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Hey guys,

I am in a conundrum. Our FLGS just hosted the Massing at Sullust event. The kit was supposed to come with 17 Alt Art cards for the Imperial SD (as you know). However, we were only provided 8 of them at the event with the explanation (to our faces) that the other 9 were water damaged when the kit arrived and had to be thrown out.

However, this was a lie. Those other alt art cards are being sold on eBay by the owner of the shop.

What would you do in this situation? I and the other players feel deceived. We dont want to make waves and get banned from our place of play but it is hard to keep quite about it when we are so upset.

Thoughts?

Can you prove it's him? Contact FFG and let them know what happened, provide a link to the ebay auctions, and see if they can provide you with the card you missed out on. Then hunt for another game store to play at. Why would you want to give this guy your business?

Oh, we are no longer buying from him and we can prove without a doubt that it is him.

The issue is the next closest game store is 90 miles away....which I am willing to travel to for events.

Unfortunately, Time is right: all you can do is report him, stop buying, and make the drive to the other store. If any of the guys you play with are willing, you can all play at some ones house for friendly games, and only drive for events. Online has a multitude of great websites for purchasing material, so You can always get your new stuff from there.

Yeah, I think we are to that point. I emailed FFG to see what they advise and how they handle situations like this.

I am just so crestfallen that the place we like to play at and support lies and cheats the people that keep their doors open.

Don't forget to post about this on any local gaming communities, leave bad reviews on their facebook page, etc. Because everything is cheaper online a physical retail store can only make money if the community likes them and wants to support them. So make sure that the community is aware of their greedy and dishonest behavior, and hopefully they'll either change or lose sales as people don't feel any obligation to hand them charity donations anymore.

And, needless to say, don't ever buy anything there again and make sure you tell the owner why you are no longer buying from their store. Losing even one customer is almost certainly more money than they can make selling a few cards on ebay.

Well, I have emailed FFG. I am curious to see what they say.

Keep us posted, I am quite curious about that too.

FFG is investigating. "They take misusing of event kits very seriously".

This didn't happen to be at Dragons Lair in Austin TX? This sort of thing happened at the regional they hosted earlier this year.

No, that is not the shop. Did anything happen to that shop?

 Falco wrote:
Oh, we are no longer buying from him and we can prove without a doubt that it is him.

The issue is the next closest game store is 90 miles away....which I am willing to travel to for events.

Start a club and you no longer need to go to the store anymore.

Also make a meetup group or something so that new people in your area can find you, and not have to go to the same place you did

If we set up a club, would we be able to get tournament kits?

 Falco wrote:
If we set up a club, would we be able to get tournament kits?

Talk to FFG. If you are running demos for their products, they generally will support your demo days and tournaments.

Possibly, some companies do support clubs. No harm in asking them.

Start a gaming club!

My suggestion is find a nice pub that will let you use their spare room every week or so.

I believe there is a club in Nottingham that runs like this opposite the Games Workshop. They play all sorts of games, charge £5 entry and provide the first drink free.

If you can field a dozen gamers every fortnight in a way that is going to cost them no business, but probably bring a decent chunk of money for beer and pretzles you are bound to eventually find a place that will host you!

Bonus points if it is a location where you can wave at your uFLGS owner as you pass by with your toys .

In the US the "Club" culture is not that common. There is not a Pub you can go to.

However, there are places you can go. Your local school (after hours), library, or civic buildings all are possible locations you can get for free/cheap with some pre-planning.

Usually some space can be freed-up anywhere from an arena to a veteran's hall.
Talk to a bunch of friends / acquaintances and gauge their interest and get contact numbers.
Get them to endorse being a member of a "club", set your rules and some "kitty" to contribute to and outline clearly how it all will be used.
THEN submit that evidence to your target company and I think they would have a hard time refusing.

Had a strange thing happen over here with a Pokémon group that met at the local FLGS and some person in the group had registered the club to that location without the owner's permission. So when he went to set up a club, the owner was not allowed due to the prior registration.
Turned out that customer / club leader was getting free swag and not telling anyone and told the owner to take a hike: she was not freeing up his registration.
Needless to say that person got banned for being a nasty piece of work.
So after a little talk with the "Pokémon Company" they got their registration and members are getting a ton of cool stuff... amazing things happen when people are honest.

Sigh people sometimes...smh

 Falco wrote:
If we set up a club, would we be able to get tournament kits?

I hosted an event at a Con (this year's Kubla Con) and they sold me a kit. I contacted their customer service directly, and was patient, and they eventually came through. I'm not a retailer, I'm just some guy who likes the game!

They aren't free, but I think it was only 20-30 bucks? So if you hosted an event, and let FFG know it will be well advertised and/or well attended, I bet they could help you work something out. Their customer service is really nice.

Just let all your co-attendees know to pitch in a few bucks, so you'd easily break even.

Good luck!

If this is all true, you are darned certain it happened and you have proof you should post the name of the shop (if that isn't against dakka rules) so none of us mistakenly shops there in the future.

Ah that thorny issue of oh so tempting prize support that does seem to bring out the worst in some store owners and tournament organisers

not a nice situation

It's just unfortunate that the gamers suffer for the greed of someone who doesn't care one lick about the prize. It's all about the money for them.

You would think that promoting the game and getting people interested would generate sales of expansions and starter sets.

 Easy E wrote:
In the US the "Club" culture is not that common. There is not a Pub you can go to.

However, there are places you can go. Your local school (after hours), library, or civic buildings all are possible locations you can get for free/cheap with some pre-planning.

In Greece I found a club that used a storage basement. I think some historical gamers used it the days where fantasy/sci fi weren't played.

After what that owner did to you, you should probably arrange for an "unfortunate accident" to happen at the store. Like, somehow a can of gasoline got spilled all over the floor and there was a spark...

All joking aside, do what everyone else here is saying. Boycott the store, make it very public about what is happening (even to people who don't play your game). And of course, find some way to get games anyway (like a club that meets in somebody's house/garage).

To play devils advocate, was the event turn out 16 or more people? Their format lists that each of the top 16 get a card, but also implies that the event is expected to draw more than 16 people. If only 7-8 people show up then the store should be able to reduce the level of prize support accordingly and use left overs for a second event if inclined.

Having run tons events for numerous CCGs they typically charge the store a certain amount for their prize support packages, the participation promos are usually handed out one per attendee , but prizes or promos allocated to the winners or top placement positions are often modified when player turn out is less than expected. As long as people aren't being denied their participation trinkets it's really the stores call on how they divide up prize support if the event is not at full capacity.

If only 8-9 people showed up then the store should be able to reserve the remaining cards for other events or even their own use as they paid for it. If only 8 out of 16+ people showed they shouldn't really expect 2 copies each.

That said, if they claimed they were "water damaged" and shorted people their participation cards then that's straight up crappy and deserves to be looked into.

How many people were at your event? as it has a big impact on how this will be perceived by FFG.

 paulson games wrote:
To play devils advocate, was the event turn out 16 or more people? Their format lists that each of the top 16 get a card, but also implies that the event is expected to draw more than 16 people. If only 7-8 people show up then the store should be able to reduce the level of prize support accordingly and use left overs for a second event if inclined.

Having run tons events for numerous CCGs they typically charge the store a certain amount for their prize support packages, the participation promos are usually handed out one per attendee , but prizes or promos allocated to the winners or top placement positions are often modified when player turn out is less than expected. As long as people aren't being denied their participation trinkets it's really the stores call on how they divide up prize support if the event is not at full capacity.

If only 8-9 people showed up then the store should be able to reserve the remaining cards for other events or even their own use as they paid for it. If only 8 out of 16+ people showed they shouldn't really expect 2 copies each.

That said, if they claimed they were "water damaged" and shorted people their participation cards then that's straight up crappy and deserves to be looked into.

How many people were at your event? as it has a big impact on how this will be perceived by FFG.

I can see your point of view for sure. There should be no expectation when showing up to an event. However, on the front page of every FFG tournament packet there is a blurb from FFG stating that the contents of the kit are not to be sold. So even if they bought the kit, they are still breaking the FFG/Store agreement when this occurs.

I would have no problem with the store keeping extra cards for later use at other events, in fact, it would be nice to have the random prizes. It might even encourage people to show up to non-FFG events in hope of getting a random prize.

I really don't think that the number of participants is relevant. The point of the thread is that the Store lied to customers and sold cards that are not for re-sale. Regardless of number or participants, what the store did is atrocious.

That's gakky behavior for sure, but the most that can come out of reporting them is that FFG cuts off support to the store in the future, so ultimately it just hurts the players.

Best of luck with your gaming club!