Hasslefree News & Rumors Thread

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**BrookM**

Damn, never figured things were that bad.

Then again, I called quits and stopped following them last year when a miscast was replaced by another miscast. I decided not to follow up on it as the extra minis thrown in to make up for the long wait then were perfect casts at least.

One of these days I'll hopefully get my hands on a Rae that is not missing part of her arm or face.

**Low_K**

Yeah I gave up on them last year also, didn't receive an order and no replies to mails or anything. Maybe in the future but have moved on towards other manufactorers.

**Danny76**

Not ordered from them in years, but way back I was always happy with the quality etc.
So hope that they do get back up to scratch customer wise

**Darth Bob**

I made an order from them fairly recently (back in September or October?) and I received the models in a timely manner without any casting problems.

**Geifer**

Yeah, I want to add that when I eventually got my previous order, the model quality was fine and they threw in a couple of extras as an apology. It was just the very long time in between that was infuriating. I didn't actually expect such poor customer service from Hasslefree. Took me quite by surprise.

I don't think the majority of their customers had major issues over the last year or two. The last newsletter certainly makes it sound like that and you can see plenty of people posting on Facebook that they're happy with their latest order.

I just wish I wasn't always in the group that experiences massive problems. Hard not to take that personal after a while.

**BrookM**

Yeah, just to chime in, that order has been the only Hasslefree order that's an aberration for me in terms of quality, previous orders had their usual excellent quality.

It just annoyed me to no end, because the mini was to be a gift to someone, ordered well in advance with the usual busy hubbub surrounding their prep for Salute kept in mind, so getting a miscast twice and being overly late killed things for me in a big way.

I still follow Kev on Facebook though, his interactions with some folks are just classic.

**Kid_Kyoto**

HF definitely has the most personality of any company out there, only Heresy comes close but it's mostly bad news.

Wish them only the best.

**warboss**

Maybe since Hasslefree has cranked up the nudity to 10.5 (a half point taken off for the strategically placed stars) the thread might deserve a NSFW warning in the subject?

**BrookM**

When there are new releases later this year I'll reboot the thread and put in a proper warning then.

**Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl**

I got some sexy incubus from them quite recently, the service was very good and the incubi well endowed.

**GorFrag**

I'd love to buy some more stuff from them, but they just wont respond to Emails. i had an issue with a mini and they never fixed it or even talked to me.

**BrookM**

They're still suffering from a myriad of problems, including having their backup email account taken down due to spam for some reason.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

probably the frustrating consequence of having to send a load of 'we've got your report of a problem', 'we're working of supplying your items now we know you made an order' and 'no you only ordered 24 hours ago, you shouldn't have it yet'

**BrookM**

From Facebook:

**StygianBeach**

Oh no, I hope they get things sorted.

I placed an order with them last year and it arrived quickly, one of my Warrior Priestess' weapons was miscast, but it came with 2 options so I just used the other weapon.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

problems seem to be continuing, hope Sal recovers fast

Allo Everyone,

I'll do a proper post-Salute thank you later, or maybe a quick newsletter thanks but this is a quick announcement to cover the current state of things.

It was a 'rough' show this year, multiple hands down. But it was still good seeing everyone and thank you all for the many and varied well wishes and words of support etc.

If you follow Sal's page, you will know the next part, but for those who don't., Sal collapsed at the end of the show, medics were called and kept informed and we booked her into a hotel to stay in London for the night. She did manage to drive home the next day but fell ill again and is currently hospitalised but well and waiting for test results. I'll pass on any info that Sal wishes on that.

I'm fine,for the most part, I am walking around the unit like Hans Moleman but I'm not in hospital so I'm winning that one. 'Medically cleared' probably shouldn't immediately start with 'moving multiple tons of metal' but there yago.

Which means I am back to work, if a little slowly for today, and I will start getting back to everyone who messaged etc from the last few days later tonight and I should be back to normal tomorrow after another good rest.

(This means the people who messaged us over the last week will see their KS orders go out as we picked and put them to one side before leaving. Some already went last Tuesday so you may already have them. Once done I will put another call out and then if nobody responds to that we are drawing al ine under this KS and we will thank everyone etc.)

**BrookM**

From Facebook:

Sally here:

At this point in time I am ready to just cry. Despite us explaining why there have been delays I am still getting abusive messages. I cannot physically be in two places at the same time and the morphine makes me sleepy.

I cannot ask the post office to deliver your order on a public holiday despite how desperately you need it and shouting at me is not going to get it to you any quicker. Orders taken to the post office yesterday won’t be processed until Tuesday as it’s Easter holidays ... that isn’t our fault and being rude to me won’t make the process any faster.

Dameon is currently working 6pm to 3am to catch up after the Salute closure. If you send him a message on here at 3pm then re-sending it every 10 minutes and then publishing an abusive visitor post after half an hour is not going to get him to work any faster, sorry.

Orders from the last 3 weeks have been delayed. We closed for Salute on 2nd April as the warehouse was packed up ready for the ‘Salute 2019’ show in Excel London on 6th April. This was clearly stated on this page.

We got back from London on 8th April and once unpacked and staff had had their legally-owed time off we started to get ready to fill any web orders that had come through whilst we were shut.

The delay was amplified by the fact that i collapsed at the Salute 2019 show and was in hospital for 5 days and am still not back at work. This also clearly stated on this page.

Yes last year we had some issues with temporary staff and a bag of orders lost from the post office and we have resolved 95% of those issues despite still being 2 members of staff down.

Logistically we ballsed up the Kickstarter 2 years ago, we know that and have learnt from those mistakes and are still trying to clear up the straggling orders that were not shipped. We have apologised profusely for this.

Despite our public profile we are a small business, family-run and can’t afford to have huge levels of staff unless we raise our prices which will also cause friction.

We can’t win and believe me if I had another way of supporting my family then I would walk away now and throw 15 years of hard work down the drain for mistakes made over the last few years. I can’t do that and shouting at customers is frowned upon so instead I get up and try and rectify every day. I understand your frustration but I also need you to accept that we are seriously trying our best.

**warboss**

If you literally can't fulfill orders then the correct choice that will stop customers from jumping down your throat is to NOT TAKE ORDERS when you already have a long standing and ongoing issue with fulfillment. It really is that simple. Put the disclaimer up and hope that your loyal customers will return in a few days instead of inconviencing (whether temporarily or not) those loyal customers. I understand that it is a business and the spice must flow to pay monthly expenses but... if he's at the breaking point like that post suggests... it's better to step away for a few days and risk losing a portion of a few days worth of sales than risk throwing away 15 years of hard work down the drain. I'm not condoning harassment or bad behavior on the part of irate customers but the choice to take their money when you don't have the ability to fulfill your end is entirely on Hasslefree and not them.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

but they can fulfil orders,

just not while they're away at a show which was very clearly flagged up on the web page and the newsletter, (and at least some of the complainers appear to have used the discount code from said news letter which very much rubs salt in the wound)

Edit: as for Easter people who live in the UK should realise the post doesn't get delivered over the holiday, I can understand folk from outside the UK not understanding this, but then they shouldn't expect it to arrive immediately anyway as whatever gets sent out to them has a significant amount of traveling to do anyway

**Sarouan**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
but they can fulfil orders,

Statement by warboss still applies, since they could also have closed the shop for the period they knew they couldn't fulfill orders (Salute 2019, in April) but chose not to.

Also, he didn't say from who he got those abusive messages. Maybe it's from angry backers of their Kickstarter who still didn't get their stuff. Angry backers can be really angry and abusive, see the SDE Legends thread for examples.

**Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl**

I'm not sure how other people do it, but I ordered from Hasslefree, entirely stopped caring about when the minis would arrived, focused on other things, and got a nice surprise when the minis arrived. So I'd rather have been able to order when I felt like ordering, and then having to “wait” a few more days (I ddin't wait I did other stuff instead) rather than having to come back later to do the order.

**warboss**

Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
I'm not sure how other people do it, but I ordered from Hasslefree, entirely stopped caring about when the minis would arrived, focused on other things, and got a nice surprise when the minis arrived. So I'd rather have been able to order when I felt like ordering, and then having to “wait” a few more days (I ddin't wait I did other stuff instead) rather than having to come back later to do the order.

That's generous of you but I don't think that not caring when or even if your paid in advance products arrive is currently nor should be the baseline for most customers. I'm glad that it works for you but I'll stick to expecting my minis in a reasonable time frame as specified at the point of order after getting ripped off on kickstarter on my first go. YMMV.

**Manchu**

How about I order, get my minis, and the business owner can focus on other things and get a nice surprise when my payment eventually arrives.

The reverse is no less absurd.

**BrookM**

From Facebook:

Hi Everyone,

Dameon here (Just to differentiate between myself and Sal )

I have just sent out the normal Easter newsletter 'but' there is a section in there for those of you who had an unresolved issue awaiting us getting back from Salute. Please read that as well as the below if you had an unresolved issue

Honestly, the truth is, I was just knackered and it took a few extra days to get properly back into it. Which bled us into Easter week. That's it. No big conspiracy, there's hardly any issues left and those that are are being resolved (resin ordered, inventory error etc, nothing major).

I'll be working Easter weekend (at the odd hours Sal mentioned ) literally just to let people know 'That was resolved, sorry I didn't let you know until now' as the resolved bit's been done already.

Also, please stop shouting at Sal, she's in another country and is literally collating the info to give to me as an amazing timesaver.

As an aside, cos it's a nice story, I recently solved an issue from a customerwho had a broken mini in their order over a year ago and 'didn't want to bother us'. So yes, I am now digging issues out from the back of the sofa to resolve even!

**ValentineGames**

Hasslefree is the perfect example of customers being impatient witches who don't give a gak about anyone else except themselves while individually expecting struggling companies going through difficult times to bend to demands. Not polite questions. DEMANDS.

God I hate people so much these days.
Entitled little gaks.

**Hanskrampf**

ValentineGames wrote:
Hasslefree is the perfect example of customers being impatient witches who don't give a gak about anyone else except themselves while individually expecting struggling companies going through difficult times to bend to demands. Not polite questions. DEMANDS.

God I hate people so much these days.
Entitled little gaks.

What the gak?
Hasslefree literally dropped all communications for 3-4 months. No email, no newsletter, nothing.

Regardless of the reasons, that's bad business.

**AndrewGPaul**

Sarouan wrote:
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
but they can fulfil orders,

Statement by warboss still applies, since they could also have closed the shop for the period they knew they couldn't fulfill orders (Salute 2019, in April) but chose not to.

Also, he didn't say from who he got those abusive messages. Maybe it's from angry backers of their Kickstarter who still didn't get their stuff. Angry backers can be really angry and abusive, see the SDE Legends thread for examples.

As already commented, they advertised on their site that there would be a delay. That why there was a discount available over the Salute weekend. This is standard practise and has been for decades. I’ll be generous and assume you were unaware of this.

In any case, if your order is delayed, that’s no excuse for abuse. Anger? Impatience? Yes, and it’s fair enough to express that. But there’s no excuse for insults and abuse, and any attempts to justify such are rather despicable. Especially when they’ve been open about how both members of the sales / customer service team have recently been suffering from serious physical and mental illness. Anyone who thinks “I don’t care if you’re hospitalised, I want my twenty quids’-worth of toys is scum, seriously lacking in common decency.

**tre manor**

customer is always right. I hope things improve for them soon so that their fans can enjoy Kev's work.

**ValentineGames**

tre manor wrote:

customer is always right.

That is never and has never been true.
I can tell you from experience the customer always thinks they are right. But they aren't.

AndrewGPaul wrote:
Anyone who thinks “I don’t care if you’re hospitalised, I want my twenty quids’-worth of toys is scum, seriously lacking in common decency.

Damn true

**warboss**

Manchu wrote:
How about I order, get my minis, and the business owner can focus on other things and get a nice surprise when my payment eventually arrives.

The reverse is no less absurd.

Sounds about as reasonable to me!

That's how distributors do it iirc.