Questions regarding Official Transformers Collectors Club

[BigTransformerTrev]

About 5 years ago I was a member of TCC, but let it lapse after a year since I really didn't think it was worth the money.

Now with the price dropped somewhat and the strong Aussie dollar, for just under $80 I thought it might be worth it again so joined up on Saturday morning. I was surprised at the following:

* No acknowledgement email or greeting email from TCC to confirm my membership application has been through.

* No figure toystore that I remember. In fact the only figures I could find (besides a clearance on Bot Shots) were a $52 animated Cheetor and a $54 Runabout! Everything else was old issues and empty boxes.

* A Figure Subscription Service that went entered said 'this has ended'.


So have I not been entered onto their system properly, and thus am missing out on all the good stuff? Or am I navigating the site incorrectly? Or has it simply gone downhill big time in the 5 years since I was last a member and just wasted my cash?

[Paulbot]

Sounds bout right. Most of their exclusives have sold out (bar the two you found which are at their regular expected prices) and over the past few years until I quit they never had much regular Hasbro product (and definitely not anything that wouldn't be cheaper through BBTS or similar once you dd shipping).

Im curious What else or what "good stuff" were you expecting?

You'll get your six issues of magazine and you should be within the deadline toget the free Depth Charge figure. Their new messageboard might be up soon if not already. You'll get a cheaper rate for the Machine Wars BotCon set.

(I don't see the membership being worth it myself.)

[BigTransformerTrev]

Sounds bout right. Most of their exclusives have sold out (bar the two you found which are at their regular expected prices) and over the past few years until I quit they never had much regular Hasbro product (and definitely not anything that wouldn't be cheaper through BBTS or similar once you dd shipping).

Im curious What else or what "good stuff" were you expecting?

You'll get your six issues of magazine and you should be within the deadline toget the free Depth Charge figure. Their new messageboard might be up soon if not already. You'll get a cheaper rate for the Machine Wars BotCon set.

(I don't see the membership being worth it myself.)

Yeah, knew about the 6 issues and Depth Charge, last time I was a member I got Dion (which tells you how long ago I was a member). I'm guessing I was expecting more figures for a start, when I first joined there was tons to choose from, got a Timelines Astrotrain & Airazor pretty cheap. $54 for a Runabout?! Thats disgraceful if that is member prices.

What I'm most annoyed about is you need to be a member first to log into the Figure Subscription Service. And then you log in and they say 'this has closed'! I call shenannigans on that! They should have had a notation on their front screen about it, instead I feel kind of suckered, was looking forward to getting a Jackpot & Slipstream. Hence I was hoping that there was 'more than meets the eye' (sorry, i couldn''t resist ) to the site and it was due to my own incompetence that I wasn't finding it.

[Paulbot]

The member exclusives over the past few years have all been around the $50 mark plus postage. They kept doing deals to rid themselves of their old exclusives like Astrotrain and Airazor.

The subscription figures are about the same too but yeah they sold out their subscriptions last year. I recall there might be leftovers/returns made available in the store over the year. I want a couple but not enough to deal with the club.

[griffin]

From here - The Subscription cut-off was a few months ago, so the only place you'll be able to get them now is BBTS, or ebay when they are released.


It'd be disappointing if their main pages don't give some details about their member-only products before you join.
Perhaps send a message through their contact page to ask these things, or to make those suggestions. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't.

[UltraMarginal]

I'm pretty sure the original prices for all the exclusive figures, like the astrotrain you have mentioned were at least $50, but I wasn't a member of the club then. In the last couple years they've clearanced a lot of stuff to move it out of their store.

you may have heard of a big issue with credit card detail theft last year. Their site got hacked! They have since completely rebuilt the site, so they say, and moved it to a new provider along with whats left of their shop. I recall that the shop isn't fully reinstated yet, as they need to re-enter everything in the new system/software. I don't think the store is very populated yet.

like Paulbot said all their retail offerings were never worth it to Australia just because of their over the top shipping charges, though it looks like they may be moving towards a much more international friendly shipping service in the future, starting with the subscription service.

I'm a little surprised you didn't even get an automated email, you might want to check your junk mail.

the subscription service had a 2 or 3 month pre-order window on it last year. unfortunately you've missed out on getting it directly but some of the less popular items are at very reasonable prices at BBTS.

I hope that helps, discounting the Credit card event. I don't think they have gone "down hill" they haven't necessarily gone up hill either though, it depends who you ask.

[griffin]

As a business it isn't in their best interests to have stock unsold for extended periods of time, just in case someone new joins up a couple months or years later. They've stated at BotCon (either 2011 or 2012) that once an item is released, the remaining units barely move... so they try to sell-out their items now during pre-order.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Contacted them yesterday, asking if I would recieve any kind of confirmation email, and bringing up my issue regarding how you have to join the club to access the Figure Subscription Service, but then when you do so it states the offer has ended, and how this is unfair to people who are joining specifically for the Figure Subscription Service, and how it should be listed on their front page, otherwise they are just suckering people. It's the equivalent of going to a restaurant and paying upfront for your meal, then getting told after handing over your cash they have been out of food since yesterday.

I recieved an Admin email from 'Brian' who addressed none of my concerns or indeed conversed in any way. He had simply put links to all the current figures they have on offer, none of which you couldn't buy either in the shops or with cheaper shipping from another online store. I suspected this was just an automated email that everyone recieves, but looking at the format of it I think it may just been an email to placate me - could be wrong though.

Very dissapointing overall. I have the feeling unless I get another follow up email addressing my specific concerns that like 5 years ago, I will let my 12 month subscription run it's course and then be done with them.

[Paulbot]

Be aware that others are currently reporting that the Club will auto renew your membership, so if you want out make sure you tell them.

[UltraMarginal]

Contacted them yesterday, asking if I would recieve any kind of confirmation email, and bringing up my issue regarding how you have to join the club to access the Figure Subscription Service, but then when you do so it states the offer has ended, and how this is unfair to people who are joining specifically for the Figure Subscription Service, and how it should be listed on their front page, otherwise they are just suckering people. It's the equivalent of going to a restaurant and paying upfront for your meal, then getting told after handing over your cash they have been out of food since yesterday.

I recieved an Admin email from 'Brian' who addressed none of my concerns or indeed conversed in any way. He had simply put links to all the current figures they have on offer, none of which you couldn't buy either in the shops or with cheaper shipping from another online store. I suspected this was just an automated email that everyone recieves, but looking at the format of it I think it may just been an email to placate me - could be wrong though.

Very dissapointing overall. I have the feeling unless I get another follow up email addressing my specific concerns that like 5 years ago, I will let my 12 month subscription run it's course and then be done with them.

I also got this email, I think it was one of their occasional reach out to the club emails. If you're american, as most of their members probably are, the prices wouldn't be too bad with local shipping.

I've always found it takes them at least a couple days to get a reply to a direct request out. don't forget that we are 10 hours in front so if you send an email at 9am here it's after 5pm there the day before so they won't even get it till their next business day.