"WARNING: Black Tree Design " Topic

Simple, if you are just emailing and editting word docs, switch to Linux.

I've never had my email go down, unless it's the ISP's fault.

I've never had a virus, never had bad software, etc.

Between Kmail, and OpenOffice/StarOffice, I can handle most word docs, email, and I avoid 99.99% of the MS problems. My internet always works because my OS doesn't hiccup and randomly change IP settings ( Windows XP does this sometimes ).

Before you go "what about support?"

Look around, possibility is a local firm is supporting Linux. Or find a IT guy to help out on a contract basis.

There is no excuse for email problems, when better software that doesn't let worms/viri in like a sieve is out there.

I missed the deleted posts, but am I to assume that "fanboy" is an offensive term to be nuked?

Blue duck -I apologize for the cheap crack at the poor spelling, I'm an editor...sometimes I just can't help it...I was just 'rising to the bait' of the fanboy jibe in the spirit intended, anyhow, this situation seems to have resolved itself in the usual way, guy gets free minis and everyone gets to let off steam, cool, what a good website, I can't think of any other industry where that would happen, anyhow, back to work

Er, he doesn't want the free minis. He just wanted a response to e-mails and questioned a 70 day delivery time...
I know he didn't want free minis because he told them to cancel his order 2 days before they sent it...

Keep the figs.

John

mau10man... Just get over yourself for a while there, could you?

Jen did respond to what was a "rough" posting by Madzerker in the same tone. I know I, and a lot of other people in here, can handle that. Then, she apologised if she sounded to "aggressive" (and everybody knows that would never be tha case witha Texan, right?) and on both occassions she HANDLED the PROBLEM directly.

Keep your money to a business you like, but maybe you should keep your comments that DO NOT HELP one bit, too, for before you chimed in, the matter was settled between the interested parties.

There's no need to draw any more bad blood, even if you think there's a need for people to hear your opinion about something as thorny as a heated exchange between two individuals engaged in what seems to be failed business transaction.

So, vote with your wallet and that should be it.

Just my $0.02.

So much anger....Damn that RAP MUSIC!

[I missed the deleted posts, but am I to assume that "fanboy" is an offensive term to be nuked?]

No, it had nothing to do with that.

HAHAHA

Neo, I Agree but I often attribute internet anger to monitor radiation.

With so much anger and venting here you would think we were buying something other than gaming miniatures like rare earth magnetic bracelets or that this was a New Wave topic.

My experience. I bought from BTD once. They communicated a delay in orders due to demand/holidays. That was fine, communicated and understood. My product arrived when they said it would. I was satisfied but I'm just one data point.

On a general note,

I've seen more than just this topic from customers not receiving emails back regarding an order issue from more than one manufacturer. One word for customers trying to contact a company to resolve a complaint- PHONE

Nothing like a real live person to talk to. People don't really know what happens to their email after it leaves their PC, do they? We live in a passive agressive electronic world by choice. Too many people rely on email because it is easier and less confrontational. Pick up the telephone. Yes, I know it costs money to make a phone call but it helps avoid misunderstandings.

Keep cool :o)) i have had some problems whith orders last 2 month with some small companies . And they all were resolved sending e-mails :o)) .
BTD shipping delays seem's to be some kind of a mistake . And i can understand this kind of mistake in a small company.
And just give a look at GW !
34 days to send an order from england to france and my money was debited in 7 days :o((
Don't kill the small one's .
just give a look at the bigger shark !

And whith GW : only this answer : normal delays sir .

Late despatch due to a huge sale then they get more staff and some one sends a large batch of orders by surface post, then they get murdered by TMP. Jenn answers in frustration ( like a women would . ) and now they are evil and bad. I think people should try phoning these people to see what kind of people they are.

Have you spoken to them, or just written an email and then blasted them. I think you should consider the fact that they are people too.

So much is read between the lines and email rage is becoming so bad that people are getting injured.

Think.

Well I'll still be happily ordering from BTD! :)

"Jenn answers in frustration ( like a women would . ) and now they are evil and bad. "

And people wonder there are so few women gamers....

Oink!

Uchronies: "And whith GW : only this answer : normal delays sir"

I have never had anything other than great service from GW. price is a different issue, but their turnaround has always been first class.

just to back up boggart, i think gw is not the right example to use for delays. for a start they have about a milion zillion times more production and sales than anyone else so there is bound to be the odd cockup here and there but every time i have ever ordered from GW so far (and i have been ordering stuff from them by mail for over a decade) they have only ever once not delivered well within that time frame that they advised on ordering and that was due to the uk postal service going on strike. gw's pricing policy is possibly the shark, but not their service

Sorry i'm speaking of GW France ... i never used gw uk on line store . But i received the minis whithout any sloted base .... and had to phone . Nobody's perfect . even the big ones .

hah, I just noticed now the fanboy/muppet post has gone my first post does look funny - bit extreme - I don't know - the perils of censorship.

"Jenn answers in frustration ( like a women would.)"

Underdog do you have any idea how sexist that statement sounded? You have just stated that because Jenn is a woman, she is incapable of calm, professional behavior.

(Please note the following is not jabs at any one company, just general rules of sales and customer service.)

It is a VENDOR'S resposibily to maintaine good customer service and decorum at all times. You cannot control how a customer acts but you can control how you present yourself and how you act.

As far as poor delivery time, it is a VENDOR'S responsibility to inform customers of any delays in delivery that have occured on thier end that would cause the package to arrive outside of the time frames stated for delivery.

It is also a VENDOR'S reponsibility to be accessable by reasonable means. If the vendor does business on the internet, the vendor is resposible for keeping his or her email in good working order. If they have been having chronic server problems, then it is thier responsibilty to make other arrangements to be able to receive emails from an out side source or server.

The Customer has 2 responibilities: 1) Provide payment in a prompt and secure manor. 2) Take delivery of goods at the end of the transaction. Anything out side of that is on the vendor and courrier.

~WarWeasel

Just an Update. Jen sent me a very nice apologetic email telling me she is sending me proof of my credit card being credited and offered again for me to keep the miniatures. When I recieve that document I will post here and let everyone know the problem has been taken care of satisfactory.

In response to some of you I knew they were getting the emails because some were responded to, otherwise I would have assumed there was an email problem. I do a lot of ebay sales and recently had a problem that I would not recieve email from one certain person even though he sent me a million of them.(also I know this sounds retarded but I have a hard time calling overseas, everytime I try it doesnt work so I dont try anymore, I must not do the right access codes or something.)

But Jen is taking care of this very nicely now it seems so I retract my warning and will post when I know it is all taken care of. I dont like to hurt a companies reputation if it is not deserved, I own a few businesses of my own in my town and would not appreciate having a disgruntled person slamming me if it wasnt deserved. But after having a few companies *cough Forgeworld* answer emails when you are making an order but when you send them pictures of the destroyed product when it arrived never answering your emails I get trigger shy, but that is another point...

I emailed my order on the 9th of January and received it today the 12th of march. This is the longest time an order from BTD has taken. No big deal I'm still alive. Once the order arrived within a week, I've dealt with companies where orders have in the past taken 6 months.

I support this company mainly because it has postage free, other companies of a simular range or quality charge 25-50% for postage. Some companies have free postage, but if you analyse the number of figures in their packs they are 50% more expensive anyway.

When I open packs, I am always impressed by the standard of the figures and the range of poses. Simular to Old Glory packs.

Whilst the parcels have not always been up to scratch, they have always endeavoured to fix the problems, at no cost.

I have dealt with several OTHER companies who charge more and have several problems, I see that they do not respond to emails on TMP, they dont respond to direct snail mail either. Kiss that cheque good-bye I suppose.

A 40% sale and no postage? Wait 2 months?

I'm happy to report that my order from January 21st arrived today, too. That's order number 16247595, if you're keeping track, Jen. Inventoried it: everything present, all bits there, even four extra Pict spearmen! Only think missing were the air mail stickers, so yep: that was the problem. Little grumpy Allen happy now.

Hadn't seen the Legions of the Realm figures before. Mmm, are they nice!! Will have to do some Corsairs of Umbar scenarios now.

Allen

Dentatus 10 Mar 2004 5:11 a.m. PST

If there's ever a problem with an order involving a CC purchase, if the situation isn't resolved after the initial communication with the company in question - YOU CALL THE CREDIT CARD COMPANY AND FLAG THE CHARGE! With disputed charges the cc company gives their customer the benefit of the doubt and - as long as you return/refuse the order if/when it ever shows up - you don't have to pay. SIMPLE.

A couple of other points missed by Dentatus. You do have about 45 days to challenge or you lose your right to do so. If they ship you the wrong items close to the deadline you have to ship them back at your cost. In the case of BTD and myself its $22.

So you have to weigh trust versus no right to recover.

My concern started due to the delay in shipment and their apparent confusion and failure to respond to specific questions. Questions of how the order was was sent, where was it sent, what it consisted of got ignored until several emails. When they responded they failed to address any of those specific questions. They just indicated they were taking care of it. The message implied was we are too busy fighting fires to really look into individual issues so the acknowledgement of your email should suffice until we can fight hotter blazes. Then when the replacement order is sent they failed to read or address my earlier correspondence or ask questions like, now you order what?, again to make certain they were shipping the right items. So they managed to duplicate an earlier received order. I emailed them to inform them what had happened and told them I had to contest the bill and asked them how they wanted to handle the figures as I would be sending them back. Another email and still no response. So the figures are on their way.

Their figures are great. Their service before 01/01/04 was great. After that, response to emails and inquires poor, that coupled with delays and the sense that they were floundering left this consumer's confidence shaken.

I am also certain from reading the boards that Madzerker and myself were not anomalies. I suspect there are still a number of others still trying to straighten out the confusion on their orders. I sincerly hope Dean & Co weather this storm and come back stronger then ever but my buying for now will have to be in a brick and mortar location or with a e mail vendor who has their stock on hand.

Terry

An interesting debate.

BTD were all over this site when the sales and marketing pitch were ongoing. Does anyone else remember the debate between the apparently 'humourless' and 'hilarious'? As soon as things get sticky there is just silence.

Presumably it was all hands to the pump at BTD to get the orders shipped. Fair enough, but BTD cannot have it both ways. Either they have a policy to communicate or they don't. As soon as this thread appeared they should have been on to it with a fairly hefty dollop of humility. Their silence, relative to their previous high volume (all the way to 11), has been deafening. A lesson learned I am sure. But how many will think twice about future BTD hype?

I, for one, will think twice -

Should it be more WWII 28s or should I start a LOTR group?

One lesson learned - The next time BTD announces a sale, order right away, before they get overwhelmed.

Before I get flamed as a BTD "fanboy", how many others are thinking the same way?

Fred

Quite recently I had a problem with a company that took about 45 days to resolve. That's a long time to solve a problem, but I wasn't in a hurry and I was very patient. Fortunately the monetary value in question was a paltry $20 and I could afford to be patient. If it were $150, I might have been a little more testy.

I'm also in an industry where customer service is our prime concern. The one key need of our customers is to know that we are aware of the problem and that we are working upon the problem. Basically it's all about communication. When we communicaste quickly and detail our efforts, the customer is invariably satisfied. The trouble occurs when the customer doesn't know what is happening or our personnel do not explain what we are doing to correct the problem. Great Customer Service is all about three things, communication, communication, and communication.

I am happy that I got my order. I will be more patient the next time they have an annual sale and not panic too soon.

It is one bad thing to have slow delivery, but to completely ignore emails from clients (sent to UK and US reps) is inexcusable. I placed my trial order back (#16271464) in Jan 27 and have yet to receive any information on the status of my order. It seems no one knows the status of my order. I even asked that the order be cancelled (if they cannot fill the order in a timely manner) and the UK rep has ignored that email as well.
They were very prompt to debit my credit card, so I know they can read their orders when emailed to them (just not anything else). dmxlation@aol.com

I placed an order on the 30th of January, and am still waiting for it. I've called BTD twice and they've been very gracious on the phone, and have told me to be patient, as the orders for most everyone else have been showing up. I've ordered from them before and have never been disappointed, though I do have to say that I only called (from the US) after three of my emails went unanswered. From looking at everyone else's posts, it looks like I am nearing the outside edge of everyone else's waiting time. I do still plan to do business with them, although I would like to inquire if they plan to implement UPS or something similar as a shipping option to facilitate parcel tracking. This "throwing it on a boat and hoping for the best" noise irks me. I'd be willing to pay a premium on the shipping charges for order tracking capability.

My waiting is over! My Norman pigs, Saxon dogs and vikings turned up in the mail today. Gonna watch THE WAR LORD with Charlton Heston tonight for some painting inspiration. I also think I'm gonna head over to BTD's site and order some more stuff (I'm courting immortality with all the unpainted lead I've got at this point).

I still think that optional order tracking capability, for a premium, would be a good addition the shipping choices. But I'm just paranoid that way naturally.

I placed an order on 1/27/04 (order #16275445), then heard nothing from them for a month. Almost exactly a month later I e-mailed them and asked what was up; and again a few days later. Here was the response I finally got...

...

Dear (customer)

This order was shipped out to you on the 9th of February. Unfortunately just last week we did find out to our horror and surprise that all orders outside of the UK had been sent by Surface mail instead of by our normal and preferred method of Airmail due to the hiring of new staff. I do apologise most profusely for the inconviences that this may have caused.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Edwards, Company Secretary

...

Well, it's been yet another month, and still nothing. And no response to my recent e-mail either. I hope that they at least see my posting here and take some notice.