Over-Run and Shattered Glass Drift Pre-Order Status Update

They really need to inject some funds into better equipment for themselves. I still cannot understand with all the money/interest that is coming their way, to just treat this as some lazy Sunday hobby. I am so glad I am passing on these.

Now this is the type of update that's worthwhile. Reason for issues, plenty of stock available, and notification coming. I realize the Club was trying to handle the wave of complaints as they were trying to come to terms with the actual issue going on, and this left little time to go into "PR" mode, but it's refreshing to get a response like this less than 24 hrs after the incident.


Thanks for the very substantial information, I'm sure many people like me can relax a bit now until the next prob er... cycle to preorder.

madplanet wrote:They really need to inject some funds into better equipment for themselves. I still cannot understand with all the money/interest that is coming their way, to just treat this as some lazy Sunday hobby. I am so glad I am passing on these.

In their defense and to play devil's advocate, the money they make from the Club memberships, the 2 conventions and whatever exclusives they do throughout the year has to go toward paying their annual salaries and any benefits they have (such as health). While it seems like a lot, it takes some really good accounting to stretch those extra funds earned throughout the rest of the year when they aren't making money but still have expenses (wages, server costs, website upgrades, cost of printing the bi-monthly newsletter, etc).

breastforce wrote:Could someone confirm that if I have an email stating I have ordered successfully then I have definitely got my pre-order sorted? I'm assuming that is the case, but I'm never one to make an ass out of u or me.

TFCC wrote: If you did not get a credit card processing error, your order should be OK.

TFCC wrote:If you didn't get a processing error on your card, you should be fine.

If you got an email and your card was charged they say you're okay, but personally I wouldn't blame you for double checking.

They really need a better method. I don't get why this is like playing the stock market

When people update their membership, there should be an option to check off either of the exclusives. The member is automatically billed and the exclusive is automatically sent to him/her just like the free figure is. Extra stock can then be sold after for people who want additional figures.

Why does this happen every year? You know it wouldn't hurt if they updated their site and everything every now and then. Seriously, Auto Assembly's website has updated just recently and it actually looks and works like a professional website now. While the website for the official Transformers club and convention made and organized by professionals looks and works like one made by a kid while learning html at school. In short just like the one I made back in the day.

According to the TFCC facebook page, "We may have to change to a new credit card processing company and this could take a little bit of time. Again, we appreciate your patience." So take that for what it's worth.

....20% of the figures sold within the half hour they were up and we're still sure everyone who got Runamuck will get Runabout? O_o

Pete@BotCon wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:I see that everyone has been very concerned and upset over the whole ordeal.

I just want to tell everyone...I just want to make it clear...

My order went through. We're cool.

It's all good.

No need to get upset on my account.

(nah, seriously, it did go through and then I walked away from the whole thing to find out that the credit card site went into meltdown mode? Bullshit. If it's not one thing it's another.

There are a variety of solutions to avoiding this kind of PR, this very bad PR...

You should **** know better FP. Plain and simple, even if it isn't a problem on your site of the transaction. You should know better. Shameful.)

I am not sure how we should have known that a company we have been dealing with for years, and have never had a real issue with, would have run in to this problem. Every order that I know of before yesterday had been processed normally and efficiently...

I know it is easy to pile on with the scathing comments, but it really boils down to this. The Club had grown by leaps and bounds over the last couple years. The amount of traffic we saw yesterday was the most we have even seen in a 10 minute window. We had no reason to think something would go awry as BotCon traffic was pretty intense for the first hour as well and everything went smoothly... While our server handled all the traffic just fine both times, the CC company ran in to an issue, though as was noted earlier, this was the most we have ever seen in such a short time span.

We were on the phone immediately with the CC company and intensely conveyed our concerns and our displeasure on both our parts and the parts of our members.

We are working as absolutely as fast as we can to make sure this is remedied and these toys are put back up for members to order as the last thing we want are any issues in ordering these great figures.

I realize you're working to remedy the situation that's good.

But really, real talk here...

Every year. Every year there is some kind of issue related to orders, pre-orders, and demand. Whether it's club toys or Botcon, you guys are always playing catch up. There's always a problem.

You can't say that the demand was unexpected. You really can not do this when you hype a figure across various media sites for weeks.

You follow it up by pulling the old concert trick of making the people wait for hours and hours before the band appears on stage so that they are whipped into a frenzy of excitement when the event actually begins.

You put orders up late in the day so that there was no real opportunity to fix the problem or allow a roll out of orders across time zones as people woke up.

You are following up on a year where the club exclusive sold out in a day. That followed up on a year where the club exclusive figure was flat out under-produced.

I repeat myself, with all due respect...You should know better.

The e-commerce that the Club relies upon is lousy. Sorry, I am not trying to be a hater, I buy all your stuff year in and year out. I buy toys from various countries, some of which have more hype around them and competition for them than any TF exclusive does. Your practices are the worst.

This is your consumer base telling you something not out of rage or frustration, but as a purely factual issue.

Why can the club not take pre-orders prior to production so that this stuff is never a problem again? Even if the logistics require something extra on your end, wouldn't that be better than the current situation?

Right now, the only rational explanation I can come up with is that somehow, FunPub views this clamor as a positive reaction to its product. Crashed sites, issues with an over-load of orders, and 15 pages of frustration here (not even factoring in Twitter, FB, and TFW) is not a positive response. I would rather see you all grasp this dragon by the throat and be heroes.

I know...I know that the CC company is "at fault" here, but the situation is one created by a lack of preparation in other realms.

Prime Evil wrote:According to the TFCC facebook page, "We may have to change to a new credit card processing company and this could take a little bit of time. Again, we appreciate your patience." So take that for what it's worth.

Angry worded bickering finally comes to a head. They're actually changing it. On the other hand, it could be a change to something worse, you never know.

I feel better this morning. Less pessimistic. I'll go ahead and get this sucker. Hell if I regret it I can trade him for a G2 Ramjet. Though I had the opportunity in the past and didn't.

Edit:

Counterpunch wrote:You are following up on a year where the club exclusive sold out in a day. That followed up on a year where the club exclusive figure was flat out under-produced.

Astro Train and Airazor happened. Which funnily enough, Airazor is probably my favorite exclusive, she seems kinda underrated to me. But they did not sell out for a long time. It seems that that one mistake was enough to permanently convince them to produce as little as possible so they can sell them all out immediately rather than sitting on stock.

I'm sure the timing of all of this hasn't helped. A lot of fans are pretty hot about the First Edition absurdity and now this. I know it's not intended this way ... but the fandom has taken quite a beating during the past two weeks. I'm looking forward to the upswing when it kicks in. Hopefully Toy Fair 2012 will help turn things around. Or that could continue the fandom's beating. Guess we'll find out in 12 days.

Seibertron wrote:I'm sure the timing of all of this hasn't helped. A lot of fans are pretty hot about the First Edition absurdity and now this. I know it's not intended this way ... but the fandom has taken quite a beating during the past two weeks. I'm looking forward to the upswing when it kicks in. Hopefully Toy Fair 2012 will help turn things around. Or that could continue the fandom's beating. Guess we'll find out in 12 days.

Not to mention a lackluster BotCon set, the whole hotel deposit fiasco, and several Twitter PR nightmares with snarky comments directed at or about paying customers. Fun Pub is not making friends with any of this.

Vicalliose wrote:Edit:

Counterpunch wrote:You are following up on a year where the club exclusive sold out in a day. That followed up on a year where the club exclusive figure was flat out under-produced.

Astro Train and Airazor happened. Which funnily enough, Airazor is probably my favorite exclusive, she seems kinda underrated to me. But they did not sell out for a long time. It seems that that one mistake was enough to permanently convince them to produce as little as possible so they can sell them all out immediately rather than sitting on stock.

Astrotrain and Airazor happened 5 years ago. If they think that 5 years back has any effect on what is happening today, then there's more problems than we see.

Mkall wrote:

Vicalliose wrote:Edit:

Counterpunch wrote:You are following up on a year where the club exclusive sold out in a day. That followed up on a year where the club exclusive figure was flat out under-produced.

Astro Train and Airazor happened. Which funnily enough, Airazor is probably my favorite exclusive, she seems kinda underrated to me. But they did not sell out for a long time. It seems that that one mistake was enough to permanently convince them to produce as little as possible so they can sell them all out immediately rather than sitting on stock.

Astrotrain and Airazor happened 5 years ago. If they think that 5 years back has any effect on what is happening today, then there's more problems than we see.

It does have an impact. Hopefully lessons were learned, but it appears to me that they weren't. Airazor is an amazing figure in my opinion. Great head sculpt, underrated like Vicalliose said. However, it would have been better to have had that type of 2nd tier character as a convention exclusive or paired with another toy that fans would be rabid about. I don't think an update of Airazor was on the top of fan lists. Astrotain was definitely not the figure that Airazor should have been released with, especially with the failed head sculpt that doesn't look much like the designs we were shown. Unfortunately, the problem with Astrotrain didn't end with Astrotrain. The lesson wasn't learned from that situation as there have been many problems with head sculpts and character choices since then.

While we're being really tough on the Club/BotCon right now, I hope they understand that it's a form of tough love (at least from me, it is). I think we all ultimately really want the same thing ... we want to see them succeed. We really do. It's just frustrating that every year there's something and that this has been going on for 8 years. At this point, between Transformers and GiJoe, this whole process should be pretty seamless. I just want them to get to the point that, problems like this are few and far between (instead of waiting for the next problem to arise), and that they become so successful that there are exclusives coming out every month ... or that we get to the point where there are "figure" subscriptions (similar to MattyCollector.com) where we get an exclusive figure that we PRE-ORDERED every quarter or every month. That would be awesome. That would mean that the Club business model was a success. It should be so successful that they're taking on other brands besides Transformers and GIJoe (unless they have an exclusive contract for Hasbro only brands) ... but then where is My Little Pony or other brands that Hasbro owns?

I want to see the kinks removed from the system, and see this thing go to places none of pictured them growing to. I want to see their business model be a success, see us fans happy, and see them grow as a business!

Just got email we can't order till tmrw

Seibertron wrote: It should be so successful that they're taking on other brands besides Transformers and GIJoe (unless they have an exclusive contract for Hasbro only brands) ... but then where is My Little Pony or other brands that Hasbro owns?

And of course the My Little Pony/Transformers crossovers.

Ultra gordon wrote:Just got email we can't order till tmrw

On the plus side the email also includes a link to allow those who were not sure if their order went through or not to confirm it. That's a very good thing.

Diem wrote:

Ultra gordon wrote:Just got email we can't order till tmrw

On the plus side the email also includes a link to allow those who were not sure if their order went through or not to confirm it. That's a very good thing.

At least now I can stop starring obssesivly at twitter, facebook, and seibertron waiting for updates.

Dr. Heavy B wrote:

Diem wrote:

Ultra gordon wrote:Just got email we can't order till tmrw

On the plus side the email also includes a link to allow those who were not sure if their order went through or not to confirm it. That's a very good thing.

At least now I can stop starring obssesivly at twitter, facebook, and seibertron waiting for updates.

On the other hand I just blew an entire day I could have used to go out of town and run errands.

I could have also been doing something else productive, come to think of it. All I've done is stare at this screen, watching videos, eating chips and keeping an eye on TFCC to make sure I don't miss it.

Yes judging by my words today I'm considerably more enthusiastic than I was yesterday, and nervous I'd miss my chance.

TFCC has issued another updated on the pre-order status of the 2012 club exclusives Over-Run and Shattered Glass Drift. They are switching to a new credit card processing company and pre-orders are not expected to be back up until tomorrow.

Diem wrote:

Ultra gordon wrote:Just got email we can't order till tmrw

On the plus side the email also includes a link to allow those who were not sure if their order went through or not to confirm it. That's a very good thing.

In a bit of irony, I had to open my spam folder to even find the e-mail. I actually got several e-mails from them, one of which confirming that my order had in fact gone through.

As far as the delay, I think the fandom would be far more forgiving if they didn't always have such a short window laid down by FunPub on the other end which in the past has included things such as a day or less for an exclusive (and this year the BotCon hotel, for the most part) and less than a week for last year's BotCon Primus packages.

I'd just like to formally say this is all my fault,...i was the guy who goaded them into starting the pre-order when they did,...(go look at their facebook page, and read the comments on the SG Drift picture on their wall,...I'm Jay) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=290913730967612&set=a.152760178116302.31570.151255348266785&type=1&ref=nf haha

anyways, to make a long story short, I at least got my order in,....i'm pretty sure my lightning fast fingers got the VERY first order in,...my order number is 60600,...and I double dog dare someone to have a lower number,...if ya do you win a nice shiny penny! (maybe we can have a mini-contest here to see who DID get the first order, i'm just kinda curious actually)

Your skills are weak, young jedi. 605XX's are the realm of the dark side of the force.

Well, my order still shows up using the link they provided, though I never did get a confirmation email. Hopefully my order did go through. I won't know for at least a few more days though most likely, because my bank is quite slow at updating recent transactions to my account. That means if it didn't go through, by the time I find out for certain, it will likely be too late as they'll be sold out.

I have two options here: 1. Leave it be and hope for the best (i.e., assume the order did go through as their website shows) 2. Purchase a second set and potentially end up with 2x the figures I wanted and end up wasting all that money.

I'm going with option 1. for now, I just hope I'm right .

edit: I just checked my email (again), and I finally DID get an order confirmation. Thank goodness. Looks like I was one of the lucky ones.

I hope that everyone else is able to get their figures as well once the site goes back up.

Court Jester wrote:Your skills are weak, young jedi. 605XX's are the realm of the dark side of the force.

haha, i use the Schwartz anyways, so it's all good,...and yea, i got the "up" side of the Schawartz, cause the "up" side is always more powerful than the "down" side....

vaporretarder wrote:I'd just like to formally say this is all my fault,...i was the guy who goaded them into starting the pre-order when they did,...(go look at their facebook page, and read the comments on the SG Drift picture on their wall,...I'm Jay) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=290913730967612&set=a.152760178116302.31570.151255348266785&type=1&ref=nf haha

anyways, to make a long story short, I at least got my order in,....i'm pretty sure my lightning fast fingers got the VERY first order in,...my order number is 60600,...and I double dog dare someone to have a lower number,...if ya do you win a nice shiny penny! (maybe we can have a mini-contest here to see who DID get the first order, i'm just kinda curious actually)

60575 for me.

Diem wrote:

vaporretarder wrote:I'd just like to formally say this is all my fault,...i was the guy who goaded them into starting the pre-order when they did,...(go look at their facebook page, and read the comments on the SG Drift picture on their wall,...I'm Jay) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=290913730967612&set=a.152760178116302.31570.151255348266785&type=1&ref=nf haha

anyways, to make a long story short, I at least got my order in,....i'm pretty sure my lightning fast fingers got the VERY first order in,...my order number is 60600,...and I double dog dare someone to have a lower number,...if ya do you win a nice shiny penny! (maybe we can have a mini-contest here to see who DID get the first order, i'm just kinda curious actually)

60575 for me.

looks like we have a leader in the ranks so far haha

God damnit. Another evening that I came straight home to preorder that I could have used for doing errands. This is whole ordering process is stupid.

Well my order is showing and I got an email yesterday confirming so I presume I'm in!

Strangely I have now received another email which appears to be a confirmation for a half completed transaction showing no shipping info

harrogatebantam31 wrote:Well my order is showing and I got an email yesterday confirming so I presume I'm in!

Strangely I have now received another email which appears to be a confirmation for a half completed transaction showing no shipping info

Ummm, ok? Glad to know they have their crap together.

Delicon wrote:

harrogatebantam31 wrote:Well my order is showing and I got an email yesterday confirming so I presume I'm in!

Strangely I have now received another email which appears to be a confirmation for a half completed transaction showing no shipping info

Ummm, ok? Glad to know they have their crap together.

It appears to be an order status update so I'm guessing relates to the actual pre-order that has gone through. Other than my membership each year I've never actually purchased anything as the shipping costs to the uk are so high so I'm not sure how his will all work.

To add to the funtastic funsanity, my newly paid (as of a day ago) and invoiced membership is now expired!

It's like a sadistic Saw game of musical chairs... weeeee!

Court Jester wrote:To add to the funtastic funsanity, my newly paid (as of a day ago) and invoiced membership is now expired!

It's like a sadistic Saw game of musical chairs... weeeee!

:lol:

My membership update was screwed up as well, I had to call and they took care of it really quickly and pleasantly.


Unfortunately I was not able to get any of my attempts through before the shut down, so I have to try again.

Thanks B, I'm on it.

fantastic.... they sold through 20% of their stock in 20min WITH massive credit card reading problems, I'd have to hazard a guess that the remainder will last an hour once pre-orders go live again, so effin glad that this is the first year I've ever signed up to TFCC and that I need both Runabout and Runamuck for my Infiltration set......

y'know guaranteeing 24 hour availability for pre-orders doesn"t seem like too much to ask for, does it? 1 full day of availability? Just 1 effin day?

Hellscream85 wrote:fantastic.... they sold through 20% of their stock in 20min WITH massive credit card reading problems, I'd have to hazard a guess that the remainder will last an hour once pre-orders go live again,

Well, I won't get one then. I actually managed to find a job and start tomorrow- after three effing years and 1,046 applications in 20 states- and this happens.

I quit. Damn you FunPub's credit card company. Damn you to the furthest, deepest depths of the 10th level of Hell for screwing this up. My only hope is that things fail tomorrow, too.

Court Jester wrote:To add to the funtastic funsanity, my newly paid (as of a day ago) and invoiced membership is now expired!

Fantabulous. Mine is due on Thursday, and I was hoping to get the pre-orders in and done long before that. (Actually, my subscription due date isn't supposed to be until April--yet another thing they messed up.)

I was one of the lucky ones. I got my order processed on my 3rd attempt. Damn those blasted "unknown error" messages I kept getting on my Mastercard, but my Visa worked and I got my confirmation e-mail.

Just curious, for those of you who actually managed to get your orders to go through has your CC been hit with fraudulent charges? Mine has and I know a number of members on TFW2005 have as well.

El Duque wrote:Just curious, for those of you who actually managed to get your orders to go through has your CC been hit with fraudulent charges? Mine has and I know a number of members on TFW2005 have as well.

Um, no. Are you serious? Is there anything about these charges (i.e., what is purchased/where the purchase is made etc.) that any of the fraudulent charges had in common so that we know what to look out for?

xyl360 wrote:

El Duque wrote:Just curious, for those of you who actually managed to get your orders to go through has your CC been hit with fraudulent charges? Mine has and I know a number of members on TFW2005 have as well.

Um, no. Are you serious? Is there anything about these charges (i.e., what is purchased/where the purchase is made etc.) that any of the fraudulent charges had in common so that we know what to look out for?

Seconded. WTF?

breastforce wrote:

xyl360 wrote:

El Duque wrote:Just curious, for those of you who actually managed to get your orders to go through has your CC been hit with fraudulent charges? Mine has and I know a number of members on TFW2005 have as well.

Um, no. Are you serious? Is there anything about these charges (i.e., what is purchased/where the purchase is made etc.) that any of the fraudulent charges had in common so that we know what to look out for?

Seconded. WTF?

Whenever this sort of thing happens I throw my eyes at TFScource, but if they still can't keep their shit sorted by now I'd be astonished they're still in business. If it's TFCC who's at fault here, then I think there may have something other than the limited processing power of the CC company being what made TFCC change.

FunPub never ceases to amaze me.

El Duque wrote:Just curious, for those of you who actually managed to get your orders to go through has your CC been hit with fraudulent charges? Mine has and I know a number of members on TFW2005 have as well.

You have got to be kidding. Why wouldn't they have a secured connection? This company looks more and more like ametures.

Any news on a time from the Retard-icons, I mean Funpuds, I mean Funpub?

I worked all nite I got to sleep some time today.

I cannot believe I'm still waiting around.

Vicalliose wrote:I cannot believe I'm still waiting around.

Same. But DAMNIT, I want Runabout. Don't give two sh*ts about drift.

Don't wait around. By the time the west coast side of the fandom come in to check the boards, there will be a backlash as hype for the exclusives will hit a low in regards to the potential of having compromised credit card information. Unfortunate.

I remember seeing the twitter posts of the club in regards to MTV.com site's "geek" column. At the time I thought, wow - now that's a whole new audience of neo geek - good and bad. I digress (read: just sayin).

I'm following my credit card, and told customer service about my concerns. They've taken precautions, and I have my contingencies lined up. Perhaps I should have sat this one out.

In any case, today I'm proud of the community for spreading the word in the manner they have chosen. Level headed, and for the most part, non-accusatory. One thing is for sure, TFCC is on notice by a portion of the fandom. The sales are going to reflect this, I presume.