Sorry Don but I stole your title. I never expected this amount of feedback. KBR, mtgsalvation's admins, Ben Bleiweiss, Mana-nation giving mention to Don's blog which directed folks to mine. You would think that someone targeted themselves with esper charm, "missed" an angel of despair trigger, made some kind of joke about a prop bet, or used tms's pre-order price to justify Kozilek's and Time Reversal's. A lot of people got really riled up for the wrong reasons, but I'll tackle some of these beasts another day...coughfollowmyblogcough.
Heath called me yesterday afternoon, we discussed possible solutions to prevent this sort of confusion from occurring with future customers. And while their system can't properly set a limit on singles without effecting their entire inventory (i.e boosters) they are looking into a software solution that can give them this sort of option in the future.
I appreciate everyone's constructive feedback and support.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Cape Fear Games Fails
I spent quite some time trying to coming up with some catchy title so it doesn't sound as harsh from the get go. Unfortunately there is no nice way to put this.
I was at work watch Ochoa's deck tech, and notice the inclusion of renegade doppelganger, a card that normally would be quickly discarded as a bulk rare. With Conley's soul sisters deck drawing as much attention as it was it would only be a matter of time before this started showing up on everyone's radars. So I went to store.tcgplayer.com to check prices. Cape Fear Games had 20 listed at .40 each, there were plenty of other vendors with it listed much lower, and still are listed as such. The quantity was large enough so that the price wasn't that much of a premium.
The Following is an exchange of emails between their customer support and myself:
Hi Brian,
>
> We are unable to complete your order. We would like to be
> able to hold cards for local players. You have been refunded
> via paypal.
> -Andrew
Unacceptable, it was listed, and I paid for them.
Brian,
We have our policy clearly listed here:
http://www.capefeargames.com/faq__policies
"Cape Fear Games reserves the right to cancel or limit an order for any reason
We are here to serve the players first and foremost and while we do not mind dealers and speculators ordering from us we may limit the number of a specific card your able to buy from us. "
We are a business after all and while we hate canceling orders we are not here to support speculators reselling cards at our expense. If you feel there is a way to word that in a clearer way please let me know and I'll be happy to update our policy.
Thanks,
Heath
This makes your original email to me fraudulent, you claimed that you were holding them for local players, yet you stereotyped me based on the quantity of my order, copy/paste your policy, and then re-stock them back onto tcgplayer for double at what I ordered them for. Maybe you should have your system set a limit on quantity ordered.
Brian,
I apologize if I was wrong in my assumption but it is frustrating trying to keep cards in stock and then have other sites/ebayers buy them out instead of just buying 4x of each. If you would ever like to try us again we will be happy to send you 4x of any card(s) you wish to order but if this experience has left you unhappy I also understand. We do our best to respond to all e-mails personally and in a quick manner.
Thanks,
Heath
So they couldn't sell them to me because they wanted to save them for local players, and tried defending it with a prejudice against what I was buying their product for. Speculators are the people that apparently do their jobs the way they wish they could, and "policy's'" are put into place to make sure that they don't have to watch prices. And then they made an offer to sell me a portion of what I ordered, like they are my magic bartender telling me that I had enough. I didn't respond to the last email, there wasn't much more to say. Until they felt the need to send me yet another email.
Hi Brian,
We appreciate your concern and will take it into account for future policies. I assure you our original email wasn't fraudulent. Since our inventory on TCGPlayer is the same as our website and in-store inventory, then it is still being available for local players. As Heath said, we don't support speculators. If you need more than 8 of a card, you are more than welcome to email us ahead of time or at the time of your order with an explanation. That will encourage us not to cancel it.
What do you need 20x Renegade Doppleganger's for, so recently after the Dredgevine deck did well? Are you speculating on the card, trying to take advantage of the speed with which we update prices? Do you really think we are stereotyping based on the quantity and context? If we are, do you think there is any basis for this? Your only other order was for 33 Armament Master's, it's not helping you make a case that you are not a speculator.
We would like people to be able to order however many of a card that they would like, which is why we don't have a limit on quantity, however ordering just one card is a little suspect.
If you would like to paypal onlinesales@capefeargames.com $5.51, I will be happy to send you 8x at your original price.
We always welcome your feedback, and hope you order form us in the future.
Best,
Andrew
Store Manage
I responded with a very simple question: what made this order different than the previous?
Absolutely no purpose to further try to contact me, they had to feel like a big man for trying to stop someone who was trying to cheat them by buying things from their online store. There were plenty of other things I would of like to say with what I wanted them for, creative paper machete projects, cages that needed to be lined, my preference in wiping material. I shouldn't have to defend what I'm buying magic cards for.
In the end it didn't matter, they had product listed at a price and I paid for it, but since I'm a speculator I'm a 2nd class customer, and the high demand from the speculating boogie man meant I knew something and they should raise the price on them. As of this blog they have 14 of them currently listed at 0.95 even though you can purchase them from magicinferno at 0.35, and 12 other vendors that have them listed much lower than Cape Fear.
I was at work watch Ochoa's deck tech, and notice the inclusion of renegade doppelganger, a card that normally would be quickly discarded as a bulk rare. With Conley's soul sisters deck drawing as much attention as it was it would only be a matter of time before this started showing up on everyone's radars. So I went to store.tcgplayer.com to check prices. Cape Fear Games had 20 listed at .40 each, there were plenty of other vendors with it listed much lower, and still are listed as such. The quantity was large enough so that the price wasn't that much of a premium.
The Following is an exchange of emails between their customer support and myself:
Hi Brian,
>
> We are unable to complete your order. We would like to be
> able to hold cards for local players. You have been refunded
> via paypal.
> -Andrew
Unacceptable, it was listed, and I paid for them.
Brian,
We have our policy clearly listed here:
http://www.capefeargames.com/faq__policies
"Cape Fear Games reserves the right to cancel or limit an order for any reason
We are here to serve the players first and foremost and while we do not mind dealers and speculators ordering from us we may limit the number of a specific card your able to buy from us. "
We are a business after all and while we hate canceling orders we are not here to support speculators reselling cards at our expense. If you feel there is a way to word that in a clearer way please let me know and I'll be happy to update our policy.
Thanks,
Heath
This makes your original email to me fraudulent, you claimed that you were holding them for local players, yet you stereotyped me based on the quantity of my order, copy/paste your policy, and then re-stock them back onto tcgplayer for double at what I ordered them for. Maybe you should have your system set a limit on quantity ordered.
Brian,
I apologize if I was wrong in my assumption but it is frustrating trying to keep cards in stock and then have other sites/ebayers buy them out instead of just buying 4x of each. If you would ever like to try us again we will be happy to send you 4x of any card(s) you wish to order but if this experience has left you unhappy I also understand. We do our best to respond to all e-mails personally and in a quick manner.
Thanks,
Heath
So they couldn't sell them to me because they wanted to save them for local players, and tried defending it with a prejudice against what I was buying their product for. Speculators are the people that apparently do their jobs the way they wish they could, and "policy's'" are put into place to make sure that they don't have to watch prices. And then they made an offer to sell me a portion of what I ordered, like they are my magic bartender telling me that I had enough. I didn't respond to the last email, there wasn't much more to say. Until they felt the need to send me yet another email.
Hi Brian,
We appreciate your concern and will take it into account for future policies. I assure you our original email wasn't fraudulent. Since our inventory on TCGPlayer is the same as our website and in-store inventory, then it is still being available for local players. As Heath said, we don't support speculators. If you need more than 8 of a card, you are more than welcome to email us ahead of time or at the time of your order with an explanation. That will encourage us not to cancel it.
What do you need 20x Renegade Doppleganger's for, so recently after the Dredgevine deck did well? Are you speculating on the card, trying to take advantage of the speed with which we update prices? Do you really think we are stereotyping based on the quantity and context? If we are, do you think there is any basis for this? Your only other order was for 33 Armament Master's, it's not helping you make a case that you are not a speculator.
We would like people to be able to order however many of a card that they would like, which is why we don't have a limit on quantity, however ordering just one card is a little suspect.
If you would like to paypal onlinesales@capefeargames.com $5.51, I will be happy to send you 8x at your original price.
We always welcome your feedback, and hope you order form us in the future.
Best,
Andrew
Store Manage
I responded with a very simple question: what made this order different than the previous?
Absolutely no purpose to further try to contact me, they had to feel like a big man for trying to stop someone who was trying to cheat them by buying things from their online store. There were plenty of other things I would of like to say with what I wanted them for, creative paper machete projects, cages that needed to be lined, my preference in wiping material. I shouldn't have to defend what I'm buying magic cards for.
In the end it didn't matter, they had product listed at a price and I paid for it, but since I'm a speculator I'm a 2nd class customer, and the high demand from the speculating boogie man meant I knew something and they should raise the price on them. As of this blog they have 14 of them currently listed at 0.95 even though you can purchase them from magicinferno at 0.35, and 12 other vendors that have them listed much lower than Cape Fear.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
PC World doesn't want The Magic Community's Business
PC World recently released an article about the world's geekiest tournaments and had this to say about Magic: The Gathering.
The article can be found here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/203712/the_worlds_geekiest_tournaments.html (apparently I can't make that into a click-able link)
"Magic: The Gathering is sort of like Dungeons & Dragons in card form. You use the powers provided by different cards to damage your enemy in various ways--for instance, you can attack your opponent using dragon armies or fireball spells. The Magic World Championship is held once a year in various cities around the world. It provides a nifty bonding experience for people who spend the majority of their disposable income on pieces of paper with pictures of dwarf princesses printed on them, and who enjoy sitting for countless hours in what appears to be the world's largest middle-school lunchroom"
The original photo contained an image of a yu-gi-oh card image on top of what looked like a photo of a PTQ mid round. After much verbal abuse from their twitter, site, and forums they finally changed the photo and much of the snarky commentary. The new article now reads.
"Magic: The Gathering is sort of like Dungeons & Dragons in card form. You use the powers provided by different cards to damage your enemy in various ways--for instance, you can attack your opponent using dragon armies or fireball spells. The Magic World Championship is held once a year in various cities around the world. It provides a bonding experience for people who spend the majority of their disposable income on pieces of paper with pictures of princesses printed on them, and also provides a chance to win cash prizes."
Apparently we still spend a majority of our income on cardboard princesses.
For those interested I set up a Facebook group that shares a name with today's title.
Goggling Dwarf images was scary.
The article can be found here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/203712/the_worlds_geekiest_tournaments.html (apparently I can't make that into a click-able link)
"Magic: The Gathering is sort of like Dungeons & Dragons in card form. You use the powers provided by different cards to damage your enemy in various ways--for instance, you can attack your opponent using dragon armies or fireball spells. The Magic World Championship is held once a year in various cities around the world. It provides a nifty bonding experience for people who spend the majority of their disposable income on pieces of paper with pictures of dwarf princesses printed on them, and who enjoy sitting for countless hours in what appears to be the world's largest middle-school lunchroom"
The original photo contained an image of a yu-gi-oh card image on top of what looked like a photo of a PTQ mid round. After much verbal abuse from their twitter, site, and forums they finally changed the photo and much of the snarky commentary. The new article now reads.
"Magic: The Gathering is sort of like Dungeons & Dragons in card form. You use the powers provided by different cards to damage your enemy in various ways--for instance, you can attack your opponent using dragon armies or fireball spells. The Magic World Championship is held once a year in various cities around the world. It provides a bonding experience for people who spend the majority of their disposable income on pieces of paper with pictures of princesses printed on them, and also provides a chance to win cash prizes."
Apparently we still spend a majority of our income on cardboard princesses.
For those interested I set up a Facebook group that shares a name with today's title.
Goggling Dwarf images was scary.
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