PlaymoFriends
General => Collector's Corner => Topic started by: Rasputin on March 28, 2012, 00:45:04
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I placed a few orders today and I could not order beyond one, yes one barrel. There were many other add-ons that I wanted and they too were out-of-stock >:( Come on Geobra who the hell do you have running the US playmobil distribution warehouse? This is not acceptable. The DS thing was one thing but now it is happening to the add-ons. What next, no boxed sets in stock?
Very bad business management :eh?:
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That's strange, considering the catalogue was only put out recently. :-\
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Yes, I've been wanting to order a few things that have been out for months. Playmobil USA is pathetic, in my opinion.
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I do not remember how long ago it was, maybe a year or more, that Germany used to send many shipments to New Jersey. I guess some bean counter figured out that if only 2 shipments a year were sent that it would some how save them money. I guess the &^%$ never factored in all the lost sales due to items being out of stock so often.
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Playmobil USA is doing inventory this week. Maybe things will be better next week when the store reopens (it is taking orders, but nothing ships until next week).
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Various new DS sets are out of stock for us too... especiall the barrel.... >:(
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They don't like money. Only explanation.
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They don't like money. Only explanation.
na, they dont need money.. they are rich
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rasputin, just ask a german member.. iam sure many ppl are willing to help u..
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na, they dont need money.. they are rich
even rich people need money, they always need more of it. I was helping out a General contractor friend last week on a warehouse sizemic upgrade and the owner was a billionare. He is very cheep and counted his pennies 8}
For me it is just showing bad public relations when you can not order what your kids are asking for.
I heard that some brain-eeak thought up an idea of only sending a few shipments to the US a year. They used to send many throughout the year. Now if a hot item sells out in the first month it is in then that means they will be out for the other 5 months until the next shipment. The New Jersey warehouse is only so big so they can not store 6 times the amounts of sets. I was told this by a Geobra employee years ago and it showed itself quickly in the DS department. One collector clears the warehouse out of a particular set as soon as it is in and then all future orders come up as "out-of-stock" untill the next bi-yearly shipment. I will ask again if this is still the case or perhaps we can ask our Club rep.
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isn't the new jersey's branch closed?
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so I posted this question on facebook
"So playmobil, what is with all the out-of-stock items on your USA site? So many add-ons that my kids wanted are out and now the new barrel is out and the green Victorian car is gone even though it is only 6 months old? The DS department never seems to get replacement shipments. What gives?"
playmobil actually responed. This is what they said
"Hey Rasputin, we need some time to clear this and will come back to you as soon as possible!"
I responded and will wait
"the DS department has had the "out-of-stock" problem for many years now. I heard that the New Jersey warehouse only gets 2 shipments a year. If the roman column get sent in on Jan 1st. and some collector orders them all on Jan 2nd then it will be out for 5 months untill the next bi-anual shipment. Not good business. Now it seems to be affecting add-ons as well. What next? no boxed sets in stock?? How many years should my growing kids wait to get the sets we want?"
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isn't the new jersey's branch closed?
Really, where is it then? It has to be somewhere in the US. Oakland Ca has a lot of room and a shipping port ;) ;D
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well the fun park closed more than a year ago I think. wasn't the warehouse there too? just guessing....
they might have kept the warehouse only? ???
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New Jersey is still the main warehouse from what I was told by an order taker not long ago. The main problem I see with USA DS is they can't compete with countries being serviced by the Germany Playmobil plant directly. As we used to say in the car dealership parts department I worked in some years ago, dealerships living out of the manufactures back pocket have a major step up from dealers at the mercy of trucking items in. In other words, a dealership parts department that was located in the same city as a manufacturer's warehouse could set up a will call, & use their own delivery trucks to pick up items directly at the warehouse instead of waiting for normal shipping that took days or longer to receive something. Plus their stocking levels for inventory could be kept much lower, because if they needed something for their shelves, they just placed the order for it & within the next day ran a truck to pick it up. Think about it, UK, & European DS parts departments aren't required to stock hardly any parts at all. They place a parts order, & it is shipped directly from Germany, & the entire transaction takes very few turn around days, very few back orders or out of stock issues, fewer wrong parts, better availability, it's just plain unfair!
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New Jersey is still the main warehouse from what I was told by an order taker not long ago. The main problem I see with USA DS is they can't compete with countries being serviced by the Germany Playmobil plant directly.
No, there are 3 types of customers.. In Germany.. in countries where they pretend to care.. and the ones they don't really give a darn about.
(can you tell I'm bitter about this? :-[ )
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A little ;)! The UK has great DS parts service, & they are serviced by Germany Playmobil directly, where is your servicing DS Tahra?
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PM USA could use another management change. If the business climate was better here in the US, Geobra could open a US factory to supply this hemisphere. One problem we have here in the US is the cost of business is too high.
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US Playmobil has always been the red-headed step child. This is the 3rd life of the company in the US. As much as they had tons of exclusives for Target up to a year ago, we always have had problems with the company. I really think it's run by people who have no idea about toys or Playmobil.
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US Playmobil has always been the red-headed step child. This is the 3rd life of the company in the US. As much as they had tons of exclusives for Target up to a year ago, we always have had problems with the company. I really think it's run by people who have no idea about toys or Playmobil.
or business public relations :hmm: what is it hard to find quality workers in New Jersey ???
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What I don't understand is why Playmobil has no links for uploading resumes or viewing any open positions. I don't know any company that doesn't have a Careers section. ???
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If shipping is such an issue, why doesn't Playmobil go into an agreement with DHL, UPS, or FED EX like Lego did with DHL? They promise that if a certain set becomes popular that they can gear up & ship a new batch to a market area anywhere in the world within 10 days!
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Yes, that would help a lot. Somehow they need to find a way to have more consistent supplies because lately it has been just terrible! What confuses me though, is things will be in stock one week, out of stock the next, then back in stock the next week. Could the problem have more to do with poor keeping of inventory? ???
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PM USA could use another management change. If the business climate was better here in the US, Geobra could open a US factory to supply this hemisphere. One problem we have here in the US is the cost of business is too high.
Too high compared to what? Mexico and Argentina? Yes. But compared to Germany and the rest of Western Europe it's dirt cheap, which is why so many European car companies have moved a lot of production to the U.S.
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A little ;)! The UK has great DS parts service, & they are serviced by Germany Playmobil directly, where is your servicing DS Tahra?
Tartarus, I think.
Seriously, I have no idea. We deal with the spanish, but the sets and the DS orders I got came straight from Germany.. which left me at loss... I was sure we'd get the stuff from Spain.
The first 2 orders went well. The other.... first no answer. Then after I ask they say I'm ordering stuff not available.. Ok, I hadn't thought of that... But before there came items as "unavailable" or something. So I redo my list. Then I got a message that I THOUGHT meant they were making things ready (language might be a barrier too... then NOTHING.
I still need to calm down and write to them about that. In portuguese and english. I REFUSE to make up spanish. With a cc to someone in Germany. Any ideas who? Maybe I'll just hunt any ds or customer related mails in the German site....
It's a disgrace and it makes me very sad (and mad) to be treated this way. If it was something I did, TELL ME, cause I have no idea and didn't mean to do anything wrong...
And shipping.. Do you know all the goodies that Germany gets? We only get the "color game" after.. 30 eur? Don't recall.. cause free shipping is over 120 eur...
I mean... In the US (which is probably the size of Europe) there's free shipping from peanuts...
And we don't even have a "sale" section.
What I really want to know is WHY IN HADES CAN'T GERMANY send abroad... THEY DO. Our playmopackages come from there. I REALLY don't get it.
:hissyfit:
(and now off the soapbox... playmocrate.. whatever)
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Yeah, that is stupid that you have to go through a bunch of middle men when your stuff comes straight from Germany anyhow. ::) They really should just admit it and have only one service for all of Europe. It would meaning needing to make sure they hire people to cover all the languages, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Apparently they aren't doing so well with the language thing the way it is now. ::)
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What I really want to know is WHY IN HADES CAN'T GERMANY send abroad... THEY DO. Our playmopackages come from there. I REALLY don't get it.
playmobil send to the DS offices in Europe from germany.. not to each person who orders..
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I wonder why some people complain SO MUCH about Playmobil but keep buying it?
8}
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What I don't understand is why Playmobil has no links for uploading resumes or viewing any open positions. I don't know any company that doesn't have a Careers section. ???
They do on the main German website. ;)
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I wonder why some people complain SO MUCH about Playmobil but keep buying it?
Because we love it?
What makes me sad and furious is that we can't buy it "properly".
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I wonder why some people complain SO MUCH about Playmobil but keep buying it?
8}
I think in the case of this thread, people aren't so much complaining about Playmobil's product, but instead their customer service/relations. One can be displeased (or outraged!) with the way a company operates, and still love their toys! :wave:
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Very true! If availabilty of parts & product were equal across the board for everyone as it is in certain countries, the opinions toward Playmobil would be the same,.......favorable! ;)
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Yep, it's because we love it so much that we want easier access to it! However, it might be more productive, I suppose to email our complaints to Geobra rather than here. They most likely aren't hearing it here.
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Yep, it's because we love it so much that we want easier access to it! However, it might be more productive, I suppose to email our complaints to Geobra rather than here. They most likely aren't hearing it here.
Well I have done all that and still it goes nowhere. I posted questions on Facebook and got a "pat on the head" responce. I think they try to cover up their shortcomings instead of dealing with them. ::)
I wonder why some people complain SO MUCH about Playmobil but keep buying it?
8}
Playmobil as a toy - love it
Geobra as a company - they can do better and I want that for them. I want more people to be less frustrated with dealing with them so they get more of the toy market
smart business is taking and using customer feed back, good and bad ;)
In my company I want to know who is not happy as I can then adjust my practices accordingly. Unfortunately people are less likely to complain directly to you buy will instead complain to their friends, and that is very bad for business. word of mouth is very powerful, in my opinion one of the most powerful form of advertising.
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Well I have done all that and still it goes nowhere. I posted questions on Facebook and got a "pat on the head" responce. I think they try to cover up their shortcomings instead of dealing with them. ::)
Playmobil as a toy - love it
Geobra as a company - they can do better and I want that for them. I want more people to be less frustrated with dealing with them so they get more of the toy market
smart business is taking and using customer feed back, good and bad ;)
In my company I want to know who is not happy as I can then adjust my practices accordingly. Unfortunately people are less likely to complain directly to you buy will instead complain to their friends, and that is very bad for business. word of mouth is very powerful, in my opinion one of the most powerful form of advertising.
Spoken like a true businessman that wants repeat & new business ventures! :)9
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Yep! Customer feedback is essential for a company or business that wants to excel.