"Why didn't I look... Spectre Miniatures?" Topic

Order put in late April or early May. Spectre said they were shipping on May 6th.

June 9th still no sign so I contact Spectre. They say they will look into it. About 1 week later (June 17th) no further messages from them so I ask again. They apologize and say they just got in a big resupply and state "so it won't be long now until you have your parcel."

June 24th ask for tracking number. No response.

I just asked again today. This is very frustrating. And I see that many others haven't been getting their goods from them. It's a shame because the miniatures look good, and my money looked even better. I really hate thieves.

Just look at his kickstarters and the complaints lodged about non-delivery of figures or technical vehicles! I have friends and acquaintances still waiting for figures from the kickstarter; estimated delivery September 2014!!!

Feel your pain. That is why I never order from a new company without looking at consumer comments here on TMP.

I'm in the exact situation only I ordered in January.

I'm still waiting on figures I ordered in April of 2015, so it could be a while before you get your stuff. I have had the same issues as you have with ignored emails. Its a shame because they make great figures, but I'll never order from them again.

CorpsCommander, our stories are almost identical done to the dates and email responses. It's disappointing that this is occurring. I'm not in a rush for my figures but I would like them in a reasonable amount of time as well as regular communications from the seller.

They have other figures that I would like to eventually purchase but I think the next time I order I'll tell them I'll pay when the figures are delivered.

I got another response today. Let's hope he actually delivers. He says he'll ship by Wednesday but if someone is waiting since January then that's a problem. If it gets to Wednesday and there is no tracking data then I'll see if I can cancel the charge. I want to believe that someone that has put all that effort into making such nice looking miniatures and tabletops to show them off has a good heart. That's what my gut says.

Most failed or failing KS proprietors have good intentions. They are just bad business people who couldn't estimate costs and demands and get caught with a cash flow issue. If they don't fold and do decide to catch up they take any money they can on any order they get to fund making product for old orders. In some case they just ship in any order and don't care how long you've been waiting.

I don't know this company at all, and I'm not trying to defend them but Doctor X is correct.

When I started my miniature line I made a decision to not do two things:

No kickstarters unless I had most of the project already in hand.

No announcements about releases coming down the pipe until I have the castings in hand. Although I would do it if I had some of the figures and not enough to sell and had time to do some casting before then.

I'm glad I did that. I thought that the big rate limiting step would be cash flow. It wasn't that at all. There are so many things that stop things from being produced.

I had pledged for their Technical kickstarter but 14 months later I asked for a refund as I had lost interest.
I only received my refund after contacting Kickstarter directly to complain.

I sent an email a couple days ago trying to get further information on the order I placed a while back and then sent a follow-up message via Facebook Messenger today. This is the response I got back within 30 minutes of my Messenger message:

"Sorry I missed your email. We've been tracking down orders that have not arrived and it looks like we are going to have to replace them.
I'm just packing up your order again and I will ensure it goes out via tracked delivery before the weekend.

I can't apologise enough for the problems with your order.

Best
Steve"

I will keep everyone posted as to how this works out. If this goes as he is stating then I would be willing to order from them again.

Hi guys,

We can be reached on info@spectreminiatures.com at any time, or message us on the facebook page link and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

We've found Kickstarter a difficult medium to use and communicate through – but fortunately it did get us off the launch pad – we won't be using it again. The miniatures KS should be complete – if people are missing miniatures they should PM us, as often it is because we haven't got some piece of critical info or we are just not aware of an issue.

The technicals ran into problems due to an issue out of our control – it should be complete in the next few weeks.

We hope to put the final nail in the Kickstarter coffin ASAP and move on!

We've had persistent problems with Royal Mail providing a reliable service and have had several parcels go missing. We've recently taken on more staff and changed our delivery provider to provide a better service including tracking.

We are now in a position to keep more stock on hand – so orders should be fulfilled, sent and received more quickly.

Please be aware that we are not Games Workshop or Amazon – we are a small startup company working hard to produce good miniatures.

If there are any issues – please drop us a line and we will get back to you. Any disputes or issues will be resolved quickly.

Regards,

The Spectre Team

Just an update on my end in my dealing with Spectre Miniatures. I received an update on Friday and then received an email with a tracking number for my shipment. So far so good.

Good to hear the new system is working – hopefully no more problems. We are now pretty certain we've caught up on the order backlog.

We've also upgunned our stock levels (online soon) so ordering should again be easier and swifter.

Please let us know if there are issues – again on the email in the post above.

Another update: my order arrived today. Everything was as ordered and the figures look great. I'll be placing another order in a few weeks.

Great news, enjoy!

So glad to hear things are working out. I missed the KS and have been reluctant to order due to the many complaints about non-delivery. Now that things seem to have worked out, I need to start looking at the website and planning.

Well they are certainly NOT sorted out for me. A dozen emails and 5-6 separate shipments and STILL have not got all the figures etc from my TWO orders 1373 and and 1546. The one from September 2015 took almost 12 months to complete and still waiting for the majority (by value) of the order from early November 2015. Emails ignored lately.

November 2015 order was marked FULLFILLED on website before a SINGLE figure sent and I have since been asked TWICE for a list of what I ordered!!!

Only reason I ordered from Spectre in the first place was for the Special Forces Grenadiers and they took nearly 12 months to come..campaign come and gone in that time.

I have been dealing with overseas suppliers for 30 years and have only ever once previously had ANY trouble..and that was sorted out over a period of two months.

I would NEVER deal with Spectre again. Incompetence is one thing, bad service is another but dishonesty and false promises are in a whole new league.

I HAVE let them know, to the email above, of the problems, as they ask in the post above and have been ignored yet again.

If anyone wants, I am quite happy to supply copies of emails correspondence with Spectre. I am not interested in platitudes, not interested in stirring..I just want the what I paid for almost 12 months ago.

regards

Darryl

(TonyHill.. a tribute to the PRU Pilot who photographed the German Radar at Bruneval 5th December 1941)