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Or just cancel it and go to Rocket Hobbies who discount most kits 25% all the time!

(I'm not affiliated to Rocket Hobbies, I am just happy to recommend a company that I've been happy with and that offer good prices.)

Took them around 5 weeks to ship my last order, and they split it so I got to pay customs processing fees twice

Not very happy with Maelstromgames any more.

Compel wrote:So now I'm tempted to cancel my order and replace it to take advantage of the greater saving from this new sale....

You could do but a call to them would probably do the trick and save you the hassle. Although I tend to use Wayland as I can drive there I have often used Maelstroms excellent price match service, particularly good for getting books at Amazon prices but not from Amazon. I like to keep things in the hobby fraternity if I can.

In most cases my webstore of choice is Firestorm games.

its a price match across the board with Maelstrom and its fast freidnly and quick to respond to queries. Most of my emails and requests are handled same day, often same hour.

I cant pass judgement on Maelstrom, but if you want out I can recommend Firestorm.

http://www.firestormgames.co.uk

I second firestorm games they've gone more than out of their way with orders in the past for me. With maelstrom two thirds of my orders had issues until I stopped using them.

I used to order on Maelstrom back when PLN was strong compared to GBP. Since that changed I'm not ordering from them too often anymore.

However when I did order some Banelords, it took them around week and a half to get them to me. Quite long for an "in stock" in-house item.

Also, they were always slow during any sales they made - it appears they made a sale and ordered the items from GW, never sold any superfluous stock from their own warehouse.

I remember I waited more than a month for an order around a year ago during a sale.

All in all, they're decent, but I can't wholeheartedly recommend them anymore.

Like many Aussie gamers, I often bought GW stuff from Maelstrom before the embargo. It was basically buying it half price, compared to the GW down the street.

However I've now got an order for Perry and Mantic stuff that was placed on the 2nd, that has been 'processing' since. I sent an email a week ago, but got no response.



Edit: Update July 31st, received an email saying that my order has been shipped. From experience this means that it will arrive in a week or two.

Spoke with one of their staff members yesterday.

Currently; Maelstrom Games are shuffling around their interior organisation. Warehouse is moving to a new location a few miles out of town, larger premises and more stock-space. Web-based orders [and I assume telephone?] will be handled through the warehouse. The store will take stock separately, maintain stock separately and sell stock separately from the warehouse. GW are being witches, for lack of a better word, again and are causing problems with stock levels. Not only that but Maelstrom have probably decided it ripe time to finally move out into a larger location.
Hopefully, we should see things speed up a little when ordering out of Maelstrom in a couple of months time. Reckon things will be bumpy for the next month or so.

Maelstrom are shockingly bad. i stopped using them months ago. Wrong orders, no stock, you name it. WOuldnt recommend them to anyone

I thought that too.
These emails are very annoying, when a better discount code comes through when you have a long outstanding order in with them.

My order, put in on the 9th, turned up on Saturday.

Brother SRM wrote:

daedalus wrote:I came for the biscuits. :(

Good luck with that, since apparently Maelstrom took them all!

I've heard that Maelstrom has always been slow with some folks. It's a recurring complaint.

GW are still processing them.

I have also heard many complaints about Wayland Games, but I got my 6th Ed' Rulebook on the Saturday it came out, before anybody else that ordered from GW got it. I call that pretty good.

daedalus wrote:I came for the biscuits. :(

I came for the biscuits too, but stayed for the chicks. You're all chicks right?

[you'd be laughing if I hadn't posted it a week after the original post - just pretend I did ]

Last time I promise.

http://www.rockethobbies.co.uk/

Like Maelstrom only better and cheaper.

Its not just GW stuff - I ordered some Infinity stuff weeks ago and its still sitting at 'processing'

In fairness to Maelstrom I've heard a lot of people having trouble getting Infinity at the moment (unless you order from CB directly), so this might be a UK distributor problem rather than a Maelstrom problem - but would a message telling me what the problem is be too much to ask??

Never had a problem getting infinity stuff through firestorm barring the globally sold out human sphere book. If they don't have it I can usually pop over to Christchurch and get what I want over the counter from simple miniature games.

Maelstrom has generally been fine, but every now and again, they seem to get swamped. I still find them to be much, much more reliable than Wayland, but still no where near the standards of the two big American online retailers: Miniature Market and The War Store.

I rung them up yesterday and they sorted everything out incredibly quickly (the guy got into his stock system as I was talking to him, and could change stuff there).

If things are taking too long, I would also recommend phoning up and asking what's up with it.

Had an interesting chat yesterday re Mealstrom.

1) The warehouse move was driven not only by a need for space but also by the need to split the online and bricks and mortar. Some suppliers wont supply them as they online discount or the other way arround, seperating the two cleans things up for them.

2l GW will only supply them once per week and with limited stock covering both online and retail. This is another reason for the split but also explains why the store has almost no GW stock!

3) The recent move, while I believe is going well would be complicated by the Mealstrom/Eye Of The Storm split as its also effectively a new business start up with seperate finances, stocking, managemnet, staff, etc...

All told big things happening, issues will therefore arrise!

At least Maelstrom will sort out any problems you have quickly once you make them know to them.

That's the minimum you would expect in the event of a problem.

Druidic wrote:

2l GW will only supply them once per week and with limited stock covering both online and retail. This is another reason for the split but also explains why the store has almost no GW stock!

I'm sorry, but I don't buy that. Once a week ordering I can beleave, but limiting what they can buy? I'm sorry, but I don't buy that excuse at all. The only reason I can see for that is that they are as bad at paying their bills as they are at supplying customers so are on a tight credit limit.

Hi
Earlier in the year, I had 2 seperate orders take 21 and 35 days respectively to process, both for common 40K products.

Chased them once a week, always getting told, its due at the end of the week.

Reason I didn't cancel. Simple in and out of hospital, so had more pressing things.

Very poor customer service, contridictions from different staff members, and to be honest, I dont use them anymore.

Its easier for me to use Dark Sphere, but now thats gone south.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Druidic wrote:Had an interesting chat yesterday re Mealstrom.

1) The warehouse move was driven not only by a need for space but also by the need to split the online and bricks and mortar. Some suppliers wont supply them as they online discount or the other way arround, seperating the two cleans things up for them.

2l GW will only supply them once per week and with limited stock covering both online and retail. This is another reason for the split but also explains why the store has almost no GW stock!

3) The recent move, while I believe is going well would be complicated by the Mealstrom/Eye Of The Storm split as its also effectively a new business start up with seperate finances, stocking, managemnet, staff, etc...

All told big things happening, issues will therefore arrise!

Mmmmm I phoned GW about point 2, Wasnt the only reason I called, but what the hell. They strongly disagreed with that statement lol. Mind you thats the same excuse I was given in April, they don't limit how much you can buy, they want your money. They do limit to weekly orders, unless its xmas.

Steve steveson wrote:
I'm sorry, but I don't buy that. Once a week ordering I can beleave, but limiting what they can buy? I'm sorry, but I don't buy that excuse at all. The only reason I can see for that is that they are as bad at paying their bills as they are at supplying customers so are on a tight credit limit.

Believe it. In many industries where the supplier has a retail interest of its own it will manage stock flow to its own advantage.

I come from a mobile phone background and exactly the same thing applies. You can order as many as you like, but you'll only get left overs once their own priorities are taken care of.

I recommend them myself, i normally get my stuff within the week, two weeks tops if its not in stock, thats plenty quick enough for my needs.

Steve steveson wrote:

Druidic wrote:

2l GW will only supply them once per week and with limited stock covering both online and retail. This is another reason for the split but also explains why the store has almost no GW stock!

I'm sorry, but I don't buy that. Once a week ordering I can beleave, but limiting what they can buy? I'm sorry, but I don't buy that excuse at all. The only reason I can see for that is that they are as bad at paying their bills as they are at supplying customers so are on a tight credit limit.

Well that is the case, GW do not always have an infinate amount of everything to hand all the time, as is the case with a few companies that i am aware of.

GW definitely did limit the amount of finecast models a ail able to each outlet, certainly to begin with. I can also see this being true with some advance order releases and obviously limited releases.

To say this is true of generic stock doesn't seem to run true though. Some business make it a policy of ordering stock to meet orders to minimise stock liabilty held and reduce storage costs.

Maelstrom have always had a small storage area since the Eye of the Storm opened.

2+2 seems to = they blame someone else for their stock policy. Hopefully this will change with the new warehouse.

I still use them but won't pretend they don't have their faults.

The last couple of orders I placed with Maelstrom took nearly 3 weeks to arrive, but the items were out of stock, so can't be helped really. Thankfully I wasn't in a real hurry for it.

They do seem to have 'slipped' a bit recently on the speed front, but with the couple of minor issues I've had with orders, a quick phone call got the problem sorted PDQ, so I can't fault then there.

I always assumed they were, in some ways a victim of their own success, so to speak, but hopefully this upcoming move will get things back on track.

Can't comment on how true the statement is, just reporting what I was told.

Could easily believe it however, GW could easily restrict 3rd party discounters in favour of their own stores for example, depends if they are having their own stock issues, which I'd nit know about.

Try giftsforgeeks or wayland games

If you order from Wayland, email them first and confirm that the items you want are actually physically in stock. Do not go by the little green dots claiming the items are regular stock. They are not.

Thanks for this thread and all the tips in it - it was a good reminder to contact Maelstrom about my own order.

Over 2 months now waiting for a Hordes heavy and some bases. But that may be the manufacturer unable to supply them - still be nice to know if that is the case.