"United States Old Glory customer service" Topic

United States Old Glory customer service

Just a quick question if you had bought 1000 10mm Zulus plus Rourke's drift admittedly from the UK Old Glory (who I must say it's absolutely fantastic with customer service) distributor but nevertheless he buys them from the United States Old Glory.

And you wanted an extra oven which goes with Old Glorys Rourke's drift set to be told that they only do it as a set and would not contemplate doing it as a one of special.

Also the timescale in which they dealt with me was rather long from the 4 July 2014 to 5 August 2014 to get the answer no they would not sell me a tiny oven from the Rourke's drift set.

So basically I'm asking what other people think of the customer service I received. Or whether I'm moaning for nothing.

Old Glory Corp
oldglory25s.com
bluemoonmanufacturing.com

Anglo Zulu War Project TMP

Contacting Old Glory TMP

Take care

Andy

Andy,
All I can say is Russ and Theresa have always provided excellent service to me. Got an order yesterday. Took 2 weeks. Thinking up another now. Maybe because you ordered from both. I only use Old Glory U.S. Have a great week.

I would have sold you that "tiny" piece, but at full pack price.
Once we are all dead from Ebola or Iranian nuke strikes, we will miss such complaints as yours.

Old Glory 25s and Old Glory UK have nothing but the best service. When you asked your question the timing was during the largest convention for both of them, each having one during this time. Nothing is wrong with saying they just sell it as a set. The inital inquiry you made was not directly to the manufacturer, so you cannot blame them for no response. oldgloryminiatures.com is not the manufacturer I am afraid to say. I wouldn't get too upset over this.

As l live in the UK it was logical to deal with Old Glory UK. However I suspect had If I had lived in the USA and delt with old glory usa the situation would be totally different.

Doing a little job like that causes such amount of good will that the company gets back.

Take care

Andy

Both have great service. Timing could very well be an issue. IMO, I would order special items direct from Russ & crew in the US.

It also took a total of six emails to get an answer.

Take care

Andy

I am about 50/50 for "excellent" service from OG USA. Sometimes they are very accommodating with special requests… other times they refuse – and I fail to see the logic on when the approve/refuse special request.

Never hurts to ask though

Andy, you first contacted the wrong email address to deal with the manufacturer direct, so you can't fault them for that and during a week that they would not have been able to contact you right away because of their largest trade show. Mis-communication happens. It is what it is. You didn't get your extra oven you wanted, and all of us have wanted a particular figure from a bag or a set at one point in time. Certain molds are set up as such that you possibly have waste with a run that may not warrant that particular request for a special order. We just move on and keep growing that unpainted lead pile so we all will live forever!

I fail to see the logic on when the approve/refuse special request

This is pretty much a truism. When you're asking an organization to do something like that, you have no idea what the conditions, constraints, and implication for them are in terms of their business model. It's not possible to see the logic if you can't define the inputs to the decision.

As far as the one off request in OP, I agree with the OFM (but don't tell him!). If they acquire or produce it as a set and feel they need to sell it as a set, then that's their call.

The point of how many of what you have bought before lacks enough context to evaluate. You really need to understand what percentage of their overall business you represent. A big order (or history of orders) to you may be a small order to them. All organizations have limited resources (especially personnel time), and thus (if they want to stay in business) should evaluate the opportunity cost of their activities.

As far as the lack of response, I'm with you. The majority of online retailers I buy from have figured out how to provide a message on the site and an autoreply email to the effect of "Hey! We're swamped right now!". If that were the case, I would have no problem with the delay. It's their call how to run their business and yours on whether or not to patronize. I think notification of the parameters of interaction (like timeline for response) is a reasonable expectation for conducting business.

Note I have not personally seen time lag in comms with OG.

That said (or possibly, disclaimer), I am an OGA guy and have had nothing but exemplary service from OG.

I've always had excellent service from them. They have also been very helpful in answering questions I've asked in the past.

Your moaning over nothing.

update just found out that old glory usa have sent my oven to old glory uk.

Had I been told this I would never have started this post.

Top marks old glory usa

Take care

Andy

Good job Russ. Going above and beyond is just fantastic customer service.

Their customer service is fine. It's their business model that's screwed up. In an age where skirmish gaming is so prevalent, forcing people to buy 30 of any infantry 28mm figure is a ridiculous constraint. 10 or 15 years ago maybe it made sense, now it doesn't anymore, and I think they are too obstinate to change the model. Either that or they don't think they can make any money unless they sell 30 of every figure,which is a shame. There have been many times in the last few years that I wanted to purchase some of their figures yet changed my mind and bought from someone else because I needed 6 to 12 figures, not 30! It's a shame really. Good example of a company that fails to adapt with the times.

Newsflash….Old Glory is still around after all of these years while other miniature companies come and go, bringing out new ranges in different scales, still going to trade shows and has a presence in Europe with Old Glory UK. Yep they are inept and are falling behind.

Their business model is fine. Their packaging is fine. Its your expectations that are out of line.

Old Glory has always been very accomodating when I asked for something "off the menu". And apparently, they have been this time as well.

But even if they said no, its silly to think that they're providing bad customer service because they won't break up a pack or spend extra time and resources to spincast one item for you.

When you buy a case of beer do you ask the store clerk to toss in one extra bottle? Even if you offer to pay for it the store is then left with a 5-pack that they can't sell instead of a 6-pack.

Do you ask for one extra cookie when you buy a pack of Oreos? Do you ask for one extra peanut when you buy a jar of nuts? How about one extra nail when you buy a box of nails? Or maybe one extra shoe when you buy a pair of shoes at a store?

No? Then why would you expect THIS industry to be different?

I'm amazed at how entitled some people feel and how upset they get when the world won't spin their way.

Nicely said Bob

Jay

Also remember that the miniatures casting and miniatures marketing are really different places/businesses.
If I remember correctly all of the miniatures are made in Pennsylvania. When you are asking for things from customer service you are not asking the person packaging/casting the packs of miniatures.
Asking a stockiest to get in touch with the manufacturer for a 1 off---may or may not be received warmly.
I see from a later post that you did get your oven shipped from the USA---I am sure Old Glory UK is a fine store, but as they are so far away from the mfr. the breaking of packs may be too much of a cost.

I haven't had any problems the couple of times I've ordered from them. I do wish they'd sell their 15mm figures in something other than 50 figure bags, but maybe they don't feel it'd be economical.

Old Glory US has always responded to my e mails in a timely manner, sometimes they are at shows and that slows their response slightly. I have nothing but good things to say about their service and their products. I think your complaint is misguided at best.

I lover Vermont, we can buy just one beer from a six pack if we want to. Even mix and match in the same sixer if we really want to get crazy…but you pay extra for it.

How hard might it have been for you to have made an oven. And besides why would you want to? – Bromhead we don't want to give the Zulu the gift of fire do we?

OG have always been great with customer service.

I call June and July the black hole months hear in the USA. Historicon is our biggest convention and sucks the life out of all of us – both prepping before, during and weeks after.

The Tin Dictator makes some great points.

While some of us do take special requests, don't expect something for nothing. Sure, throwing a bunch of figures back in the melting pot might not seem like a big deal but splitting a pack only makes more work for any vendor. Time is money and everyone wants to be paid for their efforts. Don't think it is a negotiation. We do put thought into pricing things done as a special request and they are going to cost more than the pack price per figure. If you do try to negotiate you only make us feel that our time is not worth it to you and we are likely to change our minds.

When you buy a case of beer do you ask the store clerk to toss in one extra bottle?

No. When I want a one-off beer, I go to the store with five friends and we each buy a different six-pack and swap out until we have six one packs.

Going splitsies also works with minis.

We do put thought into pricing things

Really?!?!?! I'm shocked! Look, this is me being shocked …

BTW, I've never had bad service from Brigade Games, either. They put a lot of good thought into their Gnome Wars deals … or at least a lot of thought that works out well for me.

Old Glory USA = good.

Theresa has done SEVERAL special orders for me involving specific individual figures from various packs. I paid a bit more for the extra effort involved- because there was extra effort involved! But it was never exorbitant in my opinion and I got what I wanted. I would not hesitate to continue doing business with Old Glory!

I'm amazed at how entitled some people feel and how upset they get when the world won't spin their way.

And wargaming has more than its fair share.
"Please tear open a bag of 30 and sell me 7 at the same price per figure. And I need it tomorrow."
And if the pack had 8 in it he would want just 3.

And it is not like "oh just cast me up another one" is as simple as it sounds. As often as not the piece wanted is cast in a centrifugal mold that might have 20-30 other cavities – they all have to get cast just to cast that one piece. So… There is time to pull the mold from storage, time to put it in the queue, time to cast it, time to snip the one piece off, time to throw the remaining 29 figures back into the melting pot, where there is always some additional metal loss, time for the mold to cool and be replaced in storage, and all the effort that goes into tracking that one piece to make sure it gets into the right order…..

As I said, their customer service is fine. The notion that somehow they are crippled and unable to sell figures in quantities of less than 30 without screwing up their process or hurting their margins is contradicted but just about every other 28mm manufacturer in the business including brigade games. I don't buy it. They are the Costco of wargaming, and the deliberate strategy is to force people to buy in bulk. The difference is the things I buy at Cosco I can actually use eventually whereas I can't use an extra 20 figures.

I like the packs of "30"…Its great for historicals and meets the requirements of many rules systems out there. Great for TSATF…2 bags, that's 3, 20 man units add a bag of cavalry and a command bag…done…and their "Army Card" discount cant be beat…great service each and every time…

But 15mm tanks…. I do not need 3 command vehicles. I need one at a time.

Old Glory has been nothing but superb in their service to me and going above and beyond when I've wanted something extra. And when I do want something extra I always try to be the first to say I'm okay with paying a little extra for it since I know their accommodating such requests interrupts their process and thus costs extra. I believe what you were asking for was a resin piece, yes? That is a cumbersome process so that is asking for a lot more than you might think. And when it is a medal piece, generally you are asking for them to take an item out of a mold setup to meet a specific packaging situation. What you asked for was not a small thing – and you should be ecstatic they met your request. A lot of companies out there will not give even the tiniest amount of consideration. I greatly appreciate those few who do. All in all, the service in the historical miniatures side of the hobby has been wonderful in my experience. My one bad experience is ancient history and the guilty party is no longer among the living. (Hey, wait, no, I had nothing to do with that! It was an illness that did him in, honest. ;-) )

The notion that somehow they are crippled and unable to sell figures in quantities of less than 30 without screwing up their process or hurting their margins is contradicted

You are focusing on your personal situation and not trying to understand that anyone has any restrictions except you. You picked the number 30. Yet no one has suggested that the number of figures has anything to do with it. People have said that their business process is based on unit production runs. When you optimize the run for a size, it is, by definition, not optimized for another.

Also nobody said anything about crippling their process. All they said is all variances to the optimized run have additional costs. And sometimes the additional costs don't merit the marginal return.

And nobody said it was or wasn't worth their while in this case. All they said was without knowing the details, you can't make an informed assessment.

The bulk buy/reduced price trade-off was pioneered by Old Glory, and is that company's main selling point and the distinction that sets it apart from its competitors. Why would Russ want to sabotage his commercially comfortable market niche? The only difficulty I've encountered in my dealings with the company is the sometimes prickly OG corporate attitude to quality control.