Tuesday 15 November 2011

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.

12 comments:

  1. That sounds like quite an annoying experience John.

    I have found Maelstrom quite slow to respond to queries, so tend not to buy from them anymore. However they are not nearly as bad as Wayland (in my experience) who I will never use again.

    Most of my gaming purchases are now made with Firestorm, who I'm happy to say have been very good so far.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How disappointing. They shipped me the wrong stuff once to me here in Australia, and rectified the situation very quickly to my entire satisfaction. I was dealing with their online webstore directly though, not through eBay

    ReplyDelete
  3. Downer. Sounds extremely frustrating!

    I've had two types of experience with Maelstrom; when using a voucher, eBay or free postage options I get average service, when I pay normal price and pay for postage, I get great service! So now I tend to wait until I need a big order and haven't had any problems (yet!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear DT
    I will have to try Firestorm.
    John

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Paul
    I was surprised as I have have not had problems before.
    J

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Vlad
    I suspect you have a point but poor service to any customer is a bad idea.
    J

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's disappointing... I had ordered an Artizan Designs WW2 6 pounder and crew from Maelstorm during one of their sales and it came with a totally wrong crew!? When I contacted Maelstrom when they finally got back to me all they said was "not our problem, contact the manufacturer"...

    I contacted Artizan/North star and they shipped out the right crew. From now on I'll just be ordering from North Star....

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sounds like I'll steer clear of Maelstrom, thanks for the heads-up!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Tim
    Legally, they were quite wrong. Your contract was with Maelstrom not North Star and the goods were not fit for purpose - 1968 Goods Act.
    I have bought a few things from North Star without problems - the gladiators for one.
    John

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Ray
    Yes, the wargaming consumer is a tiny group (GW excluded) and we talk to each other. Word of mouth recommendation is important.
    J

    ReplyDelete
  11. Welcome in Hungary! :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dear Igi
    The race for the bottom is on now globally.
    J

    ReplyDelete