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I haven't purchased anything from FW since I went to the first chicago games day.

When I got home to find the tiger shark was so miscast as to be criminal, I vowed I would never order again, no matter how tempting. The old adage of "you get what you pay for" does NOT apply to FW product.

When you add in the whole deal about shipping, its a nightmare I wouldn't soon recommend dealing with.

Sorry to those who have paid an exorbitant amount of dough to get rapid shipping. But FW isnt alone in this regard. I know of many online retailers who do this and sometimes you're just paying extra money for nothing.

We have an update. I just got this hand-written, personal and extremely helpful E-mail from Forge World:

Dear customer,

Thank you for contacting Forge World – we sincerely apologise for the delay in responding to your e-mail.

Due to unprecedented high demand, we have been unable to respond to e-mails for some time and have encouraged customers, wherever possible, to contact us by telephone. Contacting us by telephone ensures that your query is resolved as quickly as possible, allowing us to get all the information we need in order to help you - something that is not always possible with a single e-mail.

We hope that your query has been resolved by other means since you initially sent your e-mail to us, but if not, please call our sales and customer service team on +44 (0) 115 916 8177. We are open between 9am – 6pm, Monday – Friday, UK time, and will be happy to deal with any queries you may have.

[DO NOT REPLY – REPLIES TO THIS E-MAIL ADDRESS WILL NOT BE ANSWERED]


We thank you for your custom and your patience.

Kind regards,

Forge World

That was the reply to my first E-mail that I sent on Jan 5, a month ago. The Macharius tanks arrived yesterday - one month to the day.

I await the responces to my other two E-mails...

BYE

There's a guy over on Warseer who has raised a formal complaint with the UK Office of Fair Trading.

He is asking for other examples of poor service, such as noted above.

http://warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126154

Art Is Resistance wrote:have contacted the OFT and they have said that they will investigate any claims of unfair business practices, but that the case would be better served if I can provide them with as many anecdotal cases as possible.

Can I ask anyone who has placed an order with Forgeworld in the last 2 / 3 months to post the following info - none of the information is data sensitive and you will not be asked to provide evidence...

1) Date of Order
2) Value of Order
3) Whether you placed the order online or in a store
3) Town / Country the order was to be shipped to
4) Date of Receipt of Order
5) Issues with order - missing / broken / miscast pieces.

This is not a GW 'slag off' thread - nor is a thread to say how kewl FW are - I need to try and keep it factual.

If anyone with actual solid evidence were to pass on to him the details he has asked for it could end up in something solid being done about it, rather than just giving a chance to vent...

I tend to give FW the benefit of the doubt. Those guys are likely over-worked and clearly under-staffed. It's not an excuse, but it's a valid reason all the same.

And given how near-perfect their customer service and even their casting was right up until the release of apocalypse, I find it hard to hold anything against them. Yeah, my Tau Cadre is without a commander, or any elites, until god knows when, and that rather sucks. But it's not their fault... it's our fault! If we'd stop buying so much and then requiring them to RECAST what they've already sent us.. well they wouldn't be so overworked would they!

... That really doesn't make any sense, but the point has some merit. Theoretically demand will start to taper off, or they will get more staff to man the moulds/phones when it's made apparent they will never catch up. Hopefully one of these happens before too many people get fed up...

Of course it does help my mood that I buy my Forge World from the local store, and don't have to wait 6 months for shipping, just to find the model miscast. Of course I still have to wait for them to get anything in stock...

H.B.M.C. wrote:We have an update. I just got this hand-written, personal and extremely helpful E-mail from Forge World:

I got that last night too, x3. One to each of the e-mails I wrote them weeks ago. And speaking of FW, they have yet to refund my money like they said they would last week. I'll give them more time though, as calling them is a big waste of life ...

- Salvage

I am just glad now that FW doesn't make anything for Sisters of Battle in particular. I might not have been able to resist getting something, despite the horror stories.

Honestly, there is no excuse for poor customer service and shoddy product. As much as people like to talk about how they are understaffed and such, what does a company do other than produce product and sell it to customers? There are probably billions of pages written on the subjects of dealing with demand and supply issues, as well as process design and flexibility. I have a few thousand of them on my shelf at work. Boring reading, but terribly useful when you need it. Poor business practices deserve no sympathy when there is a wealth of information out there on how to help your business do what it is in business to do.

H.B.M.C. wrote:We have an update. I just got this hand-written, personal and extremely helpful E-mail from Forge World:

Dear customer,

Thank you for contacting Forge World – we sincerely apologise for the delay in responding to your e-mail.

Due to unprecedented high demand, we have been unable to respond to e-mails for some time and have encouraged customers, wherever possible, to contact us by telephone. Contacting us by telephone ensures that your query is resolved as quickly as possible, allowing us to get all the information we need in order to help you - something that is not always possible with a single e-mail.

We hope that your query has been resolved by other means since you initially sent your e-mail to us, but if not, please call our sales and customer service team on +44 (0) 115 916 8177. We are open between 9am – 6pm, Monday – Friday, UK time, and will be happy to deal with any queries you may have.

[DO NOT REPLY – REPLIES TO THIS E-MAIL ADDRESS WILL NOT BE ANSWERED]


We thank you for your custom and your patience.

Kind regards,

Forge World

That was the reply to my first E-mail that I sent on Jan 5, a month ago. The Macharius tanks arrived yesterday - one month to the day.

I await the responces to my other two E-mails...

BYE

LOL I placed an order for the Apoc. book back on Nov. 2 and I got that same e-mail just yesterday (2-4-08). They must be swamped!

Well I just got the same E-mail four more times.

I'll complain one more time.

BYE

AlexCage wrote:I tend to give FW the benefit of the doubt. Those guys are likely over-worked and clearly under-staffed. It's not an excuse, but it's a valid reason all the same.

I really hope I'm just missing the sarcasm in this post.

x4 of the same e-mail for me too.

F U Forgeworld

Just got this:

Hi,

Thank you for getting back in touch with us, I’m sorry for the delay in your order.

The UPS Express Shipping option ensures that your order will be sent via an express courier service at the point that the items are available. As mentioned on the front page of the online store, we are currently experiencing delays on many items and if the delay before despatch is a concern to you, we are recommending that all customers call us to determine how long their order may be if out of stock. This is information that we are currently unable to display on the online store.

Due to the fact that the items did need to be cast and brought back into stock, it was not possible to send these items immediately and we do recommend that at least 28 days is allowed on all orders, regardless of shipping method. Once fulfilled, your order was packed and despatched ahead of those ordered with standard shipping and, of course, reached you far sooner than it would had you chosen the standard option. For this reason, there is no refund due on this order.

Please note that due to the high number of e-mails we receive every day, we are currently unable to guarantee a reply to all that we receive. The best way to resolve any issues or queries you have is always to call us on +44 (0) 115 916 8177. We are open from 9am - 6pm (GMT), Monday - Friday and will be happy to take your call.

Regards,

Stuart McQuarrie

Forge World

Really nice of them.

So not only did they do me a favour by shipping it before other people's, but it got to me far quicker than anyone else as well!!! I feel so honoured!

BYE

Flagg07 wrote:

AlexCage wrote:I tend to give FW the benefit of the doubt. Those guys are likely over-worked and clearly under-staffed. It's not an excuse, but it's a valid reason all the same.

I really hope I'm just missing the sarcasm in this post.

x4 of the same e-mail for me too.

F U Forgeworld

Well maybe it's just harder for me to pass judgement on FW, I gave up buying directly from them just before Apoc came out and all my customer service experience prior was exemplary, as was everyone's I had spoken with. I'd never had anyone complain about either. Now, their casting quality.. that's a whole different story. I curse their overabundance of mold lines and flash regularly and vehemently.

It's quite hard for me to to believe that they would have shifted so drastically in their performance if they hadn't a valid reason. I know from experience that when you've got high demand and are understocked as well as understaffed you won't be able to provide as good a customer service as you'd like. Doesn't seem fair to criticize them for that.

They could hire new staff (which you'll notice from their website they are trying to do) but that still has to go through HR, which is a nightmare of bureaucracy, and they still have to justify more personel (Which was likely hard, if not impossible, to do during the Apoc boom, believing it only a temporary increase in demand that would soon taper off).

*shrug* Or we can choose to believe they've just become a bunch of uncaring mother fethers that purposefully ignore emails, leave you on hold for hours, and disregard your requests, who are only interested in taking your money. Me, I'm an optimist.

Then again, I'd likely share the same displeasure if I was still buying up DKoK. Oh god what a nightmare that must be now...

MY credit card was charged $396 Jan 9th and all I've gotten from FW are e-mail replies that tell me the only way to find out about my order is to call them.

THAT is unacceptable. THAT is poor business.

FW has problems filling orders and all of a sudden they're infrastructure is warped back in time to pre-e-mail?

I'll care about your opinion when you're in the same boat I am. *shrug* this. Your optimism means nothing unless your ass, or in this case cash, is on the line.

The reply e-mail that HBMC (did I spell it right?) posted was the mass reply that everyone got. I got 3 copies of that e-mail and nothing pertaining to me about my order.
It's obvious that they are ignoring e-mails.

I spent the better part of 6am to 12pm trying to contact them via phone. Amazingly, the line was busy until 12:02pm when I got through to the answering machine saying they were closed.

If they're as backed up as they claim, the answer is to authorize over-time so they can catch up.

I've made 5 purchases from FW. This is not the 1st time that I've been dis-satisfied with their service. Screw me once, shame on me. Screw me twice, shame on you. My cash will be spent elsewhere in the future. FU FW

I don't see why everyone is complaining about paying for nothing. If you paid for something, didn't get what you paid for, and FW is unresponsive or cannot be contacted, dispute the charges on your credit card bill.

Paid for 2-day shipping and received it 2 months later? Dispute the charge and explain the situation to the credit card company. A satisfactory result would be to pay the total amount less shipping.

Got a poorly molded product? Breach of warranty. Send FW a paper letter and/or email, explain why you're disputing the charges, and contact your credit card company.

Consumers get a lot of protection from sales laws, take advantage of it. But remember that you only have a few months to dispute a charge.

Also, certified letters are the best way to ensure that your issue is heard. You can prove they received the letter, so the only explanation is that they are ignoring your complaint.