Maelstrom Games taking the biscuit?

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**Bovrillor**

Forgive the odd posting format, I can't get multiquote to work for love nor money.

alphaecho (regarding my first post):

I wouldn't say pointless. It just adds to a point others have made that how many people who are not regular posters have also been ...how can I put it?...ill-served by Maelstrom? Forum posters are the tip of an iceberg.

I'm aware of at least 4 other local gamers that were stung, and I'm not even part of 'the scene'.

grefven:

If MG had gone out and told us, the customers, "Hey, we are in heavy debts, and we will most likely fold our business shortly," how would you react to that? Would you continue buying or would you rather not?

I personally would have been fine with this, assuming they were honest about what was actually in-stock. I have no trouble buying from struggling businesses, but I take exception to being lied to (as was the case here).

Realistically, there's a middle ground between shouting your failure from the rooftops and diddling your customers. Sure, you don't advertise your financial problems, but knowingly taking money for orders you know you can't fulfill... that's unforgivable.

**Azazelx**

Maelstrom Games Mass email wrote:
Hi there,

You are receiving this e-mail because you have ordered BaneLegions or Templar's Forge products from ourselves in the past. As Maelstrom Games is currently undergoing liquidation and will cease to exist in 2013, you cannot buy those products from us any more, but of course you can get them from the company we sold the BaneLegions and Templar's Forge ranges to back in May - Mierce Miniatures!

As well as that, those nice guys at Mierce (www.mierce-miniatures.com) are currently running a 20% off UK RRP festive sale until the 2nd of January on their Darklands and BaneLegions ranges, so if you'd like to grab some of those amazing miniatures such as such as Krull or The Terror of Fortriu or Kraan or Euryalia or tons of others, including their superb new releases Clundwr, Uuthüll, Hirakoth and Arthyen of Carn Maen, now's the time!

THE MIERCE MINIATURES VOUCHER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Their 20% off UK RRP discount voucher ends on Wednesday the 2nd of January 2013 at midnight (GMT), and it will work on all of the items in the Mierce Miniatures webstore from the BaneLegions and Darklands ranges but not on any Templar's Forge products or Components.

Your voucher code is: CHRISTMAS-SALE

To use this voucher simply register on their webstore, www.mierce-miniatures.com (if you haven't already), copy and paste the code into the Voucher field in your basket when you have selected the items you want, press 'REDEEM', and the webstore will do the rest. You are not limited to one purchase and, indeed, Mierce asks you to recommend them to your friends with this voucher!

Happy Ordering!

UNSUBSCRIBE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you feel you have received this e-mail in error or do not wish to be a part of our mailing list, simply visit the Mailing List page at http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/index.php?act=mai and unsubscribe from there by entering your e-mail address. You will not be mailed again and we would like to apologise for any annoyance we have caused to you by sending this e-mail.

MAELSTROM GAMES LTD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Registered in England and Wales as a Company
Company No.: 4724863
VAT Reg No.: 804 3874 30
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Registered Office: 106 Carter Lane, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. NG18 3DH

Wow. Just wow.

**Sining**

They've got brass. Not a lot of brains, but a lot of brass -_-

**Compel**

Surely the format of that mail and the like actually helps the argument that may have hypothetically been put forward as 'the two companies are not really particularly separate entities and so should be considered as 1 in the liquidation.'

**AndrewC**

Compel wrote:
Surely the format of that mail and the like actually helps the argument that may have hypothetically been put forward as 'the two companies are not really particularly separate entities and so should be considered as 1 in the liquidation.'

Unfortunately, nope. They can be run from the same office and by the same people, if they have two seperate registration numbers from companies house, they are two seperate companies. The best that can be done is that a director loses his 'right' to be a director and as such the other company goes down due to that, but highly unlikely.

**CainTheHunter**

Dammit! I am really mad now. First, MG submitted that Templar's Forge will be closed and thus 75% discount was in force. After I picked up some of the TF stuff, the whole thing happened and then later I received an e-mail that some of my orders could be transferred, and some not - the latter included TF products. Now, Maunsfeld Games had cancelled my transferred Battlefront and Forged in Battle orders without any explanations and any feedback in that respect, whereas at the same time Merce Miniatures still offers TF products... I really hope that I will get the money back via VISA chargeback and I am happy that I did not cancel the chargeback proceedings, when Maunsfeld Games contacted me with their "generous proposal"... I had that gut feeling that this offer did not meant that I will eventually get those miniatures...

**Kroothawk**

As discussed in the Mierce thread, you can't unsubscribe from that email list. And you got that email even if you unsubscribed months ago.

**CainTheHunter**

OK, just to let everybody know - today I received full chargeback from VISA so I went out of this with zero losses - except of certain degree of anguish and distress...

**Steve steveson**

AndrewC wrote:
Compel wrote:
Surely the format of that mail and the like actually helps the argument that may have hypothetically been put forward as 'the two companies are not really particularly separate entities and so should be considered as 1 in the liquidation.'

Unfortunately, nope. They can be run from the same office and by the same people, if they have two seperate registration numbers from companies house, they are two seperate companies. The best that can be done is that a director loses his 'right' to be a director and as such the other company goes down due to that, but highly unlikely.

Actualy it dose cause problems for them, as according to that email it has come from Maelstrom, and Maelstrom are still trading. It is probably an error but they are digging themselfs a hole there. If any of there big debtors pick up on this there would be trouble. Anyone how got that email want to pass it on to some of the wholesalers or GW? (Try tradeinternetenquires@games-workshop.co.uk )

**unmercifulconker**

I also managed to get my money back on my VISA, took 7 days but it got there.

**Fenrir Kitsune**

Say a lot of things about Maelstrom/Mierce, but no denying that they have balls of solid brass!

**Dingleson**

I see that Mierce mini's now have a Kickstarter running, asking for funds to help expand their mini's range. I think I'll pass and keep my cash this time.

**mwnciboo**

Fenrir Kitsune wrote:
Say a lot of things about Maelstrom/Mierce, but no denying that they have balls of solid brass!

People in the military have balls of brass, as do members of the Emergency services as does anyone else who protects and put their life on the line to protect society.

You are confused, he is simply an unscrupulous *******.

The term is unscrupulous.

Adjective
Having or showing no moral principles; not honest or fair.
Synonyms
unprincipled - unconscionable - conscienceless

**Lint**

This thread is awesome. It took me two days of reading on my spare time to get through the whole 56 pages.

So who is everybody going to be purchasing from now?

**Far Seer**

I'll probably be buying my stuff from ebay now. I'd really like to know if there's a site that offers free shipping just like Maelstrom did.

**notprop**

Far Seer wrote:
I'll probably be buying my stuff from ebay now. I'd really like to know if there's a site that offers free shipping just like Maelstrom did.

There are many online store that offer free shipping - take a look at the "retailers giving the biscuit" thread in discussions.

Wayland ship free over a certain order, hell even GW will ship for free!

**filbert**

notprop wrote:
Far Seer wrote:
I'll probably be buying my stuff from ebay now. I'd really like to know if there's a site that offers free shipping just like Maelstrom did.

There are many online store that offer free shipping - take a look at the "retailers giving the biscuit" thread in discussions.

Wayland ship free over a certain order, hell even GW will ship for free!

Neither ship GW stuff to the Antipodes, however. The rest of your Australasian counterparts order from US based websites - I don't know their shipping costs but I would be surprised if neither offered some form of free or discounted shipping. The usual suspects that crop up in these discussions are the Warstore and Dicebucket.

**Far Seer**

Oh yeah. I noticed that thread a while back, gotta go check it. As for the US based webstores...

Shipping is mostly atrocious for Australia. And it's going to get even worse because of USPS raising its prices.

**Noble Korhedron**

This might be slightly off-topic, but I wanted to follow this discussion, how do I subscribe to topics without replying, if I have nothing to add to it myself?

**rigeld2**

Bottom left corner of the web page there's a subscribe link.

**Azazelx**

Far Seer wrote:
Oh yeah. I noticed that thread a while back, gotta go check it. As for the US based webstores...

Shipping is mostly atrocious for Australia. And it's going to get even worse because of USPS raising its prices.

The Warstore is worse than most for shipping. I've been getting some GW stuff from Discount Games Store. There's also a guy called Abaddon (with some slight spelling variation) on ebay who is in the US and is ok for postage..

**SoulDrinker**

Looks like the motion to formerly wind up Maelstrom has now gone into the courts and we might actually find out how bad things really were soon........might even get 10p back for very £ I've lost too! (if we're lucky)

**Herzlos**

That's progress, at least

Is there a source for further reading on this, or is there nothing much to know beyond the fact it's starting the court system, with future updates in the next year or so?

**Troll1**

Im told the court date is tuesday 9th april In manchester or leeds but with anything you hear about mg you never can be sure

**SeanDrake**

I'm just going to leave this here http://www.maunsfeld-gaming.com/

"Fool me once"

Oh and apparently it's everybody who he robbed fault.

Hi there
I'm sorry to have to say this, but Maunsfeld Gaming is now closed for the foreseeable future, including tonight.
Maunsfeld Gaming is going into liquidation shortly; the company is not insolvent - there's enough assets to cover any debts - but the longer it carries on, the more debts will accumulate and it will achieve critical mass at some point. With the attendance falling, organisers cancelling events, terrain being stolen, staff leaving, not being able to stock Games Workshop products in the store and the quite breathtaking and totally unjustified vitriol on the internet from some quarters, it seems the venue is no longer wanted by most.
I know this is a major disappointment for those of you that still attend but I have no alternative but to call an end to it.
Someone may take the assets over and start it up again as a new business, or perhaps one of you wishes to do so, or maybe a consortium of you; if that is the case, please speak to the Insolvency Practitioner involved - Chris Brown of Hart Shaw at chris.brown@hartshaw.co.uk - and you can discuss that with him.
Note that I've been trying to sell it - even give it away - since January, as I realised fairly quickly that the venue was going nowhere with me in charge, but nobody's particularly bothered about taking it on and I'm just throwing money away by keeping it going.
I hope you all understand why this has happened and that it's not what I or our staff wanted. I wanted to sell the company, perhaps even the assets alone, so that someone can keep it going, but nobody seems to want to take it on, so that's that.
May I take this opportunity to thank all of you that have attended the club nights at the mill over the past few years; you have been superb and I hope you have all enjoyed the facilities we put so much effort and time (and money) in to provide.
Thank you.
Pre-Paid Attendance
If any of you believe you are owed monies for the pre-payment of club night attendance, please reply to this message and you will be refunded in due course.
Cheers
Rob Lane
Managing Director
Maunsfeld Gaming Ltd

**Dawnbringer**

It will be interesting to see what gets liquidated first, Maunsfield, or Maelstrom

**BrookM**

Can't they pump that sweet, sweet Kickstarter money into this? I see that it's the same owner, so why not?

**Azreal13**

Unjustified vitriol?

You effectively STOLE PEOPLE'S MONEY!

**Herzlos**

I can't say I'm surprised, either that it's folded or that no-one wants to take the company off his hands after the reputation hit.

What I don't follow is the claims that it's still solvent; if the company is still solvent but closing down, why is it with a liquidation agent? Surely he'd just have a clearout sale and close down whilst trying to sell off whatever he can?

As has been mentioned, I wonder how this will affect the 'totally-a-separate-company-honest' miniatures company and the kickstarter. Presumably it was started whilst he was trying to get money to prop up the store...?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

azreal13 wrote:
Unjustified vitriol?

You effectively STOLE PEOPLE'S MONEY!

I did get a chuckle from that, as if he genuinely thinks that changing the company name will make everyone happy, when it was a blatant attempt to dodge responsibility.

**insaniak**

azreal13 wrote:
Unjustified vitriol?

You effectively STOLE PEOPLE'S MONEY!

No no no... Maelstrom Games, owned by Rob Lane, was the company that had the issues. Maunsfield Gaming is owned by Rob Lane... totally different