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Thread: The Little Toy Company Website

  1. #471
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maruten View Post
    I think we all understand that distribution can be a clusterbeep that is largely out of retailers' hands.

    Hasbro/TLTC is not a useful comparison though. Hasbro doesn't retail directly to the public.

    TLTC does. If I place a preorder and it hasn't arrived three months after the date I was originally given by TLTC, sure, it may not be their fault that the product is delayed. But if I email them multiple times asking for updates because they haven't communicated anything about the delays and their website still shows the original date - and every other store in the country received their stock on time - I think I'm entitled to consider that bad service.

    This isn't an occasional thing, this is apparently an ongoing issue with the way they run their business. We always hear that they're just a dude in his garage or whatever, don't expect Amazon-level service. Sure, that's fine. But if you don't have time to respond to emails from your clients when they're saying "hey, you keep ignoring me and I want to know what's up with all that money I sent you in June" then you have some issues and you need to make some changes. Maybe that's extra staff, maybe that's limiting your stock levels so you don't have so much to deal with. Maybe it's both those things, or something else - finding alternate channels for acquiring your stock, etc. But it's bad form to take your customers' money and then ignore them (and I'm not suggesting that they never respond to queries, but I think we've seen enough reports of poor or non-existent communication to agree that this is a thing).

    I have bought from them on eBay many times and been happy with their service and prices (on in-stock items). I won't be buying directly through the website again though, and I'll think twice before shopping in their eBay store too. That's a bummer because yay for supporting local businesses, but it's hard to do that when they can't reliably provide the service we're paying them for.

    People say "I'm patient, I can wait" and that's cool, sometimes, yeah - you don't mind waiting a few extra months as long as you get the product eventually. But maybe their stock falls through or they're shorted and allocated half the stock they need to fulfill preorders, and you're stuck with an aftermarket hunt and inflated prices because every other store sold out months ago. That's just not really how I want my collecting to run.
    The main thing they should do (which they've tried but never keep up with) is keeping their ETA's up to date - then they wouldn't get the emails! Communicate with your customers en masse, that's what the Facebook page is for!

    I've never missed an order from them - got another great big box of cool stuff from them last week - but the delays and lack of comms are definitely an issue.

    Also a little worrying is that they still haven't got any pre-orders for Wave 2 of Siege, or any of the new Studio Series stuff? So hopefully this doesn't mean they're getting out of the Transformers game altogether.

  2. #472
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sutton View Post
    The main thing they should do (which they've tried but never keep up with) is keeping their ETA's up to date - then they wouldn't get the emails! Communicate with your customers en masse, that's what the Facebook page is for!

    I've never missed an order from them - got another great big box of cool stuff from them last week - but the delays and lack of comms are definitely an issue.

    Also a little worrying is that they still haven't got any pre-orders for Wave 2 of Siege, or any of the new Studio Series stuff? So hopefully this doesn't mean they're getting out of the Transformers game altogether.
    they haven't got any new marvel legends preorders either. I've msged them on facebook everyday for a week and no reply. I've now sent an email to see if that's any different.

  3. #473
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    Pretty sure I addressed that in my previous posts. They’ve told me stopped listing pre-orders until they know they are on their way from distributors, so the pre-order period is heaps shorter. They have told me they are not getting out of the TF game at all, just ordering based on estimates of what they will sell rather than pre-orders. When they list, they are close to getting them.

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  4. #474
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    Quote Originally Posted by M-bot View Post
    Pretty sure I addressed that in my previous posts. They’ve told me stopped listing pre-orders until they know they are on their way from distributors, so the pre-order period is heaps shorter. They have told me they are not getting out of the TF game at all, just ordering based on estimates of what they will sell rather than pre-orders. When they list, they are close to getting them.
    Thats a good idea.

  5. #475
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    Quote Originally Posted by M-bot View Post
    Pretty sure I addressed that in my previous posts. They’ve told me stopped listing pre-orders until they know they are on their way from distributors, so the pre-order period is heaps shorter. They have told me they are not getting out of the TF game at all, just ordering based on estimates of what they will sell rather than pre-orders. When they list, they are close to getting them.
    This is a good example of the problem. It falls on you to get the word out for them, rather than them putting up a news post on their website, or through their newsletter. I understand the change they are implementing, and I agree with the reasoning behind it, but failing to broadly communicate it has raised customer concerns.

    I've been very satisfied with their ability to deliver to date, but unless you deal with them face to face it can be very hard to get answers out of them. This can be a serious issue in the post Premium Collectibles world.

  6. #476
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    Quote Originally Posted by ComradeRenko View Post
    This is a good example of the problem. It falls on you to get the word out for them, rather than them putting up a news post on their website, or through their newsletter. I understand the change they are implementing, and I agree with the reasoning behind it, but failing to broadly communicate it has raised customer concerns.

    I've been very satisfied with their ability to deliver to date, but unless you deal with them face to face it can be very hard to get answers out of them. This can be a serious issue in the post Premium Collectibles world.
    Not just the post PC-world. There’s a LOT of other places we can pre-order from.

    I’ve been dealing with HLJ for almost 20 years (typically Japanese stuff) and have never had a pre-order issue yet... so now I’m just preordering Siege there as I’m comfortable I won’t miss out. I would rather support a local business (which is usually cheaper to boot), but not at the expense of me having to chase up stuff after the release. After all, I pre-order so I’m not scrambling around with Hasbro’s terrible distribution. In the end, TLTC are competing with other sites. Even those overseas.


    Eagerly waiting for Masterpiece Meister

  7. #477
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sutton View Post
    Communicate with your customers en masse, that's what the Facebook page is for!
    Or just post updates on your website's front page - that way you don't have to worry about repeating update posts across multiple social media platforms. Just have your platforms say something like, "Refer to our web page for regular updates."

    I think that this is the right decision for them. While I have had issues with their pre-orders, including outright failures to deliver, I have never had an issue with ordering existing stock. Whenever people ask me if I would recommend TLTC I tell them that they're reliable for stuff that is already in stock but I don't recommend pre-ordering anything from them. So I think it absolutely makes sense to just stop even offering pre-orders for toys until they're guaranteed that they can receive stock.

  8. #478
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    I wonder if they will charge the market price if an instock item has gained significant value before they open up orders. I know for marvel legends, not all legends are priced the same, they usually bump up the price for the popular ones.

  9. #479
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    Has anyone received LG EX Repugnus and Grotusque? They told me they would "begin shipping next week" on the 27th of March.

    I think mine might be held up by Novastar. Considering asking for a refund for Novastar if so.

  10. #480
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    Quote Originally Posted by jaydisc View Post
    Has anyone received LG EX Repugnus and Grotusque? They told me they would "begin shipping next week" on the 27th of March.

    I think mine might be held up by Novastar. Considering asking for a refund for Novastar if so.
    I think Novastar is a massive ‘maybe’, so I reckon they would not object to refunding you.

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