Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

As the title suggests, I had to deal with GW customer service today and it was my first time dealing with them. Well today I learned that GW customer service is actually really, really good. Only complaint I have is that it takes them a while to email back but that's really not their fault.

To give everyone an idea as to what caused me to contact them, here's the detailed story. Local Game Store has all their Warhammer Fantasy/AoS stuff marked down as 40% off, so I grabbed a box of Tomb King Chariots. After a week of them sitting on a shelf I decided to build them. Opened it up and started building. Built the horses then was about to start on the chariots when I noticed there was an entire chariot missing. I quadrupled checked and I was definitely missing a whole chariot, including the crew that went with it. Contacted GW customer service via email and they got back to me the next morning. They asked for some basic info such as if I bought the box from a GW, my address, the name of the store if it wasn't a GW, and the 'batch code'. Couldn't find the batch code so I just snapped some photos of the box and sent them in a reply email along with the other info. I didn't want to wait a long time though so I just called after. Got someone immediately on the line, explained what's up, said they'll check the warehouse and see if they can find one. I was warned that since Tomb Kings got scrapped (I'm still rustled by that) there might be a chance they couldn't find one. A few hours later I got a phone call but my phone wouldn't take the call for some strange reason, so the guy I talked to on the phone earlier just replied to the email I had sent previously. He ended up saying that he found one and has shipped it with the address I have provided. So problem solved!

I was really quite surprised by the experience. I was half expecting them to tell me to contact my FLGS first and get a refund or demand proof of purchase or something. Or once my phone rejected their phone call (twice) that they would just drop the issue and forget about me. That was not the case at all though, they were very helpful in solving the issue.

People crap on GW a lot. And lots of the time they may deserve it. But in terms of customer service? Unless my experience is unique, I feel they completely excel at it.

"Company replaces faulty product" really isn't excelling at anything.

GW get rightly praised for fulfilling their obligations quickly and efficiently, but that this sort of thing is held up as any sort of exceptional level speaks either to people's low expectations of customer service in general, or the overall prevailing attitude to GW specifically.

It's pretty well accepted that GW has always been quite good in terms of customer service. But then, as Az mentioned, it's really par for the course with (in my experiences) other decent vendors.

I mean, an entire chariot was missing from the kit. I'd have been shocked if they DIDN'T replace it!

I think the part to take away from this is that even though they tried multiple times to reach back out to him with an answer, they kept working with new ways to get ahold of him. Couple phone calls unanswered, they could have said "eh, we tried to reach him" and wandered off. They didn't. Sure, just emailing him back doesn't seem like much, but making multiple attempts to reach an unhappy customer instead of just a single attempt is pretty good on them. It's not that they got him his missing stuff, it's that they worked harder to get in touch with him than most companies would.

 Azreal13 wrote:
"Company replaces faulty product" really isn't excelling at anything.

Tell that to Wyrd or Privateer Press. Mantic will replace stuff, but oh so slowly. GW replaces faulty products better than most wargame companies.

I don't what world others live in but the customer service department of many companies is something that can be.improved. I'm sure everyone has some horror story. When i lived in uk calling my isp was a horror of 30 min+ queue on the phonw for example.

Calling gw, I almost look forward to it because I know they will help me 100% of the time. Wish every company was their level

 timetowaste85 wrote:
I think the part to take away from this is that even though they tried multiple times to reach back out to him with an answer, they kept working with new ways to get ahold of him. Couple phone calls unanswered, they could have said "eh, we tried to reach him" and wandered off. They didn't. Sure, just emailing him back doesn't seem like much, but making multiple attempts to reach an unhappy customer instead of just a single attempt is pretty good on them. It's not that they got him his missing stuff, it's that they worked harder to get in touch with him than most companies would.

That's a good point. Well, kudos to GW then!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:
"Company replaces faulty product" really isn't excelling at anything.

Tell that to Wyrd or Privateer Press. Mantic will replace stuff, but oh so slowly. GW replaces faulty products better than most wargame companies.

Which could have easily been inferred from the remainder of what I'd written?

 Azreal13 wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:
"Company replaces faulty product" really isn't excelling at anything.

Tell that to Wyrd or Privateer Press. Mantic will replace stuff, but oh so slowly. GW replaces faulty products better than most wargame companies.

Which could have easily been inferred from the remainder of what I'd written?

Apparently not. I thought you were going for the "lol GW Stockholm Syndrome" angle with talk of low expectations.

Well, to clarify, I meant people may either generally expect the runaround from a company, regardless of market sector, so when they get a fairly easy and straightforward experience from GW, the surprise means they overreact positively, or they have a low opinion of GW specifically, so when they find an element of GW that is actually pretty solid, they overreact positively to that instead.

It's always nice when things are easy when dealing with something potentially difficult, but there's got to be something else behind the fairly consistent threads that pop up when, as I said in my first post, it basically boils down to "company replaces faulty product."

I've always been a big fan of GW's customer service. I had a pair of Ork Kannon blisters in metal that I'd purchased from an eBay lot, but they were each missing a crewman. I called GW and they sent me two new Finecast Ork Kannon kits, replete with grot crews, no questions asked and free of charge. The casts were nearly flawless too, and I'd doubled my artillery unit. It was a good day!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:
"Company replaces faulty product" really isn't excelling at anything.

Tell that to Wyrd or Privateer Press. Mantic will replace stuff, but oh so slowly. GW replaces faulty products better than most wargame companies.

Mantic take a while to respond to the first email (a few days), but I got a replacement within about a week. I'm in the UK though.

Kudos to GW customer service for trying to find a replacement for an OOP line, rather than just saying "nah, don't have it, want something else?"

Herzlos wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:
"Company replaces faulty product" really isn't excelling at anything.

Tell that to Wyrd or Privateer Press. Mantic will replace stuff, but oh so slowly. GW replaces faulty products better than most wargame companies.

Mantic take a while to respond to the first email (a few days), but I got a replacement within about a week. I'm in the UK though.

Kudos to GW customer service for trying to find a replacement for an OOP line, rather than just saying "nah, don't have it, want something else?"

I haven't really had much trouble from any mini company at all, my PP issue was dealt very similar to GW.
Haven't had a issue with mantid stuff yet, and the only issue with wyrd model was rectified by the cat.

I think it's more interesting that it's for a product now out of production, but I guess thay would keep older kits that didn't get sold in time for a while also.
Maybe they go into Xmas bags for employ kids or something :p

I'm in a position to have had to deal with a number of different companies customer service departments. For the most part, we get minis that just don't have problems, right?

I definitely recommend the customer service people from Privateer Press, Games Workshop, and Wyrd Games.

Wyrd's form requires a photo, so it is a bit more of a hassle. But I found that they replaced missing minis right away (I was worried a little because "look how the minis aren't in this pictures" is a bit odd).

I think Privateer Press is usually the fastest to get replacements to me, but all three of those have sent me replacement parts with no hassle. Also, they're usually dealing with pewter, so they can just cast them themselves.


I've never had a problem that a company would not fix, but some of them are a little faster and easier about it than others.

I never managed to get a replacement for my Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Trilogy box set... one of the first disc of Return of the King had some German bonus material instead of the movie.

Imagine how frustrated I was, having waited a long time to get the opportunity to sit and watch them in one go, only to discover two thirds of the way through one of the discs was faulty.

I received the box set as a gift, so no idea who the retailer was. Every email I have sent to any company remotely connected to the DVDs has gone unanswered. (If anyone has any suggestions to who else I could try contact regarding the issue, please PM me, I've been trying to get the disc replaced for years now ).

At least GW's service is better than this.

Nareik, have you called them over the phone? Failing that, if there is a big retailer convenient to you, you can bring it in and explain the issue. Unless things are very different where you live, most big retailers will just swap the box set for you if they have it.


As for PP and Wyrd, both of my issues with those companies were a while ago. I had a PP wolfen box with a couple miscast parts. I emailed them with photos and specific descriptions of what was wrong. After several emails back and forth, they sent me the wrong parts. When I emailed them to let them know, with photos, they seemed to be suspicious and dragged their feet, like they thought I was swindling them out of multiple copies of one set of feet and a left arm. All in all it took 4 months to get the replacements I needed. I went through pretty much the same thing with Wyrd regarding an early plastic sprue with a fill issue, but gave up after a certain amount of back and forth because it just wasn't worth it. Haven't bought much from them since.

 Azreal13 wrote:
"Company replaces faulty product" really isn't excelling at anything.

I guess you haven't had to deal with PP Customer Service (which still isn't bad, but not nearly as efficient).

I think the surprise comes from having to deal with customer service in just about any other business. Ever had to call your local utility? Ever buy something on Amazon and then get the run around over whether Amazon or the seller is the one to contact? Ever deal with customer service from DirecTV, TimeWarner, or Comcast? Either waiting on the phone or dealing with someone that hates their job seems to be the rigmarole people have to go through today.

When you call GW you speak to someone that is usually pleasant and enthusiastic very quickly, go over a few questions, and they will fix whatever your problem is without a whole lot of issue.

A few years back I was sent the wrong order entirely. I emailed customer service and they not only told me to keep the order (Paints and Dark Elves), but express shipped out my actual order. Just this month I had ordered 3 of the limited "Imperial Space Marines" and paid for next day shipping. When a week went by after I had gotten my shipping confirmation and an error on the shipping end seemed to occur, they next day aired out another 3, and told me to just keep the other ones if they ever do turn up. I now have 6 of those guys.

If there is any flaw with their CS department is it's that they can be too trusting. I can see how this sort of thing could be abused.

Meh, last time I had an issue with Amazon I used the online chat function and within a few minutes I had a refund and was told I could keep the product. Just yesterday I received notice that another company had been forced to cancel my order and I needed to re-place it, due to technical failures and received a £10 voucher for the inconvenience, I didn't even speak to the, to demand it, they just left a message saying that they'd already emailed it to me.

Not that different really.

But that's the minimum standard to expect if there's a faulty product or an error made by the company. It's bass ackwards to hold companies that do this up as some sort of example to aspire to, they should be rightly credited with getting things right, but it's those that aren't doing it that should be criticized.

Perhaps dealing with other company's CS departments for years professionally has just made me better at getting things resolved than your average consumer, but I just don't see how GW do anything that other companies do, or should be doing, as a bare minimum.

riburn3 wrote:
I now have 6 of those guys.

Oh really?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Azreal13 wrote:
Meh, last time I had an issue with Amazon I used the online chat function and within a few minutes I had a refund and was told I could keep the product. Just yesterday I received notice that another company had been forced to cancel my order and I needed to re-place it, due to technical failures and received a £10 voucher for the inconvenience, I didn't even speak to the, to demand it, they just left a message saying that they'd already emailed it to me.

Not that different really.

But that's the minimum standard to expect if there's a faulty product or an error made by the company. It's bass ackwards to hold companies that do this up as some sort of example to aspire to, they should be rightly credited with getting things right, but it's those that aren't doing it that should be criticized.

Perhaps dealing with other company's CS departments for years professionally has just made me better at getting things resolved than your average consumer, but I just don't see how GW do anything that other companies do, or should be doing, as a bare minimum.

Yeah I've usually never had a problem with anything from Amazon. GW's customer service though has *always* been exceptional.

 Azreal13 wrote:
"Company replaces faulty product" really isn't excelling at anything.

GW get rightly praised for fulfilling their obligations quickly and efficiently, but that this sort of thing is held up as any sort of exceptional level speaks either to people's low expectations of customer service in general, or the overall prevailing attitude to GW specifically.

A company should not be praised for doing what they are meant to do in the first place, but, Az, credit where credit's due here: GW (especially the North American guys) are notorious for having excellent customer service. I mean, a company can still do what they're meant to be but really drag their feet and be a bunch of right pricks about it, but GW is A+ when it comes to service.

The US guys have impressed me time and time again, and even the Oz guys impressed me when a book I ordered (one of those limited hardback campaign books) never showed up, sending me replacements, and gift vouchers, and apologies a'plenty. The replacement was expected, the rest was above and beyond.

GW's customer services will always go the extra mile.

My Taurox was missing a bit and while I wasn't that bothered (it wasn't a super essential part after all) the store owner did prompt me to get in touch with their customer services asking them for the bit in question. I sent them the serial number of the box and in return I got a whole new Taurox along with an apology for having a kit from a bad batch.

Ditto when I still had a subscription to the old White Dwarf mag. There was a period when we either wouldn't get our mags, or it would arrive damaged. A temporary solution was to go to your nearest GW store and get a replacement, but paying up to €16 a month for a €7 magazine was a bit much, especially three months onwards with no solution in sight. So after I got in touch with them they sent out the remainder of my subscription directly from the UK.

I also had a problem with a Privateer Press order once, but after sending a picture they sent me the correct model, it just took forever to reach me.

I have a torn exploration card in Silver Tower, bought from an indipendent retailer, I asked to GW if there is some kind of warranty for replacing the card: they told they don't have spare part of game for replacement and to ask to the retailer for the substitution.
I always been happy with GW customer service, but if I want critic them, I think they are not adeguate enough for a board game company where It's ok to exchange only the damaged component of a game. SodaPopGames or CMON replace missing parts without problems.

In the UK (and I think in the rest of Europe) your primary contract is with the retailer who sold you something, so it's them that should be replacing anything missing or damaged so I'd chase up the place you got it from

as opposed to the US where consumer law runs differently and it seem the manufacturer is the one to approach with this sort of issue

GW's service is awesome because they actually follow the letter of the law and are quick about it. A lot of other companies will ask you for postage, proof of purchase, store location, the square root of a cow's butt, and a bunch of other crap before even checking if they can replace it for you.

I actually had to deal with Wizards of the Coast once when they mispacked a pre-made deck (so not a randomized booster) I bought and it was missing some of the rares. Not the expensive ones mind you, the 50c ones (normally people wouldn't care but they were missing an entire 1/6th of the deck!). They needed all that crap and then some for me before they even checked if they had any replacements left (this was a mere MONTH after the deck was released). Then they wanted me to mail a copy of the receipt, photos of the products, and postage for the replacements despite the fact that all communications thus far have been through Email. After I pointed out that, living in canada, the postage would cost more than me just going to a FLGS to buy the replacements, they relented and let me email the proof, with them footing the cost of the postage. I later learned that if I had opted to just buy the replacements myself, they would have run afoul of some regulation or some sort (never bothered to check out) which was why they suddenly became so courteous. And even then they still managed to muck it up by sending it to a completely different city on the other side of the province.

It took a total of 3 months to get all of that sorted out.

By comparison, when my Settra was missing his goatee, GW took less than a week to ship me a whole new Settra. No fuss, no muss. Just the above info and blam, 5 days later it was in my mailbox. They also threw in some dogtags as well, just because. It may be hard to commit the money at times, but I know I will always get what I'm promised from them because of this. I have yet to find any other company (of anything) that I can buy with such confidence. Hell I still make meticulous records of Steam Purchases simply because even they can't match up with GW customer service.

 Azreal13 wrote:
"Company replaces faulty product" really isn't excelling at anything.

GW get rightly praised for fulfilling their obligations quickly and efficiently, but that this sort of thing is held up as any sort of exceptional level speaks either to people's low expectations of customer service in general, or the overall prevailing attitude to GW specifically.

I would say GW is a industry leader in customer support for the wargameing market. Nothing specail compared to what you get in larger industries, but the best in this niche market.

-

 Bottle wrote:
So GW have warehouses filled with OOP tomb kings miniatures?

Sure. You never see the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Customer service is one of the few areas I've never heard a complaint about with GW.

Once, I picked up some old finecast Vanguard from a used bookstore. They'd been OOP for a couple years at that point, but were so cheap I decided what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

Open them up, sure enough, classic finecast.

So I do what any sane person does, and decide to email GW with a few pics to see what they say.

GW rep responds with "Well we don't have those anymore so a straight up swap would be a no go. Would you be ok with a plastic box?"

Absolutely.png

They ask for me to send the finecast models in to trade out, and sure enough I had a plastic box in a week. That's the "worst" experience I've ever had, and I was very pleased to get a brand new kit to replace them. I only say "worst" because they didn't just send me a new one and asked me to send in the finecast. Usually they wouldn't ask for a replacement, but I understand why they did that time (because otherwise, a determined person may have fixed them and doubled his models) Considering I spent 3 bucks to ship them, and 15 on the box, I'd say it was a very fair trade for a brand new plastic vanguard box, and the rep was very friendly the whole time.

I mean really this is supposed to be every customer service department, but I've yet to deal with one that was as friendly and accommodating as GW's. I honestly wonder if it's one of the few things that kept customers around sometimes.

Just emailed GW because one of the pink horrors in my Silver Tower box had a broken off knife (the knife was lying at the bottom of the box). 3 hours and 2 emails later they're apparently sending me a complete Silver Tower sprue which happens to include all the 40+ enemy models in the game besides that one Pink Horror. Wow. I almost feel guilty for it, since I could probably easily pin the knife back on.

GW has the best customer service, I found even there response time is super fast, sometimes within the same hour.