My tiresome failure trying to buy a custom MLP mug from Germany

[Dowlphin 459]

I'm reading so much about announcements from 2013 how Hasbro is aggressively creating new licensing for merchandise all around the world, and hey, they even managed to license fan-made clothes designs on WeLoveFine, but that's still no good news for me.

I'd never have thought I'd ever buy MLP merchandise, until I needed to replace my old trusty drinking mug and discovered that I can make fully customized mug designs on Zazzle. (The standard merchandise doesn't excite me.) Since I wanted to avoid having to pay customs fees, I wanted to order my mug on Zazzle.de (which doesn't have a Hasbro shop, which I only fully realized later), but after everything was done, although they do check for trademark issues, they couldn't just give Hasbro their cut and ship it... BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT LICENSED!
An online shop that hosts a user shop run by Hasbro that is not licensed to do that!

So I then dug a little deeper and found a way to fully customize a mug in Hasbro's Zazzle shop. It showed me that that shop is situated in the USA, and I assumed that's relevant regarding the business transaction only. I continued the ordering process and indeed got a full country selection list for the shipping destination. I selected Germany, filled out the form, sent the order. Then, HOURS LATER, I get an E-MAIL telling me that they had to cancel the order AGAIN because that item cannot be shipped outside of the USA! WHY NOT?! How can it be that even Hasbro themselves won't sell that merchandise outside of America? It's not like there is a European alternative that can do the same, or is there?
Seems all those custom merch selling platforms are situated in the USA.

And that was my first attempt to spend money on MLP merchandise.
Now I'm really tired and fed up; had nothing but hassle and wasted time with no gain.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Dowlphin

[Arkane 269]

You could always buy a blank mug and go find a printing service other than zazzle. Its a lot cheaper too and you get to put whatever design you want should you chose to create one yourself. That's how I send mugs to people as gifts. xD

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

Perhaps you could find a local printing service? Some copy shops and printing stores still do custom mug prints.

[Dowlphin 459]

Yeah, but it's probably even more hassle trying to find a local business that can print a mug in good quality (especially since I'm not living in a big city), plus finding a base mug that looks good.

I'll look around a bit though. Copy shop is a good keyword I guess.

Since I guess any online-based business (which are easier to find) could cause further hassle, and as I mentioned, I have little motivation left. It's just a mug, after all.

 

On the other hand, if there's really no official option for getting it done, then there's no reason to complain.

After all, custom-made pony plushies are tolerated by Hasbro, too. Because you don't get them like that as official merchandise.

 

I guess I could just give it a try. Trying to do things 'the right way' rarely worked out well for me. And I guess I should have checked the national businesses more.

UPDATE: Well, this went as expected. I checked out all German online print services I could find, and the print area and other factors vary a lot there. The best one I could find had very high print area, close to the rim, but way too much space to the handle, making it look cheap. The USA also seem to have a wider standard coffee mug format that matches the mug I want to replace. Quite practical actually regarding contents and stability.

It seems you seriously don't get it here the way Zazzle makes them.

And you can bet that local shops will be on the low end of quality then, if they do it at all.

 

This is just one more of 'that kind' of experience. I already knew that sometimes I have to buy stuff from another country because it's just not available here, but now not even buying from another continent is an option.

 

Capitalism sucks.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Dowlphin