Transformers Collector's Club: Renew by Check or Money Order

At this rate, next year we'll be able to pay in goats for the club premium 'Leader-1 (arm)'

So that this message will not upset the sensitive primates attempting to reproduce with a football over at Fun Publications, I have decided to mask all comments that may be considered negative. So.... no online payments....OK.

Yeah no.

If you want people to even care a little you should push the deadline for sign up further ahead or hold it off entirely until you know your site is secure.

ALL i want is an email saying my item has been shipped thats all i want to here

I respect that they're trying to put word out on how to join or renew with the club, given what I assume is their internal knowledge that things will decidedly not be up again before the deadline comes and goes. I also understand that they may need to have solid production number information for the factory, somewhere around that date.

The problem is, they should be giving THEMSELVES some wiggle room, there, too... if March 16 is when they have to give final numbers, the deadline should've been March 1. That allows them to account for stragglers, if they choose to, and to accomodate their good customers, when disasters happen (like the implosion of their credit card servers).

I hope they dramatically OVER-estimate their production numbers. The toys would eventually sell in the club store, anyway (assuming there ever is a club store anymore).

So glad that I chose this year as my first to join. Have also decided it will be my last.

These guys need to get their... "act" together. One PR misstep is forgivable; FP has committed several back-to-back which just makes them look like total amatures. Hasbro should rethink their relationship with them.

wait I'm confused, this is the only way to renew my membership or can I call and have them input my card number over the phone?

Just checked my monthly credit card statement. No trips to Paris or blow up dolls were falsely charged under my name. In an earlier thread, I had suggested to someone that was paranoid about using his credit card to try to send a money order. Im glad to see Funpub put the idea out there since it's not rocket science. Of course theyre going to take a beating from the fans. Eventually theyll get over it. Even government websites get hacked.

Even though s**t happens, I actually support Funpub. As a G1/Classics collector, I like what Funpub does. Theyre one of the better branches of the Hasbro family tree. Look at all other garbage from Hasbro that is about to hit the shelves . Between TF Prime and FOC, I dont think G1 is going to get much love in 2012. Of course we have 3rd parties. But Funpub does try to give us characters we want. You gotta give them that...

chuckdawg1999 wrote:wait I'm confused, this is the only way to renew my membership or can I call and have them input my card number over the phone?

No offense... but do you actually want to give them your credit card information right now? Until they can demonstrate they have a safe system in place, I won't be offering my financial info to them.

I can see the next article now...

"Funpub looses mail in applications in unknown event, checks and money orders lost, cashed by mysterious source."

emeraldbeacon wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:wait I'm confused, this is the only way to renew my membership or can I call and have them input my card number over the phone?

No offense... but do you actually want to give them your credit card information right now? Until they can demonstrate they have a safe system in place, I won't be offering my financial info to them.

I LOL when I read that out loud, the tone is just hysterical. No offense taken but I failed to mention that I had a plan in place where I would transfer the money to pay pal and use my pay pal debit card to pay. Something tells me this will be my only option to pay so time to dust off (literally) the old check book.

reluttr wrote:I can see the next article now...

"Funpub looses mail in applications in unknown event, checks and money orders lost, cashed by mysterious source."

Oh God if that happens...

Why dont they offer to let people resub through paypal? Cause I don't have any checks, dont want to hassle with "or pay more for" money orders, and quite frankly don't have the time to mail out the form.

reluttr wrote:Why dont they offer to let people resub through paypal? Cause I don't have any checks, dont want to hassle with "or pay more for" money orders, and quite frankly don't have the time to mail out the form.

I was planning on switching banks this week but now have to put that on hold to ensure I re-up in time. First world problems I know but pay pal would be easier.

reluttr wrote:Why dont they offer to let people resub through paypal? Cause I don't have any checks, dont want to hassle with "or pay more for" money orders, and quite frankly don't have the time to mail out the form.

Money Orders may be a pain, but they're one of the most secure means of getting payments to the intended recipient (disregarding the inherent instabilities of the postal system).

My fear is that there will be a rush to mail things around the 9th or 10th, and some of the letters will get there late, thanks to the post office. The result? "Thank you for joining the Transformers Collectors Club! You will recieve the 2013 Free Figure!"

reluttr wrote:I can see the next article now...

"Funpub looses mail in applications in unknown event, checks and money orders lost, cashed by mysterious source."

I haven't laughed this hard since Power core combiners... Brilliant my friend , pure brilliance..

Rated-X wrote:

In an earlier thread, I had suggested to someone that was paranoid about using his credit card to try to send a money order. Im glad to see Funpub put the idea out there since it's not rocket science.

I was the afformentioned paranoid nuckelhead, but in my defense I had also thought of moneyorders as a possible solution myself but was equally fearful of sending the equivilent of "cash" out like a message in a bottle to FunPub. With the problems that have been exposed with their internal operation I wouldn't put it pass them to lose track of these hard copy non-digital orders etc. I too wish that they had some type of way of recieving Paypal. The bottom line is trying to join TFCC has turned out to not be a very pleasant experience thus far, and considering we live in the year 2012 I can't believe FunPub is having this kind of trouble representing a financial goliath like Hasbro, which should be able to organize and handle security well beyond these issues of discussion here. This is turning into a buncha' BS.

If the Fun Pub was an actual bar they'd water down their drinks, serve O'douls on tap, and have ugly chicks behind the bar Nothing "fun" about that (or the rest of this situation so far) folks.

Already renued. YEAH BOIIIII

Well I wish I had that last week before my account was hacked into

G1 Legacy wrote:Rated-X wrote:

In an earlier thread, I had suggested to someone that was paranoid about using his credit card to try to send a money order. Im glad to see Funpub put the idea out there since it's not rocket science.

I was the afformentioned paranoid nuckelhead, but in my defense I had also thought of moneyorders as a possible solution myself but was equally fearful of sending the equivilent of "cash" out like a message in a bottle to FunPub. With the problems that have been exposed with their internal operation I wouldn't put it pass them to lose track of these hard copy non-digital orders etc. I too wish that they had some type of way of recieving Paypal. The bottom line is trying to join TFCC has turned out to not be a very pleasant experience thus far, and considering we live in the year 2012 I can't believe FunPub is having this kind of trouble representing a financial goliath like Hasbro, which should be able to organize and handle security well beyond these issues of discussion here. This is turning into a buncha' BS.

If the Fun Pub was an actual bar they'd water down their drinks, serve O'douls on tap, and have ugly chicks behind the bar Nothing "fun" about that (or the rest of this situation so far) folks.

Boy there is gonna be some good drinkin goin on in Dallas this April !!!

If you fear they will lose your money order by mail, you can send the money through your bank. Most banks have programs that you can make payments through them. In most cases, the payment is sent electronically. That way if you don’t receive what you paid for, you have documentation that the money was received by Funpub including the date it was sent and a transaction number. This would hold up well in a claims dispute.

Excellent. I was worried I'd miss out on Runamuck.

Really? There are people who are going to go along with this? No wonder they treat you like a bunch of schmucks.

Ultimately if BBTS gets their share of the figures in it will probably cost $40 to order it from them, same cost as membership. At this point I couldn't care less about the magazine and neither should you seeing as how the important info usually gets posted online. Ah but many of you still care about the convention and their sub-par selection of exclusives this year.

Also I would like to note that my endeavors to track the shipping labels of TFCC stuff I've bought in the past led me to someone's house. Oh it's quite the efficient operation, they even have an expanded driveway to park delivery trucks. I wonder if they use their neighbor's barn to store all the exclusives?

Vicalliose wrote:Really? There are people who are going to go along with this? No wonder they treat you like a bunch of schmucks.

Ultimately if BBTS gets their share of the figures in it will probably cost $40 to order it from them, same cost as membership. At this point I couldn't care less about the magazine and neither should you seeing as how the important info usually gets posted online. Ah but many of you still care about the convention and their sub-par selection of exclusives this year.

Also I would like to note that my endeavors to track the shipping labels of TFCC stuff I've bought in the past led me to someone's house. Oh it's quite the efficient operation, they even have an expanded driveway to park delivery trucks. I wonder if they use their neighbor's barn to store all the exclusives?

What I find hilarious is that you thought that, what is technically a fanclub, would be anywhere else, besides run out of someone's home. Did you honestly think it was in some gigantic warehouse or office building? I can see it now...

Bankguy: ok! you want a business loan, what is your business?

Funpub: Hurr i wanna do a fanclub for transfromers and sell some toys, and send out a bimonthy 6 page comic book.

Bankguy: ...ok so you'll be needing a $100 loan? Let me see if I have that in my wallet.

freetouch wrote:What I find hilarious is that you thought that, what is technically a fanclub, would be anywhere else, besides run out of someone's home. Did you honestly think it was in some gigantic warehouse or office building? I can see it now...

Bankguy: ok! you want a business loan, what is your business?

Funpub: Hurr i wanna do a fanclub for transfromers and sell some toys, and send out a bimonthy 6 page comic book.

Bankguy: ...ok so you'll be needing a $100 loan? Let me see if I have that in my wallet.

Except that, you know, it's officially recognized by Hasbro, has access to their factories, and is supposed to be a fairly large operation. Nah I'm not expecting some huge office building, I just was expecting a little more than it to be run out of Brian Savage's garage. I would at least expect a building intended for storing a small amount product, of course perhaps that would explain why they never order very much from the factory anymore.

I posted this on the Club's Facebook page.

Thank you for this update and also for the e-mails you've been sending. 2 quick things, though.

#1 - In your latest e-mail you mention " We still don't know the scope of the possible intrusion or if there was an intrusion." which at this point I don't think is being very honest, at least on the second part because if there wasn't an "intrusion" it would be the biggest coincidence of all-time. I don't think the average club member thinks anyone at TCC willingly tried to swindle people, but I also think it's pretty clear that someone WAS, and that they somehow compromised the Club's security to do it.

#2 - You always ask for patience of the members but many times the club members themselves are given a very short window. Examples would be a day or 2 to order an exclusive or book a BotCon hotel, among others. Given all the sheer chaos going on, and all of the inconvenience people are facing because of this situation (which was not malicious but still caused by orders in good faith), would it not be wise to toss the members a bone and give them an extra week or 2 to renew? It would likely be good for all parties involved.

And the response.

‎@James - We would like to extend the deadline, but due to several issues, we can't. Intrusion speaks to a specific kind of information compromise. Information can be stolen in various ways, but the software that detects intrusion did not find anything. Hackers are becoming incredibly skilled and are daily finding new ways to compromise security systems. You are right, though, we are dealing with a thief who seems to have somehow got into our "house" even though the "doors" were locked and the "alarm" was set. We still do not know what may have happened, but as the email says, we have outside firms working on this right now. We really need as much support from the membership as you all can offer. This is a struggle and has almost dominated our workdays. Please join with us as we work to regain your trust and see that we can get back to doing great things for the Club members. This attack has been a setback, but with you behind us, we think we can overcome.

For those members of the Official Transformers Collector Club that need to renew, there is now a printable form available at Transformersclub.com . The form is .PDF and needs only to be printed and mailed along with a check or money order. Prices are posted on the form and need to be received before March 16th in order to receive this years free membership figure, Runamuck!

Click here to view the form.

Hello!

We wanted to give you the latest update on the current procedure for membership renewals and NEW memberships. As we continue to work to resolve the online store issues, we have put up a PDF that members can download and print out. These will need to be mailed in with a check or money order. We will process your membership as soon as they arrive. Just click the "Join Now" button on the main page at www.transformersclub.com.

Please note that the March 16th deadline is still a hard deadline (in house), so please make sure any mail is in the postal system by March 9th. If we could move the date we would, but that is not an option as these have to be processed due to existing schedules.

If you want to receive the free club exclusive Runamuck, your membership must be active as of March 16th. If your club expiration date is after March 16th you are good to go for this years figure.

Finally, please note. While we do not anticipate running out of Runamuck, the response to this years Free Membership figure has been amazing. We do not expect to have many extra's to sell through the club store. The best bet to ensure that you get this great figure is to sign up or renew today!

Thanks as always and we do apologize for any inconvenience!

Form is awesome. Not a single place to put your name and address.

Burn wrote:Form is awesome. Not a single place to put your name and address.

You were expecting easy? By the way, I think that was your fault.

I've always thought they ought to start using paypal. I also love how the emails are touched with plausible denyablity even while they try to help us.

Delicon wrote:

Burn wrote:Form is awesome. Not a single place to put your name and address.

You were expecting easy? By the way, I think that was your fault.

Burn would like to take this opportunity to NOT apologise to all members.

After many days of analysis, Burn has determined that there was a security issue with FunPub's e-commerce system. FunPub appreciate all of you who have sent in your details, but would appreciate it even more if you would stop doing it as it's dominating their work days and has become quite a struggle.

So please, think of the children, think of the kittens, and most importantly, think of Burn when you renew your membership this year.

Burn wrote:

Delicon wrote:

Burn wrote:Form is awesome. Not a single place to put your name and address.

You were expecting easy? By the way, I think that was your fault.

Burn would like to take this opportunity to NOT apologise to all members.

After many days of analysis, Burn has determined that there was a security issue with FunPub's e-commerce system. FunPub appreciate all of you who have sent in your details, but would appreciate it even more if you would stop doing it as it's dominating their work days and has become quite a struggle.

So please, think of the children, think of the kittens, and most importantly, think of Burn when you renew your membership this year.

I'm sure there will be a new thread on this shortly, but Crave.com just got sold. I'd crap my pants if FunPub bought it.

IMPORTANT - INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS PLEASE NOTE YOUR RENEWAL DATE!!!

I cannot stress this enough - I was freaked out, noting that my membership ran out on (what I thought to be) March 6th, 2012 -

In my profile, it reads '06/03/12' - US users read this as June 03rd, 2012, whereas most European and other countries as well, read this as March 06th, 2012 - I thought I needed to renew, but I'm good until June.

It was mentioned as a question on the TFCC Facebook page from an International user - only then I thought of the US date format - please double-check your renewal date!

I for one, am delighted threefold:

I don't have to pay out (again) for an overpriced International Membership to get Runamuck;

I don't have to organise time out of work to go to the bank for an International Money Order

...And, I don't have to give FubPub Inc / the TFCC any more money this year, and probably won't ever again - my first time getting these 3 exclusives, and the headaches, heartaches and arse-aches I have gotten from dealing with the TFCC these past couple of months have probably put me off dealing with them for life!

(that being said, all bets are off if they bring out something equally decent next year! )

This is what you guys asked for. You didnt want to endanger your credit cards, right ??? We all know only Funpub is unsafe. It is totally 100% safe to use your cards in gas pumps, ATM's, walmart, Mcdonalds, dating websites, etc. Credit card scammers worldwide only target Funpub members.

Well, I sent in my renewal via snail mail. Hopefully it arrives there safely. I also hope that, come Botcon, they have a lot more cash lines than credit at the club store. Because I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot of people using cash only there.

OK... So as of right now, who all has not received order confirmation on their Over-Run?

Rated X wrote:This is what you guys asked for. You didnt want to endanger your credit cards, right ??? We all know only Funpub is unsafe. It is totally 100% safe to use your cards in gas pumps, ATM's, walmart, Mcdonalds, dating websites, etc. Credit card scammers worldwide only target Funpub members.

Yeah the club is not the only place in the world that has had their security compromised, but they apparently cannot even tell that someone broke in, even though it's blatantly obvious. So why should I trust that someone isn't just camping on their site waiting to break through their lackluster security again? It is after all just a business run out of some dudes garage.

And for many people this is just one of many mistakes the club has made over the years. It's been said many times here already, but it's just a "final nail in the coffin" type of deal. I'd only been with them for two years and I was already sick of them, I'm actually relieved I'll never be dealing with them again.

I contacted FunPub regarding International Membership renewal and was told that I could mail a money order in, or if I chose to, e-mail (across a number of e-mails) by credit card details which they'd then process manually.

Given that i'll be using a pre-paid credit card, e-mailing will be a better option. Even if my mails are intercepted, it's only a pre-paid and will only have enough money on it to cover membership.

What I don't get is why they're not allowing paypal as an option here: it's very straightforward to just send money that way with our address. Not to mention cheaper than mailing a payment, but I digress.

Teaches me to wait till the deadline was close.

Vicalliose wrote:And for many people this is just one of many mistakes the club has made over the years. It's been said many times here already, but it's just a "final nail in the coffin" type of deal. I'd only been with them for two years and I was already sick of them, I'm actually relieved I'll never be dealing with them again.

I couldn't have put it better myself. This is totally the final nail in the coffin. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the end for FunPub. I can't wait for someone else to take the reins of BotCon and give us something other than the same old shoehorned figures and masturbatory fan fiction.

Kung Fu Man wrote:Teaches me to wait till the deadline was close.

Nobody should be punished because they wanted to wait until the deadline to renew for such a shitty, lackluster club as this. Nobody.

I think the least they could have done was give everyone who might have been effected by the credit card theft a free renewal.

I'm a small business owner who has struggled to survive during this recent recession and do you know what I'm taking from all of this?

Funpub is a company in limbo...too big to play dumb and obviously has a legal firm (possibly Hasbro) advising them on what & what not to admit to, and yet too small to shake the reputation of a garage band that doesn't have the security parameters in place to avoid the major credit card breach that most of the general public has learned how to avoid by using Paypal (and thats not to metion the more recent SG Drift gun mold error debacle regarding their overseas communication).

*And no I'm not saying that Paypal is the answer to everything on the ethernet but for Pete's sake, these dummies have become the metaphoracle Starscream of the Transformers community. Representing the big bad leader Hasbro, but when it comes to delivaring on the almighty leadership role they fall flat on their face and seem to refuse to take any responibility for it by continuing to spew out this hollow apology garbage (or I plead the fifth) that they've been spewing these past few weeks.

Honestly Funpub, and I'm directing this straight at you, because you guys/gals are obviously monitoring our public threads here...your showing your cards whether you realize it or not...a seemingly "LLC company" that can't deliver on it's marketing commitments. It seems to me that you don't respect us the fans, the core fans THAT ARE KEEPING YOU IN BUSINESS! So grow a spine, open up, and be honest, a little good will goes a long way with us Transformer fans or havn't you figured that out yet, seeing as how your representatives claim to be in such close proximity to our wants and needs and all
The owners and monitors of this website may HAVE to be tactful and play the politically saturated public relations song and dance routine (via Hasbro) but there are many of us here in the community that can clearly see through this smoke and mirror crap enough to plainly see that you are not carrying your weight.
Seriously, we all need to unify and deal with this issue at Botcon this year. I'm not saying "Hey lets go and be obnoxious irrational jerks toward Hasbro and Funpub", but lets take the time to get our ducks in a row and stand unified as one voice and say "Hey, we like your products but your gonna have to recognize that we're the ones CHOOSING to buy it, and if you wanna walk out of the room rather than answer our legitimate questions then that statment in itself says more about you than it does about us".

And no, I was not part of the occupy wall street movement but I did like the Occupy Botcon joke/reference that was made in the recent podcast.

And its just occured to me to clarify that I'm not affiliated with any of the moderators and I have no insider knowledge of behind the scenes communiques between Seibertron/Funpub/Hasbro/Takara. I'm simply a humble forum member with a decent background in legal aid, small business, and ethical common sense with an opinion and just voicing his concern.

Vicalliose wrote:OK... So as of right now, who all has not received order confirmation on their Over-Run?

Rated X wrote:This is what you guys asked for. You didnt want to endanger your credit cards, right ??? We all know only Funpub is unsafe. It is totally 100% safe to use your cards in gas pumps, ATM's, walmart, Mcdonalds, dating websites, etc. Credit card scammers worldwide only target Funpub members.

Yeah the club is not the only place in the world that has had their security compromised, but they apparently cannot even tell that someone broke in, even though it's blatantly obvious. So why should I trust that someone isn't just camping on their site waiting to break through their lackluster security again? It is after all just a business run out of some dudes garage.

And for many people this is just one of many mistakes the club has made over the years. It's been said many times here already, but it's just a "final nail in the coffin" type of deal. I'd only been with them for two years and I was already sick of them, I'm actually relieved I'll never be dealing with them again.

My issue is how quick everyone is making Funpub the villain when it was the company they contracted that created the security system that was hacked. Is Brian Savage a computer Guru ? Probally not. Is Angie a cyber-security specialist ? I doubt it. They contracted somebody who probally was legit with a license to sell firewalls, and s**t happened. Funpub is just as much a victim as the fans because they paid for a security service that did not work and they got stuck with the aftermath.

Rated X wrote:My issue is how quick everyone is making Funpub the villain when it was the company they contracted that created the security system that was hacked. Is Brian Savage a computer Guru ? Probally not. Is Angie a cyber-security specialist ? I doubt it. They contracted somebody who probally was legit with a license to sell firewalls, and s**t happened. Funpub is just as much a victim as the fans because they paid for a security service that did not work and they got stuck with the aftermath.

Large and part it's how FunPub is handling it that's pissing people off. And to be fair, they chose a half-assed CC processor and probably also chose a half-assed security company, in which case it's still kinda their fault.

Vicalliose wrote:
My issue is how quick everyone is making Funpub the villain when it was the company they contracted that created the security system that was hacked. Is Brian Savage a computer Guru ? Probally not. Is Angie a cyber-security specialist ? I doubt it. They contracted somebody who probally was legit with a license to sell firewalls, and s**t happened. Funpub is just as much a victim as the fans because they paid for a security service that did not work and they got stuck with the aftermath.

Lol.. name dropping.

SHATTERED GLASS DRIFT GUN UPDATE

READ!!! VERY IMPORTANT !!!

For those of you complaining about getting 2 left or right guns for your Shattered Glass Drift, don’t even worry about it any longer. I got 2 right guns. But apperantly everybody was so upset about the guns, they never noticed that the Blurr mold has a modified inner door to give additional room for the guns to fit.

In other words, even if you have the correct right and left guns, they wont fit !!!

If you don’t believe me, try it yourself with a regular White Drift figure and your Blurr’s guns !!! They don’t fit !!! LMAO, now all you guys go give Funpub hell !!!



You heard it from your boy X first…

Peace !!!

I was going to print that form out to renew but then I remembered they sent me an envelope in the mail which is the same exact form. Maybe out of all of this we'll get our membership cards back and postage paid renewal envelopes? Ya, I don't think so either.

Rated X wrote:My issue is how quick everyone is making Funpub the villain when it was the company they contracted that created the security system that was hacked. Is Brian Savage a computer Guru ? Probally not. Is Angie a cyber-security specialist ? I doubt it. They contracted somebody who probally was legit with a license to sell firewalls, and s**t happened. Funpub is just as much a victim as the fans because they paid for a security service that did not work and they got stuck with the aftermath.

Their entire e-commerce is was developed in house.