Collector's Club Email Reply Turnaround

[BigDumbWookiee]

Ok, now I'm a little peeved........

Today's pluses: I finally got a reply to my email, 3 full business days isn't bad, especially with the volume of emails they have been receiving

Today's negatives: The response that I actually received.

I signed up three weeks ago, part of the response was "Your
membership kit and all the goodies will be shipped out in the next 2-6 weeks". Last I checked, Ken said that the packages would ship 2-6 weeks from the date the payment was received.

Ok, I can live with that, at least I know I'll get it (although if this delay causes me to not get the other "surprise", I will be mad, because I know others who received their package, after I paid, got theirs). This is selfish of me though, and I shouldn't have been under the impression of getting an extra item before I signed up, thats not fair to everyone else. If I dont happen to get it, I will look past this point, afterall, it was a gift of gesture, not something we paid for. I'll go to Ebay if needbe.

This is what really urks me though: His Reply:
We have been getting a great deal of bounce back on e-mails sent to club
members. You must try to fix this on your end. Many free e-mail hosts do
not allow junk mail or mails with a certain size through their systems.
To regularly receive the e-mails and the newsletter you must adjust
settings and filters and we can't really help you do that. Most e-mail
services that you pay for are easier to make adjustments to and have
less problems receiving the e-mails from a business.

If you continue to have a problem check out the website regularly on our
list of e-mail addresses that we have had returned mail from. If you see
your name there, we can't get a message to you.

Ok, youre probably thinking "Hey, thats an informative reply", but you have to understand what I wrote in to them

Point 1: I told them Im using a PAY service, not free, not work, not school.

Point 2: Ill shorten this one, basically, I said that the only filter associated with my email service has not picked up and Palisades emails.

Point 3: I told them I check their "bounce list" daily, and thus far, my name nor email have shown up on that list. I signed up three weeks ago, it should be on there by now.

I'm sorry, but in my eyes, this is extremely poor customer service; it gives me the impression this individual did not even read my email thoroughly, but only well enough to know there was an "email problem". I give them points for at least replying, but thats all the credit I give them.

Im sorry for the negativity of this, but I think its only fair to let possible new Collector's Club members know what they may be up against.

 

[incredeeble!]

Dude... chill out......

I haven't received my toys yet either but you need to have a little understanding. There are only like 12 people running this entire company! They are in the likes of major corporations that have hundreds in staff and you're getting beefed by it. There are bugs that they need to work out. SO WHAT?

Can you say you were born with everything you know today? I think we're going to see this company grow larger and larger. This is just the beginning and they are having some growing pains.

But please, show some patience... For gosh darn sake. A collector's club is an added bonus. Yeah that's hard earned money but you're getting your toy within 6 weeks. Look at Wizard's turnaround 16-20 weeks! At least you're getting the toy. I think that's what matters. And if that "suprise" was never spilled, you probably never would have known and been just as happy.

I personally don't want Pallisades ticked at the consumers and decide to pull the plug altogether on the club. I'd rather sit and wait (without complaining left and right) while the problems get worked out.

 

[BigDumbWookiee]

Did you not read where I wrote "Ok, I can live with that, at least I know Ill get it" or, regarding the freebie "If I dont happen to get it, I will look past this point, afterall, it was a gift of gesture, not something we paid for. I'll go to Ebay if needbe"

Im mad about the very shaudy response that I got, thats just poor customer service.

And if they actually close the club, because one guy gets on a board telling about his negative experience, then they already have some problems. So how about you "chill" and stop worrying that they are going to close their club because I complained. If anything even remotely close to that is going to happen, its going to be me getting kicked out for sharing my negative experience on this board. Furthermore, if everyone just sits and waits, and doesn't complain or otherwise voice their opinion, how will they even know something is wrong?

The poor reply I received in that I email, discussed above, has nothing to do with being a new (or small) company. If this guy was able to get the job, then he should be intelligent enough to actually read through the email, and give a response that is more suitable. Even if the reply was "We apologize, but we have been receiving high volumes of emails, we will reply as soon as possible", I would have been more pleased than with what I got.

Im really starting to think people don't bother actually READING what someone has to say, they just pick out one or two points and reply to those.....

 

[Luke]

Firstly, i'm sure nobody's going to be kicked out for sharing their experiences of the club good or bad - i think we've come to know the guys at Palisades better than that.

Secondly, Wookie, i can understand how you feel when you get a response like that, when you've already pointed out that is not the problem. I can only think that maybe there has been an error with adding your email address to the mailing list, or perhaps all these bounced back emails might not even be 'bouncers' - it could well be the server overloading if their email programme is sending out too many at once and bouncing them back before they even get sent out. Thats very technical but it is possible so possibly something for them to check.

I know that Palisades obviously don't want the situation more overloaded by lots of people phoning them for admin related things, but if you feel strongly about this matter then perhaps in your case, a quick phone call to the offices might help and you can make sure things are checked and sorted out at their end. I did suggest them putting the club email on an autoresponder address so maybe they might consider that until the special website areas are set up.

Hope that helps,

 

[BigDumbWookiee]

Thanks for the reply Luke.

I would like to stress, despite how it appears, I would indeed like to get on here and share my positive experiences with the Collector's Club, Im not doing it for the sake of complaining, or from spite, like I said, I think its only fair that possible new members get more of the entire perspective about signing up. I know I may have held off for a while if I knew these problems were going on, just to wait until the tide settles.

Im going to wait for another reply, but I will most likely give them a call in the next couple of days, I would like to get on here and be able to honestly say that everything has been resolved, and there aren't anymore problems. I sent a reply, asking if they could give me a solid confirmation that my email address is both on the list, and it is indeed bouncing back them, so far I havent actually been informed of either. If my name was on their list, it would be a whole other story.

To sum it up, hopefully within the next couple of days I can get on here and share something positive that happened.

Just for the heck of it, here is the list of names and email addresses of bounced newsletters. Im not being sarcastic when I say this, but if you all could glance at it and just confirm to me that neither "Adam Lowe" or "adamclowe@earthlink.net" or any close derivitives thereof actually appears on this list, I'd appreciate it. I would feel like a huge tool if all this time I actually just skimmed over it:

David.Michael@am1.ericsson.se

sean@adsc.com

khao02@heronet.ne.jp

skorman@wi.rr.com

steve46300@mn.rr.com

hap@cyberhap.com

jnebulis@cfl.rr.com

art@dmv.com

tdegon@dmv.com

jveith4819@excite.com

eric@edaza.com

paladin@aviatormail.zzn.com

anwilson@interfold.com

WTAM@support.ucla.edu

sdjjas.yahoo.com

eric@edaza.com

bentla@rpi.edu

jveith4918@excite.com

memfiss@midsouth.rr.com

M. Willstrop

bjw@sfu.ca

Jeffrey A. Veith

Juli Holliday

Beth Pickett Jones

Harold G. Ford III

Charles Mihm

copperhead@knology.net

gringo@nwlink

jriems@acceleration.net

hap@cyberhap.com

Smcneal@wi.rr.com

gringo@nwlink.com

skorman@wi.rr.com

bentla@rpi.edu

steve46300@mn.rr.com

darthdav@pacbell.net

dw_m@webtv.net

hap@cyberhap.com

saisaac@oregon.uoregon.edu

 

[MikeHornPalisad]

BDW, I can't address the specific email since I don't see them and don't know what was sent. I can offer you this, however. Since you have not recevied your package yet, I can offer to refund your membership dues. Really, I don't see what else we can do.

And someone mentioned closing the club altogether. If it turns out that our customer service is consistently crummy, then we will indeed shut it down. THose of you who remember before we started the club, I voiced this exact fear as a major reason for not having a club at all. We are far too small of a company to create more problems than we already have.

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but from what I read on this board, the club seems to be causing more aggravation than just not having the show exclusives availalbe outside of the secondary market and ebay.

MH

 

[BigDumbWookiee]

Originally posted by MikeHornPalisad
BDW, I can't address the specific email since I don't see them and don't know what was sent. I can offer you this, however. Since you have not recevied your package yet, I can offer to refund your membership dues. Really, I don't see what else we can do.

And someone mentioned closing the club altogether. If it turns out that our customer service is consistently crummy, then we will indeed shut it down. THose of you who remember before we started the club, I voiced this exact fear as a major reason for not having a club at all. We are far too small of a company to create more problems than we already have.

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but from what I read on this board, the club seems to be causing more aggravation than just not having the show exclusives availalbe outside of the secondary market and ebay.

MH

From the best of my understanding, my club package, as well as Fozzie, should be to me within 2-6 weeks. I have no issues of waiting for it, Im just glad to know my membership made it through. Obviously, if it never arrives, I would ask for a refund.

Despite how I may have sounded, I wouldn't want the club to close, I do think its doing a great service, and like was said above, just has some growing pains, and some kinks to work out.

I think Luke's idea about an auto-responder would be great, and highly beneficial. I think even a simple automatic response just to confirm your email has been received would be helpful, I know that was a big fear of mine.

Obviously the more ideas I give, the more overhead it would create, but I think some of these ideas might help:

I may have missed it, but to add to the membership application that you ship via UPS and can not accept PO Boxes would be helpful, this is what caused my package to get delayed

An email confirmation that your payment has been received, and perhaps one to confirm your package has been sent

Perhaps if Muppet Central agreed, you could post members emails in the forum, until a time that youre able to get a members section of your site up and running. Im not sure how you could keep non members from trying to buy pieces, other than issuing a member number or something.

 

[MikeHornPalisad]

Good idea about the PO Boxes thing. We'll get our site updated this week.

MH

 

[BigDumbWookiee]

There could always be a share of people out there willing to volunteer to help out as well. Whether it was moderating a board, helping answer emails, or whatever else.

I for one wouldn't mind volunteering if I could actually be of assistance; whether it was just simply answering bulk easy-to-answer questions (where do I send payment, how long does it take, etc etc), or helping moderate a message board. I don't want to speak for anyone personally on the board, but surely there are other Muppet fans out there that would be willing to put in an occasional few hours just to help the cause.

 

[Luke]

Judging from the mass support and the kind of relationship Palisades has built up on this forum, i'd say they'd have to beat Muppet fans off with a stick to stop them volunteering to moderate a Palisades Muppet figures forum ! LOL !

I actually think Palisades having it's own forum, similar to this but for all the Palisades figure lines is a great idea. In these types of forum scripts you can have regular categories that anybody can get into and participate (like say having general forums for Micronauts, and Muppets) but also have categories where you need a password or be in a certain members group before you can get in so that'd be ideal for a 'Collectors Club' board. It's actually quite simple to set up and maintain as these things go and would look a lot more professional coming from the official site.