Any problem with Maelstrom Games?

[Calisson]

I've seen some worrisome testimonies about this company, which used to be D.net partner.
Anyone else have problems with Maelstrom Games?
Is it confirmed? Hopefully not.

[Kinslayer]

It is true. The time they take to process orders is appalling. Their customer services are pretty dreadful too, they just tell you it will be there whenever it gets there.

You can read about my last experience with them on Warseer,

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthrea ... ost6255619


04/06/2012:

I used Maelstrom Games for a couple of orders recently, and I have to say I wish I didn't bother. It's been over 3 weeks now and I still haven't received a thing.

I placed two orders, the first was over £200 and thus qualified for free next day delivery which I ordered on Tuesday 15th May. The second was around half as much and so was 2-3 day delivery which I ordered on Monday 21st May. Some of the items were out of stock, which is fair enough I guess, but I was still hoping to have the first order by that weekend, and the second by the following weekend. Well waiting over a week for the first order I still had no models, so I sent their customer services an email explaining that I was not happy. I got a reply on the 24th asking if I wanted the order split and the models that were in stock sending, which I replied to immediately saying yes. I checked back on the 29th and both my orders still just said processing, so I sent them another email. I heard back the next day saying the order had been split and what was in stock would be sent out as soon as possible. With this being Wednesday 30th May and my order having next day delivery, I wrote back saying thanks and that I looked forward to having my models for the long weekend. I think thursday & friday is plenty long enough for the order to be sent out, so I was rather p!$$ed off when it did not turn up Saturday as anticipated. Now we're stuck in a 4 day bank holiday weekend, the orders STILL just say processing and have not been sent, so I don't even know if I will have my models by NEXT weekend. If not that's four weekends I have set aside to assemble the army since I ordered them without receiving a thing!

I wanted to vent my frustration on a public forum because this is getting ridiculous now, and hopefully other people will let you know if they have had a similar experience with this company?

The worst thing is a few years ago when I ordered regularly, I always used Maelstrom either via ebay or their website, and I never had a problem once. This is enough to put me off them for good now though.

04/06/2012:

The point is I wasn't expecting to have to wait 3 weeks. If I had known that I would probably have used GW direct, like I say I remember Maelstrom being really good. The fact I ordered enough to get next day delivery specifically so that I could have it for the weekend, which was three weeks ago now, is what annoyed me about them. They didn't seem very apologetic or really give much of a reason when I emailed either, they just kind of said 'ok we can send what we have now, but you'll have to wait for the rest' (without telling me how long I'd have to wait...), and then didn't split the order until I emailed them again to remind them. I just think it is really bad service.

Also, regarding cutting out the middleman and them losing profit, I'm not sure how it works exactly but I was under the impression that small businesses like theirs need all the custom they can get in this economic environment. I'm sure they would rather I purchased through them than through GW, since if I use them they are making X amount of profit on X amount of sales, and if I don't use them then they make nothing. I'm all for supporting small businesses since I work in one and know how much of a struggle it can be, which is why I will give them the order rather than GW (if they don't get any orders they'd end up closing, which is one less independant wargaming store on the high street, which fair enough I have never been into, but I wish I had one like that near me where I could go to find opponents).

But maybe I am wrong, they certainly aren't acting like they want my money.

I don't mean to bad mouth them either, just to make others aware. I'm disappointed and I've run out of patience now, but I can sympathies with them to some extent if what jtrowell said is true.

And it doesn't end there. 31·07·12 is the date of my one and only order since then, for Mighty Empires... still processing.

Let me just work that out... I've now been waiting for... 11 weeks and 6 days...

[xFallenx]

Yikes!

[Omnichron]

My view on maelstrom has been quite positive, the again I haven't encountered any problems with my orders or experienced their support.

[Sedge]

I ordered a couple of items from them on 10th September, one of which was out of stock at the time. I hadn't heard anything from them in a month, then saw the stock sale on their website - which anyone with a basic knowledge of how businesses work should realise sounded dodgy. Selling off existing stock to fulfill orders that have already been paid for suggests a serious cashflow problem.

I saw the thread on warseer, and sent them an email a week ago. When they didn't reply by the weekend, I sent another threatening to contact my bank about the chargeback scheme (stupidly, I didn't use paypal). They emailed the next day to say they'd be splitting the order... but that's it - neither item has been dispatched yet.

I wouldn't recommend ordering from them at the moment - the problems may not be as serious as some have suggested, but it's just not worth the risk. They aren't accepting paypal payments any more it seems, so there's less protection if things go wrong.

[Sedge]

To be fair to them, one of the items arrived today.

I still don't intend to order from them again - other online stores are more reliable, and they're not even the cheapest around.

[Calisson]

For those not following this delightful opera of corporate savagery in other forums, a brief update.

Here's Maelstrom's announcement today:

Maelstrom Games Ltd. has ceased trading and will enter liquidation at some point over the next few months.

A creditor of Maelstrom Games Ltd., Wayland Games Ltd., issued a Statutory Demand under section 123(1)(a) or 221(1)(a) of the Insolvency Act, 1986 on the 17th of October, 2012 for £99,773.61 plus costs of issuing and serving the demand.

This debt was purchased from Simple Miniature Games by Wayland Games Ltd on the 1st of October, 2012 and payment of this debt was demanded in full by Wayland Games after seven days had elapsed. Unfortunately, Maelstrom Games Ltd. could not pay Wayland Games Ltd. this debt in full within those seven days.

Previous to the debt purchase, Maelstrom Games Ltd. was servicing the debt owed to Simple Miniature Games at the rate of £500 per working day, claimed by the creditor when convenient for him by charging a credit card owned by Maelstrom Games Ltd., which had been occurring since mid-June and continued to late September, the last payment being taken on the 25th. Maelstrom Games Ltd. did not cancel these payments and were not aware that this debt was being transferred.

Maelstrom Games Ltd. offered to pay the debt purchased by Wayland Games Ltd. in the same manner as it had paid Simple Miniature Games, but this was not taken up by Wayland Games Ltd.

Maelstrom Games Ltd. can only apologise to those customers whose orders have not been fulfilled as it is now impossible for Maelstrom Games Ltd. to fulfil them, excepting those for Mierce Miniatures products (fulfilled by Mierce Miniatures in November) and Battlefront Miniatures products (fulfilled by Maelstrom Games in partnership with Battlefront Miniatures and Maunsfeld Gaming in November), all of which will be sent by Maelstrom Games Ltd. Other customer orders for certain ranges may be fulfilled in the future and any customers whose orders can be fulfilled will be contacted by Maelstrom Games in due course.

All creditors will be issued the relevant notices by the assigned Insolvency Practitioner when Maelstrom Games Ltd. enters liquidation.

And Wayland's response:

All in the Gaming Community,

As news of our action regarding Maelstrom Games is public we would like to take a moment to explain the steps we have taken, and why.

Some time ago we became aware of discussions at various events where there was a constant chatter about the financial situation that Maelstrom Games found itself in and the significant debts it suffered from. We ignored them to begin with but it seemed that in the events scene in the UK it was being discussed openly. We noticed that tickets were being sold a year in advance for some events. We then see hundreds of thousands of pounds being pushed into a miniatures line whilst Maelstrom Games still owed significant monies to suppliers. Suppliers we (and countless other retailers) share and rely upon for the timely distribution of product to fulfil our customer orders.

This industry is in our opinion, too small and too close for such a situation to occur, as the wider implications would mean hundreds of people - customers - you - potentially losing the money you had paid out for product and event tickets.

It was clear that Maelstrom Games Limited were in significant trouble, yet they continued to invest in other areas despite still owing very significant and growing amounts to suppliers causing a great deal of pressure on the supply chain.

In early May we decided to offer to buy Maelstrom Games, including honouring all liabilities for the business. Our email was ignored. In late May a follow up email was sent and again that was ignored.

We therefore looked to protect our customers by looking to protect the supply chain and also ourselves (as well as any of the other independent retailers who rely on this same supply chain) from the collapse of a major retailer, and managed to purchase the main debt that Maelstrom owe, in an attempt to force a resolution, rather than allow an uncontrolled collapse and all the knock on effects that would unleash on the industry.
The situation is complicated and there is quite a process to move through, but we are undertaking this action with the best of intentions for our customers, customers of Maelstrom Games and our supply chain, and will endeavor to keep all affected notified of developments as they occur. We will be issuing information Via our Facebook Page

[Red...]

Anyone wanting to follow the saga in all its gory detail, there's a hugely long and detailed thread on dakkadakka about it:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/po ... 64643.page

I can absolutely recommend that no one ever deal with any of the newly formed offshoots: Eye of the Storm, Maunsfield Games or Mierce Miniatures. They were all set up by the former owner of Maelstrom games (Rob Lane) when he decided to dump all of his existing commitments at Maelstrom games, continue taking orders for products he knew he had no way of ever being able to deliver (from suppliers who had already blacklisted him) and run up as much capital as he could to transfer into the new companies.

P.S. I find it very difficult to take Maelstrom's far fetched mud-slinging at Wayland Games seriously after all of the lies and deceptive dealings they peddled through the last few months of their existence (see the dakkadakka thread for the shockingly long list of these). I don't much like Wayland Games (for other reasons - primarily they are slow to deliver products and their staff are very underpowered when it comes to interacting with their own ordering system), but they don't seem to have done any wrong here imo.

Anyway, in summary, avoid at all cost:
Eye of the Storm
Maunsfield Games
Mierce Minaitures

You have been warned.