OK, I said I wouldn’t talk about the sub anymore unless there was news. Well, there is – and it’s a surprisingly direct address of the problem I mentioned in my editorial earlier this week (definitely not saying I had anything to do with this, but at least they seem to be aware of the problem).
Please Read: A special message about your MattyCollector.com experience from Digital River
Dear MattyCollector.com Customers,
The Digital River Team has heard you loud and clear and we would like to openly address the feedback that you have provided regarding your experience on MattyCollector.com.
We realize that there have been some challenges. And we want you to know that we are fully committed to providing you not only with an easier and simpler way to manage your subscriptions to our clubs, but also an improved customer service experience. The good news is that we have already taken steps in this direction, and are planning on making even more enhancements in the coming months. Here’s how…
Read the rest after the jump.
- Shorter response times: In fact, customer service response times have been reduced by over 70% during the last few months. And based on the recent feedback from customers, we believe you are seeing the improvements as well!
- Increased emphasis on first call resolution: We’ve stepped up MattyCollector.com-specific training for our customer service agents so we can address your questions on your first call. This will be an ongoing focus of ours as we realize it is very important to you.
- Easier subscription management: We are pleased to announce that we will be presenting you with a fully tested and certified self-service subscription management feature in late fall of 2012, ensuring that it is fully available for our 2013 subscriptions! What does this mean? You will be able to log in to your account and manage your own subscriptions with ease. Updating your credit card, as well as your billing and shipping addresses will be simple and under your complete control. You also will be able to combine your subscriptions for one monthly shipment. (Of course, if you want to ship your subscription figures separately, you will be able to do that, too!) Our goal is to ensure that you have the tools to easily control your subscriptions via Mattycollector.com.
- Early access exclusively for subscribers: We are presenting our 2013 subscribers with all-new functionality that enables them to buy non-subscription products before they are available to the general public! We believe this will be a huge perk and an absolute bonus for subscription customers.
Together with Mattel, we are confident that the challenges that you have seen in the past will be just that…a thing of the past. In the meantime, we are looking at new ideas for collecting and addressing your feedback, such as surveys, and we will update you regularly on our progress.
We appreciate all the feedback that you, the fans, have provided and look forward to providing you with the best experience possible.
Regards,
The Digital River Team–Matty
The first three bullet points in particular at least show they have indeed been listening to user complaints; the second is something I specifically called for in my editorial.
The question for those of you who still haven’t subscribed due to your experiences with Digital River is simple: whether you’re willing to believe them or not. I’m sure for many this is a “fool me once” situation, while others are going to be cynical no matter what. Both positions are probably fair.
I’m not going to urge you one way or the other. I will give credit to Digital River for admitting there are problems and making a public vow to address them; that said, I’m as skeptical as anyone as to whether those problems will actually be rectified.
I subscribed because I decided that I wanted the figures enough to do so – knowing full well what the risks and potential problems were. And I fully understand the position of anyone who isn’t willing (or able) to do so.
There is also a new video by Scott that is up on he man org that doesn't really say much new, but has a little reassurance for International customers. He does acknowledge and address some of the issues. He shows off a pre-tool for Ram Man and sounds quite upbeat about the MOTU sub. Not quite so upbeat for Infinite Earths, though.
I just received this email myself and I can say it changes none of my negative feeling for Digital River .The best thing Mattel could do is to part ways with them. Digital River has had years to get it right and they still haven't and probably never will.
This does little to improve my opinion of Digital River and I'll be sticking to my boycott of Matty Collector. Like you, Poe, I had an issue with my address change and, long story short, I had the BBB get involved. With their help I had DR cancel my CIE subscription, yet at no point did they admit it was their screw up and actually made it seem like I was just being difficult.
That shows a complete lack of class and total disrespect for a paying customer. I put up with plenty of crap from DR aNd Mattel, but I reached a boiling point this Summer and now I'm truly "voting with my dollars". No Matty Collector for me until DR is gone.
The main reason I don’t believe this is that they basically say that they’ve already fixed those issues.
I continue to have problems (even moreso) after these solutions were implemented.
The escalation team is a joke and I have reason to believe they padded their numbers to get that 70%. I’ve had several cases automatically closed out as resolved where no one contacted me back ever. I had to call and open a new case number (because they couldn’t reopen the old case for whatever reason) and then I still had to wait 5-7 days for the escalation team response.
This is just more of the same in my opinion.
We heard you loud and clear… again.
Yeah, sure…
Well personally I applaud them for making any sort of statement of admission. I completely understand how this wouldn't change the opinion of someone who's had a real nightmare of a time with them, but I'll give credit where credit is due.
In other news, Toyguru says that the Sub percentage is up to the “mid-eighties.” Given that it was about 70% a few days ago and assuming that there are still (incredibly lazy) people like me waiting until the last day, I’m feeling pretty confidant it’s going to pass.
Club Infinite Earth’s be f***ed though.
I just don't understand why they've held onto Phantom Stranger for so long. We could have already had him in one of the earlier waves instead of the Rainbow Lanterns or Superfriends characters.
To this day I think there are people with storm clouds over their heads. I have been a subscriber since the beginning and have never had any issues with DR.
Lucky you, then. My brother has been screwed over at least twice.
Wow. Mattel gave Digital River a pre-prepared email which echoes the same empty statements that Mattel has been promising for months (or even years) and forced them to send the email to everyone!
That is real progress is resolving the issues which have been prevalent in the operation of mattycollector.com since the beginning of MOTUC! I'll believe it when I see it and I doubt I'll be seeing it. How long has the "my subscription" page been promised by Toyguru? Seems like a very long time.
Why do I feel that Digital River giving "control" over your own subscriptions is going to be a way for them to blame customers when they inevitably screw up an order? For that matter, what good is control over a sub without the option of cancelling? I know, I know, if that were possible MOTUC would probably die after Ram Man. I do see why Matty denies that option, but as a consumer I feel like I should be able to stop what really is an optional purchase if I feel like I am not getting my money's worth ot if the company has wronged me.
Game over problem solved….wow thanks digital river, I can believe fan have not just did this before. Now that there is nothing to worry about on the cs front we just have to take care of QCand character selection, and now that we know that all we have to do is sound off this should be a easy fix.
It makes me laugh that they're now saying the fabled 'My Sub' page will drop 'late fall'. That's no good for me, I moved a couple of weeks ago and my July figure has gone to my old address. I'm an international customer and I don't really want to have to make an expensive international call just to get my already expensive toys to my new address. It's unforgivable that a huge, huge company like Mattel should rely on fourth rate companies to distribute their products. I don't DR should even exist if they don't allow their customers to achieve the basic fundamentals of e-commerce. Seriously, it's crap! And the rhetoric about hearing fans loud and clear'. What's the point?
Despite changing my address on my COIE sub months before flash, they sent him to my old address. They are now telling me I need to contact my previous address to track down my 'lost' purchase. This isn't how customer service works.
I pulled the trigger on the three subs yesterday. Like Poe I want the figures they've announced more than I want to stick it to Mattel.
The funniest thing? They now "fix" all their perennial problems AFTER all their subscriptions are over! Or at least in the final twitches before death. Even IF the DC sub goes through with the MOTU sub….we have one more year of those lines. So thats one year of error free customer service with DR? bwaahahahahahaa
I'm with you! As I was trying to place my order for the 10/15 sale, I couldn't read the stupid squiggly words at the bottom of the screen that are supposed to be retyped and – presto! – byt the time I got one I could read, my items were sold out. All this and I was on at the stroke of 12 when the sale started.
I sent a complaint and received a form letter about how all customers should get the items they want and we're sorry. Yeah right.
I'm not going to let a company treat me like this and I feel sorry for the people that will continue with them.