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So I received a fair amount of Eldar in a trade with another dakkanaut that allowed me to finally be rid of the load of dark angels I had just sitting around. It included about 5 tanks, some war walkers, and some vipers, all of which were missing their cockpit canopies. Though I hold no ill feelings toward the user I traded with, I didn't know was going to be the case, and I was left stuck, as these canopies go for about $3-$8 online. So, with baited breath I called GW to see if they could help.

I explained my situation, told the staffer (Madison) that I knew they were under no obligation to help me (I got the models second hand!) and that if they'd sell them to me, I'd be willing to buy them. He asked how many I needed (I said 3, 3 less than actual because I really didn't want to feel "greedy") and he said he'd see if they had any laying around. I said thanks and, without much hope, hung up the phone.

4 days later I got a package that contained 4 of the canopies with a hand written note inside that said "I threw in an extra one in case you had any problems."

GW gets a lot of heat here for plenty of reasons, but their CS continues to be second to none.

Just wanted to share.

You actually told them they were used models and they still sent missing parts?

That is impressive.

Id have to say GW's customer service is something they absolutely get 100% right,every time Ive dealt with them

Always good to see them continue with good customer service after the initial purchase is done, or in this case even the second hand purchase!

Madison is probably the nicest of all of the awesome GW customer service guys.

I've gotten him at least 70% of the time I've had a parts issue and he goes above and beyond the call of duty to help out.

GW and FW have a GOOOOODDDDDD customer service... some companies can learn from them.

This is true. Credit where it is due. I have always had a pleasant experience with their mail-order and CS staff.

I've only ever had 1 problem with GW minis (including fine cast models). It was a box of chaos marauders. I got a box full of arms and heads and no legs. They responded by giving me a new box of marauders and sent me enough body sprues to complete the box I had. I got an extra 32 marauders from the one box I bought. That's the only issue I've ever had and it was more than resolved in my book.

 frozenwastes wrote:
You actually told them they were used models and they still sent missing parts?

That is impressive.

Yeah. I called, honestly, as a last ditch effort to help defer some of my costs. I expected to be told they couldn't help me, which would have entirely appropriate in this instance.

But like I said. Got 4 canopies. I think they deserved a shout out as, to me, this was above and beyond my expectation.

To me it seems like the customer service guys at GW are the last ones at GW trying to generate good will. And I agree that what Madison did was very laudable.

However, how much have you spent on GW stuff over the years in total?

What was the cost of the 4 plastic canopies to GW .

As GW plc is set up for high volume plastic production, it is and has always been easier to replace faulty/missing parts than refund customers the full RRP.
EG RRP £50 vs cost of manufacture and shipping COMPLETE NEW replacement to customer would be about £15.

Quite simply every £10 you spend on GW products £7.60 is gross profit to GW plc.
So it is very easy to see GW plc reducing over all manufacturing quality costs by dealing with faults simply by replacing items as 'good customer service.'

And to be fair all Madison had to say was , '..a customer bought some kits but they were missing canopies.He is happy to be sent canopies rather than full kit replacements..'
And his line manager would be fine with that.

The customer service guys at GW plc are good guys.And I do not want to detract from the great job they do.

But the quality of customer service is down to them !Not GW PLC .

And pretty much on par with most good companies.

So your saying GW is a good company now then.

Why always try to separate good deeds from the whole Lanrak? You make all your posts read like your pushing an agenda/grudge and therefore worthless to the point made by Cincy.

Glad you got good service Cincy it tallies perfectly with my experiences with GW. I can to to buy or not to buy GW product but always know that I can do so with full confidence.

Yea, that has always been my experience.

I am kinda ashamed to say that when I bought my finecast back in the day I was hoping for a few defects......because I knew I would get more for free(really handy when buying conversion kits)

Sadly only one of them had enough defects to warrant a call. But still......

Been shopping with GW for over 15 years and have always been satisfied with their service. I give comcast more of my money than GW and they would gak in my cereal if they could.

Of course I have to be the one with an exception.

I opened up a box of volands venators is that I had had laying around for quite some time and one of them was missing an arm. So I called GW and explain the situation and they proceed to interrogate me for about 5 minutes as to where I purchase them and such. Of course I have bought them about a year ago and I simply couldn't remember. Eventually the GW guy relented and shipped me a replacement figure . But I would hardly call the customer service experts exceptional or special, based on my experience.

 Phobos wrote:
Of course I have to be the one with an exception.

I opened up a box of volands venators is that I had had laying around for quite some time and one of them was missing an arm. So I called GW and explain the situation and they proceed to interrogate me for about 5 minutes as to where I purchase them and such. Of course I have bought them about a year ago and I simply couldn't remember. Eventually the GW guy relented and shipped me a replacement figure . But I would hardly call the customer service experts exceptional or special, based on my experience.

O.o Really? With the exception of my finecast issue that I had, GW CS has been awesome, 3rd ed Carnifex is missing a leg, they send me a nice, new and shiny 5th ed Carnifex kit. Old Monolith kit has warped sides? Send me the sprues needed to fix it. My only issue was them wanting me to return my gakky finecast Empire Witchunter and Chappy in Terminator armor models, which I would have done if time wasn't of the essence for when I needed them, and if they had paid shipping both ways.

 Phobos wrote:
Of course I have to be the one with an exception.

I opened up a box of volands venators is that I had had laying around for quite some time and one of them was missing an arm. So I called GW and explain the situation and they proceed to interrogate me for about 5 minutes as to where I purchase them and such. Of course I have bought them about a year ago and I simply couldn't remember. Eventually the GW guy relented and shipped me a replacement figure . But I would hardly call the customer service experts exceptional or special, based on my experience.

Well, the GW guy doesn't know that you're a nice guy. For all he knows, you could've found them on the pavement and called up just so you could get some free models. He probably relented because they get lots of calls asking for free models and they're actually lying.

I got 3rd edition Genestealers from a friend as payment for painting his space hulk stuff. Opened the shrink wrap to find 2-3 warped sets of arms. Called GW, explained how I got them (told them there was even a Barnes & Noble sticker on the back!!) and the guy laughed, said "wow, those are old", and proceeded to ship me out a brand new box of current Genestealers. Once again, customer service is top notch.

 Tappers wrote:

 Phobos wrote:
Of course I have to be the one with an exception.

I opened up a box of volands venators is that I had had laying around for quite some time and one of them was missing an arm. So I called GW and explain the situation and they proceed to interrogate me for about 5 minutes as to where I purchase them and such. Of course I have bought them about a year ago and I simply couldn't remember. Eventually the GW guy relented and shipped me a replacement figure . But I would hardly call the customer service experts exceptional or special, based on my experience.

Well, the GW guy doesn't know that you're a nice guy. For all he knows, you could've found them on the pavement and called up just so you could get some free models. He probably relented because they get lots of calls asking for free models and they're actually lying.

Except I wasn't calling up for free models. I was calling up for one replacement arm.

And if GW is so concerned about customers abusing the system then they can start requiring dated cash register receipts. Having the customer service representatives act like inquisitors is not the way to go about it.

 Phobos wrote:

 Tappers wrote:

 Phobos wrote:
Of course I have to be the one with an exception.

I opened up a box of volands venators is that I had had laying around for quite some time and one of them was missing an arm. So I called GW and explain the situation and they proceed to interrogate me for about 5 minutes as to where I purchase them and such. Of course I have bought them about a year ago and I simply couldn't remember. Eventually the GW guy relented and shipped me a replacement figure . But I would hardly call the customer service experts exceptional or special, based on my experience.

Well, the GW guy doesn't know that you're a nice guy. For all he knows, you could've found them on the pavement and called up just so you could get some free models. He probably relented because they get lots of calls asking for free models and they're actually lying.

Except I wasn't calling up for free models. I was calling up for one replacement arm.

And if GW is so concerned about customers abusing the system then they can start requiring dated cash register receipts. Having the customer service representatives act like inquisitors is not the way to go about it.

Like most things, it depends. GW generally has good CS, however much of that is due to legal requirements that require what is considered good CS. Some of the support people though are not as easy to deal with and I have had to jump through hoops in the past in order to get replacements for lost or damaged parts. If you get the right person on the phone, they send them out to you. Get the wrong person and they will request a photo of the miscast part or will give you the third degree to try to trip you up on a missing part/sprue.

Is it that unreasonable to have a photo ready? I mean, from anyone? I know when I got some replacement pieces for poorly cast DZC stuff, they asked for photos. I didn't think anything of it, honestly.

Really, I only posted this because they went, IMO, beyond what they needed to, and I appreciated it. That's all.

 cincydooley wrote:
Is it that unreasonable to have a photo ready? I mean, from anyone? I know when I got some replacement pieces for poorly cast DZC stuff, they asked for photos. I didn't think anything of it, honestly.

Really, I only posted this because they went, IMO, beyond what they needed to, and I appreciated it. That's all.

Not unreasonable at all, I've done this with every other company.

I've never had a problem with GW CS.

When I had a badly casted Carnifex and couldn't get to a post office to send it back or a GW store as I had torn my quad and ACL, they sent an entire battleforce out.

This was back when the Carni was in the box mind. 2005.

I called once asking to find the white dwarf with the relictors rules article. The guy said he would get back to me and took down my information. Four days later I got photocopies of both articles (didn't realize there were two).

Should also note that the guys at FW are exceptional in that regards as well.

GW customer service is, for the most part, pretty good.

There are exceptions, but yes - they are good.

That said... I have had equal service from any number of miniatures companies - Reaper, Mantic, and even old Ral Partha, back in the day.

The only really bad customer service that I have had was Thunderbolt Mountain. Nice stuff, but I won't buy from them again.

Which is why GW and other companies go the extra mile - they want you back again. What they sell is a luxury, and it is all too easy to lose a customer. They do not want to save a buck by not fixing a problem, only to lose ten bucks because you have gone elsewhere.

The Auld Grump

A slightly different story here...

I made an order with GW online. When I got my stuff, I'd ordered 2 of a particular item, but only got one. I called up CS and the guy said he'd get another out to me.

Next day I got it, but this time they actually sent 2, so I had a spare. Not actually needing it I contacted CS again & asked if they had an address where I could return it.

The CS gut gave me an address, but seemed genuinely shocked & surprised that I wanted to return it....must happen so rarely I guess.

 Phobos wrote:

 Tappers wrote:

 Phobos wrote:
Of course I have to be the one with an exception.

I opened up a box of volands venators is that I had had laying around for quite some time and one of them was missing an arm. So I called GW and explain the situation and they proceed to interrogate me for about 5 minutes as to where I purchase them and such. Of course I have bought them about a year ago and I simply couldn't remember. Eventually the GW guy relented and shipped me a --->replacement figure<--- . But I would hardly call the customer service experts exceptional or special, based on my experience.

Well, the GW guy doesn't know that you're a nice guy. For all he knows, you could've found them on the pavement and called up just so you could get some free models. He probably relented because they get lots of calls asking for free models and they're actually lying.

Except I wasn't calling up for free models. I was calling up for one replacement arm.

Except you weren't. You said "replacement figure".

But it doesn't matter. I was just saying my opinion.

So Tapper's, you know the content of the call better than Phobos who made it? Why wouldn't you just assume that the issue with the figure was it's arm and leave it at that?

 frozenwastes wrote:
So Tapper's, you know the content of the call better than Phobos who made it? Why wouldn't you just assume that the issue with the figure was it's arm and leave it at that?

So frozenwastes, you want to make a big deal about a stupid misunderstanding of mine? Why don't you just leave it be and not get your knickers in a twist over something that doesn't concern you?

Sorry Phobos but I didn't see the bit about the arm. My apologies.

Apparently you needed someone to step in. At least you manned up and apologized.

Yeah I'm not sure how you got the idea I was asking them for another figure, Tappers. I asked them to send me an arm but they sent me the entire guy, probably because they don't do bits anymore. Thanks to frozenwastes for clearing it up on my behalf.

Incidentaly this past week I bought the old giant kit (the one made of metal) and it was missing a part. I called GW and was basically told to pound sand. In a nice way, of course.

Yeah, they don't produce those models anymore. Very little they can do when they're no longer producing the model.