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I have played warhammer for a decade so far, and my experiences with GW customer service were generally positive,
that is until recently...

It started when last month I began to build my Tau army, bought 2 boxes of battalions and few boxes of crisis suits.
For anyone that has experience with Crisis Suit should know the problem with the jump back, as very often its warped closer to V shaped
instead of a straight flat surface. This was probably caused by the jump back's 2 vents "pulling" back the piece as it cooled.
Not only did it warp the piece, it also served as a reinforcement to keep it warped, like the supports of Golden Gate Bridge...

Initially before I assembled it, I showed it to the staff, the guy seems confident about bending it back with force. We knew super glue wouldn't hold
while it cured, so we used plastic cement and rubber bands. Still didn't work, well atleast it is in one piece so I could game with it in the store.
Then the next attempt to "repair" it was with Green Stuff which I brought, we tried to fill in the gaps, looked awful. The store staff was nice enough
to help using their liquid green stuff, but it didn't help much. By then I felt like I have wasted enough of staff's time and felt bad about it to bring up how bad it looks,
so I mentioned whether if its easier for them to replace it with a none warped one. They responded no, it looked ok and they couldn't promise a none defective one knowing
how faulty the Crisis Suits are. The gamers in the store heard the conversation and told me try giving Customer Service a Call, so I did.

Here is the conversation with GW Customer service.
I explained everything to GW CS like I did in the previous paragraph.
CS said they'll send in the new jump pack area.
I told them its plastic cemented and green stuffed.
CS said " plastic cement? we don't sell that"
I responded, its with Testor Plastic Cement because it has stronger hold.
CS said (and this made me frustrated) "If you used GW glue, you could have taken them off, but you used none GW product"
Then he asked whether the arms and legs are glued on. Which I responded everything is glued because I needed to game with them.
Again, any crisis suit owners would know, the limb joints are ball socketed, and really fragile. Any attempt to pull them off would just snap the neck of the ball joint.
Then the customer support told me that I should have dry fitted it, if it didn't fit, I shouldn't have glued it. Which I again, reminded him that
the only reason it was glued was because the staff thought we could fix them. Oh believe me, I know what a proper fitting crisis suit looks like, and I would rather
have THAT than spending hours fixing something that ends up looking like gack.

So what do I do now?

Balls to the excuse of "we can't replace it if you used non-GW glue". They're legally obliged to exchange a faulty product.

call again and say the whole model was warped and that you didnt glue it together

Ummm... They do sell plastic cement:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat470007a&prodId=prod1010001a

Otherwise known as polly cement, plastic glue, Butanone, methyl ethyl ketone or MEK.

Send them an email with a picture of the problem, explaining how you tryed to fix it and they will Send you a replacement. They may ask for the one you have to be sent back.

Given the expirince I, and many others, have had with GW shops I am supprised they would not replace it in the shop and that GW customer service don't know their products.

Yeah, that's total BS. They've sent me out entire sprues out when I had problems with a tiny missing piece. And they won't send you out something that was obviously defective. Call back.

Here's my advice with Customer Service call centers...always call back if you don't get the service you think you're entitled to. Not all agents are created equal, some agents don't even know all of the things they are and are not allowed to do - hence previous statement. Some agents are nasty (because you've caught them at the wrong time - ie. they're having a bad day, or they're just naturally that way) Also sometimes the people you initially get on the phone actually don't have the power to provide what you've asked of them (although in GWs case I've never had to do this) and you have to go to the next level of support. If you're not getting the assistance you need then politely ask to speak to a supervisor and see what they can do for you.

It's my understanding that stores both in the U.S. and U.K. have to replace the item you purchased in the store.

Ask for the Manager / Regional Managers phone number if they don't. (They may buy you lunch if you have a bad experience)

Darkness wrote:call again and say the whole model was warped and that you didnt glue it together

They did ask for my name, and name of the GW store I bought at. I'll give them 1 week working days to see what they are going to do.

Emerett wrote:It's my understanding that stores both in the U.S. and U.K. have to replace the item you purchased in the store.

Ask for the Manager / Regional Managers phone number if they don't. (They may buy you lunch if you have a bad experience)

I really don't want it to escalate to that point. I game at the store at least 3 days a week, and the staff are nice people.

Also if Im not mistaken, Owen IS the regional manager, so it did already reach that point?

I'll just wait alittle longer, I can play with other armies.

How nice can they be if they won't replace a gakky model they sold you?

Emerett wrote:How nice can they be if they won't replace a gakky model they sold you?

I can't ignore the effort they put into fixing it though, even if the outcome is ineffective.
Which lead me to think whether there is more to the policy then we know about.

Hmm, I can understand why you don't want to annoy the store staff, but at the same time, they are doing a job when they game with you. Besides, if your complaint is with customer service instead of them then they shouldn't be too involved.

Personally, I've had stuff replaced on the spot at stores twice now because I refused to except anything less...Of course, I don't game there...and I buy online now thanks to the advice of Dakka...

Jihadnik wrote:Hmm, I can understand why you don't want to annoy the store staff, but at the same time, they are doing a job when they game with you. Besides, if your complaint is with customer service instead of them then they shouldn't be too involved.

Personally, I've had stuff replaced on the spot at stores twice now because I refused to except anything less...Of course, I don't game there...and I buy online now thanks to the advice of Dakka...

I have seen the attitude they have towards exchanges, most recently the recent release of Mounted Spacewolf Lord.
After the customer left, the staff that did the exchange was making fun of the customer for been a perfectionist. The other staff went and take a look at
the exchanged product and agreed it is defective, but not something hard to fix. Of course the customers that was painting heard it, and made a quick joke on Finecast and price should mean perfect product.

So ya... I don't want hard feelings or complications. If possible, I would leave the store staff out of this.

Oh look, just another reason to spit in every RedShirts face.

Mocking a customer in front of another customer is required termination at every customer service job I've ever worked.

Almost every crisis battlesuit backpack has the same problem... and every multi-tracker has little holes in it... (Or at least all of my 11 do.)

Chances are if you get another crisis suit you'll have the same problems.

If you have a messed up multi-tracker (as most people do) just tell customer service that your crisis suit has holes in it...


Also, in my experience, a healthy dose of superglue has always held the backpack together really well. I would give it a shot.

Jihadnik wrote:Personally, I've had stuff replaced on the spot at stores twice now because I refused to except anything less...Of course, I don't game there...and I buy online now thanks to the advice of Dakka...

I think the moral of the story here is never settle for anything less than an adequate product.

Also when dealing with customer service staff, try not to let them take the lead in a conversation otherwise more often than you’ll usually be fobbed off (especially with call centre staff as all they’re interested in is getting good stats, nothing else). Also use good reasoning with your responses and avoid “flying off the handle” at all costs. Trust me as someone who has worked in the customer service industry for 5 years, I can safely say this is the best approach to actually get results.

Yep, completely agree, I am a CSR as part of my job as well, and I am more than happy to help people that are reasonable because that's my job, but when people are rude then that all changes!

Strange outcome, especially considering that GW Customer Service is usually one of their few really strong points. I second (or third/fourth) the suggestion to call again and see if you get a different person and outcome.

The only problem I could see though is the fact that you did assemble it. I have no idea on GWs policy, but I could see a company arguing that "if you glued it together, then you accepted and/or altered the product and we are no longer responsible for it". My personal policy is that as soon as I find out something is broken/missing I don't do anything else with the product until I talked to the company.

I know you needed it to game, and I am not known for white knighting GW, but making an argument of "It was good enough for you to assemble and play with, why should we replace it now?" is not unreasonable. But it sounds like they didn't even come up with that excuse.

But yeah, call them again and see if you can get a better result. Good luck to you and I hope you get your problem taken care of.

Take a straight razor and scrap it back and forth across the backplate of the model...... The "Ridge" that creates the gap on one side when glued together becomes almost no existent...

You will be taking of a grey dust almost as you scrape away... Keep test fitting it until yo are happy......

Bitching to GW WILL NOT FIX THIS ISSUE. It has been around since time began.

Either play with the gap or fix it yourself.

Could we possibly get pictures of these problem areas? I have about 8ish crisis suit sprues (mostly through buying forgeworld models) but I have never seen any problem (except for the weird indentations on the size of the jump pack under the 'screw head' thingie) and I dont quite understand what exactly the problem with your models is. Also since these are plastics I'm very surprised to hear about any warping.

95% of XV8's suffer from this and it is well documented all over the net..... There are mutiple DIY fixes.... The easiest being the one I mentioned earlier.

Just type it in on google.

Out of all the things to hate GW for.. its rare for it to be their customer service. GW CS is usually extremely good

I'd echo what Dusa said in terms of having opened, glued and used the product.
Im not falling on either side of the fence tbh but I can see it from Gws point of view in relation to setting a precedent for customer services.
Imagine if everyone opened a product slapped it together and then wanted a refund/replacement due to minor (or major) flaws.

Im not saying they are right in what they said to you but its an angle to conisder.

I'd call this a case of giving them too much information... once they said they were willing to send you a replacement you didn't need to tell them any more. More often than not they'll just send you a whole new sprue anyways because its just easier.

Ratius wrote:I'd echo what Dusa said in terms of having opened, glued and used the product.

Sadly,which only occurred after the staff reassured me the issue was fixable.
Lets just hope the CS doesn't turn out to be unprofessional.

Milisim wrote:Take a straight razor and scrap it back and forth across the backplate of the model...... The "Ridge" that creates the gap on one side when glued together becomes almost no existent...

You will be taking of a grey dust almost as you scrape away... Keep test fitting it until yo are happy......

Bitching to GW WILL NOT FIX THIS ISSUE. It has been around since time began.

Either play with the gap or fix it yourself.

What if I lack the skills to fix it? Even the staff couldn't.

aka_mythos wrote:I'd call this a case of giving them too much information... once they said they were willing to send you a replacement you didn't need to tell them any more. More often than not they'll just send you a whole new sprue anyways because its just easier.

For what ever reason they asked me for the extra details, its alright with me. They are helping me, I'll return the favor.

To the OP:

Just so you know, Owen is not the regional manager, nor does that position exist in GW North America.

Owen used to be a regional manager but with the amalgamation of GW Canada into GW US, he is now a Store Manager.

The old Area Manager and Regional Manager positions were consolidated into about 6 Director for Growth positions.

I am not quite sure what you refer to SKILL LEVEL...

You take a razor and scrape the ridge.... It will over time flatten the ridge so there is no gap.....

There is no skill involved.

You could also use sandpaper if you wish....

If I can fix them then so can you... I have no practical skills or a BA in sandpiper.

Milisim wrote:I am not quite sure what you refer to SKILL LEVEL...

You take a razor and scrape the ridge.... It will over time flatten the ridge so there is no gap.....

There is no skill involved.

You could also use sandpaper if you wish....

If I can fix them then so can you... I have no practical skills or a BA in sandpiper.

Why would a customer waste time fixing something that was manufactured faulty? I think I did enough?

ÆΞØИ wrote:

Milisim wrote:I am not quite sure what you refer to SKILL LEVEL...

You take a razor and scrape the ridge.... It will over time flatten the ridge so there is no gap.....

There is no skill involved.

You could also use sandpaper if you wish....

If I can fix them then so can you... I have no practical skills or a BA in sandpiper.

Why would a customer waste time fixing something that was manufactured faulty? I think I did enough?

Was it faulty enough to prevent you from:

1) paying for it
2) putting it together
3) playing with it

That to me is the biggest problem at this point, and I really don't mean to white knight GW.

ÆΞØИ wrote:

Milisim wrote:I am not quite sure what you refer to SKILL LEVEL...

You take a razor and scrape the ridge.... It will over time flatten the ridge so there is no gap.....

There is no skill involved.

You could also use sandpaper if you wish....

If I can fix them then so can you... I have no practical skills or a BA in sandpiper.

Why would a customer waste time fixing something that was manufactured faulty? I think I did enough?

That's a good question - Why did you waste time trying to fix something that was badly manufactured?

I can see it from GWs point of view really, they only have your word you didn't cause the problem.

The shop staff seem to be the ones at fault here, they should never have told you to try and fix it. When they did, and it failed, they should have sorted a replacement out for you.

To the last 3 posters.

I did ask for exchange prior to even assembling them, the store staff was the one that refused to do so, and attempt to fix it together in store.

So now it is my fault?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

d-usa wrote:Was it faulty enough to prevent you from:

1) paying for it
2) putting it together
3) playing with it

That to me is the biggest problem at this point, and I really don't mean to white knight GW.

1) Of course we have to pay for the product before we get to open them, at-least that is the policy for almost everything...
2) Before putting it together, I showed it to the staff. Now, this isn't my first time seeing this issue with crisis suit.
If the staff says he rather attempt to fix it, I let him. I mentioned to the staff(s) multiple times for exchange with a proper one.
3) So I cant play with something I bought? because it was faulty and I wasn't allowed to exchange it on the spot, whose fault do you think it is?

Let me be clear one thing.

I rather have a proper product, assemble it, and play it.
None of the events that transpired are my choice.