Questions regarding Official Transformers Collectors Club

[BigTransformerTrev]

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.

Ah, that answered my question then - cheers for that . Will keep an eye out for their response to my questions

[BigTransformerTrev]

Here is the current to-and-fro between me and TCC:


ME

Hi, I just had a couple of questions:

I have just joined as an 'international subscriber', will I recieve any email notifications to know that my application is approved or when my figure is mailed next month?

Also, with your Figure Subscription Service, you cannot go into it without first becoming a member. So I joined, went in and it subsequently said 'this has ended'. I am highly dissapointed that the main reason I joined is no longer available, but I could only find that out by joining in the first place. Can you offer any clarification on this, because otherwise I just feel suckered.



THEM

Yes, we send e-mail notifications to all members.

The ordering time for the FSS was back in August/September and then we cut it off so that we could place our order with the manufacturer. News about all this was posted on our website, including the deadline date to order. We will probably have some single figures left over after we ship to all the people who subscribed. If so, these will be placed on our online store and you can order them there since you missed the subscription.

Karen


ME

Hi Karen, thank you for your response,

As a person looking at new membership, all I was able to see on your main page in regards to the Figure Subscription Service was news from January about a delay of the Figure Subscription Service toys getting posted. As a potential new member, was I expected to trawl through the old news archive looking for an article I didn't even know existed about the Figure Subscription Service ending? I have just done this now and the message was posted way back in August of last year. There was no mention on your main page or your link to your Figure Subscription Service that it had now ended, and indeed as I mentioned in my original email, the only way you could find out that it had ended (except apparently trawling back through old news archives from six months ago) was to become a paying member in the first place. I equate this to being required to pay before you to go into a restaurant, and then upon entering being told that they had run out of food the week before and had gotten no more in.

I do not mean to attack your company, I spend thousands of dollars on Transformers every year and have been very loyal to Hasbro and indeed Transformers brand since 1984 so naturally I am a big fan. But I am still very disappointed that I paid to become a club member primarily for the Figure Subscription Service, only to find out that it is not available, and that seemingly the answer to my original query was that I should have known about a message that had been posted 6 months before I ever looked at your site and now resides in a news archive. I think perhaps you can understand why I find this level of customer service unsatisfactory. It should be made very clear to potential new members that this service is not available before they lay down their hard earned money. If I am mistaken in my evaluation of this situation, I am happy to be corrected and would appreciate further clarification.

I suppose the most I can hope for is that you will make new members like myself aware when these figures will become available in the store. I would appreciate it if you could let me know if there will be any significant difference in price between buying them individually now compared to when the Figure Subscription Service was still available, and what these prices will be.

Regards, Trevor Hopkins



The ball is in your court TCC

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I'll be interested to hear what they say.

I had the email regarding my renewal rock up and after chatting to Valkyrie_76 decided to log in to my account, which I hadn't done since the shop came back up... No reason to really. And there was the renewal in my cart apparently. Luckily they didn't have my CC details to charge me.

They'd been stolen you see

Nevertheless, before that when the renewal email came, I emailed them this:

Hi,

I don't want to renew my membership for another year.

I don't even recall authorising an option for automatic renewal of my club membership. when did this happen?

Thanks
Tets

and got a curt reply the likes of this:

These emails are sent out automatically by the new system regardless if you are set up for the automatic processing or not. In order to be set up for this processing you the customer would set this up on your end. I do NOT show you have a credit card on file therefore I show your membership will expire on xx/xx/xx. Thank you.

Angie

Not a "why do you want to leave the club" or even a hello for that matter...

And I've been a member of the TFCC since they took over...

no love from them.

[1AZRAEL1]

I logged in to see if they were gonna subscribe me again. Nothing in my cart, so seem I am all good with that. Kept getting those damn emails saying your subscription will expire and I just ignored them. The figure this year does not interest me at all, so I don't need to subscribe for it.

[Trent]

I looked into it last year and truthfully cannot understand why people join. You pay $82US for the privilege of:

-Poor communication,
-Six issues of a magazine/comic which I bet is mediocre at best
-Exclusive news and interviews that would be up at TFW no more than 5 minutes after they are released
-A repaint of a figure that is more often than not underwhelming.
-And the exclusive chance to pay for another set of underwhelming figures when one, maybe two at most are mildly appealing.

[Paulbot]

Bit of a discount on BotCon sets plus the bonus figure is why I joined. The above is why I quit.

That plus all their emails back when I complained of fradulent use of my credit card where I was told that it was definitely my fault and nothing to do with them or their online store.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I think this ranty piece I put on my Blog covers why I joined and why I am leaving.

[BigTransformerTrev]

and got a curt reply the likes of this:
These emails are sent out automatically by the new system regardless if you are set up for the automatic processing or not. In order to be set up for this processing you the customer would set this up on your end. I do NOT show you have a credit card on file therefore I show your membership will expire on xx/xx/xx. Thank you.

Angie

Not a "why do you want to leave the club" or even a hello for that matter...

And I've been a member of the TFCC since they took over...

no love from them.

I looked into it last year and truthfully cannot understand why people join. You pay $82US for the privilege of:

-Poor communication,

Bit of a discount on BotCon sets plus the bonus figure is why I joined. The above is why I quit.

That plus all their emails back when I complained of fradulent use of my credit card where I was told that it was definitely my fault and nothing to do with them or their online store.

Well it seems that their inherent rudeness to their customers is across the board, I thought that perhaps I had simply gotten a particularly rude one, but nope - they are all like that. I don't see how they expect to keep customers or indeed their club going with that kind of service.

I think this ranty piece I put on my Blog covers why I joined and why I am leaving.

Just read it - wish I had done so before I joined up again after all these years - but it was my wife's Valentines Day gift (I got for me on her behalf) so will just ride the year out and then not re-register like last time. Annoyed though I chose the year that I am not particularly interested in the club exclusive figure (would have much preferred Runamuck from last year) or the Botcon toys they are releasing (have zero interest in Machine Wars Hoist).

Will see when I get home tonight if I have gotten a half decent response to my latest email, or just another curt reply. Will post it here either way.

[kup]

Don't expect good customer service from an organization that doesn't value it. They almost treat international club members as a nuisance rather than paying customers.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Here is the latest correspondence. Rather more civil on their part than the last:


THEM

Hi Trevor,

Yes, the posting was in August about the deadline, because that is when we took the orders. When we have new products to order, it is posted in the current information. For example, it would have said something like "Now taking pre-orders for the FSS". I don't know of anything on our website at this time that should have led you to believe that we were still taking orders for the FSS. I am very sorry that you were under that impression. I don't know yet what the prices will be on the single extra figures, but it will be higher than what the subscribers paid.

If you would like for us to refund your membership money, I will be happy to do that since you only joined to get the FSS. Just let me know. Thanks.

Karen


ME

Hi Karen,

It was the large shiny logo on this page: http://www.transformersclub.com/TCC_logins.cfm advertising the FSS that lead me to believe that it was an option for those that join, otherwise why would the link be there? Nowhere on the page does it indicate that this service is no longer available, it may perhaps be a good idea to put up a notation explaining this . However I do believe one should stick to their commitments and I appreciate the time you took to respond to my email, so I will remain a member of the TCC, though I may have to revisit that decision in a years time when it is time to renew my subscription.

Thanking you, Trevor Hopkins




Perhaps I should of bailed while I had the chance, but I made the decision to join so I figure I should live with it. Sucks that the individual figures will cost more than the FCC when they come out in the shop though, will prob not end up getting them considering how much postage is.