Funko Princess Luna & Celestia pre-order @ Hot Topic! Arriving November

[Sprinklecupcake]

Sad, I remember seeing a ton of Luna and blue flu Discord before Christmas, and now its nothing but Celestia! xD

[sheena]

It seems pretty random.  I have 6 stores I check with regularly, only one of those stores got her.   I am in cincinnati.  But a store in Kentucky got the variant, so I drove down there for it.  I am embarrassed to say how long I drove to pick her up   although seriously gas is so cheap it was still much better than paying eBay prices!


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[Galactica]

I had actually received 10 Luna instead of the 5 Luna 5 Celestia I had ordered-  emailing HOt Topic customer service resulted in absolutely no answer- so per suggestion from this thread, I tried facebook. They eventually sent me a label to return 5 of the Lunas, but wouldn't actually send my Celestias until they saw "movement" on the return.

Now, supposedly, finally, well over 70 days later, my Celestias should be on the way...

I have to say, Hot Topic customer service is probably the worst I have ever experienced. Well, apart from when I used to call Comcast (cable). THAT was the worst, lol. But Hot Topic doesn't have a monopoly on anything, so I'm not sure why they are so terrible.

It's almost as if their shipping department purposefully sabotaged 60% of the pony orders...

[Tulips]

I have to say, Hot Topic customer service is probably the worst I have ever experienced.

I just thought I'd share my only Hot Topic customer service experience, which was my only experience with this company (first order ever) and made me decide to never ever deal with them again. Rant in the spoiler 

Spoiler

First email gained no response in a week, had to phone their customer support... phoned the provided international support number (at the correct time, factoring time zones), it is incorrect! Let me say it again, the phone number they provide on their website and in several emails to me about my order, that they have specifically for international customers, is wrong.
I email them again, mentioning specifically that the phone number is wrong, no response in several days.

I resort to Facebooking them, on their page and in a private message, I finally get a response! Their reply is that I made a mistake and I have to phone their international customer support, which they provide me a different number for. They never even address my question as to why the number they plaster all over the place isn't the same as the one they just gave me, just reiterate that I was the one in the wrong.

I said I wasn't going to waste time and money phoning them and they better just process my order cancellation right this minute, which I had to say several times because they kept asking me to call the number (one I see no reference to on their website) and give personal details (has scam written all over it, why is this not the official customer support number?!)... anyways, they finally agree to a cancelled order and a full refund, which takes a week to process. Meanwhile the account I have on their online store still has my order status as 'Fulfilling Order' five months later. Not to mention while I was waiting for my refund to process I got replies to those emails I sent weeks before, asking if I needed any help. Hahahaha!

TL;DR
I'll never do business with them ever again. They can't even provide the correct international customer support phone number and can only be contacted reliably through Facebook, which is incredibly unprofessional.

If they didn't have exclusive selling rights I'd say boycott them, but that could possibly spell the end of Funko Ponies? Does Funko know what a terrible job Hot Topic is doing with their products, are they happy to be associated with such business practices?

[LittleSpiffy]

I had actually received 10 Luna instead of the 5 Luna 5 Celestia I had ordered-  emailing HOt Topic customer service resulted in absolutely no answer- so per suggestion from this thread, I tried facebook. They eventually sent me a label to return 5 of the Lunas, but wouldn't actually send my Celestias until they saw "movement" on the return.

Now, supposedly, finally, well over 70 days later, my Celestias should be on the way...

I have to say, Hot Topic customer service is probably the worst I have ever experienced. Well, apart from when I used to call Comcast (cable). THAT was the worst, lol. But Hot Topic doesn't have a monopoly on anything, so I'm not sure why they are so terrible.

It's almost as if their shipping department purposefully sabotaged 60% of the pony orders...

HAHAHA!  I'm on the phone w/Comcast right now.  40 minute wait time...after being disconnected three times

[AppleDash1]

Hot topic does not have the exclusive rights to these ponies, they are the only ones that can buy them for a period of time, I think it is 90 days. After that any retailer can purchase them to sell.

[HoustonCollector72]

I had actually received 10 Luna instead of the 5 Luna 5 Celestia I had ordered-  emailing HOt Topic customer service resulted in absolutely no answer- so per suggestion from this thread, I tried facebook. They eventually sent me a label to return 5 of the Lunas, but wouldn't actually send my Celestias until they saw "movement" on the return.

Now, supposedly, finally, well over 70 days later, my Celestias should be on the way...

I have to say, Hot Topic customer service is probably the worst I have ever experienced. Well, apart from when I used to call Comcast (cable). THAT was the worst, lol. But Hot Topic doesn't have a monopoly on anything, so I'm not sure why they are so terrible.

It's almost as if their shipping department purposefully sabotaged 60% of the pony orders...

HAHAHA!  I'm on the phone w/Comcast right now.  40 minute wait time...after being disconnected three times

OMG I just switched to Comcast from Att, but their speeds are better than att and cheaper
I ordered it a week ago and I have chatted online about the installation not happening on the date they had it programmed ,finally it was done Sunday, The young tech was super fast and nice . hope I do not have any issues to be calling them in the future though.

[Aquatic Neon]

Hot topic does not have the exclusive rights to these ponies, they are the only ones that can buy them for a period of time, I think it is 90 days. After that any retailer can purchase them to sell.

The thing is though, retailers never/hardly do pick up the ponies and if they do its very sparse and they don't have a clue about them.

Walmart never restocks them and 75% of Walmarts don't even carry them. My closest store has had 4 Rainbow Dashs for about 8 months. (The Pinkies sold right away, and the Ponies... its like really Walmart... thy probably won't carry them anymore because they think they aren't selling well, its like look those have been sitting for so long, but they are all the same!

Target Never got any of the ponies, they only got their own exclusive a black Rainbow Dash.

Toysrus They actually had their own exclusives, but only back in 2013 and due to no glitters and bad quality control, they didn't do well. They also picked up an assortment of Dr, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pony, but they never restocked them, once they sold out that was it and no glitters in that bunch. Then they picked up Lyra, Pinkie, Octavia, and DJ. Although they don't restock these once they were gone they are gone, seems like they aren't interested in carrying them anymore. If only they knew if they did more exclusives characters with variants and better QC they would be making TONS like HT.

Barnes They have Dr, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pony and continue restocking them. Finally just during the holiday they picked up Big Mac and Twilight. They have never had their own exclusives (another huge mistake) we need to ask these stores to carry them!

Random comic book stores Some carry them some don't very random.

Hot Topic Has gotten every pony released first besides Spitfire and Bon Bon, multiple waves per year, their own exclusive variants, and mystery minis. If HT didn't carry them Funko collectors like me would be screwed.

[HoustonCollector72]

Hot topic does not have the exclusive rights to these ponies, they are the only ones that can buy them for a period of time, I think it is 90 days. After that any retailer can purchase them to sell.

The thing is though, retailers never/hardly do pick up the ponies and if they do its very sparse and they don't have a clue about them.

Walmart never restocks them and 75% of Walmarts don't even carry them. My closest store has had 4 Rainbow Dashs for about 8 months. (The Pinkies sold right away, and the Ponies... its like really Walmart... thy probably won't carry them anymore because they think they aren't selling well, its like look those have been sitting for so long, but they are all the same!

Target Never got any of the ponies, they only got their own exclusive a black Rainbow Dash.

Toysrus They actually had their own exclusives, but only back in 2013 and due to no glitters and bad quality control, they didn't do well. They also picked up an assortment of Dr, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pony, but they never restocked them, once they sold out that was it and no glitters in that bunch. Then they picked up Lyra, Pinkie, Octavia, and DJ. Although they don't restock these once they were gone they are gone, seems like they aren't interested in carrying them anymore. If only they knew if they did more exclusives characters with variants and better QC they would be making TONS like HT.

Barnes They have Dr, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pony and continue restocking them. Finally just during the holiday they picked up Big Mac and Twilight. They have never had their own exclusives (another huge mistake) we need to ask these stores to carry them!

Random comic book stores Some carry them some don't very random.

Hot Topic Has gotten every pony released first besides Spitfire and Bon Bon, multiple waves per year, their own exclusive variants, and mystery minis. If HT didn't carry them Funko collectors like me would be screwed.

TRU had that ERROR on their first listing on their web, selling the assortment for the price of 1 pony, they did honor many or just turned around and gave you the ponies free.
Their QC was a big deal on their exclusives though, Right now mine has Octavia and DJPon3 .
on their Site ,Bon Bon has been heavily reduced, I ordered one last week, it was 3.79 for it,now is 7.98 on their site.
Target has already put on clearance their black RD.

[Aquatic Neon]

Hot topic does not have the exclusive rights to these ponies, they are the only ones that can buy them for a period of time, I think it is 90 days. After that any retailer can purchase them to sell.

The thing is though, retailers never/hardly do pick up the ponies and if they do its very sparse and they don't have a clue about them.

Walmart never restocks them and 75% of Walmarts don't even carry them. My closest store has had 4 Rainbow Dashs for about 8 months. (The Pinkies sold right away, and the Ponies... its like really Walmart... thy probably won't carry them anymore because they think they aren't selling well, its like look those have been sitting for so long, but they are all the same!

Target Never got any of the ponies, they only got their own exclusive a black Rainbow Dash.

Toysrus They actually had their own exclusives, but only back in 2013 and due to no glitters and bad quality control, they didn't do well. They also picked up an assortment of Dr, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pony, but they never restocked them, once they sold out that was it and no glitters in that bunch. Then they picked up Lyra, Pinkie, Octavia, and DJ. Although they don't restock these once they were gone they are gone, seems like they aren't interested in carrying them anymore. If only they knew if they did more exclusives characters with variants and better QC they would be making TONS like HT.

Barnes They have Dr, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pony and continue restocking them. Finally just during the holiday they picked up Big Mac and Twilight. They have never had their own exclusives (another huge mistake) we need to ask these stores to carry them!

Random comic book stores Some carry them some don't very random.

Hot Topic Has gotten every pony released first besides Spitfire and Bon Bon, multiple waves per year, their own exclusive variants, and mystery minis. If HT didn't carry them Funko collectors like me would be screwed.

TRU had that ERROR on their first listing on their web, selling the assortment for the price of 1 pony, they did honor many or just turned around and gave you the ponies free.
Their QC was a big deal on their exclusives though, Right now mine has Octavia and DJPon3 .
on their Site ,Bon Bon has been heavily reduced, I ordered one last week, it was 3.79 for it,now is 7.98 on their site.
Target has already put on clearance their black RD.

Yea you see other stores haven't been successful selling them I bet if they started rolling out Maud Pie, Soarin, and Nightmare Moon exclusives they would be flying off the shelves not like a repainted RD... Looking at you Target and Walmart big disappointments for Funko ponies.

[AppleDash1]

I'm just glad I live in a town with a hot topic. So far I have not had any problems with anything I ordered but my husband orders other things from there and has had issues. If we didn't have one close by to do returns at we would be much more hesitant to order from them.

I ordered something from disney and they crushed it to fit it in the box. They want me to pay return shipping which is half what the item costs. I don't want to order from them again because of this. I should not have to pay return shipping for their mistake and I don't have a store anywhere near me to do a return at.

On the funko board Hot Topic and Barnes & Noble are known for their terrible packaging and shipping. Barnes and Noble has sent many funko pops out in just a bubble envelope. Gemini, Fugitive toys, and Popcultcha have better reputations on that front and we have never had an issue with orders from them. I try to only buy ponies in person since any slight error tends to bother me quite a bit.

[Kitzka]

I think the reason stores like target don't have their own exclusive with a new character has to do with cost. I believe with other lines in order to have an exclusive of a non existent character, then the person offering the exclusive would have to pay for the production of the figure. With a repaint or a variant the costs aren't as much.

I suspect that black RD was target testing the waters to see how well these would do. Recently target has had 2-3 target exclusive pops. The pop line sells very well and the target exclusives are in high demand. I hope that black rd sold well enough so target will have some original exclusives.

I doubt BN will ever have an exclusive pony or other figure. They have some other issues and have to focus on ways to sell more products overall. I'm just happy BN is carrying the ponies after the 6 or so month exclusivity at HT.


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[MilkyTaroMochi]

I feel that the six-month exclusive deal that HT has on the Funkos hurts the other major retailers that sell them. By the time stores like Walmart or Barnes and Noble get a certain character, a great amount of people would have already bought them from HT, unless they dont live near one. Why wait six months to buy ______ from [insert store here] when you can go to HT or their website, and buy/order it from there?

It gets kinda tiring seeing RD as the exclusive pony. I know she is very popular, but how many variants is that girl going to get? xD Why not release a store exclusive variant of Twilight Sparkle, or Pinkie Pie, or even DJ?

[Rainbowrific Renia]

To be fair, Rainbow Dash has as many Funko vinyl figures as Doctor Whooves does and at least hers look different from one another.  You have metallic, black, glitter, and regular for RD versus red tie, green tie, glow-in-the-dark (which doesn't look any different from regular), and glitter for Doctor Whooves.

I think RD being used as the exclusive pony for Target and Hot Topic is just a test before giving us different exclusives.

I agree that the 6 month exclusivity for Hot Topic hurts the sales for other stores. Walmart always has RD and and my local Barnes & Noble doesn't even carry the Funko vinyls.

[LunarEclipse]

My local store seems to have gotten some Celestias in, I managed to snag a glitter! I think that's the first time I've found a glitter in-store. Also picked up the HT exclusive Celestia Pop figure. Here's hoping some Lunas come in, I really want the glitter version of her.

I definitely wish more retailers carried the Funko ponies. I do remember Toys R Us carrying them for awhile but I haven't been there in months so I don't know what their current stock is like. Even so, I only ever saw a few at a time there, and never any glitters.