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Hey, about 6 weeks ago I ordered a Pedro Kantor from my FLGS - that is to say I paid them and they put in an order for me - and it still hasn't arrived. Has anybody else been running into a problem getting orders from GW, or with getting a Pedro Kantor recently?

What is your FLGS telling you? Do they get their stuff direct from GW or do they go through a 3rd party distributor? Ask, because first thought is a snafu on the FLGS side of things.

Lord of Deeds is onto something...
Something that has been mentioned/happened before is the idea that the LGS has completed the "special orders" when in fact they have not. Press the owner on the issue, ensure that your "special order" has not simply been filled out but actually has been submitted and processed.

Give your LGS a friendly nudge. Hopefully they will turn out to be a FLGS and rectify their mistake.

If they go through a distributor they may have the same problems ordering that you're having through them.

Our new LGS in town orders PP stuff through a distributor, and has issues. I ordered a Khador paint set, and was told they can't get it. Their distributor doesn't carry it!

I have been waiting on epidemius for 3 weeks now. My FLGS ordered thru GW Direct, but they are on back order. Their estimate was 11 October.

WOW you have to prepay at your LGS for orders? We post up on our club forum what we want and the owner lets us know when they arrive.

I work for a flgs, and I also ordered a fortress of redemption through GW. All of our direct orders have taking WAY longer then any other orders, either from our distributers or other companies. Most orders take a week or less for us to get just about anything. A GW direct order will take a minium of 2-3 weeks, if not longer then that.

GW orders in GW stores require you to pay up front as well, so that isn't uncommon.

Most likely your LGS is sitting on the order until they get a few more so that they save on shipping or some such nonsense. Yell at them for a refund and order the item online, if an LGS can't be bothered to do business properly then they don't deserve to be in business at all.

I've had the same problem - at my local GW store, in fact.

To be honest I think there is something odd going on with the whole GW supply chain process, I'll set out some of my reasons for suspicion and then my fear about the reason behind it:

1) I've had very slow service from a number of webstores which have previously been fantastic, this isn't just one or two webstores- it's five or six.

2) Dark Vengeance limited edition boxed sets were promised in certain quantities to suppliers but were then not delivered by GW, thus dissapointing customers (who will obviously blame the store, not GW for this).

3) Dark Sphere decided to stop selling GW stuff on their webstore, as well as a couple of other webstores that I used- I think largely because of the hassle involved in dealing with GW, every other webstore you hear from is having problems with GW in one way or another.

4) GW have attacked the viability of webstores on several fronts at various times over the last year or so, first with the embargo on sending GW items outside of Europe (I believe that they only allowed sending out of the UK to Europe because under EU law that would be difficult, if not illegal to try to stop) which critically affected some stores (I know Maelstrom was badly affected by this for example.
Second they instituted the "one order per week" rule which made it more difficult for webstores to react to customer demand.
Thirdly- Limiting the number of certain items which can be ordered, particularly leading up to a new release, one webstore I know of was limited to 75 copies of the LE Dark vengeance, which for a store that has been moving up to £150k's worth of GW stock a month isn't many! I have also heard rumours to the effect that GW will only allow a certain volume of order to be placed by each account (apparently to discourage "surges" in demand due to sales and voucher codes etc)

Why do I think the above is happening? Well quite honestly I think GW management have been reading the Apple playbook again, i.e. they would like to make it so that their supplied retailers can't effectively deliver discounted products to the customers, thus encouraging customers to buy direct from them. In GW's case you can see why this is being done, my local GW only gets one delivery a week so why provide a better service to your retail competition? Also you lose some of the opportunist sales that you might get if you encouraged these customers into your retail shops (how many times have you been asked in a GW if you have enough glue/primer/plastic crack?) and the biggest of all, if people buy in a GW location they will be paying full retail and supporting the overheads of the local GW store itself. I suspect that GW stores/website has seen a reduction in sales volumes during the recession and perhaps people have looked to be more savvy with their money so webstore retail accounts have risen in sales volume at the same time, leading GW to wonder why and to see if they can reverse the trend.

Whats the downside of this kind of attitude from a manufacturer? well it depends if it works really doesn't it? I, for one, will not be paying full GW price for anything anytime soon I can tell you that, as I feel the prices of GW kits are at the ludicrous, make your eyes bleed when you read the price tag, level at 20% off full price! If I find that the discount retailers can't supply my GW kit requirements I'll find a substitute and just move on. I think at a time when the alternative miniature manufacturers and rule sets are strengthening by the day this is a very risky strategy as it could just force people away from GW completely.

Honestly GW if you are trying to make me look for another game system or range of mini's to game with you're going the right way about it!!!

Well that's my current working theory- anyone else have theories on why the reduced level of service from all webstores at the same time on GW stuff?

More than likely they are probably retooling the lines and did not plan out a stock level to accommodate orders from retailers.

GW being GW most likely did not communicate info to their re-sellers cuz that's just how they role.

Either way I'm glad I moved away from them over to PP, they struggle to get enough product out but at least they are trying very hard and TELL you whats going on.

Winact wrote:
Why do I think the above is happening? Well quite honestly I think GW management have been reading the Apple playbook again, i.e. they would like to make it so that their supplied retailers can't effectively deliver discounted products to the customers, thus encouraging customers to buy direct from them. In GW's case you can see why this is being done, my local GW only gets one delivery a week so why provide a better service to your retail competition? Also you lose some of the opportunist sales that you might get if you encouraged these customers into your retail shops (how many times have you been asked in a GW if you have enough glue/primer/plastic crack?) and the biggest of all, if people buy in a GW location they will be paying full retail and supporting the overheads of the local GW store itself. I suspect that GW stores/website has seen a reduction in sales volumes during the recession and perhaps people have looked to be more savvy with their money so webstore retail accounts have risen in sales volume at the same time, leading GW to wonder why and to see if they can reverse the trend.

GW's relationship with FLGSs seems to wax and wane, and I agree that we appear to be in a waning phase.