiar to anyone who has dealt with Matty. And Matty is, to my knowledge, their first time actually running a site; I believe their previous endeavors have simply been processing orders for other companies.

For a good example of how what we see here is SOP for DR, check out this site:
http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Digital+River

It's pretty representative of what I've seen across the net about DR.

As for the multiple threads, considering the range of problems people are having wit DR and the complete lack of anything constructive from Mattel or TG, I think it's understandable. People are getting shafted, they're being loud in their protests, and I don't blame them a bit. DR and Mattel deserve every iota of anger being aimed at them.

[DJ_Convoy]

So someone pointing out a problem causes "a loss of sympathy?" Really? Wow.

[bowspearer]

so does everyone really need to start a topic like this?

I don't recall everyone out there doing it. The exact title of the thread is "evidence of how bad the problem is of late". 300 tickets being generated for Digital River in a 3 day period is evidence. Now certainly evidence needs to be qualified, but by putting it out there, people can come in and potentially answer the questions which Barbecue17 put out there which qualify that evidence. Maybe it's 300 Fisto/Sorceress problems; maybe 2 of those are Feb order problems. That's what exploring that evidence uncovers. However considering that often we're given vague answers about numbers, it's interesting to explore hard data on those rare occasions we get our hands on it as a community.

and as far as your proof, If i sat here and told you I have had zero issues with DR from day 1 (which is true), I would be called a liar for calling that "proof"

Except that it's proof that you have never had a problem, just as my ticket numbers prove that in the 3 days between having refund tickets generated as I was now requesting a refund, after having tickets generated for replacements, there were 292 other problems with Digital River flagged. Now how significant that evidence is is something that only time will tell. The only people who seemed determined for it to be any kind of definitive proof are those who seem determined to shut down whatever they perceive as "hate threads".

but I am not going to start a topic on how amazing DR is, b/c I know they are not amazing, they have some major issues, but people need to stop acting like every single person that buys toys from matty is having nothing but issues

And again, how does putting this evidence out there and exploring it, do that in the slightest?

[d*r*j*]

... I cannot help but wonder if you're projecting issues from a forum I recently walked away from (due to the behaviour of certain individuals there) into this thread.

I wont name the forum as per this forum's rules, but if that is the case, then perhaps you should do us all a favour and leave those issues with that forum where they belong. If you are incapable of that, then perhaps you should simply avoid interacting with me on here.



Right so now we're blaming customers for having shipping issues with DR? Also considering I'd ordered from DR numerous times at the lower shipping cost other than slower shipping times, why did I have any reason to expect anything other than slower shipping? Furthermore if I waited the 5 weeks it usually took to arrive before contacting DR, how am I being unreasonable? Funny how the two people attacking me here are from the forum I recently left. Like I said, I honestly can't help but wonder if you and Kup are projecting issues from said forum that should be left there.

I'm not sure what you are talking about now. I'm haven't followed any issues you have on the aussie forums and it's not really my concern. Addressing your speculation about the tickets produced by DR; The WWE legends figure Diamond Dallas Page recently shipped over a week late. Many fans were upset about this... especially those that had paid for overnight shipping. I'm guessing that quite a few tickets were generated over this.

[bowspearer]

It's likely that the tickets are issued across the board for all the business DR does, not just Matty, so it's hard to really say how bad this is. They do a lot of Microsoft stuff, so that alone might account for a lot of this.

It may well be, however we're often told that problems only affect a small percentage of customers. That's what makes this interesting. Suppose you have a run of 10,000 for the sub figures and 20 of those tickets were Feb sub related- that means that you have 0.2% of customers filing tickets in those 3 days- pretty bad, but in that case, the statement about a "small number of customers" is accurate.

Suppose however you have a production run of 1,000 and all 292 off those tickets were for Sorceress and Fisto. Suddenly almost 30% of the orders for Fisto and Sorceress had tickets generated for them in the space of those 3 days.

That's what makes this interesting. Unlike when you have several people making threads without any ideas of numbers in terms of issues, by a fluke we actually have some hard numbers as a starting point to work from here.

I'm not sure what you are talking about now. I'm haven't followed any issues you have on the aussie forums and it's not really my concern. Addressing your speculation about the tickets produced by DR; The WWE legends figure Diamond Dallas Page recently shipped over a week late. Many fans were upset about this... especially those that had paid for overnight shipping. I'm guessing that quite a few tickets were generated over this.

Fair enough, as Kup was by his own admission elsewhere I thought you might have been, especially when you started trying to blame me for their screwup because I used a shipping method which I'd used for almost 2 years on and off and had never had a problem with before- that was after you claimed that those of us who were being vocal generally didn't have any "real" issues with DR.

Again, it may have been that and if that's what it is then that's what it is. I'm as open to this being nothing and evidence of how bad the current situation is (not very) or evidence of it really being something and evidence of how bad the current situation is (very bad).

However considering that as we have multiple people who are angry about missing orders and numerous enough to keep several threads going and that we often hear that the problems only affect a small number of individuals; I fail to see the problem with looking at some hard data and seeing what comes of putting it out there.

[d*r*j*]

Fair enough, as Kup was by his own admission elsewhere I thought you might have been, especially when you started trying to blame me for their screwup because I used a shipping method which I'd used for almost 2 years on and off and had never had a problem with before- that was after you claimed that those of us who were being vocal generally didn't have any "real" issues with DR.

As far as I am concerned, I was simply stating that shipping times when using extremely cheap shipping should not be a big deal. You claimed you would gladly pay more, I suggested you have not.
I noticed in another thread that your figures have arrived, so now your tickets get you a refund or a free figure that you don't deserve? It's things like this that are really rotting the system and creating problems for Digital River.

[bowspearer]

As far as I am concerned, I was simply stating that shipping times when using extremely cheap shipping should not be a big deal. You claimed you would gladly pay more, I suggested you have not.
I noticed in another thread that your figures have arrived, so now your tickets get you a refund or a free figure that you don't deserve? It's things like this that are really rotting the system and creating problems for Digital River.

All of which is a side issue which has nothing to do with this particular thread. Regarding your first point though; when the shipping has taken a certain amount of time normally and even goes beyond what DR says it should then you do have cause for worry.

As for the other issue, no I have not received a refund yet. Yes my figures arrived just over a week after I first put a ticket through and things through- with my Red Lion only arriving yesterday and my only receiving a notice about a refund being approved and in process today. I'm currently interstate from them but will be checking them out on Sunday when I get back home. Provided everything is all in one piece and the refund has already cleared (if it hasn't as it's in the middle of being processed which supposedly takes up to 5-7 bussiness days, I'll wait for it to hit my account before having them take it back), I'll call them and have them charge my card again. I'd call them in the interim, but I'm concerned they'll screw up the reversal. There's no rort going on here, just me covering myself with a very drawn out process involving shipping problems and poor customer service.

However none of that changes the fact that the issue with tickets gave us some hard data which something may or may not come from. Which of the two that is, time will tell.