Maelstrom Games taking the biscuit?

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**Svartey**

notprop wrote:
Yeah I had that store credit/cash back thing before and hey we're honest enough to admit that it was purely to avoid charges from the credit card people since most people end up reordering other stuff.

Easily resolved in a call, not so easy from the states though I'm guessing.

I was not even certain that the refund would be an option, but since they offered in their email response I was happy to take them up on it.

Yes, I had been thinking the same thing. Perhaps I will be able to come up with an easy (cheap/free) way to contact them by phone and give that a shot.

**bobbyC**

I cant believe no one has posted this, at all the tournaments I have been to in the last year. Everyone is talking about MG and their huge debts to suppliers. My guess is that they are insolvent. Sorry to state it so bluntly, but its talked about openly every weekend in some places.

**pitboy2710**

@rich1231

Apologies if i have caused offence in any way. i am going to PM you to explain why i may seem unduly angry or frustrated.

If you want i shall remove my posts on this and other threads regarding your company ( or request a mod do it if that's how it is done )

It has come to my attention that circumstances beyond yours or anyone's control maybe colouring my perception on this issue.

**Necro**

The sales emails keep coming in which is great but they take way to long to ship to me in Australia. I used Maelstrom exclusively up until the embargo and was happy to wait as the saving were huge (literally half price).

Now days I am into Warmachine so there is not the vast price discrepancy that GW has to the rest of the world. I use Discount games now and I pay a little more for my purchases (shipping- but I get partial refund due to the amount I order) but my god are they fast to ship

I don't mind paying more as they get it to me fast. They carry a lot of stock and always have a clearance going which is great.

I think Maelstrom did a great job when I used them and always got what I ordered and in great condition. It is really just the lengthy delays which can be really excessive that prevents me using them these days.

Wish them the best with their expansion.

**Jayce_The_Ace**

bobbyC wrote:
I cant believe no one has posted this, at all the tournaments I have been to in the last year. Everyone is talking about MG and their huge debts to suppliers. My guess is that they are insolvent. Sorry to state it so bluntly, but its talked about openly every weekend in some places.

Mmmm.........they are in the process of moving to a larger warehouse & supposedly splitting the shop & mail order into seperate entities (I think), which to be honest, does not sound like the actions of an insolvent business.

However, your post has me intrigued - can you give any further information, or a link to sources on this?

Not calling you a liar or anything, I'm genuinely interested in seeing more about it.

**bobbyC**

Jayce, that's fine. Internet conjecture and all that. I have been to 3 events since April. At every one it has been discussed.

I am wary of just posting rumour and hearsay but will try and stick to things that have been mentioned more than once in different places.

They owe one supplier a massive amount of money. And rather than pay them have continued to release more of their miniatures.

They are behind with almost all suppliers.

They have no stock in their store.

They have started creating new companies they admitted this themselves - I would guess they are attempting to move assets around to avoid them being taken if they fold.

Other stuff as well was gossiped about. If I were a supplier I would be wary.

**Eiríkr**

They have no stock* in their store because it's being moved, or is in the process of being moved, to the new warehouse.

:/

Gossip is dangerous. Wagging tongues and all that...

* And this I dispute. I live five minutes away, I pop down most weeks and let me tell you, the store is rammed with kit. The only lack is that of, surprise surprise, GW material.

**Jayce_The_Ace**

bobbyC wrote:
Jayce, that's fine. Internet conjecture and all that. I have been to 3 events since April. At every one it has been discussed.

I am wary of just posting rumour and hearsay but will try and stick to things that have been mentioned more than once in different places.

They owe one supplier a massive amount of money. And rather than pay them have continued to release more of their miniatures.

They are behind with almost all suppliers.

They have no stock in their store.

They have started creating new companies they admitted this themselves - I would guess they are attempting to move assets around to avoid them being taken if they fold.

Other stuff as well was gossiped about. If I were a supplier I would be wary.

Thanks for this - interesting reading.

I can't comment on the rumours about owing suppliers as I've not heard about that before, but the comment about the shop not having any stock matches a post I read a while ago either here or on Warseer.

I've been a Maelstrom customer for quite some time, and was planning on making some more purchases, but was waiting for them to get the move sorted out first - might be worth hanging on a bit longer and seeing if anything else pans out....

**Therion**

We finally got our models today. The total delivery time within EU was therefore 28 days from the moment of the order being confirmed. Maelstrom Games never apologized for the delay, nor did they keep us informed on when we should expect to get delivery. They only communication we got was when we called them, and in that case they intentionally lied to us about shipping the product and then not doing so.

They've lost us as customers forever and considering their modus operandi I wouldn't be surprised if BobbyC was 100% correct.

**Azazelx**

azreal13 wrote:
Steve steveson wrote:
I'm sorry, but I don't buy that. Once a week ordering I can beleave, but limiting what they can buy? I'm sorry, but I don't buy that excuse at all. The only reason I can see for that is that they are as bad at paying their bills as they are at supplying customers so are on a tight credit limit.

Believe it. In many industries where the supplier has a retail interest of its own it will manage stock flow to its own advantage.

I come from a mobile phone background and exactly the same thing applies. You can order as many as you like, but you'll only get left overs once their own priorities are taken care of.

Yeah, they do exactly that. I tend to order only items that are listed as "in stock". Several months ago I ordered some Banelegions stuff that was indeed in stock. A few weeks later I rang them up and they told me that the items had sold out at some convention/wargames day, and that my models "should be cast in a week or two" because, of course, they were "really busy."

Really, they have almost no stock for anything these days, so it's only worth ordering things that you don't need quickly, and then only during their sales. Their phone CS is usually pretty good I have to say, and they are good at fixing things up - I've certainly suffered through some awfully crappy/rude phone service from other online retailers.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

azreal13 wrote:
Or just cancel it and go to Rocket Hobbies who discount most kits 25% all the time!

(I'm not affiliated to Rocket Hobbies, I am just happy to recommend a company that I've been happy with and that offer good prices.)

I'll check them out for my next order. You can tell them that, too!

**greenleafl**

What's an alternative source for Coat d'arms paint? blackhat wants 20% for international shipping ie comes up to £2.4 a pot.... It seems to me only maelstrom has them at a good price?

**Azazelx**

I imagine something simple like CDA paint that they have in stock almost all the time should be pretty issue free. Mostly if you order stuff they have in stock it's pretty smooth. The main issue (for me at least) has been their lack of stock across the whole range of non-GW things. They used to carry heaps.

**Ravenblade666**

Abit annoyed at Maelstrom games, I preordered Descent 2nd from them back at the end of May, hopeing when they got it in they would send it out to me as soon as they had in stock,
well the surprise is it's never been in stock, it's been out of stock at the supplier for around last 2-3 weeks, so I sent them a polite email asking if/when they would be getting any in.
their reply was we don't know because our supplier doesn't know.

Well i checked later and they have changed it from out of stock at the supplier to order now will take 2 days to get the stock in, so i'm really unsure what the hell is going on at the moment with
Maelstrom games

**Azazelx**

Ring them.

**Alkasyn**

Credit where credit is due - I ordered the last 2 Melusines to finish my counts-as Wracks squad on Monday and on Tuesday they were already shipped.

**Sining**

Good for you. I ordered magnets on 30th jun, got told on 14 that they were hoping to get their restock in that week and would ship that week and nothing else since then. Once it hits sept, i'm just going to request a cancellation of the order

**Pacific**

Eiríkr wrote:
They have no stock* in their store because it's being moved, or is in the process of being moved, to the new warehouse.

:/

Gossip is dangerous. Wagging tongues and all that...

* And this I dispute. I live five minutes away, I pop down most weeks and let me tell you, the store is rammed with kit. The only lack is that of, surprise surprise, GW material.

True. I've worked in sales/supply before in other types of business, it's very common for different companies to owe money to each other - often substantial amounts, and for quite some time.

That by itself is not due reason for concern, and as the chap from Wayland has pointed out, having masses of unmoving stock on the shelves will put anyone out of business. The supply issues with GW have been well documented.

Also, neither is having multiple companies with similar limited names. It's fairly common practice when businesses reach a certain size.

The only difficulty I have had ordering from them is Infinity, but then I think that is a general problem from many dealers I think CB have probably struggled to satisfy demand recently with the surge in popularity (my opinion there based entirely on comments on Dakka!

)

**Elemental**

My experience with Maelstrom is that if it's in stock or a pre-order, it's probably good. If it's out of stock, order at your own risk. I've found Firestorm to be far more consistent.

**Svartey**

Svartey wrote:
I placed an order with Maelstrom on 7/1 (for a product I am pretty certain was not marked as such at the time, but now shows as back ordered) and it showed as processing until I decided to cancel it at the end of the month. I got a confirmation of my order cancellation on 7/31, stating that the money had been refunded to me as store credit. It also stated that if I wanted a refund by original payment method, to please ask and they would be happy to do so. Since I am located in the States and was only ordering from them because I thought they had that specific product, I proceeded to request a payment refund.

On 8/1 I received an email stating that they had deducted the store credit and were issuing a payment refund. Thinking, perhaps incorrectly, that all electronic payment transfers go quickly in the digital age, I contacted them again on 8/6 requesting confirmation of my refund. I received a response on 8/6 stating "Refunds can take anything up to 3 working days for the banks to process. If it has not been credited to your account by the end of this week please let me know."

I contacted them again on 8/13 (the next week) and 8/17 to check on the status of the refund, but received no reply.

I am glad that it is only a little over $30 I have tied up in this, but would certainly like it back, or at least something for it. After reading this thread, perhaps they are just inundated right now and will get back to me soon, but it is starting to feel like they have lost interest. Honestly, I consider it nice of them to offer the option for a payment refund, but I think the delay has become a bit excessive. It feels like my store credit went away really quick, while the $ is taking its time getting to me.

I wanted to follow-up that I received an email regarding the refund from Maelstrom on 9/9 and received the refund on 9/10. It may have taken a little while longer than I liked, but they did come through.

**Azazelx**

Elemental wrote:
My experience with Maelstrom is that if it's in stock or a pre-order, it's probably good. If it's out of stock, order at your own risk. I've found Firestorm to be far more consistent.

I haven't ever pre-ordered from them, but lately (aka in 2012) I've found that ordering "in-stock" stuff is a bit of a crapshoot.

**Inanimate**

Has anyone asked them when they expect to begin re-stocking and process orders?

**oldandcrabby**

With supplier debts of 567K I guess it wont be soon ?
http://www.companycheck.co.uk/company/04724863

**NAVARRO**

Someone poke Maelstorm attention to these threads... I dont know but the sudden silence is not helping!

**Jeigh**

Ordered a 40k rulebook using the 18% off voucher on the 1st. Emailed them yesterday as its still showing as processing.

I actually thought they had replied today. But nope. Its a voucher for 20% off.

Smooth Maelstrom. Real smooth. This is certainly the last time they are going to get any of my money.

**Rayvon**

oldandcrabby wrote:
With supplier debts of 567K I guess it wont be soon ?
http://www.companycheck.co.uk/company/04724863

I popped into maelstrom this afternoon to pick some stuff up as it happens, seemed like business as usual to me.

**Mr. Burning**

The way for Maelstrom et al to operate is to minimise the time they take rectifying their mistakes by getting it right the first time.

Both maelstrom and Weyland could certainily up their game by changing thei stock status a bit more regularly. maybe spend some extra money on IT infrastructure.

It cerrtainly isnt GW's or any other suppliers or manufacturers fault that these companies are failing to deliver. Buisnesses like these know their restrictions so they should up order and hold stock or put realistic lead times on their listings.

Let the customer make an informed choice.

**Inanimate**

oldandcrabby wrote:
With supplier debts of 567K I guess it wont be soon ?
http://www.companycheck.co.uk/company/04724863

That chart doesn't really specifiy that the entire sum consists of debt towards the suppliers. I don't have access to their premium functions either, so I won't be investigating further.

Anyone know if they're moved to the new warehouse yet or when the 20% sale ends? Something tells me this should coincide with them restarting their usual business. I know they're slow, but this is getting ridiculous. I placed an order for a book and some Infinity figs on the 26th of August... still processing.

**Azazelx**

They were processing a big chunk of my back-ordered stuff for about a week, including some stuff I ordered "in stock" over a month ago. Yesterday they shipped some of it, though the "in stock" stuff went back to processing.

I also got the 20% coupon overnight as well. In other news, I've placed test orders with Troll Trader and Firestorm Games. The TT one went out almost immediately. Haven't heard anything from FSG yet. There's also Miniaturemarket, though shipping can hurt from there...

**Jeigh**

Hi,

First of all I wish to apologise for the prolonged delays you have experienced. We estimate that your order will be ready for shipping within the next 7-10 working days.

Yours,

Simon

------------------

7 to 10 working days brings me over a month to order and post the 40k rule book. What on earth!

**BunkerBob**

Order 3 boxes of PBC it took over 3 months to arrive, it took only a week for my sons to arrive. I feel bad for my LGS as I order nearly exclusively from them.