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This and maybe europe sold more.... if they are saying 3 days its most likely a case of ohh ran out here will move from aus/usa to there i wouldnt worry about it too much....
Where are these 3 days coming from? All the communiques talk about 2+ weeks.
If 3 is the absolute case then my faith in humanity is lost, it means not only will people support unethical behaviour, they're completely ignorant to it. The likely hood is that it is 2 and they are running lower numbers to meet that increased pace, but if that is the case, how in the blue hell do you not notice that? I know the higher ups are disconnecting from the front lines, but you'd think they'd have the numbers down to figure it out, and like Kroot hawk said, they were letting retailers order this stuff without saying a word, pointing to a massive bung up. 1 is the worst case, and really at this point with GW assuming the worst case isnt that bad of an approach as it usually keeps you from being constantly disappointed.
Rick Priestley said it best:
Bryan always said that if the studio ever had to mix with the manufacturing and sales part of the business it would destroy the studio. And I have to say – he wasn’t wrong there! The modern studio isn’t a studio in the same way; it isn’t a collection of artists and creatives sharing ideas and driving each other on. It’s become the promotions department of a toy company – things move on!
I placed my order monday morning. I was doubling it today based on player orders after they saw the white dwarf.
Seems they shipped it to their stores, and a few retailers, and sold out.
I get nothing.
....and lo!.....The Age of Sigmar came to an end when Saint Veetock and his hamster legions smote the false Sigmar and destroyed the bubbleverse and lead the true believers back to the Old World.
Ravenous D wrote: 1 is the worst case, and really at this point with GW assuming the worst case isnt that bad of an approach as it usually keeps you from being constantly disappointed.
Assuming the worst of someone or something at all times and then calling someone a white knight when they point out how unreasonable that is takes Tinfoil Hat to a whole new level though...
For thirteen years I had a dog with fur the darkest black. For thirteen years he was my friend, oh how I want him back.
Lolz. My guess is that it certainly is a planning mistake. They simply were too conservative with their numbers. There's no way they'd purposely short the orders as that would just cost them money in the long run because you'd piss people off. I'd chalk this one up to a buyer/ planner error in properly forecasting the sales.
filbert wrote: Or some sort of trick to restrict stick flow and artificially raise hype that way? Seems increasingly at odds with the exasperation demonstrated here and elsewhere at GWs business practises.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Ladies and gentleman, we have a winner here!
Wow, you know the community here hates GW when news of a new release selling out is greeted by people claiming that GW is screwing their customers over again! To me it seems that the reason things like this are at odds with the "exasperation" demonstrated on these forums is that a lot of people here just plain hate GW and can't admit that they do things right once in a while, and these forums-- or at least the Dakka Discussions and to a lesser extent News and Rumors boards-- are generally far more negative about GW than the wargaming community as a whole is.
Exalted. Haters gonna hate, its what they do. God forbid GW should put out a good product that a lot of people want. It must be a conspiracy, waaaaaah. Pathetic.
Question for you.
Have GW, fairly often, behaved in a way which could be described using the following terms; Adversarial, Conspiratorial, Arrogant, Bullish, Incompetent, Paranoid, Bullying?
Any of those terms that could be applied, for example, to things like:
1. Legalese C&D letter carpet bombing.
2. Putting necessary rules into 'additional supplements'.
3. Tin Crisis, Plastic price 'matching to metal', Finecast 'superiority' pricing, all leading to constant and ongoing elevated prices.
4. Rest of World Price fixing.
5. Online shopping carts for independent retailers.
6. Court cases over symbols and shapes.
7. Removing gamers from stores.
8. Removing large elements of their design team.
9. Treating the online community with contempt then expressing exasperation when, like some self-fulfilling prophecy, the online community retaliates.
10. Overkill 'sledgehammer to walnut' response to someone daring to use the words 'space marine' in a book.
11. Sending flying monkeys after a young kansas woman 'and her little dog too!'.
???
If the answer, for even a few of these claims, is yes, then why would you or anyone else express surprise that the first kneejerk reaction to anything weird or out of the ordinary from Snake Mountain is an immediate assumption that they are up to no good.
I placed my order monday morning. I was doubling it today based on player orders after they saw the white dwarf.
Seems they shipped it to their stores, and a few retailers, and sold out.
I get nothing.
I'm sorry to hear that, your business is a great one and your enthusiasm for gaming, customer service and retail should be a hallmark for other stores. I'd love to behead GW and put you in charge of it.
Do you believe that they are this incompetent or is this something darker?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/04/03 17:22:06
Ravenous D wrote: 1 is the worst case, and really at this point with GW assuming the worst case isnt that bad of an approach as it usually keeps you from being constantly disappointed.
Assuming the worst of someone or something at all times and then calling someone a white knight when they point out how unreasonable that is takes Tinfoil Hat to a whole new level though...
I guess you missed the part where I didnt actually call him a white knight, because name calling works both ways, and I guess you also missed the 3 possible reasons for the shortage including the reasoning behind both. And now that the shortage has hit the US is it making it kind of hard to keep apologizing for GW? Or are you just going to glaze over that with more snippy remarks?
And here, I'll quote my own post for context since you didnt:
If 3 is the absolute case then my faith in humanity is lost, it means not only will people support unethical behaviour, they're completely ignorant to it. The likely hood is that it is 2 and they are running lower numbers to meet that increased pace, but if that is the case, how in the blue hell do you not notice that? I know the higher ups are disconnecting from the front lines, but you'd think they'd have the numbers down to figure it out, and like Kroot hawk said, they were letting retailers order this stuff without saying a word, pointing to a massive bung up. 1 is the worst case, and really at this point with GW assuming the worst case isnt that bad of an approach as it usually keeps you from being constantly disappointed.
You'll notice that Im not attacking him, the white armour comment is to point out that for ever "hater" there is equal number of apologists.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/04/03 17:35:49
Rick Priestley said it best:
Bryan always said that if the studio ever had to mix with the manufacturing and sales part of the business it would destroy the studio. And I have to say – he wasn’t wrong there! The modern studio isn’t a studio in the same way; it isn’t a collection of artists and creatives sharing ideas and driving each other on. It’s become the promotions department of a toy company – things move on!
I placed my order monday morning. I was doubling it today based on player orders after they saw the white dwarf.
Seems they shipped it to their stores, and a few retailers, and sold out.
I get nothing.
Not cool... I see lots of people talking on this thread but if you just isolate stores comments you know something very wrong is happening here... I mean GW has been at this for to long for it to miss the demand numbers by such huge gap.
If it is indeed a shortage because of the pace then how did GW not notice or plan ahead? And why on earth would they let retailers order knowing they cant meet those orders? And then with a straight face fully stock their own stores given everything they have done in the last few months to hurt retailers?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/04/03 17:38:33
Rick Priestley said it best:
Bryan always said that if the studio ever had to mix with the manufacturing and sales part of the business it would destroy the studio. And I have to say – he wasn’t wrong there! The modern studio isn’t a studio in the same way; it isn’t a collection of artists and creatives sharing ideas and driving each other on. It’s become the promotions department of a toy company – things move on!
I don't want to say this in case it looks like I support gw in how they operate...
Here we go though...
I now see the sense in advertising the products in advance of release date. I always thought it'd be better to simply sell them on the same day you release their info, though now (if it's a genuine thing and they're not screwing others over) I can see that it's more a case of being able to judge the required stock and bring more in if they don't have enough.
I placed my order monday morning. I was doubling it today based on player orders after they saw the white dwarf.
Seems they shipped it to their stores, and a few retailers, and sold out.
I get nothing.
Hmm. I missed mikhaila's post until now. Wasn't aware that this hit the US as well. Lame.
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I don't think GW are half as calculating and malevolent as half the posters in N&R seem to believe they are.
Might just be that the stale Tau rules were holding back an otherwise popular line of models which caused GW to oversight. They still have models to produce for all their other ranges this week, including the clearly best-selling Space Marines, it is a balancing act.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/04/03 17:51:54
"If you don't have Funzo, you're nothin'!"
"I'm cancelling you out of shame, like my subscription to white dwarf"
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is indeed a shortage because of the pace then how did GW not notice or plan ahead? And why on earth would they let retailers order knowing they cant meet those orders? And then with a straight face fully stock their own stores given everything they have done in the last few months to hurt retailers?
At lest in the EUGW stores are not getting enough stock to fulfil first day sales orders. Their site also states that their will be a delay.
I also can't see a problem with GW Making sure their own stores have stock ahead of FLGS and such.
Restricting stores form ordering in hand stock is another issue.
GW may not just be thinking of the short term here. (If you think I'm a Tinfoil wearing conspiracy theorist before this post, you might as well stop here before I whip out my armadillo hats for you) consider what a pattern of releases like this will do to the eager release day customer. You cannot get product at brick and mortar stores, and secondary retailers are more delayed than GW itself. Therefore in the future if I wish to get product at release, I'd better go to GW or be delayed a week or maybe more!
So now, those individuals who want love the army and want to use it as soon as possible will believe they need to order from GW personally, and as soon as pre-orders are posted. This will serve to increase GW's profit margin per release by increasing the number of direct sales.
If this is calculated, it is a cunning and evil move. I find that more likely than GW underestimating the popularity of its own products, but judge as you will. Time will show what is aberration and what is their common practice.
Klawz-Ramming is a subset of citrus fruit?
Gwar- "And everyone wants a bigger Spleen!"
Mercurial wrote:
I admire your aplomb and instate you as Baron of the Seas and Lord Marshall of Privateers.
Orkeosaurus wrote:Star Trek also said we'd have X-Wings by now. We all see how that prediction turned out.
Orkeosaurus, on homophobia, the nature of homosexuality, and the greatness of George Takei.
English doesn't borrow from other languages. It follows them down dark alleyways and mugs them for loose grammar.
Ravenous D wrote: Sure bud, walk into a GW later today and ask them about the 12+ boxes of riptides they got in their shipment.
Does anyone think this is a disturbing trend where GW believes they do not need the LFGS to push their product anymore?
GW's whole business plan is to cut out indy retailers entirely and sell GW product solely through GW stores.
If an indy store is selling enough, they'll set up a GW shop next door, and sale them out of business, then take all their customers.
Yodhrin wrote: I hate to tell you mate, but retailers enacting policies to drive foot traffic into their brick&mortar stores is common as muck, GAME used to pull crap like that all the time(despite their actual store managers telling them how bloody stupid it was); instructing the staff to tell everyone coming through the door how rare and special and limited and popular something was going to be, limiting the number of pre-orders that could be taken, plastering "LIMITED STOCK" all over the website, and guess what - the stores always got bloody crates of stock. Hmm, now, what happened to GAME again....?
Err... what is GAME? Is this a UK thing?
--Chris
www.chrisvalera.com
Looking for the Empire spearmen from the Warhammer sixth edition box set (empire vs orcs) Must be unpainted and in good condition. Also looking for MIB Empire State Troops boxes.
Looking for Battle for Macragge and Black Reach Tactical squads, unpainted and unassembled.
chris_valera wrote: If an indy store is selling enough, they'll set up a GW shop next door, and sale them out of business, then take all their customers.
But a successful Indy store doesn't rely on GW product for the majority of it's sales. Not that they don't want to sell it (ref: mikhaila) but they will survive without it or reduced sales or adjust to improve their sales of GW product showing their value over a GW store, etc.
That's what happened in the US at least in my area. GW would open a store nearby an Indy and usually the Indy would not only survive, they thrive and they've outlasted the GW stores.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2013/04/03 18:38:08
Flashman wrote:I say again... GWs own website states that the Riptide will be take one to two weeks to be delivered.
I think they genuinely underestimated demand.
Who knows? Its a little tinfoil-like but it certainly wouldn't shock me if GW had deliberately restricted all internet sales including their own (but obviously to a lesser extent) to 'encourage' people into GW stores which apparently do not have a stock problem (or so I assume - I guess if they run out of kits we will soon find out).
Right.. I would say this is almost certainly a deliberate move on GW's part to force sales through their own stores and website.
Flashman wrote:I say again... GWs own website states that the Riptide will be take one to two weeks to be delivered.
I think they genuinely underestimated demand.
Who knows? Its a little tinfoil-like but it certainly wouldn't shock me if GW had deliberately restricted all internet sales including their own (but obviously to a lesser extent) to 'encourage' people into GW stores which apparently do not have a stock problem (or so I assume - I guess if they run out of kits we will soon find out).
Right.. I would say this is almost certainly a deliberate move on GW's part to force sales through their own stores and website.
The war on the FLGS has just been upped a notch.
Kind of a bad PR move on their part then. If they were truly going to ace the FLGS out of product (or just delay their orders) as a matter of policy, then they should just come out and state that policy. That's part of business and they wouldn't be the first to make that kind of move. Sure they will get a lot of nerd rage over the policy, but to make such a policy and then try to hide it behind flimsy and improbable supply issues will ultimately piss off even more people. Gw hasn't been shy about announcing their policies in the past, which is why I think this is more likely a major F-up on their part. We just don't have enough info to make a real determination at this point (IMHO). All we have is anecdotal info, as bad as that is...
War on FLGS? That's insane. Being up front about trying to undermine the sales of indy stores would be PR suicide. No, the better way is through subtle "errors" that would drive consumers to GW stores and online sales. They'd have to do things like limiting the number of special order items to drive a customer or two away. Then they could sell direct only books to drive away a few more. Stopping stores from selling bits and such. Maybe some day even updating an army and having such small stock that you could only afford to send it to GW shops and the GW site. Oh.... wait...
Seriously though, I'd rather just assume that GW literally has no idea what they are doing and just bumbling through the updates. I mean in order for this short selling they'd have to actually know something about their fan base, which they have shown time and time again that they don't.
I'm expecting an Imperial Knights supplement dedicated to GW's loyalist apologetics. Codex: White Knights "In the grim dark future, everything is fine."
"The argument is that we have to do this or we will, bit by bit,
lose everything that we hold dear, everything that keeps the business going. Our crops will wither, our children will die piteous
deaths and the sun will be swept from the sky."
-Tom Kirby
I'm sure the Bavarian Illuminati were involved here somehow.
A stock shortage for a major release can only be a bad thing for GW. Of course they'd take care of their stores first, because they're THEIR stores. But delays on their website and at FLGSs is going to mean lost sales.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/04/03 19:09:26
Here's what is baffling me about this all and what I find difficult to reconcile:
1) If it is pure oversight and mistake then it would appear to be the first time GW have ever screwed up in this manner - I certainly can't remember them mishandling a release in this manner in all the years I have been wargaming. Are we to believe that a professional company with decades of experience could bugger up a release this badly?
2) If you aren't inclined to believe it is a simple mistake then the other option that is left is that it has been somehow done by design but if that were the case surely they would have made sure there own stores and webstore were fully stocked and that stock was 'delayed' to FLGS/internet discounters only? As it stands, it seems that the GW webstore is out of stock and some GW stores are low on stock so if we are to believe this is some Machiavellian plan to surreptitiously wage war on FLGS then it smacks a little of GW cutting off their nose to spite their face. Don't get me wrong; I am in no doubt that they would quite happily crush all indy sellers - I just don't see them doing it at their own expense.
I am leaning more towards the mistake hypothesis but I just am having difficulty believing that they would under-estimate demand on such a large and wide scale. Of course, they may well have thought that Tau wouldn't sell as well as other lines but this seems to be a complete breakdown in the supply chain.
Automatically Appended Next Post: It's baffling, quite frankly.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/04/03 19:18:37
There are a million possible causes of this delay. Maybe some conex containers fell off a ship (not an uncommon occurence), maybe the box printing got fouled up, maybe they are diverting US stocks to UK to try to mitigate some of the delay there and it is rippling here in the US, maybe a warehouse fire destroyed product, maybe there is a customs delay for some part of the end product (boxes, instruction sheets, sprues, etc)... Maybe it is none of that and GW is actually cutting their own sales by not delivering product to FLGS. Bottom line is we just don't know enough right now... Until more info is available and verifiable, all this will just be speculation...
I have heard from 2 store owners that Tau are the 2nd largest sellers outside of "Space Marines."
I am sure a few of the other store owners can chime in.
GW is aware that finecast had QC issues, so there may be some issue with that end of the release. It is ludcris to think that they only printed 10k codexs as mentioned before. I am sure there are close to 10k+ English based resell accounts. In the business we assume each store front will take at least 3 units if they carry your line, plus who knows what the direct sales does.
What the heck am I getting at? Tau released like 7 years ago, in a much different socio-economical environment. Is it hard to gauge the launch of a product who's grown wildly in popularity since it's last launch? Absolutely. For GW it is better to under produce and have people wait than over produce and sit on stock.
Closer to 12 years actually, end of 2001! Have to agree with the rest of the comment though. If you're unsure on the potential market then play it safe, you can always produce more kits. Last thing GW want is to sit on tons of stock nobody is going to buy.
End of the day Tau players have been waiting years for an update, what's an extra couple of weeks going to do? I'll happily wait a bit longer for my from Wayland, Riptide and the Codex for a few quid more than buying the Codex alone from my local GW on Saturday.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Beast wrote: There are a million possible causes of this delay. Maybe some conex containers fell off a ship (not an uncommon occurence), maybe the box printing got fouled up, maybe they are diverting US stocks to UK to try to mitigate some of the delay there and it is rippling here in the US, maybe a warehouse fire destroyed product, maybe there is a customs delay for some part of the end product (boxes, instruction sheets, sprues, etc)... Maybe it is none of that and GW is actually cutting their own sales by not delivering product to FLGS. Bottom line is we just don't know enough right now... Until more info is available and verifiable, all this will just be speculation...
No, it's definitely a war against FLGS!!!
Seriously think people need to chill a little, whatever the reason for the delay it's effecting anyone who sells 40k stuff including GW and there isn't anything we can do about it but wait.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/04/03 19:28:26
More than 7pts, less than 7000...just 4000+ 2500 2000+
well have to say I have canceled my order refuse to wait any longer rather not have it than be p***ed about
As for this beng a GW strategy to counter stores other than there own wouldnt be surprised but instead of me spending money on there stuff It will go to somewhere else just because I dont like waiting or being p'ed about
will gw notice of course not and cant say I will notice not spending money on this release ether lol so win win for both sides
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote: Of cource a whole bunch of auctions will be up in anticipation of Tau stock arriving from places like Dark Sphere, or even GW it's self
so while you may win things, they may not have them to send (for a few weeks anyway)
If that does happen, then it is a violation of ebay rules - you cant auction something that you don't own.
Nonsense. They have many resellers who use dropshipping to supply stock they don't own from someone else's inventory when they receive an order. eBay and other marketplaces bend rules for prosellers.
Stormonu wrote: For me, the joy is in putting some good-looking models on the board and playing out a fantasy battle - not arguing over the poorly-made rules of some 3rd party who neither has any power over my play nor will be visiting me (and my opponent) to ensure we are "playing by the rules"
Guess it is affecting US as well then
2000+
