AGPO Posted July 15, 2019 Share Posted July 15, 2019 I know GW has come in for lot of flack recently, but one thing I've never had any issue with them for is after sales service. A couple of times in the past 20+ years I've had mispacked or mispacked minis from GW, and it's taken seconds to resolve, with them normally going above and beyond. In the past I've had a whole new kit shipped out just for one missing part. Unfortunately this doesn't always seem to stretch to the 3rd party sellers mny of us use for discounts. I recently I had to get in touch with Dark Sphere regarding the contrast paints I pre-order for a birthday gift. Half the order was shipped almost a month late, with two paints never arriving at all. When I contacted Dark Sphere the customer service attitude couldn't have been more different. They were confrontational and just complained about It being GW without lifting a finger to resolve the situation. Turned out they'd cancelled my order without informing me. They couldn't even muster a basic apology. As a result I'll not buying from them again. I'll suck up the price difference and order direct from GW. Any one have any good/bad experiences with GW or other online sellers? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjnoronh Posted July 15, 2019 Share Posted July 15, 2019 GW customer service is top notch 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted July 15, 2019 Share Posted July 15, 2019 GW has always had top rate customer service when it comes to resolving issues like misspacks and misscastings and the like. They are very good at what they do and they set a very high standard. As for other companies have had great customer service from Firestorm Games and good customer service from Wayland. Meanwhile I've had no issues with Element games though I've not really bought much from them, though I did get contrast paints and their order system does auto update itself with estimated delivery dates for the few that are missing (which includes the much prized black contrast paint which is out of stock in most places). I've certainly no problem using and recommending those three stores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thiagoma Posted July 15, 2019 Share Posted July 15, 2019 I went to London as a Tourist twice, bought stuff in the store both personaly and tru deliveries done to my hotel. All without issues, even for products they did not have in stock and were ordered from GW for me. It sucks you had a bad experience 😐 Hope things get resolved. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 Regarding contrast paints and third party. Talking to my flgs owner and gw staff. It seems gw stores are supplied first. Up to the point the flgs gets 2 colours restocked every week meaning a 17 week cycle to refill everything. Could be what they’re struggling with as well. No reason for the bad attitude though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGPO Posted July 16, 2019 Author Share Posted July 16, 2019 53 minutes ago, Kramer said: Regarding contrast paints and third party. Talking to my flgs owner and gw staff. It seems gw stores are supplied first. Up to the point the flgs gets 2 colours restocked every week meaning a 17 week cycle to refill everything. Could be what they’re struggling with as well. No reason for the bad attitude though. Yeah, that's what really got me about it. A simple apology, maybe some small gesture would have resolved the situation easily. Everyone gets supply chain issues from time to time, it's how you communicate it and handle it that makes the difference. The fact they were instantly defensive and confrontational and wouldn't even apologise meant they've lost my business, that of my club and family. A few thousand euros a year spent with them gone over bad attitude. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyB Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 Darksphere used to have great customer service when it was in the small shop under waterloo, but since they've grown so quickly and the staff from the original location moved on they seemed to struggle getting the same level of customer service, and have seen a fair few people commenting on this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 (edited) Expanding fast can leave companies with issues and a lot of stress in the wrong places, even though they might be doing more trade it might be costing them to do more trade and there can easily be a growth time where they don't have the money to hire enough staff to cover all jobs, esp when they get peak orders. So "customer service" might not even be proper staff for that role and instead might be whoever is a picker or packer, stressed out and taking the path of least immediate resistance (just dump the order) rather than attempting to resolve the matter. They probably also saw a lot of duel ordering where people get wise to the shortage of stock at the national level and thus order from 2 or 3 stores at once, whichever store supplies first gets the order ,the others get an order cancellation - or bits of orders cancelled which results in more work to sort it out. It shouldn't happen, but it often does. You can see the same thing when companies get into troubles, one of the first signs is failing communications and failing customer service. Edited July 16, 2019 by Overread 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollowHills Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 I think a lot of the small third party stores attempted to expand by offering a good level of online discount 20%+. However, this can mean you have a small shop staffed according to the customers in store trying to deal with large online orders from all over the country. Best thing to do is complain and if that doesn't work raise it on social media. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 1 minute ago, HollowHills said: I think a lot of the small third party stores attempted to expand by offering a good level of online discount 20%+. However, this can mean you have a small shop staffed according to the customers in store trying to deal with large online orders from all over the country. Best thing to do is complain and if that doesn't work raise it on social media. Aye very much agreed and whilst you're trading lots you've still possibly not got hte space and staff and money to afford to expand. Plus expansion can be its own killer; more than a few companies have shut-down for a month or two whilst expanding only to find that their market collapsed; or that their restructuring got so messy that their service fell apart and cost them a bomb, leaving them with a lot of debt . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairbanks Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 23 hours ago, AGPO said: I know GW has come in for lot of flack recently, but one thing I've never had any issue with them for is after sales service. A couple of times in the past 20+ years I've had mispacked or mispacked minis from GW, and it's taken seconds to resolve, with them normally going above and beyond. In the past I've had a whole new kit shipped out just for one missing part. Unfortunately this doesn't always seem to stretch to the 3rd party sellers mny of us use for discounts. I recently I had to get in touch with _____ regarding the contrast paints I pre-order for a birthday gift. Half the order was shipped almost a month late, with two paints never arriving at all. When I contacted _____ the customer service attitude couldn't have been more different. They were confrontational and just complained about It being GW without lifting a finger to resolve the situation. Turned out they'd cancelled my order without informing me. They couldn't even muster a basic apology. As a result I'll not buying from them again. I'll suck up the price difference and order direct from GW. Any one have any good/bad experiences with GW or other online sellers? Going to give the online retailer benefit of the doubt here. They don't have a massive warehouse full of the stuff where they can just go and get a replacement one. Then take into account that for every person who actually has an issue, there's another trying to rip them off, and the only thing they can really trust is that they did their job correctly. Also, GW isn't faultless in this. They've had stocking and distribution issues since the start of the year and it's fallen onto the non-company stores. Our LGS never received a copy of Looncurse from their distributor. Since we aren't the most populated area in the US, and considering how quickly that set sold out, I wouldn't be surprised if GW had to renege on some deliveries to LGS' in order to cater to sales to their online store. Something similar happened with the Contrast release too. The delivery was a week late, and a supplemental box of paints actually arrived on the Monday after launch, but before the original paints arrived. There was also a weird period of time when paints went out of stock hours after launch, but then you could get them again a few days later (its how I ended up with my Blood Angels Red), and now they're all sold out again. Customer Service-wise they haven't been perfect recently. There was an issue with the first go around of Azyrite Townscape that I feel they didn't handle well. If you bought the set when it originally came out, it was missing one of the newer sprue. Usually they are trusting and send out the sprue, but this time around they were giving the third-degree and asking for proof of purchase. I thought it odd, since, you know, they knew about the issue. But if you thought the store treated you salty, then they probably don't deserve your service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabotage! Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience. I will second your comment about GW's customer service. They have always been exceptional in my experience with them, and have been some of the best customer service interaction I have ever had across all aspects of my life. This is coming from a guy who absolutely hated GW during 40k 6th and 7th also. Doing things like releasing "Codex: Scions" for fifty USD with a two alternate builds of a new transport, two alternate builds of a new infantry unit, and two rehashed units and calling it a codex. Or Chaos needing 4 books to play their army. Or trying to sue small artists out of existence for having a comic about Heinlein style space marines. Yet, even during this period, their custom service was still impeccable. I don't buy a lot directly from GW (I'm lucky to have a LGS that has great customer service and I really enjoy), unless they have something direct only that I really want, but my experiences have always been good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGPO Posted July 17, 2019 Author Share Posted July 17, 2019 10 hours ago, Fairbanks said: Going to give the online retailer benefit of the doubt here. They don't have a massive warehouse full of the stuff where they can just go and get a replacement one. Then take into account that for every person who actually has an issue, there's another trying to rip them off, and the only thing they can really trust is that they did their job correctly... [SNIP] But if you thought the store treated you salty, then they probably don't deserve your service. This is pretty much my point. Every company screws up from time to time, it's how you respond to it that makes the difference. In my case it was a matter of fact that they didn't fulfil the order, and their records showed it. The basic polite thing to do in that situation is apologise, even if you can't do anything further, not act like the customer is the one in the wrong. They've not lost my custom because of a messed up order, they lost it because they responded like a**hats. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravinsild Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 I reckon it falls into the old saying "You get what you pay for." You pay premium price for a good product and get premium service. I always support my local GW shop because I want it to succeed and stay here, even though I could buy for MUCH cheaper. I'm not a fanboy, but if my store goes away I'll have nowhere to play 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Still-young Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 3 hours ago, Ravinsild said: I reckon it falls into the old saying "You get what you pay for." You pay premium price for a good product and get premium service. I always support my local GW shop because I want it to succeed and stay here, even though I could buy for MUCH cheaper. I'm not a fanboy, but if my store goes away I'll have nowhere to play For some people the third party stores are their local stores where they play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuxxx Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 Well I only had a problem with stuff from GW I ordered from Wayland. I contacted Gw directly (a sprue was missing) and they were really helpful. But with the contrast paints there seems to be a problem out there. I ordered with my FLGS when they came out and just now got my second batch of paints. They still haven't received a single black contrast paint. They just got some of the paints (and since I know them and trust them a great deal I believe them when they say they ordered early enough). I guess GW just focussed on their own stores with those colours. I was really pissed about that, all the hype is gone for me. Well I guess they sorted out their production problems and I get them soon. But yeah, I rarely had problems with gw themselves and their service is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 Contrast paints are just selling beyond GW's ability to stock at present. This makes sense as right now everyone is getting them and most of the colours are in stock, but things like the black and white that "everyone" wants are simply running out faster. I'm sure as the time passes the market will settle down and all stores will get regular supplies. AS for sprues, most stores will tell you contact GW directly because whilst your contract for purchase is with the store, its GW who can resolve the issue of missing or damaged sprues in boxes. These days all they typically want is proof of purchase and photos of any defects. Proof of purchase is simply to avoid people using ebay "stores" and recycling already bought produce and also for tracking so that GW has an idea if there are any patterns. Eg if one region is always throwing up issues or if one store is then GW can nail down if there's a problem in their distribution chain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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