MR's newly enforced return policy

[sycor]

I figured you guys would like to know this:

In the past returns were handled by MR directly dealing with the end customer. The retailer would put them in contact with the correct people at MR and MR would send a label to ship the defective item back and then they would send the replacement to the customer.

Basically the way returns are to be handled now is that the item must be sent back to the retailer, then the retailer sends the item to MR, MR sends the replacement to the retailer and then the retailer sends the replacement to the customer.

Essentially this costs the customer and the retailer more money for what was probably MR's fault for sending defective items to begin with. And even for retailers who will provide free return shipping on the item for the customer, that cost will just be passed on by an overall increase in product price. The retailers aren't just going to eat it. And for one man operations like myself and blufive, we are left with unhappy customers who wont be able to afford to use us as a dealer just on the chance that something is wrong with an item that MR puts out.

Basically (to me) is shows MR is moving even further away from retailers and their desire to support them. It shows lack of concern for their customers and their happiness.

Maybe I'm over reacting. Maybe not. I'll let you decide.

 

[exoray]

Well with current shipping prices this is going to be nothing but a disaster, you can easily gobble up a $100 in a blink, with the reseller getting the double whammy...

 

[AJK001]

As long as you buy directly from them, this won't be an issue. But, I can see where this is going to be a big problem for retailers. It almost sounds like they are trying to get you to buy directly from them instead of a retailer.

 

[Apollo]

MR screwed over their Retailers years ago.

I'm sure Bobadebt will be along shortly to vent!

 

[ralphee]

Rats...deserting a sinking ship springs to mind....total farce IMO and i agree, with MR's track record of completely awful QC anyway, these guys must be pretty annoyed at this...hell if i were retailing this stuff...id cease to trade anything MR!

lee

 

[jwhite]

With everything I've seen from MR since their Star Wars left and their PD dept started up a new Company, i'd guess this ships about sunk. Really what are they making (besides ST) that anyone's buying at this point? Time for they're decent license to go to a new company that will follow through with a good product.

 

[sycor]

Well, they nice plans for a Halo line but they cancelled it. They announced plans for some interesting Ghost Busters stuff but I'm sure they will be delays until 2010.

 

[jwhite]

I'd say they couldn' pay the royalties or they own the vendors that make the stuff to much money and can't get the product now. It happened when I was working for UC with getting some of the last LOTR items, they owed the vendors so no product.

 

[Tan Djarka]

It's been a long time coming, but maybe MR is going away? It always suprises me to hear about all the lines that Icons put out. As far as I knew, they only did the lightsabers. For those not in the know, MR may soon have the same reputation.

MR's mainstay was Star Wars. It's what made them. Now that the license gone, they're not the company they used to be. They were bought out by foreign interests, and the original company effectively no longer exists.

So it's not really a NEW return policy, so much as they're getting in line with the policies of the rest of the company they've been absorbed by. Once the product is in the hands of the vendors, they've made THEIR money. They're justing insulating themselves from as much loss as possible at the retail level.

 

[Hez]

MR lost me as a dealer back when they put up their wholesale prices by so much that it was basically impossible to make any money on their product. I've been expecting to hear that MR has closed up shop for months now. Their product lines are awful, and now apparently they're trying to push the dealers away so they can make more money. Definitely sounds like they're struggling.

 

[Apollo]

they owed the vendors so no product.

Supposedly according to rumors on the net this is what happened to Fozzie, in the Muppett line.

 

[AJK001]

I just hope MR stays in business long enough for the 2nd shipment of Tricorders to come in.

 

[Funky]

i just hope mr stays in business long enough for the 2nd shipment of tricorders to come in.

qft!

 

[Boba Debt]

I think I'm beyond that

MR screwed over their Retailers years ago.

I'm sure Bobadebt will be along shortly to vent!

 

[Mr.Engineer]

Another reason I can think of is for MR to reduce the number of returns of their products. So, what they do is to appoint dealers who happens to be friends or of good repute in a Forum. When something happens like bad replicas, most of the friends just take it and let it go, keep the replica, rather than put their friendship to the test because they know their dealer friend would have to pay a lot for postage and so on. This in turn reduces the amount of returns.


Either that or I need to go out more.

 

[exoray]

In the end I believe what we are seeing is the restructuring of a hurting business in an attempt to stay afloat...

As said this new policy will in fact put a burden on the dealers and an inconvenience on the buyers thus in the end reducing returns...

When the dealer figures in the shipping loses, IMO they are probably better off just unloading the item as defective on Ebay getting what they can for it and purchasing a new one for the original buyer... $ for $ it's not that far fetched on many items...