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.

I just found this statement on the Alchemist Workshop webstore, I thought it might shed some light on why some pre-orders have been difficult to obtain from online retailers. Mods, please move if I've chosen the wrong part of the site:

"Games Workshops Continued Delivery Issues
by Gavin Henning

February 10th, 2023 No comments
To our valued AW Customers

I unfortunately have to put a post here to inform the wider Community of
amazing hobbyists that you are that Games Workshop since moving warehouses at
the start of the year is having delivery issues. Now this is a post we did not
want to have to put up here or on social media but we have had our hand forced
due to Games Workshops refusal to acknowledge this issue and to be transparent
with you via outlets such as the Community Team and site. When asked to do this
to not only support ourselves but every independent store we were flatly told
that is not what it’s for.

As most of you are aware we get two deliveries a week from Games Workshop
one being a pre-order delivery for the weekend and the other being a restock
order for general stock. For the pre-order delivery it is supposed to be here
with us by Wednesday at the latest as we do pay it in advance to get this to
occur as it allows ourselves to check stock is undamaged and pack your pre-orders
in a timely fashion to limit mistakes etc and the Restock is supposed to be
here by Friday at the latest to allow us to replenish the store over the
weekend and fulfil any backordered orders. Since this move this has not been
the case with the pre-orders arriving on Fridays if we are lucky before 1pm causing
a mad rush to make sure they get out on time for the delivering from date of
Saturday. This has been compounded by it arriving along with the restock
meaning ourselves as a small family business have had to work 12 hours a day 7
days a week to maintain normal service for you all.

As of this week this is not the case with only after asking to speak to a
manager to find out a firm commitment if we would get our pre-orders this week,
we were told sometime next week and to basically put a disclaimer up stating basically
what you are reading now. We as a business find this unacceptable in that we
must be put in the firing line for an issue that is not of our own making. In
terms of this week’s restock we having luckily been told that it will be here
on Tuesday next week.

Finally, going forward we feel it only right to be open and honest with
you in that we cannot guarantee Games Workshop deliveries will be on time for
both normal orders and pre-orders due to their own internal issues with this
warehouse move. We will as always try to let you know as much as possible and
work as hard as we can to get orders out for when they should but this doesn’t
look likely to be the case for some time until they resolve their warehouse issues.

I apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you amazing people and I
hope it will not make you question your faith and confidence in us as a
business to deliver your hobby needs.

Kindest Regards

The Manager"

It could have been worded better, but the frustration is clear

Firestorm Games also issued an email this evening about delays to this weeks deliveries.

My GSG preorder came in to the local store a week late.

Honestly even without a warehouse move, a lot of firms are having issues with shipping and postage. It's a LOT better than it was but there's still errors and issues for many firms and GW might have issues outside of just the warehousing element.

This happens every other week in Oz.

A few of the stores I follow post "We haven't received the pre-orders yet" or "We received half of what we ordered" and so on.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
This happens every other week in Oz.

A few of the stores I follow post "We haven't received the pre-orders yet" or "We received half of what we ordered" and so on.

Same at my FLGS. And I live in France

Been a problem for a while.

I can't speak for anywhere other than here in the UK, the last few weeks in particular it's been much harder than usual for me to buy the popular new releases.

GW strive to make it harder and harder for hobbyists to support their business.

The warehouse migration has been beset by issues for a while.

Didnt Siemens have issues with the IT architecture the previous chairman decided to purchase from friends and family?

 Mr. Burning wrote:
Didnt Siemens have issues with the IT architecture the previous chairman decided to purchase from friends and family?

Yep, and they're still having issues with the Enterprise Resource Planning side (The Reg).

Reality is world wide logistic crisis is still there, with a war still going on and Coronavirus still not have disappeared (and Brexit still happened). People just pretend not to see it and then are "surprised" by its consequences.

So of course it's easier to solely blame GW on it.

looks like Games Workshop is still struggling with the change of the ERP System
this is now 4 years ongoing and it is still not working as it should be

https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/12/old_foes_collide_as_games/

My FLG told me the same reasons:

-Warehouse moving
-Strikes in the UK
-The container load which was for Germany/Austria was broken into and they dont know how much/what is missing yet so that screws orders over too

HeIlsing wrote:My FLG told me the same reasons:

-Warehouse moving
-Strikes in the UK
-The container load which was for Germany/Austria was broken into and they dont know how much/what is missing yet so that screws orders over too

Pretty much. Gosh strikes in a country for economic struggles have real consequences on world wide delivery ? What a scoop !

But no, you see, let's blame GW like here :

kodos wrote:looks like Games Workshop is still struggling with the change of the ERP System
this is now 4 years ongoing and it is still not working as it should be

https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/12/old_foes_collide_as_games/

See "evil where it is" instead of the multiple real consequences from too utterly real problems in the world.

Sarouan wrote:

HeIlsing wrote:My FLG told me the same reasons:

-Warehouse moving
-Strikes in the UK
-The container load which was for Germany/Austria was broken into and they dont know how much/what is missing yet so that screws orders over too

Pretty much. Gosh strikes in a country for economic struggles have real consequences on world wide delivery ? What a scoop !

But no, you see, let's blame GW like here :

kodos wrote:looks like Games Workshop is still struggling with the change of the ERP System
this is now 4 years ongoing and it is still not working as it should be

https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/12/old_foes_collide_as_games/

See "evil where it is" instead of the multiple real consequences from too utterly real problems in the world.

Why can't you just...lose the snark?

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:

Why can't you just...lose the snark?

Because the Internet

Can't have explanations without it being apologist and white knighting.
Can't have criticism without being a hater.
Can't have mixed feelings or not care about a topic, it's either agreement or enemy.
Goes for about half the posts here, at least.

HeIlsing wrote:
My FLG told me the same reasons:

-Warehouse moving
-Strikes in the UK
-The container load which was for Germany/Austria was broken into and they dont know how much/what is missing yet so that screws orders over too

DHL/Deutsche Post is also in the 4th week of strikes in both distribution centers and 'on the road', and afaik they move a lot of the stuff that's supposed to go to southern europe.

Tsagualsa wrote:

HeIlsing wrote:
My FLG told me the same reasons:

-Warehouse moving
-Strikes in the UK
-The container load which was for Germany/Austria was broken into and they dont know how much/what is missing yet so that screws orders over too

DHL/Deutsche Post is also in the 4th week of strikes in both distribution centers and 'on the road', and afaik they move a lot of the stuff that's supposed to go to southern europe.

That's interesting, I sent a parcel to Germany recently and I wondered why it was taking a long time to arrive.

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:

Tsagualsa wrote:

HeIlsing wrote:
My FLG told me the same reasons:

-Warehouse moving
-Strikes in the UK
-The container load which was for Germany/Austria was broken into and they dont know how much/what is missing yet so that screws orders over too

DHL/Deutsche Post is also in the 4th week of strikes in both distribution centers and 'on the road', and afaik they move a lot of the stuff that's supposed to go to southern europe.

That's interesting, I sent a parcel to Germany recently and I wondered why it was taking a long time to arrive.

There's a handy overview page where you can check if the region your package was going to was affected:

https://www.deutschepost.com/en/business-customers/global-event-observer.html

so GW having problems to get their stuff out because they start changing the ERP system 2018/19 and it does not work well (not like the pumped a lot of money in to get it working hired several different companies to get it done, this is all going as planned)

at the same time, GW tries to maintain the high and fast output of new products instead of slowing things down to a level they can handle

and now on top of this we got a global pandemic, brexit not doing as promised and a break in the global supply chain

the one thing GW is to blame here is, to continue as all those things are not happening but acting like everything is alright

it is the management to blame for not adjusting to the world, rather than blaming the world for not acting like the management expected

Brexit is now going for years, as is the pandemic and global supply chain issues
if we should not be surprised about those issues, neither should GW

so why we need a 3rd party retailer to inform us about something instead of GW itself

Because its not a delay on GW to Customer delivery but a delay on GW to 3rd party to Customer delay.

So GW informs the 3rd parties who then inform their customers.

 kodos wrote:

so why we need a 3rd party retailer to inform us about something instead of GW itself

Because we're not a 3rd party retailer, communication goes to them since they're the ones concerned.

When you're a customer who doesn't receive its order in time, who do you complain for ? The shop where you ordered it, or the producer ? Of course, it's the shop, since you have the contact with them. And if they have the info, they tell you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:


Why can't you just...lose the snark?

Sure can. Won't stop these posts putting the blame on anything else than true reasons from appearing, though. But hey, I guess I shouldn't bother anymore, granted.

Just saying, hell freezes over before people "who know better" stop posting about things they are 99% clueless about

Accept it for what it is and move on

I noticed the weird long delays of fulfilling Votann pre orders on some kits... Thats in the UK and thats not normal for GW.

Sarouan wrote:

 kodos wrote:

so why we need a 3rd party retailer to inform us about something instead of GW itself

Because we're not a 3rd party retailer, communication goes to them since they're the ones concerned.

When you're a customer who doesn't receive its order in time, who do you complain for ? The shop where you ordered it, or the producer ? Of course, it's the shop, since you have the contact with them. And if they have the info, they tell you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:


Why can't you just...lose the snark?

Sure can. Won't stop these posts putting the blame on anything else than true reasons from appearing, though. But hey, I guess I shouldn't bother anymore, granted.

The ERP implementation issues are due to GW corporate being money grubbing nepotists (is that a word?)

Admittedly that is the first of many reasons atm so its not unfair to dig at GW for this aspect.

Obviously GW don't control Governments, postal services and delivery services (yet)

This issue is also present in Australia.
We often have GW stores not receiving pre-orders when they are expected, and I imagine it is the same story for independent stores as well.
Some falls on warehouse, some falls on transit delay.
There’s also supply issues at warehouse. I noticed today that already Kasrkin and the Kill Team box is sold out, when they only went for preorder today. Warehouse also recently oversold Arks of Omen: Angron, and had to recall stock from stores to fill webstore orders

Tsagualsa wrote:

There's a handy overview page where you can check if the region your package was going to was affected:

https://www.deutschepost.com/en/business-customers/global-event-observer.html

Thanks, that's very helpful

Sarouan wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:


Why can't you just...lose the snark?

Sure can. Won't stop these posts putting the blame on anything else than true reasons from appearing, though. But hey, I guess I shouldn't bother anymore, granted.

It just comes across as being unnecessarily combative. I'd understand if one of the usual problem posters had been poking you, but that's not the case here. You make good points in your posts but the other stuff spoils it. Why can't we just agree that all of the issues mentioned are having some kind of negative effect on GW's ability to fulfull orders in a timely fashion?

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:

Tsagualsa wrote:

There's a handy overview page where you can check if the region your package was going to was affected:

https://www.deutschepost.com/en/business-customers/global-event-observer.html

Thanks, that's very helpful

Sarouan wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:


Why can't you just...lose the snark?

Sure can. Won't stop these posts putting the blame on anything else than true reasons from appearing, though. But hey, I guess I shouldn't bother anymore, granted.

It just comes across as being unnecessarily combative. I'd understand if one of the usual problem posters had been poking you, but that's not the case here. You make good points in your posts but the other stuff spoils it. Why can't we just agree that all of the issues mentioned are having some kind of negative effect on GW's ability to fulfull orders in a timely fashion?

The postal strikes are still intermittently ongoing, another round of negotiations failed this week due to the scope of the demands - the unions want a pay increase of 15% on average for the next 12 months, with guaranteed minimum raises of around 500€ per month for the lower-paid echelons, mostly because consumer price inflation in Germany is currently around 10%... needless to say, the bosses are not too keen to accept that, so for now it's warning strikes scattered all over the country.

 Mr. Burning wrote:

Obviously GW don't control Governments, postal services and delivery services (yet)

point is, this not a new issue but an ongoing one that just hits different regions and different shops at different times
so while the current situation might influence it for that specific shop in the UK at the moment, other regions have had those problems for 2 years now

 Mr. Burning wrote:

Admittedly that is the first of many reasons atm so its not unfair to dig at GW for this aspect.

I am not sure about that, from my experience changing the ERP only makes such troubles if the workflow/process-flow (or the general organisation) of the company does not work like the managements thinks (or wants it to be). So they buy a new system adjusted on how they think (or want) everything works, but in reality it is different and than both sides start working on the issue. The one sides try to change the process to fit the new ERP system while the other side try to adapt the ERP system to their process (and this is were lot of time and money can sink in without ever finding a solution)

My FLGS hasn't gotten a GW shipment since October. I stop by once a week trying to spend my $100 store credit and they have nothing. Supposedly last week they found a new distributor and will start receiving shipments soon. I figured it was GW holding all the stock for their direct sales because of the higher margin

Sarouan wrote:

Sure can. Won't stop these posts putting the blame on anything else than true reasons from appearing, though. But hey, I guess I shouldn't bother anymore, granted.

Luckily they'll always have people like you defending them, and for free! What a bargin.

 Arbitrator wrote:

Sarouan wrote:

Sure can. Won't stop these posts putting the blame on anything else than true reasons from appearing, though. But hey, I guess I shouldn't bother anymore, granted.

Luckily they'll always have people like you defending them, and for free! What a bargin.

Christ almighty, whatever you think that GW has done to you in the past you really need to get over it.

It's unhealthy.