Customer Service Report Card
By Donald Hinrichs

Toys break.

It's one of those horrible unavoidable and unexpected tragedies in life, like dogs getting run over, or that nude scene Kathy Bates did in "About Schmidt", it'll make you cry, it'll make you vomit, but there are things you can do to get over it (Except the Kathy Bates thing, the only escape from that is the sweet release of death).

As a collector I've had a few members of my "toy family" get injured in the line of duty, now its not like I play with these things (except in the bath tub, but that’s Don's time and none of your damn business) Just from tipping over, or posing, or sadly, even taking them out of the package arms and legs and heads come off. Each company is different with quality and I’m not getting into this issue now. Now, sometimes things happen and good ol' superglue will take care of the problem. But sometimes, a toy breaks to the point where you either have to return it, or bury it in the back yard with a 21 Nerf gun salute.

Now in our hobby, some of us can buy our figures from local "big box" stores, and if something breaks you can return it correct? Sure, but in this world of "Hot" "Rare" and "HTF" toys there's no guarantee you'll find the same one for an exchange, or a lot of times you can't always get a action figure you want at your local Target, or Wal-Mart or TRU, you have to go to a specialty shop, or a convention or toy show and their return policy is often "If its broken your S.O.L."

So where to turn? In this wonderful world of the Internet 99% of these companies have customer service just a mouse click away. But do they work?

Well it just so happens I have had experiences with 4 of the bigger companies in Toydom:

NECA, McFarlane, Sideshow, and ToyBiz.

Now some of these have taken place over the last 2 or 3 years, but one just occurred this week, so please bear in mind some things may have changed, gotten better or worse etc.

ALSO (BIG DISCLAIMER) These are just MY experiences, where I had luck you might not and vice versa, in no way do my experiences reflect on these companies as a whole, they are all fine toy makers and I enjoy all of their product and have not stopped buying product due to any customer service problems.

How tough is Weasly Snipes? Well, when he goes to donate blood, he declines a syringe, but instead requests a handgun and a bucket

TOYBIZ

Marvel comics. No one does them like ToyBiz. Marvel Legends are probably one of the best "Big Box" carried lines out there, Their Spider-Man line has given us countless villains and their Marvel Movie figures are top notch. But the cream of the crop, their top of the line are their Marvel Studios line, 12" figures, real cloth clothing tons of weapons, nice articulation and actor scanned likeness for their Marvel Movie inspired. One figure in particular stands out: Blade. Its likeness of Wesley Snipes is downright scary, a faux leather coat and a ton of vampire killing weapons. I bought one after WEEKS of searching; it is the only one I've seen on a shelf. I got it home opened it up and was checking out the cool weapons, as I attempted to remove the sword for its sheath the blade snapped off.

AHHHHHHGGGGGG!

After the profanity filled rant, I began to call around to all the stores to do an exchange.

Nothing.

So I contacted ToyBiz's customer service on line and explained my situation. Soon I got a call, an honest to God phone call, from a live person! I explained what had happened they apologized for the inconvenience. They said they could not send just a new sword, however they COULD send a new weapons pack. I received it within a week and there was a new sword inside, along with an extra shotgun, 2 handguns, silver stakes and throwing blade!

ToyBiz gets thumbs up all around!

Reminder to self, wipe with LEFT hand.

SIDESHOW

For my money (And they get a ton of it) Sideshow is probably my favorite company out there. Their 12" Modern Horror figures are works of art, but they have much more. James Bond, Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, they have many terrific products. Now, for customer service my dealings with them have been 50/50. 1 st time I dealt with them was for my Sideshow Modern Horror Michael Myers; I had purchased him off eBay and upon receiving him removed him from the package and was removing his glasses for his ghost costume (watch the movie and you'll know) to my horror the glasses snapped in two. I contacted Sideshows customer service and they were very helpful, and within 2 weeks my new glasses.

The 2 nd time however was not as helpful. Once again I purchased a figures, Springwood Slasher Freddy Krueger, off eBay. Upon opening I noticed his finger knives were broken off. I once again contacted customer service. I told them about the broken fingers and they informed me that they could do nothing, and that I should contact the eBay seller instead. I told them it was a mint sealed figure and they told me once again to contact the seller (which I did, with no luck) I ended up having to use the old standby: superglue. To sum it up, if you order directly from Sideshow, they're very helpful and will take care of you, but beware if you buy from eBay or an on-line retailer.

Thumb sideways.

That takes care of Blitzen and Dasher, a couple more and the fat guy is MINE!

McFarlane

They revolutionized the toy world, they lead the way in sculpts and collector oriented toys. McFarlane made toys with adults in mind. Movie Maniacs also opened the floodgates for Horror Movie Toys, something that hadn't been attempted in years.

Remember Matrix Revolutions? The coolest scene in the movie is where the humans defended their home against the Sentinels with the APU's, huge machine gun toting suits of armor. McFarlane made a figure of this suit with one of the main soldiers Capt. Mifune inside it, this thing was a work of art, I finally hunted one down, brought it home and upon opening it to my horror I found the right shoulder was broken, so I returned it to the store I bought it and got a new one, I got home, opened it, same problem. So I tried super glue, it wouldn't bond with the plastic.

I contact McFarlane customer service, and I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

I contact again, and wait, and wait.
They never responded to my e-mails.
So, back to the store, I exchange, and this time I open the figure in the store:

Once again, a broken right shoulder.

As much as it broke my heart to give up on such a cool toy I got my money back, and to this day dream of having an APU.

Thumbs down.

Little Boy: This isn't a Pokemon! Santa: No, its whats left the last little boy that complained about his gift.

NECA

As I said before, one of these experiences took place this week. My newest addiction has been NECA's Nightmare Before Christmas. For those of you who aren't familiar with NECA's work you seriously need to leave the cave your living in. Sin City, Friday the 13 th, Halloween, The Devils Rejects, Pirates of the Caribbean are just a few of the many fine products NECA has the license for. Back to Nightmare Before Christmas, I fell in love with this movie recently and wanted some figures, so my first purchase was Santa Jack Skellington, upon opening it I was putting Jack on his base, due to his stick-like arms and legs one of the legs snapped off while I was posing it. I contacted NECA and told them of my situation, and got a response within 24 hours asking if I would e-mail them my name, address, and a picture of the broken figure. Yesterday UPS dropped me off a brand new Santa Jack Skellington. Thanks NECA!

2 Thumbs WAY up!

So those are just 4 of the many toy companys out there, if I didn't have luck, don't give up, give it a shot. Just remember, be polite, be patient, don't send a e-mail screaming "You guys make s***y toys and you suck!" Praise them on how much you love their product and you collect all of their toys and its rare for one of their toys to break. Play nice and most of the time they'll take care of you. Now if you'll excuse me I have to put flowers on the mass GI Joe grave in my parents back yard, results of the firecracker attacks of my childhood.