After I lost confidence with Robotkingdom (little to no communication, messed up orders, and wouldn't respond to an issue of a faulty item) to the point of never ordering from them again, I've had to resort to the more expensive BBTS option as a bulk-buy source (I still use ebay and some JP sources for one-off items).

I've never been too impressed by the way they have "scalped" their store exclusives, or any item that is limited (anyone remember their Beast Machines Battle Unicorn?).


Anyway, aside from their pricing policy, they are great for communication and customer satisfaction.
Last month I ordered several items, including the first wave case of JP EZ Chronicle figures. It was listed as the standard (sealed) grade, so getting a case of 12 should have at least 1 of each of the 8 figures (no chase figures in this series). I've never had a master case without 1 of each figure before... so when the shipment arrived, the case arrived like this:



It was already torn open, and had two rubber bands holding it together. Since the master case is supposed to be "sealed" with a single piece of tape, this was already not the condition listed. But I'm not too fussed about packaging, so was willing to let it go if all 8 figures were there (in good condition of course). But as soon as I undid the bands, I started to get a bit worried, as two of the inner boxes had tape on them as if they had been resealed... I immediately thought of a past ebay purchase that had an SCF figurine master case of opened boxes, from the owner looking for Chase figures or looking for the colour version of the Scorponok/Zarak figure - one master case would have all colour, one would have all pewter, so opening one inner box would let you know if you have the colour one (but the seller didn't note this on the auction, as it would have been nice to have a chance at getting a chase figure).

So back to the BBTS master case - I just knew that something was going to be missing, as the condition of the master case suggested someone had raided it, and once they found what they wanted, they left the rest sealed.
After a few minutes opening up all 12 inner boxes, my suspicions were true - there was no Gen1 Optimus figure.

So I emailed BBTS with details and the photo above, and within a day they were offering to send out the missing figure. They noted that they were aware of the master case looking like that when they got it (not sure if it was the only one and they remembered it, or if all of their cases look like that), and said that it shouldn't have been listed as "standard" (sealed) grade.

I confirmed that I was just after a single Gen1 Optimus figure (I didn't know if there was supposed to be 1 or 2, but one was all I wanted), and I suggested that they could just send it with my next order (to save hassle and expense). But the next day I got an email shipping notice, saying that it was already on its way.

So if it arrives, it would be a testament to their exceptional customer service and satisfaction standards.