Totalwargamer.com - Utterly Incompetent

[Unzuul the Lascivious]

Want discount 40K? Want to get your pre order stuff way later than anyone else does? Without being informed? With no communication from the vendor? Wanna get half your order with no notification, only a scribbled note at the bottom of your invoice saying 'Grey Knights to follow'? Wanna send 3-4 emails about this with no reply for three days? Wanna get treated like the vendor is doing YOU a favour, despite the fact you've paid HARD EARNT money for stuff that DOESN'T arrive with no comms at all? Wanna use a company that screws up EVERY SINGLE LITTLE ORDER?

www.totalwargamer.com

Then feel free to give em a try....

P.S. In case you didn't get it, I was being facetious....

[SonicPara]

Facetious! That's my baby's name!

[scadugenga]

internet buyer beware.

There's a reason that there are only a few really well known internet retailers out there. Because they never falter in their positive customer service.

The plethora of asshat-"businesses" that scam your money is off the charts. I highly DO NOT recommmend www.ccgarmory.com based on personal crappy experience. Paypal dispute and BBB complaint, and still took weeks to get my money back.

Caveat emptor, indeed. :)

[Lemt]

I generally use Wayland Games and Maelstrom Games, both based on the UK. Wayland tends to be a bit cheaper depending on shipping costs, but they also take longer to ship.

[Morgan Darkstar]

The only internet store i buy from is Wayland Games and i have never had a problem with them

[HsojVvad]

This is why I like to buy from brick and morter stores. You never know what will happen. I spend hard earned money, I want the product right away, not a few days or months later.

[Lemt]

This is why I like to buy from brick and morter stores. You never know what will happen. I spend hard earned money, I want the product right away, not a few days or months later.

If I buy the 1750 point GK army I want from a GW store, itll set me back 410€. From Waylands, it's 220€, shipping costs included.

Yeah, I'll wait a few days, thank you very much.

[HsojVvad]

If I buy the 1750 point GK army I want from a GW store, itll set me back 410€. From Waylands, it's 220€, shipping costs included.

Yeah, I'll wait a few days, thank you very much.

Well there are stores that give out discounts as well. The thing is, if you don't have any close to where you live, then yes if you trust the internet site, then it's good, but if I have something close by, I rather choose the brick and morter store over the internet if given the choice.

If you don't have the choice and or you trust the site, then it's a different story.

[gcsmith]

the main problem is if you dnt buy from Brick and mortar stores they close down and you have no where to game...
so problem solved? o wait.

[Skragger]

If I buy the 1750 point GK army I want from a GW store, itll set me back 410€. From Waylands, it's 220€, shipping costs included.

Yeah, I'll wait a few days, thank you very much.

I'm going to throw my two teef into the ring. My dream was always to own a brick and mortar hobby store. A place where like minded people could come, play, buy some cool new loot, and have a good time with friends. And just in the last few months I've been working hard at putting together the business plan, crunching numbers, and getting ready to make that happen.

I was also crunching potential income. Because so many people would like to save the money a brick and mortar store is now just a pipe dream. There's no way a store can sell enough to pay lease, bills, etc. Stores in my area (south western ontario) have been dropping like flies because the product is so expensive for us to buy it, and people would rather buy online for cheaper. So no store, no place for people to visit to play games. Its actually cheaper to buy it online, than it is for stockists to order direct from GW.

At this time, there is only ONE FLGS within about 100 km (that I know of) that offers decent pricing (drop pod is about $55 CDN, or roughly 30GBP) is on the verge of closing, and they can no longer afford to offer space for players to game, needing to fill that space with other merch. So there is no space where I can go, game, meet new players, and get some well priced minis to boot. Now we play floor hammer with the same two guys.

I always support my FLGS. I pay more, yes, but I'm supporting someone local who had the same dream as I have, and are struggling to keep that dream alive.

/Rant over, I'm off the soapbox now. Back to working at an insurance company.. :(

Lemt, I'm just starting a new space wolves army (space vikings) and rather than sink a thousand dollars into it in one shot, I'm buying it as I need it. Buy a squad, paint it, make it look all purdy, buy another squad, etc, etc. It spreads the cost over a longer period of time

[razcalking]

The folks who advocate internet buying will never understand the "benefits" of buying from the LFGS, because the only benefits they value are benefits to themselves, i.e. saving some money.

They will likely never understand the benefits of supporting a friendly local business because they really couldn't care less about the dreams of others or about creating a community. They just aren't wired that way. If they were, they'd already want to support local businesses.

[wittdooley]

The folks who advocate internet buying will never understand the "benefits" of buying from the LFGS, because the only benefits they value are benefits to themselves, i.e. saving some money.

They will likely never understand the benefits of supporting a friendly local business because they really couldn't care less about the dreams of others or about creating a community. They just aren't wired that way. If they were, they'd already want to support local businesses.

This is fallacious.

My wife and I buy TONS of local products, from coffee, to ice cream, to even vodka. In the spring we only buy our vegetables from farmer's markets.

I buy most of my gaming stuff online for a few reasons:

1) The FLGS in the area carries very little stock in store. I've discussed with him how much of my wargaming dollars he loses because I can't make impulse purchases. He even offers 20% off. I can get a better percentage off online, but if he has what I want, I'll buy from him. However, he very rarely does.

2.) The LGS that carries the most in terms of wargames and boardgames will not, under any circumstances, provide any discounts. Futher, he can be a bit abrasive and it's clear that his prime audience is the CCG Crowd (and that's fine, as Magic is a license for printing money). However, the abrasiveness rubs me the wrong way.

3.) I play most of my games at my home, or at the home of my buddies anyway. We can drink. We can avoid the crowds of people that we don't want to be around (let's not kid ourselves...gamer funk is very real) and we can make our own hours for it.

With all that being said, I still buy plenty from local stores, but I'm still interested in saving money. I buy nearly all of my GW stuff from my FLGS/Comic Book shop. He gives me 20% off. Don't care if I can get it cheaper, as he makes the effort to stay competetive. Addtionally, I'll even buy stuff from the abrasive guy as long as I wouldn't be saving more than $10 online. Anything hovering around $30 I'll buy from him.

So, I fully understand the benefits. However, just because a shop is local doesn't mean they shouldn't have to compete for my gaming dollars.

[Lemt]

The folks who advocate internet buying will never understand the "benefits" of buying from the LFGS, because the only benefits they value are benefits to themselves, i.e. saving some money.

They will likely never understand the benefits of supporting a friendly local business because they really couldn't care less about the dreams of others or about creating a community. They just aren't wired that way. If they were, they'd already want to support local businesses.

I was going to answer with a long reply, but since wittdooley already has I'll make it short.

My local shop is owned by a guy that doesn't give a damn about the shop. He won't order anything, and only sells from what he has in stock at the moment. Then he replaces what he sold with whatever he wants, regardless of what people want to buy. As an example, quite a few of us around here play Magic: the Gathering, spending over a grand a month between all of us, sometimes more. He hasn't restocked his supply of cards in over 5 months, so we have to look elsewhere to buy product. The same is true for comics, RPGs, and whatnot.


Be happy you have a friendly local business to support. Some of us don't.

[MC Tic Tac]

Ironically I can get cheaper stuff from my Local GS than any web store including weyland games.

Shop around guys!

[Farseer Uthiliesh]

The folks who advocate internet buying will never understand the "benefits" of buying from the LFGS, because the only benefits they value are benefits to themselves, i.e. saving some money.

They will likely never understand the benefits of supporting a friendly local business because they really couldn't care less about the dreams of others or about creating a community. They just aren't wired that way. If they were, they'd already want to support local businesses.

Why should I throw away money for someone else's community? I don't game with strangers - just my network of friends. Local stores need to be competitive, and I guess that they have overheads which means that they can't give huge discounts, but when we're talking about a hobby that costs so much to assemble an army I'd rather go online than waste money. I'm happy with my own little gamer community, thank you.

[Asimodeus]

The folks who advocate internet buying will never understand the "benefits" of buying from the LFGS, because the only benefits they value are benefits to themselves, i.e. saving some money.

They will likely never understand the benefits of supporting a friendly local business because they really couldn't care less about the dreams of others or about creating a community. They just aren't wired that way. If they were, they'd already want to support local businesses.

Do you have any idea how much of an *** you sound

You do realise that some people dont have a FLGS anywhere near

In my case the only "FLGS" is GW and it aint been to frendly since an asshat of a new manager arrived

be under no illusion that i dont understand the "benifits" I do and would happily purchase from them if there was one nearby however there is only GW and they are going to get a cut of the profits regardless plus Wayland is far friendlier.

[Lockark]

The folks who advocate internet buying will never understand the "benefits" of buying from the LFGS, because the only benefits they value are benefits to themselves, i.e. saving some money.

They will likely never understand the benefits of supporting a friendly local business because they really couldn't care less about the dreams of others or about creating a community. They just aren't wired that way. If they were, they'd already want to support local businesses.

Erm.... My motto is always:" If you play at the store, you should buy from the store." I respect anyone like Asimodeus who posted above me. If you don't like the story and it's community, or are not a part of it's community. Then there really is no reason to support it, is there?

I also kinda find it funny when people go on about the "saveings" of online retailers. Unless your making a large order the savings are not that great. You get are basically paying the same after the shipping anyway. (As in people like me who only buy one or two boxes a month. If your buying $100+ of stuff then yah. It makes more sense.)
=U

I only used online retailers when I lived in a area were there was no LGS. As soon as there was one, I started buying from them.

My FLGS offers no discounts, but that doesn't matter to me. As I already said. Any saving I would get from a online store get eaten up by the shipping anyway half the time. I'm only paying a little bit more but I'm not having to wait, and I'm supporting my local store.

If I ever order stuff online, it's hobby supplies and model ranges the FLGS is not able to order in them selves.

[razcalking]

My comment was a bit broad. Of course if you don't have a local gaming store, then you have to order from the internet. And if you do have a local gaming store but they create an unfriendly environment, then they don't deserve your patronage.

But there are plenty of people on this board and others that would throw a friendly, local store under the bus to save 10%. And those are the people that my original comment was intend to reflect on.

Sorry that my original post painted too broad of a stroke.

[Brettila]

I agree. We gamers tend to suffer a bit too heavily from instant gratification issues. "The store doesn't have it/it costs more so I'll go online..." It is OK to wait a bit longer to buy something to support where you play. I just recently lost the 3rd store that was my gaming 'home'. Yea verily doth it suck. They all closed in different decades, but for the same reason; lack of profit.

[Sister Rosette Soulknyt]

You know i agree here, my LGS well he just does'nt care to highly of his patrons, unless you play magic, are his friend. Otherwise he hardly ever even agknowledges you when you walk in his store.
As for prices well i find them slightly higher than GW prices, something like +5% i think.
I go to a store 40km away to buy my 40k miniatures as they are always 20% off GW prices, freindly, have a great laugh to joke with, and always greet you.
And funny thing is they stock and ship to said LGS and others all over Victoria.

Why should i buy from a guy who is unfreindly?? I go to play games at his store, thankfully he isnt there on weekends, but i don't buy from him.

[scadugenga]

I would prefer, even vastly prefer, to shop at a FLGS.

Oh, wait. GW moved in, and they all closed down due to stolen business. (Battle Bunker) And then the Bunker started cutting staff, hours, and getting rude to customers to boot. (When they weren't over-the-top annoying...)

The nearest FLGS is about 90 minutes away given Chicago area traffic.

So nope, I don't get out there much. And when I do, yes, I spend money. But no, I don't game there. (2.5-3 hour round trip does not leave time for gaming.)

So yeah, I do a lot of internet shopping (less now, with the boyo, but hey, I'd rather be a dad than drowning in plastic crack) than not. Or I send shopping wish-lists with friends who live closer to the FLGS, and can go there more often.

Bottom line? FLGS's are (generally) great places--if you can actually find one nearby. Otherwise shop where you can find what you want.

[Rapture]

I have a decent store just 15 minutes away. When it comes to price comparisons, I look at it like I pay to play. I usually play once or twice a week and usually buy something once a month. That extra 3-10 dollars that I spend is for my table time.

Models aren't necessarily the only way a store profits. The guys at my store love their paint stand as it is small, works for any brand, and everyone needs it.

[Fellend]

Okay maybe it's just in Sweden, but our local stores doesn't really offer much in the way of communities, They might have a table or two but that's about it. And you are only allowed to use them when they aren't being used for demonstration purposes. So if a kid wants a demo, you have to pack up your things and go... in the middle of the game.

But yeah, basically what we do here is that we start a local gaming club, rent a cheap room somewhere, place a few tables gathered from flea markets and so on. And play at the gaming club instead.
Of course it requires somework and some money to start up (we get ours from the goverment but hey, Socialism owns) and ta da! Buy some communal terrain, paint it up as you go along, create your own community with a shared set of rules on behaviour and a nominal fee to keep it all going around.
If you are feeling fancy, invest in a fridge and beer and you can actually make money of it.

[Lemt]

Okay maybe it's just in Sweden, but our local stores doesn't really offer much in the way of communities, They might have a table or two but that's about it. And you are only allowed to use them when they aren't being used for demonstration purposes. So if a kid wants a demo, you have to pack up your things and go... in the middle of the game.

But yeah, basically what we do here is that we start a local gaming club, rent a cheap room somewhere, place a few tables gathered from flea markets and so on. And play at the gaming club instead.
Of course it requires somework and some money to start up (we get ours from the goverment but hey, Socialism owns) and ta da! Buy some communal terrain, paint it up as you go along, create your own community with a shared set of rules on behaviour and a nominal fee to keep it all going around.
If you are feeling fancy, invest in a fridge and beer and you can actually make money of it.

That's what we do now around here, and it works great.

[Unzuul the Lascivious]

Here's the upshot. In my area in England, I go to a gaming club where we have use of a large room from 7pm until pretty much whenever we finish. That's our gaming community. The stores nearby me are toy shops that happen to stock some GW stuff. Handy for forgotten bits and pieces in a hurry, but not worth spending my hard earnt on. There's a GW in a large town near me, they're nice enough but we're paying $2.18 per LITRE of petrol here, so it's not cheap to get to anyway. So I like to but bulk orders for a discount on the web, because despite loving GW products, they are MASSIVELY over priced IMO (have heard all the arguments, still think they're over priced, especially character models). I don't feel the need to support anyone else's lives - I have mine and my family's to consider, so if saving money on my hobby means I can spend more money on my daughter (and I'm aware the ideal thing would be to spend NO money on my hobby but hey - I'm a guy!), then it's internet every time.

What bugs me is that some people seem to think that because they are on the other end of a PC, they can ignore basic customer service, like communicating with people and actually providing the service they say they are going to. The first rule of business is 'the customer is always right'. Of course the customer isn't always right, they can be ****s. But if they aren't satisfied and you mess them around, they are going to tell a whole bunch of potential customers not to bother doing business with you - and that means your dream is over. Same with bricks and mortar stores - that guy who doesn't listen to anyone and orders what the hell he likes in? He won't last. The guy that does you a deal, orders what you need and keeps you informed as to when it's coming in (and maybe even gives you a discount every now and then) - he's the guy staying in business. Demand is there, you just gotta know how to work it. Totalwargamer didn't.

Incidentally, I ordered the rest of my stuff from Dark Sphere in London - it arrived in record time and they kept me informed every step of the way. They'll get my business again for sure.

[scadugenga]

The downside to bad internet transactions in the States here, is you have asshat internet stores who actually sue people who give them bad reviews.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/hearsay/2010/04/15k-lawsuit-over-negative-ebay-comment.html

So you do have to be a bit careful of what you say these days.

[L192837465]

The downside to bad internet transactions in the States here, is you have asshat internet stores who actually sue people who give them bad reviews.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/hearsay/2010/04/15k-lawsuit-over-negative-ebay-comment.html

So you do have to be a bit careful of what you say these days.

It's absurd. If you're sued, and have the money for a lawyer, there is nothing they can do to you. First amendment ftw. However, the lack of funds and a broken judiciary system in this country leads to asshats. Sucks for that guy, but good CS is worth it.