Mattel no longer shipping internationally?

[Robarr The Morbid]

You'll have to forgive me if this is old news, I've clearly not been keeping up as far as the history of the MOTUC line. Yesterday I received a huge bonus in my paycheque and of course, I decided to go on a total MOTU bender and buy as much MOTUC stuff as I could get my hands on at a shop that specializes in hard-to-get toys and collectibles in Langley BC Canada. I'd been there before a number of times and had drooled over the impressive selection they had of MOTUC figures, etc. They even had a 2013 Castle Grayskull.

But when I was in there last night, I'd noticed their display had diminished considerably. When I asked the owner about it, he'd told me they were no longer going to deal with Mattel, so everything he'd had there was basically it for MOTUC stuff and everyone was buying it up FAST. He said he'd ordered a bunch of stuff from Mattel but they'd screwed up his last order, first saying they hadn't received payment, then when he pursued the matter further, was told they'd cancelled the order and were no longer doing international orders (???!).

How exactly is this good business? Does Mattel have a history of this sort of thing?

Again, pardon me if this has already been talked to death about, but could someone give me a brief catch-me-up on what's been going on with Mattel since 2008?

[Captain Atkin]

I find this a bit odd. Silver Snail Comics in Toronto, Canada always has new MOTUC figures for sale. I don't think there is any issue with shipping internationally. It sounds like he just had a really bad experience with customer service at Digital River.

[Robarr The Morbid]

Yeah, I thought so too. Why would a company willingly turn down good money? I wondered if perhaps it was just an anomalous bad experience with this one store in particular, but who knows? The end result is now I have start looking elsewhere to get my MOTUC fix. I mean, there has to be Canadian subscribers who are getting their stuff no problem, right?

[Mechanizor]

According to TG, the main reason why Mattel is dealing with the Digital River vendor is because they're one of the few that facilitate international shipping, and if what the store owner told you was totally true, there would be a major uproar in the community!

[STU-bot82]

It sounds like Digital River messed up on the order and rather than fix the problem told an outright lie. The past two months I have been looking for stores in the UK that stock the classics range. So far I have only managed to find stores that are selling off old stock, for items released this year I have to find subscribers selling on ebay. I bought several items from ebay from a store based in Glasgow which had a large selection of ex-display figures (almost everything gone now), but again nothing from this year. Tomorrow I will message the store on ebay to see if they will be getting more classics in, not too hopeful for a positive answer.

[Robarr The Morbid]

Hmmmm....crap. Looks like I'm just gonna have to do some wheeling and dealing to get anymore MOTUC figures. Castle Grayskull will be next to impossible, though. I'm gonna have to win the friggin' lottery first, HAHA! Too bad, I really liked the convenience of walking into a store and buying what I wanted on the spot instead of having to wait, wondering if my order will get screwed up.

[deano_ue]

If this turns out into be in anyway true expect a riot, we international fans get screwed already with the line this could be the final straw

[_RZ_]

My local comic shop here in Spain carries MOTUC and while they are very, very expensive, they do stock at least 2 of everything the month it comes out, and they sell out pretty quickly, as well as doing special orders for you so you don't have to deal with DR.

There's the "cheap" International option, which while much less expensive, there's no tracking, and Matty clearly says they won't work with you if the package gets lost in transit. It's probably the worst deal in online buying Internationally I've ever seen offered. Anyone who imports anything knows, boxes get lost all the time, all over the world, and to not guarantee shipment to a customer is simply dishonest and a scam. There's no reason they can't offer tracking except that DR wants to save money. Maybe your shop got that cheaper service, and the box got lost, and DR just blew him off, as they do everyone else. I don't blame him for saying "no more" to DR - this policy they have is simply stupid and honestly, disrespectful to International customers. It paints us as somehow less trustworthy than US customers, and the attitude they have towards us is that we don't matter, or our money isn't as good. It's an implication that EU residents are thieves- they pretty said it without saying it when this change was announced. As if there are no thieves or scams in the US. Give me a break. What insulting crap.

You have to pick the middle or express shipping options, which offer tracking and customer support for lost packages. I know my shop here uses the middle, more expensive shipping option, because the price there per figure more than doubled once Matty & DR made that change in policy. I'm sure if your shop wants to continue to offer MOTUC, they could contact BBTS's Wholesale Dept.- I've heard nothing but good experiences, and of course zero DR interaction.

[Captain Atkin]

I think a lot of international specialty stores that sell MOTUC are stopping now because of the expensive cost of shipping, and the fact that not all figures are guaranteed to sell.

[STU-bot82]

Well I must admit that I'm glad I didn't find out about the range until it was too late to sub this year. Having read all about the various problems and Digital River's idiocy I would rather pay more on ebay than put up with all that. Of the 10 figures I have so far only the first one (Hordak) had issues. Even then it wasn't a huge problem just a really poor paintjob. Then Catra arrived the next day and I was hooked to this line.

[Robarr The Morbid]

*sigh* Thoroughly depressing. Such chaos and disorganization. You'd expect better from a well-known name like Mattel. I'll be arranging to get my figures through a third party, a friend of mine in the U.S. who understands my love of MOTU. I've only got eleven so far, that's including Battle-Cat. Stu-bot82, you said the Hordak figure had issues? What's wrong with it exactly? I just bought one myself last Friday. Haven't yet opened the package.

[barrasco]

Digital River is a bad joke. Almost as bad as Scott Neitlich.

For starters their "can't send a new item or refund rule" is false. A few weeks after the Modulok sale there was this costumer at the Matty forums who ranted about only getting a refund for a supposedly lost Modulok when he wanted a replacement figure. Yet he was granted a refund despite the fact that the figure shipped without tracking. A few more days after that I reported that my shipped Modulok had yet to arrive (been waiting for two and a half months), and their resolution was to send me a new one. So first they won't offer refunds/reshipments, then they offer a refund because they supposedly don't have the item available, and finally they are able to reship the same item they previously claimed was not available. Pathetic...

It's obvious why they got chosen, they work the same way as Scott... I guess they could relate with one another.

[STU-bot82]

Stu-bot82, you said the Hordak figure had issues? What's wrong with it exactly? I just bought one myself last Friday. Haven't yet opened the package.

All the parts painted silver like the boots, belt and armour trimming had black showing through. It was like the silver paint had been applied before the rest of the paint had dried. The issue was obvious even when still in the packaging. Gonna have to repaint this one myself.

[Robarr The Morbid]

Well that blows! I'll have to examine mine thoroughly when I remove it from the package (have to make more room in the house, I've got waaaaay too many collectibles n' stuff crowding us out). If I have to re-paint, it won't be a huge deal. I've already done that to a number of vintage figures, so the MOTUC stuff won't be a huge stretch.

[STU-bot82]

Tried to send pictures but something went wrong

[STU-bot82]

I forgot I was using forum runner when i tried to upload the pics.

[Robarr The Morbid]

Nope, the pics aren't loading on my crappy work PC.