PlaymoFriends
General => News => Topic started by: Giorginetto on November 09, 2011, 17:45:05
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Dear playofriends
I hate being the bearer of bad news but today to my surprise following an email i sent for a ds order , i had a phone call from Playmobil greece which was pretty much bad news for us and me, a greek collector and has raised some moral and important questions that i feel obliged to share with my playmofriends and this community i am a proud member of
First i was trying to place a DS order for klickies and steck glass windows ( a simple post i put in the trade section that has also upset me a great deal today .... ) . In a nutshell , as all playmobil greece employees know me by now i had a call from Playmobil immediately after my email and i was told that Germany will take no more DS orders from greek collectors this year as there were lots and lots of orders/ order last minute changes / small orders etc and i think its fair to say ( i say this not them ) they had enough .....
About 2 years ago i personally started a conversation with playmobil about accepting DS orders something perhasp others have initiated , i dont know about this i will state only the facts i know of . Wolf Knight also did and we worked together very hard towards achieving this by synchronizing our moves/calls/discussions and most important ORDERS . And i am sure others in their own ways like grangel also worked towards this. On a personal level i dare say that i increased some of my orders and most definitely re routed orders from europe to playmobil greece to increase our bargaining power and position to apply pressure to playmobil to accept this even though that move meant some money loss for me . I know for a fact that Panos also did this for that very reason i cant say that for others as frankly i dont know and cant confirm . I had 2 meetings and many calls /emails with Playmobil Greece to discuss this , a discussion in which shorty afterwards other greek collectors joined in I am pleased to say . I never considered this a personal achievement but a team one and i cant tell you how happy i was when i placed my first ds order :) . All together i placed only two big DS orders in 2011 with a significant value .
From my feedback from playmobil today my conclusion was that people have taken advantage of that DS service by basically occupying playmobil greece and germany with lots and lots of orders , changes to orders, constant requests etc and now that has lead to a postponment of any ds orders for january . I think its fair to say playmobil greece and playmobil germany got ' fed up ' with one or more collectors , that is my OWN assessment and notbhing officially was told to me by playmobil. I sincerely hope those responsible have some decency to stop for a second and think about what they have done to the rest of collectors like me and stop just catering for their own needs and realise that was a combined effort and not just something they were given allowance to exploit as they have clearly done . A sad day for me and i dare say for our beloved playmobil community ... Sorry to bring such news all BUT i feel obliged to mention this perhaps that makes those responsible think for a change the results of their actions , i truly hope so .... I feel even disgusted to mention some of the arguments that have come to my knowledge of how people communicated with playmobil for small ds orders / order changes etc , god enough said .
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thats bad.. only no orders for greece of germany no orders too?
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:sorrow:
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this is a sad case indeed :( we were told from the beginning that our ds service will be a mean solution, and very fragile. We worked hard to achieve access to spare parts and now to find out that maybe there is a limitation to orders because someone has overflooded them with orders...thats too sad. That puts another question:will we be told that for next year, and the following years to come, we wont be able to place spare partorders after a certain order limit point that may be in effect? In tne future my advice is place big orders between long periods of time. Otherwise a small weeklyorder with constant ups and downs will result in none of us getting any spare parts. Something to think of.
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Bad news indeed...
I think it certainly is a point for everyone in every country to consider; that - like Panos said - constantly making orders for parts (and changes to already sent orders) is bad. The sorting out of parts to be send to people is manual labour and time/money-consuming for the company. So I think it is better to make larger orders with a relative large period of time in between...
They're doing us collectors a favour to provide us with the parts (and amounts in most cases) we ask for, and if that system gets abused, they could limit their spare-parts system to only sending replacement-parts when there is proof something was missing or got broken (as the system was originally intended). And that would be terrible!!
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I'd suggest they put abusive collectors on a black list to single them out and make the DS service unavailable to them after receiving a warning about their behaviour.
Or they could add a cost to changing the order or upping the shipping costs. That way they can cash in on people who keep abusing them like this.
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Perhaps there has been a huge misunderstanding and it has something to do with the previously mentioned change in several part numbers and ... wishful thinking here... perhaps Playmobil launching an online parts order website? too optimistic i know... but hopefully everything will be back and better than ever soon :prays:
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Oh dear! That's terrible! :sorrow: :sorrow: :sorrow:
Don't feel sorry for bringing up this news - it is important to know for all Playmobil collectors.
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They could just simply make it where the order cannot be changed once it has been placed. And they could only allow one order per month per customer. Those restrictions might be a little incovenient, but not nearly as bad as not being allowed to place orders at all!
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How very disappointing after all your hard work to make the ability to order a reality. I hope this decision will be revised or at the very least, short lived. :'(
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How very disappointing after all your hard work to make the ability to order a reality. I hope this decision will be revised or at the very least, short lived. :'(
Yes, exactly! :'(
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I'd suggest they put abusive collectors on a black list ...
what is ur definention of abusive collectors? i know people who order 6 times a year spare parts over £10.000 and they are not for resale.. is that abusive in ur opinion?
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I'm surprise to see in some country that there is no a law to protect the buyer ???. In France you have a law about the "refusal to sell". The text law says:
"It is forbidden to refuse to sell a consumer product or providing a service, without good reason, and make the sale of a product to purchase an amount imposed or purchase concomitant another product or another service and to make the provision of a service that another service or purchase of a product where that subordination is an unfair trade practice"
Try to check in the text law of your country, or even with the European law....
I'm agree, some people exaggerate too much, but the majority are penalized, that's too bad :'(
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The good news is that playmobil through their director who interveened accepted my order . But i hope in the future other greek collectors dont take advantage again of this service and ignore therefore the other collectors even those who made this ds service happen, i hope a lesson is learned otherwise it will be be name and shame those who done this , sorry but only fair
At least playmobil agreed to take this last order for me and i thanked them for that . 0)
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At least playmobil agreed to take this last order for me and i thanked them for that . 0)
good news, if I can say "the spirit of Christmas has come early"
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Good news!
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what is ur definention of abusive collectors? i know people who order 6 times a year spare parts over £10.000 and they are not for resale.. is that abusive in ur opinion?
What my definition is of an abusive collector doesnt matter, its about what the DS service people consider to be an abusive collector.
If they can't handle many small shipments or constant changes to the orders made, they should let it be known to the people that make such orders. And if they still dont listen they should be blacklisted.
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What my definition is of an abusive collector doesnt matter, its about what the DS service people consider to be an abusive collector.
If they can't handle many small shipments or constant changes to the orders made, they should let it be known to the people that make such orders. And if they still dont listen they should be blacklisted.
Well I think you are right. The collector doing that should be the one banned from further orders not he whole greek collectors community.
George did they tell you this was BECAUSE of this person or is that one of the arguments? It seems too big a decision for just ONE trouble maker.
Anyway... glad your order passed through. :)
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??? Mmm this is very interesting news and I'm so sorry to hear about the trouble your having in Greece. but I must wonder about this - what is classed as a small order? I've seen some of the posts on the forum of orders being pages and pages long and in comparison I place very small orders averidging £100 - £300 that I might place 4 or 5 times a year depending on what I'm working on. I've also had to change my orders on many occasions. I send Pm an email with my order and then they email me back with unavailable parts, and if it's half of an item I cancel the rest either by email or by phone when I pay.
I've never had any trouble with PM UK the ladies I chat with know me as a regular customer and we have a laugh. But it does worry me hearing all this. I would gladly be restricted to say 4 orders a year if it meant we could still order parts.
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but I must wonder about this - what is classed as a small order? I've seen some of the posts on the forum of orders being pages and pages long and in comparison I place very small orders averidging £100 - £300 that I might place 4 or 5 times a year depending on what I'm working on. I've also had to change my orders on many occasions. I send Pm an email with my order and then they email me back with unavailable parts, and if it's half of an item I cancel the rest either by email or by phone when I pay.
Imagine asking an order like yours every week. George was told that these weekly small orders asked for a couple of accessories each time... so imagine have someone calling and asking each week for two feathers, three swords and five helmets, and then calling again to change it, or add one more...or remove one, or change quantity... this done on a weekly basis!!!
I placed three big orders so far. One in 24.03.2011, a second one in 20.04.11, and a third one in 27.6.11.... On the second order, I called after two hours to ask and add one more item, just one, and the person in charge of our orders in Playmobil Hellas said ''this time its ok, but please be sure what you need of next time and place it all together with no alterations, or wait and put this item in your next order, because the office in Germany,'' (from where all our orders are beign processed, packed and send to us) ''got furious as they had to process the whole order form from the beginning for just one extra item.''
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That is the reason I never changed any of mine - hence I have a dragon with no wings and microsails without the microhull..
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Imagine asking an order like yours every week. George was told that these weekly small orders asked for a couple of accessories each time... so imagine have someone calling and asking each week for two feathers, three swords and five helmets, and then calling again to change it, or add one more...or remove one, or change quantity... this done on a weekly basis!!!
Yes, and this is what is meant by abusing the privilege of ordering from DS. We're talking about something rather extreme here, someone showing absolutely no consideration for the fact that the people filling these orders might get irritated and feel they are wasting their time.
Just the normal ordering of a few parts or a lot of parts a few times a year or maybe once a month shouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't worry about it, as long as you are using common sense and showing consideration when placing orders. I think they understand when you find out the balloon isn't available, changing your mind about the ballon strings, for example. But to keep repeatedly calling it back and adding more things and changing it is another matter.
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On the second order, I called after two hours to ask and add one more item, just one, and the person in charge of our orders in Playmobil Hellas said ''this time its ok, but please be sure what you need of next time and place it all together with no alterations, or wait and put this item in your next order, because the office in Germany,'' (from where all our orders are beign processed, packed and send to us) ''got furious as they had to process the whole order form from the beginning for just one extra item.''
There must be an exceptional matter of lightspeed involved with the way DS-Greece works, IHMO. ;D
Here in Belgium (and I think with most european DS-services, except Germany itself), once one has emailed/faxed/posted his or her parts-order, it takes some time (usually 1 or 2 days at least) before one's order is processed at the local DS (depending if there are weekends or not, busy times or not, etc).
The local DS-department is linked to the database-system in Germany, and they first check availability of the parts one has ordered. If some parts are unavailable, usually the local DS-department will contact the person placing the order about this by phone or email. When they do so, one has f.e. the chance to add some parts instead of the unavailable ones.
Then the local DS-departement forwards the order to the main DS-department in Germany. Once the order is processed there, making changes is no longer possible. But usually you get enough time in between to make a few alterations. Off course, it is not very recommendable to do so.
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There must be an exceptional matter of lightspeed involved with the way DS-Greece works, IHMO. ;D
Yeah I was surprised at that too... I suspect it was not that busy a season for them, since it was in the mid of summer, and anyway, playmobil hellas only checks if the spare parts asked are included in sets that are or were only available in greece. We cannot ask for items included in sets that were never available in greece. ::) So I suppose, it does not take long to go through the set numbers in the list we send them and then send it immidiatelly to Germany. They call back to say that this and that are not in our database (set database, mind you, as they dont have a spare parts/accessories database) so they can't place the order for the specific parts, and then they send it off pretty quick. Germany replies with availability and prices in two days time and the process goes on...
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Well, I'm waiting for over 5 weeks... I REALLY don't understand why don't they make a proper webstore and stop treating the rest of the world as second (I'm being nice) rate customers... Bah. Gonna shut up now, since I said this like a gazillion times by now anyways.
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Well, I'm waiting for over 5 weeks... I REALLY don't understand why don't they make a proper webstore and stop treating the rest of the world as second (I'm being nice) rate customers... Bah. Gonna shut up now, since I said this like a gazillion times by now anyways.
:lol: Yes and the answer is, once more, dealing with huge spare parts orders is not their main marketing strategy. Spare parts are for kids who loose a small part and get sad...they get happy again when they can order what tiny accessory was lost.... Playmobil still has to learn that it also must be for big kids who want big quantities ;D ;D
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George did they tell you this was BECAUSE of this person or is that one of the arguments? It seems too big a decision for just ONE trouble maker.
Tonquello you have raised an important question. First i cant tell you how happy i am they accepted my 28 windows order , however they wouldnt process the 100 klickies, amimals, agriculture items etc i wanted to order, a order in excess of 1500 parts. For all these i have to wait till February now !!!
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For all these i have to wait till February now !!!
That is when the most busy period for DS-services goes to a more "relaxed" status again.
Starting near the end of September, they have the busiest time of the year with processing all kinds of orders for regular catalogue sets (a lot of major theme-renewals are being released starting in August) and Add-On ones.
People are returning from hollidays abroad and are then ordering the new stuff, and also becausing of wintertime approaching (kids playing indoors again), and for all kinds of Holliday-related toypresents, like Saint-Martin ("Sint-Maarten"/"Sankt Martin" in Netherlands, Belgium, Germany) and Saint Nicolaus ("Sinterklaas in Belgium & Netherlands, "Sankt Nikolaus" in Germany), Christmas (with Santaclaus" in US) and New Year...
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Your points make perfect sense Hadoque . I am strill angry that other's irresponsible behavior having a direct impact on my medieval diorama so :love: :love: :love: to feel better i am going to playmobil straight after wrok today to buy some ' stuff '
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??? Mmm this is very interesting news and I'm so sorry to hear about the trouble your having in Greece. but I must wonder about this - what is classed as a small order? I've seen some of the posts on the forum of orders being pages and pages long and in comparison I place very small orders averidging £100 - £300 that I might place 4 or 5 times a year depending on what I'm working on. I've also had to change my orders on many occasions. I send Pm an email with my order and then they email me back with unavailable parts, and if it's half of an item I cancel the rest either by email or by phone when I pay.
I've never had any trouble with PM UK the ladies I chat with know me as a regular customer and we have a laugh. But it does worry me hearing all this. I would gladly be restricted to say 4 orders a year if it meant we could still order parts.
no worries, they usually very very nice at the UK DS.. the also shipped me a few missing parts from my last order to another country as iam left in the meantime. they very helpfull aswell, usually get an estimate on the same day.. the german one isnt that good. takes ages to get a reply that i had to go over the head of the head of the DS to get it sorted! lol
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:(
I didn't know we had access to DS in Greece. That is really very bad news. Is there something that can be done if several people act together?
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I didn't know we had access to DS in Greece. That is really very bad news. Is there something that can be done if several people act together?
I advice to read carefuly my previous posts. I think those who abused the system need to think , if they can for a sec, what they have done. I soke with playmobil greece as i know them and there is nothing they can do right now, and i dont think we should push them to say the least !!!! I , along with Panos have worked very hard to establish a relationship with playmobil and this is a bit up in the air , i dont think any 'further ' initiatives ' would help right now, just wait for things to chill down. Those responsible have a lot to answer for that is for sure !!!!
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Sorry to come back to this again but is there an update? I haven't used DS in the past but there are some items that are hard to find even in E-Bay so I wonder if DS would available in Greece (?)
Also have anyone tried to order directly from Germany?
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Also have anyone tried to order directly from Germany?
Germany serves only germans, their first rate customers, as far as I know... They don't like our second rate money, for some reason. :'(
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Sorry to come back to this again but is there an update? I haven't used DS in the past but there are some items that are hard to find even in E-Bay so I wonder if DS would available in Greece (?)
Also have anyone tried to order directly from Germany?
No news yet. And we cannot order from Germany directly, all is run by Playmobil Hellas, although proccessed in Germany. Strict company rules... I mean, even if you send an order directly to Germany, they will be very much bothered and redirect the order to Playmobil Hellas, and Playmobil Hellas will tell you ''Next time, contact us first''
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Yes,
I wasn't clear in this question ;D
I didn't mean order from German DS to send to Greece directly. Rather there are some services that provide a "German address" and then forwarding to you(r country).