GRNDL:
I guess its the Law of Averages at work, I seem to run afoul of them and then get some good news out of them and then bad… What shocks me is the amount of incompetence and inconsistency from the company and that while the customer might have amends made, he is ultimately put out of time.
Here’s some of my stories:
First, a bad one. When GW Black Library put out “The Art of Adrian Smith” I ordered a copy immediately - through my local GW store in Mapleview Mall, Burlington. I’m still waiting over 3 years later. I reminded them of it once and they said: you’ll have to order it through GW Head Office, Oakville. So, I did. Nothing… Since the time I placed the order, GW stores stopped carrying the large format art books and then, at some later time, started carrying them again. A few months back, I bought the collected Horus Heresy art book from GW Mapleview on a whim, but have never seen head nor hair of my order.
My FLGS, Phoenix Rising, said they could get Black Library books… but only novels, not the art books. I was told that I could order it through… GW stores… The vicious cycle continues. I’ve long since given up trying to get the book, it just wasn’t worth it. Of course, I could just get it directly from the Black Library…
Which brings me to my “good” stories:
Forgeworld… I order Inquisitor Lok, a servitor, titan techpriest and a floating servo skull, right when Inquisitor Lok was about to ship. The order didn’t arrive… I waited like 3 months and then decided to email Forgeworld about the issue. I got no reply but two weeks later, I got my order.
Then about 2-3 weeks later, I got it AGAIN!! Wow!! Not bad… Fast forward to last November. When the Ork Warboss on Trike was put up for pre-order, I order it, some chainaxes, Evil Sunz logo and a Red Scorpion Veteran upgrade. I eagerly await my order, hoping to get it by Christmas. After a month of waiting, I email them to find out what’s going on - this time I get a reply: they said they shipped the order last November and it must have gotten lost in the mail. They sent out a replacement order and I got it literally 2 days later - IMPRESSIVE!! I open it up and… the Ork Warboss on Trike is missing… I write an email asking where it is since it was the reason I placed the order in the first place: has it gone missing? Is it in a separate package??? Well, a day later I got that too… Checking the shipping manifest there was tiny print at the bottom of the order saying that this order was on backorder, but it didn’t say what was back ordered and the manifest said that the entire shipment was included.
I’m still wondering if I’ll get another package with it all in… again. Sure, I made good on those points, but at the expense of my time.
And don’t get me started on the incompetence by our local Games Day… The last time I went to Games Day (2006 IIRC), I was informed that I had to get in line to receive my exclusive model that I had paid an extra $20 or so with my ticket (pre-ordered months ago). They were supposed to be handed out with admission, but since the lines at the convention center were so long, they moved people through quickly without handing over the model. They just waved us in and didn’t even take out tickets. When inside, I tried to track down the model. I was told by staff that I had to go to the admission booths to get it. Which meant leaving the convention hall… So, I went there, waited 10 mins and was then told they had none left!! The staff member at the booth then asked someone else and was told “they have them at the exclusive store” inside the convention hall, which meant getting in line for admission again… So, more walking - get to the exclusive store, explain the situation and they said get into the line. Waiting in line, 30 mins later, finally get to the cashier with the model and they tell me that they’d have to get one of the admin staff to sign off on the transaction. I had to wait another 10 mins for the guy to show. I understand that they don’t want to give out more than one model per ticket holder, but I felt this was really poorly handled and to add insult to injury they made me, the pre-ordering customer, run all over the convention hall to get something that should have been handed out immediately. The fact that I had to eventually get my “exclusive ticket holder model” from the store inside was the final straw, IMO.
Since then, I’ve gotten my exclusive GW models through my network of contacts and not even bothered going to Games Day. Its just not worth the hassle!
A similar thing happened with Conflict Toronto, when the Wood Elves came out. Free Dryad with every ticket!! Get to the show rather late 10:30 ish, doors open at 9am I think, and they say they’re all out of dryads. I take them at face value and go in and walk past the in-show store and low and behold stacks and stacks of Dryad boxes… FOR SALE. They couldn’t even be bothered to break open another box of Dryads for their ticket holders… And the show itself was a complete bomb IMO.
Ok, you got me started! Now I’m all riled up! GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!