MP Soundwave now out in TRU stores here

[mknell]

I'd be willing to guess at the staff member just guessing that, as I can't imagine that being logistically possible to keep track of... or fulfill online orders if stock in store sells out in the time it takes an order to be processed and despatched. (although, the US TRU site had similar issues with not taking items out of stock until they were physically posted - items would sell out between the time you paid for the order to the time a person physically grabbed the items to box and ship them out)

If someone gets theirs delivered, tell us the sender address, to see if it is from their Sydney Warehouse, or from an actual store.

I was talking to the manager, the head office sends them orders for the area and what stock has to go where so it gets picked up from the store in the morning because she said online sales get priority , they now know the toy well they have been getting hammered by phone calls about it

[Sinnertwin]

I was talking to the manager, the head office sends them orders for the area and what stock has to go where so it gets picked up from the store in the morning because she said online sales get priority , they now know the toy well they have been getting hammered by phone calls about it

What a backwards way of doing things. You'd think the customer that makes the effort to go out to the store would be priority.

[mknell]

What a backwards way of doing things. You'd think the customer that makes the effort to go out to the store would be priority.

I guess the way they see it is the online ones are already paid for

[jazzcomp]

that was quick .....

[Sinnertwin]

I guess the way they see it is the online ones are already paid for

Whats the point of sending it to stores then?

[drifand]

Well WA sucks, I am already thinking I need to get someone from eastern states to redirect shipping. This is lousy.

[griffin]

Unfortunately for those ordering online, the toy had arrived at stores (and sold out) before the listing was put up on their website... so I'm not sure why the website was saying any particular quantity, as it couldn't possibly know in real time how many units were still available in each jurisdiction. And it seems that some stores are preferring to honour their reservations over the online orders.

I was talking to the manager, the head office sends them orders for the area and what stock has to go where so it gets picked up from the store in the morning because she said online sales get priority , they now know the toy well they have been getting hammered by phone calls about it

Speaking with the "person in charge" at the Garden City store, she described the exact same thing - online orders are sent to the nearest store to your Postcode, and if that store is out of stock, the order just keeps getting transferred to the next nearest store.

As Sinnertwin commented, I told her that that would have to be the most difficult process to do, just to minimise shipping costs... as there would have to be a lot of orders cancelled/refunded, just because it was no longer available when the order was sent to all of the nearby stores. (I imagine that they won't then source it from interstate stores, as it would then cost them more in shipping than what they charged you)

This could be why Perth members are not having any luck, because their nearest stores don't yet have any stock to sell (if they are left with any after taking reservations).

The Garden City store only got in 10, and they were all reserved, with a limit of one per person. The Aspley store apparently ran out as well, as they were chasing up stock from the Garden City store to fulfill an online order (according to the person at Garden City, the Aspley store is the primary store for Brisbane, which gets all the online orders first before chasing up stock from Garden City and Gold Coast stores).
So unless you are near the Pacific Fair store, or can get to them (or call them), Brisbane now looks to be OUT OF SOUNDWAVES.
(this is probably why my online order for Soundwave hasn't been processed yet... and is likely to be refunded/cancelled)

Too bad if this figure shows up in the next catalogue, as none of the stores are likely to have any (and very few would even make it to the shelves to begin with).

[UltraMarginal]

PERHAPS 1200 would have been a better number of units...

[griffin]

In hindsight, yes. But I think after they got burnt with Ghost Starscream, they might have though 600 was as much of a risk as they were willing to take.
If they had toy buyers who knew where the interests lie, it might give them a better idea... but even then, it is just the collector community, and who would think that there would be at least 600 people (collectors/enthusiasts/dealers) in Australia who were desperate enough to want this particular toy this badly.
Unfortunately they had this order locked in with Hasbro about 6 months ago. So even with the 4 month delay, and lots of people chasing them up with release info (which they don't get with other toy items), they still didn't think it was worth increasing the original order... or, were unable to increase it.

Who knows. The head office isn't very forthcoming with answers. And the person in charge at the Garden City store was a bit "snappy", as she wasn't too keen on being corrected on the stats of how many Soundwaves Australia got, or how many TRU stores they have in Australia.

[Wheelie]

Yay, reserved at Moore park, picked up this arvo

My quest is at an end, good luck to all those members out there still looking