'Letter to Editor' opinion on GI JOE 2009 Convention Set

[Compulsive Collector]

Kansas City is quite a haul for me, so I wasn't going to attend, anyway. That said, if I had been planning to go, an exclusive set that didn't appeal to me certainly wouldn't have made me sulk and sit home over it.

[cmderinchief]

Yet another reason why I have changed my tune on the club over the last year. I came late to see the light, now it is clear. They are in touch with someone and it isn't me any longer.

[gunslingercbr]

Yet another reason why I have changed my tune on the club over the last year. I came late to see the light, now it is clear. They are in touch with someone and it isn't me any longer.

that is a big change of tune for you.

[cmderinchief]

that is a big change of tune for you.

You don't even know the beginning of it. It is a true statement to say in my case: "If I knew then what I know now......"

[dockingbay97]

Yet another reason why I have changed my tune on the club over the last year. I came late to see the light, now it is clear. They are in touch with someone and it isn't me any longer.

I know I am way late to the party but I can't believe that I read this.

[Urban Saboteur]

Wow.. the con sets were usually well thought out and classic pieces, although they were priced too much for some collectors, i know quite a few of us enjoyed seeing the backing stories and creativity they set as their benchmark.

Having read all the comments on the forum here, i'm agreeing most with flophouse on it, makes sense in what they done, but you'd have to question their enthusiasm now, in the past they made sets with those attributes stated above, so fans were excited and generally looking forward to the releases. To move your fanbase into a frame of mind where 'i'll get them just to be a collector' when they already have this set previously is pretty much what hasbro has been doing this whole time with 25th.

Your paying for a product you already have albeit in a different sculpt, it indicates the club is putting profits and sales ahead of geniune ideas and creativity.. which is what hasbro has been doing for the last 2 years.. those attributes and that creativity is what drawn fans in.. thats what got them their sales in previous years.

Also there seems to be a trend being set here that the product is continually held back or distributed in lower numbers in order to hike up the demand for the product, its incredibly smart for those actively searching for this set, looking at the comments already i cant see many doing that.
The only thing i really dont agree with is wishing them luck, because if they dont have any creativity or enthusiasm in their product and 0 effort put into it.. i dont see why i should give them my best wishes.

I would of at some point purchased the con set, providing it would of been in classic RAH sculpts. I loved both MOTH and Cobra's Most Wanted Sets. it's a shame that the club ultimately folded under the pressure of the 25th line.

[rnrhero]

At first I was pretty mad about the set but have gotten a bit warmer to the idea. I am going to the con anyway so figure that I will get the set. I biggest problem with the club is there horrible customer service on the phones. I waited over a week with no reply if my fax to the club about the con had gone through I had to call them 5 times about finding out this with the same "you will get an email Response". On the 6 call I get a bit mad on the phone and it when the lady gave and and looked it took her a total of 20 seconds to confirm everything was good. This will be my last con and the last year I am a member of the club. The staff members have alway been pretty short with people at the cons and all. It's all of us that give them a job. There not a big corproration that has all this money to back then and allow them to act how they want. Customer service is everything in an economy like this. I have been doing customer Service for 15 years now. I have been a big supporter of the club in the past, they along with Hasbro allowed me to display part ofmy collection at the 2007 Con in atlanta at the Hasbro booth. But I can not look the other way forever. Sorry about the Rant but I just wanted to get that off my chest.

[stad]

At the risk of defending the Club's business practices (which I'm not) the Customer Service side is the part I've never had a problem with. To be fair, didn't they tell you the answer the first time (you will get an email response) about receiving your fax? I think it might even be in the FAQ. I know I've sent in two separate faxes, and I've always received an email stating they got my fax. Same with the BotCon side. I imagine they are pretty busy dealing with and processing JoeCon registration forms, as well as the BotCon stuff coming up in about two weeks, that is probably why they say you will get an email verifying that they received your fax-so that they don't have everybody calling in, which they still seem to do-you said you called six times. Can you imagine if everybody is doing that!!!

With that said, my issues with the club is not their customer service, per se, but how they treat their members with the release of info and the secrecy with con dates, locations, sets, etc. You could argue that that falls under customer service, but I see that as more of a PR problem. I've found that their customer service, as far as ordering products or receiving products, has been very good.

[FireFox91]

I still don't understand why they haven't modernized their convention application system. A lot of people don't even have easy access to a fax machine other than going to Kinkos or something. But just about everyone has a computer. They have an internet store that accepts credit cards but they can't make the registration system online as well? That would certainly eliminate the phone calls they get asking if the form was recieved.

[stad]

I still don't understand why they haven't modernized their convention application system. A lot of people don't even have easy access to a fax machine other than going to Kinkos or something. But just about everyone has a computer. They have an internet store that accepts credit cards but they can't make the registration system online as well? That would certainly eliminate the phone calls they get asking if the form was recieved.

While I don't have a problem with the fax thing, I've had a fax machine for years. Pretty much every business that has an office also has a fax machine, though, too. Still, there is no real reason why it can't be updated, other than they just don't want to, I feel. The interactive PDF file for the registration forms is the biggest technical advance I've seen in years from them.