The Energon Pub

News Credits: 5749 · Thu Mar 07, 2013 4:44 pm

The official Transformers Collectors' Club has sent out the following email regarding registration for this year's BotCon. Registration has been delayed until mid next week. See the email below:

Hello all,

This is going out the current and former club members. We have decided to delay the BotCon registration start to the middle of next week as we have discovered a flaw in the store software that has been deleting recently renewed memberships.

This has only occurred to memberships that were declined two times (credit card not on file for the first two attempts or credit card declined). What it is has been doing is randomly deleting the approved memberships after the third attempt. We have the software company working on fixing this issue.

Meanwhile... we are auditing the entire data file to find the accounts who had good transactions but their membership is missing. It's going to take about 20 man hours to finish this task. In order to make sure everyone's log in works for BotCon registration, we have decided to delay registration until the middle of next week.

After we finish our audit, I'll send out another email to the entire group so that you can go test your account and make sure you see your membership. Your log in will then work correctly for BotCon registration.

I apologize for the delay but this will make everything much smoother and everyone much happier. We don't want you have have any issues with your registration or miss out because items sell out quickly.

Meanwhile, below is what I sent last week so make sure you have read all of the Information and FAQs before registration starts.

Thanks!

Brian

FROM LAST WEEK:

We have uploaded the BotCon brochure! Please go to BotCon.com and click on Information.

You will have approximately a week to read the information and ask questions before we open registration sometime next week. Before we open registration or send a question, please review the answers by clicking on the FAQ.

You need to CHECK your account at TransformersClub.com/shop to ensure that your account is current as you may need to renew in order to receive the membership discounts. If you are receiving this email, you have an active account with the club, but make sure you know your log-in and password (can be retrieved at TransformersClub.com/shop click on My Account).

If you are registering with another member, you will need THEIR log-in and password to receive member pricing.

If you complete your order with non-member pricing, we CANNOT adjust your pricing. Please understand what you are ordering and confirm the pricing before you check out. If you do not think you are getting the correct pricing, do not continue. If you continue, you are agreeing to the pricing you are being presented.

Per your request, we have added another 2 minutes to the timer.

We suggest that you make a list for each person of the items you want to select for them BEFORE you begin registration. Then you can work from that list.

Please take a look at the souvenir T-shirt and Hat you can add to your order at the end. Images of these items will be on the BotCon site in the next couple of days.

If you have not read the Information tab brochure, please do so before you register as you have 10 minutes to complete your registration before the system puts your items back into stock. You cannot hold them in your cart longer than that amount of time, however you can start over.

We do reserve the right to limit any member's quantities if we deem them excessive.

Please note that we have added a NEW item this year. Because of the concern of people not being able to participate in the class, we are offering to each registered attending member the opportunity to purchase an assembled unpainted Class Figure. This is limited to one per person, per package ordered. However, that person must pickup their items at registration. DO NOT create phantom attendees to get additional Class Figures as you will not be able to pick them up. This is NOT a souvenir and is NOT subject to the Golden Ticket souvenir rules. In addition, we will not pre-announce the figure or class kit mold, it will be a surprise!

I'll send out an email when the link is live.

See you in San Diego!

Brian

News Credits: 462 · Thu Mar 07, 2013 4:46 pm

Thank goodness. This'll give me more time to get ready.

Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:05 pm

Wow! This is THE MOST SHOCKING THING I'VE EVER HEARD OF!

News Credits: 3 · Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:47 pm

Oh well. I won't be attending. No money to do so, and nothing really worth it.

Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:30 pm

So, what is it with FunPub, and credit cards? If I read that e-mail correctly, they are having problems processing credit cards. Denying them twice, then deleting full memberships. I've been a member (of TFCC, been a member here since 2003) for a few years now, and you're telling me there's a chance that my membership renewal will delete my account? How does that work?

Now I know what folks are thinking, Why is this schmuck bitchin? I've already checked my account, and I still have my membership, but how many people are out of luck at the moment? How many times are we gonna have to deal with credit card issues with the club? Just a question for fellow TransFans to think about...

Let the flaming begin...

News Credits: 3 · Thu Mar 07, 2013 6:36 pm

Stryfe Convoy wrote:So, what is it with FunPub, and credit cards? If I read that e-mail correctly, they are having problems processing credit cards. Denying them twice, then deleting full memberships. I've been a member (of TFCC, been a member here since 2003) for a few years now, and you're telling me there's a chance that my membership renewal will delete my account? How does that work?

Now I know what folks are thinking, Why is this schmuck bitchin? I've already checked my account, and I still have my membership, but how many people are out of luck at the moment? How many times are we gonna have to deal with credit card issues with the club? Just a question for fellow TransFans to think about...

Let the flaming begin...

Well, given I will most likely never sign-up for the TFCC, mainly due the fact that I'm paying for 6 magazines (one year) and a fig that could be crap, when I get 12 magazines (2 years) and the occasional comic from LEGO for FREE!! Also, as far as I'm concerned, the only club figures I want are the Nexus Prime combiner figs, and those are expensive enough already. So, FunPub will have to WOW me before I give them any of my money.

News Credits: 461 · Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:18 pm

yea this is the main reason I will not renew my membership with them. Because I DON'T TRUST THEM. If I decide I want any of the figures I'll just get it off BBTS or something.

News Credits: 11 · Fri Mar 08, 2013 10:39 am

ILL-Star wrote:Wow! This is THE MOST SHOCKING THING I'VE EVER HEARD OF!

Fri Mar 08, 2013 6:44 pm

I hate to be Mr. Negative about all this. I mean we've had a club for eight years, we have a good official convention and we have over 100+ exclusives. And I'm happy about that. But how is it that, despite this, everything seems to be amateur hour with FunPub time and again.

I get that stuff happens beyond an organization's control and I sympathize when they do. But it's when stuff is completely within their control and gets mucked up, particularly after so many years in the business, that I scratch my head.

Since last year, we have watched the club deal with the ramifications of their site being attacked. Not their fault precisely, although the ease at which the theft was undertaken does not fill me with great confidence. But a year and a half later and they still don't have a functioning website like they did prior to the attack. No message board in 1.5 years. That's a big failure regardless of how much you used the site or not.

Last year, the GIJoe club put its members through great anxiety and challenge when they last minute changed the date of their convention by two weeks. Now the club tried to mitigate the damage and stuff happens but wishing can't put all the blame on someone else's shoulders. FunPub has to wear some of it.

And I get that production of toys is out of their hands but everytime I turn around there is another delay. The GIJoe 13 figure set - delayed. The Transformer six-pack - delayed. And now a delay on when we can go online and register, because a website that was established to fix all the problems that led to the difficulties last year is still not working. 1.5 year later. Not filling me with confidence, particularly when I read the FAQ and some of their typically condescending responses.

Your website doesn't work and I get condescension? Something about throwing rocks in a glass house is coming to mind...

I want FunPub to do well. But sometimes I wonder if they want it as much as I do.

Sat Mar 09, 2013 6:08 pm

I think their payment processing system has bugs beyond just what they are describing here. Although my account wasn't deleted, it failed to properly renew my subscription this past week, even though I would swear I had everything set up right. I didn't know anything was wrong until I got a message telling me my subscription had expired.