While you understand that mistakes happen, orders get lost in the mail, delayed, oversold, etc... nobody is perfect and many of us stores try to resolve the issue promptly even though these issues do generally take more time than problem free orders.

What would you like to see more from stores?
what would you policies and behaviors would you like to see stores eliminate?
The list goes on...

To start off with a topic affecting my store:
My most pressing issue causing negative press are when I have to limit quantities purchased by infrequent customers who buy large quantities of a single card. The card may have gone up in price or just may be popular enough that I need to keep some in stock for my frequent customers.

What do all of you think about this store policy that many online shops have adopted allowing them to impose limits or cancel orders.
It's a bit different online because you are not dealing face to face, but many B&M shops do the same in person as well.

While this happens maybe once a month on average, this can cause a lot of negative press. over 90% of these individuals outright threaten bad press while I'd say only 5-10% of customers with other order issues do.

Both myself and many of my competitors geared towards players and not individuals buying for the sole purpose of reselling. Most of the time, selling large quantities of specific cards are not an issue, but sometimes it can be.

For example, a new customer attempted to purchase over 30 sol rings (when the price jumped 10 bucks overnight). I always offer to sell them at least up to a playset regardless of price change sometimes more for frequent buyers but limit them on the rest.

I applaud the initiative of people trying to do this but luckily many of you who do this understand that many shops have similar policies based on their restocking capabilities.

While I don't advocate trash talking of specific shop unless the problem you had is deemed bad enough by popular vote to be worthy of mentioning their name (which hopefully will never be me), feel free to if you feel strongly enough as it will hopefully spur change.

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Originally posted by Mr.C:
Limit orders to a playset or two max. Problem solved. I have no problems buying only a playset from a store, if that is a clearly stated policy. I have problems with "sorry, we are out of stock", and outright cancellations.

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This. Though if you are a big dummy and don't raise your prices subsequent, then you're a big dummy. In Japan I bought 120 P3K packs in six orders of 20x packs of P3K (thats what the shop had capped orders at) before the store realized that maybe this foreigner knew something and decatupled the price. (that's how you say 10x, right?)

My LGS has a very easy solution. Every time someone wants a card, they do a quick lookup of multiple sources. It takes 30 seconds and no one gets mad.

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Originally posted by bcclar77:
My LGS has a very easy solution. Every time someone wants a card, they do a quick lookup of multiple sources. It takes 30 seconds and no one gets mad.

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I'd be pretty mad if they tried to charge me double after I spent a long time looking through stock and found a couple underpriced cards.

quote:

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Originally posted by bcclar77:
If I had an online shop, I would just have a easy to read disclosure, something like: "I'm not a huge company and I don't a have state-of-the-art online inventory management system. I'm just a gamer trying to eek out a living, doing something I love. Sometimes our stock is innacurate and our prices are out of date. All orders are subject to cancellation if we've made a mistake. We'll do our best to make it right, and we'll try to honor our prices whenever possible, but sometimes we might have to cancel an order, or limit one to a playset. We're sorry for any inconvenience this might cause. Thank you."

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This is a perfect way to anger customers. Very easy to, every single time you screw up a price, cancel the order and raise the price.

quote:

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Originally posted by bcclar77:
If I had an online shop, I would just have a easy to read disclosure, something like: "I'm not a huge company and I don't a have state-of-the-art online inventory management system. I'm just a gamer trying to eek out a living, doing something I love. Sometimes our stock is innacurate and our prices are out of date. All orders are subject to cancellation if we've made a mistake. We'll do our best to make it right, and we'll try to honor our prices whenever possible, but sometimes we might have to cancel an order, or limit one to a playset. We're sorry for any inconvenience this might cause. Thank you."

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Not updating your pricing because you are lazy/busy/inexperienced is not my problem, and any store that cancels an order because of this will never get my business.

quote:

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Originally posted by bcclar77:
A lot of the complainers that you hear about are just that. They think themselves to be expert speculators, but they're just greedy, and are bad for the game.

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I have no issues with a store limiting the quantity of an item as long as it's clearly stated so both parties are aware of the terms.

EDIT: People sometimes think of stores and businesses as these abstract entities designed to make money. People sometimes give businesses the benefit of doubt, claiming "oh well they are supposed to make money, they are a business. It's okay if they have low buy-list prices and sell cards at profit." Businesses are run by PEOPLE. A speculator is a PERSON. How is a PERSON speculating on a card any different than a PERSON employed by or running a business speculating on a card? Profit is being made by someone and it makes no difference at all if it's an individual on their own making the money or a business making the money.

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Originally posted by Shap:
One could argue that ordering 30 of an underpriced card is greedy. I could make the same argument that a store that cancels that order is also being greedy. Clearly both parties are trying to make money, what difference does it make who it is?

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When you deal in something as volatile as magic cards, there's going to be lags in information. The shop owner is in a very difficult business, trying to pay for ever-increasing overhead, healthcare costs for their family, etc. YOU, on the other hand, are a consumer that has your own job, probably are not self-employed and play this game as a hobby in your free time. Your "right" to make money in a card transaction is not the same as thiers, it's not apples to apples. (I don't like the term "right", but I think my point is clear).

Your examples are also without context. Just go with me for a minute here:

If I had Wastelands listed in a display case with a $15 tag on them today, I'm probably not the kind of owner who keeps up on prices at all. Because of that, I'm probably not even going to notice you're getting a great deal.

Now, for instance, let's say a month or so ago I had Candelabras listed in my online store for $40. 3 minutes and 15 seconds after the latest SCG top 8 was posted and the price exploded you tried to buy out my 9 copies. I would probably cancel your order because there was a spike that no one was able to correct for.

I love the fact that you say that the shop owner in this scenario is LAZY and INEXPERIENCED. What chance do I possibly have to get my website updated, if in the few seconds after a top 8 is posted, 1000 people flood my website for orders on cards they wish to turn a quick buck on? How could I possibly beat those 1000 people?

You have your job, where you make money to feed your family. The shopkeeper's is theirs. It is very much not a fair comparison.

quote:

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Originally posted by bcclar77:
See, what I don't get is why you guys get on such a high horse...

When you deal in something as volatile as magic cards, there's going to be lags in information. The shop owner is in a very difficult business, trying to pay for ever-increasing overhead, healthcare costs for their family, etc. YOU, on the other hand, are a consumer that has your own job, probably are not self-employed and play this game as a hobby in your free time. Your "right" to make money in a card transaction is not the same as thiers, it's not apples to apples. (I don't like the term "right", but I think my point is clear).

Your examples are also without context. Just go with me for a minute here:

If I had Wastelands listed in a display case with a $15 tag on them today, I'm probably not the kind of owner who keeps up on prices at all. Because of that, I'm probably not even going to notice you're getting a great deal.

Now, for instance, let's say a month or so ago I had Candelabras listed in my online store for $40. 3 minutes and 15 seconds after the latest SCG top 8 was posted and the price exploded you tried to buy out my 9 copies. I would probably cancel your order because there was a spike that no one was able to correct for.

I love the fact that you say that the shop owner in this scenario is LAZY and INEXPERIENCED. What chance do I possibly have to get my website updated, if in the few seconds after a top 8 is posted, 1000 people flood my website for orders on cards they wish to turn a quick buck on? How could I possibly beat those 1000 people?

You have your job, where you make money to feed your family. The shopkeeper's is theirs. It is very much not a fair comparison.

I'm sorry that you feel so entitled.

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+1, it's impossible to keep everyone happy, but as long as you are polite and try to keep to your words then you will have far more happy customers than angry ones.

The only time I get mad when buying on speculate is when it's on pre-sale. Most cards are worth MORE pre-sale than when the set is released, so if you have already made money on the other stuff, don't cancel my order because my pre-ordered cards turned out to be the only 1 of 3 cards out of the set that went up by 20%.