"Hotz mats turnaround these days?" Topic

What's the latest on Hotz mats? What's it taking to get the orders these days?
Thanks

2 years now….still waiting(not a joke)

i ordered some fields last june, my order has not arrived. no response. they are pretty much crooks i say!!!!!

It is strange how some people get their orders eventually. Perhaps he has something like a lottery system in which every 20th order gets filled and the other 19 are ignored.

Thanks guys.

Was contemplating an order.

Asked by e-mail to place an order, brief communication on sizes available, then failed to communicate further. Gave up.

I ordered some stuff early 2012 and it took six months to arrive.

And this is why I don't complain when Khurasan shuts up shop when the order queue gets too much.

I understand Hotz had some family issues but he really should have temporarily shut his shop or at least put a notice up.

Maybe call your credit card company, complain about unreasonable delivery time, make a complaint and have them get on his butt a bit?

His mats aren't that great, that they are worth waiting months for, let alone 2 years.

Ah.
Will go to plan B and make my own star mat then. I have a nice one from Monday night productions without the hexes. I'd get another with hexes but I think I'll experiment with making one.

Thanks for the updates.
Kon

Have to say that I feel very lucky. Ordered some felt roads late last year and they arrived in about four or five weeks -- just as he said they would. It's my only experience with them, but I was extremely pleased. Great product, too.

Crap… I ordered some two weeks ago. So I'm looking at a 2 year wait??? Unbelievable! I should have asked… I should have asked.

Guinach, if you don't need hexes, I bought some cloth from Joann Fabrics that works well. It has a pattern that looks like stars in the distance with some other muted colors blended through it.

Seems he's gotten much worse in the last year or two. Go back several years and I had several separate orders all arrive in an acceptable amount of time. Then tried to communicate with him on a product question a little over a year ago and never got an answer, despite that I eventually placed a new order with him. Charged my credit card immediately but have never seen the product, no responses to emails. Based on stories of long delays but eventual deliveries I kept waiting until it was too late to request a refund from my credit card. I guess I could keep hoping but its been over a year now, so I've written that money off and will not do business with him again.

My experience (several orders over the past five years)is that if you use the web ordering system and do not need to communicate, the order will arrive in about 5-7 weeks.

Only once (the last order about 5 months ago) did I wait beyond 7 weeks. I sent an email that if I did not hear from him in seven days that I was cancelling my order via the credit card company. I received an email within two days stating that my order would be shipped within the week.
I received the order about two weeks later.

It is a shame that these quality mats are marred by poor business practices.

I feel lucky to have received my star mat at all…..lots of emails and several months of waiting past promised deal very times…….there are other companies making good products now- shop around!

I ordered in 2011 and got my stuff withhin 2 month. I made an order for a special map 3 month ago…. Never heard anything… Gave it up.

Greetings

Wow! glad I didn't order from there, have been thinking of getting into space gaming and was thinking of getting a mat soon, guess I'm going to keep looking around or just make one.

Check out Frontline Gaming, they just released a range of mats printed on mouse mat material – very flexible, robust, waterproof etc. I have the blasted landscape one and it's beautiful. They aren't super-cheap but they are a top quality product and I'm pretty sure they do a star mat.

I'm lucky that I have three of the old GHQ star mats, two without hexes and one with.

I'm glad I ran across this thread, as I was getting read to order a deep space game mat from Holtz. Its too bad as their products look nice.

Heh! I just about ordered one! Thank goodness for TMP!

It's really a shame that Hotz Mats has gotten so undependable. I have long pondered purchasing a couple of gaming mats from him, but I'm glad that I didn't. I have removed the links to Hotz Mats on all of my blogs that contained them in their respective "Terrain Manufacturers" link list.

I had a 3' x 5' gaming mat printed on a vinyl banner at allstatebanners.com for about $35.00 USD and it works great.

You can check out some pics and download the map file I used in the Battlestars Vs Basestars thread if you want to make your own:

theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=334860

I'll throw my hat in the ring here with my own Hotz Horror story. In January of 2013, I ordered $101 USD of mats from Hotz- a $39 USD grass mat and $62 USD of rivers and roads. About two months later, the Grass mat arrived in a tube- no sign of the rivers and roads, no note, no reimbursement, nothing. I emailed- no response. I called- no response. I sent a letter via mail to his mailing address- no response. I'd read that he's slow, so I never disputed the charge until it was too late.

I've since learned that I'm not the only one who's been taken advantage of by this company- as evidenced in this very thread! I strongly recommend that anyone considering buying from Hotz Mats should take their business elsewhere.

Have you ever thought about having his local police dept pay him a visit? Fraud is a criminal offense, you know.

Also, I notice TMP continues to advertise his products – should they reconsider this?

Good idea, Spudeus…

I am happy to say I had great service! Already having 2 other mats from Hotz, and having read your comments, I thought I would send in an order anyway. I emailed a request for a special order double sided mat and had an answer that evening. The mat arrived within 2 weeks and looks great!

That is VERY surprising, given the many problems people have been having. I'm also rather surprised you rolled the dice and got lucky as it were. :)

"Also, I notice TMP continues to advertise his products – should they reconsider this?"

The excuse given by the Editor was that he has received no complaints. Obviously he ignores them or else these threads on Hotz wouldn't keep popping up. I took a chance and ordered a mat a few weeks ago… see if it shows up, if not, I will smear his company everywhere I can.

I'd just like to report that I ordered one of the standard Hotz game mats on 24 April and it was delivered in the UK on 8 May. I'm very pleased with it.

Ordered one about two month ago, got it within 4 weeks.

Not making excuses here, I think every customer should get the same (good) service, but take the following kind of statement with a grain of salt.

"That is VERY surprising, given the many problems people have been having. I'm also rather surprised you rolled the dice and got lucky as it were. :)"

The dice roll isn't so bad. There are many complains on TMP, but then again, people with bad experience are much more likely to leave a feedback than people with good ones and even more so than people with neutral/uneventful ones!

So why doesn't Hotz take a day and fix all these complaints?

I ordered the deep space enhanced with hexes late last year and it arrived in the UK within a reasonable period of time and whilst his email responses shall we say seemed abrupt and grumpy in tone, I never once thought my order would not be fulfilled. The mat is excellent and I am glad I ordered from Hotz.
I hope the people with genuine problems with his business have spent as much time communicating to Hotz as they have done complaining on here, we are talking about someone's livelihood and it should be treated with the utmost respect.

Perhaps if the emails seemed grumpy and abrupt, he should find another line of work? If his real-life is interfering with the timely conduct of business, maybe he should close the store until he can conduct business properly so people won't complain? <smile>

I'd REALLY like to order a couple of mats, but I can't accept too long of a delay in fulfilling orders. As it is I'm waiting for an order placed on Valentines Day with another shop which has yet too arrive…

@Billclo
I agree, particularly with emailed response where there is no excuse for anything other than civility and courtesy that any job involving customer liason should be avoided by the owner .Perhaps he can get a family member to translate for him :). No order should be an issue if you use paypal as if it looms on 45 the money is taken from him till he completes so I am at a loss why anyone would wait 2 years ???? to do something more positive than comment on here about it

I skipped to the bottom, so apologies for whatever I missed, but I got my mat from CorSec Engineering…and when it arrived, I KID YOU NOT, my wife immediately wanted it for a blanket! Not only was it beautiful, but it is soft and obviously well made. I am ordering a second very soon…

As for Hotz, a year ago I sent a request in for a quote on a custom 2-sided mat, and mentioned I wanted to order rivers and roads as well. I never got a response, even after sending a second email inquiry, and so spent the money elsewhere.

Hotz is known for two things--a superior product and abysmal customer service, with long wait times and little to no communication. This has been true for many years--really since the company started. Various excuses and occasional bursts of acceptable service. It is a shame. TMP should stop allowing Hotz to advertise.

I just got an order 8 weeks after purchase. (not a big order)

I just got an order 8 weeks after purchase. (not a big order)

If the product wasn't that good I wouldn't stand for it.. but who am I kidding..

I agreewith Kealios. Go with Corsec. He has a great variety. To choose from and all are actual space pictures from the hubble telescope. If you have a particular image in mind that he doesnt have you can send it and he'll make a custom mat (if the pic file is big enough).

I had ordered a space mat without hexes from him back in 2005;service was good then but was not impressed with the quality of the mat. Sold it last year.

Would go with wither Corsec or MKP for a space mat.

I emailed them a month ago about their products. No reply. Spent my money elsewhere. It's sad when you want to give someone money for a product/service and they won't even respond to an inquiry. Makes you wonder why they're even in business.

A timely question. I was tempted but no longer interested.

I really like my Hotz matts. There are other great matts out there too, but they are usually more expensive than Hotz.

I haven't had any customer issues with him. One of my matts is a double sided one and he offered to deliver it personally so I could save on shipping (admittedly I live in the same city).

-Tim

Ordered a mat for $75.99 USD (C&C Napoleonics mat) on 8/6/14.

Due to business moving, order was delayed, but was assured on 10/11/14 that it would be shipped within 10 days. No item.

Contacted again on 12/17/14, 1/28/15, and 2/26/15. No response.

I can only surmise that I have been duped.

File a claim with your credit card company/paypal asap.

Sent a final email today. No reply as of yet.

BBB of Vancouver BC notified.

He will regret ripping me off……

Simply a crook…

Eric responded and let me know the item will ship today. I sincerely hope so……