Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Good Afternoon,



This is an email that is written with a very heavy heart. Games Workshop undoubtably fed my intial enthusiams for this hobby. I remember entering the old Quayside Cambridge Games Workshop (15 years or so ago, i think) and seeing games of Epic being played, marvelling at the awesome titans, then having a game of Warhammer 40k and I distinctly remember destroying the old cut out card version of theork dreadnought, much to my brothers upset at the time. I was hooked.



Over the years I have been collecting and dropping in and out of the hobby, always taking the time to buy White Dwarf no matter how much I had not been painting/gaming and keeping abreast of the latest models and news.



White dwarf used to be such an event every month, now its just a sales leaflet, pushing whatever overpriced thing you have to at the time. Where have the articles gone, I know your going to claim they are still there but they just aren't and you know they are not. Things like Tale of Four Gamers were fantastic. I stopped buying White Dwarf 2 years ago, I found that a quick flick through in the shop told me nothing more than I would be able to see on the interenet anyway.



I being a retail manager understand completely that in this vicious world of recession times are very very tough and I commend Games Workshop on their contstant development of products in a time where sitting back and not spending and saving money is the more common tactic. I also appreciate that you make vast sums of money on new army releases due to the novelty factor and that you need that rush of sales regularly otherwise you would have gone under, so my appreciation of your efforts is also frustrated by the fact that you did it for your sake rather than ours (the gamer).



Your models have improved so much over the years and the quality of plastics has blown me away. Your price increases over the past ten or so years though have shocked me to my core. Your unbearable and ruthless attempts to squeeze every penny out of customers disgusts me. Your plastics although good do not sadly set you apart in a world where you no longer have the gold plated monopoly that you once enjoyed on the industry. Now with real contendors to your throne rising (Privateer Press, Battlefront Miniatures, Mantic Games, Spartan Games etc etc) all around you. Their products are new and innovating breathing a welcome breath of fresh and in most cases vastly more affordable air through the hobby.



Games Workshop is now becoming the lame dog of the industry, rehashing old products and producing bad rules, that even though very simplistic are so shockingly written and conceived that playing a game becomes so frustrating. Many of your rules can be read in so many ways that its just not fun anymore.



Vallejio and Army Painter have you hands down beaten in the paint supply department, they both produce vastly superior products at a much more agreeable price. Many independent stores sell both GW paint supplys and Army Painter. Why someone would consider buying your can of black spray over a £2 cheaper and better army painter version baffles me. Due to your constant price rises I can only assume that they do not buy yours.



I work for a retail company that gets criticised for ALWAYS being in sale. One thing that baffles me is GW have to my memory NEVER been in sale. I have never seen a promotion or a bargain deal or a buy 5 got 1 free, NOTHING, not a thing given back to the faithful gamers, why in January are you the only preson on the high street not giving a customer a discount?? Going in a GW is painful enough. I have applied to run the Camrbidge GW store before and badly wish I had been given the opputunity because your staff in there are so shockingly out of touch with the real world and the way the deal with and approach customers that its absolutely laughable. I can only think of two people that have worked in the current GW store who went about there business in a way that I though genuinely would appeal to the customer, rather than having the run to the hills/nearest independent retailer as quick as the DM boots would take them.



So your finally going into the world of resin casting, fantastic news. It will allow you to produce yet more beautiful models at a far cheaper outlay for yourselves with the over head and base costs being vastly less than white metal. I would have love to think that the vast price inceases over the years was a steady rise to support the implementation and development of the new process and that once the switchover had been made then we would ALL benefit from some far more affordable models. I have since read a new price list for USA and low and behold GW are at it again.



You shock and amaze me with your complete lack of awareness as to what the hobbyists want and have been wanting and getting (elsewhere) for several years.



GW is not and has not been for many years VALUE FOR MONEY. Your products are being beaten for quality and price by so many companies now. How long can you really last??



I would be very suprised if this email has been read all the way down to hear and not been thrown in the bin with all the other complaints you receive on a daily basis. I would probably fall of my chair, if you actually took the time to reply to!



yours truely



Luke Prior

Wait you think an email means something?

An excellently worded and written email. Not to piss on your chips or anything but I don't expect you to get any sort of response or recognition from GW though beyond the stock, 'valued customer, thank you for your concerns' style of thing.

neither do I but hey I have done SOMETHING, I invite you all to do SOMETHING instead

DO NOT SEND ANYTHING AS AN E-MAIL IF YOU MUST SEND A LETTER OF COMPLAIT DO IT BY REGULAR POST.

Good for you. People will surely be along to tell you it was an exercise in futility. I applaud you for expressing your indignation to the mofos at GW directly.

todeswind wrote:DO NOT SEND ANYTHING AS AN E-MAIL IF YOU MUST SEND A LETTER OF COMPLAIT DO IT BY REGULAR POST.

Agreed.

Wow, ninja'd. Called it.

Frazzled wrote:Wait you think an email means something?

your attitude is understanding yet upsetting. Doing nothing helps in no way at all. If everyone sent a message such as mine then who knows they might just pay some attention!?!!? worth a try surely


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also printed and sent in letter format

When you do send an actual physical letter, send one once a day every day until you get an actual response.

If you just sent it with the normal email they give on their site, it's going to normal customer service and you'll receive a copy pasted response.

This might be of some interest as well. But, it will likely be like sending them a normal email.

It's regularly known that companies ignore emails. They don't take up space and can be easily deleted or wrote responded to by a simple form. It's not as easy to disregard physical mail. Sending an email truly doesn't do anything. Ask the people who have kept shows on the air that were teetering. I advise printing this out and mailing it in by post.

Hand write the thing at that.

Then send the letter to this address:


Games Workshop Customer Services
6211 East Holmes Road
Memphis, TN 38141
USA

or this for the UK:

Games Workshop
Direct Sales
Willow Road
Lenton
Nottingham
NG7 2WS

To anyone else...look it up yourself.

A mass grumble wouldn't hurt. I like the "send a letter every day" idea too. It worked in Shawshank Redemption.

Also, please, please, please USE SPELL CHECK before sending your letter and proof read it carefully before submitting it. Poor spelling and grammar make a bad impression and also make it harder to put your point across. I'm looking at the initial post and well, let's just say there are a few errors.

Flashman wrote:A mass grumble wouldn't hurt. I like the "send a letter every day" idea too. It worked in Shawshank Redemption.

Could you imagine if every active member on just dakka alone sent a letter once a week voicing their complaints? That's the problem. Nobody acts in unison. They ruffle their feathers and throw 10 letters at someone and think it will help. Some top dog at GW will sit at their office desk next Monday and ask how many complaint letters they got since last Monday.

His secretary will say: "Oh we got one from that Luke Wild kid again and a few others."

GW Big Wig: "That's it? So that's like 3 letters this week. How many people happily paid for our products last week and only grumbled to themselves?"

Secretary: "At least a couple thousand..."

GW Big Wig:

I'm going to jump on this and get all six of my friends to attempt the same. Futile? Maybe, but if they never respond, they have said more then words could.

Actually something similar happened already.

S.A. Ratzloff wrote:

Greetings, I am a relatively new investor to the GW hobby. Obviously, it does quite
well. I am wondering about the pricing though. I have been to the GW stores, and the pricing seems quite high. Are there plans to raise or lower these prices in the future? I understand that the fan base is the lifeblood of this operation, but this base must not be alienated.

If prices are too high, I fear that many people will become alienated and quit the hobby, and many people will not even join it. Particularly younger children whose parents no doubt fund their Warhammer purchases, considering adult logic i.e.:" All this money for this little piece of metal". Good pricing is necessary for a new fan base.

However, lowering prices too much could very well cause the undesired effects of losing money, despite higher levels of customer happiness. I would not recommend raising the prices much more, the gamers must have faith in Games workshop's commitment to them.

Tell me, what sort of financial overhead does GW have? Are the prices high
due to massive overhead costs? Or just to ensure good profits?

Kirby wrote:You are right to say that if prices are too high people will be alienated. The fact that we have been recruiting new Hobbyists over many, many years, that we are seeing excellent growth around the world with good retention of hobbyists is pretty conclusive proof that they are not. Making miniatures is not a simple process and so our R&D costs are high - you’ll see plenty of detail on this in our financial report (on this web site). Also, our miniatures are the best in the world and we believe in charging premium prices for our premium products and services.

What we are selling is a hobby – not toys and not a pass-time. Committed gamers and collectors and modellers know they get wonderful value for money from Games Workshop products. Far better value, I suggest, than from similar amounts of money spent on meals out, sports events, boozy nights in the pub. Go to the cinema and you can have an hour and a half of fun. Buy Warhammer and you can enjoy it for the rest of your life!

Dodged like a pro.
This will only work if there are a significant amount of committed people behind it.

Lord Scythican wrote:

Flashman wrote:A mass grumble wouldn't hurt. I like the "send a letter every day" idea too. It worked in Shawshank Redemption.

Could you imagine if every active member on just dakka alone sent a letter once a week voicing their complaints? That's the problem. Nobody acts in unison.

Indeed, these threads pop up every once in a while usually in response to the latest GW announcement that has hacked us off. That's the problem with the internet really. We kind of vent/blow off steam at each other instead of directing our thoughts at the right people.

I do this kind of thing quite often and it's always nice to see other people doing so as well.

And while the paper vs. email-debate surely has some truth to it, I got some copy pasted responses in the mail as well. The content was the same gak, it was just harder to put in my blog.

BrassScorpion wrote:Also, please, please, please USE SPELL CHECK before sending your letter and proof read it carefully before submitting it. Poor spelling and grammar make a bad impression and also make it harder to put your point across. I'm looking at the initial post and well, let's just say there are a few errors.

Agreed. I found it very hard to read through to the end due to the spelling and grammatical errors. The points are valid but, if your letter doesn't flow, it'll find itself in the bin.

What we are selling is a hobby – not toys and not a pass-time. Committed gamers and collectors and modellers know they get wonderful value for money from Games Workshop products. Far better value, I suggest, than from similar amounts of money spent on meals out, sports events, boozy nights in the pub. Go to the cinema and you can have an hour and a half of fun. Buy Warhammer and you can enjoy it for the rest of your life!

I agree with all that, but if the prices get too high even the most devoted hobbyists will balk and I've started to see this happen more and more the past couple years. I know several life-long hobbyists who have seriously refrained from buying certain kits the past few years due to price probably for the first time in their lives and I find myself doing the same recently as well.

I am going to try and piece a letter together soon, if this was organised properly across many forums we may have our way.

C'mon there's got to be enough people that care?

Do we want to say that by friday we will all send a letter of complaint to GW about the price increase and/or move to resin and/or Oz/Kiwi problem?

Kirby wrote:Also, our miniatures are the best in the world and we believe in charging premium prices for our premium products and services.

The little toad. If somebody wrote that to me, he'd be getting a strongly worded response. Basically, this much the same as Nike saying we charge £200 for a pair of trainers because our brand adds value, as opposed to a price that reflects the materials, wages and overheads.

And anway, aside from some of their miniatures, nothing GW sells is a premium product.

Phototoxin wrote:Do we want to say that by friday we will all send a letter of complaint to GW about the price increase and/or move to resin and/or Oz/Kiwi problem?

If your in, I'm in for sure.

I've been noticing a trend that really does need to be adressed. People are losing their damn minds on GW's facebook page and twitter feed. I've already seen two comments that were arguably death threats. This is not productive.

The Gaming community has been, quite rightly, registering it's displeasure with Games Workshop. Considering the egregious price increases and shipping Embargos that GW is putting in place I totally understand where you are coming from I understand your ire completely.

However, you need to understand that Games Workshop will be disinclined to deal with anyone who is hysterical or rude, no matter how large of a volume of complaints they receive. If you are going to register a complaint on their facebook, twitter, via email or in a written letter please bear in mind that they are going to pay more attention to something that is coherently written and well thought out. Threats, foul langage, and excessive sarcasm do not help our case. Sincerity and honesty very may will. The last thing we want to do is sound like a bunch of self important useless internet trolls bitching without reason.

Games Workshop will just write off anyone who is too rude, too sarcastic, or too glib as being either unworthy of listening to or just some nutball. A calm, rational, and legitimate complaint will be at least listened to.

By all accounts Games Workshop apparently responds best to written letters sent by regular post sent with a return address. A written letter cannot be ignored in quite the same way an e-mail can.

Please people, use your common sense.

Phototoxin wrote:Do we want to say that by friday we will all send a letter of complaint to GW about the price increase and/or move to resin and/or Oz/Kiwi problem?

Done. Come on everyone. Just copy and paste one of your ordered thoughts into a word document, print and stick it in the post during your lunch break.

BrassScorpion wrote:Also, please, please, please USE SPELL CHECK before sending your letter and proof read it carefully before submitting it. Poor spelling and grammar make a bad impression and also make it harder to put your point across. I'm looking at the initial post and well, let's just say there are a few errors.

Spell checked before I sent it out as letter, did not realise quite how many mistakes, and that was after TWO read throughs lol

So anyone feel like picking a day to do a mass mailing? Anyone willing to actually unify for one coherent thought and put it down on a hand written letter?

Let's start with 1.

I bet we get to 40 before we all start drooling over some new models in June.

Thank you to the people getting on board with this, something needs to be done and we should let them know how we feel. Its taken me 15 mons MAX to do this, everyone can spare that!!