"just like he was under no requirement to open the door and speak to them. Sometimes people make choices that were not the best."
Certainly sounds like you were saying that he invited the trouble because he opened the door.
Well, if that is appeared to be communicated, it was not my intention. What I meant was, some employee at WoTC made a choice to have Pinkerton employees go in. It may not have been the best choice to have Pinkerton employees go in, as some here have suggested. Maybe the WoTC employee could have chosen a better PI firm without the PR baggage that comes with Pinkerton. Maybe they could have chosen some other option. Maybe the Pinkerton employees could have chosen to communicate differently. Maybe Cannon could have chosen to return the cards since he knew they were not the ones he ordered. Maybe he could have chosen to keep them and not put up a video about the unreleased cards to his audience. Cannon could have chosen to not open the door. Cannon could have chosen to not speak to the Pinkerton employees. Lots of choices. It could be argued, and has been, that better choices could have been made. So, again, sometimes people make choices that were not the best. That goes for everyone involved.
Hope that cleared it up.
If they thought he was potentially dangerous, then why didn't they just pay for an express mail to be delivered?
To mail him what? A letter he probably would have ignored or not opened because he doesn't know who it is from? Even if he did open it, what would that have gotten them? Assuming WoTC is trying to get the cards back before the official release date for whatever reason, sending snail mail is just going to prolong the process.
Or, you know, emailed him. Or left a message on his phone. Neither of which they did.
Maybe he didn't have voicemail set up? It happens. I have plenty of clients who don't have their voicemails set up. Who knows why they didn't send him and email. Maybe they could have, but again, if they are looking to get things back as quickly as possible, email may have been deemed too slow.
They literally could have avoided all of this bad press if they had just left a voicemail.
Maybe. THat is definitely a possibility. Just as it's a possibility he could have avoided the whole situation if he'd returned the incorrect merchandise or not uploaded videos of him opening the packs knowing they were unreleased. Neither WoTC nor Cannon was under any obligation to take these choices, though. Why didn't they do it? Who knows. The people that made those choices are people. People make mistakes.
Just because it happens to be WoTC doesn't mean that it isn't people making the actual choices. Being part of WoTC doesn't make you some evil corporation. You just happen to be another human working at a job. Being part of Pinkerton doesn't automatically make you into a horrible person. I doubt the Pinkerton application asks if you enjoy hurting others and being evil on a daily basis. They don't ask you, if we send you to a house to retrieve some cards, are you willing to lie to the person and threaten them? Re you willing to escalate it to the point where we can get some much needed news coverage by cracking them in the skull?
You think Hasbro doesn't have their own lawyers on call for just these things?
Sure they have lawyers. I'm betting the pay them quite well. It doesn't make it any more cost effective to send out a lawyer. Nor does it make it any safer. I doubt they have lawyers who are hired to go out to people's homes to get merchandise. I doubt there are many companies that do. In fact, if you could find a company that has lawyers who go out and retrieve improperly distributed merchandise, I'd be surprised. Hell, I'll order you a pizza.
"Can be." But we'll never know, will we, because they didn't bother to send a lawyer--or call the police, if they thought the cards were stolen. I know people like to say "the police would be useless," but would they really be useless when a multi-billion dollar company calls?
Isn't the police just as intimidating, if not more so? Now we're talking about sending actual police officers who could actually arrest this guy. Hell, one of the supposed threats the Pinkerton agents made was calling the sheriff's office and having them come out and making Cannon show receipts for all his Magic cards. That was used to intimidate him. Imagine how intimidating he would find it if actual police officers showed up. And, Police in the U.S. don't have the best reputation, either. It's not as if they are always having pleasant interactions with the public.
If some private security agent showed up at my door after interrogating my neighbors about me and making not-so-subtle hints about jail time and massive fines, I wouldn't assume it's to talk about the weather.
Sure, in that instance you may have reason to feel that it isn't a friendly conversation. But that wasn't your original statement. you stated
But what was WotC's intent when it came to sending Pinkertons instead of a lawyer? I mean, you don't send private security for just a friendly chat.
You could send private security just for a friendly chat. That wasn't their reason in this instance, but that doesn't mean that private security can't be used for friendly chats. Now, I admit it would depend on what you want them to chat about. Hopefully something they are knowledgeable in. But the possibility still exists.
And that would be for any private security agent showed up, not just if it was one from an infamous company.
Have you had only bad encounters with private security? I'm honestly just curious.
He paid for cards. It's not his fault he got sent the wrong ones.
No one said it was his fault he was given the wrong merchandise. However, he knew it was the wrong merchandise and chose to make a YouTube video in what I assume was the hope in attracting viewers and subscribers. So don't play it off as if Cannon was completely innocent here. He knew what he was doing. He was hoping he would be fine. He found out otherwise.
His property was taken. It doesn't matter if he was then given other cards in exchange. He didn't choose to exchange those cards.
Sure he did. he chose to give up the cards. He spoke to the WoTC rep. He chose to accept the actual product he purchased. At no point has Cannon stated he declined to return the cards. He was actually very forthcoming and worked with WoTC to have the cards and packaging returned. Would the cops have been called if he chose not to return the cards? Who knows? Would the cops have actually shown up? No idea. I'd think they'd view it as a civil matter, at which point we'd be reading about how WoTC lawyers dragged a poor hapless Magic fan into court and had the court force him to return the cards and stick him with thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees.
Honestly, it just appears as if no matter what choices WoTC could have/should have/would have made, they would get bad PR for it.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Cannon would prefer to be famous for reasons other than "bullied by a major corporation."
I'm sure you are correct, but I don't think he minds it too much considering all the benefits he has derived from it. Before this, very few people knew who he was. There was no way news outlets were going to interview him and give him free publicity. It may not be the manner in which he wanted to get famous, but I'm willing to bet your left testicle that he is enjoying his 15-minutes.
