"plastic soldier company website" Topic

I don't know if it's just me, but I find PSC website a bit of a let down, I eagerly await new arrivals of there latest releases but yet when I check the website it's old news, company's who have big internet usage should atleast keep people up to.date surely or am I being selfish , has or does anyone else have gripes of the same sort.??

What is "big Internet usage"?

What I mean by that is, they're internet based mainly, so surely they'd keep their site up to date.

Maybe he meant a "big internet sausage"?

What I mean by that is, they're internet based mainly, so surely they'd keep their site up to date.

What historical miniature manufacturer is not "internet based mainly"? How many brick and mortar stores are there that stock historical miniatures? Not many.

PSC seem pretty prolific in getting new kit to market, I imagine that working on that part of the business alone must be pretty demanding in itself. His front page news is dated early Feb but that update does stretch to whats on the immediate horizon and there is a section dealing with his March releases. He also says that he will update in a few weeks, when there is more to tell, suggesting, based on his insider knowledge that his news piece was complete and sufficiently future proof to last for a few weeks.

I use the Pendraken, Baccus and Kallistra websites quite a lot and they more or less take a simiilar approach.

I am guessing that regardless of what info he gives out, he is always going to be bombarded by the 'but when are you going to do 'x' ' type e-mails and in that regard, I suppose just looking a month ahead is understandable. PLUS if you predict too much and then can't deliver that causes customer frustration, so he is probably always working and announcing to imminent and definite releases.

Finally, in a competitive environment, perhaps these businesses are very cautious about what they signal to the competition too far ahead of time.

Given my experiences of being simultaneously advised and tantalised about a 'forthcoming range', often by seeing 3-up 'greens' at a show, only to have to wait, sometimes for over a year, I far prefer the PSC approach. As far as I am concerned, the premature announcement approach of some companies is more a case of test marketing which of course is perfectly acceptable business practice even when accompanied by the qualifier 'no release date'. But I just prefer to see what is available with at worst a wait of s couple of months. Maybe I'm just too impatient?

I'm just too eager to to buy there new stuff, they did say the 20mm Americans are released 21st Feb though, but still no.sign. I think for people waiting for certain releases, if they know about the delay they could keep people informed. Tharts just me perhaps.

20mm Yanks are available now, I saw them at a show last weekend!

And the 20mm Pak38's!

Isn't this a problem with the twitter mentality? Wanting to know what someone is up to every minute of the day, rather than letting them get on with doing something useful like making new minis? At least they have news as and when it happens.

We should be grateful that the website has at least been up consistently for 2 months, considering the problems they had before with hackers.

While I find the lack of really regular updates a little frustrating I would rather have regular new product than updates and no product.

I suspect that the staff of PSC is a lot smaller than many people posting on this thread might think and given the choice of priorities I would go with the way things are.

I was looking forward to 15mm Late War Brits they said were 'coming soon' to complete a WWII project with their late war Germans I had. I got a bit miffed when they pushed them back to 'in the pipeline' in favour of late war Americans and gave up a year later when nothing materialised and bought some FOW Brits in a sale in Hobbycraft.
That's no updates and no product.

All I'm saying is they provided a date for a release, I've not seen the product in shops since release date, least they could do is let us know what's going on. It taken me 30 seconds to.write this, no communication isn't good really, good or bad news is all relevant.

How many brick and mortar stores are there that stock historical miniatures? Not many.

I've got three within reasonable distance in Llandudno, Bangor and Porthmadog.

:)

PSC seem to do a good job of keeping customers updated; I cannot see the point that you are trying to make.

I am not quite sure what to make of overall communication from PSC. I don't particularly like the layout of their website and the information about new or planned releases does seem a bit terse, but that's no big deal.

On the other hand, on this and several other forums (and blogs) I have made a couple of negative comments about specific aspects of some PSC products. I am sure this has been far outweighed by the number of very positive comments I have made as I really do like their stuff. However, having made some criticisms seems to have been enough to ensure nothing I say will receive any response. Oh well…

Plastic Soldier Company here

I am not happy with the website and am in the process of creating a totally new, better website. Takes a bit of time.

@hornswoggler – please email your criticisms to me at info@theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk, constructive criticism is always welcome!

@catman2,

Thanks for the response. I think the last time I tried to initiate some discussion with you was regarding the PaK shield in the 251 Ausf D kits:
TMP link

(Some more TMP discussion here:
TMP link
TMP link
)

If it was just a question you missed, then please accept my apologies. FWIW I do regard the 251 Ds as the finest 1/72 wargames models I have yet seen and I am very much looking forward to a conversion set and 251 Cs in 1/72.

I think PSC doesnt do a bad job at customer interaction. They come on here to request input from us, they tell us on here what is being worked on and in the pipeline, and the web site puts up the products to buy. Yes there are newsletters, but lets face it, PSC is a high energy company in terms of new products – these must take a lot of management time. IMHO they do more to promote dialogue with their customer base than many other firms.

Yes the PSC web site is a bit basic, was great when there were only half a dozen products, but sure, things change over time and now its probably time for something new and improved.

PSC: In the new web site design, please make sure you include photos of EVERYTHING you are selling!

Don't get me wrong the products they have and sell are fabulous, my point being I like to know when items are available or not. I'm only someone who can buy little at a time. If there's something to be released and doesn't it's a disappointment.