I recently made an order with Cadwallon.com They are the website that picked up and continued the classic Rackham miniatures line, the line of miniatures that came before the disastrous business move by Rackham to switch to plastic, pre-painted minis.
In any case, Cadwallon.com maintains pretty much the full range of all the old Rackham minis.
I placed my first order with them the other night. I ordered two of their ogres from the Cadwallon and Confrontation ranges. But I made the mistake of ordering one first and hitting the confirmation button, which created an order for just that one ogre with its own shipping charges.
I still wanted the other ogre of course, so I went ahead and created a second order for the that one.
I was fully expecting to pay shipping for both minis separately, since it was my mistake, and I was the one who had generated two order confirmation numbers.
So, within a few hours after the orders got placed, I get an email from Cadwallon in which they themselves had combined both confirmation numbers into a single order and cancelled out one of the shipping charges, so that both minis could be shipped together.
There's a few reasons I bother to point this out.
First, I know that there are many other really good mini. companies out there who will do the same thing, and are always on top of their orders and are proactive in serving their customers.
But, there are many companies that do not. When a company lives up to this type of standard, it's worth mentioning.
Further, I've dealt with other companies where ANY problem or discrepancy with either stock, or payment method/shipping, simply caused the order to go into a total black hole…where it stayed until ME, the customer had to contact THEM and ask politely, "Um, what happened to the stuff I ordered two months ago?". Then suddenly, they spring into action and process the order, but still only AFTER I explain to them in another email that two separate Paypal payments were sent for multiple items on the order, etc., etc. – or whatever the case may have been.
For me, I require two things from a mini company. One, be organized and take the time to look at what's on your computer screen! Get out in FRONT of your orders! If you have an unfulfilled order and its sitting in limbo, check WHY. If it appears that you have confirmation or order numbers that are only unfulfilled fragments of orders, DON'T just let the fragment sit there! FIND OUT why it's a fragment! YOU initiate the correction of the order, don't wait for your customer to ask you what happened after a month goes by!
Second, use common sense with shipping. Don't put heavy, pewter mini packs in bubble bags. Don't put bare plastic sprues in soft shipping sleeves. Don't use retail display boxes as your actual shipping cartons. PLEASE. Doesn't take any more time to put those heavy bags of minis into an actual cardboard box.
That is all.
