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Re: Ages 3 & Up Pre-Order Limbo
As an fyi - lately, a few of 3p companies have had issues with shipping large orders by air, so they're getting sent by boat. The DNA kits were only recently announced to be ready to be shipped back on April 15th. A3U is getting them via boat. I suspect their shipment won't arrive until June 1st or so.
A3U has had a new phone system installed. You have to listen to their new options. Call them during their business hours. 12pm -6pm or 3pm est - 9pm est for Ontario.
Regarding Hasbro items - Things are coming out in batches. They haven't been fulfilling entire orders for their distributors. In turn distributors are essentially left giving percentage type orders to clients. There's actually a boat load of issues to point out.
1. Hasbro distribution has literally been very inconsistent and it's not just Transformers. Look at GI Joe, Star Wars or Marvel. You might not notice it in ON, but for the rest of Canada - things literally take a lot longer getting out here and to distributors.
2. Hasbro's case assortments. They've changed assortment and quantities. eg. Voyagers come in 3 packs now rather than 2pcs in the past. Eg - 1 Scourge vs 2 Rodimus. Don't know why they did that, when 1 of each is so much easier to order for. Independent retailers have to order a much more to try and get more Scourge figures for example or split the orders between assortments and Single Figure Case packs - this results in different demand for different assortments and each assortment has different ship dates and some take longer. Same can be said for the deluxe cases. 3 figures of blurr & jazz; 2 kups.
3. Hasbro introduces solid cases now. So retailers are now given the option to order cases of solid figures - but again, ship dates are earlier or later than assortments. So hard to plan around.
4. Hasbro cancels waves - eg GI JOE wave 3. They also didn't fulfill distributors wave 1. Shops like A3U are left scrambling trying to order solid cases -well after pre-orders - to fulfill people's orders that were put in months ago.
Regarding A3Us shipping - orders do not get shipped until the entire order is fulfilled. Some people's orders are waiting on 1 figure to come in, so nothing of their order is going to be shipped. It only makes sense since they ship for free if it's over $250. They're eating that shipping cost.
My suggestion - if you're waiting on something like - hey i paid for my entire shipment last month and I haven't received anything or a shipping notice - Call them. They've obviously missed something and it can be sorted out. They're not unreasonable.
If you're upset or concerned about a product not being in stock - it's very likely that their distributors haven't received it yet, or things are on the way. And last but not least, they have a preorder cancellation policy. Any items NOT in stock yet can be cancelled without penalty. This policy alone holds them accountable to get things in as quickly as they can otherwise everyone would just cancel and get the products elsewhere.
A3U specifically has been around for well over 10 years. It's a mom and pop shop and their entire livelihood is in this toy business, they're not a fly by night company.
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