Maelstrom Games taking the biscuit?

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**Azazelx**

Yes. Maelstrom=Rob Lane=Maunsfield Gaming=EOTS=Mierce Miniatures

**CainTheHunter**

scipio.au wrote:
Yes. Maelstrom=Rob Lane=Maunsfield Gaming=EOTS=Mierce Miniatures

I am asking if Maunsfield Games has an internet site (cant find any on google), and was wondering if EOTS is OFFICIALLY their site.

**Herzlos**

They are separate entities. I suspect a maunsfield gaming site will appear soon

**MeanGreenStompa**

Maelstrom Games:
https://www.duedil.com/company/04724863/maelstrom-games-limited
Maelstrom Games Limited was registered on 07 Apr 2003 with its registered office in Nottinghamshire. The business has a status of active. They were founded by Robert Lane, and Andrew Chesney. There are 2 shareholders of Maelstrom Games Limited. They have no known group companies. The company has assets totalling £375,518 plus liabilities totalling £567,481. They owe £567,388 to creditors and are due £130,137 from trade debtors. Their net worth is £-132,432, and the value of their shareholders' interest is £4,523.
Registered Address
106 Carter Lane
Mansfield
Nottinghamshire
NG18 3DH
United Kingdom
http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/

So, if we know where and what Rob Lane is doing, what's Andrew Chesney up to? Still onboard?

**CURNOW**

http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/director/1655939/robert-lane

list of companys started up by rob lane ..maybe some to avoid ?

**mattyrm**

carmachu wrote:
Kroothawk wrote:
You must be really hating local gaming stores.

Some of us do. They can be worse then Maelstrom.

How do you get worse!?

As I understand it, they purposely stolen money off people, they took as many orders as they possibly could on limited items such as the Limited Edition DV, snatched the money off them as fast as possible, and then massively fethed them about when they wanted refunds by not answering phones or emails so they could keep the cash when they folded.

The only way your local gaming store could be worse, is if they did all of the above, and then one of them sneaked into your house, drank the contents of your fridge, shot your dog and fingered your missus.

**CURNOW**

or shot the missus and fingered the dog ?

**timetowaste85**

mattyrm wrote:
carmachu wrote:
Kroothawk wrote:
You must be really hating local gaming stores.

Some of us do. They can be worse then Maelstrom.

How do you get worse!?

As I understand it, they purposely stolen money off people, they took as many orders as they possibly could on limited items such as the Limited Edition DV, snatched the money off them as fast as possible, and then massively fethed them about when they wanted refunds by not answering phones or emails so they could keep the cash when they folded.

The only way your local gaming store could be worse, is if they did all of the above, and then one of them sneaked into your house, drank the contents of your fridge, shot your dog and fingered your missus.

To be fair, my LGS convinced people to pre-pay, would try one time to get the item from a single distributor, it was out of stock, and never bothered anywhere else. Waited 6 months until it came in, gave refunds and the models after people quit playing the army. Kept lying every week that the order "was out of stock" despite having it pointed out that GW had it in stock. Yes, my LGS is pretty close to being as bad. I'll buy paint there, if I need to, but I try to plan hobby purchases around other trips to other places or use the 'net.

**frozenwastes**

One local store took a friend's preorder for an item, took the money and never even ordered it. The owner kept giving BS excuses about how it's out of stock at the manufacturer. He called the manufacturer directly and told them the local store is having trouble getting the item in. The manufacturer told them the store hadn't placed an order with them in three months. When my friend went back to the store for a refund, the owner then claimed he never paid (despite him having a receipt). I told him to get the law involved, but instead he just waited until an employee was working and had him process the refund.

The store closed a bit less than a year later. I think they were taking preorders on items and using funds to satisfy previous orders or transferring them out of the company like Maelstrom.

When things get difficult, lots and lots of people will turn from nice people to crooks.

**timetowaste85**

frozenwastes wrote:
One local store took a friend's preorder for an item, took the money and never even ordered it. The owner kept giving BS excuses about how it's out of stock at the manufacturer. He called the manufacturer directly and told them the local store is having trouble getting the item in. The manufacturer told them the store hadn't placed an order with them in three months. When my friend went back to the store for a refund, the owner then claimed he never paid (despite him having a receipt). I told him to get the law involved, but instead he just waited until an employee was working and had him process the refund.

The store closed a bit less than a year later. I think they were taking preorders on items and using funds to satisfy previous orders or transferring them out of the company like Maelstrom.

When things get difficult, lots and lots of people will turn from nice people to crooks.

Yup. And somehow, my store is still open. It lives on college and high school kids though. Most adults have stopped going there, based on the actions.

**Breotan**

CURNOW wrote:
http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/director/1655939/robert-lane

list of companys started up by rob lane ..maybe some to avoid ?

Wow. Three new companies in one month.

**edgarfriendly**

Latest word on the grapevine seems to be that there's a public meeting to discuss the future of the EOTS venue at some point tomorrow (November 22nd).

No doubt various strata of MG/MM/EOTS management will be in attendance...

**SoulDrinker**

That sounds weird, public meeting are normally only held for discussions of change of use / planning applications or such - a meeting to discus EOTS would be pointless. Unless they are up to something else now!!!!!

Don't see how a public meeting would be of any use unless they are hoping to use it to blame everyone else again.

"It wasn't me honest guv'! It was a worldwide conspiracy that made me do it"........not sure that will work anymore than it did the first time

**edgarfriendly**

Well, not so much a public meeting like a planning consultation but a meeting at EOTS to discuss its' future to which the public/customers are invited.

**SoulDrinker**

Where did you see that - I can't find it anywhere on their various sites?

**Bolognesus**

Sent them an email thursday nov. 15th:

Hello,

With the recent kerfuffle around Maelstrom Games and Mierce generously offering to fulfill outstanding orders Maelstrom no longer could, some of us on Dakkadakka were wondering how the transfer of orders for Mierce models from maelstrom games would pan out.
Any indication as to a timeline, and a few specifics, would be greatly appreciated.
As you will no doubt be aware, a few words of communication can be a great tool for customer retention and loyalty! Anyway, foremost amongs these questions are:

1 - Will orders be transferred as customers' emails agreeing to the transfer come in or will it be a batch transfer, after the deadline?
2 - Will we see the order on the Mierce Miniatures "my orders" page or not?
3 - Will we get a confirmation e-mail or something of the sort when an order is transferred?
4 - Will there be difficulties in the transfer, for those of us who had already on mierce-miniatures.com with the same adress as that used for their maelstrom account, we'd need to take into account?
5 - If possible, could you provide a general indication of when any concrete, specific progress would be visible to us lot? Of course with the understanding that complications and delays might arise; we'd rather have an indication, knowing there might be some delay, rather than being entirely in the dark!

Sorry if it's a bother, I certainly don't mean to nag and really do appreciate mierce fulfilling the oustanding orders - it's just that a little bit of communication can go a long way in pacifying the more nervous among us wargamers (already a nervous bunch, if any!) and the primary thread about these issues on dakkadakka is fast approaching the 1500 posts!

Thank you for taking the time, if only to read this message

Regards,
___________________

(sometimes coming across nice and polite and just a little naive gets more done

)
didn't honestly expect them to reply but behold:

Hi ________,

Many thanks for the concise and well thought out mail and sorry for the delay in answering.

We're aiming to be sending orders out before the end of November. As far as I know you will be able to see the order on the Mierce site and will receive email updates once it's there as to it's progress, I'm sure that the guy handling the transfer will have taken all the possible issues into account.

Really I'm expecting the orders to to start appearing on the Mierce system soon for those people who have now agreed and replied to the Maelstrom email. All of us here are prepared to throw in as much overtime as possible to get these orders out and our product to people asap.

___

I'll be damned

so, "expect orders to start appearing on the Mierce system soon" and "sending orders out before the end of November"
as well as "you will be able to see the order on the Mierce site and will receive email updates once it's there as to it's progress"

Hmm. Can't be sure until I have a pile of minis in my hands, but there's some pretty concrete progress here

**BrookM**

Bonus pretzel for using the word "kerfuffle" in an official email.

**Bolognesus**

**HellFire Sin**

Hi again people. Thanks for all the replies. Ive taken ur advice and contacted the bank they've sent me forms to fill out and have to get as much evidence together so they can claim it back from maelstrom. Hopefully it gets sorted soon. The order was over £100 on my debit card so im hoping it should be covered. Its disgusting how many people have had there money stolen by a company. I feel for you all because im in that situation with maelstrom and now with rocket hobbies too. Companies shouldn't be in business if that how they practice it.
Thanks to all who replied its much appreciated

**Baragash**

I had a £15 and a £12 order on my credit card which my building society refunded within a week of me posting the forms off.

**Bloodhorror**

An official meeting was underway last night.

Spoiler:

**filbert**

Reading between the lines, as far as I am concerned, it won't be long before Maunsfield Games disappear quite honestly. I wouldn't touch them with a 100 foot barge pole and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Not being able to stock GW product just limits their customer base even more.

**Compel**

I very rarely say this but, good for Games Workshop.

I'm less impressed by puppets war doing that though...

**Howard A Treesong**

How did Maunsfeld Gaming afford to buy all these facilities? Was it that they were sold from one company to the other for pennies or was it that Maunsfeld bought them using the very money put into them from Maelstrom? In which case it's just the same money going around in circles?

**PhantomViper**

filbert wrote:
Reading between the lines, as far as I am concerned, it won't be long before Maunsfield Games disappear quite honestly. I wouldn't touch them with a 100 foot barge pole and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Not being able to stock GW product just limits their customer base even more.

This really.

I doubt that they will get to the end of next year...

Also we now know to whom Maelstrom owed the other 400k!

**chrisjuuuh**

No GW, well thats the nail in the coffin for my hope of ever getting my DV set. guess at least ive got some closure though. thanks for posting

**Bolognesus**

Just got an email my orders have been transferred to mierce.
One, for the big ent, is listed as 'completed' while an other order with five or six huan-sized 28mm models is listed weirdly; it appears as an empty order. I'll email mierce for confirmation of the order tomorrow, I guess.

**Alkasyn**

Bloodhorror wrote:
An official meeting was underway last night.

Spoiler:

The Venue

Maelstrom Games has officially ceased trading as we know. Maunsfeld Gaming purchased the venue and facilities from Maelstrom Games earlier in the year. They won't be using The Eye Of The Storm name as it is to closely related to what was Maelstrom Games. The warehouse move was also said to be genuine, but was never actually completed.

Pay To Play

The venue was previously supported by the online business. This is no longer the case and it needs to be self sufficient. To this end they are introducing a pay to play business model. Prices per session are £2 for members, £3 for non-members, £1 for students and free for under-15s. Members may also purchase pre-paid cards for multiple sessions with small discounts.

Membership

Membership will available for £5 per calendar year. Membership entitles you to 15% discount in the shop and online, newsletter subscription, monthly hobby competitions and two free gaming sessions (one when you sign up, one at at Christmas).

Other notable points

Games Workshop products will no longer be available. This is a Games Workshop decision as they have dropped Maunsfeld Gaming as a retailer. They also indicated improvements would be made to the gaming hall with things such as more terrain, space between tables etc. Tim indicated that we will have our own noticeboard, which would be used for details of upcoming events, campaigns and related material. They also said that alternative manufacturers of 28mm sci-fi may be made available (puppetwars etc).

Heh, paying for gaming and member cards do not bode well. I agree that it should be a year tops before this blight of a company disappears from the map.

**helium42**

I wouldn't mind paying to be a member of a gaming club that provided a nice place to play with plenty of tables and terrain. I would just have an issue with supporting this company.

**Ratius**

Update from my troubles with Mael.
Credit card company called today (MBNA) and said that they had investigated things and that I'll get a full refund on my purchase.
Pretty sweet to be fair.