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This makes me very sad.
I have never had an issue with Maelstrom and it originally changed the way GW was bought in Australia.

I have grabbed some stuff from this sale in hope... I am still confident it will arrive (albeit very late)...

So Maelstrom is no more? Or just sold to a different company and it now exists under a different name (Eye of the Storm)?

I have had an order shipped by maelstrom as of a couple days ago, that I ordered a couple days before that. I don't doubt some people have had problems with them but I never have - they've always been great. Would be a shame if they went guts up. Here's hoping it's just no more GW through Maelstrom... which doesn't effect Aussies anyway : p /selfishmodeoff

Edit: Clarification, I only order hobby supplies from them, which they have a big turnover in I imagine.

Is there any news on that "Increased Sale %" from them... I am seeing nothing (in 2 minds... love sales... but prefer solvency)

 Makaleth wrote:
Is there any news on that "Increased Sale %" from them... I am seeing nothing (in 2 minds... love sales... but prefer solvency)

The 30-50% one? I ordered some more stuff that wouldn't go astray last night since 40% off vallejo was too good to pass up. Hasn't shipped yet, but... they're probably not even at work yet, slack poms!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So Maelstrom is no more? Or just sold to a different company and it now exists under a different name (Eye of the Storm)?

Eye of the Storm = physical shop & events venue
Mierce = banelegions
Maelstrom = online shopping warehouse

At least I believe that was the original plan.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So Maelstrom is no more? Or just sold to a different company and it now exists under a different name (Eye of the Storm)?

No, and no.

They have not gone under, yet. Let's hope they pull through.
And they are splitting off different parts of the company under their own names (Mierce Miniatures, Eye of the Storm, etc.), not being bought up by another company. That might change in the future, who knows?

How they could miss that much stock still being present? I mean, almost all useful Flames of War stuff was gone within 1-2 days from their site, the best kits disappeared within hours. I made a hard decision and finally placed an order, and now - Voila! - they have all those tasty goodies up again.. If I knew that, I would have made diff.decisions....

CainTheHunter wrote:
How they could miss that much stock still being present? I mean, almost all useful Flames of War stuff was gone within 1-2 days from their site, the best kits disappeared within hours. I made a hard decision and finally placed an order, and now - Voila! - they have all those tasty goodies up again.. If I knew that, I would have made diff.decisions....

Not worked in retail much have we? In any given large warehouse stock WILL go missing, it's called shrink. Sometimes it will never get sent in from the supplier, stolen, not recorded as a known loss or simply mislaid. So when you do a major stock check (which Maelstrom were doing, as I was up there yesterday) you will "find" some of this missing stock.

Simples.

Okay basically to add to this I figured I'd share my experience of Maelstrom.

Been ordering through them for I think two years now, at the beginning it was fastly dispatched, regularly re stocked, good comms etc.

In the last six months it has been hell. Orders taking forever, as in upwards of a month to be dispatched: being told constantly "in the middle of this week, it will be with you by Saturday."

Recently I was refunded £1.28 for a canceled order of £30. I phoned and phoned, until eventually I got my money back. However over 2 months ago I ordered the Malifaux rulebook and some other stuff due to a sale, never arrived after a month so I canceled. A cash refund wasn't given... I was given store credit. Normally I'd complain but they refunded me twice, giving me £62 credit from my £31 order. I'd feel bad if it weren't for the lies "pre order, get it that weekend, blah blah blah."

I reordered the rulebook and some other stuff with this credit, thinking what the hell? On the 31st August, I have received a quarter of my order.

Two weeks ago I gave them another chance I desperately need some paints, I hope this order goes well :/

Also in terms of CS: I repeatedly ask for orders not to be split and to wait till it's all in stock. My dad works nights/earlys and I don't like him being disturbed too much, however they go against this even when I phone up, explain and ask!

You could say I'm an idiot for still using them but I miss the glory days.

Taken a gamble. 50% off the Gamezone stuff is mental, they are some beautiful little minis, so I bought a load of the dwarves. Also a Scibor Dwarf on Warbear, which I've wanted for ages but the price tag always put me off. So, the startings of a dwarf army for £40. If the stock levels were correct, fingers crossed!

I just got a dispatched email. 2nd class delivery. I'll give it seven days, but since they need the cash I'm betting this order will get to me.

 Mr. Burning wrote:
I just got a dispatched email. 2nd class delivery. I'll give it seven days, but since they need the cash I'm betting this order will get to me.

No idea how "normal" this is, but as I already said, I was up there yesterday and there was about 10 cages full to the brim of parcels being taken out to a waiting truck in the pouring rain. They ARE getting the stuff out (unless this happens on a daily basis) as they just got a load out en mass it appears yesterday.

@Grimtuff

Their e-mail is pretty blatant about getting cash flow up to pay suppliers and to get orders out etc. With a sale of this magnitude I'm not surprised that hey have loads of parcels to go out. They need to clear inventory fast so they can get cash in and be seen to provide what they promise.

Once they have cleared everything out we'll see what happens next.

They have moved events stuff to EOTS so when the dust is settled we'll see what form Maelstrom take.

I wouldn't be surprised if in a few weeks Maelstrom disappeared and a new slightly differently named company sprang up to take there place.

Well my order turned up this morning from Maelstrom having been marked as dispatched earlier this week (It's been outstanding for a couple of months, I suspect they 'found' the stock that they originally had showing and could't find when I first ordered it)
I'm not sure if I should risk it for some more really cheap stuff on the basis of this or to just count myself lucky!

this whole Maelstrom thing is really beginning to annoy.

Been trying to call them for 3 days now and they just let the phone ring/ is engaged /ignore emails.

if the company wasnt in trouble or pulling a fast one they would at least still have an awnser phone/someone there to pick up the phone.

From a company I have given alot of money to in the past and recieved a generally decent service it's just not good enough !

Disgusting.

pitboy2710 wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised if in a few weeks Maelstrom disappeared and a new slightly differently named company sprang up to take there place.

Here's my contender for that very eventuality:

http://www.eye-of-the-storm.co.uk/

Welcome to the shiny new Eye of the Storm store!

This is the webstore for our bricks-and-mortar wargames store and venue located in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

To start with, this store will just supply event tickets, but we will shortly expand the range to also include the models we stock in the store.

 scipio.au wrote:

pitboy2710 wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised if in a few weeks Maelstrom disappeared and a new slightly differently named company sprang up to take there place.

Here's my contender for that very eventuality:

http://www.eye-of-the-storm.co.uk/

Welcome to the shiny new Eye of the Storm store!

This is the webstore for our bricks-and-mortar wargames store and venue located in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

To start with, this store will just supply event tickets, but we will shortly expand the range to also include the models we stock in the store.

Well, they did not transfer their customer base as I tried to log into this new website and my e-mail was unrecognised.

I've pretty much given up on maelstrom now. I ordered some GW terrain in august which they said had been sent. It never arrived and they are supposed to be sending me out a replacement. I'm still waiting

Worse, however, was some Infinity miniatures which I ordered in July, waited 6 weeks for them to arrive only to find half the bits were missing. I had to send them back (at my own expense) or they would not send a replacement. After another 6weeks I recieved a replacement - that was missing exactly the same parts. It even had some tears in the foam packing that I'm sure were there the first time round, making me think they sent me back the same box as the first time I've gone to Corvus Belli directly now to try and get the problem sorted as I've lost all faith in Maelstrom's ability to sort things out.

Can anyone recommend a good site for ordering infinity stuff for the UK??

 Chimera_Calvin wrote:
I've pretty much given up on maelstrom now. I ordered some GW terrain in august which they said had been sent. It never arrived and they are supposed to be sending me out a replacement. I'm still waiting

Worse, however, was some Infinity miniatures which I ordered in July, waited 6 weeks for them to arrive only to find half the bits were missing. I had to send them back (at my own expense) or they would not send a replacement. After another 6weeks I recieved a replacement - that was missing exactly the same parts. It even had some tears in the foam packing that I'm sure were there the first time round, making me think they sent me back the same box as the first time I've gone to Corvus Belli directly now to try and get the problem sorted as I've lost all faith in Maelstrom's ability to sort things out.

Can anyone recommend a good site for ordering infinity stuff for the UK??

You can buy Infinity stuff here on Dakka.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/442723.page


As for my experience with Maelstrom issues, they used to be flawless for some time. First issue happened when the box which I ordered missed some important sprues - I got the whole box replaced and sent to me within one week. Next time, they sent me German WW2 armored infantry carrier box instead of Tanks, but I let this one go, since I was in general happy with infantry carriers too. Then, they sent me Soviet Heavy weapons instead German, but after I contacted them, they sent me out the correct item, even thought it was marked as "out of stock" at given time. Now, a friend of my ordered some Soviet stuff, and he got 15mm T-34 tanks, but instead of 15mm Soviet Infantry from Plastic Soldier Company, they sent him 28mm Infantry, which was kinda big miss. I don't know if this has been sorted, but probably they have hired some illegal immigrants to do the processing and packing...

 Chimera_Calvin wrote:
I've pretty much given up on maelstrom now. I ordered some GW terrain in august which they said had been sent. It never arrived and they are supposed to be sending me out a replacement. I'm still waiting

Worse, however, was some Infinity miniatures which I ordered in July, waited 6 weeks for them to arrive only to find half the bits were missing. I had to send them back (at my own expense) or they would not send a replacement. After another 6weeks I recieved a replacement - that was missing exactly the same parts. It even had some tears in the foam packing that I'm sure were there the first time round, making me think they sent me back the same box as the first time I've gone to Corvus Belli directly now to try and get the problem sorted as I've lost all faith in Maelstrom's ability to sort things out.

Can anyone recommend a good site for ordering infinity stuff for the UK??

If you paid with PayPal, you've left it too long. I'm not sure about VISA, but it'd be worth a call. If I had anything like that situation with any merchant, I'd be on them quicksmart. I've had my experience with dodgy merchants thanks to Hong Kong sellers on eBay. Now I get on people's case if they try to screw me about. Thankfully, it's rare that anyone tries it on.

I have to say though, I have been sent the wrong thing by Maelstrom in the past, as well as received a multipart model missing a leg (in separate orders). I had excellent service on both, with replacements sent out within a week at no cost to myself. This was before the current situation, but still - worth noting in fairness.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

CainTheHunter wrote:

Then, they sent me Soviet Heavy weapons instead German, but after I contacted them, they sent me out the correct item, even thought it was marked as "out of stock" at given time.

I imagine that at certain times stock has been fluid between the mail order warehouse and the retail store. Fixing up a mistake on an order would be the perfect example of doing so.

 Chimera_Calvin wrote:
I've pretty much given up on maelstrom now. I ordered some GW terrain in august which they said had been sent. It never arrived and they are supposed to be sending me out a replacement. I'm still waiting

Worse, however, was some Infinity miniatures which I ordered in July, waited 6 weeks for them to arrive only to find half the bits were missing. I had to send them back (at my own expense) or they would not send a replacement. After another 6weeks I recieved a replacement - that was missing exactly the same parts. It even had some tears in the foam packing that I'm sure were there the first time round, making me think they sent me back the same box as the first time I've gone to Corvus Belli directly now to try and get the problem sorted as I've lost all faith in Maelstrom's ability to sort things out.

Can anyone recommend a good site for ordering infinity stuff for the UK??

There are several reliable, safe and quick stores in the UK for Infinity - in fact there are plenty of LGS that stock them now

Try Wargames-workshop.co.uk, arcane miniatures, Firestorm games, Waugh Games Store, Wargaming Trader to name but a few

 SoulDrinker wrote:

 Chimera_Calvin wrote:
I've pretty much given up on maelstrom now. I ordered some GW terrain in august which they said had been sent. It never arrived and they are supposed to be sending me out a replacement. I'm still waiting

Worse, however, was some Infinity miniatures which I ordered in July, waited 6 weeks for them to arrive only to find half the bits were missing. I had to send them back (at my own expense) or they would not send a replacement. After another 6weeks I recieved a replacement - that was missing exactly the same parts. It even had some tears in the foam packing that I'm sure were there the first time round, making me think they sent me back the same box as the first time I've gone to Corvus Belli directly now to try and get the problem sorted as I've lost all faith in Maelstrom's ability to sort things out.

Can anyone recommend a good site for ordering infinity stuff for the UK??

There are several reliable, safe and quick stores in the UK for Infinity - in fact there are plenty of LGS that stock them now

Try Wargames-workshop.co.uk, arcane miniatures, Firestorm games, Waugh Games Store, Wargaming Trader to name but a few

We sell Infinity as well, we have a policy of keeping the whole range in stock (as much as possible) and only allow people to buy stuff in-stock (to avoid delays), we've just had a restock today so everything is instock at the moment.

http://www.valiantwargames.co.uk

Pretty much saw this coming. Used Maelstrom for years but got sick of them and switched over to Element Games (who have outstanding service - exact dispatch dates next to every single product, as well as great discounts)

 SoulDrinker wrote:

 Chimera_Calvin wrote:
I've pretty much given up on maelstrom now. I ordered some GW terrain in august which they said had been sent. It never arrived and they are supposed to be sending me out a replacement. I'm still waiting

Worse, however, was some Infinity miniatures which I ordered in July, waited 6 weeks for them to arrive only to find half the bits were missing. I had to send them back (at my own expense) or they would not send a replacement. After another 6weeks I recieved a replacement - that was missing exactly the same parts. It even had some tears in the foam packing that I'm sure were there the first time round, making me think they sent me back the same box as the first time I've gone to Corvus Belli directly now to try and get the problem sorted as I've lost all faith in Maelstrom's ability to sort things out.

Can anyone recommend a good site for ordering infinity stuff for the UK??

There are several reliable, safe and quick stores in the UK for Infinity - in fact there are plenty of LGS that stock them now

Try Wargames-workshop.co.uk, arcane miniatures, Firestorm games, Waugh Games Store, Wargaming Trader to name but a few

I'd add Wayland games too, their new website will even mean you can find what your after quickly.

Thanks for all the suggestions I'll give one of them a try.

did anyone who asked for a refund through paypal finally received the money back ? Or is it still on hold ?

I got my money back from Paypal, they were very quick. Just remember you only have 45 days from purchase to open a dispute...

Great read in this thread - now I finally understand, why my order I placed over two and a half months ago still isn't complete - but judging by the stories of my fellow Dakkaites, I shall count myself lucky that all that's missing from my 200+ GBP order is one Malifaux 1.5 Rulebook...

Anyone of you got experiences how I can cancel a transaction made by Visa? Thing is, the bulk of my order arrived in bits and pieces, so only 1 item is still unaccounted for. I'm hoping, that the guys over at Visa can help me with this, as it's been so long since I placed my order.