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just had a pretty awful experience with these guys and just wanted to see if its just me, or whether other people have had hassle with them before?
(this is my first time using them, and on the basis of this experience, i wont be using them again)

pre-ordered an item, and for some strange reason expected that this would mean that the item would be dispatched sometime around the release date...?
but over a week later I had heard nothing from them, so opened a support case to enquire what was going on. got a reply back basically saying it wasn't their fault, supplier blah blah, but not actually apologising or anything.

they did however say that their delivery would be in the next day, so i didn't think much more of it.

3 days later it still hadn't been dispatched and again, had heard nothing to let me know what was going on.
by this point i was pretty pissed off and just decided to cancel the order and get the item from my flgs (as the item was now released and in stock) - found that I couldn't cancel order through their site, so updated the support case asking for them to cancel.

heard nothing back from them today, and now have just received an email saying its been dispatched!
useless, and terrible customer service/communication imo

would warn people off using them, unless you all can convince me I've just been unlucky or something...?

Perhaps you were just unlucky, I ordered some space wolves and got them after just a week or so.

Perhaps slow-down is expected with popular items, pre-orders or very large orders?

I had a bad order last year, when I ordered a load of GW stuff.

Non-GW went well, but GW orders were slow.

they have just emailed me saying that they had stopped my item from being despatched, if i did still want to cancel, so no real harm done in the end.

but that pretty much admits that when they send you an email to say its been dispatched, tat it hasnt actually been posted, otherwise how could they cancel it...?
just seems like they have a pretty poor service/support to me.


tbf, this my first time pre-ordering anything modelling related, but have pre-order loads of video games/dvds/blu-rays/music from lots of different companies, and everything else has turned up either on the day of release or within a couple of days of it. some things have even turned up before the release date - i remember having finished the Modern Warfare 2 campaign before any f my mates even owned it lol.


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also, as I pointed out to them, surely one of the advantages of doing pre-orders is that you know what quantities of an item to order in...?
(don't think I mentioned it above, but this was their excuse for it having not shipped - they had sold out, and were waiting for restock delivery)

just really unimpressed overall, especially as in between all this, I ordered a loads of stuff from Anvil industries and it turned up in a couple of days, no hassle, great coms, etc.
such a contrast to dealing with wayland. will not be using them again.

I've used them a couple of times in the past, and both times it's been GW-related orders. They took 2 weeks both times, so I won't be using them again.

Just as a word of general advice, buying GW from discounters almost always involves waiting a long time. Wayland and Total Wargamer both have a couple of weeks as a minimum wait for GW, but when I've ordered Mantic stuff it's arrived in days. I've yet to find anywhere that does GW cheap and fast, although I hear DarkSphere are quite good.

Regarding Pre-orders, there have been cases in the past where GW have supplied their own stores and orders first and retailers have got the 'second wave' of production and shipping. I don't know if this is still an issue, but it may well be.

Rich - the owner of Wayland posts on Dakka. If he spots this he will probably respond to you.

Personally I have never had a bad experience with Wayland but I never use them when I need something quickly nor do I use the for pre orders.

I've found them excellent to respond to e-mails. There's also a phone call that helped me sort my issues.

yeah, maybe I've just been spoilt by companies with excellent service.

ordering things off ebay and them being posted the next day, etc

ordered some stuff from a bitz site once, and had a problem with the order - mailed the guy after midnight, he responded at 7am, and had the replacement bit the next day, along with a couple of extra bitz as an apology. amazing.

tbf if it had been shipped today, thats only about 10 days after the release date, so well within the usual 28days delivery time, i suppose.
just doesn't inspire confidence.

A friend of mine pre-ordered the Iyanden Codex from Wayland, and he's still waiting.

I think as has been said this is normally a problem with GW products specifically and I have never really had a problem with Wayland.

However I always use dark Sphere now as they have always been great, but they also have problems from time to time with GW new releases.

It is GW supplying its own stores first, or not packing stuff properly which arrives to independents damaged.

Keyword with Wayland is patience. They seem to be rather optimistic about when stuff will be back in stock again and how available something actually is. I only order there if I don't need anything quickly (and if there's a free shipping coupon but ok :p), sort of order and forget.

If you need something reliably fast, I tend to go for other stores (trolltrader is pretty fast for one, dark sphere is good aswell from what I've heard so far but haven't used them yet). As it comes to GW stuff, seems most stores struggle with that so the problem might be more on Gws side than the store's side.

In general wayland have pretty bad shipping times, though they do have a great selection so sometimes they're the only people who have certain things.

Nicky J wrote:
by this point i was pretty pissed off and just decided to cancel the order and get the item from my flgs (as the item was now released and in stock) - found that I couldn't cancel order through their site, so updated the support case asking for them to cancel.

Trying to skrew you FLGS can be tough sometimes

Used them lots of times with no issues.

The problem, as has been stated by others, is generally when ordering GW stock, sometimes Privateer Press I have heard also. Essentially GW treats independents horrendously, not filling orders and not communicating these orders. We dont know if this is deliberate or just through incompetence, but the end result is the same; frustrated customers are forced back to direct purchasing and full RRP.

As one of the biggest retailers you would assume Wayland carry a bit more weight and are messed around less, but in any case best advice is to check stock levels in advance if you buy anything GW.

 Kroothawk wrote:

Nicky J wrote:
by this point i was pretty pissed off and just decided to cancel the order and get the item from my flgs (as the item was now released and in stock) - found that I couldn't cancel order through their site, so updated the support case asking for them to cancel.

Trying to skrew you FLGS can be tough sometimes

Seriously Kroot?

Wind your neck in, jumping all over a new user and then adding a wink doesn't take as much of an edge off your comments as you seem to think it does.

Did you stop to consider that he may not have a FLGS? Showing a UK flag means that there's a higher than average chance he lives nowhere near any sort of independent store, or worse his only option is a GW.

Something to bear in mind with pre-orders for gaming stuff is that release dates in this industry are nowhere near as set in stone as they are with videogames or DVDs. In those industries the release date may well be set and advertised before the product is even finished, and making that date is the priority. The whole industry will be geared up to making a particular release date, and coordinating midnight openings all over the world for AAA titles etc. With tabletop gaming that's much less the case - stuff tends to get released when its finished, rather than on a particular date. Particularly with GW, retailers don't even know more than a couple of weeks in advance what is likely to be released, and on several recent occasions many indie retailers have been short shipped, getting far less product than they have ordered.

pgmason wrote:
Something to bear in mind with pre-orders for gaming stuff is that release dates in this industry are nowhere near as set in stone as they are with videogames or DVDs. In those industries the release date may well be set and advertised before the product is even finished, and making that date is the priority. The whole industry will be geared up to making a particular release date, and coordinating midnight openings all over the world for AAA titles etc. With tabletop gaming that's much less the case - stuff tends to get released when its finished, rather than on a particular date. Particularly with GW, retailers don't even know more than a couple of weeks in advance what is likely to be released, and on several recent occasions many indie retailers have been short shipped, getting far less product than they have ordered.

yeah, that's fair enough, but how about an email to explain where my order is, over a week after the expected release date...?
again, maybe I've just been spoilt by companies with excellent service recently.

I work in a customer facing job, and always go out of my way to keep customers in the loop with whats going on with whatever I'm dealing with - how long does it take to type one or two sentence email explaining the situation...?

Your experience is pretty normal for Wayland.

Example: I placed an order with them on Jan 30th, all items listed as Available. I got the dispatch notice today.

The problem here lies not with Wayland Games, but with GW as a company. They're have been rumors floating around (sorry, cannot remember who said them originally) that GW on purposely will take a while to supply sellers of their products, making customers wait longer to receive the product then if they were to go into a brick and mortar store or order of the GW site directly. I've found that if I order other companies models of independent sellers, I'll get them fairly quickly but if I order GW models I tend to have to wait a week to two weeks max normally.

That really is a problem with Wayland (and almost any other wargame seller for that matter), in that they advertise stock they do not possess, If they do not invest in inventory you get these issues. Customers money effectively acts as a short term loan to enable them to get additional stock.

There is a secondary problem and that is the customer. Many would compare WG to Amazon or the like that will facilitate quick deliveries from their million square feet distribution centres and complain that they don't have x tomorrow.

Two words for you OP: DARK SPHERE

Not really on topic, but has Dark Sphere not been working recently?

 tomball0706 wrote:
The problem here lies not with Wayland Games, but with GW as a company. They're have been rumors floating around (sorry, cannot remember who said them originally) that GW on purposely will take a while to supply sellers of their products, making customers wait longer to receive the product then if they were to go into a brick and mortar store or order of the GW site directly. I've found that if I order other companies models of independent sellers, I'll get them fairly quickly but if I order GW models I tend to have to wait a week to two weeks max normally.

In that case: why are Dark Sphere accurate about what GW product they have in stock, and accurate about when it will be delivered. I have nnever, ever had problems like those the OP described with Dark Sphere - but I certainly have with Wayland.

I've been ordering X Wing stuff from all manner of online retailers recently.

Troll Trader, Gadgetsville and Valiant Wargames all came up with the goods they claimed to stock and were pretty prompt.

I confess I avoid Wayland because their stock system bemuses me. Everyone else manages to be fairly black and white (i.e. it's either in stock or it isn't), but Wayland always comes across as a bit vague.

 Nicky J wrote:
just had a pretty awful experience with these guys and just wanted to see if its just me, or whether other people have had hassle with them before?
(this is my first time using them, and on the basis of this experience, i wont be using them again)

pre-ordered an item, and for some strange reason expected that this would mean that the item would be dispatched sometime around the release date...?
but over a week later I had heard nothing from them, so opened a support case to enquire what was going on. got a reply back basically saying it wasn't their fault, supplier blah blah, but not actually apologising or anything.

they did however say that their delivery would be in the next day, so i didn't think much more of it.

3 days later it still hadn't been dispatched and again, had heard nothing to let me know what was going on.
by this point i was pretty pissed off and just decided to cancel the order and get the item from my flgs (as the item was now released and in stock) - found that I couldn't cancel order through their site, so updated the support case asking for them to cancel.

heard nothing back from them today, and now have just received an email saying its been dispatched!
useless, and terrible customer service/communication imo

would warn people off using them, unless you all can convince me I've just been unlucky or something...?

Hi Nicky,

Rich owner of Wayland here, I am intrigued by your post, can you please PM me your order number and support ticket number so I can investigate please to find out what happened to your order. Generally regarding Pre orders we order enough to cover pre orders from customers and extra stock. Sometimes we have to estimate the numbers required without much information to base the numbers wrong and under estimate/over estimate the quantities. GW require us to confirm numbers almost 2 weeks in advance and before we have taken any orders, and even before the products have been revealed so its a crystal ball exercise.




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 Nicky J wrote:
they have just emailed me saying that they had stopped my item from being despatched, if i did still want to cancel, so no real harm done in the end.

but that pretty much admits that when they send you an email to say its been dispatched, tat it hasnt actually been posted, otherwise how could they cancel it...?
just seems like they have a pretty poor service/support to me.


tbf, this my first time pre-ordering anything modelling related, but have pre-order loads of video games/dvds/blu-rays/music from lots of different companies, and everything else has turned up either on the day of release or within a couple of days of it. some things have even turned up before the release date - i remember having finished the Modern Warfare 2 campaign before any f my mates even owned it lol.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
also, as I pointed out to them, surely one of the advantages of doing pre-orders is that you know what quantities of an item to order in...?
(don't think I mentioned it above, but this was their excuse for it having not shipped - they had sold out, and were waiting for restock delivery)

just really unimpressed overall, especially as in between all this, I ordered a loads of stuff from Anvil industries and it turned up in a couple of days, no hassle, great coms, etc.
such a contrast to dealing with wayland. will not be using them again.

Re the dispatch email and manage to stop it leaving the warehouse. Your ordered is picked and packed. We dont have a courier/RM van waiting to take every order individually away to a hub the moment its packed. The packed packages get sorted based upon destination and service and wait collection by their particular service. It means that it is possible to intercept packages before they leave after packing. We can sometimes do it in transit as well though never 100% successful.

Yeah. Ordered a few DreadBall decals and a DreadBall MvP from them.

Nothing happened for weeks. I emailed them, asking what's going on and they said were waiting for stock from Mantic.

Another week or so, they emailed me, saying they'd gotten a bit of Mantic stuff, but just enough to fill the orders placed "before mine", and I'd would have to wait another few weeks for the next Mantic shipment. At that point, I canceled.

Overall, poor experience and not with GW-product either.

StraightSilver wrote:
A friend of mine pre-ordered the Iyanden Codex from Wayland, and he's still waiting.

I think as has been said this is normally a problem with GW products specifically and I have never really had a problem with Wayland.

However I always use dark Sphere now as they have always been great, but they also have problems from time to time with GW new releases.

It is GW supplying its own stores first, or not packing stuff properly which arrives to independents damaged.

No your friend didnt order that product from us, we have never listed or stocked it. Your friend is mistaken.

 azreal13 wrote:

 Kroothawk wrote:

Nicky J wrote:
by this point i was pretty pissed off and just decided to cancel the order and get the item from my flgs (as the item was now released and in stock)

Trying to skrew you FLGS can be tough sometimes

Did you stop to consider that he may not have a FLGS? Showing a UK flag means that there's a higher than average chance he lives nowhere near any sort of independent store, or worse his only option is a GW.

Did you stop to actually read the post? He says he finally bought the item at his FLGS who sold it on release.
And there is no country on earth with a higher density of stores stocking GW products.

I have found wayland fine when ordering anything non gw. that said their communication in general could use some work for the most part. maybe the live chat will help.

I have ordered a few things from Wayland, none of it was from GW, and I have always found them slow, everything has arrived in good order but it generally took a while.

Since their new stock system came in I've been very happy with Wayland's service for in-stock items

no experience with pre-ordering though

(this is a major improvement over the old traffic light system)