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rich1231 wrote:GW do not restrict supply or short ship etc.

You sure about that? Because there's a guy who posts here under the name rich1231 who disagrees with you:

rich1231 wrote:Note they only allow independents in Europe to order once a week.

See rich, this rich guy disagrees with you.

Caddock,

Contradictory?

you mention they have restricted supply in the past to other stores? Apart from anedotal evidence, can you support that claim? Its quite a claim.

This time of year will be the busiest or near the busiest time of year for UK webstores for a variety of reasons.

If GW stores sell an average of 20 for a new release, and there are 300 stores... then they might get 6000 items allocated.
Most indies might take 4 or 5 of said item and you then get the larger internet accounts taking 2-500. There have been times that we are told an item is a splash release and there is one allocation and thats it. We tend to take larger amounts of those than would be normal. Obvioulsy Im talking for Wayland, I would assume Maelstrom are as sensible.

If you (as a trade account) place your order late on the day when these limited items are released you might find that the trade allocation has been snapped up by the larger accounts, and a few days later more stock tends to get allocated from the retail chain.


And HBMC.. ordering once a week is not really limiting supply, telling us we could only order 100 items a week etc would be. And you are being a pedant

There is a comprehensive explanation of Maelstrom Games delivery issues posted on The Warhammer Forum couple of months ago. In short: as of May 2009, delivery times have been slowed down due to new terms by Games Workshop.

For me, this means that I am going to order my WHFB 8th edition directly from Games Workshop. However, I will continue to support Maelstrom Games for non-GW or non-hurry items.

Nothing personal intended, I know the Internet is harsh filter sometimes...I'll put the part I think is contradictory up again:

rich1231 wrote:
GW do not restrict supply or short ship etc. Of course they can make errors on orders but they are few.

GW Trade have different stock allocations to GWs own retail channel. In Europe we only dont get something if its a) Out of Stock, or b) We dont order it. Note they only allow independents in Europe to order once a week.

Those two sentences contradict each other. Your whole last post explains how they do it. I can't blame them for feeding their stores first but it happens and they restrict shipping to other stores to make sure their stores get some first. Trade don't get stuff if it is out of stock, it will be out of stock when GW decide that their stores need more of it than outside trade and allocate it all there.

Your anecdote that they don't isn't any more valuable for proving anything it's a story from one trade vendor. Even if Tom Kirby himself said they did or didn't it would be technically anecdotal until either side passes some validity tests or some real evidence shows up.

None of that matters here because this a toy soldiers board where I said I wouldn't be surprised if GW was screwing with a supplier that we 'anecdotally' know is taking sales away from GW's own stores in the more expensive markets. I say that based on anecdotes of their past behaviour.

Again Occam's razor as mentioned in other posts, it could be a slew of other simpler reasons, all the way down to, they just had a rough patch or can't handle the new found volume.

I'm pretty sure they restrict their own stores to filling "an order once a week" too.

It's common sense to do an overall order once a week(usually on a Thursday or Friday, then restocking on Monday/Tuesday) as things go out of stock--rather than placing an order every time one particular thing goes out of stock every day of the week.

A store manager in a chain should have minimal input to ordering in this day and age unless someone special requests something.

The inventory control system should know when something goes under a preset threshold and needs replacing, which would show up in the distribution center's lists for what needs packing for which truck, bound for which store. The truck may still only need to leave once per week though of course.

Big sale items with expected big demand should be fed from the top down, with input from store pre-order lists which should be computerized too.

In an integrated chain like GW this should/could extend all the way to the factory to make sure things don't get made until needed.

Caddock,

dont worry I didnt take it personally.

Allocation stock internally and externally is different to restricting supply. Can we agree to disagree on this point. Other practices re trade terms would be unwise of me to comment on here.


Re ordering.. target stock level, adjusted for seasonal variances. Order to that stock level plus back orders.. is pretty much the only way to work it.. but... some of the surges we have seen in sales of obscure stuff really do surprise us.

GW are extremely low tech in their information exchange with trade accounts. We have XML feeds for orders products etc that we can plug in anywhere and they cant do it. We used to have to phone our orders in.. imagine reading product codes and quantities out for 2 hours ... deep joy...

caddock wrote: Is it too many orders for a small shop to handle all at once? Is it, as another poster phrased it, incompetence over conspiracy? Or is it just impatience on the buyer's part as it takes weeks to get stuff sent from the UK to North America. I know when I've had things shipped it took a minimum of two weeks, though that was from people and not businesses.

It's not impatience when we're entering week 3 of it not leaving the store. I expect and understand a 2 to 3 week delay in shipping overseas. I also expected and understood that if I got stuff that was out of stock from Maelstrom, it would be a week or so until it arrived to them and could be shipped. This is not the problem.

I don't expect or appreciate my order coming into stock a week after I ordered, and then it sitting in packing for going on the third week now.

I also dismiss the argument that it is too many orders for a small shop to handle at once, for several reasons. First off, they have run lots of sales like this before, such as the summer one last year, and know what they have on hand. Second off, they extended the sale, again knowing what they had in stock and what they did not. Finally, no one put a gun to their head and told them to run a sale, and certainly no one is preventing them from sending out an email saying hey, we got flooded, so expect a small delay, sorry.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

NAVARRO wrote:I can wait a couple of extra weeks as long as items arrive and I get HUGE discounts, its not a problem and I think the consumism culture as made many of us to be intolerant to the waiting.
If it was a medicin or something really urgent and important I would be very pissed but little toy soldiers? Nah.

I don't buy this argument either. You're free to embrace mediocrity if you wish, but to me, my money is valuable, I worked hard for it, and I expect my business to be taken seriously regardless of what I bought, whether it's from Amazon, Newegg, or any other site.

Ouze wrote:[
Automatically Appended Next Post:

NAVARRO wrote:I can wait a couple of extra weeks as long as items arrive and I get HUGE discounts, its not a problem and I think the consumism culture as made many of us to be intolerant to the waiting.
If it was a medicin or something really urgent and important I would be very pissed but little toy soldiers? Nah.

I don't buy this argument either. You're free to embrace mediocrity if you wish, but to me, my money is valuable, I worked hard for it, and I expect my business to be taken seriously regardless of what I bought, whether it's from Amazon, Newegg, or any other site.

Talk about overthtop conclusions
Lets see, I will just discard 40%+ savings because I cant wait a couple extra weeks... err no thank you sir I rather embrace "mediocrity" than be a blind consumist. In hard economy times makes perfect sense to trow away money because you cant wait 2 weeks for TOY soldiers.
Not only that but were do you see mediocre service? Its cheap, good communication, and most of the times when no big promotions is in place is fairly quick... not only that but it carries a wide range of diferent and more obscure products.

If you have hard time making money then spend less, thats what I'm doing

NAVARRO wrote: Talk about overthtop conclusions
Lets see, I will just discard 40%+ savings because I cant wait a couple extra weeks... err no thank you sir I rather embrace "mediocrity" than be a blind consumist. In hard economy times makes perfect sense to trow away money because you cant wait 2 weeks for TOY soldiers.
Not only that but were do you see mediocre service? Its cheap, good communication, and most of the times when no big promotions is in place is fairly quick... not only that but it carries a wide range of diferent and more obscure products.

If you have hard time making money then spend less, thats what I'm doing

1.) Having an item come into stock, and then sitting on it for over two weeks is mediocrity, imo. Certainly running another sale when you were apparently overwhelmed by the last big sale is mediocrity, imo. Other businesses don't act like this, and then say well, "you're just ordering _____ so we can roll this way". Why feed them steak, when they'll eat poop?
2.) Maelstrom is selling a Space Marine Battleforce for £45.00. That's about $66 USD. The Warstore sells that exact same battleforce for $72. That's more like 8.2% off, not "40%" off. Yes, I know that Maelstrom has free shipping, but it appears you get what you pay for.
3.) I hardly have a hard time making money - that's exactly my point. In the above referenced battleforce example, it's worth it for me to pay a lousy extra $8 or whatever to have it in a few days, or a week. If you don't have a problem with a company taking your money and giving you terrible service so you can save the price of a Happy Meal, good on you, glad you're happy - but don't pretend that it's reasonable for everyone else to feel the same way. My time isn't worthless. Again, I'm not peeved about a long ship time - no problem - it's the nearly 3 weeks in packing that I'm peeved about. Of course, some people are saying that they got their orders delivered, and the status just never changed, and still shows "packing" - again, mediocrity.
4.) Obviously, my experiences only represent a US viewpoint. For AUS or other regions, I understand it's a very different situation and I'd be inclined to order from them no matter how damn slow they were.

I too am experiencing delays with an order, but I have noticed that although the quoted 40% discounts for AUS is awesome, not all items have the same discount.

One example would be Stormvermin, full price in AUD at Maelstrom but about $30 cheaper, including shipping from a US eBay store.

For American users, I think they are trying to compare apples and oranges. For almost everyone outside the USA, it is better to order from Maelstrom - their prices are good and their free postage means that everyone can take advantage of them.

For anyone in the US, order from the Warstore - the discount is not quite as good and there is postage, but you will get it a lot faster, which seems to be pretty much the only gripe I've seen here with Maelstrom - the price difference between MS and WS "making up for" any delay you may get from MS.

But to be honest, you do get what you pay for. It just depends on what you value, a bit of extra saving (which will vary greatly depending on where in the world you are and your dollar/GPB saving +/- shipping costs), or a faster shipping.

It just appears from this thread (and other similar ones) that our friends over the pond would rather pay a bit more and get it faster, while most of the rest of the world are happy getting it cheaper (sometimes significantly), but having to wait a bit.

So please, can we give it a rest now?

Ouze wrote:

NAVARRO wrote: Talk about overthtop conclusions
Lets see, I will just discard 40%+ savings because I cant wait a couple extra weeks... err no thank you sir I rather embrace "mediocrity" than be a blind consumist. In hard economy times makes perfect sense to trow away money because you cant wait 2 weeks for TOY soldiers.
Not only that but were do you see mediocre service? Its cheap, good communication, and most of the times when no big promotions is in place is fairly quick... not only that but it carries a wide range of diferent and more obscure products.

If you have hard time making money then spend less, thats what I'm doing

1.) Having an item come into stock, and then sitting on it for over two weeks is mediocrity, imo. Certainly running another sale when you were apparently overwhelmed by the last big sale is mediocrity, imo. Other businesses don't act like this, and then say well, "you're just ordering _____ so we can roll this way". Why feed them steak, when they'll eat poop?
2.) Maelstrom is selling a Space Marine Battleforce for £45.00. That's about $66 USD. The Warstore sells that exact same battleforce for $72. That's more like 8.2% off, not "40%" off. Yes, I know that Maelstrom has free shipping, but it appears you get what you pay for.
3.) I hardly have a hard time making money - that's exactly my point. In the above referenced battleforce example, it's worth it for me to pay a lousy extra $8 or whatever to have it in a few days, or a week. If you don't have a problem with a company taking your money and giving you terrible service so you can save the price of a Happy Meal, good on you, glad you're happy - but don't pretend that it's reasonable for everyone else to feel the same way. My time isn't worthless. Again, I'm not peeved about a long ship time - no problem - it's the nearly 3 weeks in packing that I'm peeved about. Of course, some people are saying that they got their orders delivered, and the status just never changed, and still shows "packing" - again, mediocrity.
4.) Obviously, my experiences only represent a US viewpoint. For AUS or other regions, I understand it's a very different situation and I'd be inclined to order from them no matter how damn slow they were.

Calm down you give the impression you are a bit way to stressed for the topic at hand.

1) Jezz lol... eat poop? ist that your overall view on this? Sometimes they break in parcels the instock and outofstock items, sometimes when parcels are small they wait until everything is available to ship all in one parcel... makes sense to me specially since its free shipping... And I for one will not biatch about big sales, the more the better! but yeah I see your point you cant wait a couple extra weeks so you rather not have big sales Talk about distorted prespective.

2)Well check the discounts/ extra money back and vouchers at mael and see GW spain prices, I rest my case... Some years ago I used The warstore and even if its a great store and I like neal, that solved the several times they sent to wrong address ( even if i stated always on mails they were shipping to wrong addresses and to be carefull now) the shipping gets ridiculous huge the more you ordered and then you should still flip a coin to see if customs picked it up (50% chance) delaying orders and gauging prices by a fat custom tax. So NO The warstore doesnt deliver me what I pay for in Maelstrom by a long shot.

3)You said "but don't pretend that it's reasonable for everyone else to feel the same way" Dont be creative with me now ok? Were did I said you or anyone should be satisfied like I'am with Mael? I stated my personal opinion about it and expressed I was personally satisfied with what Mael provides thats what you do on a forum... express personal opinions not express grosse generalizations like you seem to be doing on point 4)

4) you said "my experiences only represent a US viewpoint" LOL no mate your experiences represent YOUR view point not US ones.
Sorry for playing a bit with your words mate.

Hope you are clarified and more relaxed now, seriously buy were you feel like it I for one buy at, Mael, sarting at Waylands(loving it), used Battlefield berlin, THe warstore, ludik bazar, antenocitii to name a few... all of them have good points and bad points going on for them but none of them I would ever lable mediocre... you know why? Because they are honest about their business and try to serve you the best they can under their limitations.
But yeah go for the all or nothing sterile type of conclusions/ statements if that feels right for you.

1.) My view is that when you rationalize poor customer service by saying things like "well, they are just plastic army men" you're sort of hurting everyone else who is not satisfied with poor service. It really shouldn't matter what the product is, but that's my opinion and we all have one.

2.) I mentioned I get that my experience may not be shared by people in different regions. So far as the examples you gave as far as possible problems, I ordered on 5/24, everything came into stock and my order was combined on Jun 3rd and it went into packing, where it remains still.

3.) Are you really calling me out for taking liberties with your words by extrapolating out conclusions you didn't explicitly state, one paragraph after claiming "i don't like to wait for shipping so I'd rather not have big sales"? And then repeating it by claiming I use "gross generalizations" in the next paragraph? I mean, if you want to play that game, I understand it (and enjoy it!), but I don't pretend to be above it.

4.) I stated that "from a US viewpoint". As I'm a US citizen, what I said was literally accurate. I never claimed to speak for my entire country.

It's not that I have some burning hatred of Maelstrom, whom I obviously thought highly enough of to give them my business after reading favorable reviews here on Dakka. If it does turn out that it shows up in the next day or so, and it's just that their site never gets it off the "packing" status, then I'd even order from them again, as their prices are sometimes better then others. So far as the rest, SilverMK2 has the best wrapup in my opinion. I agree with you - we should buy where we feel like it - but part of that is being able to have a reasonable expectation of what your experience would be.

Maelstrom is awesome for Aussies, I got my order last week and now hoping the 15% will be extended so I can but the new rule book. for me I dont mind so much the waiting theres always other projects and in the end its just toys, until then I have other things to think about like work and family

I've had 1 order from MS which took forever - they were waiting on a coupe of things to come into stock. After a few weeks (3-4?) they split the order and sent out everything they had. The other part of the order came in stock the next week or so and I got it within a couple of days.

Overall I don't think (other than that one order) I've had to wait more than 2 weeks to get an order through from MS, even when things have been out of stock.

If you are having an issue with their shipping/dispatch times, send them an email. I've only ever had good replies to my (admittedly few) questions.

But as you say Ouze, you do expect a certain level of standard from any business you enter into a contract with. It is sad that MS lets delivery times slip quite a long time for some orders without, seemingly, any particular reason.

Ouze wrote:1.) My view is that when you rationalize poor customer service by saying things like "well, they are just plastic army men" you're sort of hurting everyone else who is not satisfied with poor service. It really shouldn't matter what the product is, but that's my opinion and we all have one.

2.) I mentioned I get that my experience may not be shared by people in different regions. So far as the examples you gave as far as possible problems, I ordered on 5/24, everything came into stock and my order was combined on Jun 3rd and it went into packing, where it remains still.

3.) Are you really calling me out for taking liberties with your words by extrapolating out conclusions you didn't explicitly state, one paragraph after claiming "i don't like to wait for shipping so I'd rather not have big sales"? And then repeating it by claiming I use "gross generalizations" in the next paragraph? I mean, if you want to play that game, I understand it (and enjoy it!), but I don't pretend to be above it.

4.) I stated that "from a US viewpoint". As I'm a US citizen, what I said was literally accurate. I never claimed to speak for my entire country.

It's not that I have some burning hatred of Maelstrom, whom I obviously thought highly enough of to give them my business after reading favorable reviews here on Dakka. If it does turn out that it shows up in the next day or so, and it's just that their site never gets it off the "packing" status, then I'd even order from them again, as their prices are sometimes better then others. So far as the rest, SilverMK2 has the best wrapup in my opinion. I agree with you - we should buy where we feel like it - but part of that is being able to have a reasonable expectation of what your experience would be.

1) Dont understand how my personal opinion about my personal experiences and the fact that I dont consider 2 extra weeks delay for a luxury/ non essential item enough to call the service mediocre... "hurts everyone"
I do put things in prespective and cannot hold against them for sometimes having delay problems on shipping toys because the consequence is infinitly smaller than not delivering a medicin on time!
But i respect that you disagree and consider every item or product outhere equally important. I dont.
I guess its a bit of what I mentioned in first posts, consumism culture has made many of us intolerant to waiting.

WHen you use a service you avaluate it the way you really want to, I tend to look at the sum of all factors and not just some, as such mael is really high on my recomendations list.


3) I'm yet to understand why you consider "but don't pretend that it's reasonable for everyone else to feel the same way" or why Im "hurting" everyone with my comments... I have not said you should not be pissed with Mael shipping instead I told you "im not" its a big diference from " you should or shouldnt". And yes I played with your words a bit just to make things a bit less serious and more fun here... Im not above it but I try to not to fall into generalizations. Hard when you read mostly Black/white conclusions/remarks.

4) I know thats why I said I was sorry for playing with your words... Just couldnt help it


My espectations are satisfied with Mael... could they improve? hell yes, but as is its a very good option if you want to buy toy soldiers at very good rates. Wayland is getting very close.

I got my order today, which surprised me since I never got a notice that they had been dispatched. That puts them at just over the 3 week mark.

If you don't like the service with Maelstrom, why don't you guys just order from Wayland, the discount is better (20%) and the postage is damn cheap. I usually get my items within two weeks, across the sea. If something about a company doesn't please you, try others.

People use Maelstrom because of the constant sales.

poipo32 wrote:If you don't like the service with Maelstrom, why don't you guys just order from Wayland, the discount is better (20%) and the postage is damn cheap. I usually get my items within two weeks, across the sea. If something about a company doesn't please you, try others.

I have to agree with this following great experience I have had today. First I will say that I am usually loyal to no business except that which will offer me the best deal. There are only GW's and very small businesses [i.e. bike shops and the like] that sell hobby stuff as a side line. Mostly I shop at Maelstrom Games, for the usual reasons; P&P included, decent discount, cash back, price match etc.

While comparing prices for a some Guard tanks noticed [just a few weeks ago] that Wayland Games is actually based locally to me in Southend. How I missed that for two years I don't know? I had even been past it probably a dozen times going to Southend RFC, talk about right under your nose!

So I pitched up there today to check out their [small but perfectly formed] shop at the front of the warehouse. Sure enough lots of GW and FoW stuff on display plus a few other odds and sods. I quickly picked up the half dozen or so kits I wanted and then noticed that there was no one there for me to pay? I waited patiently contemplating how many box sets I could carry and how far I would be able to run with them on my chubby little legs. I then discarded larceny as a new career choice and perused the FoW stuff. This was clearly a clever marketing trick by WG as I then added a couple of Vietnam US airborne blisters to my pile of booty [dam you impulse buying!].

Realising I would be skint if this carried on I made my presence known to the staff in warehouse and was joined by Jerry and Adam who were then able to furnish me with a battleforce box from the stores and allow me to pay.

All very good, but here is where the visit really got interesting as Jerry asked if I would like to have a look around their new warehouse. I was really impressed with the set up, it all looked very organised to me, lots of ranges and lots of stock. I really appreciated the time that Jerry took to show me around and chat about what WG are all about, including the points that rich1231 made above about the weekly orders.

To top it all off when asked whether the had any distilled water to thin airbrush paints they even gave me a bottle of Vallejo acrylic thinner to try out gratis!

Overall the discount was good, the customer service was great and the free stuff was win. If I had to add P&P to that I suggest that I would probably still come out better than MG and they have stock.

In all honesty I will still use MG for the price match service for RPG's but my wargaming purchases will now be made at Wayland.

Thanks to Jerry and Adam and a good work fella to rich1231 for running a great business, I wish you every success.

[sorry to dump a wall-o-text about Wayland in a Maelstrom thread but it seemed relevent ]

I jsut noticed that Gw items in Maelstrom have gotten a price increase, or is it only me ?

As an addit to my post on 12th June.

My order shipped overnight (my time).

20 days after placing the order.

Thats really lame in anyone's book.
They get restocks at least a couple times per week from GW.

I just got an email that my order has finally dispatched, 23 days after ordering.

Interestingly, the shipping confirmation email shows the total of my order as 81.68GBP, which is interesting since when I first ordered it was 76.68GBP. Since I'm not getting any international transaction alerts, it doesn't look like they have added on any ex post facto $7.30USD charges, and it's just that the prices have changed from when I ordered until when they posted, but still, incredibly sloppy accounting.

I got my dispatch notice today, which is strange as I received the order yesterday. I don't suppose I'm lucky enough to end up getting my order twice, but you never know.

JUst recieved my dispatch notice today. Though it was placed on the 23rd May, it will be worth the wait.

poipo32 wrote:If you don't like the service with Maelstrom, why don't you guys just order from Wayland, the discount is better (20%) and the postage is damn cheap. I usually get my items within two weeks, across the sea. If something about a company doesn't please you, try others.

Just FYI, Waylands gives a constant discount of around 25-26% on all items, not 20% which is the norm for other discount retailers.

That is why WG is king.

Not if you live in a different country they're not. Shipping to UK? Not a huge issue. Use whoever ends up with the lower price?

Shipping to the other side of the planet? I'll take 'free' over 'something other than free' any day of the week.


And here's an oddity for you:

I put together three orders to check prices - one to GWOz, one to GWUS and one to GWUK. All were for the same items (Iron Warriors Iron Father + Planetary Empire's Tiles) and when converted into AUD$, the GWOz one was $140-ish, the GWUS one (including shipping) was $130-ish, and the GWUK was $88.

Any idea why GWUS charges so much for shipping? Sure, they're fast (and GWUK is... sketchy when it comes to shipping times), but $40+ faster?

Luckily shopping cart + check out option is quite easy and fast to do.

If shipping fee is an issue , we can always tally up the final total and choose the cheaper shop.

Usually larger orders from WG will end up cheaper than MG

Got my order today, put it up three weeks ago. They spent a full week putting my two orders together though. I can see they said "feth it" after on day seven, as they squished my blister in between two large boxed sets.