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What the subject says. Has anyone else experienced problems?
I have been bying from them for two years now and not had any big problems but now I ordered some stuff (around 500Euros worth) on the 19th of September and the last 4 models (finecast if it matters) have still not been dispatched yet. Seeing as I live in Greece if they are dispatched as we speak they will arrive next Tueday earliest 50days since I ordered....
I contacted them a number of times but they just promissed to speed up rather than offer an explanation.

Can't offer much other than that I live within a five minutes walk of Maelstrom.

I had this problem with out of stock minis (wyrd). Took a month to get the products in. I now only ever buy in stock items and pay first class postage, that seems to put the order at a higher priority ( I put in two orders on friday, one with First Class, one without [I'd forgotten some of the minis I wanted] While all the items were in stock, I have the first class items with me now, but the others have yet to be dispatched!)

Finecast has limitations set on it by GW. Stores can only order a finite amount of stock each time they restock. To make matters more complicated, Maelstrom is only allowed to order new stock from GW once a week. Add to that GW's usual shenanigans, and you get delays in shipping.

Why would Maelstrom not let me know this? I have contacted them twice already (because a month after the order nothing had been sent) and all they said was: sorry we'll try harder.
If GW is being difficult, which I is probably true, why would Maelstrom take the hit for them?

H.B.M.C. wrote:Finecast has limitations set on it by GW. Stores can only order a finite amount of stock each time they restock. To make matters more complicated, Maelstrom is only allowed to order new stock from GW once a week. Add to that GW's usual shenanigans, and you get delays in shipping.

With their BS to Independant retailers I wonder why anyone bothers stocking GW stuff...

GW stores will eventually die off and GW should be making friends with Indeps

sn0zcumb3r wrote:Why would Maelstrom not let me know this? I have contacted them twice already (because a month after the order nothing had been sent) and all they said was: sorry we'll try harder.

That I can't explain. The last delay I had from Maelstrom was a Privateer Press model that was out of stock, and there were separate reasons for that that I knew of already but they never wrote to explain it.

sn0zcumb3r wrote:If GW is being difficult, which I is probably true, why would Maelstrom take the hit for them?

Did I mention that they're only allowed to restock once a week? Think about that for a second - a business where you sell so much that only being able to restock once a week becomes a major hassle. I'm sure most businesses would love to be in a position where their biggest problem is not being able to get stock in fast enough to meet demand.

Of course, with their loss of overseas sales, I can't imagine their bottom line is looking as healthy now as it was this time last year.

50 days, wow! thats like 6 once a week restocks! (and that is counting Saturdays and Sundays).

Other mail order companies issue delayed stock notifications. Hell, they even communicate delivery times in some cases. Being proactive in this area is a lot better than reacting to customer complaints.

Mr. Burning wrote:50 days, wow! thats like 6 once a week restocks! (and that is counting Saturdays and Sundays).

Other mail order companies issue delayed stock notifications. Hell, they even communicate delivery times in some cases. Being proactive in this area is a lot better than reacting to customer complaints.

Maelstrom has real time inventory stock Online... So I don't know how much info can you have apart when restock is due... I only buy instock stuff that has more than 3 or 4 units...

But still mate 7 weeks?
They knew what I had ordered so they must have restocked several times in this period. Why did they not get my stuff? Unless of course GW is making it unavailable to them. But if they did that to me I certainly would be letting my customers know that they are the cause of the problem.

NAVARRO wrote:
Maelstrom has real time inventory stock Online... So I don't know how much info can you have apart when restock is due... I only buy instock stuff that has more than 3 or 4 units...

They claim to have real time inventory. There's been at least a couple of occasions that I've cancelled orders from Maelstrom because this wasn't accurate. Each time I picked out items that were supposedly 'in stock' on the website, but then 2-3 weeks later they tell me that they're still awaiting stock from GW.

sn0zcumb3r wrote:But still mate 7 weeks?
They knew what I had ordered so they must have restocked several times in this period. Why did they not get my stuff? Unless of course GW is making it unavailable to them. But if they did that to me I certainly would be letting my customers know that they are the cause of the problem.

I know , not trying to make up excuses for them, just saying if you want things asap you better make sure its instock, for example PP is a nightmare to refill stocks and many times items are totally outofstock at suppliers so I don't take that chance and order things I have no idea when they will be restocked at Mael ( they even post out of stock at supplier in items) Better avoid those.

xttz wrote:

NAVARRO wrote:
Maelstrom has real time inventory stock Online... So I don't know how much info can you have apart when restock is due... I only buy instock stuff that has more than 3 or 4 units...

They claim to have real time inventory. There's been at least a couple of occasions that I've cancelled orders from Maelstrom because this wasn't accurate. Each time I picked out items that were supposedly 'in stock' on the website, but then 2-3 weeks later they tell me that they're still awaiting stock from GW.

Well if you order a hot item that has few units you are taking the risk that when it comes to your turn to pack and ship to you its out of stock... I follow items I like and for example when I place a order on a item no one buys or moves very slowly when things are shipped I notice the availability number decreases...

Updated:
I sent them an email requesting some explanation and expressing my disappointment. I asked that should they not be able to send the stuff this week to return the money to my account. They respoded with a simple:
We will return the money to your account.

Sad really, I've done alot of good business with them.

Eh, you should have just been a little bit more patient. Once I had to wait 2 months for something to arrive, but eventually it did and it was all fine. Of course, with the savings I was getting from Maelstrom, I was willing to put up with any amount of waiting. Until the embargo anyways. :(

Two things here..
a)It's 2 months! I dont save that much to make it worth while. I am in fact going on holiday next week and will be away for another 2 weeks. I could have probably ordered now, used the Christmas coupon and end up collecting the models at the same time.
b) I would have probably waited since it's been good so far but I want to be informed. And at least when I enquire and then complain, I would like to know why this happened and what can be done for now and the future rather than the "that's how things are, take it or leave it" response I got.

I live in Australia and these guys were my first choice before GW's RoW Policies came out. I never had any issues, was a standard 3 week wait on items but that is usual waiting from UK to Aus.

They once sent me a wrong Airbrush paint (a single small bottle in an order of about 15 paints) and they sent the entire order of paints again with no questions asked. I thought it was great service.

Because of the GW policy on once a week restocks I have been waiting since the end of May for two boxes of Wracks from Maelstrom.

I also live in Australia, and I'm afraid I and my friends have never had a 'smooth' transaction through Maelstrom.

I've had standard wait times of around 3 months to get my gear (often taking over 3 weeks to get a 'dispatched' email). However, my record was up until recently when I purchased some P3 paints and was told the order was 'split' as they did not have that particular paint in stock. That was in June 2010. About a month ago, after repeated months of asking for a refund - I was finally responded to.

My experiences have lead me to have little faith in the company and I simply do not use them anymore.
I do not recommend them.

~Ghost

PLC wrote:Because of the GW policy on once a week restocks I have been waiting since the end of May for two boxes of Wracks from Maelstrom.

Finecast operates in a different way to the rest of GW's product lines. Plus, as I said, GW likes to feth Maelstrom around.

A while back I ordered two Honoured Imperium sets - the Space Marine statues. Took months for them to ship. The explanation? GW were deciding whether or not to make them direct only, and after umming and arring about it for two months they decided against it. A week later stock appears, it shipped the next day, two weeks later I had my statues.

I've found their service over the last 6 months disgraceful at best. From buying stuff on their ebay store to then be told 2 monhts later it was not in stock in the first place and they have not had it in to constantly getting the wrong stuff sent, taking ages to be dispatched to the general lack of customer service.

The number of emails I have sent that have had a read receipt attached only to get the read notification but never any replies is infuriating.

Maelstrom is gak anyways. Try Waylandgames

NAVARRO wrote: not trying to make up excuses for them, just saying if you want things asap you better make sure its instock

NAVARRO wrote:Well if you order a hot item that has few units you are taking the risk that when it comes to your turn to pack and ship to you its out of stock...

Ronin wrote:Eh, you should have just been a little bit more patient. Once I had to wait 2 months for something to arrive, but eventually it did and it was all fine.

I have no idea why you guys would rationalize mediocrity like this. "not making excuses for them, but if it shows in stock and it's actually not in stock, it's your fault for not following their stock levels around for a while to try and predict which it would be"? 2 damn months for an order to ship, and "he should have been a little more patient"?

These sorts of excuses are why customer service in this industry generally remains what it is. Why feed them steak when they'll eat gak?

My advice: Since they showed as in-stock when you ordered them, you should have called them to check status after 10 days and then called to cancel the other (and do a credit card dispute) by the 15th. I'd rectify that ASAP.

I ordered once with Maelstrom when they had some giant sale. Same nonsense - Everything was in stock, yet it took them 3 weeks to actually ship my stuff. Ridiculous, I never ordered from them again, and I don't care what their discount is.

I have no beef with slow shipping, per se, so long as they keep expectations reasonable. When I ordered my Zuzzy mat, it said right on the front of the page (before I paid a cent) that they were backed up and it would take 6 to 8 weeks. No problem. If there is a reason they can't ship in a reasonable time frame, they need to communicate with their customers to advise them of such and offer a chance to cancel the orders.

I have used Maelstrom many times and rarely found their turn around to be that sharp, usually being up to a week later than you might have hoped/expected.

Having spoken to a few that have been there I understand that their storage area is not particularly large so they will inevitably have trouble with during high demand periods and with popular items.

GW only restocking items once a week and using this is such an excuse for excusing Maelstrom's poor service smacks of being a bit blinkered, White Knighting even. Rightly GW were not happy being used as a "just-in-time" service for internet retailers and changed accordingly. Maelstrom not reacting to this and ordering suitable stock levels is only an indictment on Maelstrom.

Conversely I have never had such problems with Wayland and having toured their Warehouse and seen the stock can see why.

Ouze wrote:

NAVARRO wrote: not trying to make up excuses for them, just saying if you want things asap you better make sure its instock

NAVARRO wrote:Well if you order a hot item that has few units you are taking the risk that when it comes to your turn to pack and ship to you its out of stock...

Ronin wrote:Eh, you should have just been a little bit more patient. Once I had to wait 2 months for something to arrive, but eventually it did and it was all fine.

I have no idea why you guys would rationalize mediocrity like this. "not making excuses for them, but if it shows in stock and it's actually not in stock, it's your fault for not following their stock levels around for a while to try and predict which it would be"? 2 damn months for an order to ship, and "he should have been a little more patient"?

These sorts of excuses are why customer service in this industry generally remains what it is. Why feed them steak when they'll eat gak?

Sorry Ouze your mixing things really... First my post was not intended to excuse bad service it was intended to help out the OP in future purchases he may want to do there ( because you know the prices are damn sweet).
If he wants to dodge the waiting times and take advantage of maelstrom prices it would be wise to check if items have a good supply there and if they are in stock... Thats different from saying ITS your fault for not looking at stick levels! Its more like - man go that way to avoid traffic... ( but traffic always suck thats not the point here)
So far for me the turn around has been just 2 or 3 of weeks since I buy instock stuff but I'm not a heavy buyer and buy many things in many stores... For me Maelstrom service so far has been positive because they are HONEST even if a little slow in comparison to other stores, and the prices are great.

Maelstrom, Waylands, Battlefield berlin, Heresy miniatures, Ludik bazar, antenocitti are some examples of different generic stores that have positive levels of service that I used... some slower some faster some cheaper etc but all of those so far have been legit biz that are not there to fool you and that counts for something in net shopping.

@PLC What? May?! And your still wainting? I guess though for those of you down under it must be hard to get stuff without paying GW "extra" prices.

I don't have a problem with postage times. Since I am in Europe it arrives in Greece they day after it is shipped, and the takes 4 days to arrive at my post office. Either way I would not hold them responsible for shipping.

Maelstrom run a very small building. Often when I pop in after work, their deliveries are outside awaiting pick up from the couriers or are awaiting to be placed inside for stock. It's not much of an excuse but they are running on tight space. Beyond that, I can offer no other explanation other than that they struggle with the demands.

However, I will offset this by saying that in person - they're some of the nicest chaps!

On both points this dovetails from what I have heard (from their competitors no less).

Explain?

Eiríkr wrote:Maelstrom run a very small building. Often when I pop in after work, their deliveries are outside awaiting pick up from the couriers or are awaiting to be placed inside for stock. It's not much of an excuse but they are running on tight space. Beyond that, I can offer no other explanation other than that they struggle with the demands.

However, I will offset this by saying that in person - they're some of the nicest chaps!

I stopped using Maelstrom after the Ebay stunt they pulled with me.

Firestorm games who I use now run a very small brick and morter shop and everytime I order something from them that is in stock it is despatched the same day.

Eiríkr wrote:Explain?

Well, it's not unusual for competitors to check out the opposition.

Truth be told I think someone went to one of Maelstrom's many Tournaments.