A Strange Customer Experience at Maelstrom

Maelstrom

I have had a really strange customer experience dealing with Maelstrom Games.

I ordered four Spartan Games ships via eBay. They arrived crammed into too small a box. Three of the four resin ships were damaged. I phoned customer services and they agreed to exchange them. I returned them and was instantly refunded my postage.

Undeterred, I ordered another box of ships and some play cards. I have dealt with Maelstrom before and was happy with the service and wasn't going to hold one problem against them. The second order of ships arrived fine but not the play cards.

After a week, the broken three had not been replaced but I found my returns relisted on eBay as 'used items'.

Another phone call, and the three replacements arrived, of which only one was broken. I decided to accept this and repair it myself - I just could not bother to go through another return experience - but all four 'ship cards' were missing.

A third phone call and another wait for the ship cards. Meanwhile the play cards still hadn't arrived so I queried via eBay. I got a refund and an explanation that the stock had been damaged in an accident and was unsellable. Fine, but they were still offering three more identical sets for sale according to my eBay screen???

After four weeks, the ship cards had not arrived so I started an eBay complaint. This ran its course without Maelstrom ever replying to the complaint so, 6 weeks after about the ships were first ordered, eBay gave me a partial refund - about 40%.

I suppse I am OK with this. I got four ships without the cards for about 60% advertised price but it took 6 weeks, three calls, a posting return, and the eBay complaints procedure. I am not sure I can be bothered to go through all this next time I want to order some models.

EDIT ADDITION: Apparently on reviewing the case eBay have decided to convert my part refund into a full refund.