What I can take away from this is some people or groups seem to have a wierd relationship with Michael. It's like, they hate him but at the same time they kinda need him.
The company man put the "easy solve" out there in the ether, then it took a proactive content creator to get him connected with the slighted customer. Why is there even that gulf between the company and the customer in the first place? Michael was the customer advocate. Thats bad PR for the company. Who'd put up with that with their money?
Just wanted to say thanks for all the content this year. It's been a rough year and the occasional distraction has been appreciated. Keep up the good work.
Funny thing I just noticed - Mattel are doing a pre order for a redone ring based on the attitude era complete with Kane figure. NOT a crowdfund. The website that shown this item off - Toyark - commented that they WISHED it was a crowdfund with no reason given to that view.
Not sure who's in charge of the Peabody Award, but damn it, Michael's investigative reporting deserves it a thousand times over. Old school proper journalism at its finest. Happy 2023 to everyone at RetroBlasting.
" IF YOU HAVE A TOY PROBLEM, IF NO ONE ELSE CAN HELP AND IF YOU CAN FIND THEM... MAYBE YOU CAN SEND A MESSAGE TO THE RB TEAM! " But it would be better if toy companies actually helped customers instead.
Please note that if it was a easy fix on a sold out figure, there are only few logical possibilities none of which look good for Mattel: 1. there is a clear and known delivery and shipping issue that rather than fixing they let to fall to first line customer service to deal with as complaints for inadequate refunds 2. they had manufactured more of the product that stated and just had them stocked in a warehouse - false finite exclusivity 3. they just did not send out some of the finite number of manufactured products and someone was hogging them in company for ebay scalping without the consent of the company 4. same as above but with consent, aka. the crowdfunding has a in-build scalping operation in it. 5. the process of creating these exclusives via paint is and add-ons is so easy they could just be a direct on-demand mail order from the manufacture, you could get Macho Man in any color you like if it wasn't for the Mattel creations front end.
Mattel Creations is the worst. I recently bought one of their Camo Khan figures for 36€ plus 10€ shipping. It arrived here in Germany with a long tear in the blister and the beautiful fold out card art was damaged too. Nice exclusive! This is not an isolated incident. Through forums and a MOTU Facebook group i found out that there are other collectors in Germany and Canada who complain that their Camo Khans also have damaged blisters. Mattel's customer service is a joke, i wrote them 2 emails about the issue and they don't even answer back. They just don't care about their customers at all, they collect your money and then they're done with you.
Very valid point’s Michael. The way I have been going into thinking about these crowd fund internal platforms is, the collectors want to dump all our faith into the idea that its going to work, and work every time, the reality is as you state it doesn’t, and I for one have been burned before by them with the latest release of the Camo Kahn MOTU figure. I purchased for pre order on the release date only to never be able to check out and actually be given notice of purchase. Now on the flip side I have been able to purchase pre orders in the past and been successful, but it does tweak ones thought process into as is this ever gonna be rectified into an actual functional system and properly work and I have come to the answer, no. It’s unfortunate and as you have stated numerous times these companies don’t need to be crowd funding when they have the means of making plenty and being able to properly distribute as well as these companies have done for decades. My final straw will be with the Eternia set, my gut tells me fans are going to be very disappointed and can for see the storm on the horizon coming and as the line from jaws goes, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”. Great video man. Nice follow up. Thanks for doing this for the industry. I hope Mattel will be able to rectify this for the collectors and fans of the wresting community, but I highly doubt it.
I had to call Mattel a few times this year for some QC issues and one thing they say is your call may be handled by a third party. I feel the third party groups are not as aware or knowledgeable on these things and why the issues are so important to the consumer. I bet that employee said it's an easy fix not because he is hoarding the figures but since he is "under Mattel's roof" he is able to take the issue to the right group and get it resolved fairly easily. Perhaps these crowd funded items should have a dedicated service line that is handled in house.
That's because the third party groups are thousands of miles away overseas. There are no "third party groups" inside the United States. Tried to call fedex for a missing package for my job a while ago. Got to tech support in India. All they did was track the package on the fedex website and tell me it was at a local facility. I said I could see that myself. I needed to know where it was because there was a $6.5 million dollar airplane on the ground waiting for this part. Didn't get an answer until I kept fighting and FINALLY got the local fedex hub, literally 15 miles away. Told the to pull my part because I was coming to pick it up.
Even when it's the company themselves, I think a big part of the problem is that they're not really set up to deal with the specific demands of the collector market. Things like collector-oriented QC issues aren't really something they have to deal with in the kid-oriented mass retail market. Big box retail doesn't really care what figures they get as long as they get a crate of something on the truck and kids (and their parents) are a lot less likely to care about things like bad paint apps or weak joints so the "just push something out the door" mentality works there in a way it doesn't for the collector market.
You call/email Mattel Creations and somebody making $75.00 USD a month in the Philippines will respond... badly. All major companies that value profits over customers do things this way.
@@KingRandor82 Maybe to some extent, but I also think people tend to look back with rose-colored glasses as to how much effort they really were putting in back then.
I have to say I already had so many reservations about crowd finding to big companies like Hasbro and Mattel (prices, the very idea of crowd finding for a giant corporation with tons of capitol, ect), then as if I need another reason this story comes along and wow is too underwhelming a word. I think the worst part is after going through all that in customer service, the frustration and brick walls, it’s suddenly fixed after a tiny bit of bad PR. I’m glad he got it but man to go through that much to get an item you already paid for just isn’t right.
We’ll done for highlighting this person’s issue and helping them get it resolved. Totally agree the ‘solution’ raises more questions than answers. There are many people who work in corporates who make easy fixes. There are very few who will take the time and effort to make difficult fixes and deal with the actual root of the problem.
Speaking of corporation screw-ups, I'd love to see Michael's reaction to what Hasbro tried to pull over in Magic: The Gathering, but that horse has been beaten to death by Magic-specific TH-cam chanels
Sounds like a case of the mega-corporation being too large to provide proper management and guidance for its (possibly outsourced) customer service department.
I gotta give a shout out to 2 companies with AWESOME customer service...Lego, and McFarlane. Lego: bought a set, missing 3 bags. Contacted lego, had the bags (from Denmark) within a week! Mcfarlane: bought a 20 dollar spawn (mk 11 spawn), hip broken right out of the box. Not only got a new mk 11 spawn, was given 3 other spawn figures one of which was the deluxe gunslinger spawn. Hats off to both companies.
This raises sooooo many questions. First off, I have a ton of questions about just how much time Mattel employees spend watching toy channels on TH-cam. Then, I want to see his comment on the original video and I'd like to know what Steven's opinion of RetroBlasting is that he teased. That's a start before we even get into the numbers and why they don't have enough replacements on hand or why they value their exclusive Ultimate figures at $15 in refund money. Maybe Steven would like to do an interview and set the record straight???
All the fix did is make people wonder if Mattel didn't make enough to cover orders and QC issues both, and decided to sit on inventory and do product swapping and see if anyone would complain. It also makes me wonder if the Mattel rep Stephen just had a box set aside for himself and sent out two of his own to look like a hero rep. And just on the whole fund raising thing in general, the latest Victory Saber release is a prime example of in spite of it being backed and delivered, it can go pretty bad. Victory Saber has been chock full of QC issues. Bad paint jobs, loose joints, missing accessories, two left arms stuck on the smaller bot etc. People have been complaining in the TF FB groups and on TFW2005 about it. It makes me glad as hell I avoided that thing and went with Iron Trans release instead.
DAMN, I didn't know VS went tits-up TOO! I honestly thought it would fare way better since it was a hot character in/from a different market. . . What the fuck is going on at Hasblo. . ?!
@@myronaustin Its partly design issues, and partly cost cutting money grab decisions. QC issues have been plaguing the Transformers line pretty hard since Legacy started. Prior lines had little issues here or there on certain figures. But as of Legacy, people have been dealing hard with missing accessories, yellowed plastic, bad paint apps, joint and tolerance issues and more.
@@ConfusionDistortion I mean yeah no line is perfect, but I'd figured they'd have it dialed in for a TF from the Japanese lore since it's gonna be in Takara's market too. But NOPE they are tits-up on ALL sides in some way shape or form. It's not even about being a fan of Hasblo anymore, we just want what we are offered to meet basic QC standards and come away pleased with the purchase. How hard is that? Have the factory crank out a set number above the proposed limit for any that need to be returned and keep an eye on QC as you go. Take in the orders and ship them out the door to the buyers and wait for the feedback. LEARN from any mistakes and then if it was a BIG hit do a re-release and go from there. But NOPE, all the lessons from previous runs over the DECADES were moot.
It should never require that you have to fight one level higher and circumvent the entire customer service dept. Great for thus guy but this is still an avalanche waiting to roll us over .
Mattel Creations customer service is callous at best. In fact, you can't call it customer service. I've had my own share of experience where they blatantly lie to you, read off a script, and tell you sorry this happened, "bye." As if saying sorry is a resolution. Mattel Creations conducts itself like Mattel is a small toy kiosk not a multi-billion dollar company.
If I remember right, Hasbro and Mattel across the board outsourced their customer support to a multi company handler. I worked for one that handled Mattel Online and Weber Grill customer support. Folks who needed nonbasic support would need to call Mattel directly. It's been this way since 2002 or thereabouts l.
The QA on these WWE Mattel new generation has been spotty at best. I’ve seen several people receive their ring with the ring apron hooks sewn upside down, etc. kind of sucks to pre order something and wait and wait and finally get it and yeahhhhh.
Mattels "easy solve" was to offer the consumer almost half of what the figures would cost at retail. It really should not have been like pulling teeth to get a satisfactory resolution. The Eternia rollout is going to be scary.
Mattel: We want sales of Masters of the Universe like we had 35-40 years ago! Customer Base: Will you put in the effort to market it, and get people invested like you did back then, and do customer service *closer* to how you did it back then? Mattel: ......no?
Is Mattel still using Digital River or whatever it was called for their customer service? If so, that's the problem. Fortunately, I never had to deal with that nightmare ever since Matty Collector closed shop. I don't wish that hell on anyone (except maybe a handful of people).
I think costumer service in Mattel didn't even care about really solve the problem. That's must corporations these days. I hope people just wake up and realize what these corps are doing.
So, a crowd fund where they only make as many of the items as they crowd fund for doesn't have enough figures. So, they give out figures from a different line that the buyer may not even collect. Then by a small miracle his plight gets to the right person who somehow finds two figures that supposedly weren't made to give to him. Either they took someone else's figures to give him, screwing someone else over or they had enough but held them back for some unknown reason. I'm at a loss as to how a company could let this crap happen and people still buy things from them.
FURTHER EVIDENCE that everything about these companies is dirty. I hope everyone floods that Steven guys inbox. It’s gotta be equal treatment if it’s such an “easy solve.”
Dealing with my own issue right now (different company) concerning a promotional offer being honored for an expensive pre-order I made. Customer Service hasn't been helpful at all. I was only able to get things moving by contacting a PR rep. Manufacturers who try to get in direct-to-consumer sales are bad at it. They live in a world of businesses dealing with other businesses and make the customer service experience a frustrating one.
Let me tell you something... when i step into that ring... those Grizzlors are gonna be in a world of pain and wish they never heard of.. the Macho Mannnn 🤠
The number one reason these companies are in business is to make money everything else takes a back seat. They say they care about their customers but that is not actually the truth.
I don't do this level of collecting, so I'm kind of ignorant on this - but, I presume by "crowd-funding" that customers are actually sending money into these companies at the time of the launch. Are these companies parking all of this money in an interest-bearing business account? Then when these projects fail in one way or another, are they just sending back the original $150 or whatever, in the name of a "refund" while the companies pocket the earned interest monies? Just wondering....
It’s a sad day when a customer service dept is incapable of dealing with a customer complaint and needs a heavy kick up the backside from a content creator Mattel should realise your only as good as your last gig and many people wanting to buy exclusives will be looking at this and thinking twice On another note happy new year from Scotland ❤
Randall Savage would be very pissed in his grave should he found out that his fans got screwed. He'll probably give those company execs his elbow drops and say later "Ohhh, yeah!" for good measure
They have 2 choices: go back to 80s level direct to retail while cutting out 3 rd party as much as possible, OR cut all 3rd party out of online and AND in both cases, cut out the middle man. Go all in house. In fact, go the 80s one better. The o.g. had overseas manufacturing. Forget that, bring the whole thing home. All in house, in the united States and increase the scale! Make more product, make it all domestic, keep the whole chain from design to consumer first party in house, and that's how you succeed.
Your continued advocacy for the consumer proves you are truely "...the cream of the crop. Nobody does it better!" Keep rising to the top. I guess "the easy fix" is just another Mattel "Creation".
Have a Happy New Year Retroblasting!! As for Mattel, people Placed Orders, Paid Money for items and Mattel hasn't delivered...sounds about right? Simple fact is Money was Accepted and Responsibility to Fulfill and Complete the Purchase Requires Delivery of the Advertised and Paid For item. If That Doesn't Happen then the Customer FEELS like they've been Stolen from. Its FRAUD, whether it's legal actionable fraud I dunno, but Ethically it IS a Crime. This ISN'T a Crap Shoot where you Make however many Units, put them in retail and see what Percentage gets Bought up. When you taking Online Orders you end up know EXACTLY how many you Need to Make. There is NO EXCUSE at ALL for Mattel to NOT be Fulfilling these online exclusive orders. NONE. Delays sure, usually all BS excuses anyways but Delays are Forgivable IF what is Paid for is Delivered as Promised. Having a Percentage of Pre Orders NOT being Fulfilled is INEXCUSABLE. You MUST PRODUCE the Units to Meet the Orders, End of Story. For there to be Any More Delays than there already are is MINDBOGGLING to me. Seriously, some Suits need a Good SLAPPING to wake them up from the Fogginess of their Incompetence.
@@retroblasting I remember coming home from my friend's house as a child, turning on the TV and Mark Hamill was on the Muppets. I happened to be wearing MY version of Bespin Luke that day and thought I was psychic.
Long time I'm done with toys companies I've buy and make order with independent creator who give ya the extra mile and the only thing you have to go to convention and make your investigation of who's who in the independent market.
I backed eternia reluctantly and I can't lie and say I'm not worried about getting the set or the moat monster. I took a chance and hope I get what I paid for. Shouldn't have to worry but that's how these companies operate.
Mike if there was a reason i don't support this crowfunding thing was this situation i saw in your video I dont support this and i never will take care Happy Holidays and Happy New year Mike
this is the toy industries equivalent of Malpractice, and it's a shame that it has become commonplace with these giant corporations, I would love to see how the Toy Guru would explain this.
On the ever so slight chance that anyone from Mattel reads this, please know that I am a grown man who in more recent years, just started buying their first ever Masters Of The Universe figures, not out of nostalgia, but on account that I think they are a great product in and of themselves. But when you guys undermine your customers, you don't deserve my money, or my praise. Do not resent Michael! His overarching message for years has simply been: TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS FAIRLY. I'm going put my spin on a certain wrestling phrase with this: you "put us over" and we'll be happy to return the favor.
This is not in defense of Mattel, but if you’ve ever dealt with their 1-800 line customer service it’s very clearly outsourced to a different country. My hunch is those phone operators are dealing with a computer system that is telling them the figure is out of stock and there was no clear workaround for them to replace the exclusive, so they “followed the rule book” to come up with the crappy solution of refunding $15 each for the figures even though that’s not what elites cost and it made no sense. Steven is probably more in the know on North American operations and had an internal collection that allowed him to help the purchaser in need of the Macho Man figures. I received a broken Sorceress with my Castle Grayskull and they told me the exclusive Sorceress was out of stock when I called. I asked if Castle Grayskull was still in stock and they said yes. Suggested and convinced them the best solution was to mail me a whole new Castle Grayskull so I could have a proper Sorceress, which they ended up doing because the computer system allowed them to
Thanks for always sticking up for the little guy. Retroblasting=integrity
What I can take away from this is some people or groups seem to have a wierd relationship with Michael. It's like, they hate him but at the same time they kinda need him.
They call that a "Love/Hate relationship". lol
The company man put the "easy solve" out there in the ether, then it took a proactive content creator to get him connected with the slighted customer.
Why is there even that gulf between the company and the customer in the first place? Michael was the customer advocate. Thats bad PR for the company. Who'd put up with that with their money?
Anybody remember David Horowitz on “Fight Back”?
Just wanted to say thanks for all the content this year. It's been a rough year and the occasional distraction has been appreciated. Keep up the good work.
I hope next year is better man. This year SUCKED!
Funny thing I just noticed - Mattel are doing a pre order for a redone ring based on the attitude era complete with Kane figure. NOT a crowdfund.
The website that shown this item off - Toyark - commented that they WISHED it was a crowdfund with no reason given to that view.
Not sure who's in charge of the Peabody Award, but damn it, Michael's investigative reporting deserves it a thousand times over. Old school proper journalism at its finest. Happy 2023 to everyone at RetroBlasting.
Bravo to the Mattel employee, Steve, for taking the time to help.
He can't help everyone who has had this issue. This is not a good sign of Mattel's preparedness for customer service issues.
" IF YOU HAVE A TOY PROBLEM, IF NO ONE ELSE CAN HELP AND IF YOU CAN FIND THEM... MAYBE YOU CAN SEND A MESSAGE TO THE RB TEAM! " But it would be better if toy companies actually helped customers instead.
Great video
Hope the business people start understanding this stuff soon.
Keep fighting the good fight bro ! Every win no matter how small is appreciated! Ty for what you do, great vid as always!!!
Happy New year to you Michael and Melinda, this years content has been better than ever
Glad to see a follow up on this story. Keep up the great work my friend and happy new year
Please note that if it was a easy fix on a sold out figure, there are only few logical possibilities none of which look good for Mattel:
1. there is a clear and known delivery and shipping issue that rather than fixing they let to fall to first line customer service to deal with as complaints for inadequate refunds
2. they had manufactured more of the product that stated and just had them stocked in a warehouse - false finite exclusivity
3. they just did not send out some of the finite number of manufactured products and someone was hogging them in company for ebay scalping without the consent of the company
4. same as above but with consent, aka. the crowdfunding has a in-build scalping operation in it.
5. the process of creating these exclusives via paint is and add-ons is so easy they could just be a direct on-demand mail order from the manufacture, you could get Macho Man in any color you like if it wasn't for the Mattel creations front end.
Can you imagine the number of people Mattel customer service is just ignoring and telling fifteen bucks, take it or leave it?
I look forward to each and every video. I especially like the fun we have on the live streams.
Mattel Creations is the worst.
I recently bought one of their Camo Khan figures for 36€ plus 10€ shipping. It arrived here in Germany with a long tear in the blister and the beautiful fold out card art was damaged too. Nice exclusive!
This is not an isolated incident. Through forums and a MOTU Facebook group i found out that there are other collectors in Germany and Canada who complain that their Camo Khans also have damaged blisters.
Mattel's customer service is a joke, i wrote them 2 emails about the issue and they don't even answer back. They just don't care about their customers at all, they collect your money and then they're done with you.
Very valid point’s Michael. The way I have been going into thinking about these crowd fund internal platforms is, the collectors want to dump all our faith into the idea that its going to work, and work every time, the reality is as you state it doesn’t, and I for one have been burned before by them with the latest release of the Camo Kahn MOTU figure. I purchased for pre order on the release date only to never be able to check out and actually be given notice of purchase. Now on the flip side I have been able to purchase pre orders in the past and been successful, but it does tweak ones thought process into as is this ever gonna be rectified into an actual functional system and properly work and I have come to the answer, no. It’s unfortunate and as you have stated numerous times these companies don’t need to be crowd funding when they have the means of making plenty and being able to properly distribute as well as these companies have done for decades. My final straw will be with the Eternia set, my gut tells me fans are going to be very disappointed and can for see the storm on the horizon coming and as the line from jaws goes, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat”. Great video man. Nice follow up. Thanks for doing this for the industry. I hope Mattel will be able to rectify this for the collectors and fans of the wresting community, but I highly doubt it.
Happy New Year, Michael! Thanks for another great year!
Thanks for the videos.
I'm looking forward to the new year of RetroBlasting. :)
Have a good new year
I got distracted by that big lego giraffe looking thing back there.
I had to call Mattel a few times this year for some QC issues and one thing they say is your call may be handled by a third party. I feel the third party groups are not as aware or knowledgeable on these things and why the issues are so important to the consumer. I bet that employee said it's an easy fix not because he is hoarding the figures but since he is "under Mattel's roof" he is able to take the issue to the right group and get it resolved fairly easily. Perhaps these crowd funded items should have a dedicated service line that is handled in house.
That's because the third party groups are thousands of miles away overseas. There are no "third party groups" inside the United States.
Tried to call fedex for a missing package for my job a while ago. Got to tech support in India. All they did was track the package on the fedex website and tell me it was at a local facility. I said I could see that myself. I needed to know where it was because there was a $6.5 million dollar airplane on the ground waiting for this part. Didn't get an answer until I kept fighting and FINALLY got the local fedex hub, literally 15 miles away. Told the to pull my part because I was coming to pick it up.
Even when it's the company themselves, I think a big part of the problem is that they're not really set up to deal with the specific demands of the collector market. Things like collector-oriented QC issues aren't really something they have to deal with in the kid-oriented mass retail market. Big box retail doesn't really care what figures they get as long as they get a crate of something on the truck and kids (and their parents) are a lot less likely to care about things like bad paint apps or weak joints so the "just push something out the door" mentality works there in a way it doesn't for the collector market.
You call/email Mattel Creations and somebody making $75.00 USD a month in the Philippines will respond... badly. All major companies that value profits over customers do things this way.
face facts: Mattel and Hasbro want the experiences with customers they had back 40 years ago...but WITHOUT putting in the effort FROM 40 years ago.
@@KingRandor82 Maybe to some extent, but I also think people tend to look back with rose-colored glasses as to how much effort they really were putting in back then.
You always tell it like it is and I enjoy your videos. When you buy something you expect to get what you paid for and it be good quality products
I have to say I already had so many reservations about crowd finding to big companies like Hasbro and Mattel (prices, the very idea of crowd finding for a giant corporation with tons of capitol, ect), then as if I need another reason this story comes along and wow is too underwhelming a word.
I think the worst part is after going through all that in customer service, the frustration and brick walls, it’s suddenly fixed after a tiny bit of bad PR. I’m glad he got it but man to go through that much to get an item you already paid for just isn’t right.
The quality & thought provoking nature of your videos is unmatched. Thanks for the content & Happy New Year RB!
I'm trying to work out the meaning behind the seemingly random assortment of items next to Michael.
I really appreciate your clear and consistent position on the state of the industry.
We’ll done for highlighting this person’s issue and helping them get it resolved. Totally agree the ‘solution’ raises more questions than answers.
There are many people who work in corporates who make easy fixes. There are very few who will take the time and effort to make difficult fixes and deal with the actual root of the problem.
Happy New Years, Retroblasting!! Let’s hope the new year is not as full of stupid!
Speaking of corporation screw-ups, I'd love to see Michael's reaction to what Hasbro tried to pull over in Magic: The Gathering, but that horse has been beaten to death by Magic-specific TH-cam chanels
Have you looked at D&D this week. Holy crap. Hasbro is messing up on every level right now.
Welp. Anyone want to tell Michael about the Haslab Victory Saber fiasco(s)?
Still haven’t gotten mine. Been emailing for months. Planning to call Tuesday. (Doubtful.) 😓
Mattel customer service straight up lied to that customer saying they couldn’t replace his Randy Savage. Smdh. Not at all surprised
Sounds like a case of the mega-corporation being too large to provide proper management and guidance for its (possibly outsourced) customer service department.
Quality. Integrity. Retroblasting.
Happy New Year's Michael, thanks for update.
This is some absolute Macho Madness. "This is an easy fix" then why hasn't it been fixed Steven?
LOL @retroblasting you forgot to insert Lethal Weapon "That's pretty thin!" snip at the 8:00 mark. Great job again Michael. Happy New Year!
Damn... You're right. Must have been distracted by Mattel's sheer idiocy on this one.
Happy New Year, Retroblasting!
sounds like mattel employees hoarded them
I gotta give a shout out to 2 companies with AWESOME customer service...Lego, and McFarlane.
Lego: bought a set, missing 3 bags. Contacted lego, had the bags (from Denmark) within a week!
Mcfarlane: bought a 20 dollar spawn (mk 11 spawn), hip broken right out of the box. Not only got a new mk 11 spawn, was given 3 other spawn figures one of which was the deluxe gunslinger spawn.
Hats off to both companies.
This raises sooooo many questions. First off, I have a ton of questions about just how much time Mattel employees spend watching toy channels on TH-cam. Then, I want to see his comment on the original video and I'd like to know what Steven's opinion of RetroBlasting is that he teased. That's a start before we even get into the numbers and why they don't have enough replacements on hand or why they value their exclusive Ultimate figures at $15 in refund money. Maybe Steven would like to do an interview and set the record straight???
All the fix did is make people wonder if Mattel didn't make enough to cover orders and QC issues both, and decided to sit on inventory and do product swapping and see if anyone would complain. It also makes me wonder if the Mattel rep Stephen just had a box set aside for himself and sent out two of his own to look like a hero rep. And just on the whole fund raising thing in general, the latest Victory Saber release is a prime example of in spite of it being backed and delivered, it can go pretty bad. Victory Saber has been chock full of QC issues. Bad paint jobs, loose joints, missing accessories, two left arms stuck on the smaller bot etc. People have been complaining in the TF FB groups and on TFW2005 about it. It makes me glad as hell I avoided that thing and went with Iron Trans release instead.
DAMN, I didn't know VS went tits-up TOO!
I honestly thought it would fare way better since it was a hot character in/from a different market. . .
What the fuck is going on at Hasblo. . ?!
@@myronaustin Its partly design issues, and partly cost cutting money grab decisions. QC issues have been plaguing the Transformers line pretty hard since Legacy started. Prior lines had little issues here or there on certain figures. But as of Legacy, people have been dealing hard with missing accessories, yellowed plastic, bad paint apps, joint and tolerance issues and more.
@@ConfusionDistortion I mean yeah no line is perfect, but I'd figured they'd have it dialed in for a TF from the Japanese lore since it's gonna be in Takara's market too.
But NOPE they are tits-up on ALL sides in some way shape or form.
It's not even about being a fan of Hasblo anymore, we just want what we are offered to meet basic QC standards and come away pleased with the purchase. How hard is that?
Have the factory crank out a set number above the proposed limit for any that need to be returned and keep an eye on QC as you go. Take in the orders and ship them out the door to the buyers and wait for the feedback. LEARN from any mistakes and then if it was a BIG hit do a re-release and go from there. But NOPE, all the lessons from previous runs over the DECADES were moot.
Happy new year Retroblasting!
It should never require that you have to fight one level higher and circumvent the entire customer service dept. Great for thus guy but this is still an avalanche waiting to roll us over .
I suspect Mattel Creations will be causing more controversy with its Origins line in 2023, the customer always looses
0:07 Macho Man figure /blocks your path
Mattel Creations customer service is callous at best. In fact, you can't call it customer service. I've had my own share of experience where they blatantly lie to you, read off a script, and tell you sorry this happened, "bye." As if saying sorry is a resolution. Mattel Creations conducts itself like Mattel is a small toy kiosk not a multi-billion dollar company.
If I remember right, Hasbro and Mattel across the board outsourced their customer support to a multi company handler. I worked for one that handled Mattel Online and Weber Grill customer support. Folks who needed nonbasic support would need to call Mattel directly. It's been this way since 2002 or thereabouts l.
Getting one replaced is lucky. Two? That's a head scratcher.
Did the guy they contacted just have a few on hand?
The QA on these WWE Mattel new generation has been spotty at best. I’ve seen several people receive their ring with the ring apron hooks sewn upside down, etc. kind of sucks to pre order something and wait and wait and finally get it and yeahhhhh.
Mattels "easy solve" was to offer the consumer almost half of what the figures would cost at retail. It really should not have been like pulling teeth to get a satisfactory resolution. The Eternia rollout is going to be scary.
Mattel: We want sales of Masters of the Universe like we had 35-40 years ago!
Customer Base: Will you put in the effort to market it, and get people invested like you did back then, and do customer service *closer* to how you did it back then?
Mattel: ......no?
The squeaky wheel isn't getting oiled when all the wheels squeak!!
Well....I'm glad I didn't get Six Flags over Eternia.
Good Job Michael! 👍
Is Mattel still using Digital River or whatever it was called for their customer service? If so, that's the problem. Fortunately, I never had to deal with that nightmare ever since Matty Collector closed shop. I don't wish that hell on anyone (except maybe a handful of people).
Had to do the same thing with Mega Bloks back in the day. They kept sending the wrong replacement part missing from a Halo set I had bought.
I could listen to micheal all day
What happened to the channel icon and banner?
Stay tuned....
People still forget Hasbro Pulse still has outstanding preorders from 2020 as well. Never going to get them...
I think costumer service in Mattel didn't even care about really solve the problem. That's must corporations these days. I hope people just wake up and realize what these corps are doing.
Mattel Creations, HasLab, any big company crowdfunding should NOT EXIST. I am disappointed and disgusted by the people that back these bs projects
I keep thinking that's an audio cassette tape on top of that giraffe looking thing's head.
So, a crowd fund where they only make as many of the items as they crowd fund for doesn't have enough figures. So, they give out figures from a different line that the buyer may not even collect. Then by a small miracle his plight gets to the right person who somehow finds two figures that supposedly weren't made to give to him.
Either they took someone else's figures to give him, screwing someone else over or they had enough but held them back for some unknown reason.
I'm at a loss as to how a company could let this crap happen and people still buy things from them.
More importantly, let’s talk about the Carry On box set and how Carry on up the Kyber is comedy gold!
Off topic, but ooooooo, that Lego Tallneck looks amazing!
“ Steven” is really a Sith Lord in disguise. His knowledge of the dark side allowed him to find the macho man figure(s).
Thank You, Michael.
I bet the Mattel guy just snatched the figures from somebody else's order in the hopes that the new screwed over customer can be pacified with $30.
My guess is that all the Macho Man figures went to Mattel sales reps first and this guy pulled the figures from one of them.
Stay on ‘em Michael! Nice work.
FURTHER EVIDENCE that everything about these companies is dirty. I hope everyone floods that Steven guys inbox. It’s gotta be equal treatment if it’s such an “easy solve.”
The whole video all I’m thinking is that I want to buy that cool robot dinosaur behind him. Have to rewatch.
Heh if you're really looking for it, it's a Tallneck from the Horizon Forbidden West Legos.
I haven't gotten my Macho Man STILL
Dealing with my own issue right now (different company) concerning a promotional offer being honored for an expensive pre-order I made. Customer Service hasn't been helpful at all. I was only able to get things moving by contacting a PR rep. Manufacturers who try to get in direct-to-consumer sales are bad at it. They live in a world of businesses dealing with other businesses and make the customer service experience a frustrating one.
Let me tell you something... when i step into that ring... those Grizzlors are gonna be in a world of pain and wish they never heard of.. the Macho Mannnn 🤠
😆👍
The number one reason these companies are in business is to make money everything else takes a back seat. They say they care about their customers but that is not actually the truth.
I don't do this level of collecting, so I'm kind of ignorant on this - but, I presume by "crowd-funding" that customers are actually sending money into these companies at the time of the launch. Are these companies parking all of this money in an interest-bearing business account? Then when these projects fail in one way or another, are they just sending back the original $150 or whatever, in the name of a "refund" while the companies pocket the earned interest monies? Just wondering....
That's what I suspect
What's with the Empire ISB field jacket ??
Wrong guess.
It’s a sad day when a customer service dept is incapable of dealing with a customer complaint and needs a heavy kick up the backside from a content creator Mattel should realise your only as good as your last gig and many people wanting to buy exclusives will be looking at this and thinking twice
On another note happy new year from Scotland ❤
Are you Scottish? I thought you were British?
I’m both
Randall Savage would be very pissed in his grave should he found out that his fans got screwed. He'll probably give those company execs his elbow drops and say later "Ohhh, yeah!" for good measure
Love your airforce battle dress
Happy new year 🫡
They have 2 choices: go back to 80s level direct to retail while cutting out 3 rd party as much as possible, OR cut all 3rd party out of online and AND in both cases, cut out the middle man. Go all in house. In fact, go the 80s one better. The o.g. had overseas manufacturing. Forget that, bring the whole thing home. All in house, in the united States and increase the scale! Make more product, make it all domestic, keep the whole chain from design to consumer first party in house, and that's how you succeed.
Thank you for all the amazing content this year!!!!!
Translation: they can't fix it for everybody.
Your continued advocacy for the consumer proves you are truely "...the cream of the crop. Nobody does it better!" Keep rising to the top.
I guess "the easy fix" is just another Mattel "Creation".
Oooooohhhh YEAH!!!! Uh-HUH!!!!
I still have my wwf ring, or squared circle
Have a Happy New Year Retroblasting!!
As for Mattel, people Placed Orders, Paid Money for items and Mattel hasn't delivered...sounds about right?
Simple fact is Money was Accepted and Responsibility to Fulfill and Complete the Purchase Requires Delivery of the Advertised and Paid For item.
If That Doesn't Happen then the Customer FEELS like they've been Stolen from.
Its FRAUD, whether it's legal actionable fraud I dunno, but Ethically it IS a Crime.
This ISN'T a Crap Shoot where you Make however many Units, put them in retail and see what Percentage gets Bought up.
When you taking Online Orders you end up know EXACTLY how many you Need to Make.
There is NO EXCUSE at ALL for Mattel to NOT be Fulfilling these online exclusive orders.
NONE.
Delays sure, usually all BS excuses anyways but Delays are Forgivable IF what is Paid for is Delivered as Promised.
Having a Percentage of Pre Orders NOT being Fulfilled is INEXCUSABLE.
You MUST PRODUCE the Units to Meet the Orders, End of Story.
For there to be Any More Delays than there already are is MINDBOGGLING to me.
Seriously, some Suits need a Good SLAPPING to wake them up from the Fogginess of their Incompetence.
Michael, what cosplay are you wearing? It looks kinda like Bespin Luke goes back to Hoth for Yavin award ceremony. Also part Ronnie the Limo Driver.
That's not "cosplay." Life isn't a sci-fi convention.
@@retroblasting so you’re saying those are your regular clothes? Ohhhhhh😮
@@retroblasting you gotta admit the pockets on your jacket are comparable to the Bespin Luke jacket 🧥 you’re known to wear. My bad!!
You only think that because you've watched my video about the Bespin Luke costume and forgotten everything that video taught you.
@@retroblasting I remember coming home from my friend's house as a child, turning on the TV and Mark Hamill was on the Muppets. I happened to be wearing MY version of Bespin Luke that day and thought I was psychic.
It shouldn't have to go down like this to get items we pay for from ANY billion dollar corporation. . .🙄
I don’t understand if you sell a certain amount of rings and figures why you wouldn’t make that amount of rings & figures
Long time I'm done with toys companies I've buy and make order with independent creator who give ya the extra mile and the only thing you have to go to convention and make your investigation of who's who in the independent market.
I backed eternia reluctantly and I can't lie and say I'm not worried about getting the set or the moat monster. I took a chance and hope I get what I paid for. Shouldn't have to worry but that's how these companies operate.
Hence why I do not go in for these kinds of schemes.
Mike if there was a reason i don't support this crowfunding thing was this situation i saw in your video I dont support this and i never will take care Happy Holidays and Happy New year Mike
So Mattel basically lied about not having any Macho Man figs to send out?
this is the toy industries equivalent of Malpractice, and it's a shame that it has become commonplace with these giant corporations, I would love to see how the Toy Guru would explain this.
"Well, see, so it's commonly accepted that half of customers will get screwed. You should expect this as a consumer!"
-Snott Nuttlick
On the ever so slight chance that anyone from Mattel reads this, please know that I am a grown man who in more recent years, just started buying their first ever Masters Of The Universe figures, not out of nostalgia, but on account that I think they are a great product in and of themselves. But when you guys undermine your customers, you don't deserve my money, or my praise. Do not resent Michael! His overarching message for years has simply been: TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS FAIRLY. I'm going put my spin on a certain wrestling phrase with this: you "put us over" and we'll be happy to return the favor.
It's an easy solve, Steven can give him one off someone's desk in the office. ☺️
This is not in defense of Mattel, but if you’ve ever dealt with their 1-800 line customer service it’s very clearly outsourced to a different country.
My hunch is those phone operators are dealing with a computer system that is telling them the figure is out of stock and there was no clear workaround for them to replace the exclusive, so they “followed the rule book” to come up with the crappy solution of refunding $15 each for the figures even though that’s not what elites cost and it made no sense.
Steven is probably more in the know on North American operations and had an internal collection that allowed him to help the purchaser in need of the Macho Man figures.
I received a broken Sorceress with my Castle Grayskull and they told me the exclusive Sorceress was out of stock when I called. I asked if Castle Grayskull was still in stock and they said yes. Suggested and convinced them the best solution was to mail me a whole new Castle Grayskull so I could have a proper Sorceress, which they ended up doing because the computer system allowed them to
That's corporate America for you.
Sounds like the only thing Mattel Creations is creating is incompetence
I agree with ya Mike