Complaint letter to Hasbro re: The TFCC

Penned this email this morning and sent it off to Hasbro. Geez I'm becoming a whiner in my old age - it can only be so long before I end up in a cardigan writing 'letters to the editor' :p




Please note: I am a member of the international official ‘Transformers Collectors Club’ which is endorsed by Hasbro. This complaint is in regards to the TFCC and their breach of members privacy. I am sending this to Hasbro as the club itself will ignore it. If this complaint can be forwarded to the appropriate people in America I would be appreciative.



To whom it may concern at Hasbro,

I am a member of the Official Transformers Collectors Club (http://www.transformersclub.com/) that you endorse and I have a serious complaint. On the 12 of January 2014 I received the following email from the club:



This is not something that I have ever done before but I know that many of you are involved in crowd sourcing/crowd funding needs and projects.

So here's the story:

As a family, each year we vist a small town in Colorado: Pagosa Springs. You have probably never heard of it is it is in the southwest corner of Colorado near Durango.

I just found out that the movie studios are discontinuing all distribution of films and are going totally digital in the near future. I have always loved historic theaters and there is a small one in this town that is running a crowd sourcing drive to replace the theatre's old 35MM projector with new digital equipment.

So, if these guys can't meet their crowd sourcing goal in the next week, it looks like this almost 100 year old theater will shut down. So far, doesn't look like they are going to make it... if you are interested in this type of thing please vist this link.

http://communityfunded.com/projects/...rty-theatre-2/

If not, please pardon the email.

Thanks!

Brian





I find this use of my personal details, which I was assured would remain private and confidential, by TFCC staff in this manner to be outrageous.

Sadly, this above email does not speak to me of a person caring about theater, it speaks to me of a complete lack of professionalism and speaks to the fact that the few people that actually run the TFCC just use it any way they see fit, to the point they will use it to further their own agendas.

"I know a lot of you are involved in crowd sourcing" - HOW does this ‘Brian’ know that? Has he surveyed the subscribers? Has he delved further into the personal information of subscribers than is appropriate? Personally I have never even heard of crowd sourcing.

Also this speaks to how little they regard their international clientele, as I doubt many Aussie collectors are worried about some little theater in the USA. Australian members of the TFCC have been getting the rough end of the stick for years, particularly in regards to the outrageously overpriced shipping we are subjected to (with minimal effort the TFCC staff could find a cheaper solution but seem uninterested – again, we overseas clientele don’t seem to matter to them). Now we are receiving emails, using our private information, about saving theaters in America! This will simply not do.

I have been collecting Transformers for the 30 years they have existed, spending thousands of dollars per year on them as well as other Hasbro products. Why does Hasbro endorse the TFCC when it is run so unprofessionally and with so little regard for its subscribers? I certainly do not feel like a valued Hasbro customer at this point in time.

I would like to continue to be a member of the TFCC, I have no wish for there to be a lack of an official club for Transformer fans, or a stop put to ‘Botcon’ which I hope to attend one day. However I can only see this happening for myself and many others (a cursory online search of social spaces such as Facebook & Twitter and fan-made sites such as Ozformers, Seibertron & TFW2005 will give you a fair indication of how fed up the majority of members are) if Hasbro steps in to either revamp the TFCC, or its administration is given to another Hasbro-endorsed company - one that acts in a professional manner, respects the privacy of its members, and values its overseas customers.

Also while on the subject the majority of members would like to see a marked improvement in the TFCC magazine, which has become little more than a second-rate comic and in-jokes, rather than something which conveys information about upcoming Transformer toys and media. The club exclusive toys as well have gone downhill, becoming increasingly overpriced while their quality continues to drop (the 2013 TFSS ‘Jackpot’ I received was missing his mouth).

Any feedback you can give me regarding the issue of members privacy, as well as other issues raised here, would be greatly appreciated.


Yours,


Trevor Hopkins

A beautiful letter.

Yes, well done! I'd be most keen to know if anything happens. If it weren't for funpub, I'd still be a member.

Great. I think you were relatively restrained. Well done.

After my FunPub experience in 2012 when I joined TFCC - Never again.

Well done on your letter. I hope someone at Hasbro at least gives you the courtesy of reading it with an appropriate response returned.

Need to get yourself a rockingchair so you can sit on your front porch nursing your shotgun.:D

Interesting letter Trev, I recieved the same email this morning and didn't really think much of it. I read it and deleted it, it was at least prefaced with an apology and our personal data hasn't been passed on, it's still an email from the "club".

you are very right in that we shouldn't recieve solicits like that from the club, it is very inappropriate.

It would be nice to see more in the magazine and it would be much better not to be so heavily shafted for international postage. My only hope is if this does somehow bring about the demise of Funpub's holding of the Transformers license that it goes somewhere else and doesn't bring an end to the club and Botcon.

Hopefully something positive comes from this.

I really should get a Twitter account just so i can spam their account with a fund sourcing project of my own.

Nice work, Big T. I'm very interested in the response that Hasbro will provide.

The more people who complain, the more likely Hasbro will do something about it... like any other mutlinational corporation that has rivals who will prey on any negative press, they will do something about it if there is a loud enough public voice.

(you probably don't even have to prove you are a member... even if you were a past member, it could be a good campaign to piggyback on, to first say that you got the email, and then expand on your actual bad experience to show a pattern of neglect to the Brand and its consumers by FunPub)

Absolutely Bang On Trev, well done dude and as SS pointed out you were certainly quite restrained and considerably polite. ;):cool:

A great letter indeed, I would use twitter to broadcast you grievances as well on more then one occasion I have had feedback through this method. For the better.

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

Thanks!

Brian

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Did this "Brian" include a surname? I really hope that's not from Hasbro's CEO Brian Goldner (I'd be mightily surprised if it were). :eek:

"I'm Brian of Nazareth and so is my wife!"

:D
Not Brian Goldner, Brian Savage ;)

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Originally Posted by Deonasis

A beautiful letter.

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Originally Posted by Tetsuwan Convoy

Yes, well done! I'd be most keen to know if anything happens. If it weren't for funpub, I'd still be a member.

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Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

Great. I think you were relatively restrained. Well done.

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Originally Posted by kup

After my FunPub experience in 2012 when I joined TFCC - Never again.

Well done on your letter. I hope someone at Hasbro at least gives you the courtesy of reading it with an appropriate response returned.

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Originally Posted by Hursticon

Absolutely Bang On Trev, well done dude and as SS pointed out you were certainly quite restrained and considerably polite. ;):cool:

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Cheers lads :) I'm getting better at making them more 'to the point' and less 'irate' as time goes on ;)

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Originally Posted by Sinnertwin

I really should get a Twitter account just so i can spam their account with a fund sourcing project of my own.

Nice work, Big T. I'm very interested in the response that Hasbro will provide.

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Originally Posted by Sharky

A great letter indeed, I would use twitter to broadcast you grievances as well on more then one occasion I have had feedback through this method. For the better.

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I had a twitter account for all of 5 minutes a few years ago, but couldn't see the point and closed it. Maybe I should get another one :)

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

"I'm Brian of Nazareth and so is my wife!"

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Heh - did I tell you Gok that I've planted a Juniper Berry Bush? :D

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Originally Posted by griffin

The more people who complain, the more likely Hasbro will do something about it... like any other mutlinational corporation that has rivals who will prey on any negative press, they will do something about it if there is a loud enough public voice.

(you probably don't even have to prove you are a member... even if you were a past member, it could be a good campaign to piggyback on, to first say that you got the email, and then expand on your actual bad experience to show a pattern of neglect to the Brand and its consumers by FunPub)

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Damn straight - the more people that kick up a fuss the more likely they are to take notice (and the less I look like a lone crackpot :D)

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Originally Posted by UltraMarginal

Need to get yourself a rockingchair so you can sit on your front porch nursing your shotgun.:D

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I have a front porch, though the rocking chair is in the nursery. Im gonna drag it out if I ever have a daughter, so I can sit there with my hunting knife and a sharpening stone whenever a gentleman caller comes to woo her :D "Ever notice son, how a man's eyes go milky white when ya cut'im?"

This is the fourth complaint email Ive written in twelve months. 1 to Target re: their phone service regarding Ultra Magnus, 1 to TFCC re: their Subscription Service, 1 to TRU Online re: no MP SW for Australians to order and now this one. Man, I used to be an easy going dude who went to hippy festivals - maybe it's the isolation living out on my farm - its sending me weird! Good thing we are that remote that there are no pedestrians or I'd be yelling at kids to get off my lawn :p

Great work Trev! Maybe one day Hasbro will get a clue.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Did this "Brian" include a surname? I really hope that's not from Hasbro's CEO Brian Goldner (I'd be mightily surprised if it were). :eek:

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Wish it was Brian Kilby. At least he would throw his own money at the problem. :D

This was what I sent them... which I hope isn't too over the top.

It's difficult to complain about something without thinking about the risk that the person/company in question isn't going to take the easy option of banning the complainer instead of fixing up the problem. But if no one says anything about it, fearing retribution, then they'll keep doing it... and even if this one time may be insignificant on its own, this is not an isolated incident, and will continue if nothing is done about it.
I don't want to be banned from BotCon or the club, as they still provide the products that I joined (and PAID for)... but the unprofessionalism has to stop if they want to keep being an Official "public representative" of Hasbro... and all license-holders are an extension of that core Company, so are required to maintain certain public standards and quality, or else the "weakest link" negatively impacts the image of the core Company.


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(subject) Transformers Club abuse of member contact details (please forward this to Hasbro America)

Hi there,

Since Hasbro America’s website doesn’t allow non Americans to contact them, I have to send this to you and ask for you to forward it onto them please.
Thankyou.


For whomever is responsible for Fun Publications at Hasbro America,

As a member of the (International) Transformers Collector Club, I wanted to complain/report an abuse of their license. Of the many products that I joined for (like Transformers news, information and products), I did not join for emails that have nothing to do with Transformers or Fun Publications Products or Interests. I want to remain a member for the aforementioned reasons, so I am hoping that something can be done to stop this long run of issues by Fun Publications, that is not only damaging their reputation, but also Hasbro’s for allowing it... so that us PAYING fans (and consumers who might be future fans) can rely on them to provide what we are paying A LOT of money for.

This latest incident is an unauthorised email that doesn’t even apply to the majority of PAYING Club members, as it only pertains to those small few who are willing and able to be in a small town in Colorado (America).... let alone those of us who are not even in America.

As a Hasbro license holder, and an authorised face for the International Corporation of Hasbro, it is very unprofessional, and unethical to use our contact details for a private purpose. They have a License to represent the quality and standards of Hasbro, so does this mean that Hasbro endorses their “licensed representatives” to use people’s emails to send them “spam” that is not related to their products or in the interests of the recipient?

It would also appear to be against Fun Publications’ own privacy policy, to send emails that are not relevant to the interests of members (who are joining for Transformers and related reasons) - http://www.mastercollector.com/privacy.cfm

This is what I received on the 12th of January, which in no way relates to Transformers, the Collector Club, Hasbro or any of Hasbro’s interests...

Unconventional email from the Collectors' Club
"Admin at Fun Pub Inc" <do_not_reply@toyarama.com>
This is not something that I have ever done before but I know that many of you are involved in crowd sourcing/crowd funding needs and projects.

So here's the story:

As a family, each year we vist a small town in Colorado: Pagosa Springs. You have probably never heard of it is it is in the southwest corner of Colorado near Durango.

I just found out that the movie studios are discontinuing all distribution of films and are going totally digital in the near future. I have always loved historic theaters and there is a small one in this town that is running a crowd sourcing drive to replace the theatre's old 35MM projector with new digital equipment.

So, if these guys can't meet their crowd sourcing goal in the next week, it looks like this almost 100 year old theater will shut down. So far, doesn't look like they are going to make it... if you are interested in this type of thing please vist this link.

http://communityfunded.com/projects/...rty-theatre-2/

If not, please pardon the email.

Thanks!

Brian

Thankyou for your time, and hopefully this is the last of many unprofessional issues with Fun Publications representing Hasbro’s interests.
As noted above, I want to remain a member of an Officially Sanctioned Club, as I’ve been a fan of the Franchise for 29 years and have been a supporter & promoter of the annual BotCon conventions, as well as the entire Transformers Franchise in Australian for 18 years (at the longest running online Transformers fan community IN THE WORLD – Ozformers). So I am hoping that something can be done to make them take their responsibility seriously, or perhaps another company can be found to fulfil the duty of maintaining Hasbro’s high level of integrity to the public.

-griffin

I don't think that was remotely over the top Griffin, far from it; it was direct, concise, reference-checked and fact laden. ;):)

Much like Trev, you were rather polite and therefore should be free of the concern of reprisal. :cool:

As Hursti said, both letters are fine and very well written. It is well written, polite, direct and to the point without too much emotion but accurately getting the point across when it comes to dissatisfaction of FunPub's actions.

However given the very insular, arrogant, unprofessional and somewhat uncultured nature of FunPub management, they will probably just ignore the letters or provide a template response for those very reasons .

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Originally Posted by griffin

This was what I sent them... which I hope isn't too over the top.

It's difficult to complain about something without thinking about the risk that the person/company in question isn't going to take the easy option of banning the complainer instead of fixing up the problem. But if no one says anything about it, fearing retribution, then they'll keep doing it... and even if this one time may be insignificant on its own, this is not an isolated incident, and will continue if nothing is done about it.
I don't want to be banned from BotCon or the club, as they still provide the products that I joined (and PAID for)... but the unprofessionalism has to stop if they want to keep being an Official "public representative" of Hasbro... and all license-holders are an extension of that core Company, so are required to maintain certain public standards and quality, or else the "weakest link" negatively impacts the image of the core Company.

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What on earth makes you think you would be banned for raising this issue? It's hardly like you're a serial pest or are harassing them about one issue repeatedly.

Well, it's usually the attitude of those who are arrogant or oblivious of their negative impact on others. They don't seem to care enough to begin with to prevent these constant issues and negativity from our fandom, so would just take the easy option of rejecting members and their criticism, as if we were making it up to rock the boat. (like they did with the credit card issue - it was our fault according to them, not theirs, so they didn't have to deal with it)

And it's not like I'm an outsider who has never been a part of the club, who just complains for the fun of it. I've spent a lot of time and money promoting them, and buying their stuff for others, which puts me in a very credible position to object to matters that they should not be doing, or allowing to happen, as it makes my job harder to support them.

Another good letter. I have never been a TFClub member, over the years I have heard very little that is positive. I do not see it as value for money.

Even when the club started up and its reputation was neutral, I still thought it wasn't value for money for non-North-Americans.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

Even when the club started up and its reputation was neutral, I still thought it wasn't value for money for non-North-Americans.

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It always had a complete disregard for international members. Remember how they distrusted us so much that they asked us to go through so many hoops just to join? You had to 'physically mail' a photocopy of your credit card to them.

Personally speaking, I felt that FunPub treats international members/fans with some level of disdain like if we are automatically people who don't matter or are not to be trusted. A very 'merika! attitude. Given the unprofessionalism we have seen over the years, wouldn't surprise me if it were true.

Oh well. Given the success of fan organized cons and how they are supplanting Botcon, wouldn't surprise me if a better alternative Fan club rises and they would likely have much more interesting exclusives too.

I hope that BBTS isn't sharing my info with Fun Pub when I buy Fun Pub figures through BBTS.

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Originally Posted by DELTAprime

I hope that BBTS isn't sharing my info with Fun Pub when I buy Fun Pub figures through BBTS.

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I doubt it or your Credit Card number would have already been stolen ;)

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Originally Posted by kup

I doubt it or your Credit Card number would have already been stolen ;)

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Indeed. :p

@DELTA: Why would BBTS be sharing your details with FunPub? :confused:
BBTS orders the stock from FunPub, pays with its own money and then resells said stock - BBTS is a middleman, but it's not a FunPub store-front. ;)

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Originally Posted by Hursticon

Indeed. :p

@DELTA: Why would BBTS be sharing your details with FunPub? :confused:
BBTS orders the stock from FunPub, pays with its own money and then resells said stock - BBTS is a middleman, but it's not a FunPub store-front. ;)

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I just had a thought of worst case scenario. I noticed with my Scourge and Slipstream BBTS's stock seems to come from a means other than subscribing to Fun Pub's TFSS. I know this is just my paranoia but what if Fun Pub and BBTS have a business relationship where they share info, wouldn't be the first time a company has given it's customer info to another company.

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Originally Posted by kup

Oh well. Given the success of fan organized cons and how they are supplanting Botcon, wouldn't surprise me if a better alternative Fan club rises and they would likely have much more interesting exclusives too.

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It's only a matter of time.

Two days ago I forwarded all the unreplied emails I sent to Hasbro from the last few months... and it look like it got their attention, as they've now replied to them (but no apologies for the lateness on any of them, including the one that was 119 days since I sent it).

One of the replies was for this matter about FunPub abusing their emails, which I sent on the 17th January... saying that they've now passed it onto Hasbro America.

interesting, I guess it's a case of wait and see.

it looks like your emails might have been put on a backburner and then accidentally forgotten about.

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Originally Posted by griffin

Two days ago I forwarded all the unreplied emails I sent to Hasbro from the last few months... and it look like it got their attention, as they've now replied to them (but no apologies for the lateness on any of them, including the one that was 119 days since I sent it).

One of the replies was for this matter about FunPub abusing their emails, which I sent on the 17th January... saying that they've now passed it onto Hasbro America.

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Sadly, this seems to be the level of 'customer service' one can expect these days.

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Originally Posted by griffin

Two days ago I forwarded all the unreplied emails I sent to Hasbro from the last few months... and it look like it got their attention, as they've now replied to them (but no apologies for the lateness on any of them, including the one that was 119 days since I sent it).

One of the replies was for this matter about FunPub abusing their emails, which I sent on the 17th January... saying that they've now passed it onto Hasbro America.

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Yeah, I never heard back about my complaint letter. And other companies like Target and TRU have always responded within 72 hours :(

Sadly if you want good customer service you have to pay extra for it.

I recently switched ISP's to a more expensive one just because their customer service and tech support is good and not farmed out overseas.

Everyone in theory should run their customer service well because it helps retain customers, but with cost cutting from most companies you get poor customer service as a standard feature.:(

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Originally Posted by DELTAprime

Sadly if you want good customer service you have to pay extra for it.

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Hell, we in Aus pay extra to the TFCC and we still don't get good customer service! :(:mad::(

Has anyone yet recieved their last magazine? I know we all got an email a while ago apologizing for the lateness of it because their supplier/distributor 'forgot', but even that email was a fair while ago now :(:mad::(

It will probably come shiped in with the next issue

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Originally Posted by griffin

Two days ago I forwarded all the unreplied emails I sent to Hasbro from the last few months... and it look like it got their attention, as they've now replied to them (but no apologies for the lateness on any of them, including the one that was 119 days since I sent it).

One of the replies was for this matter about FunPub abusing their emails, which I sent on the 17th January... saying that they've now passed it onto Hasbro America.

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I work for a not-for-profit NGO, and every single complaint or issue is investigated and dealt with seriously, no matter how frivolous. Perhaps management didn't realise (as I hadn't) that it is easier just to ignore them?:rolleyes:

Poor form, Hasbro. A tad off-topic, but it for me, this informs my decision about the legitimacy of third party items with respect to brand loyalty.

A separate but similar line of thought jogged my memory of this. I take it you never got a reply to your letter to Hasbro Trev?

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Originally Posted by Trent

A separate but similar line of thought jogged my memory of this. I take it you never got a reply to your letter to Hasbro Trev?

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Nope, not a peep :(

Shows you how little Hasbro and Funpub care about the TFCC customers :(:mad:

Considered writing another one about the Subscription figures that keep getting pushed back with rather flimsy excuses and then thought 'What's the point? No one there will give a crap'. :mad::(

I can imagine for those of you waiting to register for Botcon you must be livid right now with all the emails I/you have been reviecing with delay after delay.

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

Nope, not a peep :(

Shows you how little Hasbro and Funpub care about the TFCC customers :(:mad:

Considered writing another one about the Subscription figures that keep getting delayed and then thought 'What's the point? No one there will give a crap'. :mad::(

I can imagine those waiting to register for Botcon must be livid right now.

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Not even the generic "Thank You for your comments" reply, eh?
Poor form indeed

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

I can imagine for those of you waiting to register for Botcon you must be livid right now with all the emails I/you have been reviecing with delay after delay.

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Livid and really tired from monitoring the phone from early morning.