GW going above and beyond.

[Brandir]

The state a parcel arrives depends upon the jurisdiction. Here in the UK the Distance Selling Regulations dictate the sellers and carriers response to a damaged delivery. For example, whether the item is sold as an auction or buy it now impacts on the sellers responsibilities.

The BFSP and FW anecdotes are examples of 'above and beyond'. Or are they? Perhaps this is just marketing in a clever way?

The general GW ones are examples of excellent customer service. Personally I have never had anything other than excellent customer service from GW. Thinking about it I have only ever had excellent customer service in any 'hobby' related shop whether online or B&M.

I pre-ordered the Warhammer box set featuring Bretonnians and Lizardmen. 5th Ed in 1996 if I remember correctly, but prepared to be corrected! Anyway, order did not turn up a week after release so I phoned GW. A replacement was sent and a couple of days later both boxes arrived, the first one in a Royal Mail bag saying 'sorry we may have damaged your item'. Nothing broken of missing so i phoned GW and informed them and I would send the replacement box back. They said no keep it.

Excellent customer service but the cynic in me thinks the cost of refunding me posting back etc made it cheaper for GW say 'keep it'.

However, I started to receive minis from GW with a printed compliments saying 'because we like you'. After receiving a few pre-releases I phoned up GW and asked what this was about. The GW person said something along the lines that the Royal Mail lost approx 0.01% of parcels overall but lost 0.1% of GW's parcels. As I was honest about my double delivery they added my details to a list of 'nice' customers to send out the odd pre-releases. The last package I received was in about 2000/2001 when they sent me a unit of Phoenix Guard for Warmaster when it was released. Over this period I received quite a few minis including the odd limited edition or special release. Seem to remember receiving some Space Marine mini that was silver plated and mounted on a plinth.

Was this 'above and beyond'? Or is giving away product for whatever reason all part of the overall marketing budget and strategy, ultimately not 'above and beyond'. Or am I just being too cynical a these days?

[Lord Inquisitor]

This is indeed great from Forgeworld! Gah, sucks that you got robbed. Although I can imagine the surprise when those thugs opened those boxes and saw a Titan, scratching their head thinking what the hell is this.

Yeah no doubt. Although even if they did know what it was, they didn't make off with all the boxes so even if they could try and hawk it they were missing the guns.

I don't know if robbery was the primary intent. Bunch of yobs just decided to have a swing at me on a dark village road as I was walking back from the last train and made off with the boxes when I dropped them to defend myself.

[Jericho]

That's pretty badass, they put you on a list to get extra freebies just because Royal Mail screwed up

As with any large corporation there will be some policies (and even staff) that aren't likeable, but there are plenty of good folks at GW and they do deserve some credit when they go above and beyond. Cool story Brandir

[Freakiq]

Sprayed my Necron Tomb Spyder using a fresh Army Painter spray and it turned out crap despite me being well-versed in using their sprays.
The spray had eaten into the plastic, dissolving detail and leaving deep gouges in the carapace.

A conversation with Army Painter yielded nothing so I sent a mail to GW mentioning what had happened and that I wasn't sure if the spray, model or myself were at fault.

Mere hours later I received a reply containing an order confirmation for a new Necron Tomb Spyder.

[Omniassiah]

I think that may have been their plastics there have been some weird issues popping up with their plastics. Nothing close to being common but swirl marks on the surface and reactions not just to army painter but their own sprays as well. I've seen the spray issue on a Stalker that looked like it bubbled it and it was using their own sprays. they replaced it as well.

[King Thor]

I've had GW replace a couple of things as well. I really like threads like this, that is why GW will continue to receive my hobby dollar. They could easily make it a lot harder. And totally true about the GW lost post vs Royal Mail lost post percentage. The honest folk end up absorbing price increases...

[King Thor]

@ emperornorton, I also received one of the skull pass sets with paints. The paints were on a sprue, not separate pots and were pretty small. But you also got a brush!

[kyussinchains]

earlier this year, I had to drive to the far side of birmingham to pick up a Wii my wife won on ebay, on the way back we decided to stop into a shopping centre and I went into the GW to have a nose at some of the new paints, I had my 2 year old son with me and the staffer I spoke to was really friendly, not pushy, let me try out the paints, then got my son slapping paint on a seaguard model from the island of blood set. When he found out I was mostly into epic he lowered his voice and told me about a club which plays epic 'and the rest' and that I should check it out, I had to stop him before he gave me the organiser's phone number and taught me the secret handshake, and let him know I wasn't local, but I really appreciated the thought from a GW member of staff. Then he gave my son the miniature and paintbrush to take away, despite the fact that I only bought 2 pots of paint.

I don't know whether that counts as 'above and beyond' but it certainly made me feel a lot less hatred for games workshop that day!

on the damaged/faulty replacements front, in 99% of cases it's due to the fact that it's far cheaper to send out a replacement than bother with returns, all the attendant admin, re-packaging, re-stocking and general faff, and the big bonus is that GW gets a rep for being super customer friendly when really they're doing whatever is cheapest for themselves.....

[shelfunit.]

I don't know whether that counts as 'above and beyond' but it certainly made me feel a lot less hatred for games workshop that day!

I'd say that fits the bill perfectly. Good show GW Birmingham!

[Lord Inquisitor]

I love the attitude that Epic is something illicit and exclusive.

[Max Jet]

Gw going above and beyond:

Today I got a Base completely for free from GW. I would have paid for it and happily so, but they nevertheless gave me one for free and it is well known that I have been no costumer for years now. Was also greeted friendly and not pushed anything. (was the same shop where the taught me first class painting techniques completely for free, a whole day long. Of course I used the shop for buying birthday gifts back then and no online discounter)

There is also another story for which I don't want to open an extra thread

Mantic going above and beyond:

I got a personal discount code, just because I expressed sadness in the low sales of Elves. Also Mantic allowed one of their fans to jump late ship into the long gone Kickstarter offers just recently.

Very pleasant suprises from both Manufacturers!

[kyussinchains]

I love the attitude that Epic is something illicit and exclusive.

I wish more people played it, it's an inherently better game than any of the GW core games by a country mile, just not as visually appealing perhaps (unless you like seeing dozens of superheavies and titans actually moving around and being used tactically, which I do)

His 'and the rest' comment was referring to non-GW games...... in my time I've seen people being asked to leave GW stores for mentioning other company's products, so this was a breath of fresh air for me

[Lord Damocles]

Today I got a Base completely for free from GW.

Reminds me of when I once got a free base too
It was quite a few years ago now; I'd got an old metal Dreadnought, which either didn't come with a base back then, or came with a square one (I forget) - I asked if it was possible to get a large round base for it to go on and the staffer disappeared out back and reappeared with an Epic Titan base.


The day that the current Necron range was released - back in 2002 - I was the first customer to arrive at the store, just as they opened, and announced with glee that I wanted some Necrons. 'Great! What were you looking for? Awesome plastic Warriors? New Lord? Tomb Spyders?' Nope, I wanted the old metal Warriors, so again the staffer disappeared out back to the stockroom and brought out a big box containing all of the old Necron stock, which I was allowed to rumage through. I think all I bought was a Raiders box and some Scarabs, but the staff member couldn't have been more helpful.

[gunmnky]

Generally, management level and above, GW does have good customer services. It's the red shirts that make it a circus. I've seen them grab someones model and throw it down on the table so hard, it bounced out of the store and into the mall. I accidentally left a model once. By the time I came back for it (the next day) it was just a torso and legs. The staff member actually sneered when he gave it back to me (he knew it was mine and handed it over as soon as I walked in. And I never knew anyone could sneer like that). They also rigged tournaments, badmouthed customers, and threatened to throw people out for not following their house rules.

It's kind of a pity, since I've known all the mangers there since it opened in 1997, and they were good guys that actually tried hard to make customers happy. They even replaced a couple of my sets that had missing sprues and parts without question.

I heard that all those employees did get fired, and they had a pretty bad reputation at other GW and bunkers. Still, when you have poor corporate decisions (I was waiting on models for months and corporate never restocked them) and very high turnover, it gets hard to outweigh the bad.

[slah]

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.

The most unexpected thing i got from this was: "manager" and "SHE"!?

[gunmnky]

GW has quite a few female managers. Why is this surprising?

[williamsond]

Nice story in the OP it makes a change to hear that stuff like this still happens, makes me nostalgic for the good old days were for the most part the staff we're games not pushy salesmen. All i seem to here these days is horror stories about bad staff making really sucky desisions.

[Shnerg]

When I started 40K, I wasn't really sure how to play. I was literally told to go to the store and talk to a salesperson there. I told them this, and they set me up with a 'bundle', which was amazing of them, and I'm still chuffed to this day. It contained AoBR, a Tau Battleforce, 3 paints which were my main colours, chaos black, skull white, a black spray, a paintbrush, the codex and an Ethereal. It cost me £100. In 2009. Proper happy with that. I kept going in there until they changed their staff to people who I just didn't click with, which was relatively recently. I then switched to the other GW in town, where I picked up WHFB. I was sold my first army, Wood Elves, at £70, with a Battalion, a Spellweaver, the Army Book, a box of Wild Riders and they gave me the mini-rulebook from IoB.

I still reckon it was because of those lovely staff that I'm still a hobbyist.

[shelfunit.]

More of a Forge World one here. Just ordered some of the FW Epic scenery and a pack of flakk wagons over the phone and asked the guy if I could pay for a "special order" of a pair of extra flakk wagon AA gun barrels - two of them come on a sprue and they are extremely tiny. Back story there is I am painting some FW flakk wagons for a mate and "mis-placed" a pair somewhere (possibly forever...). Anyway, I asked (specifically telling him that I had lost them, it was my own fault etc) and he happily agreed to add them to the order at no extra charge. That in itself would have been good enough for me to put it in this tread, but I actually recieved the order today and he had put in an entire additional pack of 3 flakk wagons, not just the extra bit I needed. Very impressed. (I know it was probably "easier" for them to put in a whole extra pack, rather than a single bit, but that is not the point).

[samael]

oeh positive gw/fw story (jumps up and down excitedly, mememe pick me I got one)
<Wavy lines of reminiscence cloud the screen>

Placed an order last june with forgeworld for the monstrous arcanum book, some arcane frogs, the undead standard bearer and the exalted vermin lord.(only the frogs were for me).
After 3 days I got the "we've send you your stuff" mail and the wainting started ........and continued .....and continued... Until 5,5 week had passed And I decided that it was time for a phonecall.
After some checking and confusion the kind fw employee told me that this was an unacceptable waiting time, that something must have gone wrong and he would re-send me my order post haste to me.
3 days later my order was in my house and there was much rejoicing.

3 weeks later I got a note that a parcel for me had been handed to my neighbour that day since I wasn't home at the time of delivery, expecting some shirts I went over, got my parcel (bit heavy and bulky for 2 shirts but ah well) went back in and ripped open the box to be greated by the sight of a monstrous arcanum book and all the other goodies, this turned out to be the packet that had been sent in the first place and had been in mail limbo for almost 2 months.

Not quite sure what to do with this unexpected windfall I decided to call fw just to check with them, wouldn't want to end up with a note behind my name saying "don't ever sell to this man again".

After some explanation, and me saying that I was quite happy to send back the parcel(as long as they picked up the tab) or that I could bring it to the nearest gw shop, the guy on the phone exploded with laughter (which came as a shock, I would have been pissed as hell if someone just cost me 130 euros) and thanked me for the call, no no need to send it back to us, just keep the stuff (free of charge) and that I should have fun with it.

Which I'm having, and so are my mates. Sold the book cheap to one mate, gave the money and the arcane frogs to the guy that I placed the order for in the fist place and am planning what to do with the vernmin lord and the standard bearer.

So thanks fw you've made 3 customers very happy with your excelent service.