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I've just finished talking to my distributor in the US who has informed me he can't send goods to Australia anymore (a new contract is being released after the 15th of March). He further went on to say "Rumor has it they are shutting GW AU down like they did Canada."

Did/are GW shut/shutting down in Canada? If anyone knows what this means exactly, i'd love to hear it.

There is no secret us Aussies have been bent over and had the soap reamed where the sun doesn't shine for some years now, and as a result GW has been kicked out of the sand pit as a result. This is new news for me and i'd be keen to hear from anyone in Canada who has experienced what "shutting down" means precisely.

First the UK embargo, now it would seem the US is following suit? Places like "The War Store" etc are all still selling outside the country though which, although affiliated with my distributor, aren't the same company. Maybe they're under a different agreement?

We had a head office that was the main warehouse for the entire country it got shut down and all the Canada stuff were either shipped off or gak canned. Everything for us now comes from memphis along with a 20% price rise.

And I was under the impression US couldnt ship to Aussies because of GWs embargo or was that only the UK? Im guessing GW found out a large amount of sales were coming from the US so they dropped the embargo again on you guys to force you to buy local at GWs "historical exchange rates".

GW does seem to be putting itself in to an untenable situation. How they keep functioning on declining sales is beyond me. I would think that expanding the brand would be their goal, make it easier for people to get a hold of.

I'm sure that they know better than we do what their business plan is though.

US can ship to Australia.

I'm confused by the OP. Is he saying:

1. GWOZ is shutting down as a corporate entity.
or
2. People in the US are unable to sell to Australia.


It's an important distinction to make because the former is inevitable, and the latter would just hasted the former.

 Ravenous D wrote:
And I was under the impression US couldnt ship to Aussies because of GWs embargo or was that only the UK? Im guessing GW found out a large amount of sales were coming from the US so they dropped the embargo again on you guys to force you to buy local at GWs "historical exchange rates".

The embargo was only on the UK and Europe. My understanding was that they couldn't impose a similar condition on the US due to US trade laws, but that might be wrong. Morachi mentioned a distributor, rather than a store... Distributors do often have contracted areas that they can deal to.

Seems like #2 is most likely what he means.

HBMC - I'm saying two things.

1. At present, distributors aren't allowed to wholesale to Australia. Retailers still can, but only via email based orders as web cart style trading isn't allowed - an example of this is how the War Store operates by email only orders.

2. The distributor went on to say that rumour has it GW are shutting down operations in Australia as they have in Canada - he then declined at present to go into details of just what did actually happen in Canada when I asked for clarification.

That is probably the case, GW really has a hate on for the colonies it seems.

Pissing people off doesnt seem like a good idea to encourage the growth of the hobby, then again Im sure the cavalry will show up in this thread any minute and tell us its actually fine and that GW is being reasonable.

 Morachi wrote:
HBMC - I'm saying two things.

1. At present, distributors aren't allowed to wholesale to Australia. Retailers still can, but only via email based orders as web cart style trading isn't allowed - an example of this is how the War Store operates by email only orders.

2. The distributor went on to say that rumour has it GW are shutting down operations in Australia as they have in Canada - he then declined at present to go into details of just what did actually happen in Canada when I asked for clarification.

Thank you for clarifying.


If they are shutting down GWOZ as a corporate entity, then I do hope that GW drops their ludicrous shipping costs (£60 shipping for 1 pot of paint) as we won't be able to buy it locally.

GW needs to keep slashing costs to make it's flat earnings look better. I would not be surprised if they don't lay off anyone with an admin job in Australia keeping maybe a few traveling area managers that go from shop to shop as needed and then just ship stock directly to the stores from Memphis.

The shipping costs might go up, but maybe a low enough amount of stuff is being sent that it'll end up saving them money after the staff cuts. I bet there's quite a bit of salary savings to be had by axing the Australian based staff that can be.

They did it in Canada, maybe they'll do it in Australia.

As for the first rumour, that the rest of world embargo is being extended to the US, I can see that happening as well.

I must admit though, I don't know many people - if any - who purchase GW paints, especially when you can buy superior packaged, better quality, non-drying merchandise at cheaper prices elsewhere.

I do see your point though that the shipping costs are more than a little insane attempts at price gouging.

No worries on the clarification.

Would love to hear more from anyone regarding the Canada fiasco. Sounds like something they will indeed do here given the outrage they've caused this past two years.

 Ravenous D wrote:
...then again Im sure the cavalry will show up in this thread any minute and tell us its actually fine and that GW is being reasonable.

And that their prices haven't gone up and in fact have gone down (they're almost a discounter!) because some plastic models are the same price as some metal models made a decade ago.

Burn baby burn.

agustin wrote:
They did it in Canada, maybe they'll do it in Australia.

I had 3 GW's within reasonable distance from me. One was literally up the road from me - less than a 5min drive, including the time to find a park. One was near to where I used to live. And I walked past the other one every time I went to get a hair cut. Two of those stores no longer exist and the one that's near where I used to live is no longer in the shopping mall but is instead two blocks away, on a side street, next to the video rental store which is past the section of that area where all the signs are in Korean (talk about great company - GW with a shop next to a dying industry!).

The next nearest one is in the CBD, where they're very well hidden.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Morachi wrote:
I do see your point though that the shipping costs are more than a little insane attempts at price gouging.

Gouging is the wrong word. They don't want you to order from GWUK or GWUS where the price is almost literally half that of GWOZ, so they put an artificial shipping cost (which isn't anywhere near the actual shipping cost) to discourage you from doing it. It's probably, in all honestly, the most underhanded thing GW actually does (outside of yelling at small-time writers for using the words "space" and "marine" in an order they don't approve of). They could simply force the site to shunt orders made to the US/UK store to the OZ side, or put an "auto-cancel" on any order made from OZ to the UK or US site (or y'know, just equalise the prices to something resembling 2010+ exchange rates, rather than the early 90's exchange rates they're so clearly based on), but no, they're going to slap a huge inflated and completely mythical shipping cost on there to make you stop.

Maybe they'll be shutting down all the Oz stores and then adjusting prices to be on par with ROW?

I'm sure that would make a few Roos happy.

agustin wrote:
GW needs to keep slashing costs to make it's flat earnings look better. I would not be surprised if they don't lay off anyone with an admin job in Australia keeping maybe a few traveling area managers that go from shop to shop as needed and then just ship stock directly to the stores from Memphis.

The shipping costs might go up, but maybe a low enough amount of stuff is being sent that it'll end up saving them money after the staff cuts. I bet there's quite a bit of salary savings to be had by axing the Australian based staff that can be.

They did it in Canada, maybe they'll do it in Australia.

As for the first rumour, that the rest of world embargo is being extended to the US, I can see that happening as well.

See problem with it coming from memphis is that is really underhanded, you tell your trade accounts they cant ship to Australia but you can? Thats scumbag steve territory. Where do you guys get your models from and is there a head office or factory in Australia?

So we're more likely to see a mass of store closes or just have the stores scarcer overall if they do go through with this? Kind of like how BC used to have something like five stores and now it's down to one.

The move isn't that surprising with how they are here and they did recently can the games day again.

There's a central warehouse in Oz, but everything is shipped in from the UK or USA.

I know, it's in Ingleburn and nothing special.

Exhibit 1. Shipping for a single pot of paint from the UK to Sydney Australia.

I might also add in that i've heard it is illegal to make profits based on fabricated shipping costs and was passed as trade law in the UK about 7 years ago.



Edit: Went one better, did a comparison of an Eldar FW turret vs a pot of paint... essentially the same company, different arms, different prices on postage.

 Morachi wrote:
Exhibit 1. Shipping for a single pot of paint from the UK to Sydney Australia.

I might also add in that i've heard it is illegal to make profits based on fabricated shipping costs and was passed as trade law in the UK about 7 years ago.



Edit: Went one better, did a comparison of an Eldar FW turret vs a pot of paint... essentially the same company, different arms, different prices on postage.

Citadel Fineshipping

Surely that has to be illegal? Can someone in the UK actually like.. mention that to someone over there?

Just sent the following to the ACCC to see if I can get any details on what can be done from our side.

Hi, I am seeking assistance in what course of action can be taken against a UK company that has a presence here in Australia, "Games Workshop Ltd" (http://www.games-workshop.com) who appear to be making enormous profits from Australians purchasing goods from the UK directly.

This is evidenced by Games Workshop's subsidiary company "Forge World", who are also based in the UK. The disparity in pricing is enormous. Please see the following example - http://i49.tinypic.com/2dtbosj.jpg

This image shows the comparison of two items of similar weight and size (A pot of paint and a small resin miniature) and their associated shipping costs. The Games Workshop pot of paint (17 milliliters) shipping for 55 pound sterling. The Forge World resin miniature piece ships for 1.5 pound sterling. Two years ago, both items shipped for similar rates. Suddenly the shipping price has changed dramatically out of no where.

I imagine this is to do one of two things;

1. To encourage purchase of goods locally at pre-1990's exchange rates (Australians still pay tripple the price based on a 0.32 cents to the UK pound, as opposed to the now 0.68 cents)

2. An act to price gouge based on postage alone.

Either way I have been informed an act was passed in the UK roughly 7 years ago outlawing this kind of trade practice. Is there anything that can be done, or an investigation initiated into these practices to prohibit this kind of action?

EDIT: Turns out they use UPS for shipping, so its on the level, but at a MUCH higher rate than standard UK Mail. In this email I was hoping the ACCC could at lease point me in the right direction. Fingers crossed. If anything comes back i'll start a new thread on it.

 Morachi wrote:
Just sent the following to the ACCC to see if I can get any details on what can be done from our side.

Hi, I am seeking assistance in what course of action can be taken against a UK company that has a presence here in Australia, "Games Workshop Ltd" (http://www.games-workshop.com) who appear to be making enormous profits from Australians purchasing goods from the UK directly.

This is evidenced by Games Workshop's subsidiary company "Forge World", who are also based in the UK. The disparity in pricing is enormous. Please see the following example - http://i49.tinypic.com/2dtbosj.jpg

This image shows the comparison of two items of similar weight and size (A pot of paint and a small resin miniature) and their associated shipping costs. The Games Workshop pot of paint (17 milliliters) shipping for 55 pound sterling. The Forge World resin miniature piece ships for 1.5 pound sterling. Two years ago, both items shipped for similar rates. Suddenly the shipping price has changed dramatically out of no where.

I imagine this is to do one of two things;

1. To encourage purchase of goods locally at pre-1990's exchange rates (Australians still pay tripple the price based on a 0.32 cents to the UK pound, as opposed to the now 0.68 cents)

2. An act to price gouge based on postage alone.

Either way I have been informed an act was passed in the UK roughly 7 years ago outlawing this kind of trade practice. Is there anything that can be done, or an investigation initiated into these practices to prohibit this kind of action?

Hmm, that's pretty good. Mind if I steal that, change the wording a little and send it as well?

I suspect you will receive a response to the effect that as it's not an Australian company, there's not much they can do for you.

If they give you the name of somewhere in the UK to send it then even that would be worth something but I would have to imagine that since they trade in Australia we could do something.

I think if this was sent several times by several sources it would be hard to ignore. Is there anything that the Brits are able to do on their side pond?

Really, the shipping issue is a completely different topic, so if you really want to pursue it, please take it to a new thread in Discussions.

My guess looking at those prices is they will claim they are using UPS, which £55 would be its standard RoW shipping charge as its up to a certain weight. I suspect you could put several items in the cart and it'd still be £55.

Doesn't make it right, but I suspect that is what they are doing. Where as FW are just shipping it standard 10% fee, tbh I'm surprised there isn't some kind of basic upfront extra £5 added for RoW, as there is no service I can think of that would allow something to be sent to Oz for £1.50. Not even sure if they had a deal for bulk with a courier that would be enough.


edit - just clarifying prices for Australian folks, as I've sent a lot of stuff that way over the years. As insaniak said if you want to go into detail further start a thread in Discussions.

 Marine_With_Heart wrote:
I think if this was sent several times by several sources it would be hard to ignore. Is there anything that the Brits are able to do on their side pond?

Not really as it doesn't affect us and a claim will be stronger from an affected party.

I would however suggest you contact the office of fair trading who deal with enforcing consumer protection laws.

Two issues I can see is that you quite possibly would have to have made a purchase to have any sort of case and secondly GW are not bound to sell to anyone at any price?