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Okay...So this has been a LONG time coming, I own one of the larger online stores that carry Warhammer in Australia and after many years, This is the final straw

Now, the story with Games Workshop is multi faceted.
Basically, they have always been a horrible company to deal with, Because I am an online store they have always withheld new releases, short delivered me stock to supply other retail stores etc.
Sometimes I used to take 1000's of $$ in pre-orders for new releases then they wouldn't give me them leaving me to explain and refund it to my customers.
Eventually, due to lateness, or non-delivered stock, I lost most of my business for games workshop new releases, costing me a fair bit of money.
I have also had massive problems just getting my deliveries. About 40 of my 120 deliveries from them (fully one-third)
have been delivered to the wrong address (state even), delivered a few days late, or not delivered at all (loosing or saying they never retrieved an order)
I really for a long time thought, and still kinda do think this is deliberate and part of the war against online only stores.
Such a huge error rate stretched over such a long time (years) just cant be accidental.

One of the final straws was late last year, they made an application to the ACCC to grant them the right to not sell to online stores, under the premise that we provide bad customer service.
Remarkably the ACCC allowed it, so eventually, they are planning to cut me of anyway, so as of late last year, my business became all about, can I survive without Games workshop?

Looking over the numbers the first thing I noticed is that my games workshop sales had already dropped from 25% of my sales to around 16% at that time. between the catastrophe that is the end times in fantasy (fantasy has stopped selling completely) and the stuff up which is 7th edition 40k (sales for 40k have dropped by half.) Games workshop is now only about 8% of my sales. So i have made the decision I can live without them.
And am devoting my time to companies that care about my business and are better to deal with. There's no shortage of fantastic games coming through with X-wing, attack Wing, Malifaux, Kings of War, Warzone, Bolt action etc. all doing so well. Boardgames and Role playing games sell better than mini's lately any way.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and hope this is not going to spread to other countries.

Whilst this doesn't surprise me in the slightest, and it completely sucks, I do have to ask: How does this impact stores that sell online but that also have a physical presence (like, say The Combat Company)?

This is a good question, I would assume they could no longer sell online, but still in store. Something tells me though if GW will do this to us, they won't ship to those with physical stores that also have online stores. Makes you wonder how this will affect recasting in Australia.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Whilst this doesn't surprise me in the slightest, and it completely sucks, I do have to ask: How does this impact stores that sell online but that also have a physical presence (like, say The Combat Company)?

I think this just dovetails with the rest of the world?

i.e. GW want you to have a physical store to promote the HHHobby not just a bloke selling out of his garage.

That doesn't line up with their reasoning for no longer selling to us, We all know that "Bad customer service" is not the reason they're doing it.

It's a business practise not confined to GW. I was looking last year into starting up an online wargaming business as a sideline in case I was made redundant from my day job. Thinking if it did well I could open a store and expand.

All the wholesalers/importers I talked to would only supply bricks and mortar shops. No online only businesses.

ToxicBox wrote:
We all know that "Bad customer service" is not the reason they're doing it.

Technically, it is - they just failed to mention to the ACCC that it was to enable their bad customer service.

 AlexHolker wrote:

ToxicBox wrote:
We all know that "Bad customer service" is not the reason they're doing it.

Technically, it is - they just failed to mention to the ACCC that it was to enable their bad customer service.

This made me laugh. I was once told I couldn't make returns. Even though the website claims I can, no questions asked.

Is this actually official now? Or have you decided to stop stocking knowing the inevitable is coming?

This is one of the main reasons I'm done with GW!

They treat us Aussie as if we are an island full of criminals (Pun intended)

Overcharging us by 35% or more and disallowing us from purchasing from local or international online stores.

I say screw them and their business practice!

If they want to alienate and discriminate the Australian market, then they can expect to see a lot less people buying their products.

My advice Toxic would be to focus on more friendly companies who don't try to damage or restrict product sales for online stores.

GW don't deserve your business

Why does steam charge australians more for their games? Is the only reason greed, because the higher capita? It makes no sense, it costs the same amount to ship as anywhere else, nothing. They cant tariff online data.

 Orock wrote:
Why does steam charge australians more for their games? Is the only reason greed, because the higher capita? It makes no sense, it costs the same amount to ship as anywhere else, nothing. They cant tariff online data.

Its know as the "Australian Tax" and companies have been doing it for years.

Companies such as Microsoft and Adobe have gotten in trouble recently due to the unnecessary price hike in Australia, but its still very common in for the price of digital products to be higher here

The reason they do it is because they can. They argue because our wages are more it should mean we should pay more.

Are you guys a lot richer than the rest of the world?

 Yak9UT wrote:

 Orock wrote:
Why does steam charge australians more for their games? Is the only reason greed, because the higher capita? It makes no sense, it costs the same amount to ship as anywhere else, nothing. They cant tariff online data.

Its know as the "Australian Tax" and companies have been doing it for years.

Companies such as Microsoft and Adobe have gotten in trouble recently due to the unnecessary price hike in Australia, but its still very common in for the price of digital products to be higher here

The reason they do it is because they can. They argue because our wages are more it should mean we should pay more.

Isnt cost of living quite high in Australia? And that's why wages are higher? It's rubbish really, I feel for you Australians. I mean it's an expensive enough hobby here, let alone with an arbitrary 'Australia tax' on top.

 Yak9UT wrote:

 Orock wrote:
Why does steam charge australians more for their games? Is the only reason greed, because the higher capita? It makes no sense, it costs the same amount to ship as anywhere else, nothing. They cant tariff online data.

Its know as the "Australian Tax" and companies have been doing it for years.

We need to stop calling it that because some people genuinely think we have very high sales taxes when it's not actually true


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ImAGeek wrote:

 Yak9UT wrote:

 Orock wrote:
Why does steam charge australians more for their games? Is the only reason greed, because the higher capita? It makes no sense, it costs the same amount to ship as anywhere else, nothing. They cant tariff online data.

Its know as the "Australian Tax" and companies have been doing it for years.

Companies such as Microsoft and Adobe have gotten in trouble recently due to the unnecessary price hike in Australia, but its still very common in for the price of digital products to be higher here

The reason they do it is because they can. They argue because our wages are more it should mean we should pay more.

Isnt cost of living quite high in Australia? And that's why wages are higher? It's rubbish really, I feel for you Australians. I mean it's an expensive enough hobby here, let alone with an arbitrary 'Australia tax' on top.

It really depends on the job. Someone doing the same job in the USA as I do in Australia would earn close to the same amount of money, but the discrepancy in the price of stuff means they can buy a lot more stuff than me. Though my mates working in a factories in Australia seem to get by better than my mates working in factories in the USA.

When I finish up at my current job I think I'll start looking overseas largely because I can have a better standard of living doing the same thing in a lot of other countries.

Ok so just regarding the "Australian Tax" , two things

1) Companies used to have alot of costs with shipping and logistics to get things to this side of the world, luckily this is no longer an issue, however if your customers have been paying x for all this time, why change it? while the reduction in cost will mean more people buy, it will make the game more accessible (not part of their marketing plan) and also reduce their margins, which is basically their entire business model, high margins.
Obviously Steam is a similar example, however digital means there are 0 costs (except legal), making it a complete farce

2) Business Economists (Micro) are employed to determine pricing for individual countries, you think Australia is bad? NZ gets paid less than we do, their exchange is equal to Australia's and the GW pricing is 20% more than us!!! its CRAZY!
Logic should say that all prices should be the same around the world (or atleast within a short band) and that price will change based on exchange... thats why bitcoin is such a big thing in the media...

Anyway, long story short - its all about the margins baby.

Regarding Australians getting paid more, well media suggests (and I agree) that salaries have reduced by 10-20% in the last year. Australia is about to have a recession (IMO only) that it has really had for 14 years due to our strong mineral sector.

There was definitely a time when higher prices in Australia were justified, but these days it just comes down to trying to squeeze the most out of Australian customers and hoping they don't notice all the international online stores selling it for less.

Especially when you consider with companies like GW, not only is the retail price higher, but the wholesale price is massively higher as well. There's absolutely no reason for it to be, if the extra cost comes from the higher wages then it should be the shop owners setting it at what they can afford, not an insanely high wholesale price forcing them to bump up the price and any discounts they offer cuts them to the bone.

So, Aus games are banned from buying online from overseas, and not local suppliers get cut off, too?
Who could an Oz games get their overpriced GW supplies from now? Is GW itself the only place left?

This is official, And to be implemented in the very near future, GW is basically the only place left although some brick and mortar stores offer 5-10% off.
Edit: Australians could likely contact the ACCC to confirm this for themselves. Also, An average house is between 380-500 Dollars a week. So our cost of living is quite high.

Does Firestorm games sell GW products to Australia? I've bought from them before and they were good, but never GW products.

Though really, GW not selling in a reasonable fashion from Australian sources is one of the several things that has lowered my motivation to buy GW product in the first place.

Nope, No overseas site is allowed to sell to us, or risk being cut off by gamesworkshop themselves. I can also see this encouraging major recasting.

It tickles me, really. Australia is hardly a territory where they're strong to begin with, and this only weakens them further still. Especially when their rivals are aware of the actual currency conversion rates and/or don't block their customers from being able to import for cheaper. Some of the GW prices are, for want of a better word, hilarious.

I mean, I can't think of any other company with so much scorn for folks who are selling their product. Any other company would want their product spread far and wide and, so long as they as the manufacturer still got their wholesale cut, be happy that the product is being sold and played. It's mind boggling.

Out of interest, which is your store?

ToxicBox wrote:
Nope, No overseas site is allowed to sell to us, or risk being cut off by gamesworkshop themselves. I can also see this encouraging major recasting.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the case for all out of region sales?

 Kanluwen wrote:

ToxicBox wrote:
Nope, No overseas site is allowed to sell to us, or risk being cut off by gamesworkshop themselves. I can also see this encouraging major recasting.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the case for all out of region sales?

That it encourages recasting? Yes.

I feel sorry for the Australian folk on here, and it's just another reason on the list of why I stopped buying GW products.

When I used to sell warhammer stuff on ebay, I always wondered why I was getting loads of business from down under. Now I know.

What is it about Australia/New Zealand that makes GW behave like this?

Sadly GW continues to kick around the little companies as it flails to pass the blame for its own mistakes onto others instead of looking at ways to fix those issues...

Joyboozer wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

ToxicBox wrote:
Nope, No overseas site is allowed to sell to us, or risk being cut off by gamesworkshop themselves. I can also see this encouraging major recasting.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the case for all out of region sales?

That it encourages recasting? Yes.

Yeah, keep pretending that was my question.

Funny how you don't see huge amounts of recasts being purchased here in the US, despite having the same "no online only stores" policies that you're up in arms about here.

ToxicBox wrote:
Nope, No overseas site is allowed to sell to us, or risk being cut off by gamesworkshop themselves. I can also see this encouraging major recasting.

Aussies can and do still buy from Discount Games Store in the US for much better prices than local. The low $AU and the increased shipping has cut into that a little, but at higher volume orders it's still substantially cheaper.

Also as mentioned, our friends in China.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Funny how you don't see huge amounts of recasts being purchased here in the US, despite having the same "no online only stores" policies that you're up in arms about here.

There are online stores in the US, just not online store-fronts. Buy online via email, annoying but it works. The reduced purchase of recasts in the US is due to the lack of regional price gouging. ie. Marneus Calgar for $AU102 here comapred to $US60 in the US. Even with the current bad exchange rate that's $AU78 to buy the US priced one. Removing online stores here just makes things more expensive for those that don't import, thus increasing the likelihood of buying more recasts.

 Kanluwen wrote:

Joyboozer wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

ToxicBox wrote:
Nope, No overseas site is allowed to sell to us, or risk being cut off by gamesworkshop themselves. I can also see this encouraging major recasting.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the case for all out of region sales?

That it encourages recasting? Yes.

Yeah, keep pretending that was my question.

Funny how you don't see huge amounts of recasts being purchased here in the US, despite having the same "no online only stores" policies that you're up in arms about here.

It's not my fault you you phrased it badly.