The Energon Pub

Just for the record, NONE of you owe them an apology for placing multiple orders. The customers should be apologized to for this situation, not the other way around. I'm tired of people trying to make us feel guilty for being a fan and seeing people get abused like that. We're the customers. As customers, we should be happy and satisfied ... not feeling guilty for trying to purchase products from a company.

This forum is great. I rushed home, jumped on TFCC to place the order, and gasped when the order did not go through. Immediately my next click was Seibertron.com to figure out what was going - and sure enough you guys are already discussing it.

So keep us informed when it goes back up.

Seibertron wrote:Just for the record, NONE of you owe them an apology for placing multiple orders. We're the ones that are owed an apology for this debacle. I'm tired of people trying to make us feel guilty for being a fan and seeing people get abused like that. We're the customers. It's up to them to make us satisfied as their customers, not guilty.

Agreed. I'd also beg to ask that they deeply evaluate how they approach the pre-order process. "Ease off" (from FB page)?!?! Don't you realize that fans have been let down before, having items sell out before they are even aware the item has been offered?

I wouldn't be freaking out, refreshing this topic thread, TFCC's Facebook page, or calling both the 800 and local customer service #s if I thought I could just "ease off" a day or two and order at my leisure.

Do they charge your card at the time of order or do they wait until the figures are in stock?

I'm nearly 99% positive the charge it at the time the product ships.

Seibertron wrote:Just for the record, NONE of you owe them an apology for placing multiple orders. The customers should be apologized to for this situation, not the other way around. I'm tired of people trying to make us feel guilty for being a fan and seeing people get abused like that. We're the customers. As customers, we should be happy and satisfied ... not feeling guilty for trying to purchase products from a company.

I still personally feel that buying more than one, unless you are buying for someone else is a dick move, as the bottom line is that you are taking a figure from the hands of another fan just so you can have an extra box on your shelf or whatever. That's just my feeling.

But it's true that the Club really need to limit purchases per membership. Everyone knows this figure will be a valuable one and there is no process in place to stop scalping.

Hey. While fans should be understanding... I also have to realize that they need to plan for this. They hyped it up and separated the pair of Runabout/Runamuck ... set up the flood of people. Knowing they run JoeCon and Botcon and the clubs, they should have the experience to be able to deal with this. And knowing the price, the money to pay for the service, I'd think.

Apparently they'll be back up on the club store tomorrow.

EDIT: And now they've issued a hilariously passive-aggressive email to that effect.

quote Facebook:

"The problem is not with our server but rather with the company who processes the credit card charges. Their system is bottlenecking as multiple transactions are hitting them in the same moment of time. We will resume pre-orders as soon as we solve this problem. We apologize for the inconvenience. It will most likely be in the morning before we have a solution worked out. Thank you for your enthusiasm. You guys are too powerful for earth technology! "

sadly, even the figures being taken off the market temporarily wil not put my mind at ease, just bad timing for me personally. So again, if anyone is able to order an extra, i have a Punch/Counterpunch to trade for it.

gothsaurus wrote:Hey. While fans should be understanding... I also have to realize that they need to plan for this. They hyped it up and separated the pair of Runabout/Runamuck ... set up the flood of people. Knowing they run JoeCon and Botcon and the clubs, they should have the experience to be able to deal with this. And knowing the price, the money to pay for the service, I'd think.

I agree with you completely. This is making me regret signing up for the membership.

Trying to order from their is a joke!

necr0blivion wrote:Agreed. I'd also beg to ask that they deeply evaluate how they approach the pre-order process. "Ease off" (from FB page)?!?! Don't you realize that fans have been let down before, having items sell out before they are even aware the item has been offered?

I wouldn't be freaking out, refreshing this topic thread, TFCC's Facebook page, or calling both the 800 and local customer service #s if I thought I could just "ease off" a day or two and order at my leisure.

I completely agree. If you build the hype to levels like this, then this is the results.

Diem wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Just for the record, NONE of you owe them an apology for placing multiple orders. The customers should be apologized to for this situation, not the other way around. I'm tired of people trying to make us feel guilty for being a fan and seeing people get abused like that. We're the customers. As customers, we should be happy and satisfied ... not feeling guilty for trying to purchase products from a company.

I still personally feel that buying more than one, unless you are buying for someone else is a dick move, as the bottom line is that you are taking a figure from the hands of another fan just so you can have an extra box on your shelf or whatever. That's just my feeling.

But it's true that the Club really need to limit purchases per membership. Everyone knows this figure will be a valuable one and there is no process in place to stop scalping.

I think you misread what I wrote. People were apologizing on Twitter for placing multiple orders after their first order failed and after they read the tweet from TF Club that . I wasn't talking about quantities.

https://twitter.com/#!/The_TF_Club/stat ... 8380975105

DO NOT try another order. We will send message out as soon as fixed. Support is on it right now. We won't run out.

funeralthirst7 wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:Hey. While fans should be understanding... I also have to realize that they need to plan for this. They hyped it up and separated the pair of Runabout/Runamuck ... set up the flood of people. Knowing they run JoeCon and Botcon and the clubs, they should have the experience to be able to deal with this. And knowing the price, the money to pay for the service, I'd think.

I agree with you completely. This is making me regret signing up for the membership.

I don't mean to sound like an apologist but if it was the credit card company that done goofed there's not really much TCC could have done about this. I used to work for a credit card company and I was once there at midnight on New Year's Eve. Even a major bank, that knew that a tidal wave of transactions was coming, temporarily folded.

Seibertron wrote:

necr0blivion wrote:Agreed. I'd also beg to ask that they deeply evaluate how they approach the pre-order process. "Ease off" (from FB page)?!?! Don't you realize that fans have been let down before, having items sell out before they are even aware the item has been offered?

I wouldn't be freaking out, refreshing this topic thread, TFCC's Facebook page, or calling both the 800 and local customer service #s if I thought I could just "ease off" a day or two and order at my leisure.

I completely agree. If you build the hype to levels like this, then this is the results.

First the first editions, now this. They are getting complacent, they think they can treat us like crap because we let them. They make bubblebee a slightly different shade of yellow, and we snap him up. Guys, I think we need to start boycotting hasbro untill they wise the hell up

JRFitzpatrick7 wrote:sadly, even the figures being taken off the market temporarily wil not put my mind at ease, just bad timing for me personally. So again, if anyone is able to order an extra, i have a Punch/Counterpunch to trade for it.

PM me, we'll talk.

I'm waking up when my wife does at 5 AM tomorrow morning so I don't miss out(we get paid at about 4AM tomorrow).

Diem wrote:

funeralthirst7 wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:Hey. While fans should be understanding... I also have to realize that they need to plan for this. They hyped it up and separated the pair of Runabout/Runamuck ... set up the flood of people. Knowing they run JoeCon and Botcon and the clubs, they should have the experience to be able to deal with this. And knowing the price, the money to pay for the service, I'd think.

I agree with you completely. This is making me regret signing up for the membership.

I don't mean to sound like an apologist but if it was the credit card company that done goofed there's not really much TCC could have done about this. I used to work for a credit card company and I was once there at midnight on New Year's Eve. Even a major bank, that knew that a tidal wave of transactions was coming, temporarily folded.

And I used to work for various e-commerce web development companies over the course of almost 10 years. This wasn't a massive rush in programming terms. If there truly were 8 to 10 orders per second happening, it wouldn't shut down the credit card processors -- I can assure you of that. Major banks deal with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of customers. Transformers hobby isn't that big. Maybe once people were placing multiple orders after their first order failed. Just do the math ... 8 orders every 1 second times 60 seconds times 30 minutes = 14,400 orders every 30 minutes. Most of the Club / Convention figures have runs between 1,000 and 5,000 if I recall correctly (most on the 1500 side of things).

sorry guys. Those 14,000 orders were all me trying to get an order through. My bad.

Seibertron wrote:

Diem wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Just for the record, NONE of you owe them an apology for placing multiple orders. The customers should be apologized to for this situation, not the other way around. I'm tired of people trying to make us feel guilty for being a fan and seeing people get abused like that. We're the customers. As customers, we should be happy and satisfied ... not feeling guilty for trying to purchase products from a company.

I still personally feel that buying more than one, unless you are buying for someone else is a dick move, as the bottom line is that you are taking a figure from the hands of another fan just so you can have an extra box on your shelf or whatever. That's just my feeling.

But it's true that the Club really need to limit purchases per membership. Everyone knows this figure will be a valuable one and there is no process in place to stop scalping.

I think you misread what I wrote. People were apologizing on Twitter for placing multiple orders after their first order failed and after they read the tweet from TF Club that . I wasn't talking about quantities.

https://twitter.com/#!/The_TF_Club/stat ... 8380975105

DO NOT try another order. We will send message out as soon as fixed. Support is on it right now. We won't run out.

Ah yes, I misunderstood. Yes, there is no need for people to apologise for that.

Dr. Heavy B wrote:First the first editions, now this. They are getting complacent, they think they can treat us like crap because we let them. They make bubblebee a slightly different shade of yellow, and we snap him up. Guys, I think we need to start boycotting hasbro untill they wise the hell up

FunPub and Hasbro are different entities, albeit with a lot of interaction. And while I do think the whole First Edition thing was disgustingly cynical I am very excited for my Runabout and I was not surprised that it quickly became unavailable one way or another.

I'm a bit surprised these two were so popular. Looks like I missed my chance for now. I guess it wouldn't bother me, save for the fact that 2/3 of these were likely purchased with the sole intention of scapling them on ebay. Sometimes I hate this hobby.

Seibertron wrote:

Diem wrote:

funeralthirst7 wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:Hey. While fans should be understanding... I also have to realize that they need to plan for this. They hyped it up and separated the pair of Runabout/Runamuck ... set up the flood of people. Knowing they run JoeCon and Botcon and the clubs, they should have the experience to be able to deal with this. And knowing the price, the money to pay for the service, I'd think.

I agree with you completely. This is making me regret signing up for the membership.

I don't mean to sound like an apologist but if it was the credit card company that done goofed there's not really much TCC could have done about this. I used to work for a credit card company and I was once there at midnight on New Year's Eve. Even a major bank, that knew that a tidal wave of transactions was coming, temporarily folded.

And I used to work for various e-commerce web development companies over the course of almost 10 years. This wasn't a massive rush in programming terms. If there truly were 8 to 10 orders per second happening, it wouldn't shut down the credit card processors -- I can assure you of that. Major banks deal with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of customers. Transformers hobby isn't that big. Maybe once people were placing multiple orders after their first order failed. Just do the math ... 8 orders every 1 second times 60 seconds times 30 minutes = 14,400 orders every 30 minutes. Most of the Club / Convention figures have runs between 1,000 and 5,000 if I recall correctly (most on the 1500 side of things).

Haha well I guess you know more about it than me then! I just think it's a lot easier to bash FunPub than it is to be in their shoes sometimes.

dedcat wrote:I'm a bit surprised these two were so popular. Looks like I missed my chance for now. I guess it wouldn't bother me, save for the fact that 2/3 of these were likely purchased with the sole intention of scapling them on ebay. Sometimes I hate this hobby.

They should be available tomorrow. They're having problems with their credit card processor so orders weren't going through.

Well I have to actually time myself correctly then? Screw it. I really don't care enough to actually try.

dedcat wrote:I'm a bit surprised these two were so popular. Looks like I missed my chance for now. I guess it wouldn't bother me, save for the fact that 2/3 of these were likely purchased with the sole intention of scapling them on ebay. Sometimes I hate this hobby.

I don't think Drift is that popular...personally I wouldn't be surprised if it drops in price.