Complaint letter to Hasbro re: The TFCC

[BigTransformerTrev]

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'




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

[Deonasis]

A beautiful letter.

[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.

[Sky Shadow]

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

[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.

[UltraMarginal]

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

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.

[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.

[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)

[Hursticon]

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

[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.