Maelstrom Games taking the biscuit?

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**Compel**

Ring up maelstrom, ask them to just cancel and refund that book.

Quote that bbc link I posted. Aka the 'distance selling regulations'

2.5 months are longer than 30 days. From what I can tell, they're required to give you your money back (don't accept credit or anything like that) immediately.

**mwnciboo**

Gotta say, predicted this quite a while back. I have been shouting from the Crows Nest "ICEBERG" for a bloody longtime. I take no pride in this, but it's sad that alot of people seem to be out of pocket / having to jump through hoops to get their own money back.

**redeyed**

Compel wrote:
Ring up maelstrom, ask them to just cancel and refund that book.

Quote that bbc link I posted. Aka the 'distance selling regulations'

2.5 months are longer than 30 days. From what I can tell, they're required to give you your money back (don't accept credit or anything like that) immediately.

trying to phone them is pointless currently. Been trying for 3 days now and they just let it ring (not even an awnserphone)

**Rayvon**

Well, they do not have anything that i want anymore so it time to move on !

**Azazelx**

redeyed wrote:

trying to phone them is pointless currently. Been trying for 3 days now and they just let it ring (not even an awnserphone)

Don't waste your time trying to contact them at this point. Contact PayP{al if it was within 45 days and open a dispute. If not, go to your VISA provider.

**The Plastic Surgeon**

VISA Cards have a chargeback option against Maelstrom's bank, so you should be fine. But it CAN take many weeks.

I have have a number of large orders with Maelstrom atm, lets just say I got greedy with the latest sale and put through 3 orders on the same day through VISA and asked for a refund of a previously outstanding order with them that has 4 items that were out of stock and thus were held up (that was done via PayPal)

Have not heard a peep from them, sent 3 emails, tried to call both their online service and physical store numbers a dozen times and it just rings through.

I'll give them another 24 hours on the Paypal order and then I'm pulling that plug. I'll give them 30 days for the VISA ones and then its chargeback time.

I'd really rather see my toys tho and they've been great in the past.

Just wished I had kept up to date with their situation and read the entire email they sent and also this thread earlier!!

**Pacific**

To be fair, orders from Maelstrom (and many other online retailers for that matter - I waited months for an order from Dark Sphere) have often resulted in a significant delay if the item is out of stock. Although as Grimtuff pointed out earlier in the thread, this might not always be the customers fault as sometimes the stock levels listed on the site might not be correct.

I've just had a 'dispatched' email sent from an item ordered last week, which is entirely reasonable.

So I don't think we are dealing here with a company that is trying to take people's money and run, as is almost being implied by a couple of posts above - they are no doubt being inundated with orders at the moment so things are taking more time to be posted, but if you order something that has enough of a stock level then to be honest you should be perfectly safe. Let's not get hysterical here!

**Azazelx**

If you want to assume the best, that's your perogative. Looking at the situation through the experiences in this post as well as my own experiences with them over the last couple of months, I'll go with "Assume the worst, hope for the best."

I'll also reiterate that I got my orders of over 400UKP refunded about 2 weeks ago now, and I'm bloody glad I did, given that the stuff was outstanding for between 4-6 weeks, was not in stock, and has shown no sign of being restocked. That includes the prduct that was listed as "in stock" when I ordered it.

Anyone ordering from them now is being a little foolish or hopeful (you choose) and perhaps a little blinded by some awesome discounts. Awesome they may be, but it's quite the gamble as to whether you'll get any of your crap.

**Dysartes**

scipio.au wrote:
Anyone ordering from them now is being a little foolish or hopeful (you choose) and perhaps a little blinded by some awesome discounts. Awesome they may be, but it's quite the gamble as to whether you'll get any of your crap.

Eh, through a combination of the voucher and the MoneyBack I had, I was able to order a Scibor Dwarf, some Matt varnish and a LE Kingdom Death model for £7. I'm fairly happy to risk that.

**Pacific**

scipio.au wrote:

I'll also reiterate that I got my orders of over 400UKP refunded about 2 weeks ago now, and I'm bloody glad I did, given that the stuff was outstanding for between 4-6 weeks, was not in stock, and has shown no sign of being restocked. That includes the prduct that was listed as "in stock" when I ordered it.

I think if you've made an order that has a mix of stock levels (both in stock and out of stock) usually they wait some time before splitting your order. At least, that's the experience I've had in the past.

I'm pretty sure that stuff that is in stock should go out immediately. Order I made yesterday has already gone to 'packing' (rather than 'processing') so fingers crossed I guess..

But yes I am perhaps being foolish and blinded by the discounts.. but I saw that dwarf riding a bear for £15, and it was like I had no control over my finger clicking the mouse button

**wildphilldude**

Just recieved my copy of future war commander that i ordered on tuesday (last copy) if it says in stock now,i think you will get it for the moment but there is not much left. Ok if you want to get some paint at 90p a pot

**Azazelx**

Pacific wrote:

I think if you've made an order that has a mix of stock levels (both in stock and out of stock) usually they wait some time before splitting your order. At least, that's the experience I've had in the past.

You are correct there. However, I had about 4 orders placed at different times all outstanding - hence my comment about "4-6 weeks". if you'll recall, we were getting a new sale email about once per week for a period.

I placed a separate "entirely in-stock" order once they sent out one of the "30% off in-stock-items only!", which was ordered independently and later than the other stuff. It went to "processing" and within a week I got an automated email telling me that some of those items were not in stock.

Hi CUSTOMERNAME,

We have split your order : #########.

The details of this split are included below:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Order Reference: ########

Split Order Reference: #########

Reason For Split: Some items are not in stock

Two weeks later and they hadn't sent out the stuff that was still apparently (supposedly) in stock, and it took repeated phone calls to them to get a bunch of "later this week"/"next week"/"this friday" answers, all of which dates came and went without anything being sent out. When I checked the website over the weeks I was patiently waiting some of the items would go from "processing" to "packing" and back to "processing", so who knows WTF was going on?

I'm pretty sure that stuff that is in stock should go out immediately. Order I made yesterday has already gone to 'packing' (rather than 'processing') so fingers crossed I guess..
But yes I am perhaps being foolish and blinded by the discounts.. but I saw that dwarf riding a bear for £15, and it was like I had no control over my finger clicking the mouse button

I don't blame you - I just hope you get your stuff. Seriously.

**JamieisOOP**

Been trying to phone to cancel my order, anybody else getting "user busy" constantly?

EDIT: scratch that, now it's just calling out.....

**mwnciboo**

There are plenty of Good FLGS out there, you've just got to get the priorities right. Customer Service and rapid order/ dispatch and stock throughput, decent cash flow to buy new systems that are being launched (X-wing etc), or more succinctly "Good Basic Business Acumen".

It's great trying to provide things like Gaming facilities, Bar's, Venues etc, but all that needs to be under-pinned by good business and good service. There is zero point offering earth shattering discounts if you have no idea when the item is turning up, or even if it is going to turn up.

This is the fundamental problem with FLGS, is that they are predominantly run by Gamers. You need to be business minded, and professional, taking a rational and objective view, mixing business and pleasure is a dangerous game. Many people I have known who have owned Game Stores filled the store with things they wanted / products they wanted to push and it became more of some kind of pseudo-political especially when personalities clash, rather than a sustainable profit driven business.

Over-reach and over expansion is another curse of the FLGS. Keep it small, profitable and controllable, as soon as you start having Million Pound plus turnover (as per Maelstrom a few years back) things get exponentially more complicated.

**A Kvlt Ghost**

I put in an order a couple weeks ago and other than being bombarded with deal offers every couple days I haven't heard a thing from them. Wish I'd seen this thread beforehand, I'd have foregone the discount and picked up some of the stuff at my GW.

**Compel**

Well, let it never be said that I was unfair...

On Tuesday when the 'Last Gasp' sale was announced, I ordered 3 of their scibor dudes.

They arrived this morning in the mail with no problems whatsoever.

**CainTheHunter**

Another thing Maelstrom has been a bit notorious for some time being is that they sometimes don't care to update the order status on their website which kinda creates even more fuss. So the order is already packed and dispatched, but You are still seeing it as being "processed"...

**Jayce_The_Ace**

OK, so an order I placed with Maelstrom on the 5th October was showing as packing a couple of days later, then got changed back to processing.

I looked on my order status again today, and it is again showing as packing.

Hopefully this time it might show up.

**Grimtuff**

To all those people having trouble getting through, when I was up there on thurs there was a problem with the chip and pin machine for the debit cards and it was simply not connecting (had to go to a nearby cash machine eventually). At the risk of putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5, maybe there is an issue with their phone connectivity. Just like Pacific said, Maelstrom don't strike me as a company that's gonna try and run off with your money.

**Makaleth**

2 of my current 3 orders just went packing this morning... will keep you all informed (But hoping my 100% record from them isn't tarnished!)

**The Plastic Surgeon**

I just want my refund on the first big order and for my 2nd big order to be packed and sent...

When did you place those orders Makaleth?

**Makaleth**

I put them in on the 10th (Still Processing and Packing)

**JamieisOOP**

Okay guys,

I am going through paypal resolution centre in order to get my money back. Maelstrom have obviously saw I am doing this: they canceled my order within a few hours after I filed the dispute. But they did not refund me immediately, and still haven't. Am I wrong in feeling pretty peed off right now?

Just hoping they don't drag it out until the limits of waiting for a reply/refund.

**cadium**

I'm another person not happy with Maelstrom games.

Having ordered Super Dungeon Explore (show as immediate shipping) and a Cryx Kraken (preorder) I had to ask them why the SDE had not shipped 10 days later. I was told there was a delay at their supplier. A couple of weeks later I got an email stating they had combined my orders

. two weeks after that a shipping notice. (notice how we are well past paypal claim time). 5 weeks later and no parcel

. My opinion is that it never shipped. I now have to try to claim the money back through my credit card company.
Maelstrom do not reply to any emails regarding non delivery.

my advice...stay well away.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
oh and watch out. I've recently had my email address sent on to a mass spam mailer. Spam comes from random names @mindspring.com and @earthlink.net. Of course, I don't know who did this but if it happens to any of you guys it may establish a pattern.

**Azazelx**

There's the lesson, unfortunately. When an order placed by me to ANYONE gets to 40 days, I email them and tell them I'll be opening a dispute within the next 48 hours if they haven't gotten back to me. I then follow through and do so.

**Headshock**

I've tried contacting Maelstroem by e-mail several time now and also by phone.

They do no respond at all.

I'm opening a dispute to get my money back.

If you have an order and your ordered items are out of stock, I strongly suggest that you try to get your money back asap!

**The Plastic Surgeon**

Just received an email saying that my first order (that I wish refunded) has been split as items were out of stock.

So yes, they have time to process that but NOT respond to any of the 6 emails that I've sent them so far to cancel and refund that order but go through with 455GBP of OTHER orders instead?

Paypal claim lodged.

**mwnciboo**

There is of course a second element to all of this, if Maelstrom does cease trading (a likely prospect) what of the other parts of the Business they are seeking to seperate or have seperated in the last 12 months?

Specifically BANE LEGIONS now owned by Mierce Miniatures (Another Company by the Same owner/ Managing Director of Maelstrom), will all this bad PR and customer service reflect of any further or derivative business? It is difficult to repair damage done through bad customer service or from a Business collapse leaving customers high and dry.

Read this:-

http://thefrontlinegamer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/industry-talk-rob-lane-mierce-miniatures.html

So he is Managing Director of both? Does he expect to Shaft the Community with poor service at Maelstrom one minute, and then an all Sin's Forgiven policy towards BANE LEGIONS two minutes later? I think it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 12 months.

**Azazelx**

Yep, we had that discussion several pages ago. The ownership info was posted much earlier in this thread, and I essentially reposted it in the Mierce Miniatures thread in N&R (started by Mierce) as well.

Also, looky what I just got:

Hi there,

This is just a reminder that our stock clearance sale here at Maelstrom Games (www.maelstromgames.co.uk) ends tonight at midnight (GMT) - but we've still a fair bit of stock left on certain ranges so if you want a bargain, grab one now!

YOUR STOCK CLEARANCE SALE VOUCHER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ranges we're still clearing at 50% off UK RRP are Gamezone Miniatures, Micro Art Studio, Coat d'Arms paints, Fantasy Flight Games, Dark Age, Forged in Battle, Kabuki Models, Kingdom Death, Magic: the Gathering and Scibor Miniatures. As mentioned previously, Templar's Forge products are now being sold at 75% off as they are now deleted.

We're still selling our remaining stock of Flames of War products at 25% off UK RRP (please note, however - we have just performed a stock check and so even if you have already bought some Flames of War, check back to see if there's more), and clearing Perry Miniatures, Victrix, Plastic Soldier Company, Artizan Designs, Gripping Beast and Great War Miniatures at 30% off UK RRP until tonight on Monday, 15th of October 2012 at midnight (GMT). Everything else is at 40% off UK RRP, which is still a fantastic deal - we have many Malifaux, Privateer Press and Games Workshop products left in stock!

These kind of sales do not occur very often and we would hope that you take advantage - and remember, our stock will be sold on a first come, first served basis so you will have to decide what you want very quickly as we suspect it will sell very quickly!

The voucher will work on all the items in our webstore that are IN STOCK ONLY, but it will NOT work on any out of stock items or pre-orders, nor anything within our eBay store.

Your voucher code is: WAREHOUSE-MOVES

To use this voucher simply register on the webstore, www.maelstromgames.co.uk (if you haven't already), copy and paste the code into the Voucher field in your basket when you have selected the items you want, press 'REDEEM', and the webstore will do the rest. You are not limited to one purchase and, indeed, we would ask you to recommend us to your friends with this voucher!

Remember though that this voucher is intended for the webstore only - it does not apply to any of our auctions or Fixed Price items on eBay.

Happy Ordering!

**Graf Hagin**

I just tried calling them to cancel a pre-order and there's no answer.