Letter from Hasbro

[Gingerbread]

I got sick and tired of all the defects of the ponies I've been buying recently so I emailed Hasbro UK and voiced my disappointment. They emailed me back, and today I received a parcel in the post. They sent me a G3.5 baby Starsong, and this letter:

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The best bit? After I complained about quality Starsong has a brown mark and scuff on one of her legs

I appreciate the gesture and I don't have Starsong yet, but....they could have checked and sent me a defect-free pony at the least  visitors can't see pics , please register or login
 I'm in two minds to email them back or not and say thank you but this pony has exactly the problems that I emailed them about in the first place. I really can't be bothered with it. Hasbro just seems like even for a large corporation, they can't be bothered either.

[tinrobo]

*facepalm* Oh, Hasbro. Still, nice of them to send you something I guess. :p

[Dragonflitter]

Man, we should all complain and get free ponies! lol.

Nice to see they found a use for their extra G3.5 stock!

[Majesty]

That was really nice of Hasbro to send you something and send you a letter in response.  I can only imagine the frustration for those that seek out to collect perfect ponies (or flawless).  I know it's hard but every pony can't be perfect.  I can only imagine the amount of ponies that go down the assembly line.  They can't check every single one.

[Wardah]

If it was a G4 I would complain again but since this is old stock it doesn't reflect any changes they might make.

[appleponygal]

Is it the newborn cuties Starsong? I bought the one with the partyhat the other week from a toystore in town. If it's that one I think she's cute!

[banditpony]

Well, to be honest, the person who packed/shipped your pony wasn't the person who wrote the letter... So the person who packed/shipped it might not of known your complaint about apology.

[ButtercreamDream]

I'm sure that hasbro has done the calculations of how much it costs to replace the ponies that people complain about, vs. how much it would cost to improve the production line.  Their cost/benefit analysis probably showed them it's not worth it.

Ponies were definitely better quality in the 80s, but a pony that cost $4.99 in 1984, would cost about $11 now, with inflation.  Also, the raw materials used to make them, and the oil to ship them around the world have gone up incredibly.  I'm not sure that people would be willing to pay $10-15 for ponies similar to the G1s in terms of quality.

Too bad about Starsong's marks.  If you make customs, you could always have some fun with her.

[lemontwist]

I'm sure that hasbro has done the calculations of how much it costs to replace the ponies that people complain about, vs. how much it would cost to improve the production line.  Their cost/benefit analysis probably showed them it's not worth it.

This! Although, I wonder how many complaint it would take to change that.... Maybe we should hold a pony boycott... yeah right xD

[Gingerbread]

I think that whoever packed the pony and the letter in the same envelope together would have had the brainpower to look at the letter and see what the complaint was about in the first place...even human nosiness I imagine would have made you look at the letter before packing a pony with such an obvious flaw.

I do totally appreciate the cost factor in producing ponies now compared to thirty years ago, and I would pay more for better quality ponies. Quality over quantity in mind any day of the week. But in todays economic climate, and with the customers demanding newer products quicker, companies are going to be loathe to produce the toys of the quality I grew up with, regardless of price tag.

I've decided I'm not going to email Hasbro back, I'm going to keep the pony MIB and keep the letter with her. In twenty years time I can point to the pony and letter and either laugh that I was annoyed at such a small thing when toys are designed to laugh 24 hours, or be aghast that whoever at Hasbro had the temerity to send me a toy of such bad quality in the first place

[hathorcat]

I'm sure that hasbro has done the calculations of how much it costs to replace the ponies that people complain about, vs. how much it would cost to improve the production line.  Their cost/benefit analysis probably showed them it's not worth it.

Ponies were definitely better quality in the 80s, but a pony that cost $4.99 in 1984, would cost about $11 now, with inflation.  Also, the raw materials used to make them, and the oil to ship them around the world have gone up incredibly.  I'm not sure that people would be willing to pay $10-15 for ponies similar to the G1s in terms of quality.

Too bad about Starsong's marks.  If you make customs, you could always have some fun with her.

Yes, this is what I always say - lower price, lower quality - thats the way it goes unfortunately!

At least they made the effort to return your query and send you a free product - although I love the fact they still have 3.5 in stock but never seem to have any G4 when they are asked!

[Chi]

I'm sure that hasbro has done the calculations of how much it costs to replace the ponies that people complain about, vs. how much it would cost to improve the production line.  Their cost/benefit analysis probably showed them it's not worth it.

Ponies were definitely better quality in the 80s, but a pony that cost $4.99 in 1984, would cost about $11 now, with inflation.  Also, the raw materials used to make them, and the oil to ship them around the world have gone up incredibly.  I'm not sure that people would be willing to pay $10-15 for ponies similar to the G1s in terms of quality.

Too bad about Starsong's marks.  If you make customs, you could always have some fun with her.

Yes, this is what I always say - lower price, lower quality - thats the way it goes unfortunately!

At least they made the effort to return your query and send you a free product - although I love the fact they still have 3.5 in stock but never seem to have any G4 when they are asked!

This just made me imagine a room titled "Customer Service Items" or something along those lines filled to the ceiling with leftover g3.5 merchandise..

[ashes]

At least they responded.

[reanna-mator]

Ow, bad form! I would say that it's nice that they replied and sent you at anything at all, but that's only compared to the less-than-favorable standard for corporate replies to customers in general. Ideally the bar should be much higher. I'm sorry you've having this trouble.

[jennytablina]

G 3.5 is officially discontinued so it's old stock they have spare I assume. In that respect it's nice they sent something back. They certainly didn't need to send you anything for your comments so would consider it a bonus, even if it's suffering from the problems you complained about.


The issue with current runs is quality control, a lot of companies tend to cut on that in rougher times which can make mass produced product suffer. I've been lucky as most of my G4's seem perfectly fine to me. But if enough customers notice and sales drop, they may put that focus back up. Hopefully this makes Hasbro look at it's quality control a bit and consider upping it on the production line a bit : )