Artorius | 12 Jan 2015 1:16 p.m. PST |
Has MiniFigs just gone to the dogs? I ordered some figures in August. I was told it would take about two weeks to cast them and then they'd be sent. Some time later, I contacted MiniFigs about the order and got an angry response about needing my address – which I gave them on the order form. When I tried to send it by email, as a response to the angry email, the email kept bouncing back. I finally called and got the Caliver people, the MiniFigs person wasn't available. I left them my address and hoped for the best. After a week, I got an email from Caliver asking me to confirm that I had not yet received the order. I replied that I hadn't. That's the last I've heard from them. Am I alone in this kind of experience with MiniFigs? It wasn't a big order, so it's easier to write if off than to make a stink, but it's frustrating to get such miserable service from a once-great business in the hobby. |
GeoffQRF | 12 Jan 2015 2:08 p.m. PST |
The Minifigs people (Neil and Liz) are no longer involved – it was sold to Caliver in 2009. |
Cyrus the Great | 12 Jan 2015 2:29 p.m. PST |
I have NOT had positive dealings with Caliver in the past. You will now get all sorts of testimonials about people who have had great service from Caliver. He still owes me a L100.00 and I THINK he's a crook! |
Oudinot | 12 Jan 2015 2:32 p.m. PST |
Caliver moved premises towards the end of the year perhaps your e-mail was missed. Give them a call/drop them a line, I'm sure it will get sorted. I been buying off Dave since the mid 80's always had a great service. |
Zargon | 12 Jan 2015 2:35 p.m. PST |
Don't deal with Caliver anymore either. Pity as they do have some nice stuff. |
Maddaz111 | 12 Jan 2015 2:39 p.m. PST |
never had a real problem with Dave, and any issues, (such as faulty or missing figures, or even an incomplete boxed wargame (still in original shrink ) was swiftly resolved.) It has been very busy, and they have had massive upheavals with the shop move… I would just give them a call. and report back if they still let you down. |
Cold Steel | 12 Jan 2015 2:48 p.m. PST |
I've had great service from them over the same time period. 3 separate orders, all cast and shipped international quickly. 1 vehicle had missing parts and they shipped a replacement immediately. |
RobH | 12 Jan 2015 3:13 p.m. PST |
Minifigs becoming part of Caliver was a disaster. Now poor customer service, half truths and empty promises are par for the course on all orders in my experience. |
morrigan | 12 Jan 2015 7:41 p.m. PST |
I've had great service from Caliver, and won't hesitate to order again in the future. |
Doctor X | 12 Jan 2015 11:12 p.m. PST |
Did you order books or Minifigs? |
KatieL | 13 Jan 2015 3:52 a.m. PST |
My understanding, from having a chat with Dave, is that there has been rather a lot of upheaval in moving (it's not the only recent move for them) -- and the casting operation was shut down for a while but they've actually bought a site so now they should be settled. I'd really recommend having a proper chat with Dave over email -- I've always found him to be approachable and a decent bloke and I'm sure he'll want to settle anything that's outstanding. |
MH Dee | 13 Jan 2015 4:37 a.m. PST |
I've ordered from Caliver for years and never had a problem myself. |
Marc the plastics fan | 13 Jan 2015 5:10 a.m. PST |
Never had a problem with Dave – call him and explain your issue, and then if not sorted come back and tell us. |
Yesthatphil | 13 Jan 2015 5:24 a.m. PST |
I had some figures arrive last week. I ordered them just after Christmas. Somewhere in the ordering process I saw it said allow 2-3 weeks or something like that and I thought that can't be true, not these days (but I guess if not everything is in stock but needs casting – anyway it is good to be aware … ) As it happens my order arrive in just under 2 weeks and had been correctly made up. Whilst this is not as quick as other ranges it is comfortably within the expectation given and I am pleased with my goods. What KatieL says about Dave … in addition he does have an account here so might notice this thread. It is a pity if others have not had a positive experience. Phil |
Henry Martini | 13 Jan 2015 6:21 a.m. PST |
I have avoided this operator since not receiving goods ordered many years ago, and when enquiries amongst other locals who'd dealt with it revealed a consistent pattern of failure to supply items paid for. Alongside our experience, looking at the locations of posters on this thread suggests that Mr Ryan keeps his UK purchasers onside while playing fast and loose with international customers. |
parrskool | 13 Jan 2015 7:45 a.m. PST |
Hmm… well my experience with Caliver is that it is a bit hit and miss…… depending on who you talk to. |
Cyrus the Great | 13 Jan 2015 8:20 a.m. PST |
Yes, Dave seems to keep his U.K. customers happy so that they can provide glowing testimonials to his customer service and obscure that fact that he gives poor service to others! |
IronDuke596 | 13 Jan 2015 10:47 a.m. PST |
Well, I am from Canada and also have had outstanding service from Dave at Caliver over many years. You obviously have an unresolved dispute with him and without stating details of the issue while calling him a 'crook' is extreme and unwarranted measure on an open forum such as TMP. As others have stated, I am sure that if you have a justified complaint Dave has frequently demonstrated that he is normally willing to resolve the dispute to a mutual satisfaction. All the best. |
GonerGonerGoner | 13 Jan 2015 1:27 p.m. PST |
I'm in the UK and wouldn't order from them if they were the last company on the planet. |
Mikasa | 13 Jan 2015 4:03 p.m. PST |
When they owned one of the ex-Warlord game stores in Leigh-on-Sea, I enquired about a tatty set of ACW books that had been sitting on a shelf for at least 5 years. They were marked up as being £30.00 GBP I asked what they'd be willing to except and the person at the till called Dave to ask him what the best price was. I was told £29.50 GBP. I never forgot that. |
Dan 055 | 13 Jan 2015 6:17 p.m. PST |
I'm from Canada and I've never had problems other than the occasional wrong model, which was promply replaced. |
Cyrus the Great | 13 Jan 2015 7:53 p.m. PST |
while calling him a 'crook' is extreme and unwarranted measure on an open forum such as TMP. I have no problem in calling Dave a crook. I've kept every email between us, the charge receipt and the emails of a friend that went there on my behalf trying to resolve this, that I could call on in a court of law. People need to be aware of his shoddy business practices. |
Inkpaduta | 14 Jan 2015 11:30 a.m. PST |
This is one way that I find TMP to be very helpful to the gamer. I was thinking about putting in an order and now I am rethinking doing that. Too many good companies to deal with rather than a company that is so-so. |
Doctor X | 14 Jan 2015 1:41 p.m. PST |
There are a handful of UK companies I've used my connections there to deal with because of overseas customer service issues. This would be one of them. |
Artorius | 14 Jan 2015 2:17 p.m. PST |
I ordered MiniFigs. I wanted one each from a line that I had years ago (Aztecs and Conquistadors). They had to be cast to order, which is no problem. I assume that MiniFigs doesn't just have piles of every figure in every range sitting around. I was willing to give it 6 weeks to 2 months to account for casting and shipping time. (I tend to get things from the UK in a range that can run from 5 days to 5 weeks, go figure). I don't want to cast too many aspersions. I'm unhappy with the service. Thank goodness my order wasn't for £100.00 GBP(!) -- or even $100.00 USD. I have dealt with Caliver for books and I dodn't have a problem. |
Rebelyell2006 | 15 Jan 2015 11:32 a.m. PST |
I haven't had problems with Caliver, but all of my orders with them have been very small (but still with free shipping). Perhaps Caliver has problems with larger orders? |
Dave Ryan | 15 Jan 2015 3:46 p.m. PST |
Hi Artorious Well that sounds like a cock-up Indeed- but a very strange one. We can find any website order from any part of your name, address, telephone or email, or name or code of what you ordered. Then on a separate system we'd have your details in either paypal or Caliver orders that we can search . So if you placed a standard order and paid for it there and then there should have been no need to for us to do anything other than just cast and send.. You would also have known from your payment that you were also dealing with Caliver books. So, weird, but I am delighted, from your last comment, that you normally have problem free orders. We are very, very contactable- we must have more lines and more email addresses than most.- get us through the Caliver or Minifigs website. Yes, we did move to even larger premises- 70+ large vans worth of stuff- – not including 11,000+ moulds , 5 casting machines , two mould presses and the usual paraphanelia but we kept on top of most things, tough everyone was roped in to unloading so I can well imagine a situation where a phone call was handled with less than you usual calmness and efficiency. So try again please. Ta.. Of course there will be cock-ups. We run the largest and most complex wargaming operation out there. You can't fill a large Royal Mail van on your own daily for three weeks in December with a huge variety of stuff to all parts of the globe without the odd problem, some of if sometimes of your own making. But you contact us, we sort it. There are only so many gamers out there and we are in a very incestuous hobby. No one survives the way we have by upsetting customers. It's telling that, given a higher percentage of people will always whinge on the internet than praise good service, of over 1100 people who have viewed this post it's only handful complaining- and most of those have complained before I'd hate to guess at the amount of stuff we have shipped all round the world in the years since someone last moaned about us on TMP, Yet Cyrus tells us we are good to UK customers and screw the foreigners!! Cyrus. You obviously have a robot that tells you whenever someone mentions my name on TMP! It's very easy to makes things up on TMP. This must have been ages ago and it pains me to have ruined your life in some way, whoever you are. The only long standing problem I remember is way back in the bad old days of Matchlock when we were not masters of our own destiny. When it was sorted I even mailed Bill to tell him so maybe it wasn't you And no, we don't just look after UK customers- as most of them can buy from the 20 or so shows we do a year nearly half our Mail order is overseas, and has been for at least a decade- and not just for the free postage on many items! ZARGON- we deal with all manner of companies, which is the strength and weakness of Caliver. If I stopped dealing with them just because they cock-up then I'd have nothing to sell! Systems change, staff change don't deny your self the stuff you want! Wachaza- Thanks Mate, you've just proved that Cyrus doesn't always know what he's on about. Don't just sit there- email me RObH – That's very poetic and dramatic. If you paid for something you didn't get tell us. If I promised you that I MIGHT be able to find a deleted Minifigs mould but never did, then sorry- You make it sound like we are about to get divorced, not someone peeved because something was missing from a packet. HENRY_ Don't know where you are but we have had occasion in the past to stop sending to various regions due to a high percentage of "losses"! You'll be pleased to know that we are now shipping every where Parrskool- more than likely also depends on what you buy- and who we get it from. Mikasa- well, I have an aversion to people treating professional wargames traders like car boot sales, and have long since sold that set. You must have been pretty happy with the rest of our prices to come in regularly over a 5 year period!! HI Rebelyell. Thanks for that We regularly ship large orders- having bought Minifigs I am discovering the joys of the £400.00 GBP+ 1 pack of ever code order!. And yes, No doubt that one pack of cavalry of the £5,250.00 GBP worth of Minifigs we recently sent to enable a club to do Quatre Bras in 15mm will have the wrong individual blanket rolls (Neville- I suppose it seemed a good idea at the time!!) but I am confident that they will contact me to sort it, however long they take to get in touch – and not just bleat on the internet I appreciate that some of you may well have tried to and failed to contact us in the past and but we are no longer in the days of letters- and expensive phone call that made life hard for overseas customers! Equally that some of you have gripes merely because I didn't smile enough to you over the hordes at the stall at Salute but if you bleaters who really do have an even vaguely provable problem then Man Up, pull your finger out and get in touch. And if that sounds harsh then maybe it's because if I went on a site and anonymously whinged about wargames traders I'd expect to be told to take a degree of responsibility for it as well. And yes, I do moan on line- but I always see the Hotel manager first before posting on Tripadvisor ;-) Dave – (whose Xmas cheer was finally dissipated today when , out of 9 deliveries today, 2 were incomplete, 2 were mispicked and 2 arrived damaged through no fault of the courier!- which, on reflection may account for the tone of this post but I can't be bothered to edit it now in case it disappears like the first two attempts! AH- Before the can of worms is truly opened- for those of you who didn't read the QRF comment- we are not responsible for MINIFIGS problems BEFORE we took over!!! |
Cyrus the Great | 15 Jan 2015 5:19 p.m. PST |
Dave, you have selected memory of your s! |
Henry Martini | 15 Jan 2015 5:33 p.m. PST |
That's selective memory, Cyrus. As far as I know Australia and Britain have always had a highly efficient postal interface; there's never been a general problem with parcels not completing the journey (and, although my OS ordering days are virtually over, in years gone by I placed many orders with UK and US suppliers) – but as I said in my previous post, my own experience, and that of every other local I spoke to who'd ordered from you and paid you in good faith for goods ordered was non-receipt of those goods, and failure to respond to repeated enquiries about same. Coincidence? I don't think so. |
Doctor X | 15 Jan 2015 10:17 p.m. PST |
So Dave, does that mean you are willing to fix Cyrus' customer service issue with Caliver? If he has all the emails and receipts I would think you would. He stated he has emailed you and had someone in the UK even try to sort this out and clearly Caliver has blown this off. So your "you didn't contact us" defense is completely null and void. If he can prove you owe him money why wouldn't you pay up? If you took money for an order you should either deliver the goods or give a refund. That's how its supposed to work, right? If I were Cyrus I'd bring this up every time I saw a question about Caliver's customer service until it got addressed. That is a lot of money to be out. Every company has customer service issues. What separates the good from the bad is how they address these issues. This can be a golden opportunity to make a customer for life or make them so mad they will forever be telling people about their bad experience for years on end every chance they get. That's Retailing 101. Actions speak louder than words. Address the issue and bring it to resolution. |
Marc the plastics fan | 16 Jan 2015 7:38 a.m. PST |
So, have you guys called Dave TODAY and tried to sort this out? I know there are knocks around for those of us who just get good service from Dave, but I genuinely cannot imagine your issues cannot be sorted out with them direct using a phone. |
Reactionary | 17 Jan 2015 6:09 a.m. PST |
I have had no problems with Caliver over the last couple of decades… |
Henry Martini | 17 Jan 2015 6:27 a.m. PST |
Which, given your location, is entirely consistent with… 'the pattern'. |
GeoffQRF | 19 Jan 2015 5:12 a.m. PST |
Australia and Britain have always had a highly efficient postal interface; there's never been a general problem with parcels not completing the journey Actually, we have had issues with missing parcels, bith within the UK and to Australia. |
Tookey | 20 Jan 2015 1:53 p.m. PST |
Hi, I've purchased a lot from Caliver over the years and more recently from Minifigs 10mm range. Communication is always prompt and I always get the goods in a reasonable time frame. I live near the the South island of New Zealand. Cheers |
Henry Martini | 20 Jan 2015 6:29 p.m. PST |
There's always the exception to the rule. Your good fortune hardly negates the preponderantly negative experiences of other international customers related here. |
Tookey | 20 Jan 2015 8:07 p.m. PST |
Maybe I just find it odd that I am almost on the exact opposite side of the world (probably the farthest) yet I recieve good service from the supplier you say only looks after UK customers. Does that fit your pattern ? |
Durando | 21 Jan 2015 10:46 a.m. PST |
Always get good service and recieve figs promptly |
Henry Martini | 21 Jan 2015 2:24 p.m. PST |
An exception is inherently odd. |
Marc the plastics fan | 23 Jan 2015 9:57 a.m. PST |
How many negative experiences count as "not odd" then HM? You are grinding an axe here – if you and others have issues have you called Dave to resolve? |
christot | 23 Jan 2015 2:05 p.m. PST |
This is the internet, there are probably hundreds of TMP folk who have decent service from caliver yet can't be arsed to post. People are generally much more likEly to post complaints than praise….. I have dealt with Dave countless times over the last God knows how many years, he is usually available on the phone, the only hiccup I've ever had was when I ordered an osprey and received 2 copies instead of one….being the honest fellow I am, I called to tell him this. His response? Keep it. Still, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. |
Henry Martini | 23 Jan 2015 6:12 p.m. PST |
Sigh.. For your benefit, I'll repeat: when the universal experience of yourself and everyone you've spoken to who's been foolish enough to send their money to this operator is non-supply of the goods paid for and failure to respond to repeated enquiries and complaints about the non-supply of goods paid for, what conclusion would you reasonably draw? But as I also stated, this was a long time ago; perhaps his business behaviour has improved since then and Artorius', Cyrus', Zargon's, and Rob H's experiences are untypical. But you can hardly blame we once bitten colonials for our commercial shyness, can you? |
Henry Martini | 23 Jan 2015 6:15 p.m. PST |
And once again, the two most recent posters reside in the UK, and therefore, according to the evidence, have a high degree of immunity to Ryan's Law of Diminishing Returns. |
Henry Martini | 23 Jan 2015 7:48 p.m. PST |
Correction: '… experiences are atypical.' |
Rebelyell2006 | 23 Jan 2015 8:08 p.m. PST |
People are generally much more likEly to post complaints than praise….. That is so true. How often do we post about the grocery checkout kids not breaking our eggs? I've placed multiple orders with Caliver, Warlord Games and other British companies (and enjoyed the strange looks from the postal workers), but I have rarely posted praise for people doing their jobs as expected within reasonable timeframes for shipping and customs. Complaints, sure, but my complaints have been about the new postmaster playing t-ball with packages (or stepping on a Christmas package and blaming Atlanta's sorting machine when I can clearly see the damn shoeprint) or my inability to ask for photos of what I'm buying beforehand. Cyrus obviously had a bad experience, but Caliver surely has more than two customers, so maybe his experience is a fluke and not the norm. And speaking of customs, why is it that the customs officials in Australia just take their time with packages, but the American customs workers have to open up and sample everything? It sucks that half of the Australian Christmas candy comes in cut/ripped containers. The puddings and minced pies and the marshmallow/chewy mixed holiday shaped candies are the highlight of the season, and the minced pies were not safe to eat this year. Last year was the shaped holiday candies and the big pudding in a plastic bowl. |
Henry Martini | 24 Jan 2015 4:51 a.m. PST |
I'll just note that this thread is entitled 'MiniFigs UK woes', and starts with a complaint from Artorius about a recent experience of unsatisfactory service.If it had been entitled 'MiniFigs UK Cures Cancer and Solves World Hunger' it would undoubtedly have assumed a different tone. |
Tumbleweed | 26 Jan 2015 11:49 a.m. PST |
A fine point, Henry Martini. But as long as we're off subject, is Watney's Red Barrel still in production? |
GeoffQRF | 27 Jan 2015 4:13 a.m. PST |
for those of you who didn't read the QRF comment- we are not responsible for MINIFIGS problems BEFORE we took over!!! Sorry, I was referring to the statement that "…I finally called and got the Caliver people, the MiniFigs person wasn't available." Not sure what setup you have, but just highlighting that the original Minifigs people are no longer involved and (as far as I know, feel free to correct me) it's the same people doing Minifigs and Caliver… …is Watney's Red Barrel still in production It appears not. |
Reactionary | 27 Jan 2015 7:41 a.m. PST |
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Tumbleweed | 27 Jan 2015 6:32 p.m. PST |
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