My latest experience isn't the best advertisement for tfsource.com

[bowspearer]

Didn't see this one coming, but now that I have, I'm not sure I'll be dealing with them again with how things currently stand with this. Thought it was worth giving people a heads up about, hence why I'm posting about it.

2 weeks ago, I triggered a shipment for my Stack on TFsource.

My stack contained:

2x Masterpiece Clampdown +Coin
1xTFCC Spinister
1xTFCC Carzap
1x Masterpiece Ironhide poseable hands
1x Kamen Rider W Hensin Belt
1x Kamen Rider Accel Henshin Belt


Firstly, for some weird reason Carzap wasn't included in the shipment at all, he isn't showing up on my stack and I've also received no dispatch email notification, meaning that he's essentially vanished into thin air.

The only reference to it being purchased by me which I can find is in my tfsource order history, as noted by this screengrab:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b10/Bowspearer/TF%20Source%20Gaffe/carzap%20screencap_zpsxriblmme.png

Secondly, My Masterpiece Ironhide hands weren't included, despite them clearly being not marked off on the packing sheet but the packing sheet being signed as both packed and checked.

In fact, here is a scan of the included packing slip with pertinent contact details covered up:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b10/Bowspearer/TF%20Source%20Gaffe/packing%20slip%20screen%20grab_zpsyx6cxicu.png

While the first mistake might be put down to a computer error, the second response is, at best, blatant staff negligence.

I emailed them as soon as I got a chance last night after receiving the package late yesterday afternoon, followed by a complaint to facebook.

When I woke up this morning, my facebook complaint had been removed, despite the only parts of it which could be taken as abusive were when I began by saying "You people are utterly hopeless!" and questioning whether they were employing trained monkeys in their warehouse - which is a reasonable question to ask given the blatant negligence by their staff in not only packing my order, but checking it; both are utterly tame in terms of customer complaints.

I'd chalk this all up to basic negligence and an accidental gaffe, where they would get back to me in good faith in 1-2 business days had my facebook complaint not also been deleted. Apparently it takes them 1-2 business days to respond to complaints with replies, yet in the space of less than 1 business day, they chose to respond to my complaint by deleting it from their facebook page - which has their conduct skating on the thin edge of fraud, with a side order of "up yours". When a company doesn't merely make mistakes, but then goes the extra step of trying to cover up those mistakes, then it doesn't make for a good look in terms of the ethics that company is adopting.

[Trent]

While it's a certainly not good that you have this issue, I can't say I agree with how you handled it. If you had been respectful when notifying them of the missing items (not all happy, you're allowed to be upset and express your disappointment, but not abusive) AND THEN your comments were deleted, then I'd be all for grabbing the pitchforks and torches.

Try posting your issue again in a better tone and see what happens.

I hope you get it soted.

[MayzaPrime]

Hey Bowspearer

While I understand your frustration as I have been in a similar situation, I have found that you can catch more flies with honey (so to speak), so I agree with Trent's comment. Had you just pointed out that the order is incorrect (without the abuse) i am sure that your comment wouldn't have been deleted.

I hope this situation is sorted quickly and your missing figures are delivered safely.

[bowspearer]

Just because a business doesn't like how a customer speaks to them doesn't give them the right to defraud them of goods (accidentally omitting part of an order is one thing, but when they then dismiss complaints and refuse to resolve the issue, then it becomes an intentional act of defrauding that customer).

Those two individual parts of my complaint may have been harsh, but they certainly weren't unjustified.

Firstly, there's the situation with Carzap. For some reason, someone got the "great idea" to separate it into a different order, not send a shipping notification and have it disappear from my private warehouse. That isn't simply a computer glitch; that's someone deliberately deciding to overcomplicate a situation then failing to follow through to avoid it turning into the cluster foul up they were choosing to put it at risk of being. I'd say that when that kind of behaviour happens within a company - not just making mistakes, but acting in a manner which increased the chance of mistakes being made and then doing nothing to avoid the inevitable problems it caused from happening - warrants saying that the company is hopeless.

Secondly, the issue with Ironhide's hands involved not one, but thee people signing off on an order, despite the marking on an order indicating that at least 1 person noted it wasn't there - yet it was still signed off on and shipped out. Given that apparently at least one person there can't tell the difference between when something has or hasn't been marked with an 'x', I'd assert that its entirely reasonable to question whether they were employing trained monkeys to pack and check their orders.

[drifand]

The customer is not always right, I am with Trent, just do it in a better tone and you get things sorted. Carry on giving crap, you get nothing or worse service.


I had a scratch on my dna design kit and just voice politely and was given a free replacement.

If I went with your tone, I get ignored.

[1AZRAEL1]

To reiterate what others have said, you would get further if you were civil in your initial contact. Calling them utterly useless straight off the bat would automatically put anyone on the defensive. And if after a few attempts or without satisfactory resolution, then you could get the pitchforks lol.

But in the future, I would refrain from attacking them and their workers with your first message

[Borgeman]

Considering the order was placed on July 22nd, which is less than 2 weeks ago, you sure have a lot of built up anger over a mistake.

They deleted your post because your post was outright rude and disrespectful, not because they're covering anything up. If anything, dealing with your issue would probably get sat on for an extra day or 2 because of what you posted on facebook. Everyone makes mistakes. Maybe checker #2 was distracted for a moment and failed to confirm the missing ironhide hands before ticking it off. Maybe he got a call saying his wife was in labour so he scribbled some stuff on the paper, handballed it and left work in a rush. You cant judge without knowledge. If you bought a pair of size 10 shoes in store, and the person accidentally put 10.5 shoes in there, would you go back in store and yell and swear and call the staff monkeys and demand the right size, and STILL expect to be treated nicely? Because that's what you did, behind the safety of your keyboard.

Also, why the hell did you post a complaint to facebook without hearing from them first? What if a second box appears in the mail today or tomorrow, or hell even Friday with the remainder of your order, and they did that because it somehow worked out cheaper for them to post that way? Let me guess, you'd probably still complain that they didn't notify you that they were splitting the order into two shipments.

I feel sorry for people who have to suffer your imprudence.

I'll disclaimer this by saying I've never ordered from them or any US toy collector store - my strongish words are more a bewilderment of this scenario being a thing.

[bowspearer]

Considering the order was placed on July 22nd, which is less than 2 weeks ago, you sure have a lot of built up anger over a mistake.

It wasn't just one mistake, but 2, where one mistake came about from things being made more complicated and not taking proper steps to prevent inevitable problems from happening. The second mistake was blatant carelessness. Funny how you and so many others here are quick to attack me over my 'tone', yet seem to have no problem with companies treating their customers disrespectfully.


They deleted your post because your post was outright rude and disrespectful, not because they're covering anything up.

On the contrary, deleting a post without responding to it in any way, shape or form, could reasonably be taken as the company trying to cover up a mistake rather than addressing it. Furthermore the "I'm not dealing with my mistake because I don't like how I was spoken to" response is an absolute copout.

If anything, dealing with your issue would probably get sat on for an extra day or 2 because of what you posted on facebook.


Everyone makes mistakes.

There are genuine mistakes and then there are careless mistakes; this was 2 such mistakes in one hit and it doesn't make for a great experience.


Maybe checker #2 was distracted for a moment and failed to confirm the missing ironhide hands before ticking it off. Maybe he got a call saying his wife was in labour so he scribbled some stuff on the paper, handballed it and left work in a rush.

And that stopped him from doing a 10 second handover and 2 people in the line - the checker and the packer, missing it? Furthermore if there was no time for handover, what was stopping him from just leaving it unpacked and someone else taking over and rechecking everything to make sure there wasn't a mistake - given that one of the items clearly hadn't been marked with an "X". Even if there was a "person a in a rush" there's still a "person b" there who should have seen that one of the items clearly hadn't been marked off on the packing sheet and should have rectified the situation. The situation with the Ironhide hands isn't a solo error, it's a group one.


You cant judge without knowledge.

Circumstances explain situations; they never excuse them. This wasn't one mistake; this was 2 mistakes where things were handled very poorly - in one case due to carelessness and in the other, due to them going about things in a way which complicated things and made it more open to mistakes.


If you bought a pair of size 10 shoes in store, and the person accidentally put 10.5 shoes in there, would you go back in store and yell and swear and call the staff monkeys and demand the right size, and STILL expect to be treated nicely? Because that's what you did, behind the safety of your keyboard.

Furthermore, if they took issue with my tone or choice of words, what I would expect is for them to assertively disagree with them while honouring their ethical and legal responsibilities and fixing the problem - I say that as someone who has been on both ends of that scenario and having dealt with far worse on the other side of the fence.


Also, why the hell did you post a complaint to facebook without hearing from them first?

You mean besides to flag it as a multi-screw-up issue that needed to be acted on in a timely manner.


What if a second box appears in the mail today or tomorrow, or hell even Friday with the remainder of your order, and they did that because it somehow worked out cheaper for them to post that way? Let me guess, you'd probably still complain that they didn't notify you that they were splitting the order into two shipments.

In the few times I have dealt with TF Source, every single shipment has had a shipping notification and a tracking number attached to each item. The only record I can find of it lists no shipping method and no tracking number, even in their records. That means there's a 99.99999% change that the order has been marked as shipped, but there has been no actual shipment.

If by some minor miracle the second order did turn up, I would leave feedback (not complain) because it would mean their dispatch systems have a bug which needs rectifying. Apparently though, that would be 'unreasonable' to you.


I feel sorry for people who have to suffer your imprudence.

At this point, I really couldn't care less what you feel.

[Ploughmans Lunch]

My latest experience isn't the best advertisement for bowspearer

[DaptoDog]

These things are annoying but sadly happen. The only thing I have to add is that many companies (even larger ones) will delete Facebook comments that don't paint them in a good light. For example we had a comment deleted from the page of Oz Design Furniture (it was merely a statement of facts) but we only posted it after we had tried extensively to resolve our issue with the particular store involved.

[Borgeman]

I made a mistake posting in this thread, as I remember you from the previous version of this website. I will leave it at that.

[Trent]

It wasn't just one mistake, but 2, where one mistake came about from things being made more complicated and not taking proper steps to prevent inevitable problems from happening. The second mistake was blatant carelessness. Funny how you and so many others here are quick to attack me over my 'tone', yet seem to have no problem with companies treating their customers disrespectfully.



On the contrary, deleting a post without responding to it in any way, shape or form, could reasonably be taken as the company trying to cover up a mistake rather than addressing it. Furthermore the "I'm not dealing with my mistake because I don't like how I was spoken to" response is an absolute copout.

How have they treated you disrescectfully? All they did was remove your (quite frankly) childish post. Not many can blame them. And all this only happened last night. Give them a chance to respond. You also emailed them, they'll probably respond via email.




There are genuine mistakes and then there are careless mistakes; this was 2 such mistakes in one hit and it doesn't make for a great experience.



And that stopped him from doing a 10 second handover and 2 people in the line - the checker and the packer, missing it? Furthermore if there was no time for handover, what was stopping him from just leaving it unpacked and someone else taking over and rechecking everything to make sure there wasn't a mistake - given that one of the items clearly hadn't been marked with an "X". Even if there was a "person a in a rush" there's still a "person b" there who should have seen that one of the items clearly hadn't been marked off on the packing sheet and should have rectified the situation. The situation with the Ironhide hands isn't a solo error, it's a group one.



Circumstances explain situations; they never excuse them. This wasn't one mistake; this was 2 mistakes where things were handled very poorly - in one case due to carelessness and in the other, due to them going about things in a way which complicated things and made it more open to mistakes.

Perhaps, since you obviously know everything about their business, you should offer them some logistical advice. They'd never make a mistake again!


Furthermore, if they took issue with my tone or choice of words, what I would expect is for them to assertively disagree with them while honouring their ethical and legal responsibilities and fixing the problem - I say that as someone who has been on both ends of that scenario and having dealt with far worse on the other side of the fence.

If you expect that, then you don't understand how the world works. If they disagree with you, it would degenerate into a $#!{fight on their facebook page. which a blind man in the middle of the night could see would benefit no one.




You mean besides to flag it as a multi-screw-up issue that needed to be acted on in a timely manner.

You never gave them a chance to respond "in a timely manner" you attacked them straight off the bat :confused:




In the few times I have dealt with TF Source, every single shipment has had a shipping notification and a tracking number attached to each item. The only record I can find of it lists no shipping method and no tracking number, even in their records. That means there's a 99.99999% change that the order has been marked as shipped, but there has been no actual shipment.

So you have had previous dealings, all of them positive, and the first time you have a negative experience, which by all indications is purely a mistake, you're ready to throw accusations of frudulent behaviour and gross incompetance around before they can even reply to you?




If by some minor miracle the second order did turn up, I would leave feedback (not complain) because it would mean their dispatch systems have a bug which needs rectifying. Apparently though, that would be 'unreasonable' to you.

No, that would be fine because you'd leave "feedback". What you did on their facebook page was the equivalent of a 3 year old getting a gobot for Christmas when they wanted Optimus Prime.




At this point, I really couldn't care less what you feel.

I see that you got the same response from TCCA members this morning when you posted your rant there, but that thread is now gone. Perhaps you should rethink your approach.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Personally I'd prefer for a company to leave an irate impudent Facebook post and deal with it in a cool, professional manner publicly in order to show they won't sink down to the lowest common denominator.

[griffin]

If not one person (here and on other sites) is able to agree with your approach, maybe everyone else isn't wrong... and as friendly advice - maybe rethink how to deal with others when mistakes happen, and people will be on your side when things go wrong.

Because as others here have said, get angry at them later, after you've politely/rationally inquired, and only after they don't respond. Otherwise, people will always (legitimately) ignore hostile people, regardless of if it is a valid complaint because it will be assumed that they can't ever be satisfied so why bother trying.

[drifand]

Remember nobody's saying the business is in the right, you just need to know how to get things done. Laying down an iron fist and just giving a hard time makes nothing better.

You need to know how to approach and by all means vent your frustration here if you really need to.

[llamatron]

Leaving a shitty snarky comment on their Facebook page before contacting them privately is a classic big dumb baby move. Hopefully they'll burn the rest of your order in a giant fire.

If you had just contacted them politely and privately they 100% would have set things right and then some, but whatever.

[kup]

Didn't see this one coming, but now that I have, I'm not sure I'll be dealing with them again with how things currently stand with this. Thought it was worth giving people a heads up about, hence why I'm posting about it.

2 weeks ago, I triggered a shipment for my Stack on TFsource.

My stack contained:

2x Masterpiece Clampdown +Coin
1xTFCC Spinister
1xTFCC Carzap
1x Masterpiece Ironhide poseable hands
1x Kamen Rider W Hensin Belt
1x Kamen Rider Accel Henshin Belt


Firstly, for some weird reason Carzap wasn't included in the shipment at all, he isn't showing up on my stack and I've also received no dispatch email notification, meaning that he's essentially vanished into thin air.

The only reference to it being purchased by me which I can find is in my tfsource order history, as noted by this screengrab:



Secondly, My Masterpiece Ironhide hands weren't included, despite them clearly being not marked off on the packing sheet but the packing sheet being signed as both packed and checked.

In fact, here is a scan of the included packing slip with pertinent contact details covered up:

While the first mistake might be put down to a computer error, the second response is, at best, blatant staff negligence.

I emailed them as soon as I got a chance last night after receiving the package late yesterday afternoon, followed by a complaint to facebook.

When I woke up this morning, my facebook complaint had been removed, despite the only parts of it which could be taken as abusive were when I began by saying "You people are utterly hopeless!" and questioning whether they were employing trained monkeys in their warehouse - which is a reasonable question to ask given the blatant negligence by their staff in not only packing my order, but checking it; both are utterly tame in terms of customer complaints.

I'd chalk this all up to basic negligence and an accidental gaffe, where they would get back to me in good faith in 1-2 business days had my facebook complaint not also been deleted. Apparently it takes them 1-2 business days to respond to complaints with replies, yet in the space of less than 1 business day, they chose to respond to my complaint by deleting it from their facebook page - which has their conduct skating on the thin edge of fraud, with a side order of "up yours". When a company doesn't merely make mistakes, but then goes the extra step of trying to cover up those mistakes, then it doesn't make for a good look in terms of the ethics that company is adopting.

Dude, you need to work on your people skills. Everyone here is pointing out where you went wrong in good faith so take it in.

[UltraMarginal]

Now that we're all so heavily invested, it would be interesting to see how TFsource resolve this for you Bowspearer, please keep us appraised.

[philby]

saw this on the TCCA facebook page and it seems to have gone a similar way here. hopefully you get things sorted but yeah next time maybe try handling things a little differently :)


My latest experience isn't the best advertisement for bowspearer

lol

[reillyd]

People are human, and humans make mistakes when picking. I'm very sure that it was unintentional - TFSource is too big a company to be intentionally messing up an order.

Not even going to comment and the way it was handled. Enough's been said, and no one needs me chiming in with my two cents.

[bowspearer]

Since apparently everyone is so emotionally invested, here's what happened. Turns out TF Source hadn't sent out Carzap, he was apparently "sold out and put on backorder" (which I took with more than a grain of salt given that TFCC figures are limited runs), yet there was no email notification to let me know this. He did ultimately arrive, but I can't help but wonder if he'd ever have materialised if I hadn't have kicked up a stink or if it would've fallen through the cracks.

I'll admit, the fact that I had a customer show of at work by presenting a taser at me, complete with turning it on, while I was trying to just "suck it up" like work made it clear they expected me to, probably didn't help my mood when dealing with this situation.

Conversely, this issue has shown that among other things, several people in the fan community seem to:


believe that a company not supplying you with goods while claiming they did (and yes, that's exactly what marking items as sent and not actually sending them amounts to) and making items disappear from someone's sales history while failing to inform customers that there is a stock issue and the items are being replenished, somehow equates to a child not getting the toy they wanted at Christmas;
be so illiterate that then cannot differentiate between a term that has it's etymological roots carnival culture and one that has its etymological roots in Social Darwinism and;
be more concerned with their own personal biases the facts of this case.


Furthermore as another recent transaction has shown only tonight, the types of individuals who are so quick to claim I'm a headache, include the types of people who:


after one transaction, expect you to at best, burn employment bridges and at worst, throw away a new job or at best, burn bridges badly with a job you're leaving, by abusing your staff discount to get them a laptop at prices far below what you could even get it on staff discount for.
Then when you say that after what happened you politely tell said individuals that you don't feel comfortable dealing with them any more, they claim they wont contact you again - which to any reasonable person, means any future or pending deals are off the table.
Then 2 weeks later, they ask when you are going ahead with the deal you said you weren't comfortable proceeding with and they weren't contacting you again to complete.
Then when you say that you're aren't comfortable going ahead with the deal which was supposed to be off the table anyway, they then demand the figures back which you bought off them from ebay a month prior, or an additional $150 to keep them.


(Of course I can't wait to hear from people here [not] how I "had it coming to me" - be it in terms of the taser incident at work I was meant to "suck up", the ridiculous employment suicide favour so someone could get a cheap laptop or the extortion. If past experience is anything to go by, and it's certainly been consistent, I know there'll be at least one person who wont be able to help themselves.)

Regardless of how much merit parts of the "he's a hassle" might actually have, when people use it as a cop out when extortion and exploiting people fails, to say it waters down whatever credibility such comments might have, is an understatement.

Oh and in the interests of people's voyeuristic emotional investment, the reason the thread was most likely removed from TCCA was because I left the group when I realised that my ability to suffer fools was exceeded by the nature of the group - including at least one of the admins.

A friend in the UK whom I greatly respect told me that he was done with fan group because of words to the effect of "there's too many idiots".

I'm starting to think he's onto something.

[reillyd]

It sounds like you're experiencing some emotional distress Bowspearer, and that your negative experiences with Tfsource are a source of frustration. I don't want to trivialise what to you feels really, really bad right now.

But it would be remiss of me if I didn't make you aware that there are services available that can offer support, and a sympathetic ear, at times of crisis. Not saying you need to talk to them, or that it's as serious as a mental health issue. But traumatic experiences like the incident you mentioned at work can creep up on you, and it's important to be aware that you're not alone, and support is out there. I'm also ethically obliged by my professions canon of ethics to make this referral - you may not need such a service.

Lifeline is available 24/7, day and night on 13 11 44, and if you're uncomfortable speaking on a phone or hearing impaired they have alternate options avail https://m.lifeline.org.au/I-Need-Help-Now (https://m.lifeline.org.au/I-Need-Help-Now)

I would also urge EVERYONE to handle this situation delicately and not add to his/her distress with rash words publically or via personal message

[Bartrim]

I'm half asleep at the moment so I'm not sure I read that right... Did you say a customer presented a taser at you, complete with turning it on? Can I ask what the hell you do for a living if that happened? I believe a taser is a prohibited weapon and should only be pointed in a safe direction unless intending to be discharged.

So either I didn't read that right or your work is committing some major violations.

[bowspearer]

Thanks for the kind words Reilly, I'll definitely keep it in mind.

No Bartrim, you're not misreading anything. I work in retail and up until recently, I was working for Jaycar; it's because of how this incident was handled and other issues I have had with how Jaycar treats its staff, that I recently left the company.

On July 1st, I was working an afternoon shift at a store other than my normal store, when the assistant manager was heading off and asked me to take over for him ith helping customers who were looking to build an EMP device. I was immediately concerned given the potnetial implications with anti-terror laws, not to mention that given that emps are a biproduct of nuclear explosions that emp devices themselves might be classed as nuclear devices, so I politely warned the customers of the potential legal issues, multiple times while taking them to the components they were looking for. I think it was the third time I was warning them when I was behind the counter and they were on the other side of it, when one of the pair responded by unzipping his bumb-bag, pulling out what looked like a flashlight, hlding it sideways to me, saying words to the effect of "don't worry mate, it isn't one of these" and turning it on, at which point, between the arc and the loud bang, it immediately became clear he was presenting a taser at me. I kept my cool, not wanting to enrage or provoke someone who had just brandished a potentially lethal weapon at me, and completed the sale.

Afterwards, I mentionedit to the manager who told me that he heard the loud bang and wondered what it was and they often get idiots coming in there with home-made tasers.

A short while later, I asked about adding them to the "wall of shame" a cork board with photos of shoplifters and other troublesome individuals who have entered the store. The response I got back was "You didn't feel threatened did you?. He was just showing off." This same store manager had had an ugly encounter with a shoplifter who verbally threatened him with being stabbed with a dirty needle the previous year; the Operations Manager had offered him counselling. Given that he had received an offer of counselling for a mere verbal threat and I had had a weapon brandished at me and it was being completely played down, I was left feeling like I was making a fuss and blowing things out of proportion if I didn't just suck it up and try and "just get over it" myself.

So that's what I did for about 5 weeks until it simply wasn't working. When I then attempted to report it to police, they asked why it took so long for me to report it. When I then attempted to get video footage to report it to police, I was told that the PVRs in the store tape over themselves every 6 days meaning that the footage was lost, so there's not even visual proof that the incident took place any longer.

[1AZRAEL1]

Why would you wait so long to go to the police? If you felt so threatened and your work was saying "suck it up", why wouldn't report it straight away?

But back to the issue at hand, I'm sure a polite email instead of kicking up a stink would have sufficed to remind them that you are still owed items

[Bartrim]

So they discharged the taser? The loud bang heard with a taser is when the probes break open the blast doors of a cartridge. I also find it hard to believe the police weren't that helpful too.

[bowspearer]

I waited so long because I was made to feel like it wasn't that big a deal and I was blowing thing out of proportion if I did say I felt threatened, much less go to the police over it.

It was a homemade taser built into the casing of a flashlight amd according to the manager, he did hear the bang at the time, but he didn't investigate further- to be clear here I was using taser loosely as this was the kind that doesn't shoot out prongs and just generates a large arc. I thought they were also called tasers.


As for the police response, they said that they really needed cctv footage to be able to do something and initially questioned why so much tine had passed. They also said they'd pass on my details to Supportlink, but I never heard from them. When I tjen asked the manager about footage to make a report after I tracked down the date, when ai was told the footage gets wiped every 6 days and that there was no point going to the police, because apparently nothing was done when he was threatened with a dirty needle, when there was still cctv footage of it.

Honestly, the only reason I went into details Bartrim was because your response , mplied a eequest for them- honestly starting to regret fulfilling that request.

[Bartrim]

I only asked for details because it there was some severe violations mentioned in your post and I was surprised at the lack of recourse.