Yea, my Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker from the bogo sale got cancelled because the card I used was closed because that particular bank decided to not renew their contract with sprint and I couldn't update the payment method without reordering the figures

 

I have never had a preorder successfully ship. I always found them in store eventually for the most part. Luckily I live near a Walmart that tends to stock their exclusives but it’s the exception.

 

My Walmart has been bare of WFC figures for over a month now. Only has a few Studio figures. I am going to go down tomorrow since it’s also next to a Target. Going to See if they got Wave 3 in.

 

I understand you all are very frustrated but the constant targeting of “Hasbro” is unnecessary and ineffective. Hasbro is likely just as frustrated as you because they would absolutely love to sell more toys. However, as you mention here in your post, they don’t really have the leverage—the customers does. Those customers are predominantly WalMart, Target, and Amazon and without them there aren’t really any transformers.

It shouldn’t surprise you to know that Hasbro wants to sell as many toys as I can. They want WalMart, Target, and Amazon to buy X > Y units but Walmart is going to buy Y units based on whatever analytics their teams run.

If you want more opportunities to get these toys, there is only one useful think you can do that has much viability and that’s talk directly to the retailers. Fill out whatever surveys they send you or contact them directly and make it clear that you have a bad experience getting these toys and that it’s preventing you from doing business with them. This is where you have leverage, so use it. Hasbro will deliver.

 

LOL. Chill out dude. It was just a post on an Internet forum. I don’t care that much in the grand scheme and I’m certainly not “targeting” Hasbro.

 

I meant to comment on this but got hung up (work, kids, life in general). So my wife and i have transitioned a ton of our life to e-commerce during the pandemic but we have still had to go to target/whole foods/shop rite/walgreens because the online experience for things that are legacy grocery/supermarket items is far less developed than everything else. and everytime we go to those stores they are packed. now i live in New Jersey and so there are lots of masks and relative social distancing but i'm still shocked at the people doing full grocery runs at these places. so for Walmart/Target they are just not going to change because the customer bases have not changed their habits yet. Also, during the heart of the Pandemic in the northeast Walmart & target were reporting heavy use of ship to store orders. Which makes sense since they have crappy shipping set ups and charge for anything below 35 bucks. so again they had people coming in store. The focus will be on in-store purchases until people stop going to these stores which even in a pandemic they didn't do.

I think your point avoids a major issue here. Amazon puts their inventory out for sale and doesn't leave it in a stock room. Target and Walmart do not restock effectively and both have issues with electronic pre-order inventory maintenance. I go to my local Target and it's feast or famine. But we hear common reports of stuff sitting in stock rooms at both chains so i don't think its necessarily the customer's fault. You can't buy product that you don't see online or on shelves.

Where Hasbro fails (beyond deal negotiations which we really have no ability to argue about since none of us are in the room) is getting their retailers to stock their products well. Are Hasbro's regional reps checking stores/writing reports/talking to store and district managers/etc? If they aren't then thats where Hasbro fails on the shelving/distribution side.

 

The Siege Soundblaster shipped fine, the Netflix wave 1 was a shitshow. This wave, I'll wait to see how it hits the stores before I react.

But I hate going to Walmart. Only been there 5 times in my life. 3 times in the past year and the toy section always looks like a bomb hit it.

 

Bumblebee is being delayed without a new date...

Um...okay Walmart.

 

I walked by the toy section and saw Netflix voyager boxes, I got pretty excited until realizing they're the wave 1 figures.

 

Lucky me, I just ordered a random unit of Optimus Primus 3-pack !  

He will look awesome with Netflix Megatron!

 

Elita and Impactor cancelled

I was there the moment they were released

What a fucking disgrace

 

Weird thing (well, not really considering all the Walmart pre-orders disaster) is that Elita is currently available for preorder.

 

Yeah, just got the cancellation from Walmart, yet she's available. So I just Pre-ordered again. Luckily they haven't cancelled my Bee or MoTU Origins pre-orders...yet.

 

My Elita's been cancelled too. Gonna get really frustrated when it inevitably happens to Soundwave. There needs to be something we can do to let Hasbro know these deals are unacceptable. An email writing campaign, fansite open letters, something.

 

At this point I wish exclusives were available through Bigbadtoystore. While they take a little longer, I have never had a problem with them and have been a faithful customer since 2002.

 

This is why I'm buying these Netflix figures through Takara via HLJ, despite the brand unification, because at least then I know I'm getting the figures (though, I've heard of HLJ cancelling things throughout the years, but it's never happened to me and I've been a customer there since 2008).

 

If they were still taking orders on Soundwave I'd do this myself. They've got a really good price for him.

 

yeah.. went to see if i could do the preorder, but the spoiler pack is no longer available. FIAA

 

They canceled my Elita-1 pre-order from when they announced the figure, but then let a bunch of random people order her instead, and now they're sold out and I can't get one. I'm a 44 year old man who took time away from work to watch their dumb presentation online, then rushed to order immediately, and I still missed out on Soundwave. Now I've been screwed out of Elita as well.

All this torture and work to get a slightly different version of a character I have multiple figures of. I've always been an ardent defender of Hasbro, but man my stupid hobby of collecting children's toys should not be this difficult, and I am seriously thinking about retiring at this point.

 

I just sent a not so pleasant email to Walmart about their inability to fulfill preorders online.

I also sent a professional (and detailed) email to Hasbro, explaining what has been experienced with Walmart Transformers preorders.

I'm not holding my breath that either will respond, but it beats doing/saying nothing at all.