Hey guys,
Keep in mind that Mattel has given us two 'confirmed' arrival dates on this product already, so I've learned to take what they tell us (including tracking information and delivery dates) with a grain of salt.
As of 10 minutes ago, I have now received confirmation from both Mattel and the shipper that the product is out for delivery today. WOOHOO!
And let's not get all 'conspiracy theory' with regards to what is going on at CSC. It's just bad luck combined with bad timing (x10). I had no choice but to go out of town, as I had to attend the annual ComicsPRO meeting in Memphis, and I chair of one of the committees. Needless to say I was on the phone kicking ass and taking names in order to get the exception required for them to ship the Bardas out of Texas (because they still had completed the re-stickering in California that was supposed to happen last week) and on special 2-day freight terms (which they do not typically offer.) The reality is that I was probably able to focus better on this particular topic as I was not also bogged down in much of the day-to-day in handling two stores, a warehouse, a credit card issue and other vendor stuff.
Oh, and while the damage has already been done (to both us and our customers), it is starting to look as though we may be cleared of any wrongdoing in the credit card situation. I'd love to give you more details on that, but it looks as though I have to wait until Visa/MC complete their forensic analysis of our systems. What I can tell you is that we are currently exceeding their security requirements on all our systems, so at least we can say with confidence that the site and systems are all safe for use.
More later...
T-
