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 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 oni wrote:
Nope. GW customer service is trash.

I'm not talking about sales help. I'm specifically referring to support when there is a damaged / defective product or order issue.

I don't know what you are talking about. GW customer service has always been second to none.

They once lost an order for a Ltd. Edition book (one of the Blood Angel/Tyranid Campaign hardbacks) as well as everything else in that order, so gave me a GW voucher for the same value and sent me a replacement for everything in the order free of charge.

They can be both. I got a FW model that was weeping resin and they forced me to go out and buy specific cleaners to try and remove the gunk before I could ask for an exchange. Even after I exhausted myself fulfilling their requests they told me several other things I needed to try. At this point I said screw it and just kept the model.

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 oni wrote:
Nope. GW customer service is trash.

I'm not talking about sales help. I'm specifically referring to support when there is a damaged / defective product or order issue.

I don't know what you are talking about. GW customer service has always been second to none.

They once lost an order for a Ltd. Edition book (one of the Blood Angel/Tyranid Campaign hardbacks) as well as everything else in that order, so gave me a GW voucher for the same value and sent me a replacement for everything in the order free of charge.

They can be both. I got a FW model that was weeping resin and they forced me to go out and buy specific cleaners to try and remove the gunk before I could ask for an exchange. Even after I exhausted myself fulfilling their requests they told me several other things I needed to try. At this point I said screw it and just kept the model.

In fairness a lot of people don't realise that you do have to wash resin models before assembly and painting. Thing is part of customer service is working out if the problem is with the product and/or with the users use/expectations of the product. Sometimes this can be painful because the customer service staff have a list of common things they basically have to run through as part of their required problem solving steps. It's the same as how when your modem breaks you still have to go through the whole phase of "ok lets try restarting; is it plugged in; are there lights" etc... Because often as not a lot of situations it will be one of those common early steps that someone is skipping/messing up on or is not even aware of.



That said I've never really heard of cleaning resin with anything but warm water, standard soap and a worn toothbrush.

 Overread wrote:

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 oni wrote:
Nope. GW customer service is trash.

I'm not talking about sales help. I'm specifically referring to support when there is a damaged / defective product or order issue.

I don't know what you are talking about. GW customer service has always been second to none.

They once lost an order for a Ltd. Edition book (one of the Blood Angel/Tyranid Campaign hardbacks) as well as everything else in that order, so gave me a GW voucher for the same value and sent me a replacement for everything in the order free of charge.

They can be both. I got a FW model that was weeping resin and they forced me to go out and buy specific cleaners to try and remove the gunk before I could ask for an exchange. Even after I exhausted myself fulfilling their requests they told me several other things I needed to try. At this point I said screw it and just kept the model.

In fairness a lot of people don't realise that you do have to wash resin models before assembly and painting. Thing is part of customer service is working out if the problem is with the product and/or with the users use/expectations of the product. Sometimes this can be painful because the customer service staff have a list of common things they basically have to run through as part of their required problem solving steps. It's the same as how when your modem breaks you still have to go through the whole phase of "ok lets try restarting; is it plugged in; are there lights" etc... Because often as not a lot of situations it will be one of those common early steps that someone is skipping/messing up on or is not even aware of.



That said I've never really heard of cleaning resin with anything but warm water, standard soap and a worn toothbrush.

It had some sheen on it that wouldn’t come off, and they had me get some specialised soap meant to remove oil, but it didn’t help.

Forge World are a whole other kettle of fish.

I used to order from an online store, as well as ordering from a local game store, but the latter stopped carrying things at launch and the former always over estimated the number of products they would get and it resulted in a coin toss as to whether I got what I ordered or not. My last two orders were from GW's webstore directly.

 Vilgeir wrote:
I used to order from an online store, as well as ordering from a local game store, but the latter stopped carrying things at launch and the former always over estimated the number of products they would get and it resulted in a coin toss as to whether I got what I ordered or not. My last two orders were from GW's webstore directly.

That's because GW entirely undersupplies LGS's in the hopes of driving sales to them.

Typically the only things I'm ordering through their Websters are exclusives & made to order stuff that my local independents can't stock.

As to customer service? Excellent to date.
The worst so far in recent years was an order that had a missing item.
I got the tracking # & the usual shipping notification. A few hours later I received an email stating that they'd missed packing an item & to expect a 2nd tracking #/package. Oh, OK....
Before the end of the day I had the new tracking number and shipping email.
Both packages arrived right on time.

I never do, since I can order anything from a few online italian stores with a 25% discount, or a 10% discount if the item is webstore exclusive. So, I litterally have no reason to buy from the GW site.

But if I didn't get access to that 10% discount, I'd definitely do it. Most of the stuff I'm interested in are just webstore exclusives now.

 oni wrote:
GW will refuse help unless you purchased the item directly from them. If you purchased through a LGS you must seek resolution through the LGS. This was not always the case.

That is, AFAIK, how the UK law works for this. If GW is pushing that globally, that's their internal policy, and can probably be disputed with them.

On the topic of forgeworld customer service, I had a friend who ordered a FW leman russ turret (this was twenty years ago). He like how it looked on his leman russ but this left his other two russes with standard turrets. So he phoned up forge world and said the turret had not arrived. They sent him a replacement. When that arrived he phoned them up again and said the replacement never arrived and they sent him yet another one. Now all three russes has forgeworld turrets.

A friend of mine got an additional Smaug because the one he ordered had a small miscast on one part. So I have nothing bad to say about FW costumer service.

No, not from the GW website.
But either from the local store or with discount from fantasywelt.de

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Forge World are a whole other kettle of fish.

FW used to have top notch customer service, but it seems like too many positive stories emerged of messaging them about defects resulting in them sending a whole new kit and telling them to keep the flawed one got posted online. People started taking the micky with that to try and score a free kit alongside one with a relatively fixable issue (not that I in any way believe those kits needing fixing is justified if FW had any quality control) so they really cracked down on giving people the benefit of the doubt.

 Samsonov wrote:
On the topic of forgeworld customer service, I had a friend who ordered a FW leman russ turret (this was twenty years ago). He like how it looked on his leman russ but this left his other two russes with standard turrets. So he phoned up forge world and said the turret had not arrived. They sent him a replacement. When that arrived he phoned them up again and said the replacement never arrived and they sent him yet another one. Now all three russes has forgeworld turrets.

Your friend is a thief.

ccs wrote:

 Samsonov wrote:
On the topic of forgeworld customer service, I had a friend who ordered a FW leman russ turret (this was twenty years ago). He like how it looked on his leman russ but this left his other two russes with standard turrets. So he phoned up forge world and said the turret had not arrived. They sent him a replacement. When that arrived he phoned them up again and said the replacement never arrived and they sent him yet another one. Now all three russes has forgeworld turrets.

Your friend is a thief.

And its a good example of actions that, when done at a large enough scale, start to impact the company which makes the company take measures to protect itself.

Heck there's already enough people willing to buy recast models of GW/FW models; so we shouldn't be surprised that there are those willing to abuse the generous replacements system GW/FW has. Granted it is not every customer and I'd hope the majority are honest, but it only takes a few and those few will encourage others. So if GW doesn't take steps to prevent it or at least hinder it could establish a growing problem that one day becomes a serious issue on their bottom line.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 oni wrote:
Nope. GW customer service is trash.

I'm not talking about sales help. I'm specifically referring to support when there is a damaged / defective product or order issue.

I don't know what you are talking about. GW customer service has always been second to none.

They once lost an order for a Ltd. Edition book (one of the Blood Angel/Tyranid Campaign hardbacks) as well as everything else in that order, so gave me a GW voucher for the same value and sent me a replacement for everything in the order free of charge.

Yea. You're going way back to 7th edition with that one, so your experience is outdated and no longer applies.

It's a lot different now. A more current story regarding a LE book. My long time gaming friend bought the limited edition Custodes codex (8th edition). It came damaged. GW didn't have any more to replace it. They wanted him to ship the damaged book back, at his expense because it was opened, and once received they would issue a refund. That was the end of it, send it back, get a refund, done. He wasn't even able to take it to the local GW owned and operated Warhammer store and leave it with them, why, because it was a web order.

Todays GW customer service (if you can even call it that) = TRASH

 oni wrote:
You're going way back to 7th edition with that one, so your experience is outdated and no longer applies.

"Way back". 7th Ed was like 6 months ago. 12th edition came out as I was typing this message.

Every time something's gone wrong with a GW order they have bent over backwards trying to fix it for me.

Karol wrote:

lets not get another thread locked because it gets derailed with "piracy talk".

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 oni wrote:
You're going way back to 7th edition with that one, so your experience is outdated and no longer applies.

"Way back". 7th Ed was like 6 months ago. 12th edition came out as I was typing this message.

Every time something's gone wrong with a GW order they have bent over backwards trying to fix it for me.

I've been in this hobby since ~1994. I've bought a lot of stuff over the years and have had a lot of problems. More so than others it feels. There was a time when I would agree with you 100% and would have championed GW's customer service as being the absolute pinnacle.

But not anymore, not these days, not even close to acceptable let alone good. Their customer service has fallen, hard, from the ugly tree and managed to hit every branch on the way down.

And it's because I've experienced their customer service high point that I can identify their current low point.

My policy is simple, I tend to put my money in where I play. Sometimes that’s GW store and sometimes that’s a LGS. I’d rather put a little extra into the places of play to keep them open than just hunt the best deal.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 oni wrote:
You're going way back to 7th edition with that one, so your experience is outdated and no longer applies.

"Way back". 7th Ed was like 6 months ago. 12th edition came out as I was typing this message.

Every time something's gone wrong with a GW order they have bent over backwards trying to fix it for me.

Now you know what you're paying the horrendous Aussi tax for

As others have mentioned, I only order direct from GW for items that are direct-only. Otherwise I'd rather buy from where I play to support the location.

 oni wrote:
I've been in this hobby since ~1994.

Me too. And the only times I've had issues with GW customer service has been:

1. The one time they charged me $2.50 to send me a replacement Grey Knight arm bit (OG Grey Knights, in metal) despite the fact that I didn't need the replacement. They only thought they had forgot to send it to me.
2. Anything Forge World related.

 oni wrote:
Nope. GW customer service is trash.

I'm not talking about sales help. I'm specifically referring to support when there is a damaged / defective product or order issue.

10/10 times i get missing sprue. Regardless where i bought.

Random internet claim or own experience. Whom to believe. Real hard it is.

Heck i have had them replace my own screw up they had no obligation to replace for free. Offered to pay, refused as their system doesn't cope with such bits sale.

Is it possible that customer service in NA/the USA has dropped significantly in quality, but not in the rest of world (or at least in Australia and the UK)?

People are replying from all over the place.

The only change I’ve seen of late, but bear in mind I’ve not had cause to call on their customer service, is returns requiring the kit to still be sealed, and have an accompanying receipt unless you want to swap. And even then, I think the swap might’ve been more a favour from my former local store, as the Managed used to be my Boss.

FW usually require a photo of the broken piece, which is hardly a ballache to do.

I still buy direct from the online store if my local store or discount online store doesn't have what I want in stock, so probably every fortnight. As to the customer service that has been top grade since I started in the hobby way back in 1989 both GW and FW.

A good many other firms also require photos of breaks/damage. It's not only good for proving your case, but it can also have the bonus of:

1) Identifying where its not an error - eg someone reporting a mould line or a sprue gate as errors/problems.

2) Showing the next nature of the fault which means the production and packing staff can, if that fault repeats, be educated as ot the nature of the fault.
This can mean production might make changes to try and reduce the chance of the fault occurring and/or pickers can be more aware of common errors to watch out for when picking parts.

3) Might identify where a user has erred instead of the prat being broken in itself. Harder to spot and prove, but can be important for some firms (and at the very least even if they honour the request it means they can avoid noting that break/fail for the picker/production staff)




Heck a good many firms have little packing codes in the box too. Infinity models have two, one for the model bag and one for the boxed model. Supplying those codes can also help firms spot when someone on their team isn't pulling their weight or might need retraining/review. Or if there's a general problem with the whole team or a model that's just throwing more errors than normal etc..

I worked for a lot of companies that were relatively small to becoming giants, so I either know what happened or am just inserting my own experiences needlessly into GW... but:

Usually the first thing to fall in company growing pains is the customer service / support. As some said, GW customer service used to be amazing. A little too good with throwing out sprues and kits with little question. Now you're lucky if they just reply and are honest with YOU. One example they tried to tell me their shipping didn't have a tracking number. They honestly tried that. Then magically found it after 3 emails back and forth. And thats when you're lucky enough to have them answer you the first try. Not shoot an email. Wait a few days. No reply. Then email again.

GW is probably experiencing growing pains like most companies. It also explains their continuous disconnect with multiple departments when it comes to direction, messaging, etc.

I haven't had any issues with the actual support that I've received from GW, but I in part agree with oni because you can't call any support with months+ long response times (not even SLAs, there are no SLAs) "awesome". I get it, they're busy and the world is still crazy, but I can't fathom how they couldn't at least contract out a few more heads to answer emails.

And the other related kettle of fish is ship durations. It's exactly like the warp, sometimes it takes them a day to find the new product in the factory (I'm not even talking old kits), sometimes it takes them a month even if you preordered within an hour of the product going live on the website.