griffin
20th May 2012, 05:26 PM
After a fair bit of chasing up on my part, including cornering a few staff members at BotCon, I was finally able to get them to admit that they do recheck the amounts paid for shipping, after an item is shipped (which is why someone here was re-charged $10 when they were under-quoted).
The Club store has to estimate shipping, which is fair enough, but us foreigners were getting a bit of a raw deal, with over-estimates being anywhere up to $80.
And that was the problem - why were they chasing after people for an extra $10, but not refund people who were being over-charged up to $80 on their orders, if it was clear that they were rechecking everyone's orders after they were shipped (to make sure postage wasn't coming out of their pockets).
So when one of the senior FunPub people were asking me about the upcoming Subscription Service (the six new figures for next year), I told her that people outside of America might be hesitant, based on how much they get over-charged for shipping by FunPub. She didn't know what I meant at first, so I had to explain the situation.
To prove my point, I brought with me the last two invoices from them, and an actual shipping label showing the $71 difference.
Last week they issued a refund for the last two orders, and said this:
You are welcome to post on your blog that members of the TF Club are reminded to check shipping charges. TF Club tries to catch any under or over charges, but are aware that several slip through. We are happy to look into any overcharges that might have occurred with our members when placing an order. Please remind customers to read our Order Terms and Conditions and that contacting us within 30 days from receipt would also be helpful if errors have occurred in shipping cost.
So, in future, if you are ordering from the Club Store, check the actual shipping amount when the order arrives, and ask them if a refund is warranted if it is more than a few dollars over (to allow for a handling fee).
But don't leave it too long though.
Chase up any overcharges that you recorded in the last 12 months, and then keep an eye on future shipments (until such time that they use a shipping method that doesn't show the actual postage cost - like online stores like BBTS).
Here's hoping that they start being proactive on the refunds in future, especially with a lot more toys being released, and more shipments coming to members.... because the claim is there, that they check and refund, but none of my orders ever had a refund, and I've had a few hundred dollars of over-charges in my 7 years with the Club.
They only refunded over-charges from the last two orders, but they have the rest on file, so could have easily looked them up at the same time... but I won't bother chasing them up, as half the stuff I order is for other people, so only getting half the money back from FunPub means I won't be profiting off fellow fans I bought stuff for.
The Club store has to estimate shipping, which is fair enough, but us foreigners were getting a bit of a raw deal, with over-estimates being anywhere up to $80.
And that was the problem - why were they chasing after people for an extra $10, but not refund people who were being over-charged up to $80 on their orders, if it was clear that they were rechecking everyone's orders after they were shipped (to make sure postage wasn't coming out of their pockets).
So when one of the senior FunPub people were asking me about the upcoming Subscription Service (the six new figures for next year), I told her that people outside of America might be hesitant, based on how much they get over-charged for shipping by FunPub. She didn't know what I meant at first, so I had to explain the situation.
To prove my point, I brought with me the last two invoices from them, and an actual shipping label showing the $71 difference.
Last week they issued a refund for the last two orders, and said this:
You are welcome to post on your blog that members of the TF Club are reminded to check shipping charges. TF Club tries to catch any under or over charges, but are aware that several slip through. We are happy to look into any overcharges that might have occurred with our members when placing an order. Please remind customers to read our Order Terms and Conditions and that contacting us within 30 days from receipt would also be helpful if errors have occurred in shipping cost.
So, in future, if you are ordering from the Club Store, check the actual shipping amount when the order arrives, and ask them if a refund is warranted if it is more than a few dollars over (to allow for a handling fee).
But don't leave it too long though.
Chase up any overcharges that you recorded in the last 12 months, and then keep an eye on future shipments (until such time that they use a shipping method that doesn't show the actual postage cost - like online stores like BBTS).
Here's hoping that they start being proactive on the refunds in future, especially with a lot more toys being released, and more shipments coming to members.... because the claim is there, that they check and refund, but none of my orders ever had a refund, and I've had a few hundred dollars of over-charges in my 7 years with the Club.
They only refunded over-charges from the last two orders, but they have the rest on file, so could have easily looked them up at the same time... but I won't bother chasing them up, as half the stuff I order is for other people, so only getting half the money back from FunPub means I won't be profiting off fellow fans I bought stuff for.