GW going above and beyond.

[Sophet Drahas]

Just wanted to write a post about the stellar service I got from a local FW store this last weekend.

I swung by to pick up an old Battle For Skull Pass set that had been collecting dust for the last couple years and they had just sold it a few days prior. Darn.

So I started talking to the manager about why I was after it (due to one of the fantastic Plogs here at Warseer) and how the one I bought through eBay had arrived damaged because it was shipped in an envelope with minimal packing. Everything was crushed and how I've been going back and forth for the last 3 months with the seller on getting a replacement/refund with no luck. She made a couple calls (everyone thought she was joking, looking for Skull Pass and all) but everybody was sold out. She gave me the bad news but asked if I was willing to hold on while she checked things in back.

She came out a couple minutes later with a copy of Skull Pass that had some water damage and she couldn't sell, but wound up giving it to me free of charge. The books, box and paint was damaged but I was really only after the figures to paint. I was really blown away by this, and wound up picking up a Daemons codex to start a new army and will be going back to that store for the foreseeable future.

She could have just sent me on my merry way, which I would have been fine with, but helping out a fellow hobbyist like that earned major points in my book.

[canberraguy]

Good to hear. Going the extra mile is customer service 101. People appreciate it and you usually get a loyal customer. It amazes me how rarely it happens in stores.

[Sophet Drahas]

Considering they could have used those models themselves or just not given them to me at all, she didn't even pressure me into buying anything. I was so stunned I got about halfway through the parking lot before the full awesomeness of it all set in and I went back for the codexes.

[blackcherry]

Thats nice to hear. Makes a change to all the negativity we hear on the forum. Thanks for sharing Sophet.

[paddyalexander]

Its great to hear positive stories like this. Usually when a customer is satisfied a retail store will not hear any positive feed back on it, only recieving feed back from the dissatified custumers. The same is true on the internet, with people who have had negitive experiences more likely to voice their feelings than those with positive ones.

[Sildani]

I'll chime in. I was at my local GW store building a Night Spinner with the vectored engine upgrade (more for the looks than the upgrade itself). One of the employees picked it up to examine it and broke off one of those engines. He felt terrible, and spent an hour pinning the part as best he could. Problem was... he didn't do a terribly good job, and kinda ruined the cylinder the vertored engine "plates" attach to. A couple days later, I was back in the shop. A different, more experienced staffer had heard about the incident... and spent an hour of HIS time trying to not only pin the part correctly, but also make it as symmetrical as possible with the other, untouched vectored engine part. When THAT failed... he ripped open a new Fire Prism kit, pulled out its engine upgrade part, snipped off the cylinder, and properly pinned, glued, and aligned the new part... which took another hour.

Say what you will about GW's prices, corporate direction, or secrecy, but by God they bend over backwards to help their customers when they have a problem.

[EmperorNorton]

I'll chime in. I was at my local GW store building a Night Spinner with the vectored engine upgrade (more for the looks than the upgrade itself). One of the employees picked it up to examine it and broke off one of those engines. He felt terrible, and spent an hour pinning the part as best he could. Problem was... he didn't do a terribly good job, and kinda ruined the cylinder the vertored engine "plates" attach to. A couple days later, I was back in the shop. A different, more experienced staffer had heard about the incident... and spent an hour of HIS time trying to not only pin the part correctly, but also make it as symmetrical as possible with the other, untouched vectored engine part. When THAT failed... he ripped open a new Fire Prism kit, pulled out its engine upgrade part, snipped off the cylinder, and properly pinned, glued, and aligned the new part... which took another hour.

Say what you will about GW's prices, corporate direction, or secrecy, but by God they bend over backwards to help their customers when they have a problem.

A GW employee damaged one of your miniatures, failed to fix it, and then it took two more attempts to undo the damage...and somehow that is a good thing?

[Tonny]

A GW employee damaged one of your miniatures, failed to fix it, and then it took two more attempts to undo the damage...and somehow that is a good thing?

Accidents happen. It doesn't matter if it's a GW employee or not. The fact is that the guy who broke it. Did the best what he could to do the right thing. Which resulted in satisfied and happy people in the end.

Well tried to add negativity to this thread.

[Llew]

Accidents happen. It doesn't matter if it's a GW employee or not. The fact is that the guy who broke it. Did the best what he could to do the right thing. Which resulted in satisfied and happy people in the end.

Well tried to add negativity to this thread.

EmperorNorton does have a point. There is a drastic difference in the story between the OP and the latter incident with the broken model.

In the first case, GW really did go above and beyond to do something that wasn't required at all. That's fantastic service and it's certainly worth lauding. Kudos to his local GW for that!

In the second case, GW spent a ton of effort just putting things back to how were before a GW employee broke his stuff. And frankly, that's all they did. They didn't go above and beyond in that case. If they had given him something for his time and trouble, then I'd say they had gone above and beyond. On that one, they were fairly inefficient in resolving the problem.

[EmperorNorton]

Accidents happen. It doesn't matter if it's a GW employee or not. The fact is that the guy who broke it. Did the best what he could to do the right thing. Which resulted in satisfied and happy people in the end.

Well tried to add negativity to this thread.

When you damage something, fixing it is at the least common decency. In the case of a GW employee damaging a customer's property in store it's probably legally required. It certainly is not "going above and beyond", which I will gladly admit the OP's story is (although there are some parts I find questionable).
To quote Chris Rock: What do you want, a cookie?

[loveless]

Yeah, I don't see the "fix the issue you caused" as going above and beyond - that's more doing what's expected of you.

The OP's story is super, though - really great positive tale for GW.

Frankly, given the GW standard when it comes to broken parts, I would have expected them to hand him an all-new Fire Prism...

[eldargal]

They didn't just fix it though, did they, they opened a brand new box to get a replacement part. Presumably someone has to pay for that Fire Prism and from what I understand the GW staff discount isn't that significant. Not to mention the effort involved, they could have just given him a replacement part or a bit of store credit.

But this is Warseer, we can't have positivity about GW, that would be wrong. No matter how grasping something negative must be found.

[winterdyne]

Other than the mandatory sales patter, I've only ever had good service in GW stores. Particularly the American guy that was manager at Friar lane for a bit was very nice.

[Caiphas Cain]

Err, they did just fix it. Opening a new box was required to fix it, so they did.

[Llew]

They didn't just fix it though, did they, they opened a brand new box to get a replacement part. Presumably someone has to pay for that Fire Prism and from what I understand the GW staff discount isn't that significant. Not to mention the effort involved, they could have just given him a replacement part or a bit of store credit.

But this is Warseer, we can't have positivity about GW, that would be wrong. No matter how grasping something negative must be found.

Actually, they tried to fix it but were unable to do it. So only after other methods had been tried and failed did they open a box. It was not a "customer first" approach.

If someone managed to accidentally slash someone's tire with a knife, we wouldn't be impressed if they bought them a new tire only after trying to glue or stitch the rubber back together first.

This isn't a problem with Warseer...this is a problem with someone having a really, really low threshold of what they consider "above and beyond".

EDIT: Let me clarify a bit. The second guy in the repair story can be said to have done more than needed...but he was covering for the first guy really dropping the ball. So on net, GW merely met their obligations, even though one guy did go above and beyond.

[EmperorNorton]

But this is Warseer, we can't have positivity about GW, that would be wrong. No matter how grasping something negative must be found.

Fallacy of composition. Twenty points from Hufflepuff!

[Hellebore]

But this is Warseer, we can't have positivity about GW, that would be wrong. No matter how grasping something negative must be found.

I'd much rather go to a car dealer that gave me a whole other car for free with some damage because I couldn't get that model anymore than one where it took two employees several days trying to sort out how to fix the tail light they broke on my car before getting a spare one.

Hellebore

[shelfunit.]

They didn't just fix it though, did they, they opened a brand new box to get a replacement part.

The very least they could do - nothing special here.

Presumably someone has to pay for that Fire Prism and from what I understand the GW staff discount isn't that significant. Not to mention the effort involved, they could have just given him a replacement part or a bit of store credit.

Whilst nice that they tried to fix it, this is what they should have done. Fixing it is expected. Giving him an entirely new kit would have been "above and beyond". Staff discount was 50% last I heard.

But this is Warseer, we can't have positivity about GW, that would be wrong. No matter how grasping something negative must be found.

Whoosh. This has gone right over your head hasn't it. Where is the negativity? This is a thread about GW going "above and beyond" - the OP is clear on this and in that case "above and beyond" is exactly accurate - they did a great job - especially on an obsolete set that they could easily have not bothered to find and told him the buy the new edition. Fixing something you broke is just basic manners, and any stock used would have been written off as damaged on receipt. Really EG, you seem to have a chip on your shoulder every time you post in GW general at the moment, which is a great shame as the majority of your posts are well worth reading.

[eldargal]

Every time someone posts a positive experience with GW someone comes along and tries to explain to them why they shouldn't feel any satisfaction from it. Whether or not the GW staff in Sildanis example did anything more than they should is beside the point, they clearly made him feel that they had. Which is good service. I just get the feeling that no matter what GW does for some people it will never be enough, and I'm just fed up with all the negativity.

[loveless]

Every time someone posts a positive experience with GW someone comes along and tries to explain to them why they shouldn't feel any satisfaction from it. Whether or not the GW staff in Sildanis example did anything more than they should is beside the point, they clearly made him feel that they had. Which is good service. I just get the feeling that no matter what GW does for some people it will never be enough, and I'm just fed up with all the negativity.

Fixing their mistake by repairing it (with or without opening a new kit) is "good service". It isn't "above and beyond" service.

There's not really any negativity - I'd give them a B+ for actually fixing their mess. That's passing and above average - no sense in trying to argue to get an A+ rating from B+ service

The OP situation is certainly A+ (or higher).