Untitled theories: the 2005 board rants

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+++++++++++++++++++++++
Quote:
(Originally Posted by Kickback)
Where are the Universe and Wreckers comics?
Where are the plates?
Where is Skywarp?

Just wait for "Where is Sentinel Maximus?" ... anyone remember the
exact quote as to when they'd be shipping out?

(note: this thread can be found here)

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(my response)

I...usually keep my mouth shut about these things, but as it's getting
so close to the con, and I have not recieved a response to some of my
e-mails...I thought I would share some of my concerns here :-)

Consider if you will the possibility that, after this year, otfcc(or
rather, 3H) will no longer be in existence. As it is a type of
sheltered corporation, LLC(limited liability corporation) or
what-have-you, they could go belly up, and we would not have the means
to get anything back, as the people who are part of the corporation
are not the corporation itself. Theoretically, under this scenerio, if
they go under, the 'president' of 3H as well as the employees, et all
could get off scott-free; they have the money, but we have no product.

Now, before you go off on a tangent, note this is not a condemnation
of the man; in the past, I have recieved my items from him after the
convention(prizes for the art contests, posters from previous dinners,
etc). I of-course do not recall if this was at the time that 3H was
still 3H, or it had become 1H by this point(I believe it had) so I
can't comment on that one way or the other. My point being, what I
have outlined above is merely a possibility, *not* what I think would
necessarily happen. For the record, like everyone else here, I have
joined the fanclub to no benefit, and I have yet to recieved the
comics I have ordered.

I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt; the man has come thru
on occasion, and I have hopes that he will again. Unfortunately, with
everything that has gone wrong in-sequence, I fear that the simplest
solution to the entire fiasco is what I have outlined above; 1H
dissolves, and we are left berefit of cash, and items. Theoretically,
there are things that could be done from a legal standpoint, should
this particular scenerio play out in any form. Assuming this post
doesn't get truncated, I'll outline a few of these theories below:

Possibility 1: The first, most obvious solution would be that Glen
makes this type of announcement(everything's gone to heck, we are
dissolving, etc), and two weeks after the con, we all get refund
checks, and everything folds. This would be the ideal situation, I am
sure, for a number of people, and would allow Glen an exit strategy
that is above the board, ie keeping everyone happy. Whether this is
going to be the viable option, I can't say for sure, but some
indicators point to this being our answer.

- The potential problem: for the record, there is a pattern emerging
that, for those who have requested a refund as early as May, they were
told to wait until two weeks after the convention, as they are
'gearing up' for otfcc, thus don't have time to cut a check. The issue
I see with this is that it takes all of a few minutes to cut a check;
therfore, there must be *some* reason, for good or for ill, that this
stalling technique was used. Maybe we'll get stuff, or maybe....

Possibility 2: As stated before, an announcement is made that things
are going into the crapper, etc. We are told that we all get
refunds(in 'two weeks') but...and this would be the kicker- we don't.
The company dissolves, and because of the way things are structured,
as well as missing the window of opportunity for countersuit, we are
left holding the bag, while the culprits escape.

Possibility 3: An announcement is made that things are just fine, that
we'll all get our plates, toys, etc very soon (ie, 'in two weeks') and
that we should just hang on, as next year is going to be 'even
better'.

-sub-answer a: this is a stalling technique, and things go into the
crapper as outlined in possibility 2

-sub-answer b: this is true, and we actually get our stuff, and
otfcc/3H returns as normal next year.

Possibility 4: Glen, Jon, and Karl all kiss and make up, and next year
we have an absolutely huge humdinger of a convention, were everyone is
happy, the animals dance, the smurfs sing, the skyblue waters flow,
hamms the beer refreshing, etc, etc, etc....

Suffice it to say, I have no opinion whatsoever as to which of any of
these possibilites is likely, or even if what *does* eventually happen
is on this list at all. There are still a few unknown variables. What
I *can* say is this: it is felt that certain person or persons have
not been completely honest with us. If they had, then a lot of this
speculation would not have taken place. As much as some may want to
come right out and say that we have been lied to/decieved, that is not
a statement I am willing to make at this point. I do have my opinions.
But I keep those to myself :-)

Things to consider in the future, to avoid any worrying on your part:
pay everything with a check. Get a signed, dated reciept. When mailing
things, send it certified with signature return reciept. They key in
any endeavor is to generate as much paperwork as possible, so that,
should the time come, you can turn all this stuff over to an attorney
for him to work his magic :-) I've learned some hard lessons over the
years, so when/if the time comes that things might go wrong, I know
that I have all my ducks in a row. I don't plan to be screwed over in
life. When problems occur, I have a solution. So I'm not worried.

I'm sure everything will turn out fine.

How about you?

(End 1st response)

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(begin relevent reply string)
(Originally Posted by cardcounter)
The stuff about an saving receipts for a lawyer if you need one sounds
good but when i do the math your talking about a hundreed and fifty
dollars worth of stuff. And we have recieved some stuff like the first
magazine and i received the second printing of the comic so it could
amount to even less that that. I don;t know if that small amount of
money is worth filing a lawsuit. I live in the great North(Canada) and
while i don't know the law i think yopu have to pay to take someone to
small claims court here and you don't get that money back. I don't
knowif it works that way in the states or that if i'm even right about
Canada.That being said i'm still holding faith that i'll get them in
due time.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

(my response)

I'm speaking more in a general sense; ie, I've found that as I go thru
life, I am apt to keep all correspondence and reciepts when I am
dealing with any type of transaction. In my line of work, I tend to
document a lot :-) That has been a big help whenever I go to court;
with my timelines of incidents and detailed documentation, my
interests tend to be well-protected. That's why you don't see me on
the talk shows, complaining that my plumber ripped me off, or that my
house was built on a cemetary, or some such foolishness. When people
know you are an above-the-board operator, they tend to operate above
the board themselves. It's all about keeping people honest. As you go
thru life, even the good people among us can be tempted. I simply make
sure that doesn't happen on my watch.

Now, since you asked...

One would presume that, in the case of 1H not honoring their
contracts, this would be treated as a class-action lawsuit. You would
then take your 150 dollars, and multiple that by 600 or so people :-)
Could be more, could be less. I'm not in a position to say. Think of
it as a small version of the tobacco lawsuits, or if you prefer, the
advertisement you see on tv all the time for mesotheleoma. In this
scenerio (refer to sub-answers in previous posting), a class-action
lawsuit could be brought, not only against the defunct 3H/otfcc as a
corporation, but also against the people in the corporation as well.

This puts into play not only the corporate assets of 3H, but the
personal assets as well. Tack on lawyers fees, court costs,
etc...well, a smart man, having that all hanging above his head, would
be inclined to do the right thing. One would hope, anyways. The
difficulty (and that's for the lawyers to sort out) is that, should
the person decide to take the weasel way out, whether there would be
any assets left in the corporation itself worth going after. If not,
step two is to go after the personal assets of the parties. Should
that be blocked as well, option 3 would be to name Hasbro in the suit,
and dip into the corporate largess (which would be the initial
attraction for a law office in the first place, but you have to follow
the steps). Now obviously, there would be a possibility for a
countersuit, or more likely Hasbro not having any responsibility over
the mess, even though they are affiliated with 3h/otfcc...but that is
something for the courts to decide. It would be a long drawn-out legal
battle that would absorb all the time and money of the president and
employees of 3H. The obvious conclusion one could come to is that it's
much easier to be above-the-board than it is to risk years of legal
foolishness. It's not a matter of what was delivered; it's a matter of
what was *promised* and not delivered. And yes, if people were
wondering, there is ample time for all of this to come together as
outlined. The legal beagles are good at that sort of thing. There is
no weaseling out of a contract because one time frame or another has
expired. I can go into even more detail about that, but this post is
getting long again. I apologise. I'm...wordy :-)

I don't know if that helps, or if I've just muddied the waters
further. In any event, if the parties involved are not already aware
of the potential disaster that could befall them, perhaps someone
should advise them. I don't know. As I said, it's not for me to say
one way or the other. I'm merely making an observation. The
presumption is that the hiring of the PR guy is to ease them thru the
transition from where they are now to where they will be after the
convention (for good or for ill). The problem is, it's too-little,
too-late...there are too many things that have gone wrong for any kind
of action to work well. Or, stated another way, someone obviously
isn't doing a good enough job, if we can already ask these kinds of
questions :-) I feel for the other people involved...should things go
the way some anticipate, the ship will go down with all hands aboard.
That's not the kind of thing I would want hanging over my head. I
suppose that might be why certain types of e-mails aren't
answered....there's no good answer for it, it doesn't matter, what's
there to be done about it, etc etc etc. Perhaps they are demoralized.
If they are, I don't blame them. It is potentially a sad, sad
situation to be in.

In the end, we'll all know what will happen in a few weeks. In my
mind, the only two variables at this point are: 1)whether the
customers will be satisfied in any fashion...and 2) how 'they' will
dress up the situation and assign the blame when it all comes out :-)
As for who the fandom will blame...well, I suppose that's a story for
another day.

It will be interesting to watch the next couple of weeks unfold. I
have my hopes...but I also have my cold hard facts and documentation
to back me up :-) I hope you do too.

"It's a funny world we live in. Are you just visiting this reality, or
are you here to stay?"

Fred. Please insert witty line here.


+++++++++++++++++++++++

--- In autocon@yahoogroups.com, "grandmasterspecter" 
wrote:
> I've been signed up in the fan club for a year becuase I thought it
> would be useful to stay in touch and find out info.
>
> In classic glencon fashion, In that year I have received....
>
> Exactly one magazine, that wasn't all that interesting.
>
> When (if) I ever get skywarp, I'll be selling it (don't collect non
> transformables) so if that's all you want, I'm sure we can work
> something out.
>
> On a related note: Which will happen first: OTFCC 2005, the
receipt
> of the 2003 dinner exclusive plate, the receipt of issue 2 of the
> collector's club magazine, or the receipt of Sentinal Maximus?
>
> GMS - (even my pateince is starting to wear thin, and I've never
met
> Glen...)
>
> --- In autocon@yahoogroups.com, "Maz"  wrote:
> > Hey guys
> >
> > Has anybody here signed up for the OTFCC fan club to receive that
> > Mega PVC figure of Skywarp?
> >
> > That thing looks quite nice, but it's $50 for European residents
> and
> > it's just a year long.
> >
> > Also, they're calling that line "Legends of Cybertron". I'm
pretty
> > sure EvilGrin's copyright on that name has gone by now. Is there
> any
> > way I can make sure without contacting EvilGrin (because I'm
> pretty
> > sure I can't!)?
> >
> > All the best
> > Maz
(see also: 2 weeks later; the fallout)
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