Sigh...

I noticed today that the Million Dollar Million Dollar Chase was live, and I thought I'd enter my paltry three codes.  The first one I tried was the one I received from the Dutch Card Guy in his code giveaway promotion.  I entered the code and received the "Invalid Code Error" meaning I either made a typo or the code had already been used.  

Well, obviously the code had not already been used, as I tend to trust 99.9% of the blogosphere, so I carefully retyped the code again.  Nope, invalid code.  Next I highlighted and copied the code from DCG, pasted the code in the box and...nothing.

I sent an email to Topps explaining the situation, and remarkably, I received a response within 30 minutes (Dang, no free pizza).  

Here is the response I received:

"We are going to temporarily take the site offline to trouble shoot the issues with codes not working. I'll reach back out to you when we go live again.

Thank you and once again - we apologize for your inconvenience,

The 1 Million Dollar Chase team"

Great, actually feedback in a customer service friendly amount of time!  Wait a second...

"we apologize for your inconvenience"

CAUTION: I'm about to split a hair, which is considerably more dangerous than splitting an atom...

Sorry Topps, I'm not inconveniencing you, it's the other way around.  Combine that with this little nugget, "I'll reach back out to you...", I am beginning to think that the Million Dollar Million Dollar Chase has been outsourced. That just seems so wrong to me.

I like my Topps baseball cards from the United States of America, just like I want my Edam cheese from the Netherlands, my sriracha from Thailand and my olive oil from Greece.

Next thing you're going to tell me is that cards are now being printed in China...

 GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!

PS - I am still waiting on my $10 e-Redemption from the 2011 Diamond Giveaway...

The Customer is Always Left...

In the cold, shivering.

Over the years, I have read posts about Topps Customer Service, and I always chalked the bad reviews up as a fluke.  I mean, c'mon, it's Topps!  They're supposed to be the best!  Right?  Isn't that why I've supported them for 30+ years?  Isn't that why Santa always brought me a Topps set, and not a Fleer or Donruss?

Apparently, the previous bad experience posts were not aberrations.  I am sad to say that I am now the recipient of bad, no, make that horrendous customer service from Topps.  Let's recap...

During the 2011 Diamond Giveaway promotion, I unlocked enough codes and dug up enough "virtual" rings to redeem a $10 e-gift card for the Shop Topps store.  I redeemed the code, and was notified that the certificate would be sent to my email.  

I waited a few days.  Nothing.  I waited two weeks.  Still nothing.  Now the promotion was about to end, you know, on June 31, 2012.  Anyways, I grew nervous and sent customer support an email.  Two weeks later I received a response saying that each code was manually entered and that it would take 10 to 12 weeks from redemption to receive the code.  Uh, ok.

So, this puts the certificate's ETA at October 2012.  October rolls around, and nothing.  I send another email to Topps' customer support and receive the same canned answer, 10 to 12 weeks.

December rolls around and still no certificate in my inbox.  I email Topps again.  This time, they're closed due to Hurricane Sandy.  Hmm, ok.

I call their customer support number.  No one answers.  It goes to voicemail, and then the line goes dead.  No voice mail.  I tried this five times with the same result each time.

Finally, I try their Facebook page.  Any response?  What do you think?

I guess I should kiss my $10 gift certificate goodbye.  Another reason to only collect vintage because vintage won't break your heart.