Feedback on Premium Collectables (Australian retail store that sells a lot to USA?)

[koolkollectibleskhai]

I've heard some bad things regarding Premium Collectables in amongst some good. It's not the first time I've heard these things happen in relation to Premium Collectables, so am wary to use them, especially when the bad is really bad (eg. Department of Fair Trading and ombudsman kind of bad).

So wanted to hear from anyone who has had a bad experience with Premium Collectibles, in particular those that have had direct communication with them. Can you please contact me via PM so that I can gather some information?

 

[Captain Hindsight]

So you've heard some bad things about them including allegations of the Department of Fair Trading and the Ombudsman being involved. Would you care to disclose the source of these bad things you've heard? It seems a bit unfair to make allegations such as these without providing anything more than "it's what I've heard". Especially when you then go on to say you want any other feedback to be sent to you by PM.

This is a public forum for sharing information, if you or anybody else has any proof of bad service from this company you should disclose it openly on the forum. What exactly are you gathering information privately for?

 

[Sidewinder]

Well I've never actually purchased from them, but their prices are good, however they require full payment upfront for all preorders and I'm a little hesitant to do that. Who knows what will happen to a company in 8 months to a year? Could go belly up and then you'll have a hard time getting your money back.

Anyway, they stock very little and seem to sell out pretty fast. I don't know how reliable they are.

I did email them once though about if they were expecting many Star Wars OT and AoU figures several months ago and I did get an email back. I sent another one later on about if they would get anymore stock of a certain figure and didn't get a response.

If there are issues with this company I wouldn't mind some feedback because I have planned to order with them.

 

[koolkollectibleskhai]

So you've heard some bad things about them including allegations of the Department of Fair Trading and the Ombudsman being involved. Would you care to disclose the source of these bad things you've heard? It seems a bit unfair to make allegations such as these without providing anything more than "it's what I've heard". Especially when you then go on to say you want any other feedback to be sent to you by PM.

This is a public forum for sharing information, if you or anybody else has any proof of bad service from this company you should disclose it openly on the forum. What exactly are you gathering information privately for?

Those statements about the Ombudsman were taking from another TF public forum where the feedback was given openly. I've just repeated it here.

I am gathering this information because:
1) The owner has indicated that he believes I am making things up about his store, when all I am doing is repeating things I've either seen, been told via PM, or heard from other collectors.

2) The removed the ability to provide feedback on their Facebook page, thus removing much of the negative feedback that was being received.

3) He, like yourself, has challenged the source of this information, and so I am gathering the evidence that he has requested.

4) So this is an attempt to make it so that retail owners cannot just come into public groups and forums and call people liars and trolls for passing onto other collectors negative feedback that has been received.

 

[koolkollectibleskhai]

Examples include:

TF public forum feedback:
I've had the same issues as far as email response is concerned then when they do finally get back to you they sound hard done by that they had to deal with your issue. I still have 5-6 pre orders with them will probably venture elsewhere once they are fulfilled.

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They NEVER reply to me. I had to threaten them with the Ombudsman recently just so they would get Transdirect to deliver my package like they were supposed to! My experiences with PC have been terrible and I will never be spending money with them again. Any retailer can be 'good' while nothing is going wrong, it is what they do when something inevitably does go wrong that determines if they are a good company or not.


Facebook feedback from collectors:

Put it this way, ask in ANY Funko Pop collectors page if they would use these guys. One or two reviews, you dismiss. Five or six, you take with a pinch of salt. When entire groups of collectors say beware, you listen.


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Ok so basically he was banned from a few pages I'm an admin in as some of the items he was selling he didn't even have in hand yet which sometimes this is fine IF the seller discloses this to the customer which he didn't do and it was only after people started publicly complaining that he came clean and stated he didn't actually have the stock yet.

There was also numerous complaints about people saying sold on certain items then PM'ing him to arrange payment and he just not returning the pm's or replying to sold comments only for the same items to be re-listed the following week. Then there's the real kicker of stating a price on the page a person saying sold and then via pm he tries to up sell and increase the sales but then when he sends totals certain items where dearer then originally stated and this caught a few people out as they just paid their bills thinking everything was legit.


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It took them forever to ship my order. They wouldn't reply to emails and when I threatened them they told me I had ordered a pre-order item in my order. The thing is it never said pre-order when I first purchased my items. I know this because I screen shot the items before I purchased them. After arguing with them I finally got my order packaged badly luckily for me they survived delivery.


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This is my issue to i am still waiting on some pops i purchased on the 12th of November to be sent and i have only heard from them after i email them. They were all in stock items in my case. Yeah i think its safe to say i will never deal with them again.

 

[koolkollectibleskhai]

We all tried to give constructive feedback when issues first arose, but he responded in an arrogant and aggressive manner. All he needed to say as a retailer was that he would be looking into improving things, rather than calling people liars and trolls. If he had done that, that would've been the end of it.

 

[Sidewinder]

I get the newsletter and it mentions that they're no longer stocking regular pops, just the exclusives and Poprides. I wouldn't be surprised if it's because of issues with packing and shipping them in mint condition.

The website is crap anyway. Half their stuff is out of stock, but they rarely remove the pages, so it's not till you actually click on the item that you find it's already sold out.

When I hear of those places in the UK like OSB and Mother's Basement going out of business with people's pre order money, I'm really reluctant to pay full price for pre orders from this mob. I think deposits are reasonable, but paying full price isn't.

 

[Captain Hindsight]

Thanks for providing the information.

Just to make the point I was trying to in the first place, suggesting that the ombudsman had been involved is not quite the same as the reality that someone threatened to go to the Ombudsman.

I still don't really understand what you're getting in such a rage over though. Your posts suggest that you've never used this company, so why are you getting so heavily invested in slating the company and investigating their practices? You said you're wary to use them? Bearing in mind everything you've said, why would you even consider using them? They sound rubbish, don't use them

 

[Otter]

Just resurrecting this thread in the hopes that I can get a little insight.

I have a number of Hot Toys orders through Premium Collectables, one including Hot Toys Civil War Captain America, which has been widely released to other retailers for some time now, but I am still waiting on. Is this standard practise? I have had an email back after numerous enquiries assuring me that my order stands, but nothing in the way of an ETA when asked.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Okay... after a little research I have learnt that waiting is just part of the deal with Premium COllectables and it's implied that's how they can offer such low prices. Works for me, I can wait.

I figure they must be using surface mail/freight or something. I always wondered why that went away. I just hope I don't have QC problems with the figures, because I'm sure I would never get a replacement.

 

[Darth_Z]

There are a lot of angry comments on the PC Facebook page - seems that a lot of people are becoming very wary about using them - myself included, with about $600 in unfulfilled orders and no email responses. I wouldn't mind the wait on products if there was transparency and communication. I wont be ordering from them again...

 

[koolkollectibleskhai]

Do NOT use PC!!! Here's the latest feedback threads over in Australia, and it is not looking good. More and more people going to their banks to request their money back!

https://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=24251


And the general rant thread. Just gets worse and worse!

https://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=24252

 

[Otter]

Has anyone here received any Hot Toys pre-ordered from Premium Collectables recently?

I'm still waiting on Civil War Cap, and Yoda (not sure if he's been released yet though).

I had also put in orders for Civil War Iron Man and Han Solo Stormtrooper... but with all the scuttlebutt surrounding indefinite delays getting product to customers, I'm quite concerned.

 

[choombaz]

Has anyone here received any Hot Toys pre-ordered from Premium Collectables recently?

I'm still waiting on Civil War Cap, and Yoda (not sure if he's been released yet though).

I had also put in orders for Civil War Iron Man and Han Solo Stormtrooper... but with all the scuttlebutt surrounding indefinite delays getting product to customers, I'm quite concerned.

Did you get your figures? I got a Yoda from a different site a couple of months ago.

I've had nothing but good experiences with them...got a HT Nick Fury last year super quick b/c it was in stock and got one so far this year, HT Scarlet Witch Civil War, which was a couple of months after the US release.

 

[Sidewinder]

This website is a scam! Anyone who did order through a credit card needs to get a chargeback asap.

God I am glad I never ordered through them. A couple of months back I looked at their page and their prices for the latest Hot Toys figures were just far too low to believe. I mean less than $200AUD for Hela when it is more than that in US dollars overseas? No way on earth that is real!

I feel so sorry for people that got sucked into this. They get people in by fulfilling orders in the beginning, customers think they're trustworthy and then they stop sending things out. I hate to think how many thousands of dollars they have scammed from collectors.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[koolkollectibleskhai]

https://www.qld.gov.au/law/laws-regulated-industries-and-accountability/queensland-laws-and-regulations/fair-trading-services-programs-and-resources/fair-trading-latest-news/media-statements/consumer-warning-about-online-collectable-toy-seller

Well it's about ****ing time!! Over the past couple of years I've posted a few warnings about a local Australian "retailer" called Premium Collectables. They were know for having ridiculously low prices and rarely coming through with actual stock.

They had scammed so many collectors across the country, and finally the warnings, word of mouth, and numerous complaints to government agencies and banks have come to this!

Seems the QLD and NSW governments and related office of fair trading have put out warnings to all Australians (and this applies to international customers too!) to avoid this place at all costs! If you havent heeded the warnings from collectors, at least now the state governments are warning you!

And it's about ****ing time this scam of a retailer and its owner get what they deserve.