Raving Toy Maniac

I ordered a Halo Mega Bloks set from the last fall on pre-order, which they charged me for immediately and then got into stock like two months after other retailers. They refused to answer any of my E-Mails, and the package just showed up one day around Christmas. Never, -EVER- will I buy from ToyWiz again. I really, really did not enjoy my customer experience.

Yeah, you're first mistake was trying to buy from ToyWiz. The store is crooked and always has been, it's run by Ken Shamus, brother of Wizard founder Gareb Shamus. Ken has used his connections with Wizard for a lot of shady pricing in his store over the years, ToyWiz was one of the sources used in ToyFare's price guide. MWC has a well documented incident on his site that took place back in 2001 that is hard to ignore even for non-Playmates Simpsons fans. I've never dealt with them personally, and with all of the complaints I've read over the years I never will.

Emerje

Call your CC and dispute this charge ASAP.

They have always been a shady company and I have experienced this first hand. After hearing negative complaints prior to placing an order, I decided to call first and verify that an item was in stock to ship. As they happen to be an hour from my house, I stated I would be coming to pick up as they also operate a brick & mortar store.

Suddenly, the item needed to be checked and lo and behold, was not in stock.

Nothing good to say about the single time I ordered from ToyWiz years ago. Terrible customer service.

Really.....Toywiz? You mean to tell me their prices on EVERYTHING wasn't the best and strongest indicator you were dealing with a horrible company?

That aside, I'm sorry to hear about your issue. Definitely dispute with your cc immediately.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'm cancelling it today. Also, FWIW, they did have the best price, and advertise a availability and price guarentee, which is why I dealt with them.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'm cancelling it today. Also, FWIW, they did have the best price, and advertise a availability and price guarentee, which is why I dealt with them.

I just put in a dispute, sent them a cancellation email, and reordered (and it ended up even cheaper) elsewhere.

I've ordered from ToyWiz once. It was a sale or what ToyWiz considers a sale so I thought I got a pretty decent deal with reasonable prices on everything in my order. ToyWiz however shipped it in multiple shipments and charged what I thought was the flat shipping fee for each package. You can't beat ToyWiz at their own game.

I'm really sorry you had a bad experience, but we're actually pretty responsive to customer problems as long as we know about them. We don't bill credit cards on pre-orders until merchandise is in hand and shipping, but PayPal does charge instantly - they don't allow any other option. If there's a question or problem though, just give us a call. We're not perfect, so we can make a mistake. If we do though, we'll fix it. We have live people answering the phone Monday through Friday who can help. It's toll free in the US: 877.451.2597.

And despite any rumors to the contrary, we're not affiliated with Wizard Entertainment - ToyWiz is indeed owned by Ken Shamus, but Gareb Shamus runs his own businesses, not this one.

I can address a few other things mentioned here as well. Items are shipped together with a few exceptions. During the holiday season, we ship on arrival so that one late shipment from a manufacturer isn't holding up someone's entire gift order, and we do have that policy shown at checkout. The full details for pre-orders are here: http://www.toywiz.com/ourpreorpol.html

And just one more thing: items in stock at our retail bricks and mortar store and items in stock on our website are completely separate. These are not housed in the same location, and we can't have customers entering the warehouse facility for safety reasons. We have thousands more items at the warehouse than at the store, so it is quite common to have something in stock at the warehouse and not in stock at the retail store.

Anyway, I realize this is a bit of an anti-ToyWiz thread but I thought I'd stop in to clarify anyway. I'm just an employee who loves working for the company, by the way. I happen to think I work with great people and fun merchandise, so I hate seeing so much negativity. We're not shady at all - you can see us in person, call us on the phone during working hours, or email us any time. If you ever want my help personally, it's [email protected]. I'll help any way I can.

Anissa: email sent....

Got it Brian, and replied. Also, I made an account here so I'm not all unofficial-looking now!

Update:
I had posted earlier in this thread about my negative experience with Toywiz. I'm pretty impressed with the fact that Bebs responded at all, let alone in the manner she did. So I decided to shoot her an email and discuss what my issues were and I even placed a test order. Again, I'm pretty impressed with the Customer Service and response I received in the last hour alone.

Once the item is received, I plan to post my honest feedback on the order.

The Toy Community can indeed be unforgiving and tough to deal with, especially when we feel we've been wronged. That being said, I'm willing to give a second chance based on the response I read above.

I'll have an additional update once the item arrives and appreciate Bebs posting here with us.

PayPal can be used for pre-orders, I do it all the time for all of my pre-orders. The trick is that you have to send a payment request to the buyer when the order comes into stock, usually the buyer would have to put the order number in the message subject when they send. It's not as easily automated as a credit card payment and requires some additional effort from the buyer, but it's doable. If the three Japanese stores I buy from regularly can do it then an American store can.

Emerje

If AmiAmi & HLJ can do it, I don't see why anyone else can't.

Nice to see that you've replied here, but unfortunately its too late for my order.

My biggest issue was that I was charged for a preorder not in stock. If I hadn't been charged, odds are I would have just waited, but when I'm charged for something that other online stores have had in stock for almost two months, and there isn't even an ETA as to when it will even arrive, thats when i get concerned.

Just a few last minute notes.

late last night, hours after I sent the cancelleation email and the dispute to paypal, I was sent a product shipped email, odd, since th elast I heard they had no idea when my order might be in stock, and there was no email reply about my inquiry about it ffrom a few days earlier.

I did get another followup email not to be concerned about the tracking number, because it was in fact cancelled. (A timely reply to my email would have resolved my issue. They had to know days ago that Mattel had shipped them, and that they would have them soonish.

Toywiz also did refund my paypal payment within 24 hours as well. That does instill some of the lost confidence.

HI Gareee, I do understand. I'll mention to our warehouse manager about PayPal and pre-orders and try to let you know why it is done this way. I have a few guesses as to why it might be that way, but I'll save them - facts are better

One thing we don't know though is when merchandise was shipped or when it will arrive, much of the time. Again, I can't say for sure with Mattel, but we're always leery of claiming an arrival date even if we do know when something shipped. We've had shipments lost by the carrier, held up in customs or that arrived in too poor condition to sell before. So we don't usually give specific dates, even if we know when it's "supposed" to happen. Once we say "that should be here Wednesday" or something, people want to hold us to it! I don't blame them, but on occasion, something just goes wrong along the way.

The timing on the cancellation and the arrival was an unfortunate coincidence. I saw those come in on my receiving log (I get that live all day, if anyone ever needs me to be on the lookout for something). But I had no idea about this thread when it happened. And sadly, that delay in responding to your email made a difference. I'm definitely bringing that to the attention of our customer service manager too.

Oh, it seems it is possible to automatically charge a pre-order through PayPal at a later date without the buyer doing anything since I just got charged for a game I pre-ordered a few months ago. And now that I think of it it's also possible to set up reoccurring payments in PayPal. Seems to be a matter of pre-approving the payment, but not processing it until a later date.

Emerje

I'm not too concerned about the order... the replacement order I placed the same day I cancelled the toywiz one was shipped that same day.

But I wanted people here to know that you did in fact get the item in stock, and that it would have gone out within 2 weeks of the actual order.

Stuff happens, and your discount coupon codes can make the price on something very attractive.

Discount Coupons??

We have discount coupons just about every week in our newsletter. I would strongly encourage you all to subscribe! Mostly because I'm the one putting that puppy together. If there's anything you like/dislike about it, hit me. I always want to hear it all, good or bad!

We also do promotions sometimes on Flickr or Facebook for bigger discounts or giveaways. And you guessed it - I'm doing those too. I don't actually make decisions on sales and promotions, but I do ask for them! We have...4 giveaways going this month. Anyway, if you ever want to email me I'll give you whatever the best deal is I've got going. Usually we run 5%. If it's something bigger, they're often for a limited time, but you never know.

Update:

This past Weds after this thread came about with Bebs actually responding to the complaints we had with regard to past issues, I decided to experiment with an order on something that I really wanted that was shown as in-stock on their website.

The order went in mid-morning Weds, shipped same day and arrived on my door step yesterday in perfect condition and packaged nicely.

I paid fair market price considering I wanted it now and didn't feel like driving around for the next 2 weeks hoping to strike gold and was charged fair shipping as well for Priority Mail.

My experience was a good one and if this service is going to be typical of Toywiz, I'll be buying from them again and may even place another order today.

Thanks again Bebs for addressing the issues here with us and for interacting with your customer base!

Hey Brian! Thank you so much for posting. I'm so glad the transaction went well. We do try to make things work right!

Yeah...reading through this thread brings up too many bad memories regarding other companies that took no action regarding a problem until called out on a forum.

Do you remember the infamous "Transformer Variant Debate" from the mid 90's?

There were some sort of small, pvc TF classic characters that came in blind packaging and BBTS was accused of weighing the packages to determine which ones had the rare variants, allowing them to retain them from each shipment or some such story.

I remember Joel addressing all the websites as well.

Communication is a the best way to stay successful in this hobby.

Heh, I remember that, it was the Super Figure Collection PVCs from 2000 onward. Part of the reason he was accused of that is because it's not entirely uncommon for some shops and auctions in Japan to do that with other blind box figures. However, the SFC series also included random pewter colored figures so it was ultimately pointless since even if you had the desirable character you might still end up with the unwanted color. I think what was really happening was BBTS was opening random cases to sell loose for people who didn't want to go through the trouble of guessing, but at a higher price. Really I think he was just filling a service, but people often see what they want to see.

Though I think the issues with ToyWiz have been far too wide spread over the years to be seen in the same light.

Emerje

Terrible company, won't refund money on a toy we never received, three months later.

I used to have some hard criticism toward them until Bebs posted here and actually resolved everything. Placed a few orders and had no issues from that point forward.

I aksed them to LMK when they got the portal guns in stock. I never heard anything at all from them about them, and there was no way to preorder one. They did post preorders for the next yellow striped release one a week ago or so, so

I've kinda written them off as a place to get what I'm shopping for.

I ordered the 6" Young Justice Batman from them about a month ago when it said they had 2 left in stock. But I was not charged and it did not ship to me. Later on it was back on their site as a pre-order for $10 less. I e-mailed them and they did adjust the price on my order down to the new lower price, but I still have to wait for those pre-orders to come in even though I ordered mine while the site said 2 were left in stock.

I worked in the customer service department of toywiz. They put items on pre-order on their website, even items they know they will not be able to get i.n the hopes that you will initially place the order and may consider substituting for another item. They also intentionally set you up for multiple shipping charges when you add more than 1 pre-order item to an order. Believe me when I tell you that they do not have the customer's interest in mind at all. Stay away from this company. They do not treat their employees well, and even though I am a disgruntled former employee, I am telling you the truth. They rip people off and they are outright unethical

I never buy anything from toywiz. The price is the first reason. Aside that, i have heard that their service is poor...long delays in delivery and all that. I have also read many reviews most of which were negative. Search over internet for toywiz reviews. Check reviews here for a proof.
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/ToyWiz

So all i am telling that it is not a surprise that you are having a problem as well. You can try their customer support but that may not be worthwhile as well.

I used to work for Toywiz.com. I will say this, unless you have Paypal, your CC will not be charged on a pre-order. I didn't work in the office, but I do know that Paypal charges right away. Aside from your Ecto 1:18, Pre-orders are usually in the warehouse before stores even get it. And when the pre-order is ordered from the company it originates from, it usually ships to Toywiz from China or wherever directly. So A LOT of the hold up is HOMELAND SECURITY. I can't tell you how much Homeland goes thru stuff. And just because ECTO comes into the country, doesn't mean that it comes in 1 huge shipment to supply the whole country. It just doesn't work that way.

ToyWiz is a decently priced company, competing with every other Internet Toy Company in the WORLD. They aren't competing with Walmart or Toys R Us prices. But they are with every other company on the web. SO WHAT YOU HAD A PROBLEM, try them out again.

WGA

BS right there!!!

If they verified that UPS or USPS sent and you signed for it, unless you stated to leave at your door. Then you received it or someone stole it from you.

The TW team is very thorough with everything. Either that or you just didn't like their answer.

They have ppl trying to scam them all the time.

it is what it is

Why would you defend them? People here pretty much have the same consensus.. we are treated better elsewhere, with prices same or better.

You have to earn customer's trust and business with each transaction, and they oobviously have ben dropping the ball alot.

They've lost my business, and I won't waste my time trying to preorder anything from them again. I never heard back from them at all about my portal gun preorder request... but that sOK. I ordered two from big bad toy store instead, and got 20% off. NOT 5%.

Isn't it obvious? BillBill works for Toywiz. Sounds like a higher-up by the amount of shilling. They are already aware of this thread, so is it so surprising?

Toywiz will never get any business from me.

Nothing but bad experiences from ToyWiz. Can't even believe they're still around. I'll never order from them again. Hopefully they'll finally die off just like Wizard did.

We are having the same type of problem about pre-orders and also we keep reciving damaged good and the last one we got the box looked like an accordian. when we tried to get our money back and return the damaged products, they called us a liar! won't be buying here anymore and will let people know not to buy.

They screwed me over on an order a few years ago. Only sent me half the order, yet they had no problem charging my credit card in full. They then ignored all emails I sent concerning the order.

Looking over this thread makes me so glad I no longer am a slave to the "have to complete it" lines of toys and issues of comics. I hope those bad old days of magazine exclusives and "party, paint-splattered whoever" figures never come back, either.

Jerks like "BillBill" should be stuck in their jobs cleaning toilets at the Salem Nuke plant, not dabbling in "customer service" on the side whenever their failed business finally receives another order.

May ToyWiz finally breathe its last and never return. Amen.

I ordered a few 2007 Star Wars TVC figures from them. One was Vader and the other was Yoda, if I remember correctly? I think I also ordered a 2011 Grievous and Obi Wan, not really sure. I never received them. So three MONTHS after my order I contacted them. They asked for my address and I gave it to them. Two weeks later they said there was absolutely no order from that address in the past 5 months.
This may be hard to believe but it's true. I was pissed and replied saying they made a mistake. They never contacted me back. Please DO NOT buy from them. They set me back a good 170USD. (I live in Wales so the shipping is much more expensive). Argh it frustrates me to even talk about it. Peace out guys

I've got the Marvel Legends Puck assortment of 4 on pre-order. It's my first time ordering from them. I know I'm taking a chance, but no one else has this 4-piece assortment available and I do open them, so MOC is not an issue.

I'd prefer to buy from BBTS, but they only have the full case of 8 available. It's too bad Hasbro didn't make them a 2 of each figure case. Not very smart on their part.

obviously the saying " a fool and his money are soon parted." can't you guys see this company this is so full of it. doober is doing a pre sale with them after seeing and reading all the negatives about this. c'mon. even I have better customer service skills then toywiz. toywiz and toynk are the worst. doober send me a pm. I might be able to help you out. at least I have never sent out false promises.

PM sent.

EOD, do you have your own store/ business?

Sorry to hear people still having bad experiences with toy wiz. Bebs really took care if the orders I had placed.

Feedback is important especially with do many limitations there are with distribution these days

I ordered some battle pack 2 war of the giants booster boxes and they've been in the warehouse. How long does it typically take until it starts shipping?

I placed a rush order on Dec 18th for a 2 day shipping (cost me $27, almost half the price of the actual toy). I received an email on the 23rd that the item had just been shipped and that it would arrive on the 26th! Then a follow up email arrived telling me that they needed 2 days to PROCESS a expedited shipment. Now i have to explain to my daughter why her main present is not going to be under the Christmas tree this year. Please don't buy from this company.

out of curiousity, why do many of you buy items from this company.? you can see nothing but bad things said about toywiz. never ever buy anything from toywiz. they always are on the high side of pricing and hardly ever present their product in a timely manner. just like the above post.

Not really. But I believe some of their items are ships from China. But I bought a Lego Series 5 Minifigures from them recently. It's been in good shape, fast shipping, I order during my travel in San Diego. Well packaged, no damages or tears for a collectible minifigure. Comes with original minifigure and accessories. Everything as described.

( ( ( Hey TowWizBebs,

Can you please Please PLEASE HELP ME?? My grandson has been waiting for his birthday gift since the third week of October. I realize that this was a preorder and I guess I was confused about that at time of order. In any case, it is now Nev 29, 19 and it was supposed to be delivered in November 2019. Now Christmas is upon us and Grandma has to shop for Christmas gifts as well. I think that my Grandson is very hurt and maybe trusts Grandma no more. I cannot find the Ghostbusters Trap on your catalog nor is it in the preorders at this time. Well, I cannot find it. Please, if you have just one of these toys in stock, will you PLEASE send it to my Grandson Little William Coggins in Illinois???

Joyce