| | Collection Reflections
Al Segundo visits the HWC Support Staff
This past January, I visited the offices of HotWheelsCollectors.com and gave you an inside look at some of the people who make up the organization. Recently, I was at Mattel again visiting the folks of HWC and I was approached by three of the scariest individuals I have ever met. You know them as Craig, Jason, and Jon (not to be confused with “HWC John”).
They are the point men for many of your HWC inquiries. They are, by the way, three of the funniest and nicest guys you will ever meet. This day, however, they were all business. The question at hand was, “Why was this trio excluded from my piece about the HWC staff?” I honestly had no excuse. The Web site by and large has a self-governing quality about it. The member base is knowledgeable and always more than willing to lend a hand or answer a question. In addition, the administration of HotWheelsCollectors.com, be it Brian, John, David, Photo, Tracey or Amy, is absolutely the most accessible you will ever meet. So, often the efforts of the guys doing the day-to-day customer service duties go somewhat unnoticed, but never unappreciated by the rest of the staff.
Customer service is a balancing act. You have to rectify a problem, while taking into consideration the fact that the person you are talking to is dissatisfied. That person, of course, is the customer. Without that person, there is no reason for you to have your job. The guys told me that, with very few exceptions, the inquiries are courteous and there is always a thank you after the problem is fixed.
“We started out doing support for PlanetHotWheels.com,” Craig said. “A new Web site requires 24/7 support. No matter how much a site has been tested, a large volume of new users will cause things to happen that you just never think of ahead of time.” I asked Craig how he, Jason and Jon ended up adding HotWheelsCollectors.com support to their repertoire. I was told that the guys always “kept an eye” on HotWheelsCollectors.com e-mail, especially since there was a forum added for PlannetHotwheels.com inquiries. Jason observed, “We always had a presence on HWC, from recruiting beta testers to answering tech support questions for Planet Hot Wheels.” The watershed moment where their presence really took hold was the silver Customized VW Drag bus sold during the Hot Wheels Nationals in Reston, VA. It was, in essence, a battlefield commission.
The lion’s share of the HWC staff was in Reston at the Nationals. When the server problems occurred and the posts and e-mail from disgruntled RLC members hit like a tsunami, it was left to these three stalwarts to fix things. “It was really bad,” Jason said. “People have no idea the scope of a project like an online sale. We got caught really bad when the servers went down, but I think we did alright in the end.” Jon told me that he found irate postings about how “…this never happens on eBay” to be unfair. “HWC is a small part of Mattel, admittedly it is the major part if you ask us collectors, but you cannot compare the resources available to HWC to those allocated to eBay.” He said that he understood how frustrating and annoying it was for everyone. But it was equally frustrating and annoying, not to mention a public relations disaster, for Mattel. The server issues arose at the least advantageous moment. There were those people who understood through it all. They adopted a “give them a chance, they will straighten it out” approach. On the other hand, there were people who were, to say the least, less than understanding. “We were being accused of everything from manipulation to larceny,” Jon said, “The more we addressed the problems and updated the RLC membership, the more blood some people wanted.”
Indeed, there were mentions of the HWC team “…laughing and tossing money in the air and what-not.” Now I don’t know about the laughing and tossing part, but accusing someone of “what-not” is pretty serious. It is also indicative of the fact that the person, while upset, has run out of things to say. But that didn’t stop them from saying something. In addition, there were those people who wrote to say that they “work with servers and never had this problem”. Just how that bit of news was supposed to help the situation is not clear.
Through it all, Jason, Jon and Craig have become fixtures on the HWC site. Their good humor and willingness to help have gotten them many and complimentary posts and e-mail. When asked what the most frequently asked question was, the reply was somewhat surprising. People frequently want to know how to get a job at Mattel. “They think we are paid in Treasure Hunts and first editions I guess,” Jason said, “but we are collectors and as such we are relegated to hunting down cars just like everyone else.”
When asked what was the funniest e-mail, they all agreed. Although it didn’t come through this trio, the funniest e-mail is now legend at Mattel. As you probably know, a visit with Larry Wood was auctioned off on eBay, with proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald House. Shortly after the auction was over, the winning bidder contacted Tracey at Mattel, to tell her he had to withdraw his bid. There was a problem. The guy’s parole officer wouldn’t let him leave the state to meet Larry. Talk about a problem that you can’t plan for!
All things considered, the online sales had a rocky start to say the least. But, by learning from mistakes and with diligent folks like Jon, Craig, and Jason supporting the HWC crew, the present and the future looks bright for the RLC and all facets of HotWheelsCollectors.com. It was a pleasure to get to talk to these three and to be able to tell you something about them, and what-not.
I hope you enjoyed a little backstage look at yet another part of HWC. I thank you for your time, this time until next time. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can reach me at just_al@alsegundo.com.
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