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As many of you know, a few years back GW basically black balled US internet retailers that used the shopping chart option. Well now since they decided that their bitz service was far better then everyone else’s they are going after internet retailers again that sell bits.

The warstore was recently giving 90 days by GW to shut down their bitz service shopping cart. So BWB has the options of shutting down, or switch to phone in/paper orders (a nightmare to some retailers).

The good news this affects the US only, so Canadian or UK bitz companies can still sell their product free of GWs tactics.

*edited of inflammatory references to monsters from the 30's and 40's*
-Drake

Nooooooooooooooooo! I even use the warstore from the other side of the lake! Don't do this to me!

Greets
Schepp himself

Ravenous D wrote:
The warstore was recently giving 90 days by GW to shut down their bitz service shopping cart.

were did you saw that? cant seem to find it.

So BWBUK is ok?

Good.

BYE

NAVARRO wrote:

were did you saw that? cant seem to find it.

Caught it over on warseer and passed it along. http://warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125970

H.B.M.C. wrote:So BWBUK is ok?

Good.

BYE

As far as I know, unless the UK online retailers got bashed by the GW Gestapo raids 3 years ago.

I feel a non-trivial amount of anger at this news.

There are still options, email orders, ebay store etc but this is just obnoxious.

Especially when paired with GW's refusal to sell bitz themselves.

I really, really feel another BOYCOTT GW rant coming on.

The other half of this is that even if you are a Bitz company the fact that GW cut their bitz service and turned it into a gouge-o-thon makes it almost impossible for online retailers to make a profit selling bits.

For example before an online retailer could order the bitz and get his retailers discount, but now GW has cut the discount for retailers when you buy direct for the "mail order only" (ALL their bitz) and you would have to buy the entire box in order to get your discount! So say I wanted to order 10 eldar heavy weapon sprues, that would mean an online retailer would have to have 10 of them from 10 different boxes.

The low hances of selling the other bitz makes it not worth the effort.

Thanks for the link mate. Hell this is just frustating news. Guess i need to get my bitz asap.

I keep waiting and waiting for GW to make some move that makes me say, "wow, that's an awesome idea."



Still waiting....

You'll probably want to get a pillow and a book because it's going to be a long time I think.

I can't wrap my head around their thinking, usually if your company is starting to go into a nose dive you try to find the problem and get youself upright, not swing it straight down and try and take out as many innocent people as you can.

It seems GWs motto is "f'em we'll take them for all they're worth before we crash!".

Since apocalypse was there way of being "nice guys" and that didn't pull in as much as they wanted, I guess they figure they'll go back to being the usual bastards that they are.

Thats just stupid from a business standpoint. They are shutting off a sales channel. As they just shut off their own bitz lines (I almost dare you to find some type of bits remaining) this just kills a whole revenue stream FOR NO PURPOSE.

I better finish up my bits purchases then. It is a great service for those who only want specific parts and don't need everything else in the box set the bit comes in.

I can't possibly see how bits buying can lower the perceived value of a product or really hurt brick and mortar shops who do not offer the same service.

jfrazell wrote:Thats just stupid from a business standpoint. They are shutting off a sales channel. As they just shut off their own bitz lines (I almost dare you to find some type of bits remaining) this just kills a whole revenue stream FOR NO PURPOSE.

What's worse is GW ceasing to sell mail order only items (all the bitz I might add) to the indy stores at their retailers discount of 50%. If they want them they have to pay the same as the rest of us. So basically GW just smashed all the online bitz retailers who were making money off of them. Which doesnt make any sense because those bitz retailers were buying FROM GW, so squashing them only proves to lose them money.

It's typical GW though, screw the little guy as much as possible and still lose money. I don't understand how the company seems to think it's policy of "screwing over your customer base = profit".

Another foolish thing is that I'd bet most bitz sales go to veteran gamers. Who else but a nutter absolutely NEEDS 65 Mk8 helmets? So it's a nice way to alienate people who have probably already spent thousands of dollars on your hobby. Nice one.

Gah. Being one of those conversion junkies who just... can't... make... a normal model, I was annoyed by GW's decision to replace the amazing bitz service with the poorly thought-out restricted 'bitz pack' idea.

Mild annoyance was my reaction because I thought to myself:
'Self, you can buy things from online bits resellers.'
'Good thinking, Third-person perspective Self.'
'Thanks.'

So to hear that GW is now trying to close these down appals me.

Ravenous D wrote:You'll probably want to get a pillow and a book because it's going to be a long time I think.

Pillow to suffocate whoever thinks these decisions are good for the long-term success of a hobby company? Book to batter their unconscious body to bits, or just for instructions on how to dispose of the bloated corpse?


*Huff*

My understanding was that GW bought out BW bits (at gun point) and basically rolled their service up.

I do wish that GW would let us just buy bits (but atleast you UK & US guys can get sprues easily enough .... we have to go overseas to buy individual sprues .... yes the Australian GW Online store sucks).

GW wonders why they don't make any money, here's a thought: offer their OWN bitz service.

gosh.

You are incorrect. Neal at the Warstore bought BWBitz.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:I feel a non-trivial amount of anger at this news.

There are still options, email orders, ebay store etc but this is just obnoxious.

Especially when paired with GW's refusal to sell bitz themselves.

I really, really feel another BOYCOTT GW rant coming on.

With GeeDub's assinine policy change towards selling bases TWS was basically my only outlet for getting tons of 1 kind of base for mass counts as projects, apart from trading for them. Looks like I'll have to fall back on the community again, which thankfully hasn't been shut down and locked up by the Dubja quite yet

But really GW, it's one dick move after another these days, innit? I thought after APOC we could start liking you again, but clearly that was wishful thinking.

- Salvage

EDIT: Looking at the original post on WS, it looks like GW is doing to Neal what it did to BWB. Take down your images, don't have an online cart, but you can keep selling bitz by e-mail or phone. So all is not lost, it's just totally inconvenient. Still a dick move, but bitz live on at the expense of complication on all of our parts (particularly Neal's).

Cool! No more GW for you [evil cackle]customer scum[/evilcackle] now you´ll have to earn them.
It´s just me or GW is starting to resemble the Imperium fluff?.

Next week on GWNEWs: Our Chairman succesfully lobbies 10th Downing Street for a new tax on baby food for our Godly CEO´s new mansion in Bahamas

M.

In the UK we will still have Wookie Hole, though their selction is poor and overpriced.

The only answer for US bitz folks is for someone to set up a website from an office north of the border. So long as the transaction is in canadian dollars under canadian law the models can be sourced anywhere, yes?

Miguelsan wrote:
It´s just me or GW is starting to resemble the Imperium fluff?.

I hope so, then the company that finally takes over GW can call the inquisition out on these idiots. The good 'ole =I= takes a dim view of needlessly wasting the divine Emperor's resources.

hubcap wrote:Another foolish thing is that I'd bet most bitz sales go to veteran gamers. Who else but a nutter absolutely NEEDS 65 Mk8 helmets? So it's a nice way to alienate people who have probably already spent thousands of dollars on your hobby. Nice one.

I bought 55 dire wolf heads for my demon army. 55! There's no way I would have bought 55 complete dire wolves.

Where are gone all the fanbois explaining how this is a great move?

I just hope Neal will switch to the downloadable catalog. Better than nothing. GW is trying to hinder the Warstore, but there's clearly a full market opening now that GW closed its bitz service.

Orlanth wrote:

Miguelsan wrote:
It´s just me or GW is starting to resemble the Imperium fluff?.

I hope so, then the company that finally takes over GW can call the inquisition out on these idiots. The good 'ole =I= takes a dim view of needlessly wasting the divine Emperor's resources.

The =I= doesn't care how the Imperium exploits their own, just how other people exploit them.

The Administratum (As GW will henceforth be known): Frustratingly needless restrictions and inanely complicated bureaucracy to the point of utter absurdity. But with YOUR best interests in mind! :S

This comes as dark and dire news to me. My only beacon of hope is that Neal will continue his bitz service over the phone, along with everything else. This is still maddeningly frustrating, but frustration is preferable to despair.

Of course if they just left well enough alone, or, (SHOCK!) provided their OWN bitz service (That includes plastics, you slackers!) then we could avoid both. But tis not a hobby to be enjoyed without a smidgen of despair and frustration I suppose...

GW closing its bitz service (it's a little more than a "reorganization") is a shot across this veteran gamer's bow. This may seem overly dramatic, but IMO it's one of the most disheartening things GW has done. I never complained about GW pricing as I saw things like bitz as being premium service we receive in exchange for their premium pricing.

As others have said, it's the veterans who used the bitz service most. And this really tells me that GW just isn't that interested in me or my business anymore.

Saddly, this is the very reason I left GW the first time and went to PP. I was getting a little burnt out on WM/Hordes and decided to rejoin the ranks of the 40k gaming crowd largely due to Apoc. Of course it's GW's heavy handed tactics like this that are the reason that my vacation from PP and WM is just that....A vacation.

I'll do what I need to do to get the models I need mostly by trading with local gamers and over on bartertown. But as far as giving large chucks of my well earned money to GW.....

Hi guys, here is the deal.
We didn't want to announce this quite yet because when this happened at BWBits the orders went though the roof. First off I am the founder of BWBits. I now currently work for TheWarStore and one of my jobs of course is to monitor the bits side of the business which I previously owned.

Now as stated yes GW has given us 90 days to take the bits out of shopping cart format. So what does that really mean?

It means that you will no longer be able to process orders on the web through our site, however the pictures and pricing will still be on there for reference. As you know while at BWBits I was working on V2 of a downloadable catalog that is almost complete. It will be available for download and also in paper form for a nominal fee and include FREE downloadable updates!

The best part is that we will also have a downloadable order form that you can use to place orders just as easily as doing it over the web. And of course you can always call order in to us.

In conclusion we are still committed to providing the largest bits selection on the internet, at the best prices possible. We just invested in a larger facility to house and process bits orders, and expanded our mailing operation. We are committed to you as much as you are to us.

Thanks and Happy Gaming
Rob Baer
Founder BWBits
Evil Warmaster TheWarStore

High five Kesher, thanks for filling us in on the facts.

Kesher wrote:And of course you can always call order in to us.

Honestly that's how I always order from Neal anyway

- Salvage