To be clear. We don't ban vendors simply for a failure to deliver within X amount of time. We ban vendors based on a number of reasons, including, but not limited to when we believe there is no longer any chance of them delivering or refunding members' money and/or when they stop communicating entirely. eFX is not getting special treatment nor will it. While I have no communication with them, to the best of my knowledge, they are still around and kicking and while everyone is in agreement that their communication and customer service is atrocious, they aren't/haven't scammed anyone or run off with people's money. When and if we feel that is the case, we will ban them just like any other bad seller.
Then the question becomes "how long to members put up with this?" This goes back to 2012..it's May 2017. That's about 5 years, give or take.
I'll add that by this logic, EFX or other licensed vendors will NEVER be banned simply due to the fact that they can string buyers' along with either hollow promises or pushing back delivery times, that is, until they either finally do deliver something or they just go bankrupt/lose their license, which is honestly no different from NON-licensed vendors who do pretty much the same thing, that or they simply disappear. So I can't entirely agree that this is a valid counter-point to not ban these accounts.
The biggest difference in this circumstance is that you can't argue banning them from the RPF will result in hindered communication, especially when their communication is already craptacular and that they've got official avenues of approach, between directly (HR/customer service) and indirectly (Lucasfilm/Disney entities who deal with these things). The point I'm making is that EFX's line of communication is NOT exclusive to the RPF or any fan-prop community page- and neither are the customers.
Additionally, the fact that EFX has members on here with personal accounts, negates the idea of banning "official" accounts unless we tie them with the companies as well. While I hope that nothing nefarious is going on with EFX and the money behind the pre-orders, what happens if something comes to light, as an example above, that an EFX (or any licensed vendor) employee having used their position to for personal benefit, the company goes under at the end of it all, and no one getting what they paid for?
Are we gonna let this individual off the hook because he was part of a "business" enterprise? Or are we going to allow such individuals who've willfully screwed over an entire collecting community to remain a part of this board?
While I'm not intricately knowledge on EFX's internal functions, it certainly isn't beyond the scope of possibilities, especially when you're privy to access to extremely rare and valuable assets...
There's a lot of
quid-pro-quo in the prop/collecting community, after all....