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I also found that GW really stands by their products. I had a Defiler with slightly miscast leg shield bits. Most people probably wouldn't have noticed. Anyway I explained the problem to them and asked if they could send out a new set of leg shield bits. A couple weeks later, a whole new Defiler shows up. They're very very cool about stuff like that.

The fact they sent you a whole new kit for the sake of a couple of parts makes the unpleasant experience so good you'll happily go back again.

It would probably cost them more to open up a new kit and take out individual parts everytime.

People that lie to GW customer service are really just shooting everybody in the foot.

For the future, add baking soda to wet super glue and it will dry fast and rock hard. It just needs some sanding afterwards.

I am glad everyone in this thread who had a good experience with GW's customer service did so. I've had the same experience on a number of occasions.

But that said, replacing defective parts is what every company should do. It might even be required by law in some countries GW operates in. So basically what we've got here is that GW has lowered our expectations so much that we're praising them for basic service.

I know, I know, you're going to say, "But I got a whole model! They could have just sent me a replacement part." And yeah, that's nice. I've had the same experience. In fact, back in the day I used to get one better- when I complained about a missing piece, I would get the complete model, plus something extra packaged with it as an "I'm sorry."

But as people have said, GW is replacing the whole model rather than the defective part because it's cheaper than having to break apart models and keep individual spare parts lying around (after the bits service went away anyway). And that wouldn't be the case unless their cost to manufacture the model was drastically lower than the sales cost. Basically, GW can afford to give away their models like peanuts when it suits them because it costs them peanuts to make them. But then when it comes time for the yearly price increases, suddenly they're Porsches of minis and to get that quality costs money, so everyone pay up.

I guarantee you if you buy a new Porsche and discover the transmission is bad, they don't give you a whole new Porsche. Because they couldn't afford to. Because the cost to buy a Porsche actually has some relationship to the cost to make one.

Did someone say, Porsche ?

Howard A Treesong wrote:Nobody has ever questioned GW customer support. It's about the only thing they always get right, they always replace defective things, you're reacting like it's a miracle.

Actually, I'm not, as you put it, "reacting like it's a miracle." What I am doing is giving positive credit where it is due, which is something that I think this forum and many others are sorely lacking...

I have been collecting/painting/playing GW stuff since 1987 and in that time I have had a few problems with thier products. Most of the time, I have had an experience with them similar to the one that I described in my original post. I have also had a few that almost made me tell them to shove it. When the Tau Piranha first came out I ordered 3 of them. In the middle of assembling the last one, I noticed that part of the sprue had been miscast (mis-molded?) and 3 or 4 of the smaller finishing parts were missing or so messed up that they were unusable. I called GW and was immediately, and rudely, informed that I would need to send the entire model back, still on the sprue & in the original packaging at my own expense. Then they would replace it. I ended up buying another, taking the parts off of the new sprue to replace the ones that I had already used from the messed up sprue & then sending it back. They sent me a new one but no compensation for postage or headaches.

This was what I had to go through the last time I had had a problem with GW, not to mention the fact that even though I told them it had been a metal figure, they still sent me a shiny, new Finecast model to play with. I think they deserve a bit of good press over this!

You should have said that solution was unnacceptable and sent them pictures of the defective sprues.

Seriously, if anybody in the customer service department (in general, any store) is rude to you just ask to speak to their manager or keep calling until you are satisfied with the response.

If you have a genuine grievance it should be dealt with appropriately.

I had a warped Shadowsword and they sent me a new one.
GW fan untill the day all that resin dust kills me