I got a giggle imagining the world in which mtgfanatic owner believes he's in to feel entitled to have such policies:
You go to the groceries store, pick up two bags of bread and hand the money to the cashier. He holds onto the money while staring at you doubtfully while wondering why you picked two bags of bread instead of one. After several minutes, he concludes that this bread must be especially tasty and you are wanting to hoard it, or *gasp!* resell one of them at a higher price. "Not under my watch, no sir!" he thinks and tells you that he's sorry but cannot sell the bread to you because it is mislabeled. Then after some more minutes of insistence from your part he finally deigns to give you back your money while insinuating that you still can get the bread if you pay twice as much as you were intending to at the beginning.
One thing did he get right: those draconian practices are quite explicitly stated in the legal page, so he's basically covered his arse when you want to complain. The solution? Move your business to other places.
To mr. mtgfanatic and his plea of understanding: yeah, sure it would be nice if you got to magically get one employee's monthly payment from a single transaction. I, too, have done freelance jobs for obscure and small business and then they turn big (in part thanks to my work) and I seriously cannot expect to suddenly raise the bill just because that. What I can do is bask on the good rep I get from it. Similarly, you could have gotten good rep from the OP if he completed that transaction: even if he put it in terms of "haha look how I ripped off this store", others would flock to attempt to get a good deal too and (IF you are on top of things and update quickly) you'd get their increased business while not losing profit.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
It's unfortunate this happened to the buyer, but I guess MTGFanatic willingly scumbags their customers and obviously protected themselves legally here. I really hope they lost business because of their tactics, but it's unlikely that they'll go out of business from it. Too bad.
Legally - the store is covered. Right to refuse service, limit quantities, yada yada. I think the PR cost will end up being a lot higher than 600 dollars in lost margin - this is essentially a sign that he "may choose not to honor his agreement". MTGS is the 800 lb gorilla of the card slinging world - if someone chooses to relay their bad experience here, owners need to take note.
MTG Fanatic Owner - the 600 dollars you didn't make will likely cost you a great, great deal. It didn't help that the thread was revived by you to "defend" yourself. You can't defend bad business practice.
You've lost another customer in me.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Decks in the hopper... Standard - R/G Aggro RG Standard - Book Burning UR Modern - U/W Tempo UW Legacy - Master of Affinity XX Vintage - Burnination RR
Am I the only person who seems to think speculative buying should not be rewarded, the OP ordered 5 of a card thats a singleton card in 1 deck.
I did not see this until now, so this response will probably go unnoticed.
First off, speculative buying runs peripheral to the point of this thread.
Second, I lend cards and build entire decks for players in the Duluth MN, Superior WI region. If anyone is going to a legacy or vintage tournament and needs a card or a deck, they come to me.
That is why if you look at my trade thread at the bottom of this post I always have between 10 and 20 force of wills. Do I need that many? No, not at all. 4 is enough to be shifted around between decks. However, if I am playing Bant survival, a friend wants to play Ubg Jace control and another friend wants to play Canadian Thresh, do I need 12 forces? Yes.
The same reasoning went behind buying the loyal retainers.
First off, speculative buying runs peripheral to the point of this thread.
I think it's important to note that buying 5 of a card is hardly "speculative buying," as it is approximately 1 (one) more copy than a given deck can have of a non-basic land, non-Relentless Rats card.
Even if it buys them out of their stock of a card, buying a playset of a card and one for trade seems like a pretty standard and legitimate practice, particularly knowing some people do the things you do (supply entire play groups with cards, etc).
Not that there needed to be further defense made, as this is just an atrocity of customer servicing.
What Ive learned over the years running the magic singles business for a local card shop, and working at a local business for 5 years before that, is that customer service is EVERYTHING. If you have poor customer service, you could have the lowest prices and still go out of business because people would rather shop somewhere with good customer service and perhaps slightly higher prices. At the place I worked at for 5 years, we had people coming from far away to come specifically to our business, driving by 2-3 others in the process, because we had superior quality, and superior customer service. One of those businesses has since gone out of business, and the other two were sold off to a new owner and have been working at turning around their businesses.
At the shop I sell singles at now, while say, our singles might be the lowest priced in the area, our selection might be the best in the area, and our customer service is by far the best in the area, we do not have the lowest prices on booster packs/boxes, and yet, we sell through such product very well and have people coming from far and wide to our shop to pick up the singles and sealed product they need. Why? Because we have what they want, and we provide superior service and a great experience and thus they come to us first all the while complaining about how terrible their local shops are for various reasons.
The same applies to online stores. In the grand scheme of things, with prices all within a smaller percentage of eachother, the biggest thing an online business can have is good customer service. If they have poor customer service and do things like what MTG Fanatic did, then people will talk about their experiences, and they will lose business. People can talk about speculators all they want, they can claim that the price was "wrong" or the like, but in the end, all these points are is excuses. If a store has a policy where they limit purchases of cards to 4 or 8 of a card thats fine, but such limits should be posted very clearly at the top of their main page so there is no confusion. If they sell through other sites, those sites need to be able to enforce such limits, or they should not be selling there at all. Any order that a business has to cancel due to unknown issues to the buyer is terrible customer service and such a places doesnt deserve anyone's business. That said, sometimes incidents such as this can help a business to turn things around, and revamp their policies and make their business more customer friendly. If a business reacts in that way, then perhaps they might deserve a second chance. A business that just says "too bad" and does what MTG Fanatic and other online stores Ive known have done, those businesses are ones I would not be sad to see go out of business. Eithor treat your customers right, or you will lose them, its as simple as that.
I've ordered booster packs from MTGFanatic, as they have a good selection of old packs. After reading the owners' response in this thread, I've deleted them from my bookmarks and won't be thinking of them in the future. In his response he:
- Demonstrates complete ignorance of basic accounting principles (profit is based on revenue and expenses; expenses are based on purchasing inventory, not restocking future inventory; restocking inventory isn't an expense at all, but a simple exchange of assets)
- Demonstrates that he has zero instinct for public relations and customer service, in that he's dredged up a bunch of bad publicity on a popular internet forum, and defended himself in a slimy and completely unprofessional manner (seriously, what kind of "president" explicitly whines about being "bashed" on an internet forum?)
- Reveals that he thinks that the fine print on his website should completely alleviate himself from any public scrutiny about his unsavory business practices.
In his defense, "deceitful" is not the correct term for the OP's experience, IMO, since it appears that customers are technically warned on the website about this possibility. However, having read this entire thread (and I realize I'm awfully late to the party), I can say that I have absolutely no confidence in MTGFanatic to competently run any kind of business, or to provide me with quality service.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." - Paul Dirac
I was looking for some specific cards the other day, my normal site was sold out. I specifically did not go to mtgfanatic because of this thread.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Odds of pulling a JtMS from a WWK pack: 1:80
Odds of pulling any specific rare in 5th Edition: 1:133
So, on average, 1 JtMS every 2.222 boxes or 1 Bird of Paradise every 3.694 boxes. Yeah, I'll take my odds with Mythics, they are easier to get than old rares.
Want to support a LGS that finally branched into the selling online world? Send me a pm with your email for a $5 off coupon (usable on purchases of $10 or more) for a LGS that just recently got onto TCG player.
I was looking for some specific cards the other day, my normal site was sold out. I specifically did not go to mtgfanatic because of this thread.
Ditto for me. There are plenty other places to look online for cards, and after reading this thread (specifically MTGFanatic's responses), there is no way I'd willingly do business with them.
Ditto for me. There are plenty other places to look online for cards, and after reading this thread (specifically MTGFanatic's responses), there is no way I'd willingly do business with them.
Same here. Ive had many an opportunity to buy from them as I re-buy cards to restock or otherwise with, and in the end I ignore them and continue on to the next store/stores. Too bad for them really, in the end, word of mouth on the internet or otherwise can eithor make or break your business. For their sake I hope they figure out how important a happy customer base and good word of mouth is before its too late.
i do hope other online stores are taken down notes on NOT what to do to clients/customers.
Indeed. I don't even comparison shop there anymore. While not rich, I make enough money that I can pay a few extra dollars to be treated well. I actually had this come up at a PTQ, a company (now I wish I could remember which one) had the cheapest price on a card I needed, but treated me like trash. As such, as the guy is basically ignoring me while trying to take my money, I told him, "No thanks, I make enough money to not be treated like (word that would get filtered here)." While I can't remember the company, I do remember the look on his face. People vote with their wallets and most are not willing to be jerked around over a few dollars.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Odds of pulling a JtMS from a WWK pack: 1:80
Odds of pulling any specific rare in 5th Edition: 1:133
So, on average, 1 JtMS every 2.222 boxes or 1 Bird of Paradise every 3.694 boxes. Yeah, I'll take my odds with Mythics, they are easier to get than old rares.
Want to support a LGS that finally branched into the selling online world? Send me a pm with your email for a $5 off coupon (usable on purchases of $10 or more) for a LGS that just recently got onto TCG player.
I'm going to be fair here ... Almost every store does what MTGfanatic does and limit sales to who they feel to be speculators. The guy in the OP was clearly trying to do this! It's not like he lost a PT because he couldn't get his cards in time. In my dealings with most of the major stores, MTGfanatic offers the highest prices in terms of buylist for many things and when they say something is NM, it IS nm. I do not have that confidence with any of the other major stores as I have received some cards from bigger guys advertised as NM that were clearly nicked and only in EX condition. To me that is a bigger crime than having an order cancelled.
Now, you're well within your rights not to deal with them because they do this but let's not pretend that this situation is unique to mtgfanatic. All the major vendors in my experience, limit sales when they think something smells fishy. These are businesses after all and they have the right to refuse service to anyone. That's life. I think it's unfair to single out one site for doing this when it's probably fairer to single out the sites that don't (and if you did, it's likely people like the original poster would drive them out of business pretty quickly).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Everybody Lies."
“Legacy is awesome because it lets you play with all the powerful cards from throughout Magic's history, like Jace and Stoneforge Mystic.”
I'm going to be fair here ... Almost every store does what MTGfanatic does and limit sales to who they feel to be speculators. The guy in the OP was clearly trying to do this! It's not like he lost a PT because he couldn't get his cards in time. In my dealings with most of the major stores, MTGfanatic offers the highest prices in terms of buylist for many things and when they say something is NM, it IS nm. I do not have that confidence with any of the other major stores as I have received some cards from bigger guys advertised as NM that were clearly nicked and only in EX condition. To me that is a bigger crime than having an order cancelled.
Now, you're well within your rights not to deal with them because they do this but let's not pretend that this situation is unique to mtgfanatic. All the major vendors in my experience, limit sales when they think something smells fishy. These are businesses after all and they have the right to refuse service to anyone. That's life. I think it's unfair to single out one site for doing this when it's probably fairer to single out the sites that don't (and if you did, it's likely people like the original poster would drive them out of business pretty quickly).
Its true that many online stores do cancel orders when the price of a card shoots up suddenly overnight. However many of the good stores will still honor their sales prices and still sell the cards at the price that was paid. And it wasnt as if in the OP's example that they called or contacted him the next day, they contacted him nearly a week later to let him know that his order was cancelled due to the price being wrong even though at the time of the order that price was the market average price for the card. I find such a level of customer service disturbing and terrible. I would say, if the shop would have limited him to say, a playset or something, of the card, that would have been fine. He got his order in before the price shot up and he deserves to be able to get those cards at that price, limiting the amount would have been fine imho, but outright cancelling the order is not fine. They took advantage of the situation and lost, by now, numerous customers, including myself.
I value customer service, price, and condition, (in that order) as the primary concerns for myself as both a buyer and a seller. If I were in the position of MTG Fanatic, I would have (eithor the same day or the next day) contacted the buyer of the card to inform them of the price discrepancy (if that was even actually true at all, which from the sounds of it, wasnt the case.) and apologized and if the price was off, then let the buyer know that they had to cancel the order, but offer them a $10 credit (or something) to their store and let them know that they were once again sorry for the inconvenience.
The fact that it took them as long as it did to respond, the fact that they cancelled the order, and then offered nothing beyond that is just deplorable. In fact the fact that they didnt ship out the next day, or contact the seller (should have been one or the other period) just goes to show how dishonest they were being about the whole situation.
A business can have policies listed to cancel orders or anything else if they want, however they should also be aware that all it takes is one time for an important purchace to be cancelled for them to never shop there again, or any of their friends or family to ever shop there again, and through the power of the internet, letting others know of what happenned, people will be much more wary to shop with them before other shops that wouldnt do something or handle things as poorly as that.
Once again, let me reiterate, customer service is EVERYTHING. If you dont have that aspect of the business down, then you wont stay in business long. Its as simple as that.
If anybody here is taking a Marketing class (or practically any other business related course) you should print this thread and show it to your prof. He/she will get a huge chuckle out of it and probably end up using is as a case study project and then give you extra credit. The project will show -
- How NOT to use fine print to justify horrible business practices.
- How NOT to communicate with customers (past/present/future).
- How to NOT use future prices when calculating profit from a completed sale.
- How NOT to process orders in an efficient manner.
I'm going to be fair here ... Almost every store does what MTGfanatic does and limit sales to who they feel to be speculators. The guy in the OP was clearly trying to do this! It's not like he lost a PT because he couldn't get his cards in time. In my dealings with most of the major stores, MTGfanatic offers the highest prices in terms of buylist for many things and when they say something is NM, it IS nm. I do not have that confidence with any of the other major stores as I have received some cards from bigger guys advertised as NM that were clearly nicked and only in EX condition. To me that is a bigger crime than having an order cancelled.
Now, you're well within your rights not to deal with them because they do this but let's not pretend that this situation is unique to mtgfanatic. All the major vendors in my experience, limit sales when they think something smells fishy. These are businesses after all and they have the right to refuse service to anyone. That's life. I think it's unfair to single out one site for doing this when it's probably fairer to single out the sites that don't (and if you did, it's likely people like the original poster would drive them out of business pretty quickly).
A deal is a deal. If you pay for it and they back out, most people see that as "shady" business. Consumers/buyers have as much of a right to "speculate" on a collectible trading card game as businesses. If we were talking about shady dealings w/ supply from WotC, that's different.
It is more unique than you believe. I had zero problems with ABU Games recently with 8 Time Spirals. Look at the stock market... what kind of mess do you think would exist if buyers/sellers/traders were allowed to "back out of deals" - and they are dealing with extremely higher #s. Being that MTG market (for the most part) is smaller, the issue usually is customer service which can make or break businesses.
It's an instant speed 5/5 trampler for 4. Wtf do you people want seriously? It has applications in populate/ above the curve beats decks, or in Bant control/ flash. I seriously think anyone mad at this card for any reason other than losing an attacker to instant speed wurm, should go home and make their own awesome card game and leave the rest of us alone.
Exactly. MANY goods have pricing that can move around quickly and severely. If I buy a touch at Amazon for XXX.XX, I pay that price - no matter what the price may do the next day or so. Even if Amazon KNOWS that Apple is raising the pricing on them the next day - they'll still sell it for the listed price when I clicked PAY NOW.
Maybe these guys should pick up a practice that many other retailers routinely do - refunding the price difference if their price goes DOWN in the week after you buy it. Funny how they want the opposite but won't refund us if our cards go down in price soon after we buy.....
I just received a purchase from mtgfanatic. It was a $40 card and they didn't put it in a toploader. They just stuck three lands on each side, wrapped it in bubble wrap and sent it in a padded envelope. The post office bent it and now my friends present is seriously warped.
I just received a purchase from mtgfanatic. It was a $40 card and they didn't put it in a toploader. They just stuck three lands on each side, wrapped it in bubble wrap and sent it in a padded envelope. The post office bent it and now my friends present is seriously warped.
So another reason to stay the hell away from this company.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Odds of pulling a JtMS from a WWK pack: 1:80
Odds of pulling any specific rare in 5th Edition: 1:133
So, on average, 1 JtMS every 2.222 boxes or 1 Bird of Paradise every 3.694 boxes. Yeah, I'll take my odds with Mythics, they are easier to get than old rares.
Want to support a LGS that finally branched into the selling online world? Send me a pm with your email for a $5 off coupon (usable on purchases of $10 or more) for a LGS that just recently got onto TCG player.
They ignored my complaint.
I pressed the card back into shape with some books and though the warp is noticable holding it sideways, in a sleeve it is playable. My friend seemed happy to get it, so it wasn't that big a deal in the end. Still I will neverr order from them again and would recommend that anyone who cares about the condition of the cards they buy not to as well.
A while back, when Jace was still hovering around 60 there was a short span of a few weeks where stores were selling him for 70. MTGfanatic had him priced at 50 and the day after I placed my order the mean price on tcgplayer's store was 70. MTGFanatic shipped the cards and I was able to buy two at 50 (everywhere else they were 70)and a few weeks after THAT Jace shot up to 80. They were both shipped in their own toploader and the condition was immaculate.
Just sharing a positive experience I've had with them.
I'm going to be fair here ... Almost every store does what MTGfanatic does and limit sales to who they feel to be speculators. The guy in the OP was clearly trying to do this! It's not like he lost a PT because he couldn't get his cards in time. In my dealings with most of the major stores, MTGfanatic offers the highest prices in terms of buylist for many things and when they say something is NM, it IS nm. I do not have that confidence with any of the other major stores as I have received some cards from bigger guys advertised as NM that were clearly nicked and only in EX condition. To me that is a bigger crime than having an order cancelled.
Now, you're well within your rights not to deal with them because they do this but let's not pretend that this situation is unique to mtgfanatic. All the major vendors in my experience, limit sales when they think something smells fishy. These are businesses after all and they have the right to refuse service to anyone. That's life. I think it's unfair to single out one site for doing this when it's probably fairer to single out the sites that don't (and if you did, it's likely people like the original poster would drive them out of business pretty quickly).
Nah, that's not how "right to refuse service" operates. If you've paid for the item already, it's yours. You'll probably win if you take them to a small claims court. A sale, online or otherwise, is a legal, binding contract.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
You go to the groceries store, pick up two bags of bread and hand the money to the cashier. He holds onto the money while staring at you doubtfully while wondering why you picked two bags of bread instead of one. After several minutes, he concludes that this bread must be especially tasty and you are wanting to hoard it, or *gasp!* resell one of them at a higher price. "Not under my watch, no sir!" he thinks and tells you that he's sorry but cannot sell the bread to you because it is mislabeled. Then after some more minutes of insistence from your part he finally deigns to give you back your money while insinuating that you still can get the bread if you pay twice as much as you were intending to at the beginning.
One thing did he get right: those draconian practices are quite explicitly stated in the legal page, so he's basically covered his arse when you want to complain. The solution? Move your business to other places.
To mr. mtgfanatic and his plea of understanding: yeah, sure it would be nice if you got to magically get one employee's monthly payment from a single transaction. I, too, have done freelance jobs for obscure and small business and then they turn big (in part thanks to my work) and I seriously cannot expect to suddenly raise the bill just because that. What I can do is bask on the good rep I get from it. Similarly, you could have gotten good rep from the OP if he completed that transaction: even if he put it in terms of "haha look how I ripped off this store", others would flock to attempt to get a good deal too and (IF you are on top of things and update quickly) you'd get their increased business while not losing profit.
MTG Fanatic Owner - the 600 dollars you didn't make will likely cost you a great, great deal. It didn't help that the thread was revived by you to "defend" yourself. You can't defend bad business practice.
You've lost another customer in me.
Standard - R/G Aggro RG
Standard - Book Burning UR
Modern - U/W Tempo UW
Legacy - Master of Affinity XX
Vintage - Burnination RR
Find me on Modo under Tigerbreak
I did not see this until now, so this response will probably go unnoticed.
First off, speculative buying runs peripheral to the point of this thread.
Second, I lend cards and build entire decks for players in the Duluth MN, Superior WI region. If anyone is going to a legacy or vintage tournament and needs a card or a deck, they come to me.
That is why if you look at my trade thread at the bottom of this post I always have between 10 and 20 force of wills. Do I need that many? No, not at all. 4 is enough to be shifted around between decks. However, if I am playing Bant survival, a friend wants to play Ubg Jace control and another friend wants to play Canadian Thresh, do I need 12 forces? Yes.
The same reasoning went behind buying the loyal retainers.
AVOID MTG Fanatic ! Remands Orders and Re-lists cards for more money!
I think it's important to note that buying 5 of a card is hardly "speculative buying," as it is approximately 1 (one) more copy than a given deck can have of a non-basic land, non-Relentless Rats card.
Even if it buys them out of their stock of a card, buying a playset of a card and one for trade seems like a pretty standard and legitimate practice, particularly knowing some people do the things you do (supply entire play groups with cards, etc).
Not that there needed to be further defense made, as this is just an atrocity of customer servicing.
Buy from me on TCGPlayer::Twitter::Flickr
At the shop I sell singles at now, while say, our singles might be the lowest priced in the area, our selection might be the best in the area, and our customer service is by far the best in the area, we do not have the lowest prices on booster packs/boxes, and yet, we sell through such product very well and have people coming from far and wide to our shop to pick up the singles and sealed product they need. Why? Because we have what they want, and we provide superior service and a great experience and thus they come to us first all the while complaining about how terrible their local shops are for various reasons.
The same applies to online stores. In the grand scheme of things, with prices all within a smaller percentage of eachother, the biggest thing an online business can have is good customer service. If they have poor customer service and do things like what MTG Fanatic did, then people will talk about their experiences, and they will lose business. People can talk about speculators all they want, they can claim that the price was "wrong" or the like, but in the end, all these points are is excuses. If a store has a policy where they limit purchases of cards to 4 or 8 of a card thats fine, but such limits should be posted very clearly at the top of their main page so there is no confusion. If they sell through other sites, those sites need to be able to enforce such limits, or they should not be selling there at all. Any order that a business has to cancel due to unknown issues to the buyer is terrible customer service and such a places doesnt deserve anyone's business. That said, sometimes incidents such as this can help a business to turn things around, and revamp their policies and make their business more customer friendly. If a business reacts in that way, then perhaps they might deserve a second chance. A business that just says "too bad" and does what MTG Fanatic and other online stores Ive known have done, those businesses are ones I would not be sad to see go out of business. Eithor treat your customers right, or you will lose them, its as simple as that.
- Demonstrates complete ignorance of basic accounting principles (profit is based on revenue and expenses; expenses are based on purchasing inventory, not restocking future inventory; restocking inventory isn't an expense at all, but a simple exchange of assets)
- Demonstrates that he has zero instinct for public relations and customer service, in that he's dredged up a bunch of bad publicity on a popular internet forum, and defended himself in a slimy and completely unprofessional manner (seriously, what kind of "president" explicitly whines about being "bashed" on an internet forum?)
- Reveals that he thinks that the fine print on his website should completely alleviate himself from any public scrutiny about his unsavory business practices.
In his defense, "deceitful" is not the correct term for the OP's experience, IMO, since it appears that customers are technically warned on the website about this possibility. However, having read this entire thread (and I realize I'm awfully late to the party), I can say that I have absolutely no confidence in MTGFanatic to competently run any kind of business, or to provide me with quality service.
"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite." - Paul Dirac
http://magikero01.wordpress.com/
Please see my online binder
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/hipster.drop99
Odds of pulling any specific rare in 5th Edition: 1:133
So, on average, 1 JtMS every 2.222 boxes or 1 Bird of Paradise every 3.694 boxes. Yeah, I'll take my odds with Mythics, they are easier to get than old rares.
Want to support a LGS that finally branched into the selling online world? Send me a pm with your email for a $5 off coupon (usable on purchases of $10 or more) for a LGS that just recently got onto TCG player.
Ditto for me. There are plenty other places to look online for cards, and after reading this thread (specifically MTGFanatic's responses), there is no way I'd willingly do business with them.
Same here. Ive had many an opportunity to buy from them as I re-buy cards to restock or otherwise with, and in the end I ignore them and continue on to the next store/stores. Too bad for them really, in the end, word of mouth on the internet or otherwise can eithor make or break your business. For their sake I hope they figure out how important a happy customer base and good word of mouth is before its too late.
http://magikero01.wordpress.com/
Please see my online binder
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/hipster.drop99
Indeed. I don't even comparison shop there anymore. While not rich, I make enough money that I can pay a few extra dollars to be treated well. I actually had this come up at a PTQ, a company (now I wish I could remember which one) had the cheapest price on a card I needed, but treated me like trash. As such, as the guy is basically ignoring me while trying to take my money, I told him, "No thanks, I make enough money to not be treated like (word that would get filtered here)." While I can't remember the company, I do remember the look on his face. People vote with their wallets and most are not willing to be jerked around over a few dollars.
Odds of pulling any specific rare in 5th Edition: 1:133
So, on average, 1 JtMS every 2.222 boxes or 1 Bird of Paradise every 3.694 boxes. Yeah, I'll take my odds with Mythics, they are easier to get than old rares.
Want to support a LGS that finally branched into the selling online world? Send me a pm with your email for a $5 off coupon (usable on purchases of $10 or more) for a LGS that just recently got onto TCG player.
Now, you're well within your rights not to deal with them because they do this but let's not pretend that this situation is unique to mtgfanatic. All the major vendors in my experience, limit sales when they think something smells fishy. These are businesses after all and they have the right to refuse service to anyone. That's life. I think it's unfair to single out one site for doing this when it's probably fairer to single out the sites that don't (and if you did, it's likely people like the original poster would drive them out of business pretty quickly).
“Legacy is awesome because it lets you play with all the powerful cards from throughout Magic's history, like Jace and Stoneforge Mystic.”
-Aaron Forsythe
Its true that many online stores do cancel orders when the price of a card shoots up suddenly overnight. However many of the good stores will still honor their sales prices and still sell the cards at the price that was paid. And it wasnt as if in the OP's example that they called or contacted him the next day, they contacted him nearly a week later to let him know that his order was cancelled due to the price being wrong even though at the time of the order that price was the market average price for the card. I find such a level of customer service disturbing and terrible. I would say, if the shop would have limited him to say, a playset or something, of the card, that would have been fine. He got his order in before the price shot up and he deserves to be able to get those cards at that price, limiting the amount would have been fine imho, but outright cancelling the order is not fine. They took advantage of the situation and lost, by now, numerous customers, including myself.
I value customer service, price, and condition, (in that order) as the primary concerns for myself as both a buyer and a seller. If I were in the position of MTG Fanatic, I would have (eithor the same day or the next day) contacted the buyer of the card to inform them of the price discrepancy (if that was even actually true at all, which from the sounds of it, wasnt the case.) and apologized and if the price was off, then let the buyer know that they had to cancel the order, but offer them a $10 credit (or something) to their store and let them know that they were once again sorry for the inconvenience.
The fact that it took them as long as it did to respond, the fact that they cancelled the order, and then offered nothing beyond that is just deplorable. In fact the fact that they didnt ship out the next day, or contact the seller (should have been one or the other period) just goes to show how dishonest they were being about the whole situation.
A business can have policies listed to cancel orders or anything else if they want, however they should also be aware that all it takes is one time for an important purchace to be cancelled for them to never shop there again, or any of their friends or family to ever shop there again, and through the power of the internet, letting others know of what happenned, people will be much more wary to shop with them before other shops that wouldnt do something or handle things as poorly as that.
Once again, let me reiterate, customer service is EVERYTHING. If you dont have that aspect of the business down, then you wont stay in business long. Its as simple as that.
- How NOT to use fine print to justify horrible business practices.
- How NOT to communicate with customers (past/present/future).
- How to NOT use future prices when calculating profit from a completed sale.
- How NOT to process orders in an efficient manner.
Did I miss anything?
O, and stuff you say online lasts forever.....
A deal is a deal. If you pay for it and they back out, most people see that as "shady" business. Consumers/buyers have as much of a right to "speculate" on a collectible trading card game as businesses. If we were talking about shady dealings w/ supply from WotC, that's different.
It is more unique than you believe. I had zero problems with ABU Games recently with 8 Time Spirals. Look at the stock market... what kind of mess do you think would exist if buyers/sellers/traders were allowed to "back out of deals" - and they are dealing with extremely higher #s. Being that MTG market (for the most part) is smaller, the issue usually is customer service which can make or break businesses.
Maybe these guys should pick up a practice that many other retailers routinely do - refunding the price difference if their price goes DOWN in the week after you buy it. Funny how they want the opposite but won't refund us if our cards go down in price soon after we buy.....
AVOID MTG Fanatic ! Remands Orders and Re-lists cards for more money!
So another reason to stay the hell away from this company.
Odds of pulling any specific rare in 5th Edition: 1:133
So, on average, 1 JtMS every 2.222 boxes or 1 Bird of Paradise every 3.694 boxes. Yeah, I'll take my odds with Mythics, they are easier to get than old rares.
Want to support a LGS that finally branched into the selling online world? Send me a pm with your email for a $5 off coupon (usable on purchases of $10 or more) for a LGS that just recently got onto TCG player.
I pressed the card back into shape with some books and though the warp is noticable holding it sideways, in a sleeve it is playable. My friend seemed happy to get it, so it wasn't that big a deal in the end. Still I will neverr order from them again and would recommend that anyone who cares about the condition of the cards they buy not to as well.
Just sharing a positive experience I've had with them.
Nah, that's not how "right to refuse service" operates. If you've paid for the item already, it's yours. You'll probably win if you take them to a small claims court. A sale, online or otherwise, is a legal, binding contract.