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Mattycollector Fun
So…Mattel and Digital River struck again yesterday. I thought everything was fine and all set. I was wrong.
At 3:45pm EDT I received an email saying Mattel/DR “were unable to renew [my] subscription due to a credit card authorization failure.” Sure, that made perfect sense since the orders for Webstor went through fine last month on the exact same card.
The first thing I did was put in an order for two Teelas in case my subscription order issue couldn’t be rectified. Then I called the customer service number provided. The clearly outsourced CS person basically told me this was a problem with my credit card and to “talk to my bank.” Right. I called my credit card company and they told me that while they saw the charge for the emergency order I’d made, there was nothing else–not even a declined charge–meaning Digital River hadn’t even tried to charge my credit card before sending an email about a “credit card authorization failure.”
So I call CS back, and this time they tell me they see THREE orders–the one I made around noon for Zodak and so forth, the “emergency” order, and a third order that appears to be THE SUBSCRIPTION ORDER.
What. The. F***?
I tell them to cancel the emergency order, but that, apparently, was already in process so I’d have to send the figures back and so forth. The subscription order, however, hasn’t gone through, so I ask them to cancel that. Now, in my order history, that order says “Order Unsubmitted.”
What will arrive in the mail next week? Your guess is as good as mine!
Here’s what I think MAY have happened, though. As I was perusing my account information at Mattycollector, I noticed under “Payment information” I had no default card selected–there was nothing under “default.”
I think what happened last month was that Webstor was charged to whatever card had been used to originally order the 2009 subscription. With this “auto-renewal,” they tried to use the “default” card instead. Since I hadn’t chosen a default card, there was an error that the system interpreted as a “credit card authorization failure.”
My hope, now that I’ve selected a default credit card, is that my sub order will go through as normal next month–IF that order still exists. In the “subscription failure” email they sent, it says my 2009 subscription order’s “Expiration Date” is 10/17/2009. On the other hand, in my order history it says my subscription is “Active.”
What will happen next month? I have no idea. I’m just happy Teela’s still available as of right now, which suggests I’ll have time to order Scare Glow next month if my subscription doesn’t kick in again.
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This item has 36 comments (now closed):
Novelty
10.16.2009 10.17
There’s also been reports of problems on the org. It’s reports like these that worry me
Dead Man Walking
10.16.2009 10.21
Mattel just fucking sucks. No question about it.
Thomas B
10.16.2009 11.41
yeah there are snags but i never saw hasbro trying a subscription program to any of their lines.
PresidentJuggernaut
10.16.2009 11.42
Did anyone else get an error message as they completed their order, only to have the confirmation email sent still?
Valo487
10.16.2009 11.53
Stuff like this is the reason I didn’t bother to buy a subscription even though it would have made things easier on me, I have had issues with Digital River over an order for MOTUC in the past and couldn’t trust them not to mess up again. Not trying to be a doomsayer, but I didn’t want to risk missing out because of them.
PrfktTear
10.16.2009 12.01
I still think the subscription is a great idea. Hopefully any of these snafus will iron themselves out. I haven’t checked the status of my MC account, I might double check this before the end of the year. The credit card that I signed up for isn’t mine, so I’m concerned about Digital River and the card itself rejecting the order. Credit cards seem so fickle these days, which I admit, is mostly for our protectiona against fraud and identity theft… still, its a pain when you go to use an ATM or Credit Card and its rejected because of “use”.
Tekwych
10.16.2009 12.11
Ther area few peple over at AFI with this issue.
From Jeff Cope:
Cade
10.16.2009 12.36
We are coming up on a year and still there are bugs….Ahhhmazing.
finkrod
10.16.2009 12.37
And yet I change the CC on my sub 15 mins before it charges and had no problem. Weird.
Though I still haven’t gotten a ship notice. And the pattern so far with my orders from them has had my stuff going out the same day I order it. So hopefully they don’t drop the ball in that regard.
Kyle
10.16.2009 13.14
Suck.
I got the subscription authorization e-mail early last night. Thought I would take advantage of it and use it as an opportunity to combine shipping. Canceled the Zodak/Ray order and placed one with all 3.
Now I see two pending charges on my card for the first and second order. Kind of assume the subscription will go too and I’ll end up with 2 of everything and 3 shipping charges.
mjturny23
10.16.2009 13.26
No problems for me, Teela is still on sale.
JediCreeper
10.16.2009 14.01
hmm.. I have the december ship subscription.. I wonder how things will get screwed up then…
meaning I might order scareglow next month just to ensure I get one…
Newton Gimmick
10.16.2009 14.57
Hey Poe, did you read my post yesterday? SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME.
Looks like it’s happening to everyone.
Motorthing
10.16.2009 16.17
I believe Dayraven allowed me a future “I told ya so….” on Matty and it’s wonderful track record of fucking up. Doesn’t seem like Matty and it’s incompetent partner in etailing stupidity Digiriver have changed much since then.
Prfkt – yeah, they sure are “ironing out those problems…” Hyukk!
A new adventure – and fuckup – each and every month….Mattel – putting the anxiety back into this hobby.
Wankers.
Juan
10.16.2009 16.54
Mattel has a TERRIBLE customer service. I ordered Triklops on august 17th and I have not received yet (I live in Spain). I have tried to contact the CS but they said me that “don´t have it for my area”. It´s dissapointment.
misterbigbo
10.16.2009 17.37
Hey, I’ve got an idea: boycott next month. Mattel’s never going to make considerable changes to its distribution method when they know, not matter how pissed and disappointed the consumers are, that the fan will just come back next month and buy more. Why the hell should they change?
-Toy quality decreases
-Prices are too high
-QC issues out the wazoo
-Online sales portal embarrassingly bad
-Distribution issues
-Fan abuse at SDCC
All that, and people just keep buying. At some point individual collectors MIGHT just side with their sense of pride and refuse to be taken for granted.
PrfktTear
10.16.2009 17.45
Or I’ll gladly take my ScareGlow!
misterbigbo
10.16.2009 18.15
Mattel thanks you
Poe
10.16.2009 18.22
@misterbigbo: I see your point. But this is about the time the “they’re just toys” factor kicks in for me.
I wrote up my Mattycollector experience here because this is a blog about my action figure collecting. I found the whole thing more amusing than anything. But aside from a few phone calls and some minor frustration, if I hadn’t had this blog I already would have forgotten about it.
If Teela had sold out and I ended up being screwed, I’m sure I’d have a different take–but that didn’t happen (and Teela still hasn’t sold out). Basically nothing’s pissed me off enough to consider boycotting yet. But that could change, I guess.
monkey boy
10.16.2009 18.54
@ thomas b: that’s because hasbro sells their fricking toys IN STORES so for the most part you can ACTUALLY find them…and when they offer online exclusives they tend to MAKE ENOUGH SO THAT PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY BUY THEM.
mattel is doing the subscription thing because their fans want to make sure they can get the figures which mattel makes difficult to acquire in the first place.
to compare both companies, even though they’re both top mass market toy makers, is almost like comparing apples and oranges due to their business practices.
let’s take one example shall we: con exclusives. typically, hasbro has a con exclusive, then makes it available at hasbrotoyshop.com and if you don’t get to the con you can usually buy the exclusive through the site and they hang around for a while and everyone gets what they want.
mattel has a con exclusive, and they sell it on their site…only without one of the figures, saying you can only get said figure if you attend the con…oh, and also we’re going to not include the figure with a whole bunch of the con sets…oh, and we’re not going to tell anybody when they don’t get it…then we’ll say we ran out when they start asking what the $#)@(? …then we’ll realize we just happened to “misplace” a bunch of said mini-figure and find another way to mete these out to an increasingly smaller and narrowly-defined lot of consumers.
see the difference?
Newton Gimmick
10.16.2009 19.23
I found it to be a minor annoyance, but not something to protest over. It’s just a sign of their shoddy e-commerce.
Hopefully nothing like this happens when the REAL subscription kicks in.
Mark
10.16.2009 19.23
Don’t get me wrong MOTUC are amazing figures and great well made products, but until the price drops and they are sold comercially in the shops we will be forced to put up with all the Matty.com crap.
The toys should sell on their own merits, I am sure many parents would buy them having had the originals back when they were young.
I mean DCUC is available in the states in Walmarts, Targets, Toys’R'Us etc etc and they are selling to collectors and children and doubt a lot of the children have ever heard of a lot of them.
I will not give up on tll these are for sale in shops or Mattel has a website over here for UK fans so we are not over paying on postage.
As much as I love the line I had to stop collecting them as one figure was costing me £30 and that works out at $49…so before you all jumpat me just ask yourselves would you pay $49 for one MOTUC figure, cause I’ll tell you when your self inployed and not earning a lot its really hard to justify spending £30 of you savings on one figure. I think it sucks paying so much for a figure that if it were in a shop would be about $12.
PrfktTear
10.16.2009 19.52
@Mark: but until the price drops and they are sold comercially in the shops we will be forced to put up with all the Matty.com crap well uh, cuz thats where they’re sold!
If there was a bakery in town and they sold the best pasteries, crossiants, and cakes, but the lines were out the door, the chefs were assholes, and they only took cash, I’d still go there cuz the food was THAT GOOD. Maybe this is a bad analogy, but I hope my point comes across. Its just like I don’t complain that McDonalds doesn’t sell tacos or something.
I can appreciate you having to give it up though, and I feel for ya dude. I can see how the extra cost of s&h would really pour lemon in the milk.
Mark
10.16.2009 20.07
@PrfktTear: Thanks man, I can appreciate your passion for the line, like myself.
Your analogy is spot on, but that is were we differ….in the small village where I live the fish and chip shop (LOL) is run by an asswhole and rather than line his pockets I go a lot further to get my chips LOL.
dayraven
10.17.2009 2.33
wow… didn’t see a fish and chip shop analogy in the pipe… we do attract a diverse clientele around these parts, don’t we?
Newton Gimmick
10.17.2009 3.10
Hey Mark, I feel your pain. I wouldn’t pay $49 for MOTUC figures. I pay about $30 now and that’s where I draw the line.
Fengschwing
10.17.2009 3.52
Kinda makes me glad I’m not into MOTUC but I feel sorry for the folks who are.
Paul
10.17.2009 10.30
What a pain in the ass.
I may be interested in buying your extra Teelas btw.
Kid Nicky
10.17.2009 12.25
This is a lot of the reason I don’t buy these figures. 30 dollars is about 3 times too expensive,but yeah,I’d probably bite the bullet and buy if they were on a regular site like Amazon or somesuch,and I could,on a whim,say “I’ve got 30 bucks” and order whichever character I wanted,at any day or time,and then recieve said figure in the quantity I ordered.
You know,like how a normal person buys a normal product.
Go describe this scenario to your non-collector friends,and see if they consider it a good deal,or a worthwhile pursuit.
Even among toy collector circles this is not normal. Star Wars guys have the stigma of being “fanatics” or whatever,but they don’t do this,they go to something called a “store” and purchase their figures along with their laundry detergent.
I can see occasional special figures being worth the hassle,but I can’t bring myself to collect a line where EVERY figure is 30 dollars,and most must be ordered on one certain day in a one hour time span.
BTW,I loved He-Man growing up,and this new line would be a dream come true for me if it was sold through normal channels.
Newton Gimmick
10.17.2009 15.21
I still haven’t gotten any ship notices. It’d be awesome if I got some kind of information about if my order went through, you know… Sometime before the figures sell out. But hey it’s SATURDAY, why should I expect information so soon for a product I ordered two days ago.
Scott
10.17.2009 17.56
If you got an order confirmation, then you did get some information.
Fengschwing
10.17.2009 17.57
This tickled me…
http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=241&itemid=15006
They’ve had a decrease in the third quarter despite the many hundreds of us desperate to give them money for their product.
WAKE UP MATTEL!!!
Scott
10.17.2009 19.38
Do you really think “hundreds” of additional sales (less really, since most people get the product eventually) would have had a huge impact on the bottom line of a company taking in hundreds of millions of dollars?
Newt
10.18.2009 1.29
@Scott: Yeah, getting that little confirmation is nice, but that only confirms an order has been placed… NOT that it has been processed. Dunno if you’ve been following the drama here, but Digital River denied this credit card earlier when it screwed up my subscription, so it’s very IMPORTANT that I know if the order went through or not.
As to the idea that the “hundreds” wouldn’t effect Mattel’s bottom line, i agree to an extent. But if there are hundredsof people online upset that they can’t find Mattel product, it’s reasonable to assume there are thousands who can’t find the product not talking online. Eventually it does cut into Mattel’s bottom line.
Though I suspect the loss of profit is more because of a bad economy than anything.
Mark
10.18.2009 5.57
@Kid Nicky: Well said.
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