Hasbro's MP-13 Soundwave...

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The Reverend
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Hasbro's MP-13 Soundwave...

Post by The Reverend »

... was visible on the TRU website recently with a release date of 7/18. It was also briefly up for preorder, but apparently TRU cancelled all those within a matter of hours.

Still not up on their website and the local stores use the website to track items at guest-services.

Argh!
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

From Seibertron:
Seibertron wrote:Dear XXXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for contacting Toys "R" Us on eBay regarding the status of your order, Order #13357975.

We regret to inform you that we had to cancel your order due to our warehouse being out of stock.

We understand your interest in this item and suggest periodically checking back on the website for future availability. We are sorry we couldn't fulfill all of the items on your order and appreciate your interest in shopping with us.

If you need any further assistance, please feel free to respond to this email. Thank you again for contacting us. We value your business and look forward to serving you in the future!

Sincerely,
Adam
Guest Service Team
Toys "R" Us on eBay Support
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

It's actually more messed up than that...
  • ToysRUs originally listed MP Soundwave, along with Acidstorm and a number of exclusives from a variety of lines that are all scheduled for release on the 18th to coincide with SDCC, back at the beginning of the month. The listings were of a informational nature, not preorders or anything, and had a note indicating they weren't on sale until the 18th.
  • Early last week, at around midnight EST, the ToysRUs ebay store suddenly listed Soundwave and the other items for sale. Not pre-order but actual sale. In something like 20 minutes, 105 Soundwaves sold and the listing ended due to limited quantities. After some amount of time, half hour or an hour, a fresh listing went up with another 100 Soundwaves selling out in about 30 minutes. That happened 2 more times during the night before it finally stopped after 3am. All told, 405 Soundwaves sold, with several of them being bought in groups of 10 by some people.
  • Those who ordered recieved confirmation emails at or shortly after the time of purchase, and paid for their orders like usual.
  • A few hours later during the morning, people started getting notification that their orders were being cancelled due to the listing having been a mistake. At around the same time the TRU website listings for all the items were taken down. Refunds were issued as part of the order cancellations, though due to Paypal and banks and what not, some people's money ended up being in limbo for a few days.
  • Those that ordered and had them cancelled took to voicing their complaints through various means: negative ebay feedback, TRU's Facebook page, directly calling the company. A lot of them were given 10% discount offers to use later, usually with the note that a call to customer service would be needed to utilize them.
  • Friday rolls around and a guy from over at the TFW2005 boards gets a UPS delivery that turns out to be the MP Acidstorm he ordered, paid for, had cancelled on him, and was refunded for. (After some back and forth between him and TRU on what to do, he ends up being told to keep it).
  • And now today a handfull of the people who ended up with the cancelled orders are reporting that they've been banned by the TRU ebay store. Seemingly done at random as one left no feedback, and atleast one did leave a negative, with profanity.
As for being able to look up Soundwave in the system, despite the listing being removed, people have had success in getting info by using the SKU or some other number. TFW2005's thread on Soundwave and Acidstorm has a few numbers, including the UPC. One of them should help the guest-services people in tracking them down.
The afformentioned thread wrote: Soundwave:
"R" Web #: 204083
SKU: ECFE065A
UPC/EAN/ISBN:653569878926
Manufacturer #: A4348
Anyway, most people asking for info were told that Soundwave was at the various distribution centers and would likely arrive at the stores the night of the 17th/morning of the 18th to go on sale that day, with some places maybe not getting them until Friday. There was also an odd mention from someone that FLA stores (I assume Florida) won't get them in for a week or two, so it seems it may vary from area to area.

Odds are the only way to really know if a store will have them on Thursday is to go in on Thursday and look/ask. Some have suggested going in Wednesday night and asking if they've arrived, and if so seeing if they can hold one for Thursday morning.

EDIT: Yeah, some of the people who got cancelled orders got different reasons for the cancellation. Out of stock and mistaken listing were among them
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I bet it's a right nightmare being a retailer in this day and age. We used to have stuff go wrong with pricing errors and things going on sale/ being listed when they shouldn't at the now -defunct Office Supply chain I used to work at. You get this across your various shopping channels these days and you end up in a right mess.

Mistakes happen, but I imagine TRU had no idea how prickly TF fans can be! I know unfulfilled orders where money has changed hands are a nightmare sometimes, but its not the end of the world. No one died, after all. And its just toys.

The bans on the ebay store are surprising, but I guess if people have been abusive and rude they shouldn't be surprised. Perhaps TRU have decided they can do without the business of a group of excitable men-children..?

Reminds me of all those hilarious "its not fair" reviews on Amazon after that MP Prime debacle.
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

Skyquake87 wrote:The bans on the ebay store are surprising, but I guess if people have been abusive and rude they shouldn't be surprised. Perhaps TRU have decided they can do without the business of a group of excitable men-children..?
It's a short-sighted tactic because it doesn't work; people can create new accounts and make low-level purchases purely for the purpose of causing trouble.
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

Oh, it wasn't just TF fans having to deal with this. There were a couple of other lines involved, including My Little Pony...

And the bans are a weird thing. It appears they hit a very small number of people, and quite randomly too. It's not like they banned everyone, or even just those who left negative feedback. Pretty sure atleast one of them left either a civil negative or no feedback at all.
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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

Did they just ban all the people who were trying to grab 10+ units under the assumption that they were scalpers, perhaps?
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

That's possible, I suppose. I haven't seen any of the people claiming a ban say one way or the other about the number they tried to order.

Which reminds me, supposedly when Soundwave and such get relisted on the site on the 18th, there will be a limit. 1 to a customer or some such.
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I think that's fair enough. Scalpers are poo.
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Knightdramon
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Post by Knightdramon »

Yeah, impose a damn limit on the damn f*cking f*ck fest. I swear to God, the only thing wrong with these things [besides TRU taking a piss at customers] is stupid guys who create artificial interest and demand on a figure.

As I said on TFW2005, this is a figure with a production run of circa 10.000 units, aimed at roughly 30% of hasbro's general demographic.

Once people stop losing their shit over it, they'll realize that one way or another they can get the figure, so long as they don't suffer a brain aneurysm on their own thinking this will instantly sell out from the face of the planet and the only way to get it is to pay 3 times over its retail in the first week of release.

The 8 MP Prime figures at the TRU in Clifton Moor a year after Prime's debut, all sitting at retail price, say hi to Soundwave :wave:
Few stuff in the UK to trade/sell. Measly sales thread.
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

TRU are fairly notorious in the UK for not restocking with any new product whilst there's existing stuff at the price point, and very rarely marking stuff down to clear it. IIRC the MP Roddy stock didn't show up until the Grimlocks had cleared, etc.
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Knightdramon
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Post by Knightdramon »

Hmmm, in a worst case scenario, we've potentially got around 10-12 TRU between us [including Cliffjumper and numbat] should things get desperate in the search for Soundwave.

Really tight on cash at the moment, but will gladly jump on the opportunity to get one should I scrounge something up.

Less drama, more results. We could make that a slogan or something in the eventual quest for Soundwave.
Few stuff in the UK to trade/sell. Measly sales thread.
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The Reverend
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Post by The Reverend »

In this town, we have two TRU's, one on the supposed "good" side of town and the other not.

Usually when I want MPs I go to the "bad" one because the stock doesn't move as quickly there.

Still not showing up on the website. argh.
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

It won't show on the website until atleast midnight, perhaps not even until later. Leading theories are either midnight, 3am (midnight on the west coast), or 9am (the only specific time that was given in response to some people asking when. I, among others, got a generic response of 'on the 18th').
Of course, it could pop up at any time in between, we just don't know.
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

Went up at about 5:15am est, with a 1 per customer limit.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.js ... d=19038126
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The Reverend
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Post by The Reverend »

aye... and of course my TRUs don't open till 10a but I gotta be at work at 9a, ha. Owell!
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

Denyer wrote:TRU are fairly notorious in the UK for not restocking with any new product whilst there's existing stuff at the price point, and very rarely marking stuff down to clear it. IIRC the MP Roddy stock didn't show up until the Grimlocks had cleared, etc.
ooh there's a chance Soundwave might show up then - both my local TRUs sold out of Optimus (i know!).
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

Ok, for the anyone who still cares...
As I noted earlier, Soundwave went up on the TRU site at about 5:15am, and was effectively sold out an hour later at 6:15. Sporadically throughout the day, about 2-3 times, the listing reactivated briefly and people were able to get an order in (likely due to a few of the orders from earlier in the day being cancelled for one reason or another). But all told, it's sold out for now.
As an aside, Acid Storm didn't go up until sometime well after Soundwave and took longer to sell out.

As one might expect, people aren't happy about the quick sell out and the odd time it went up. Lots of calls made to TRU, etc. Standard response people are getting now is that more will be available sometime in August.
The best explanation of things is a rundown someone gave of their call to TRU customer service. To be taken with a grain of salt, this being TRU and all...
Alright, I decided to beat a dead horse and called TRU's 1-800 number, and after getting passed around several times (because they couldn't answer my questions, and I wouldn't give up), I talked to someone who gave me this rundown:

Today's online offerings were very limited to coincide with SDCC - today's not the "official TRU release" (her words) of either of the MPs. Hasbro wanted to sell them at SDCC, but because they're TRU exclusives, TRU got a small allocation to sell online.

The "official TRU release" will happen in mid or late August (she didn't know any dates), both online and in stores. There WILL NOT be any MPs in stores until then. They will have "significantly more" online then than they did today, and stores will "be well stocked." She said both Hasbro and TRU anticipated a high demand, and that they expect there to be enough to satisfy that demand "at least for a while," whatever that means.

She also acknowledged that the timing wasn't really well done. They're getting a ton of calls about this, and she said most of customer service people are just saying its out of stock, check back later. She reassured me there will be more in August for the "official TRU release."

I'm taking this for what it is - more info from TRU that may or may not be correct. It does jibe with what their FB page has been saying - more online and in stores in August.
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The Reverend
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Post by The Reverend »

Aye, altho TRU had previously answered queries with "it will be available online as of 7/18 9am EST", apparently it went up much earlier than that and was gone rapidly.

Stopped by the TRU on the way home from work and the guest-services rep couldn't find any in inventory on a "nationwide" search (and he was using the internal inventory, not the website).
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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

Well, the '9am on the 18th' responses were all before the ebay screw up last week.
Given that, and the conflicting responses some got (I had contacted them and was told the generic 'It'll be available on the 18th' without a time), I assumed the 9am was either a random guess or no longer applied.

So yeah, seems likely it's waiting till August. (Since I was gonna be up anyway, I camped the site and snagged one)
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