My Arcee has open hands. My Brainstorm is MISB for now so what head problem?  

 

HTS Experience

HTS Experience

Received my 2 Arcee's today from HTS. I think HTS should hire employees that work at Amazon. I say this because with Amazon I seem to get overly large boxes for small items. HTS I get the smallest box possible with the figure stuffed into it.
I bought 2 figures, one to Keep on card, and one to open. They used a box that was not tall enough for the cardback and just folded the card to make it fit. I mean come on HTS. If I was buying from a Ross or Marshalls discount store then fine, but I'm buying from what is essentially the closest thing to the representation of the manufacture Hasbro has here in the US. They are fresh out of the case, and then an employee who doesn't care destroys the property that I now own.
Just to prove a point I should send them back as many times as it takes for them to make it right. Have them eat the shipping back and forth.

I seem to have better luck when I buy Voyagers from them than carded Transformers. Well I know many have had this same experience, just wanted to publicly join the HTS stuff it in a box club.  

PS both my Arcee's have Open hands. I'm guessing the US will never see the first run closed hand version.

 

Got my chromia today. Ugh. She sucks. Wish i hadn't bought her. At least it was on sale.

 

There have been sightings of the closed-hands Arcee from Walmart

 

Agreed, those would be the first wave of them out there. All stock moving forward would be the open handed version from what I have been reading. HTS would have fresh stock since this is the first time they have put her for sale.

If I find a closed handed version then I will report back. I actually here the gun fits better with closed hand than open.

 

Why? Poor QC?

 

my brainstorm was okay. corner looked like somebody punched it, lol. no doubt that's from when the fedex guy straight up tossed it onto my porch all halfassed.

 

My Brainstorm package came in perfect condition just like everything else from them in the past.

 

It's true, the open hand has an added bit of plastic on the bottom of the hand that keeps the gun from going all the way in place. It can still go in, but it has to be at sort of an angle. A very weird change.

 

Agreed...My Brainstorm came in the same size box they used for my Arcee's. I don't have an issue with Voyagers because HTS has the perfect shipping box for a Voyager figure. Deluxe cards are taller so they just bend the card back to make them fit. Maybe you have to buy 4 or more to get the next size shipping box from them.

I picture employee's wearing headphones, Just jabbing stuff in these "one size" fits all boxes they have an abundance of.

 

Everything Deluxe and smaller I got from HTS is bent. Every single time. I open my figures, so it doesn't bother me for the price I pay since I only order from them if it's significantly cheaper than retail or a harder to find item.

 

I think it's lazy. Surely there are better ways to track HTS inventory than THIS THREAD? Surely?  

 

My BS came pretty crushed, and not because of a small box. So it's like HTS just doesn't give a sh*t. It's completely luck of the draw. Maybe they have a couple of good packers... but the majority of stuff I get comes pretty messed up.

Roufuss has it right: do NOT buy from HTS if you plan on keeping things mint. The odds are not in your favor!  

That said, there are 1-2 good packers, so not ALL your HTS stuff will be bent or in a small box.   I think BBTS/Tfsource would remind us that we get what we pay for!  

 

That goes for any online store, not just HTS. If you're a MISB/MISC collector, you should go via the "collector grade" BBTS route as they inspect the stuff before they ship it out to you (which is more expensive than regular BBTS). If you go via regular route, even if packing is pristine, you can get random bends, tears, or scuffs on the packaging just from the luck of the draw.

If you're going to throw the packaging away anyway, then go for the cheapest ones even if they do bend the card.

 

I'm not looking for Collector grade. I'm looking for Target/walmart grade. When I purchase at a retail store whether brick and mortar, or online I expect to receive the same item. Target, or Walmart Employees are human and open a case of figures and place on the shelf. HTS employees are human, and open the case of figures and intentionally destroy the box or card art which is part of what I'm buying. When you buy online you have prepaid for the item meaning you own the item and its not up to the employee to damage the item before placing into a box.

Maybe HTS warehouse employees are not human. Maybe they are packed by robot arms that don't have judgement into their packing program  

Thanks everyone for this little discussion.

 

I like this perspective. While I am less concerned about standard purchases - annoying but whatever - HTS always does this no matter the value of the item. $15 deluxe? Cram it in. $200 SDCC exclusive? Pack it in a box with no padding.

Just some common sense would make the situation better. Doesn't take much.

That being said... Just received 2 Arcee and 1 Chromia and they were actually packed decently. Nobody is getting a medal for the effort (zero padding/packing paper in the box) but at least it was appropriately sized and the product wasn't damaged.

 

THIS.

I know a few of you don't care if your toys come in unmarked, paper bags, but some of us expect a certain level of professionalism and packaging, and HTS (9/10 times) does not do a proper job (small boxes, no padding material, etc.).

It's like HTS can't afford to offer these discounts and shipping deals, so they save as much as they can on shipping material and care. I understand: but why not offer "frustration-free" packaging (like Amazon)?

You plastic wrap the toys and then put them in secure, unmarked, padded boxes, and save some more money. This way, no one can really complain about bad packaging because the packaging would be hideous and ugly to begin with! WIN, WIN.

 

I gotta say, 9 times out of 10 I get a good packing job from HTS. Brainstorm was the worst package job I got, but that was just cause the taped the Brainstorm box to the actual box. However, there was no damage done to either brainstorm or his box.

Having said that, I stopped using BBTS when I got three straight shipments, all dented up boxes. 1 a full on broken figure that was packed before shipping.

 

+1
Same problem at BBTS as well. Will never use them again. HTS is hit ad miss but for the most part it's better than TRU or BBTS.

 

Yup, with HTS, I think it's one employee or two that are horrible packers. From other places, it feels that there are no protocols for packing to begin with.