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I am deeply unimpressed by the attitude of Maelstrom Games to customers who have paid for goods which don’t show up. I ordered a small package from them recently in order to get some kit for forthcoming flames of war tournament.
The package was marked as dispatched 1st class, but nearly a week later and there is still no sign of it. I’ve called into my local sorting office and they’ve confirmed they hold no parcels for my address.
Having rung Maelstrom to find out what the refund policy is, I was not impressed to be told that I cannot apply for a refund until 26 Jun as they will not refund until parcels are declared as lost. By this point my tournament will be about to start, so I’m effectively screwed.

I’ve paid for goods that haven’t arrived, and have been told that I can’t get a refund on those goods until the point of the tournament commencing. I don’t have the sort of ready spare cash to put a new order in, and while I can appreciate being expected to wait a week for a refund, I find the attitude of Maelstrom to be ‘rules are rules are rules and we’re not going to look at them’. I’m now in a position where my tournament chances are hugely damaged (the models were key to my list and plan), and now list submission has gone in, I cant change it around.

It’s a real shame that Maelstrom aren’t a tiny bit more flexible and try to do customer service in the manner of GW or Battlefront, both of whom have excellent customer service policies. By marked contrast to Maelstrom, they are willing to dispatch stock out in a realistic time to customers who’ve had stuff go missing, and who treat their customers with a bit of respect. Bottom line is that I’ve used Maelstrom a lot, had an average enough experience with them, but never had stuff go missing. Had they had a tiny bit of common sense and said ‘we can see you are a regular customer and we’ve never had any problems with your delivery before, we’ll take a refund / replacement on risk’, then I’d have been a happy customer. Instead, by acting with an attitude suggesting I may be trying it on for daring to suggest a parcel is missing and wanting a refund in sufficient time so that I can get my tournament models, Maelstrom have lost me as a customer for life.

I will not do business with an organisation that treats me with suspicion and is unwilling to act as if they have the best interests of the customer at heart. I strongly advise anyone considering doing business with them to perhaps consider trying another company instead. Very poor attitude, very poor customer service, bluntly they’re not a good bunch of people to do business with.

Hmm, delays seem to be par for the course with maelstrom.

First class sounds as if it might come with some sort of tracking. Tried that?

I've never had a problem, ever, with Maelstrom.
Not sure what the point of your thread is, jim30?

I think its bit harsh to blame them for not fitting into your schedule when they will actually sort this out for you eventually, they will not issue a refund until they are sure the Item is lost, which makes sense.
First class can also take more than a week, even more so if it was last week, as there were two bank holidays. Expecting them to sort the issue out after only a week is a bit too much in my opinion.

While I sympathise with your tournament position you have to admit it was pretty risky to order a bunch of stuff shortly before a major national holiday.

If you want reliable delivery you go to the shop, pay full retail, and carry your purchases home the same day.

Since the start of this year ive spent around £1,000 or so at maelstrom and im yet to have an issue with them.
Its also pretty rare to hear of issues with them, more so for UK customers, but these things do happen.

Also, they need things to be declared as lost before finishing it and re-sending another lot as there are dishonest people around.
A week to be solved? thats not bad.
Have you ever had to file a paypal dispute? takes alot longer.

I ordered a brush from Amazon which was dispatched 30th May - it didn't arrive until yesterday, 8th June. The two bank holidays had a huge effect on the post I think.

It's a bit unrealistic to expect anyone to refund an order before enough time has passed for the post office to declare it lost. I can tell you for a fact GW does not.

I don't blame Maelstrom. Did you expect them to think "what if one of our customers has a tournament soon?".

I can understand the logic behind the "no refund until package is declared as lost" as they could refund you and then it could be at your door tomorrow.

If it was a piece SO vital to your tournament army you should have bought it before the major holiday or picked it up in a store where there is no chance of it not turning up!

Brunius wrote:Hmm, delays seem to be par for the course with maelstrom.

First class sounds as if it might come with some sort of tracking. Tried that?

Nope. Non-tracked royal mail delivery.

I've had a lot of problems with delays in Maelstrom actually getting the stuff, but never a huge problem with shipping. As someone who sends books royal mail every day, I can tell you that the bank holidays impact royal mail shipping hugely. If the company shipped your items quickly, you've got no reason to begrudge them delays caused by two national bank holidays in a service that is run by somebody else.

Still not a fan of Maelstrom's stock keeping though, or Wayland's come to that. I think they're both servicing larger markets than they can handle these days.

Brunius wrote:
First class sounds as if it might come with some sort of tracking. Tried that?

Nope, as some guy above said, but Mealstrom do offer two more postage options, recorded delivery and special delivery a next day service if you require your stuff quicker then normal.

Royal Mail is probably at fault. Maelstroms refund policy on lost packages is due to royal mail not allowing them to report a package as lost until a certain amount of time has past.

htj wrote:Still not a fan of Maelstrom's stock keeping though, or Wayland's come to that. I think they're both servicing larger markets than they can handle these days.

I'd agree, packages that have been sent out take about the expected amount of time to come through the Royal Mail (between 1-2 weeks). The only problem I have ever had has been huge waits for MG to actually dispatch the order in the first place.

The problem isn't with Maelstrom, it's your unrealistic expectations.
If you wanted stuff by a definite date at short notice, you should have paid more for the postage to get SD.

I have to say my experience has been the opposite. Maelstrom customer service has been excellent with my past orders, esp in resolving errors (my own sometimes, others theirs).

I've had 2 large orders sent to australia in the past entirely replaced due to small errors on their part after a single email. I said it wasnt necessary to replace the entire order but they insisted, I was very impressed. I've never dealt with a lost Io order though.

I have to admit that I don't order as regularly now that gw has brought in the international restrictions, maybe their practices have changed. I hope your situation can be resolved soon jim!

I have ordered quite a lot from Maelstrom and from what I gather they are a very busy company. They are the slowest to ship of the companies I order from but offer the best discounts on most stuff. I order most items I want fast from a local distributor and get it in 1-2 days.

Never had a problem with lost parcels from them and sorry to hear that you have.

Nothing but great experiences with Malestrom here. Placed a couple large orders with them a little over a year ago when the USD/GBP exchange rate made buying from like about 30% GW US retail.

jim30 wrote: Maelstrom have lost me as a customer for life.

After reading your post, sounds like they're coming out ahead.

Why in heaven did you order online if you were in a hurry to get the stuff?

I ordered from Maelstrom exactly once. They were having a big sale and I decided to give them a try. They sat on the order for over 3 weeks, and then it took about a month for it to arrive. I don't mind the latter, but I was not pleased with the former and would definitely not use them again regardless of what the discount was over the Warstore. In the UK, I can't say.

That being said, expecting a "lost in the mail" replacement a week after it was sent is not a reasonable expectation.

I have had nothing by A-1 service from them. Order 3 times, got everything quite quickly even being in the US. Have no complaints.

angel of ecstasy wrote:Why in heaven did you order online if you were in a hurry to get the stuff?

My thoughts exactly, and if it was the only option, why not use special delivery which guarantees next day delivery ?

Delivery always takes ages, but it gets there in the end.

While its frustrating to not receive an order or to not be able to get a speedy refund, it is normal policy for a lot of companies to not issue an immediate refund. I do agree that sometimes companies do take time to ship the product out but in defense of wayland and maelstrom, if they had sent you a dispatch email it is now out of their hands and Royal Mail are the issue...

From past experience I have had to wait a long time for stuff to come through because the postal system in the UK is now shot to sh@t! I think Giving an extra week waiting time would be suffice enough then to go back to the company and state your case.

Regards

TSD

Note: I am in no way connected to these mentioned companies so have no need to defend. I'm just adding the point that the finger needs to be pointed at the Royal Mail service before customers slate companies online.

I am generally fine with Maelstrom, except that they usually take a lot of stuff for pre-order, but nothing happens several weeks after the release date. Recently they are getting a bit more negligent - I had two issues of wrong items (the first one I did not report - I got PSC 251/1D German APC carriers instead of PSC Panzer IV kit, but since I needed the APCs too, I just let it go. The second one was more difficult since I got Russian kit instead of German - got a prompt reply and replacement is underway). I believe that they are a bit overstretched lately, thus the issues, but in general their customer service is as good as the famous GW one.

I've never had a problem with Maelstrom up until this most recent order of mine. I've been waiting for over a month for it to be shipped now. I emailed them last week, and they told me that they'd have it shipped by the end of that week. Lo and behold, it's halfway through the following week and nothing.

They said the reason why was because an item I ordered was not in stock and they were waiting (for a full month?) for the back order to arrive, which is strange, since it was listed as being in stock when I placed my order.

Up until now, I've only ever had positive things to say about Maelstrom, but after this, I'm not sure if I'll continue to order from them.

Maelstrom have always given me a A1 service. When you order items you know if they are instock or not as it tells you on the ordering page. If you are in a hurry you have the option of selecting Raoyal Mail Special Delivery, but this is only any use if the item was in stock.

The only other company who I rate their customer service as good a Maelstroms is Sodapop's.

Another thumbs up with dealing with Maelstrom from me.

What you describe is standard practice in the UK. I've had packages lost from play.com and amazon.co.uk and had to wait 15 working days (in reality, 3 weeks) before I could claim a refund. The rules are here on the Royal Mail site on what to do around lost packages and the time before you can claim:
http://www.royalmail.com/customer-service/mail-late-lost

So while it is inconvenient, it is not unusual to wait some time before an item is declared lost (I've sent out an ebay auction, 1st recorded. It took 24 days to deliver the package!).

I think Maelstrom have fantastic customer service.

Even on an occasion where things where happening slowly they kept me infomed and split my order as things arrived in the shop.

I will continue to give them my custom any way.