Northmen Collectibles NMC Toys - not impressed

[Fab]

Similar story here.

I wanted to buy Shattered Glass Prime & Ratchet and the Canadian stores I usually go to (tftoys.ca, kooltoyz.ca, ages3up) didn't have it.

I Googled around and found NorthMenCollectibles. Great - I thought - another Canadian store!
I made the preorder on Sep 23 and prepared myself to wait a couple of months.

A couple of days later, my kids wanted some bots from the Kingdom line, so I made another preorder on Sep 28. This time on NMCToys, as they had just changed to the new website.

The items were supposed to be released in January. Just to set expectations, I told my kids that, because of the pandemic, the order could be even delayed to February.

A couple of weeks after, I made a couple more preorders (more Transformers from the Kingdom series and some Masters of the Universe). In total I prepaid more than $500 worth of toys.

Fast forward January 2021. I start seeing the Kingdom line showing up on more and more stores. I contact NMC support and ask for updates: a couple of days later I get the "you have to wait" reply.

A couple of more weeks and now the Kingdom bots are available on Amazon. Again, I contact support and get the same answer (after a couple of days).

Now we are well into February, my kids are complaining, as the bots are available even in frigging ToysRUs! I reopen the support ticket and wait for an answer.

At this point, I start Googling around and found this forum, the BBB and Yelp pages, and the 180 days PayPal policy.
I paid with CC, but the statement read mentions PayPal (I guess because the store uses PayPal as processor even for normal CC transactions) and was approaching the 160 days mark, so I got nervous about getting stuck with getting a store credit that I didn't want to use (after reading the horror stories from this thread).

I contact NMC on Facebook messenger. The guy tells me to send an email to support. I express surprise that emailing to support would be preferred instead of using their ticket system, but that I would try that avenue. Then the convo derails once I mention that 15% restocking fee seems a bit steep. I get accused to make things up, to be a liar. I point out that I was just reading from the site T&C (he updated them after our chat) and he replies that I should have read the FAQ instead (?!). Telling him that the during the order process only the T&C are mentioned and not the FAQ doesn't seem to make a difference. I just drop the chat, as I have better things to do.

I contact my CC (RBC Visa) and inquire what my options are, but specify that I don't want to do anything yet, just want info.
I explain what I purchased, when the item were supposed to be shipped (NMC website STILL shows them as preorder for January 2021 even now!) and they tell me that I have 120 days to dispute the charges from the time I was supposed to get the order (so, 120 days from Jan 1st 2021).

Since I didn't want to be an a**hole, I write to support and ask for cancellation for the preorder for my kids (I was still OK to wait for my other preorders) and ask them to confirm, otherwise I would have to go via the CC.

I see that "someone" read the email the day after (I had put a tracker in the email) but no reply. I wait another couple of days and send a follow up, stating I would dispute the charge in 2 days. Again, no reply.

I am finally fed up and call Visa again, starting the chargeback process.

The day after I start getting angry emails from the store owner. I let you imagine the tones (and I have screenshots and printouts of all the convos and support tickets before he banned me from the website).

Apparently, he is so swamped that he cannot reply to support tickets, but he has plenty of times to send angry, unhinged emails once you "skip the line" (as he defines calling your CC to ask for refund).

Since I did the chargeback for one of the orders, he cancelled the other 3 preorders and kept ~$20 as cancellation fee.
In the end, I got all my money back (I was actually able to price match some bots at TRU, so I more than compensated the $20) and I was able to buy exactly the same items from other stores and make the kids happy.

Lesson learned: buy from reputable stores, and do some research before trying someone new.

[Robbler]

I sent an email asking to cancel my preorder, I even said the 5% cancellation fee was fine. So we shall see how that goes.

[Jive Turkey]

Originally Posted by Fab

Since I did the chargeback for one of the orders, he cancelled the other 3 preorders and kept ~$20 as cancellation fee.
In the end, I got all my money back (I was actually able to price match some bots at TRU, so I more than compensated the $20) and I was able to buy exactly the same items from other stores and make the kids happy.

Lesson learned: buy from reputable stores, and do some research before trying someone new.

Woah, so HE cancelled your orders out of spite for starting a chargeback on a different order and STILL kept the cancellation fee?? If that's not unethical, I don't know what is

[Jive Turkey]

Originally Posted by The Nemesis

I know that it would be possible to get full money if he just plain never fulfills a pre-order. But if he was operating at a scale enough to make that a viable revenue stream then I figure there would be far more backlash than we're seeing. And he would likely operate more smartly than he does, where he loudly and belligerently calls out everyone he stiffs and draws a bunch of obvious attention to himself.


I still think the easiest explanation is just that he's really bad at this and really bad at taking responsibility for the failings that are on him or are fixable but ignored.

The more I think about it, the more I think you might be right. I feel like the 5% cancellation fee is likely an extension of his defensive personality flaw where he has to get in the last word or the last jab (ie you're banned). Knowing he kept 5% of your money fulfills that compulsion for him

[Ransak The Elder]

I was looking for action figure protectors (dont ask) and noticed NMC has a paid google ad... thats going to burn a few people.

[RodimusRocks]

And all his recent reviews are glowing. What a shame.

[Fab]

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

Woah, so HE cancelled your orders out of spite for starting a chargeback on a different order and STILL kept the cancellation fee?? If that's not unethical, I don't know what is

The way I looked at it was that he couldn't charge the cancellation fee on the order I did the chargeback on, so he used the other oustanding orders to do that.

More importantly, I was just happy to have cut my losses and did not want to deal with him anymore

[Matrix_Holder]

He cancelled your preorders without your permission and kept the restocking fee is straight up thef and That is illegal. Contact the police as he had no authority to cancel your orders and keep a fee for doing that.

[Fab]

Originally Posted by Matrix_Holder

He cancelled your preorders without your permission and kept the restocking fee is straight up thef and That is illegal. Contact the police as he had no authority to cancel your orders and keep a fee for doing that.

I already spent quite some time listening to the Visa phone line waiting music.

I got my money back, I was able to offset the $20 of cancellation fee with price adjustments from other stores getting the same items. I consider my experience with NMC concluded and don't want to spend (waste) more time about it (except maybe add a review on Google).

I wrote my post on this thread just to warn other potential buyers of what could happen with pre-orders from NMC.

[Jive Turkey]

Originally Posted by Fab

(except maybe add a review on Google).

I would say your story is serious enough that you should at least share it with google reviews. That's seriously messed up