Lifelong Rangers fan distraught after Fanatics cancels memorabilia order
Sean Deitrick is a Dallas-Fort Worth native who has been a Texas Rangers fan for his entire life. After watching the team win its first World Series, he decided he wanted to buy memorabilia commemorating the event.
Deitrick bought a signed Adolis Garcia baseball from Fanatics on Dec. 27 with money he had been gifted from family members for Christmas. The ball should’ve arrived by February.
That’s when everything went awry.
“It said it would be shipped around February time frame,” said Deitrick, “Then back in February [I] got an update that there was a delay in shipping and it was now anticipated to arrive sometime in March. Again like, OK, you know, whatever, no big deal and then yesterday out of the blue, I got a cancellation order.”
Fanatics told Deitrick that the item he ordered was out of stock and could not be replaced while issuing him a full refund and offering him a 25% off coupon for his troubles.
Deitrick was not satisfied with the company’s response and took to X, formerly Twitter, to complain and his tweet went viral amassing over 2 million views.
“I think part of why this has gone so viral is everybody’s had a really bad experience [with Fanatics],” said Deitrick.
Deitrick was especially upset because the item had been ordered in advance, but he didn’t understand how Fantics wasn’t aware that the item was unavailable and said he received no explanation for why from the company.
This wasn’t Deitrick’s first negative experience with Fanatics, previously he had ordered a Marcus Semien jersey after the World Series that came in the incorrect size and had to be replaced. However after he alerted Fanatics to the mistake the correct jersey size was out of stock.
Fanatics have been under heavy fire recently for their baseball jerseys which fans and players have criticized for being cheap, having odd spacing issues with names, and occasionally translucent or ill-fitting pants.
The Boston Red Sox complained to Boston Globe writer Pete Abraham saying the pants are less customizable and don’t fit as well.
Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin responded to critiques, seemingly blaming Nike and the MLB, saying the jerseys were made to their specifications and that Fanatics was being unfairly maligned.
Deitrick believes this issue contributed to the vitality of his tweet with many being fed up with the quality of Fanatics merchandise.
“It’s a quite the media storm that fanatics is going through right now. I think that they and Nike have not handled the situation well at all,” said Deitrick.
While Fanatics swiftly refunded Deitrick, it didn’t make up for losing a signed item from one of his favorite Rangers commemorating the team’s first-ever title.
“Big fan of [Garcia], my daughter absolutely loves him and so I told her I was buying that and she was like, oh, that’s so awesome. Can I have that as an inheritance?,” says Deitrick, “ She’s already 15 years down the road, right? Like, it’s like a once-a-lifetime type thing.”
Deitrck ended up buying an Adolis Garica signed baseball for a slightly higher price from a verified reseller but urged Fanatics to improve the business practices.
“I mean, they, they really need to get their operations management under control. They need to understand what they have, what they don’t have that seems like basic customer service don’t sell things, don’t oversell things if you don’t have it,” said Deitrick.
“It’s a once in a lifetime really opportunity. It’s really, really disappointing,” said Deitrick, “So, you know, figure it out, like get your operations under control. You gotta, you gotta create a better brand for yourself because people are unhappy.”
