Wayland seems to have found a loop hole

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**Soverntear**

This is a repost from heresy-online

Hi Guys,

Just a quick note. Firstly we'd like to thank you again for bearing with us during this order spike. As you've seen from some of the photographs we've posted things have been very busy and even a business with our footprint and infrastructure didn't expect for a moment the unprecedented, colossal demand during the last week of May. So we'd like to thank those of you who are waiting for orders to be shipped, once more, for bearing with us whilst we work through the backlog.

In respect of the ROW Category, as every possible resource has been engaged in the processing of orders added to the fact that the means by which we are going to achieve this is exceptionally complicated and requires infrastructure to be established we must apologise for the delays in populating the category. We have a number of issues still to solve which are now in their final stages but we felt it only fair to release a few details of what will be contained within the ROW category and what it will mean to you the ROW consumer. Some of the issues are procedural, some technical and the rest physical.

I will ramble some more then move to a Q and A format as it is better able to answer many of the questions that have been asked over the last few weeks.

We at Wayland would have had to react to the trade terms changes, we as a business would have hoped that a dominant supplier such as GW would have had a grasp of the consequences such a double whammy of terms changes and price rises would have on their business partners of any size. The impact of these changes and especially the surge of orders over the last week of May was beyond our control. We believe that short of closing the store there was nought we could do to reduce the orders we received. In the day to day operations under normal activity we are able to control order volumes relatively easily. In this instance we have had no control at all. All this has occured as we are hard at work readying our new Warehouse and Website launch. So again we would like to apologise to those of you waiting far longer than normal for your orders. As you can tell by the number of times we have posted about it, it is of serious concern to us.

Right on with the show. From here on in ROW will be used to represent "Rest of World", our customers outside of the EU, and EEA (European Economic Area).

Q. What will I be able to order.
A. You will be able to order pretty much any product that you can now. Stock allowing.

Q. Will I be able to order new releases?
A. Yes, though shipping might occur a day or two after the official release date.

Q. Will I have to use some third party shipping/broking service?
A. No, your order will be handled completely by Wayland, and we will be fully responsible for getting your order to you as we are now. There is no need for mail forwarding services to be used.

Q. How are you achieving this?
A. Complicated, this is also commercially sensitive. However in the first instance, we will utilise stock that we had on hand prior to the "conditions of sale" changes. We moved the stock when the announcements were made as we had the "plan" quite soon after we were notified. This stock is finite. How we replenish is sensitive, but it is coming.

Q. What will the pricing be?
A. Until we run out of the stock we have on hand, the pricing will be identical as now. Once the replensihment stock has arrived the prices will be slightly higher as there are additional costs involved. But we will continue to offer at least UK RRP with a 10% discount.

Q. When will the categories be active.
A. We had hoped that would be populated right away, however the current backlog and what is now a cramped 5000Sqft warehouse mean that we cannot populate the categories (stock check the pre embargo stock) until the backlog is dealt with. It would be innapropriate for us to spend resources doing this until all our customers patiently waiting for their orders have been served. We anticipate 2 weeks, though we will do our very best to reduce this time.

Q. Will we still be able to order Forgeworld and other "Direct Only" products?
A. Yes, we disabled many direct only items over the change weekend but as we become sure of supply they will be re-introduced.

Q. Will postage be free on the ROW items.
A. No, the costs are higher for stock and we operate on thin margins already. However we will continue to offer subsidised ROW shipping with the VAT as we do now. Though we will soon be launching another site that might be of interest.

Q. Will your delivery times be extended?
A. We anticipate that they will be identical for ROW items as now, however there are some points later which expand on this.

Q. Does your ROW of solution breach GW's trade terms and conditions of sale?
A. Not in anyway whatsoever. They follow both the letter and spirit of both.

Q. Is your ROW product genuine GW product.
A. Yes, Wayland will never sell second hand or counterfeit goods.

Q. How long until replenishment stock arrives?
A. We anticipate 6 weeks, however as pricing is complicated, as is how we must segregate the ROW stock from our normal stock, this is being delivered to our new Warehouse. And the pricing difference means that we cannot launch the replenished service until our new website is live as it will ask you for shipping location when to access the store and show you the correct products automatically.

Q. Why is that?
A. We are wary of the overheads required to inform customers that they have added incorrect products to their baskets. No matter how well we label the items, most people will not notice.

Q. Why is it taking so long?
A. We had almost no notice at our busiest time ever to adapt to the term changes. The solution requires significant space to operate in properly and without putting our existing business at risk. We also have an obligation to ensure all that we are doing is legal and beyond challenge. This all takes time.

Q. You guys rock, why be so nice to us when its so difficult?
A. Please remember that Wayland is a business and we want the sales, however we are what we are by serving our customers and we wont forget how we got here. Ok no one asked that question but we thought it worth mentioning.
This list will be updated if more questions are asked.

So, there we have it. A broad stock offering, at substantially discounted cost with our usual great service. It is coming, we shall provide it for you and we hope you're interested. If you are we'd simply ask that you publicise this wherever you feel appropriate and we look forward to serving the rest of the world very soon.

Keep on wargaming!

Richard
Wayland Games Limited

original thread found here: http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92309

sorry if this is a double post, couldn't find anything on it.

**doctorludo**

Seriously, if GW hired the staff at Wayland to do their management training, everyone would be a lot happier.

**AesSedai**

Isn't this old news? Also, I have been waiting since Wayland's original announcement for them to get moving on this "loophole" but it doesn't look like they've made a move. Kinda frustrating.

**lord_blackfang**

Posted here about 3 weeks ago.

**rich1231**

AesSedai wrote:Isn't this old news? Also, I have been waiting since Wayland's original announcement for them to get moving on this "loophole" but it doesn't look like they've made a move. Kinda frustrating.

I think we have been pretty clear about the timescales and reasons why.

**mikhaila**

rich1231 wrote:
AesSedai wrote:Isn't this old news? Also, I have been waiting since Wayland's original announcement for them to get moving on this "loophole" but it doesn't look like they've made a move. Kinda frustrating.

I think we have been pretty clear about the timescales and reasons why.

Gamers are not noted for their patience and understanding.) The same 'must have it now!' gene is responsible for both impulse sales when they see shiny things, and an inability to patiently wait for new toys or news.

Setting up a new distribution program, moving stock, and working to achieve this while both complying and working around new rules or regulations is not an easy task, and to be done right is going to take some time.

So have a bit of patience guys,and be thankful that Rich and crew are working on this.

**AvatarForm**

mikhaila wrote:
rich1231 wrote:
AesSedai wrote:Isn't this old news? Also, I have been waiting since Wayland's original announcement for them to get moving on this "loophole" but it doesn't look like they've made a move. Kinda frustrating.

I think we have been pretty clear about the timescales and reasons why.

Gamers are not noted for their patience and understanding.) The same 'must have it now!' gene is responsible for both impulse sales when they see shiny things, and an inability to patiently wait for new toys or news.

Setting up a new distribution program, moving stock, and working to achieve this while both complying and working around new rules or regulations is not an easy task, and to be done right is going to take some time.

So have a bit of patience guys,and be thankful that Rich and crew are working on this.

If the new distribution adds higher costs to the purchases, it may just be simpler to have a UK national buy then post, like I am doing.

**AesSedai**

rich1231 wrote:

I think we have been pretty clear about the timescales and reasons why.

Clear how? I'm on your homepage and I see the following headlines: Citadel Finecast (it sucks, we sent it back), Backlog Update! (please be patient), Our response to GW's newly announced terms (we're not leeching, GW are d-bags), and Heavy Gear has landed!

I don't see new info on RoW. Just and empty folder in you 40k section. If I missed info on your site, let me know. After all, that is where I check to get regular updates on your company.

Dude, it's cool. I'm pretty sure it'll make you the only fish in the pond who will sell to RoW customers at "reasonable" rates. that's enough to get my business.

Mikhailia wrote:

Gamers are not noted for their patience and understanding.

Guilty, but..

Mikhailia wrote:

be thankful that Rich and crew are working on this.

I haven't considered that I should be grateful. I've never ordered from them before, and was perfectly happy with Maelstrom. I respect good business sense insofar as Wayland's decision will eventually gain them my custom. They're not doing me a favor, they are doing what's best for them. It happens that it may save me 10 percent off retail. I want to know if I'll have to wait until next week, next month, or next fall, however.

**rich1231**

Aesdai, the timescales have already been posted at the top of this thread in the Quote. Though the Finescale effort - inspections and refunds of over 1000 orders have tied up some of our resources.

Your remarks about our Finecast announcement, are incorrect though, no where have we made disparaging remarks about GW. And the 2 issues are unconnected. It was a very difficult decision for us and a costly one but we felt we had no choice but to carefully control the information released to our customers. GW were informed in advance that its what we felt we had to do and understood our position.

Regarding it (ROW supply) being a commercial decision, of course you are correct, and we acknowledged that in our remarks as you can see with the last question. What we are essentially presenting to the customer is a single webstore that will fulfil orders globally from distribution points that legitimately sourced stock all over the world. We are doing this are having 2 weeks notice.

To Avatar above, there is a massive issue with the Railroad model you suggest, we have posted about it before. But you essentially pay for postage twice and you should check the real costs for airmail from the UK to the rest of the world. It makes shipping very expensive. Then you have liability issues, as a retailer if we ship to a customer to the UK and its delivered into the UK, thats our job done. If you as the UK customer then forward it on and its lost, you are liable. And std Airmail insurance is only £34, we as a retailer have to cover all losses of lost product and as a forwarder so would you.

**Dais**

Does the higher shipping apply if you order non-gw items? how about exclusively non-gw?
There are a couple of small lines hard to get here in the states and I was considering ordering a little from wayland in the next couple of months.

**Soverntear**

Rich, I would like to thank you and the staff at Wayland for thinking of a way to still distribute to your international customer base.

I know lots of companies have similar distribution clauses in affect, but they price there goods according to currency exchange, noit an exchange rate set many years ago which ensures high profits on all international orders.

**AesSedai**

Q. When will the categories be active.
A. We had hoped that would be populated right away, however the current backlog and what is now a cramped 5000Sqft warehouse mean that we cannot populate the categories (stock check the pre embargo stock) until the backlog is dealt with. It would be innapropriate for us to spend resources doing this until all our customers patiently waiting for their orders have been served. We anticipate 2 weeks, though we will do our very best to reduce this time.

That's what I get from your original post.

So, in your own words, you said that you "anticipated two weeks before bringing your RoW plan online. Well...that original post on heresy was dated June 16.

From your website:

Orders placed subsequent to that shall be cleared by the following Thursday (30th June) and from that point we should return to business as usual.

So here in Japan, it's July 4th. I feel a little left in the lurch. I was expecting to be able to order product 4 days ago at the latest based on the timelime you put forward. So when you replied to my post with "we've been clear with timescales and reasons why"
...well, with all due respect, I don't think you have. Later you replied with "finecast returns have tied up some of our resources". That's fine, but could you please update your customers (and potential customers) with new information as it becomes available? Here I am thinking that the timeline has come and past and maybe something has happened and GW has blocked your efforts.

It's fine by me that you have unforeseen and pressing concerns. Don't condescend me by claiming that my understanding is lacking and then turn around and introduce mitigating circumstances previously unmentioned. A simple "hey RoW customers we haven't forgotten about you, it's just that we have to deal with a huge inspection/return situation right now and we'll keep you posted" on the front page of your website would be peachy.

**rich1231**

AesSedai,

The last thing my replies were is condescending to you and that certainly wasnt the intent.

We have despite your remarks made it clear what our timescales were, the Finecast issue has caused some extra delay but we are pretty much there. Its difficult to give an exact date as we had to process the backlog then the pain that was Finecast for us. Though we can estimate how long it all takes things sometimes drag on longer than anticipated for all sorts of reasons.

We did mention the ROW update in our newsletter last week and it was on FB too. I will make sure a version of it appears on the main front page too.

**AesSedai**

It's good to hear that you're almost ready. I haven't signed up for your newletters, nor have I seen your facebook page. I'll wait for the info to appear on your site

**AesSedai**

A week later, still no word about RoW on your site.