Transformers Collectors' Club Store Currently Offline

Jeebus Crust.... AGAIN?!?!


AGAIIIINNN!!??!!

This happened before with Over run. You'd think they'll have prepared for this to happen again... but noooo....

PHASE ONE: Highly sought-after items in the club store.

PHASE TWO: Club Store crash after 'unexpected' surge in activity.

PHASE THREE: Everybody watch your credit card statements!

Good grief.

FunPub, didn't we learn our lesson in January when this happened?

My order went through, but the fact that the site crashed did nothing to inspire confidence in this sytem.

I will be watching my card again and probably will go ahead and just get a new card to avoid the crap from last time. I really don't want to deal with fraud on this in the event of a security leak.

If Mattycollector can handle a crap ton of people on their site on the 15th of each month then there is no reason you guys can't.

Why is it that servers never meet demands..With anything? Do people honestly always estimate the lowest number possible? If everyone was limited to 1 set of each item, How the heck could the server not handle it? It's not like Joe schmo scalper was sittin there throwin 20 of each set into his cart.

Myabe this was another "test" to see if it was going to work right..because you know, they might not have learned their lesson before...

Ah hell im tired of bitching about fun pub..its whatever at this point..

The system our new store software was installed on will not support the bandwidth demands that are being placed on it. The store software company will be moving us to a different server with more capacity.

Are they for real? First they have a system running on out dated software, so they move to one which can't handle a little bit of demand?

And I mean little bit ... I can't imagine there would be tens of thousands of people all clamouring at once to get onto the store.

Burn wrote:

The system our new store software was installed on will not support the bandwidth demands that are being placed on it. The store software company will be moving us to a different server with more capacity.

Are they for real? First they have a system running on out dated software, so they move to one which can't handle a little bit of demand?

And I mean little bit ... I can't imagine there would be tens of thousands of people all clamouring at once to get onto the store.

Yeah if it was SG Prime.Kick off or the junkions i can understand..but spinister and octopunch and runamuck?

Spinister and Octopunch could not have been the only remains of Botcon 2012. The others will show up soon enough.

All I can say is: LOL.

LiKwid wrote:Are they for real? First they have a system running on out dated software, so they move to one which can't handle a little bit of demand?

It's surprising. I have a hard time believing that the demand was terribly out-of-line with what they experienced with Over-run; so they should have had a pretty good idea of what to expect.

And I mean little bit ... I can't imagine there would be tens of thousands of people all clamouring at once to get onto the store.

This is difficult for me to judge. But the point is, it should not have been difficult for TFCC to judge.

Yeah if it was SG Prime.Kick off or the junkions i can understand..but spinister and octopunch and runamuck?

Make no mistake, Runamuck is driving this demand. There are a lot of Over-run boxes in the wild with an empty spot in them. And collectors will always want these guys as a set.

I got lucky and got my order in early. The new store items actually went live just a few minutes before noon CDT. But by the time I was completing my order (at noon CDT or a minute after), the site was already obviously taxed. Shortly thereafter, it became completely inaccessible; and a little while after that, the URLs started yielding 404s. Since I would expect it to take a few minutes after the announced availability time for demand to peak, this suggests to me that capacity for the site was not just a little below the necessary threshold, but a lot. (I am, of course, just making semi-educated guesses here.)

It surprises me that they'd miss the mark by so much a second time. You'd think they'd (at least try to) overestimate the required capacity and then dial it back if it turned out they had a lot to spare. I really want to give these guys the benefit of doubt and chalk the previous issues up to naiveté and a learning experience. But when the "learning" part doesn't seem to be happening, it does try one's patience.

Aren't they embarrassed? Their statement makes it sounds like this stuff happens all the time...

Next they release an email telling you their servers got hacked by Swindle again, and you card information was stolen.

Anyone know how much the spinister/octopunch set are going for?

How could they not see this coming? Their incompetence knows no bounds.

freetouch wrote:Anyone know how much the spinister/octopunch set are going for?

$110 I believe.

To add another level of absurdity to the ongoing craptastic adventures of the TF Collectors' Club website blues, it appears that they've allowed the urls for transformerscollectorsclub and gijoecollectorsclub to lapse. I went to the first this morning out of habit and it's basically being squatted on for the time being. My server wouldn't even let me look at the GIJoe site.

So I scratch my head a bit. An organization programs their follows to follow a single site for, what, seven years and then lets it go back in the wild to become victim to internet squatters? Instead they run on a site name (toyarama) which really needs to build a following before it resonates with the market.

I fear they need a techspert in the worse way, one who has an idea of the challenges and can anticipate needs.

fairplaythings wrote:To add another level of absurdity to the ongoing craptastic adventures of the TF Collectors' Club website blues, it appears that they've allowed the urls for transformerscollectorsclub and gijoecollectorsclub to lapse. I went to the first this morning out of habit and it's basically being squatted on for the time being. My server wouldn't even let me look at the GIJoe site.

So I scratch my head a bit. An organization programs their follows to follow a single site for, what, seven years and then lets it go back in the wild to become victim to internet squatters? Instead they run on a site name (toyarama) which really needs to build a following before it resonates with the market.

I fear they need a techspert in the worse way, one who has an idea of the challenges and can anticipate needs.

They don't use those domains.

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-s ... rsclub.com

They own TransformersClub.com and GIjoeClub.com

fairplaythings wrote:To add another level of absurdity to the ongoing craptastic adventures of the TF Collectors' Club website blues, it appears that they've allowed the urls for transformerscollectorsclub and gijoecollectorsclub to lapse. I went to the first this morning out of habit and it's basically being squatted on for the time being. My server wouldn't even let me look at the GIJoe site.

So I scratch my head a bit. An organization programs their follows to follow a single site for, what, seven years and then lets it go back in the wild to become victim to internet squatters? Instead they run on a site name (toyarama) which really needs to build a following before it resonates with the market.

I fear they need a techspert in the worse way, one who has an idea of the challenges and can anticipate needs.

Maybe the really just don't want to do it anymore.

I mean, where I work, you can tell when someone wants to stop working and quit. They start to lose focus, become slower at their job, screw off and get in trouble more, make more and more mistakes, ranging from the obvious to the down right ridiculous. This is usually coupled with the standard replies of "I'm trying, it won't happen again, etc. etc."

I seriously, wholeheartedly believe funpub just doesn't want to be in charge anymore, but doesn't have the stuff to tell hasbro they quit. They will continue to do the job, much like a person who doesn't want to do it, until the boss (hasbro) fires them.

Maybe hasbro should start being more aggressive in finding a replacement, because with everything that has been going on, and even though they will never admit it, they are shopping for a new partnership, and probably have been for a while.

And for those who disagree, please remember Hasbro is a company in the business of making money. As will all businesses, they are constantly looking for new ways to cut costs and still make a profit. To think they don't have the names of at least 5 back-up groups to replace funpubs is almost offensive.

They need to reach out to a professional web site development company that has been in business for a long time, such as AmericanEagle.com ( a company where I worked as a programmer for 4 years starting in 2003), who will have a project manager and salesperson work one-on-one with them to figure out their needs, devise a custom solution, and execute the proper solution in a professional and timely manner. I haven't worked there since late 2006, but have an immense amount of respect and admiration for that company and the clients that they serviced past and present (such as the Chicago Bears, NY Giants, Stuart Weitzman, Garret Popcorn, Buzz Aldrin, etc). Custom websites, done right, should cost a minimum of $10,000 (at smaller development firms) and can range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars (depending on the scope and size of a project).

From how I perceive or understand what the Club's needs are based on what is publicly known about their business model, I'd estimate that a properly built custom solution programmed by a professional company like AmericanEagle.com could range anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000. Features like subscription services, club memberships, online stores, and other similar features that comprise the Transformers and G.I. Joe Collectors' Clubs aren't cheap, nor should they be done in an unprofessional manner or with an inadequate or piecemeal solution.

These clubs are too large with too many traffic demands to be handled by a $50 to $200 solution from a company such as Modular Merchant (http://www.modularmerchant.com/pricing.php). If I recall correctly, Modular Merchant is their current solution of choice after abandoning the outdated shopping cart system they were using that was hacked earlier this year due to a lack of updates that were available to prevent SQL injection(s). By comparison, Seibertron.com is a custom solution on a dedicated server that costs $400 per month, which is the minimum amount that I can get away with paying these days due to the high traffic demands and popularity of this site.

Until the Clubs are moved to a custom built solution that can resolve all of their various needs, we'll continue to have these problems going forward.

This is certainly not helping their track record.

They need to change the way they do business. This is how I propose they sell stuff:

1. Create a new site that just allows you to place orders.
2. Announce a due date for placing the orders.
3. Send invoices for payment to the customers e-mails.
4. Announce when all invoices have been sent out with a due date to recieve payments.
5. Count number of figures needed + extras then place order with Hasbro factory.
6. Announce when figures arrive at warehouse and will start shipping.

(steps 5 and 6 would be for new club exclusives, not leftover Botcon stock)

Is this rocket science ??? They say they already know what the Botcon 2013 Box set will be so they CAN do things way in advance. Every club member gets a chance to order, up to 2 of each figure per member. Everyone gets what they want so everyone will be happy. As an extra added bonus, you will eliminate scalping probally about 80%.

But that would make too much sense. Im glad I bought the CHMS KO G1 Breakdown. I forsee alot of problems when the new club exclusives go up for sale.

Seibertron is right on the money here. I'm the senior developer at one of the nation's largest dental distributors, and I've overseen many large scope, high volume projects. We've built sites and services that field one million plus requests a day, handle thousands of orders, and more than a half billion dollars of revenue a year.

As we grew, we had to pony up a significant amount of hardware (which costs money) to meet the needs. Our database server, for instance, is rocking 64Gb of fast memory and 16 cores. While the club is nowhere near that level of big iron enterprise hardware, they're no longer small enough to sit on the cheapest shared hosting they can find.

I have three equally chilling thoughts:

1. The club remains, even after the security debacle, woefully unaware of what is involved in maintaining an online presence, and what is further entailed to handle e-commerce.
2. The club is too greedy to drop the cash on a stable, enterprise solution. They need to step up to some dedicated hosted hardware, and hopefully contract someone full time to deal with it.
3. The club is on such a thin margin they literally can't afford to dedicate any money to a new solution. If that's the case, was it due to the recovery of the credit card fraud issues, or is the club just always on a thin dime?

All three thoughts scare the hell out of me. I want the club to succeed. I want the subscription service to go off without a hitch.

But this is another fine mess they've gotten themselves into, and it just goes to show that they haven't learned a single thing. My goodwill reserve is very nearly dried up.

Fun Publications, the parent company of both the Transformers Collectors' Club and G.I.Joe Collectors' Club has issue the following update regarding their club stores:

This quick update is going out to all members of both clubs.

It will still be a couple more weeks (we don't know exactly how long as we are waiting on the host to finish their work) until our dedicated store server is online.

Once it is ready to go, we will let you know that products in the store have be made active and you will be able to order items from the clubs again.

We do not anticipate that all items will be available in the club stores on opening day so please have patience as we finish the migration from the old e-commerce site to this one.

In addition, to try and avoid a denial of service issue (because of the volume) we will only bring one set of products online at a time.

We will email you when we are going to bring the products online. We are anticipating being ready to go the week of July 23rd, but that could change.

Thanks to both groups for your patience and the two great conventions this year!

Brian

Ridiculous. Who's running the club store website, a 10-year old with an Apple IIe in his bedroom? Or maybe they're writing all the code from scratch... in binary. Or maybe someone knocked over the pile of punch cards that runs the site and they have to put them all back in order. The entire internet was built in less time than it's taking FunPub to get their store online.

double-post

GuyIncognito wrote:Ridiculous. Who's running the club store website, a 10-year old with an Apple IIe in his bedroom? Or maybe they're writing all the code from scratch... in binary. Or maybe someone knocked over the pile of punch cards that runs the site and they have to put them all back in order. The entire internet was built in less time than it's taking FunPub to get their store online.

GuyIncognito wrote:double-post

Okay, sorry Guy, but I think that's funny

El Duque wrote:Fun Publications, the parent company of both the Transformers Collectors' Club and G.I.Joe Collectors' Club has issue the following update regarding their club stores:

This quick update is going out to all members of both clubs.

It will still be a couple more weeks (we don't know exactly how long as we are waiting on the host to finish their work) until our dedicated store server is online.

Once it is ready to go, we will let you know that products in the store have be made active and you will be able to order items from the clubs again.

We do not anticipate that all items will be available in the club stores on opening day so please have patience as we finish the migration from the old e-commerce site to this one.

In addition, to try and avoid a denial of service issue (because of the volume) we will only bring one set of products online at a time.

We will email you when we are going to bring the products online. We are anticipating being ready to go the week of July 23rd, but that could change.

Thanks to both groups for your patience and the two great conventions this year!

Brian

Awesome! Sounds like I am getting my membership worth this year!

They wouldn't have to fear DoS if they'd go with a more robust server setup. Seriously TFCC, get your heads out of your butts and use a system that can handle the expected (or even UNEXPECTED) volume that your services demand. Yeah, maybe it seems like it's expensive to pay a ton on servers when they're only stressed once or twice a year, but weigh that cost in the long run vs how many members you're undoubtedly losing every time this crap happens and I'm sure you'll see it's worth shelling out the extra cash and you'll still turn a profit.

In fact, if you want to cut down on costs, I for one would be more than happy if you quit producing the club magazine. I never find it informative as all the info it contains is already months old before we see it in the magazine and I'm pretty sure that everyone who does join the club only does so for the 'free' (~$40) figure, for Botcon and *maybe* to buy some non-exclusive figures at a discount (assuming your discount prices are ever lower than major retail or the other online retailers).

xyl360 wrote:They wouldn't have to fear DoS if they'd go with a more robust server setup. Seriously TFCC, get your heads out of your butts and use a system that can handle the expected (or even UNEXPECTED) volume that your services demand. Yeah, maybe it seems like it's expensive to pay a ton on servers when they're only stressed once or twice a year, but weigh that cost in the long run vs how many members you're undoubtedly losing every time this crap happens and I'm sure you'll see it's worth shelling out the extra cash and you'll still turn a profit.

In fact, if you want to cut down on costs, I for one would be more than happy if you quit producing the club magazine. I never find it informative as all the info it contains is already months old before we see it in the magazine and I'm pretty sure that everyone who does join the club only does so for the 'free' (~$40) figure, for Botcon and *maybe* to buy some non-exclusive figures at a discount (assuming your discount prices are ever lower than major retail or the other online retailers).

I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF, OR AGREE MORE ON ALL YOUR POINTS MENTIONED. TAKE NOTE TFCC.