Sometimes preorders get filled out of order and some people think this is a penalty for cancelling items.

Edit: So they actually did do some kind of fulfillment reordering before and even mentioned it in their FAQ at one point. Sounds like they stopped doing that temporarily and took it out of the FAQ.

There actually still a section in the FAQ that mentions determining the preorder fulfilling order using an algorithm.

 

My Kingdom Galvatron came with the shoulder error, but its not a huge deal to me as its easily fixable if you just flip them with how the joint is as long as you don't mind the pins showing. Not a huge deal to me at all. Nice that I have a Ractonite now that didn't break on me like my first one either.

 

Scorponok DNA kits finally coming in...just got the processing soon emails.

 

Me too!

 

Same. I'm really excited for these, even though I don't have Scorponok himself yet. I feel like the kits will end up being harder to get.

In my opinion, "pin-front Galvatron shoulders" will come to be recognized as the mark of a proud early adopter.  

 

We don't "think" it. It was on their FAQ at one point. People, here, confirmed it with their customer service. They apparently dropped it for the time being due to the pandemic and people not being able to fulfill order payments.

I don't know why this keeps coming up as though we're assuming things or making things up. At one point in time, it was a real issue.

 

People are doing their best to characterize and understand what they see, despite only having limited, anecdotal information.

If anyone from BBTS cares to dispel the rumors, they could come and post in this thread. Given what a great customer service track record they have with me, I am willing to take them at their word. The problem is that we don't have their word on this issue to use as a reference. Therefore, hearsay and rumor dominate the conversation.

 

What's telling is the response from the customer service agent. They keep using "don't" as in the present tense, and they don't address the past. (They won't address the future, either, because if they say it's coming back it might repel customers.) I guess someone needs to directly nail them to the wall with a Q&A about their past use of such a system.

 

Sorry, I missed that. I haven't really read their FAQ. I've updated my post. I think most of the confusion comes from that information being taken off their FAQ and newer information from BBTS contradicting it. So if you didn't know about it before then it'd sound odd to suggest. That and it sounds like it was more complex than just cancel an item, get put on a short list. I'd done all of the things people suggested could get you on the list and never had consequences so that's part of why it seemed odd to me.

 

I was just as shocked as you when I first heard about it. Apparently, it was in the FAQ either when they reopened under the new website, or just shortly after. I still like their customer service, they're good people, and I have no complaints against them, but the company has changed a lot since the last website update. They changed their FAQ and everything. Ever since then, they've become very slow and unreliable in terms of product availability. (Especially pre-orders...)

I would like to see them return to their original form. They were the ones to beat... Now? Well... =\

EDIT: Aha! They modified it.
Here's what it says, now:

So, if they ever ask you to pony up, you know you're one of those "abusers". No thanks, I'm not pre-paying for the privilege of being among the last to get something. lol no.

Also, this part basically confirms it's not first-come, first-serve:

No, sorry. This is how it works: I'm first in line, I'm first to get my order fulfilled. PERIOD. Don't shuffle the board around because you're trying to be the Netflix of toy pre-orders. (Netflix was known for pushing established subscribers to the back of the queue so new subscribers could get discs via mail, first, so they would have a reason to stay subscribed rather than fight the old subscribers for new releases. That makes sense there, not here.)

And then this part, which makes no sense, but proves they're trying to punish pre-order people if the need arises...

If I can't pay for a pre-order in advance, why is someone else being forced to because they canceled x amount of pre-orders? Yeah, not a big fan of this system. I get it, they have to protect themselves, but this sucks.

 

Well that's pretty clear that they do reorder even if their customer service email said otherwise.

Looks like they also don't like PoL cancelations, though I've never had any issues with that.

I wish we had more information about how it works, but they'd never tell. I'm guessing the more business you do with them the more lenient they are, given my experience.

 

I think one point in need of clarification is if canceling a PO before an items comes into stock would get flagged for violation or does it only become a violation if you cancel a PO'd after it hits your POL?

I PO the majority of my toys (Transformers, Star Wars, Marvel, TMNT, etc) from BBTS and most are fulfilled no problem. There are times, however, when I cancel a PO, before the item comes into stock, for a variety of reasons (product becomes available elsewhere earlier, significant prices difference, etc). I'd like to know if BBTS considers occasional cancelation an issue. Or, if let's say 90% of what a customer POs is kept intact and fulfilled, they don't consider a 10% cancelation rate an issue.

 

Personally, I think transparency is in everyone's favor. BBTS should simply expose and display your ranking for pre-order fulfillment on each given Preorder listing in your account display.

When you go to cancel or refund or otherwise stiff them on a sale, it can specify "This will lower your preorder fulfillment ranking by 3 points," or whatever. Orders fulfill in a sequence determined by a combination of preorder ranking and preorder placement date, with lower rankings reducing your effective order placement date by 1 day each, or something.

The point is, leaving it up to hearsay and confusion doesn't seem like a wise thing, to me. I already see a handful of people stating that they will be moving over to other retailers because "BBTS always gets things late, and they punish you if you cancel things". I mean, to me it seems like this only lowers the value of BBTS if you are the kind of person that does a lot of cancelling. And their getting things late helps me out, because money is tight  

 

Remember folks it's their game, you're just playing it. If you don't like the rules go find another game to play.

 

Best I got as a reply about the Ironhide dna kit was “it’s coming really soon”.

So I’m guessing in the coming months it’ll be here...

 

Neither have I. I would have to agree on the business/leniency thing.

I think they're two separate issues. Pre-orders and POL fall under two headings in the FAQ. I've personally canceled items in my POL for a refund, only once for original payment method and the others were all store credit. I do feel that if you take store credit, they shouldn't hold it against you because you're stuck shopping with them when it's all said and done, anyway. Either way, if taken at face value... I'm not a big fan of their current methods. It never used to be an issue before.

Transparency would help a great deal, but could we fully trust it? On the one hand the FAQ says one thing and we have a rep saying something else on the other. It's very confusing and even if it's just an honest mistake it could come across as dishonest. Most of us are levelheaded enough to read between the lines and so on, but not everyone is. Nor are they willing to, sometimes. I get it, though... They're afraid to make anything definitive because markets shift back and forth and the winds of change blow through at a moment's notice. Just makes it more difficult for the customer to make sense of it all.

That's not entirely how this works. While the customer isn't always right (I worked retail, we suck. Plain and simple.) it is *OUR* money that lines their bank accounts and their pockets. Past a certain point, they do need to depend on us and if they make us play their games and we don't like it, they either need to come to terms with customers leaving or they need to work with us. It's not our fault that they can't get a pre-order in at a reasonable time. Asking people to wait weeks and months beyond local retail and online competitors is ridiculous. Especially ridiculous when other retailers offer returning customer perks and whatnot and expecting people to walk past the same item just sitting on the shelf at their local Walmart is just insane. Even Joel and co. can't be that crazy.

BBTS can take their marbles and go home if that's how they want to do it. I have no loyalty to companies, I go where my business is desired, no games required.

 

BBTS seems to be getting a lot of vintage "Prime" figures in. I understand Optimus himself was very hard to come by back in the day so I'm glad fans that missed out have another shot at him. I ended up getting the souped up KO a few months ago thinking it was my only chance at the guy.

 

Wow, I had no idea this "cancellation penalty" thing was even...well, a thing. I've made ton of orders from them in the past that I've cancelled before release. That was one of the things I liked about BBTS, I could hold a preorder with them while I waited for something to come out at retail and either keep it if I couldn't find it, or cancel it when I did. Now I'm wondering if I've been penalized with my previous orders and I just didn't realize. I guess it is my fault but if I had known about this before, I wouldn't have abused it so much.

 

I just want the old bbts back...