After last week’s Funko doll fiasco, Superficial Gallery reached out to Spooky Empire via email for a comment. While we received no response from the company, one of the Orlando attendees who provided information for my initial article approached me on Twitter and shared even more startling information about Spooky Empire and how they are choosing to handle the bad PR.
According to the user @larryftmfw on Twitter, when he attempted to reach out to Spooky Empire management about the chaos caused on the opening day of the con—when con-goers were told that several thousand Elvira Funko dolls were not available after they had waited in life for hours—he was met with hostility. Not only was the user blocked by Spooky Empire on Twitter, he was also informed in a Facebook conversation to “LET IT GO” by the Spooky Empire management. In addition, other users experienced negative comments and reviews being deleted by the convention staff.
Oh my! That’s not helping their reputation at all – nor helping reverse the bad publicity from the Elvira situation!
I know, right? I was really hoping Spooky Empire would handle the fallout from the situation with more class than this. So disappointing.
I feel badly for any real fans who got their time wasted and always try to think of ways companies can do things better, but if any of the people complaining were professional funko traders they can jump in the lake.
I agree completely, Acadia. I think there were definitely some real fans there and I feel terrible for them that they got treated that way, but it seems like most of the people bitching online are professional Funko traders that are butthurt they didn’t get what they wanted. Just my two cents on the matter.
Ok, until recently I didn’t even know that being a professional Funko trader was a thing that actually existed. But that being said, I feel terrible at the thought that any REAL FANS may have taken off work, traveled to the con, booked flights and hotels etc, and didn’t get the thing they wanted, or get get that thing signed. And even if the figures had been there it seems like the a-hole traders that are bitching would have made it harder for the real fans to get them. So… how can they do better at weeding out the traders, to make more room for the fans?