Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've never ordered from wayland games but I thought I'd give them a go. I ordered six or so items that had "green" availability ("High Availability: If in stock should ship in 1-5 working days, if not then 3-9"). Anyways, that was 14 days ago. The message for the last two weeks on the order is "Awaiting stock." So I thought I might contact them to see if there was perhaps one niggling item that could be dropped from the order so the rest could be shipped. Then I found this gem in their helpdesk section:

If you can please avoid raising "Where is my order" tickets for items awaiting stock as staff can either pack or answer tickets and every ticket they dont have to answer really speeds up the packing process.

Well feth, maybe if you wouldn't list something as highly available that is out of stock then I wouldn't want to contact you.

Is this an aberrant experience with wayland or is it par for the course with them?

crazy idea, but why not email wayland games and ask them?

Also, they are based in the UK arnt they? So its going to take much longer to reach you.

Skippy wrote:crazy idea, but why not email wayland games and ask them?

Also, they are based in the UK arnt they? So its going to take much longer to reach you.

I live in Ireland. I'll email them, but you did see the part above that I helpfully quoted from Wayland actively discouraging customers from contacting them?

Its an oft asked question - here is the thread last time someone asked this:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/440393.page

Rich, the owner, posted a good response to some of the questions raised.

In answer, I use Wayland as a preference to Maelstrom but to be honest, they have their ups and downs; sometimes slow, sometimes quick. Hopefully, when they move to their new warehouse and new website, things will be a bit better.

As always, if your time is at a premium then order direct. If you don't mind waiting and would rather save the money, go to a 3rd party seller. It's a question of how much your time is worth to you I guess.

Email and confirm that everything is indeed in stock before you place an order. And don't accept any answer less than a confirmation of actual product in stock. The stock indicators on their website are insufficient and shouldn't be trusted.

And even then, Maelstrom or Dark Sphere would probably be better.

Wayland are pretty good IMO.

More stock than Dark Shpere (having been to both), Maelstrom seem to take their time as well sometimes.

Although it has moved on since the Mail Order days (with 28 day turn arounds!) we never going to get an instant turn around in a relatively small industry like this i'm sorry to say - outside of GW direct that is.

notprop wrote:
Although it has moved on since the Mail Order days (with 28 day turn arounds!) we never going to get an instant turn around in a relatively small industry like this i'm sorry to say - outside of GW direct that is.

Yes that's very true actually, I think we are spoiled these days with the fast turn-around times. Some of my first orders from GW were cut out order forms from the back of WD, then put in an envelope and off it went, sometimes it took bloody ages!

I still have some of the old triplicate mail order forms they would send out with each order as well as the "catalogue" pages they would announce new minis on. Sad really.

What was sad was coming home from school every day to find once again your mighty fortress hadn't arrived for the third week running!

My first experience with them wasn't great with an order taking two weeks to arrive. Since then however every order has been quick and customer service has been quick to respond.

Yup, this is standard for Wayland. It's all because they've been in the middle of a warehouse move for the past 5 years, apparently.

They did move a couple of years ago and are up sizing again.

I wish they would hurry up cos it isn't far from me and I am looking forward to the games area that they were talking about.

olympia wrote:I've never ordered from wayland games but I thought I'd give them a go. I ordered six or so items that had "green" availability ("High Availability: If in stock should ship in 1-5 working days, if not then 3-9"). Anyways, that was 14 days ago. The message for the last two weeks on the order is "Awaiting stock." So I thought I might contact them to see if there was perhaps one niggling item that could be dropped from the order so the rest could be shipped. Then I found this gem in their helpdesk section:

If you can please avoid raising "Where is my order" tickets for items awaiting stock as staff can either pack or answer tickets and every ticket they dont have to answer really speeds up the packing process.

Well feth, maybe if you wouldn't list something as highly available that is out of stock then I wouldn't want to contact you.

Is this an aberrant experience with wayland or is it par for the course with them?

Hi Olympia,

I have to point out that we are running a free shipping promotion currently and it does say on the terms and conditions of the code that orders will take a few days longer than normal. We don't try and stop you contacting us, we have dedicated customer service staff that will answer your questions, but if your order is within the time scales we indicate etc then it helps reduce the load on the guys answering the phones and emails significantly. We do get the occasionally odd ticket asking where an order is in the morning when the order was placed late the night before, and though we are always keen to improve turnaround times the expectations of customers cannot be met in all situations.

Another poster has made a remark about us been moving for the last 5 years.... Well we opened nearly 4 years ago and we are about to move into our 5th warehouse, so we have since opening been preparing for a move of some sort at all times. I have had enough of it, so we have leapt into a huge warehouse so that we don't have to consider moving for a long long time. It should make a huge difference very quickly post move.

In general I've found Wayland to be faster than Maelstrom but that's after Maelstrom didn't ship one of the products I've ordered for 3 months -_- Right now Maelstrom and Wayland are both holding onto items I've ordered though, which is weird cause Wayland's shop still shows it as IN STOCK even when i've ordered it 10 days ago and it hasn't shipped at all

As I posted the last time this question was raised:

Customers should bear in mind that the stock indicator says the following:

Stock status legend:
High Availability: If in stock should ship in 1-5 working days, if not then 3-9.
Ordered In: Special orders from suppliers, should ship in 3-12 working days
Expected Soon: Resupply expected, should ship in 7-14 working days
Pre-Order Only: This item will be shipped when released to us by the supplier
Out of Stock: This item is presently unavailable

Note that says "if in stock", no "in stock, guaranteed to ship in x days".

Yes, the fact that this legend does not guarantee current stock levels may be frustrating, but when you deal in the number of products that Wayland keeps, the amount of man power required to ensure that every single item is correct 24/7 is, I think, a little over expectant of us end users. We need to remember that not every company is the massive corporate being that we automatically assume every business with a decent website is.

Sometimes it takes a while, i would not say it was crap, this is pretty much par for the course with mail order shops that deal GW stuff isnt it ?

I must be the only person on this site never to have had a problem with wayland and I've ordered with them at least 12 times. I've probably jinxed myself now

And no, I don't work for them!

I think Wayland is great, but always when ordering from a net store, be prepared to wait several weeks. My all time low was waiting almost two months for 4 Zoanthropes from Maelstrom. Apparently GW send very few Finecast models per week to independant retailers.

Of my 6 orders only 2 so far have been without problems, for a company advertising themselves as Europe's leading supplier the service i have gotten has been terrible.

In response to Rich, Maybe make sure you can handle the extra load when you run an offer, it may also be helpful to leave a few staff working the backlog next time there is a convention like Salute instead of shutting down completely.

I like Wayland, they are slow but like other have said i think people have just got used to Amazon/GW style delivery times.

The discount, plus the regular postage discount offers, is why I keep going back.

I don't know if Sphere and Maelstrom do postage offer, anyone? but i just had a look on all three sited to buy a Blood angels Battle Force and Codex. with Waylands current Free shipping it came out the cheapest by £3, Maelstrom had neither item in stock and sphere was cheaper but the cost of the postage pushed it up.

Maelstrom do free shipping on orders over £10, not used darksphere.

Maelstrom like wayland take your money before dispatch but in my experience have been more helpful and quicker for items in stock.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
This is a quote of a reply from wayland games regarding an order my friend made
"Our website, at this time, doesnt have a live stock level or advise of whether stock is available"

i have also gotten this reply. both of our orders were placed last week and we both only ordered items showing as in stock. both orders now show as awaiting stock with no clear response on if our items are in stock or not.

olympia wrote:

Skippy wrote:crazy idea, but why not email wayland games and ask them?

Also, they are based in the UK arnt they? So its going to take much longer to reach you.

I live in Ireland. I'll email them, but you did see the part above that I helpfully quoted from Wayland actively discouraging customers from contacting them?

Ah ok, your little flag shows you as being in america to me.

The one thing I've ordered from them did take a few days to arrive, but they are cheap so i wasn't too bothered.

I wouldn't care about a thing asking me to not email, if id been waiting what I considered to be too long I'd email, phone, write or whatever it took to get an answer.

filbert wrote:Its an oft asked question - here is the thread last time someone asked this:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/440393.page

Rich, the owner, posted a good response to some of the questions raised.

In answer, I use Wayland as a preference to Maelstrom but to be honest, they have their ups and downs; sometimes slow, sometimes quick. Hopefully, when they move to their new warehouse and new website, things will be a bit better.

As always, if your time is at a premium then order direct. If you don't mind waiting and would rather save the money, go to a 3rd party seller. It's a question of how much your time is worth to you I guess.

I completely agree with this. Although I do feel 3rd party services need to get their fingers out and start giving customers realistic delivery/shipping dates. It's a simple e-mail away. I think sometimes the 3rd parties think they will loose the sale if they are honest, but it's completely the other way round. I want cheap plastics, I'd just like a rough idea of when I'm getting them.

Oddly I also ordered a load of items about two weeks ago from Wayland and all of my orders are now "awaiting stock". The orders were both in the handled state for a while, but over this week they seem to have gone into their current one. What I ordered wasn't particularry obscure (chaos space marines and scouts), and I was told that they would be handled on the monday that just past there, but nothing seems to have had happened.

I guess its off to the support center again for me. =/

Edit: Wayland were quick with their responce on the issue and said that they have stock in on my order, just haven't had the time to update its status, which I'll assume is down to workload issues. =P

I've ordered from both Wayland and Maelstrom and found the former far superior. I think as someone has mentioned Amazon has spoiled everyone with a very slick operation and rapid delivery I've had nothing from Wayland that wasn't an acceptable length of time for delivery. Maelstrom on the other hand, well, this isn't the thread for that!

.

The only thing wrong with Wayland is that you can't trust their stock levels, you should expect delays and don't expect any real communication if you contact them.

If you're in the US or Canada, Miniature Market and the War Store. Both have real time stock levels, ship within 24 hours on all in stock items and have very economical shipping. Miniature Market does better to Canada for some reason. Both also have toll free numbers you can call from USA and Canada if you feel the need. When I've emailed either, the longest they ever took to respond was 18 hours (requesting a GW order spreadsheet as they can't have a shopping cart).

Wayland reminds of an online store stuck in 2002 failing to meet the standards of 2012.

Sattamassagana wrote:I've ordered from both Wayland and Maelstrom and found the former far superior. I think as someone has mentioned Amazon has spoiled everyone with a very slick operation and rapid delivery I've had nothing from Wayland that wasn't an acceptable length of time for delivery. Maelstrom on the other hand, well, this isn't the thread for that!

This men speaks the truth!

While both their customer services have been spot on in my experience, Wayland's shipping times is far less than Maelstrom's. I got to the point that I stopped ordering things from Maelstrom altogether since I had to wait several months on practically every single order I made!

Wayland never took more than about 2 weeks to get my lead crack delivered.

PhantomViper wrote:

Sattamassagana wrote:I've ordered from both Wayland and Maelstrom and found the former far superior. I think as someone has mentioned Amazon has spoiled everyone with a very slick operation and rapid delivery I've had nothing from Wayland that wasn't an acceptable length of time for delivery. Maelstrom on the other hand, well, this isn't the thread for that!

This men speaks the truth!

While both their customer services have been spot on in my experience, Wayland's shipping times is far less than Maelstrom's. I got to the point that I stopped ordering things from Maelstrom altogether since I had to wait several months on practically every single order I made!

Wayland never took more than about 2 weeks to get my lead crack delivered.

This man is a friend of mine and I can tell you: he speaks personal experience.

I switched away from Wayland because the kind of delivery issues Sattamassagana experienced with Maelstrom, I experienced with Wayland. They have been very spotty in their delivery times and accuracy of stock listing on their website for the orders I have placed with them, whereas Maelstrom has been generally superior. Frankly, I don't rate either of them very highly, and don't shop with either of them any more unless I can't obtain stuff from other sources.

I haven't had any problems with Maelstrom. As others have pointed out, it's a case of only ordering stuff that they have in stock. Otherwise, even though it might say available to order, they are at the whims of their supplier for that particular line - which I think is what causes the delay.

For me it's the inconsistency of the service, one order i placed was sent in 2 days and arrived on the third. but other orders have been terrible, items not in stock but showing as in stock. Orders held up for apparently no reason with the customer service just giving non answers.

I expect certain standards of service from all on and offline retailers and sadly Wayland have not meet them for most of my dealings with them. i shall not be using them again instead using Maelstrom and ebay.