Comic Reviews by Walt

I “discovered” subscription boxes in late 2014. I’d seen some stuff about them prior, but then jumped on with Loot Crate for a “cosmic” box that was to include a Firefly/Serenity exclusive item. I stuck with it for about five months, with steadily decreasing interest before finally cancelling my subscription in frustration when an anniversary-themed box that had pushed a Ghostbusters item ended up ONLY having some crappy doorhanger (paper, not even plastic/wood/anything STURDY) with Ghostbusters imagery printed on it.

Several months ago in the then-still-leading-up-to the Deadpool movie, I followed an ad for the Marvel box–Collector Corps–for its Deadpool theme, and was mostly happy with the box.

I completely forgot to go in and turn off the auto-renewal, until I received notice my next box had shipped.

I was a bit annoyed at the timing of the box’s delivery–tracking info suggested “by Friday” one week but it did not arrive until sometime the next week after a weekend where it could not be delivered.

Despite that, the Captain America: Civil War box isn’t bad…yielding a mask-up Tony Stark Dorbz figure, a double-pack of Pop! figures, a lanyard, an “exclusive” cover edition of Black Panther #1 (all the more glad now that I did not buy the issue singly a few weeks back!) and a t-shirt; as well as a patch and pin unique to the box, but there’s a patch and pin set for every theme apparently.

While these two boxes tie in with movies, the next box is not an X-Men box, so I’ve nixed the auto-renewal for now as I have no idea what will be included in the Women of Power box apparently coming up next, but as Funko items go, I can’t think of any that’d particularly appeal to me.

I was reminded to do so after I had some dealing with the DC counterpart… where I’d followed an ad and decided to take a peek and see if it’d be worthwhile, especially learning that I was within the timeframe to get in on the new box:

Unfortunately, it was the last day to get in on the DC TV box, and the registration process did not make things obvious…so in entering payment information, I wound up with a box aimed at a payment address and NOT at any of my three VALID shipping addresses available to me.

I attempted to log back in to the site to “update” my shipping preferences, my shipping address, but was met with a notice that such activity was “locked” due to being so close to the cut-off.

I reached out through the customer service email.

I reached out to the Twitter account.

And heard back on nothing.

I completed my order before 2pm on a Sunday afternoon. Weekend, yes, but as the final day, and having restricted one’s ability to update addresses, I would have expected the company’s accounts to be manned for just such an occasion as mine–requiring immediate, time-sensitive assistance.

No, around 7am, I discovered an email time-stamped 2:22 AM saying that if I could provide the “correct” address within a half-hour or so I could be helped. As it was 7am,, nearly five hours later, I was S.O.L.

I’ve yet to get any sort of response via Twitter.

Frankly, I understand and can totally appreciate having a “freeze” in the process–they say if you’re going to cancel or prevent an “auto-renewal,” you have to do so at least 5 days before the cutoff. You don’t want someone arbitrarily deciding day-of that nope, I don’t actually want this box.

But for someone new who has just signed up on a whim, a new customer to be unable to update/add a differing shipping address (not canceling payment, not trying to back out on stuff) I’m just furious.

And while I don’t usually care to “air dirty laundry,” the lack of helpfulness in this situation has led me to posting this.

I’m by no means the most important customer, nor even necessarily a typical experience…but it’s MY experience, it’s been negative and frustrating, and I’m really very annoyed with it…and it certainly sours me on just “randomly” giving Funko money for stuff in the future.

I was already LOCKED IN on the purchase of this first box, and I reserve the “right” to be extremely critical of it–all the more for the experience I’ve had (including any damage/lack of pristine condition to anything as a result of the delivery situation).

Where I go from there remains to be seen. Since it’s still within that several-day “lockdown,” I can’t even now switch my status to NOT “auto-renew” for the NEXT box, so I’m also forced into at LEAST one more dealing through the website.

This thing had better be worth it!

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Collector Corps, comics, customer service, DC, DC TV, Funko, Legion of Collectors, loot crate, MARVEL, ordering, subscription box | Leave a comment »