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Well having now waited 17 days since the release and accepted that Games Workshop has limited its distribution to Independents so drastically that they then had to then bugger about with everyones orders and refund to those that wanted it or down grade it to the normal set, I have now spoken to Maelstrom Games. I spoke to a guy who had clearly read SO many complaint emails and listened to SO many people on the phone such as me that he really could not have given a monkies and spoke to me with such a dispondent tone that my anger was at near boiling point. Then when he LAUGHED at me I really thought I may lose my mind at his complete lack of interest or compassion for his customers. Why this guy is answering your phones Maelstrom I really absolutely baffled. I now will not recieve my order AT BEST till the middle of next week. So best case scenario it will be 26/27 days from the date of release. Cock up or no cock up, thats not good enough in anyone's books

This has left me with 2 conclusions

1st - Maelstrom make little or no contact with customers and expect that an insincere apology after I call them is good enough. I am glad I used my moneyback on the boxset as I wish to have no further business with them and will never condone or promote such woeful customer service. If there is a problem that is not your fault then don't just sit there with my money in your account and not tell me anything or keep me updated. Don't wait for me and many others to call/email you wanting answers or updates.

2nd - Games Workshop, who I don't have the highest opinion of in the first place have shown that actually they don't care about their customers either. Changing their delviery amount and delaying the delivery of the standard set at the 11th hour is not good for anyone. They hurt theirs and many other independents reputations.

I don't really play 40k anymore and actually wanted the box because I thought the terminators would be an awesome addition to my space hulk set and The cultists would make fantaatic necromunda gangs. The rest of the models are awesome and more than happy to have them in my possesion. I hate the big rule books and prefer the small ones you get with these sets. This is why I would not want to pay the full price with GW when I can get it all in for £19 less from Maelstrom.

Well done on making an exciting release an absolute cock up. RANT OVER

 lukewild1982 wrote:
Games Workshop, who I don't have the highest opinion of in the first place have shown that actually they don't care about their customers either.

Just now finding that out?

no that's why I don't have a high opinion of them already



Automatically Appended Next Post:
I decided that as it is my day off and I had sometime to kill I would actually call GW and express my displeasure at the way they treat the independents and muck them about.

As expected I got the ususal customer service bull

'sorry we don't have that information available'

'I am not able to confirm that sorry'

Then the guy said I know that they did sell out of the 9000 limited edition sets in essentially the blink of an eye.

He did not understand that this again displayed that GW does not understand it's customers. To sell out of something SO quick displays that you majorly got your numbers wrong and that it was a drastically TOO limited run and they could have made themselves a serious amount more money had they doubled/trebled/quadrupled the run. 9000 units on a worldwide release is quite ridiculously limited, especially as its not limited in the sense of trying to make it become a collectors item but actually to promote early sales. Anything of a genuine limited run would be a numbered part of a run and be able to show exactly which one it was amongst the release.

I love how the OP shifts the blame solely onto GW. It's like he hasn't seen the Maelstrom complaint threads that crop up after every sale or preorder snafu.

You are aware of just how seemingly incompetent Maelstrom is, right?

 Kanluwen wrote:
I love how the OP shifts the blame solely onto GW. It's like he hasn't seen the Maelstrom complaint threads that crop up after every sale or preorder snafu.

You are aware of just how seemingly incompetent Maelstrom is, right?

APOLOGIST!

Also, @OP, you do know what a limited release is, right? Yeah, they could have made more of them available but they wanted them to be limited. If you want to get the limited edition item, go through the company directly and don't go through an independent.

I have not shifted that blame completely to GW and blame both for their part in the entire fiasco. My point is that Maelstrom had a situation that they have not dealt with well at all and that GW put them in that place. I thought that was pretty clear that I am pissed off with both.

This is a bad customer service rant, not a GW rant



Automatically Appended Next Post:
I did not want the limited specifically as again I clearly explain in the orginal thread.

I think as I explain later, you and GW do not understand what a true limited edition is

2 other Maelstrom threads just on the first page of this forum:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/464643.page
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/474926.page

your point?

You have just shown me there are multiple threads, if there can not be 3 then there equally can not be 2

The point is that you should be posting in one of those rather than creating a new one. And yes, there shouldn't be 2 either, but I didn't notice the multiples until now.

 pretre wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
I love how the OP shifts the blame solely onto GW. It's like he hasn't seen the Maelstrom complaint threads that crop up after every sale or preorder snafu.

You are aware of just how seemingly incompetent Maelstrom is, right?

APOLOGIST!

In this case, certainly.

Lukewild1982 wrote:
I have not shifted that blame completely to GW and blame both for their part in the entire fiasco. My point is that Maelstrom had a situation that they have not dealt with well at all and that GW put them in that place. I thought that was pretty clear that I am pissed off with both.

This is a bad customer service rant, not a GW rant

Except you've made it fairly clear that you're squaring all the blame with GW from your posting.

Read what you wrote.
"Maelstrom had a situation that they have not dealt with well at all and that GW put them in that place."

"Limited edition" games mean just that. You have a set amount which is allocated to a region, and that allocation is broken up not based upon how many an individual shop orders but an idea as to how many the publisher/distributor feels is believable for that shop to sell.

I find it so absurdly unlikely that Maelstrom was not aware just how many units they would have allocated to them that they could not have stopped taking preorders when that allocation was up. But that's the rub...Maelstrom is infamous for doing things like this.

You've learned a valuable lesson. If you want to order a limited edition anything, always go to a major vendor or straight to the source. Just because you can get something for "X% off!" does not mean that a boatload of people are not having the exact same idea as you, going to the exact same vendor who will be swamped as soon as it is available to order.

Lukewild1982 wrote:I decided that as it is my day off and I had sometime to kill I would actually call GW and express my displeasure at the way they treat the independents and muck them about.

As expected I got the ususal customer service bull

'sorry we don't have that information available'

'I am not able to confirm that sorry'

What exactly are you expecting them to say?
You're calling the CUSTOMER SERVICE HOTLINE to complain about what is a corporate decision and handled by people who deal exclusively with the retailers. That's like if I were to go to Foot Locker and yell at the salespeople for the business practices of a brand they are stocking.

Then the guy said I know that they did sell out of the 9000 limited edition sets in essentially the blink of an eye.
He did not understand that this again displayed that GW does not understand it's customers. To sell out of something SO quick displays that you majorly got your numbers wrong and that it was a drastically TOO limited run and they could have made themselves a serious amount more money had they doubled/trebled/quadrupled the run. 9000 units on a worldwide release is quite ridiculously limited, especially as its not limited in the sense of trying to make it become a collectors item but actually to promote early sales. Anything of a genuine limited run would be a numbered part of a run and be able to show exactly which one it was amongst the release.

I do not think you actually understand what the sales going that quickly meant.

It shows that they do understand their customers. The only thing which was different about the Limited Edition is the Chaplain figure(who is not included in the "standard" edition) and the release date.

Oh, and by the by, if you think "limited editions" are Collector's Editions you're sorely mistaken.

MS have always been slow with my orders, but they never failed me, until i ordered the dark vangeance limited, but local GW shop stil had some left..

If we could indeed use the existing threads it goes soem way towards keeping things neater and easier to manage.

Good luck to the OP, hope you get some satisfaction one way or another