"We unfortunately do not hve FPJ10009 City Commander Trailer Set with TFX-03 available for your order due to an error in inventory. I apologize for this problem! The item has been removed from your order, and you have been refunded with store credit. If you prefer to be refunded back to your original payment method, please let me know. Sorry again for the problem!
--
Thanks!
Jessica
BBTS Customer Service Manager
www.BigBadToyStore.com"


So is this possible? I bought this fair when it was re-released (back in August I think) and placed it in the pile of loot if that is how it works and now they tell me they messed up after all these months of holding it for me. Is this possible again? I thought I ask you folks before really get all paranoid. But wth? I'm a little ticked now because this was hard to get and I, once again, got it fair and square. So I guess I shouldn't hold things this long right?

 

Probably. I've heard this happening with somebody else as well in these forums long ago.

Basically, the POL is probably a small tag they place on handheld items in their warehouse. Yours was either bumped off or it was an honest mistake.

 

So now what? I feel like canceling all my pile of loots thanks to this. I forgive them but I'm in that mode where they just lost a customer for life. If it was a figure a little hard to find or no problem finding, it wouldn't matter, but now I just lost one of the most hardest figures to find without shelling that much money. The question is would any of you be willing to sell the non-knockoff version to me for $129 right now? See how this is frustrating? Yeah, I just lost my job too, but I wanted to at least complete season 3 before I had to sell it. Now it seems like a dream that will never come. Thanks a lot to whoever screwed up my order.

 

You know, I was thinking of starting a thread about whether or not this has actually happened to anybody on TFW. This kind of thing would be a really tough pill to swallow. Loosing such a hard to get item would be a crushing blow to me. In the end the pile of loot system is meaningless if they can't guarantee your stuff is safe.

If I were you I'd do the following: contact BBTS and tell them how much this means to you. If they can't do anything for you( like maybe refunding you more than what the preorder was for, or giving you a different item they have in stock that is worth more) I'd tell them I will stop doing business with them and would like all of my account info erased. Not because they're terrible for not bending over backwards for me, but simply because this is the only way to tell them how unacceptable this is to me.

No business is perfect, and you can't expect this to never happen to anybody, but I'm still curious as to whether this is a one in a million problem, or something you should always be thinking about when deciding when to ship your loot. So has this ever happened to anyone else? If so, did BBTS try to make it up to you in some way (other than simply refunding your money)?

 

Have to agree, they should really offer some kind of compensation - not because they are forced to but because this kind of thing is a real deal breaker to the trust that needs to be there for the PoL to work.

 

Apparently, they admitted that holding things long do suck.

"When a shipment arrives, we have a set amount ordered and we do a count to make sure our numbers match. Occasionally the count is wrong (human error). When someone releases their pile of loot to ship, the items are pulled for the order and we realize we don't have a particular item for that order. This causes us to go through and do a query on other piles of loot that have this item ordered and this is what generates the email I just sent. I had to send several of them for this particular product. You can see how the older piles of loot are more likely to be affected by these inventory errors unfortunately. We are working on improving our system so these errors are not as prevalent but the human error side of things is hard to implement a system for sometimes. I apologize again for the problem! "

I dunno know. I would used to get really angry over this, but I'm so like I want the day off from school and just want to go on a date or something to make me forget. I know they are just toys, but to have it disappear just like that, well, just sucks. Ugh.... I have two more items in their inventory on hold, but this was pretty much the grand prize of them all. Now I just feel no point on holding on to those two anymore. I probably want a full refund back to me and never do business again with them.

 

I definitely would ask for some kind of compensation on this. You bought the item legit and it is a very desirable collector item that you were guaranteed to have once you shipped. Now due to their error you have to go through another more expensive route if you still want the figure.

I like bbts but you should really push your side of the story here. This is not just a common run of the mill item that they can reimburse you for and everything will be happy. Honestly, I would ask for a detailed explanation of what happened, as by them just giving this response it sounds like someone ganked it from your bag and sold it for a profit.

At least that's how I'd be taking it, and I'd be pissed.

 

Yes, Crack, I am aware that someone did hacked it for profit, but like the evils that lurk in this country, we need "proof." I felt her response was half-assed in so many ways. And yes, I did work in retail before so I know how cover-ups are done. And in this situation, 99.5% guaranteed that my shipment was sold for profit. It is also easier to please or piss off the customer because its online and you never see their faces. I dunno, the only things left in my bin is the Gears of War set that has Inferno's ladder, but I rather pay $10 more for that on Ebay and stuff after what happened. The other thing is Henkei Rodimus reissue so I'm not too worried on that. I was going to get the insecticons but me losing my job just made me stop there. I did get Henkei Hound and Astrotrain cheap from them two years ago, so should I give them another chance?

 

Like I said I'd put the ball in their court and see what they want to do to keep you as a customer. If nothing, then move on.

And I wasn't stating that someone actually ganked your shit and sold it for a profit. That's just how I'd feel in this situation due to the demand of the item. Even if what they told me was true I'd still have that feeling that it was flipped because of what they're selling for on ebay.

But good luck to you either way, hopefully they can do something to make your business with them in the future worthwhile.

 

This has happened to me twice so far; for the record, I held my pile of loot a little long (over a year), so I guess I'm partly to blame.

The first time was for the "BBTS Shared Exclusive - Set of COBRA Desert & Arctic Assault Squads." That was an impulse buy because it was on clearance, I don't care much about that when it got cancelled. This was about three weeks ago, I was waiting for a pre-order to come in before I shipped it my PoL.

The second time was yesterday for "Generations 2011 Series 02 - Set of 4," which, luckily, was easy to replace.

At that point, I said screw the pre-order and told them to ship my pile of loot.

Both times they gave me credit back and offered to give me a full refund back to the card I used if I wanted it. I sucked it up the first time, that's what I get for holding a PoL so long, the second time this happened it sucked... I'm gonna be pissed if it happens again as some of the stuff isn't replaceable easily and I had no idea this could happen.

Its been two days and its still "being fulfilled in the warehouse" and I also had a City Commander in there... I'm not going to be happy if that gets pulled too. I wish it would just freaking ship already because I'm on pins and needles if anything else is suddenly going to go missing. I didn't receive that email this time so I wonder if my order was the one they pulled that caused all this to happen?

Its the downfall of holding onto a Pile of Loot for a long time. In the future I'll only be holding onto mine for one or two months max to ensure that doesn't happen again.

 

Crack, I appreciate the response, but I'm pretty sure not just you and I felt that it was just an "human error." But there is no proof sadly.

And thanks Roufuss, you and I pal.

Do any of you trust this? if you do, I am pullling mines from BBTS. Henkei Hot Rod, I can also get from ebay.

Transformers TFC-004 GEAR OF WAR 1 Weapon Set MIB Inferno Sideswipe Mirage | eBay

 

For mine, I really do feel like so far it was just human error -- neither items were really in demand, in fact they had to clearance out that Generations Wave 2 set to $27 (and I paid $50 for it at release) so I don't think there is an ulterior motive here.

However, I am going to write BBTS right now and ask, since its in the warehouse and being fulfilled, am I safe from items mysteriously going out of stock.

The fact that she said a few people got their City Commander's cancelled makes me nervous, because I just got a deal for an Ultra Magnus (which is another reason I was waiting to ship it.)

 

I had this happen at least once that I remember. Back when they announced the A-Team toy line, I pre-ordered Mr T's van. When it turned out to be super common and steeply discounted, I felt stupid until I got that "oops, we lost your order" e-mail from them. I bet it sucked refunding my $40 after they practically had to give those vans away to get rid of them. It worked out in my favor that time but ever since then I've been careful not to let my pile of loot sit too long once something I really wanted hit it.

 

I really feel for you man, and I'm dissapointed that BBTS didn't go beyond the call of duty here and compensate you.

That this happened to you twice is pretty worrying. I usually hold for 2-3 months, untill the price to ship each item comes to about $2. I'm diffinitely shipping my stuff a little quicker than before.

 

They definitely do need to put some kind of warning up, like "the longer we hold your pile of loot, the more likely it is for inventory errors."

I had zero idea that anything like this could happen. If I did know, I would have shipped my stuff long ago.

The stuff they did lose was over a year old, so again, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here (and I also have a huge, huge pile of loot at the moment so its more likely to happen to me twice.)

Right now my order status is:

" This shipment is currently in the warehouse and being fulfilled.
Changes can no longer be made"

And has been since this morning. No email about City Commander getting cancelled, so I'm hoping once it reaches this stage you're safe. I emailed them to get the official word on when you know your items are "safe," because it seems like they aren't in the Pile of Loot after a certain period of time. Its kind of ridiculous I have to worry about items that I already paid for in full getting cancelled.

 

Unfortunately, City Commander is in demand and a lot of people are still looking for it, and sadly, I am in that boat when I shouldn't had been. The funny thing is that a week ago, I had a weird thought that something was going to happen to my CC figure. I guess it was this. Oh well, I got a quiz to take at school so I ain't worrying for now. I think tonight I will make the choice on whether to abandon BBTS for a couple months or so till I am ready to deal with them again. Of course, I would get CC if it was to be back in stock though it probably be $175 the next time around.

I appreciate the responses. Nothing can be done now except get my money back and look elsewhere. I guess whoever is reading all this, don't hold it for more than a month. Should have a sign "POL is not guaranteed!"

 

Here is the email I got from BBTS (super fast delivery, just wrote them too!):

" Everything should be there however I can't say for certain. They are going to be pulling it and I will alert you to any problems if they come across anything."

So there you go, the only time your items are truly safe are when they have been shipped. They aren't safe in the Pile of Loot to an extent and they aren't yet safe when they are in the warehouse... only when they are in the box and shipped.

So yea, think twice before you leave a super rare item in your Pile of Loot is the lesson to learn from this.

 

Thanks Roufuss, you help save others the trouble as well, hopefully. I just asked for refund back to my card. I just can't see myself buying anything else from them for the time being.

Well, another thing is that this is no where near the buyers fault. They really have to work on their policies a little better and to have you email them to finally tell you this is" wait, there is a stipulation all of a sudden? " Oh well, my lesson is not to trust their system for the most part- whether short or long term. I know I sound childish, but even a loving Christian like me can get frustrated. Then again, as a Christian I shouldn't let crap like this bother me. Maybe God wanted me to get the money back and use it for charity or something. who knows?

 

No problem, I hope others see this and it helps them.

I just looked at their help page again and nowhere does it say anything like "Orders may be cancelled due to inventory error if your pile of loot is held for a period of time" which I definitely think needs to be front and center.

Its one thing when you're just putting retail figures in your pile of loot, its something totally different when you've got stuff like City Commander in there. You order into the PoL thinking your stuff is safe when, in actuality, it could cancelled at any time.

I'll keep giving them my business but now I just know to only hold stuff for a month, two months max.

 

This happened to me today, and I was extremely infuriated. Like others have said, it's not like City Commander can be easily obtained at a decent price. BBTSs' way of resolving the matter was allowing me to cancel an older item in my POL, and a ~$10 store credit, but this still doesn't make up for missing out on CC for a reasonable price.