The Energon Pub

I see how it is.

UPS has rescheduled my delivery date as tomorrow. Thanks, guys. But they still list is as "on time". If they had to reschedule my delivery date, then it's not really on time anymore, is it?

Amazingly, mine showed up today. Now I really hope I get Rodimus for Xmas, although the turrent and roller are fun to play with in the meantime.

Mine just updated as delivered!

FansProject made good on their promise............



........Protector under my tree for Christmas!



Zeke approves!

Sidearm is the perfect size to aim Mastermind Creation's tender cannon. Yayness.

Incidentally, are Commander and Protector the only two figures that count as "Parallax"? Or do Defender and/or G3 also fit under that label?

I'm not exactly happy with BBTS right now. Yes, they did get it to me before Christmas, but it was like pulling teeth.

As soon as it said "your preordered items are available", I paid and hit "SHIP NOW!"...and then it sat. It sat all day Thursday and most of Friday, before stating it was in the warehouse. Then they tell me it shipped Saturday, but it didn't go out until Monday...late.

Mind you, others had their orders shipped and delivered before mine and I paid almost immediately, only to have it sit. Now, I know they were backed up catching up on shipping him and Sidearm plus all of the other POLs, and I understand that, but I can't figure out why they'd give me a tracking number that was essentially useless for the majority of the trek, said it shipped when it didn't (and yes, I realize that UPS doesn't pick up or deliver Ground on the weekends.) and why others did exactly what I did and they got their stuff before me.

Some of them even ordering it after I paid for mine. And, all along, no communication with them, whatsoever. I emailed them when the tracking number didn't work, but no info, no reason for all of the delays. If they had just said "We won't be able to get these out until Monday" or something like that, I would've handled it better.

Plus, the fact that they were the absolute LAST to get him in stock, makes me wonder why I even stick with them at this point. Yes, I do like the POL. Yes, their customer service is normally quite good, possibly the best, but this experience made me realize that they're not the only game in town and that I wasted time on them, when I could've had it from ToyArena, or even TFSource before BBTS made good on their part of it.

And, to top it off, the UPS truck was late (not BBTS's fault, I know), so they rescheduled my delivery date for Thursday instead of Wednesday as it said it would be, so yeah, it felt like pulling teeth just to get it to my front door.

With their prices fluctuating, shipping things out of order, and being the absolute last to the party 9 times out of 10, I just fail to see why I shouldn't try another retailer from this point on.

Autobot032 wrote:I'm not exactly happy with BBTS right now. Yes, they did get it to me before Christmas, but it was like pulling teeth.

As soon as it said "your preordered items are available", I paid and hit "SHIP NOW!"...and then it sat. It sat all day Thursday and most of Friday, before stating it was in the warehouse. Then they tell me it shipped Saturday, but it didn't go out until Monday...late.

Mind you, others had their orders shipped and delivered before mine and I paid almost immediately, only to have it sit. Now, I know they were backed up catching up on shipping him and Sidearm plus all of the other POLs, and I understand that, but I can't figure out why they'd give me a tracking number that was essentially useless for the majority of the trek, said it shipped when it didn't (and yes, I realize that UPS doesn't pick up or deliver Ground on the weekends.) and why others did exactly what I did and they got their stuff before me.

Some of them even ordering it after I paid for mine. And, all along, no communication with them, whatsoever. I emailed them when the tracking number didn't work, but no info, no reason for all of the delays. If they had just said "We won't be able to get these out until Monday" or something like that, I would've handled it better.

Plus, the fact that they were the absolute LAST to get him in stock, makes me wonder why I even stick with them at this point. Yes, I do like the POL. Yes, their customer service is normally quite good, possibly the best, but this experience made me realize that they're not the only game in town and that I wasted time on them, when I could've had it from ToyArena, or even TFSource before BBTS made good on their part of it.

And, to top it off, the UPS truck was late (not BBTS's fault, I know), so they rescheduled my delivery date for Thursday instead of Wednesday as it said it would be, so yeah, it felt like pulling teeth just to get it to my front door.

With their prices fluctuating, shipping things out of order, and being the absolute last to the party 9 times out of 10, I just fail to see why I shouldn't try another retailer from this point on.

Heh, yours must have been on the same late truck mine was. I hit "ship" as soon as Protector came in. Fulfilled Friday, shipping label printed on Saturday, picked up Monday, scheduled delivery for Wednesday, rescheduled for Thursday.

However, I feel the opposite that you do - I feel like the turnaround on the warehouse this time was faster than normal. For them to fill the order the day after I hit ship and to actually send it out on the next business day, that's about one or two days faster than normal, at least in my experience.

Autobot032 wrote:I'm not exactly happy with BBTS right now. Yes, they did get it to me before Christmas, but it was like pulling teeth.

As soon as it said "your preordered items are available", I paid and hit "SHIP NOW!"...and then it sat. It sat all day Thursday and most of Friday, before stating it was in the warehouse. Then they tell me it shipped Saturday, but it didn't go out until Monday...late.

Mind you, others had their orders shipped and delivered before mine and I paid almost immediately, only to have it sit. Now, I know they were backed up catching up on shipping him and Sidearm plus all of the other POLs, and I understand that, but I can't figure out why they'd give me a tracking number that was essentially useless for the majority of the trek, said it shipped when it didn't (and yes, I realize that UPS doesn't pick up or deliver Ground on the weekends.) and why others did exactly what I did and they got their stuff before me.

Some of them even ordering it after I paid for mine. And, all along, no communication with them, whatsoever. I emailed them when the tracking number didn't work, but no info, no reason for all of the delays. If they had just said "We won't be able to get these out until Monday" or something like that, I would've handled it better.

Plus, the fact that they were the absolute LAST to get him in stock, makes me wonder why I even stick with them at this point. Yes, I do like the POL. Yes, their customer service is normally quite good, possibly the best, but this experience made me realize that they're not the only game in town and that I wasted time on them, when I could've had it from ToyArena, or even TFSource before BBTS made good on their part of it.

And, to top it off, the UPS truck was late (not BBTS's fault, I know), so they rescheduled my delivery date for Thursday instead of Wednesday as it said it would be, so yeah, it felt like pulling teeth just to get it to my front door.

With their prices fluctuating, shipping things out of order, and being the absolute last to the party 9 times out of 10, I just fail to see why I shouldn't try another retailer from this point on.

Same scenario here. Hit the ship button as soon as my order had been paid on Thursday, got the ship notification on Saturday, actually left their warehouse Monday afternoon, arrived at my home on Wednesday. I see the situation a little differently from you though. You have to factor in increased business for BBTS and the shipping industry due to Christmas and a highly sought after item coming in stock at the same time with most people hitting the ship button at the same time. You also have to realize that when you get that shipping notification all that really means is they printed the shipping label, in our cases Saturday. I was actually surprised to get my notification on Saturday, that meant they were actually there working on the weekend to get stuff out for the Christmas rush. Also as you said UPS doesn't pick up on the weekend, meaning there's no way your package is going to ship before Monday. Lastly my tracking was jacked up as well. When it finally left Eagan it basically went off the map until it showed up in Oklahoma City (that's where I'm at). Normally I would get real time updates from several other points along the way. I would assume that because their tracking system was under a lot of stress for the holidays. In the end though it made it here a day before it was actually scheduled to be delivered. Don't get me wrong I'm as impatient as you are and I was blowing their site up hoping for updates only to be disappointed. I'm not saying you shouldn't try other on-line retailers if that's what you want to do. I just personally feel the benefits BBTS offers outweigh spreading my business all over the internet in hopes of getting a particular item a couple of days early.

WeatherManNX01 wrote:However, I feel the opposite that you do - I feel like the turnaround on the warehouse this time was faster than normal. For them to fill the order the day after I hit ship and to actually send it out on the next business day, that's about one or two days faster than normal, at least in my experience.

That's what I keep hearing. It used to be that BBTS busted their butts getting items packed and shipped out in 1-2 days, then it turned into 2-3, and now I'm seeing complaints of items sitting in the warehouse for a WEEK before shipping. And that's not counting the time of when it changes from paid to warehouse.

As time goes on, BBTS starts slipping up more and more. I mean, don't get me wrong, they still deliver on their promises...for the most part, but they're definitely getting lax in some areas.

I'm also hearing problems such as people building a POL, having it setup to be sent, only to have customer service say "We accidentally sold out of this item, we've placed a store credit on your account" or something to that effect. Problem is, they're one of the last places to get the items and everyone else is sold out at the time, so what good will the store credit do you then?

I don't expect perfection, not at all, but I do miss the old BBTS.

I will agree their warehouse time has increased since I first started ordering from them about three years ago. Used to my order would ship the same day I hit the ship button, not it's usually a couple of days. I don't really know much about them, but I would assume they are a fairly small operation. I doubt they have really increased the size of their staff to keep over head low and maximize profits as they've grown which of course would lead to slower processing times. That's purely assumption on my part though.