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CainTheHunter wrote:

JamesFlames wrote:
Hi I have signed up to add to this thread which I have been watching with increasing worry for a few days.

When Maelstrom were doing a 40% discount a few weeks ago I ordered some SOTR stuff for my brother which arrived within a few days. I kept checking their inventory whenever a new level of discount was emailed out and suddenly noticed a Flames of War starter box at 50% off on 26 Oct. As this is something I was thinking about getting around xmas, I immediately placed an order for it and a couple of FOW blisters also 50% off.

Since then I have been looking at this thread and a few others like it with a growing sense of worry. I had only paid £20 but I'm pretty skint right now, so the 50% discount was very tempting.

Today this order arrived. On the Maelstrom site it is still marked as packing, but I seem to recall that their dispatch notices often arrive after the items do.

My reason for posting this is that I know Maelstrom can be pretty bad at responding to emails and so on but they still seem to be honouring their side of the deal as far as I can see. I was worried myself so I know it's easy to become alarmed by the apparent signs of a company in crisis but we won't know for sure whether they are going to have left anyone out of pocket until they shutdown for good. I really hope you guys all get your stuff or get your payment back, but I don't see any reason why it shouldn't turn out ok for everyone.

Flames of War was never 50% off - the highest discount given was 40%. And I hate to say, but if that starter was named "Open Fire", then You got an outdated starter with previous edition rules... The current starter is Achtung! and the new "Open FIre" with plastic infantry was never "in stock" at MG.

Thanks for your concern old chap.

The starter I ordered and received is Achtung. I am well aware of the FOW editions and whilst the new Open Fire box looks great, as I believe I mentioned I am pretty skint so £12 or so for Achtung seemed a good deal.

Also on 26 October I got an email from Maelstrom saying: 'all our remaining stock will now be sold at 70% off UK RRP except for Battlefront Miniatures and Mierce Miniatures, which will be sold at 50% off UK RRP and Templar's Forge at 75% off.'

You might be interested to learn that FOW is made by Battlefront so I received 50% off the RRP.

Hello, i have just logged onto this site so that i could add my story of MG to the others, i did start a thread on the 'Flames Of War' site a week or so ago but it was locked seemingly to protect MG for some strange reason.
http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=126&aff=6&aft=548358&afv=topic

Anyway i placed a large order with them at the start of October for some Flames Of War items, the discount then was 25% (15% really because it's always available at 10% off from retailers) all the items were quoted as being in stock apart from some decals. I waited for the goods to turn up but nothing did, then i found some of these threads about them so i emailed them that if i did not hear from them within two days i would cancel the order, then i got a message saying that the order has been split.
The first half of the split orders (about 40% of the total order amount) was delivered a few days later, but when i opened the package alot of the items were not in the package that were supposed to be. It was obvious then that they were just dripping out stock to try and keep customers on the hook, i cancelled my orders immediately and lodged a paypal dispute which i escalated immediately.

It would be of no surprise to you all that MG have not been in contact with me, i'm just waiting for paypal now to get a refund.

JamesFlames wrote:
Thanks for your concern old chap.

The starter I ordered and received is Achtung. I am well aware of the FOW editions and whilst the new Open Fire box looks great, as I believe I mentioned I am pretty skint so £12 or so for Achtung seemed a good deal.

Also on 26 October I got an email from Maelstrom saying: 'all our remaining stock will now be sold at 70% off UK RRP except for Battlefront Miniatures and Mierce Miniatures, which will be sold at 50% off UK RRP and Templar's Forge at 75% off.'

You might be interested to learn that FOW is made by Battlefront so I received 50% off the RRP.

Having purchased a lot of BF FoW stuff, I know which is the company making it . But I never got that e-mail - the last one from MG stated 40%... Whatever, at least a got a couple of BF tanks at 25% discount at the early stage of this hype

So, here's how it's gone for me.
I've had two orders for a long time - One preordered infinity rulebook from about 60-70 days ago for 30 pounds and one order of 70 pounds worth of Infinity figures from 40-something days ago.
After all this started welling up and waiting a bit patiently, I asked them to cancel. Got no response.
I went to Paypal with the large batch of Infinity figs and claimed it. I got the claim, but have yet to see if some of that money will make it back.
Regarding the other order, since I couldn't go to Paypal I went to my bank and talked there. They told me to file a report to the police, which I did. The police called soon after and told me that it might not be much of a case since it seems that Maelstrom didn't intend to fraud me or something like that. Either way they told me I've probably lost those money for the rulebook.

I also went out and contacted Corvus Belli to see if MG had ordered anything Infinity lately. They gave me the email of their UK supplier who told me that they stopped supplying MG with Infinity SEVERAL WEEKS AGO due to massive debt. And Maelstrom just... ignored it. Didn't tell me despite that they knew that neither my figures nor my book would show up. Gah.

I've actually still got 4 items outstanding. 30UKP worth. 3 of them were "in stock" when I ordered them, back in August. It's beyond the 45 PayPal days now, and I'm slowly getting around to performing a chargeback on them. It's just a bit more complicated because of the way that they combine and split orders. I did get the larger 400UKP back, though.

If you mean Secrets of the Third Reich stuff, I had over 100UKP of that ordered, and got that all refunded shortly before the PayPal cutoff, as mentioned several times in this thread. If you don';t see why it shouldn;t turn out ok for everyone in the end, what about the people who ordered the stuff from Wyrd(?) miniatures, who have publiclly stated that they have cut Maelstrom off?

So it seems the MO is now to send out what they have in the hope that it's better than nothing, but fail to respond to any kind of contact and fail to refund for the balance of the goods. I'm going to give them until tomorrow to reply to me before I complain via registered post seeking resolution- I know this helps to show you've tried to pursue the issue if any doubts are cast later.

It's gone suspiciously quiet over the last couple of days from them- no 90% off voucher code: FOUR-HORSE-RIDERS-SPOTTED-APOCAYLPSE-NOW!

I'm also up for going down to MG to see whats going on next week as I have a couple of days off and its not too far- anyone else already tried physically visiting them?

90% off would be silly - it wouldn't pay the shipping on most orders. they won't do that, I'm sure.

SOme of their stock and sections have disappeared from the website. I remember seeing a lot of microart bases still on stock know they don't even as an option. This and the lack of vouchers seems to be pointing for the worst. They are probably just sending the last orders out for the things they have in stock before declare bankruptcy. For the ones new to this thread the only items they are dispatching are from orders placed during the last vouchers sales. All the previous customers will most likely never get their orders as they stopped trading with some of the distributors.

Did anyone else notice that comment by Jean-Paul on the FOW forum (link above- top pg 29) Seems At least BF is somewhat in the loop and some announcement will be forthcoming.

Cardinal Biggles wrote:

Haven't got high hopes about getting my models or my money back, so I guess I'm out £50+ . I will not order from MG or EOTS again.

File a claim with either paypal or your credit card company.

Cut 'n'paste please? I don't feel like signing up to the FoW forum just to read a thread...

 scipio.au wrote:
Cut 'n'paste please? I don't feel like signing up to the FoW forum just to read a thread...

Seconded!

 IK-Painter wrote:

 scipio.au wrote:
Cut 'n'paste please? I don't feel like signing up to the FoW forum just to read a thread...

Seconded!

Thirded - and can I just say that that seems a bit of a daft approach from the FoW guys...

 scipio.au wrote:
, what about the people who ordered the stuff from Wyrd(?) miniatures, who have publiclly stated that they have cut Maelstrom off?

It was their distributor Simple Miniatures, rather than Wyrd themselves, that cut Maelstrom off - so not only did they lose supply of Wyrd, they lost supplies for Warmachine / Hordes and Inifnity - and yet Maelstrom still had pre-orders for Paradiso and various new releases from all those ranges going through the site. MG should have know that they couldn't get these any more so it raises the question of where does the law stand on MG taking people's cash for the items MG knew they wouldn't be getting anymore

Regarding the Battlefront forums, this is all I got from the thread, unless I'm missing something:

You will be getting some news from Rob directly very soon about the future of his company and although he is keeping us in the loop as things evolve it is not for me to share this information with you so please be patient and wait for some official word.

edit.

Said post was done by a BF staff member named John-Paul.

That post from john paul was on the 25th October - so it's a while to wait for any announcement. I'm guessing they just don't want a big thread like this on their forum potentially undermining customer confidence in battlefront. (although I don't see why it should - but many companies seem to react this way)

They will wait for Maelstrom to announce something.

Question is, will they ever now? And will this be just for the companies they sell wares from, or a public announcement to all?

They've kept mum for so long now that I think anything they say will be met with a veritable storm of outcry and dismay, even if said announcement was about them shipping out everything still owed and travelling back in time to kill Hitler.

And Maelstrom is currently offline for 'maintenance'

Has it happened?

Possibly? I've rarely seen it down, infact this is a first.

Hey guys,

Thought I should share my experiences with you in regards to Maelstrom Games. I placed an order with them on the 5th of August and have not received any of the good ordered. I have tried Emailing them, ringing them repeatedly and finally sending a recorded letter. They have not replied to any of my communications. After speaking with the Citizens Advice service, and along with Trading Standards, I now have no recourse other than to file proceedings against them in court. For those in a similar situation, below is a copy of the recorded letter I sent them (which they did not reply to, even though they signed for the delivery of the letter).

===

Maelstrom Games Ltd.
Matlock Mill
Hamilton Way
Mansfield
Nottinghamshire
NG18 5BU

Letter before court claim

Dear Maelstrom Games,

Re: Breach of Contract - Order #9942864865

I have not received a reply to my recent Email regarding the failure to deliver the goods which I purchased from you on 5th August 2012. In addition, I have placed 11 separate telephone calls to you over the past 3 days and not had any of them answered.

I am once again requesting a full refund of the purchase price of £62.80 on the grounds that the goods have not been delivered, even after 2 months of having placed the order with you. To this end, I am holding Maelstrom Games in breach of contract and seek an immediate resolution to this issue as time is of the essence.

I would like a reply as soon as possible so that I know you have received and understood this letter, which has been sent via recorded delivery.

If I do not receive a satisfactory response from you within 14 days of the date of this letter, I intend to issue proceedings against you in the county court without further notice. This may increase your liability for costs.

I refer you to the Practice Direction on pre-action conduct under the Civil Procedure Rules, and in particular to paragraph 4 which sets out the sanctions the court may impose if you fail to comply with the Practice Direction.

I look forward to your acknowledgement.

===

If anyone else is in a similar situation, you have my sympathies. They have behaved in a totally unacceptable manner.

Good luck to you all!

Maelstrom website is down for maintenance, interesting?

I expect a message with regard to insolvency imminently to be honest.

But Eye-of-the-storm is still up and running.

Eye of the storm is seperate company, for now.

I'll have a check later on the courts to see if anyone has petitioned to wind the company up

 Alkasyn wrote:
But Eye-of-the-storm is still up and running.

Of course it is that is a separate company and bricks and mortar shop that just happens to be owned by the same guy and was built with the missing money and stock from maelstrom and have the same address and phone number as maelstrom

MarkyMark wrote:
Eye of the storm is seperate company, for now.

I'll have a check later on the courts to see if anyone has petitioned to wind the company up

Bold above mine. This is the important part, an administrator would be required to look into any moving of money or assets (including stock) from one company to another (particularly when it's owned by the same people!) to ensure that the company hasn't been used as a way of separating off the good stuff from the bad, thereby letting Maelstrom sink (taking all it's debts and supplier issues with it) and EOTS carry on without any negative impact. This process can be seen as Phoenixing a company and is surprisingly common in the UK, although the fact that EOTS has been a trading business for a while now may prevent the relevent authorities seeing it as such, the exact status and legality of this process is more than a little complicated!

Main point would be how much EOTS paid Maelstrom for whatever it has got from them, token fee for the lease may be ok given the state of the commerical property market but it does look like the area they are in is quite popular. Stock though, depending on how much was transferred cannot be done for a token amount

MarkyMark wrote:
Main point would be how much EOTS paid Maelstrom for whatever it has got from them, token fee for the lease may be ok given the state of the commerical property market but it does look like the area they are in is quite popular. Stock though, depending on how much was transferred cannot be done for a token amount

So I understand, I think the term used is a fair market price isn't it? Although would they be able to claim that as they were retailing at 80% discount then it was also fair to sell to EOTS at similar prices?

Their website is offline for "maintenance."


End of the road you think?