Action Figure Woes: Digital River and Mattel Their Killen teh Lien?

Ah Matty, Matty, Matty! You make it so easy to complain about!! The thing is that I wish I didn't have anything to complain about!

This is not a QC issue like Backwards shoulders, double right legs, or exploding crotches.
This is not a Stylistic complaint like a request for "Anime Hyperdetailed" weapons or alternate heads, or more detail for the PoP toys...
This is regarding the whole Digital River issues and How they have a negative effect on Customers.
Let's start with the whole site issues:

There is no clear Log-in section.
Having to go to the order history option to Log on to the site is a bit off-putting. Newer Customers get lost (especially on the Matty-Day Scrambles)

The Refresh Screen Dance.
OK, so you figured out how to Log on and now you selected your Item...
Then you see the...

White Screen of Death... you wait, wait, wait, wait... Clock is ticking Twilight... CLOCK... IS... TICKING!!
You finally made it through... Surprise! That MOTUC Figure you wanted has sold out!
If you were "Lucky enough" and made it through, you confirmed the shipping info, Card info, fought the Re-Captcha, and got your Order number and checked your e-mail to verify if you got the confirmations (order and shipping)... Now the Waiting game...

You did not choose UPS as your shipping option... Either you did not find the shipping options while making a mad scramble to submit your order, or you can't have your items sent by UPS (Items sent to a PO Box or whatever.) Well, you're ready for a new treat!! NEWGISTICS!!

The Newgistics MOTUC USA Tour From California To Sparks, Nevada, then the figs go off randomly... kinda like Traveling Indiana Jones Style, but trying to touch as many US States as randomly as possible...

And after it has touched as many states as possible until it reaches your destination (if in Continental US) or it braves the Atlantic BEFORE Reaching your destination
(If International or really unlucky.) The Continental US Customers are slightly luckier, cause they can see their Package Tour... International customers are screwed...

Now we play: The Waiting Game. So, You're an International Fan... That means that the waiting is longer... Ever since the change to Newgistics the time that packages took to arrive from Mattel to my PO Box has become extremely random... Take for example in November 2010
My Matty Package of 2 King Grayskulls, Grizzlor and Weapons Pack #2 Took Roughly 10-12 days to arrive. (On Thanksgiving WEEK)
Now take July 2011: I ordered Clawful and he arrived around the 3rd-4th day of August...
Roughly 12 days... Not bad, but Things took a turn for the worse in October.
Items began taking roughly a Month to show up! My September Items arrived the very same day of the October Matty Sale... My Battleground Evil Lyn Arrived in Late January, roughly around the January Sale Date. So did Demo-Man (who was shipped in January due to the Demo-Man Delay) and arrived in February (a Few days after the Feb. Sale)... So, these delays cause the customers to call Customer Service to start the process in case the items are lost. In some cases the customers have to e-mail CS instead due to international calls being expensive (cause when DR keep the customers on hold, they KEEP THEM ON HOLD for a LONG, LONG Time...)
Well, if you do too many inquiries regarding your order(s) this happens:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your inquiry to Mattycollector.com's customer service.

Please be aware that your request has alerted our security protection
department due to the extremely high number of requests for replacement
products from your account. Everyone here at Mattycollector.com strives
to do our best to ensure only the best product reaches our customers.

Because of the high number of replacement requests you have submitted,
your account has been flagged as a possible security risk. If you are
not receiving product ordered from Mattycollector.com on a regular
basis, we suggest you use a traceable shipping method such as UPS to
track your package and be aware of when it will be delivered. Due to the
high volume of requests for replacement product from your account we
will no longer be able to replace product for you. We will be unable to
reship the orders you have requested.

Thank you.

Matty Collector Customer Service

Now, My February Items are MIA... and since I have called CS because previous Items were taking too long, I'm kinda screwed... but not just by DR... MATTEL is also screwing International fans as well with the lower production runs (which means less stock for CS to solve these issues or to get replacement if Items are Defective)...
This is JUST the Cherry Pickers... Subscribers had a different can of worms to open... (in addition to these issues)

The whole Star Sisters Card Charge Sub-Cancelling Nightmare:
The 30th Anniversary of MOTU has brought forth a bunch of issues. Figures had to be switched around due to issues and on January the item was The Sorceress (a $20 Item for Subscribers and $22 for Cherry Pickers) who was delayed. The Star Sisters (a $60 Item for Subscribers and $66 for Cherry Pickers) was bumped to January. This forced Mattel to do a McGyver and split the cost of the Subscribers' Star Sisters in two payments. (Mostly due to issues with the Subscription contract that the first charge would be a $20 Charge.)
Well The First Payment went OK... When the second $40 payment was going through... All Hell broke loose! Issues with "Cards not having enough funds" (According to DR) or Banks flagging DR International transactions as possible fraud (In some cases BOTH charges for the Star Sisters were made on the same day! In some cases Multiple attempts were made in the same day...)

Now this forced Mattel to reopen the subs for customers who had an issue on January to resubscribe.
Also Mattel's Representative (The Mighty Spector Himself) "warned" the Customers that delays in Mattel Getting the product (Like Kobra Khan who had a delay) may happen all the way to June... (The 2013 Sub goes on Sale on July)

So let me recap:
The Site is painful to work with (on Sale Dates), Shipping is acting Randomly and the delays may go on for a while, there's a shortage of Product, Subscriptions are being cancelled randomly.
If we add the fact that 2012 was the lowest subscription yet to the mix, we've got a recipe for trouble.

The subscription is the "bread and butter" of the line, according to Mattel. The 2012 subs were the "lowest yet" AND the whole issues that affected the Subscribers might scare off possible subscribers (both new and returning). Now to that we add the QC issues such as Snout Spout's trunk cracking and breaking... (Mine's cracked.) Swift Wind's legs, etc. In the end all I see is a recipe for disaster... IF the rumors of yet another price increase occur...

Now, Shipping, site issues/glitches, billing, and CS issues are Digital River's problem and the Amount of Product available and cost of Items are Mattel's problem. So if the number of subscriptions go down, I don't want to hear (or Read) from Mattel saying that the fans did not support the line enough... WE put up with all of this crap because we love the toys AND the brand... IF the line dies it was NOT the fault of the Customers or of the Fans...

*UPDATE!!!!*


International Orders seem to do an extra trip AFTER the US Tour... They seem to be visiting Sweden before heading to their destination... (So in my case they have to do 2 TRIPS across the ATLANTIC!? WTF!?)