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Old 03-08-2019, 08:45 PM   #1531
Darth Cosmos
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

I called the EB customer care number and got some details from them. The person who I spoke with searched the warehouse stock and said they got 96 of them for the entire country for in store. And they didn’t fill all the preorders and the warehouse is saying that there are zero there now so none on the way to stores currently. So if you didn’t get it now it won’t be filled yet. And they couldn’t even promose more would come.

What a mess. The worst part is that plenty of people picked them up who didn’t even have preorders and their website had it in stock for days to ship home.

So instead of even trying to honour preorders they just did a bad job of distributing it. No online stock should have gone up if in store preorders still didn’t get filled. Why am I taking the time to go to a retail store and put $5 down when they don’t care to actually distribute it properly and random people just end up buying online and getting it first than a preorder in store from months ago?

EB has been doing a really poor job with these preorders lately.

My District Manager is supppsed to call me back, no response today but I better get one Monday. Anyone else who didn’t get their preorder filled should call their district manager too. I don’t even care that much about this figure. It is more so the issue of poor customer practices. Don’t take my money and then not even properly distribute the figure at launch.

Last edited by Darth Cosmos; 03-08-2019 at 08:49 PM.
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Old 03-08-2019, 09:37 PM   #1532
MC Culla
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

Thanks for the info! I will call customer care. Agree that it is more of principle issue than about the figure itself. Plus, I had been calling all this past week and was told each time "not in yet, don't worry we'll call you."

At 96 across Canada that seems to be 2 per store or less. I have got burned from EB before this same way with Marvel Legends Thing and Bespin Leia. Agreed that it seems like they are put out in store for non pre-orders to buy, while my $5.00 down deposit sits idle. It's rare that I have gotten a call about a pre-order unless it is a less popular figure that isn't flying off the shelf.

I find in order to actually get a EB pre-order you have to stalk a board like this to find out when they are showing up and then show up at the store and ask for your pre-order and hope you get lucky.
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Old 03-08-2019, 09:45 PM   #1533
Darth Cosmos
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

No problem. It’s just very poor of them to do this when they’re taking our money down. Call your district manager and get them to explain this and promise a date for your preorder.

The likely thing is that your store just didn’t get it yet. I’ve heard people here say they showed up at one store in their town but then not at the other one. So it isn’t even consistent city to city.

Smarten up EB.
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Old 03-08-2019, 09:56 PM   #1534
MC Culla
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

That's the thing; they did admit to getting it but not enough to fill all pre-orders. I pre-ordered January 25th so I had to be one of the first ones. So I am not sure how it is decided who gets a pre-order call and who doesn't. That's when they told me they "e-mailed" someone (head office?) and that more were being ordered for some unknown arrival date and not to worry that my deposit would still hold one for when these arrive.

I also find it hard to believe they would ship these 2 per store or whatever 96 across Canada works out to be. Doesn't seem efficient. Maybe you are right and every store doesn't get a shipment. But if that's the case my store must have close to a case of 8, or however many come in a SWB assortment, and I still missed out. I know when I went to the store when ML Mystique dropped it was a case of 8 as I was able to get the first one out of the case.
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Old 03-08-2019, 11:59 PM   #1535
wedge1021
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

A couple of my thoughts & observations re: EB Games and pre-orders:

1. I agree that their pre-order system needs to be improved.

2. If you're pre-ordering with your Edge account, make sure your phone number is up-to-date. I had an old number on there a while back, so when they couldn't get a hold of me they let the figure go on the floor.

3. As I understand it, the individual stores have no control over what stock gets sent to them. It is all decided by head office and/or their warehouse. Which seems like a stupid way to operate to me. As a boutique-type store (it's even in their name!), the company should be heavily relying on the store managers who know their local customers well and know best what products sell. Let the managers decide what they need to have stocked.

4. When it comes to U.S.-retailer exclusives being offered by a different company in Canada, I usually give lots of leeway, ie. GameStop, Walgreens, Target, etc. exclusives getting picked up by EB Games here. They basically get last pick when it comes to securing stock. For the Jumptrooper, it's possible Hasbro did a smaller-than-usual run, plus GameStop would have gotten first chance to reserve however much stock they want. EB Games gets offered the leftovers (if at all).


So, can EB Games do better? Absolutely.
But when it comes to exclusives like this, I try not to blame them too much when there's little/no stock. At least, I try not to blame them for the stuff they can't control. In the end, I am happy that they've been getting so many of these things at all, and that they even do pre-orders. For so many years of collecting, we never even had that option. I just wish they'd get even better at things - though it's doubtful. Their pre-order system was set up for selling video games, which have a much higher sell rate with larger volume stocked.
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Old 03-09-2019, 01:40 AM   #1536
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

I agree with what you are saying in a broad sense but for me this has happened too often with EB pre-orders for me now to be just coincidence. I do everything to ensure success for the pre-order: 1) ordered early 2) go into store to put money down for pre-order (which I find has become mandatory for most recent pre-orders) with my up to date edge platinum card account that I basically got just for these exclusives 3) check with the store before and then after the reported release and am always told "don't worry, we'll call you" unless the item happens to be in the store at the very moment I go in and I am lucky enough to grab the pre-order then. Or the item is not as hot a seller and I have in these cases gotten an eventual call, this is rare however.

The issue remains for me more so that it seems a lot of times stock is put out into the store and pre-orders go unfilled and ultimately missed by people who take the above steps. I know for a fact this happened when I pre-ordered Bespin Leia as I went into the store to see exactly one on the shelf. When I took it to the counter to ask about my pre-order, the manager, after hunting for my pre-order in drawers and boxes behind the counter, told me "oh this is your pre-order". So had I not gone exactly then I would have missed this one as well. Other times I have just flat out missed the item as it has been sold away before I have gotten there. The easy way to explain this to a customer is to say we didn't get enough to fill pre-orders as this is almost impossible to disprove, but as with my Bespin Leia this wasn't the case as they had put it out on the floor to be sold and I would have been none the wiser had I not gone in when I did.

So, while recognizing that these are usually more limited stock it doesn't for me explain how pre-orders go unfilled on a regular basis, unless truly they got 2 in and most pre-orders went unfilled, which is something I recognize can happen but I also know from experience this is not always the case. I've never bought a video game from them but I suspect they have been doing video game pre-orders for years and they should have had all the bugs ironed out by now in terms of reliable pre-order system for any type of merchandise.

End rant
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Old 03-09-2019, 02:59 AM   #1537
Darth Cosmos
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

What is being described here is the case with any retailer. They are at the will of Hasbro as to what they get.

But when you’re taking people’s money well in advance you should be sure as shit that you know you’ll get the item. Not some wishy washy I don’t know.

I care less when it’s an online preorder with no money down. But when they’re actually taking your money in advance that is where the problem lies. Plus the entire point of preordering is to secure your figure and for them to have solid numbers for demand and supply it.

Clearly they shouldn’t be doing preorders.
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Old 03-09-2019, 11:39 AM   #1538
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

That was going to be my conclusion based on reading this. They are basically a second tier customer for these exclusives. Obviously they are ordered by the primary US exclusive holder, and EB just gets the 'leftovers'. In which case stock will always be unpredictable, and they should not be taking any preorders on this type of product.
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Old 03-11-2019, 04:30 PM   #1539
sixshot1981
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

I just got a notice that Black Series General Grievous just dropped into my POL. Ironically 6 days after i had to ship my last POL.

Woot !
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Old 03-11-2019, 06:42 PM   #1540
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Re: Star Wars Black Series discussion

Quote:
Originally Posted by sixshot1981 View Post
I just got a notice that Black Series General Grievous just dropped into my POL. Ironically 6 days after i had to ship my last POL.

Woot !
For bbts?
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