"Black Tree...do I need to say it?" Topic

Well, after 9 months, in August 2019, I got the first part of my order that was sent in November 2018! Now it is well into 2020 and I still have not received the balance of my order. I am not going to leave this as a loss. This is basically theft made all the more frustrating by their weekly sales emails and the very occasional message from John to say that he "understands" my frustration. What a shocking display of guile.

Yeah, I ordered from them during a convention because they did not have at the show what I was looking for. All I had was a copy of the sales receipt. I did get my stuff 5 months later, but that was the last time I bought from them.

This has been going on for years. Frankly it amazes me anyone would order from them.

He (John) screwed even us here in his home state of Texas – I will never purchase from this crook again! I recommend you stay away from this horrible company. Write it off as a loss and go buy from honorable and reputable companies – there are many of them out there. Sorry you had to learn the hard way – I stopped buying from Black Tree Design years ago!!

Is there a difference between the US and UK Black Trees? I have ordered multiple times from the UK one and never had a problem. No, sorry, once I had a few zulu shields missing and told them that I was like half a dozen short on an order of hundreds of figures and they sent me about fifty and a bunch of other Zulu figures.

Yep, ordered quite a few times from the UK, no issue. But US seems to be a completely different story.

Hmmmm, I took a chance not too long ago and got very good service in a reasonable amount of time.

It was a pretty small order though.

Many gamers will not and cannot resist a bargain price?

martin

Never any problem in theUK

Yep. I've ordered from them in the UK a couple of times with no problem.

In the past I have seen it said here that BTUK was a total mess and BTUS provided great service. It seems as though things have flip-flopped now.

Horrible Company with plenty of excuses.

I quite frankly don't get this. I have ordered several times from the US branch, prompt service every time. One time I had a back order and it was filled promptly. It's just strange how random this seems.

I agree Stosstrupen. Over the last 5 years, I have had 4 orders made to Black Tree USA all delivered in under 10 days. Including one about 6 months ago. Each order was between $100 USD-250 in size. Excellent service and communication each time.

Terrible for those who have had difficulty or worse in getting their money back.

The disconnect between stories of good service and bad seems very severe.

It's such a shame as they have great figures.

If they would just be consistently bad, we could just write them off.

Hearing of good service to some makes me even more frustrated. I just don't understand this inconsistency. I have been intermittently dealing with John in the US. Does someone have a way of communicating with the English side of the company? On their website it seems that phone calls get redirected to the US.

I wonder if they have trouble supplying a certain range from their figures?

I've ordered quite a few figures from the US store. Never had an issue. I had one item back ordered that had to come from the U.K., but I received it after maybe a month.

Ordered a lot of stuff from BTD in Black Friday sale in 2018. After about 5 months and many emails and FB messages they sent about 75% of it.

I knew what they can be like, and assumed the rest of it would follow eventually. Months passed, they sent out their post about their 2019 crisis. Eventually people said they were shipping out again, but they've never responded to emails or messages since then. So my stuff is about 18 months overdue.

FWIW, I ordered from the UK end, but my impression is that the UK end is a website and a guy who receives stock from the US and posts it out.

My impression – which is only that, to be fair – is that ordering from BTD is always a gamble. If you catch them at a quiet time, you can get stuff quite fast. If you order when there's an offer, and they have a lot of volume coming in, they get overwhelmed.

I suspect that now they're prioritising new orders over older ones, both for cash flow and because customers who've waited over a year are probably a write-off in terms of repeat business.

I'd keep writing. To both the USA and English emails. Daily.

My order from the same date as you arrived last August after my writing.

You could also try posting on their Facebook page.

Although, I don't think they have been updating it – they may be monitoring it.

Again, as you have been waiting this long – the more often and the more frequently is perhaps better.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, as they say.

Update: after a week of emailing Black Tree every day to every address I had on record for them, I've finally had a response from John. Initially a promise to "look into it", then, after I kept emailing an offer of a refund, as he doesn't have stock of most of it.
Must say, I've had apologies and promises of action from them come to nothing several times before, so my fingers remain firmly crossed, but at least they are responding to emails now.

It's too bad you have to be the ‘squeaky wheel'.

You could suggest replacing with different sets that are in stock.

Mind you, it's not what you wanted at all! So maybe replacing them AND some sets to make up for your wait and trouble?

Not just a token freebie. But something to actually make up for all the wait and trouble and inconvenience.

I email every week, no longer to get the balance of my order (from November 2018!) but to get my money back. No replies. Appalling. I hope people take these complaints seriously. The company has stolen my money.

A further update on my order, also from November 2018. I wrote back asking them to send whatever they could ship by the end of the week, and refund the rest.

John then advised that in fact they'd found they had all the stock needed, and would send it out the following day(!). And they did, and it has arrived, much to my surprise, even the stuff that's currently OOP. They got a couple of packs muddled up, and chucked in some Treasure Island figures.

I will acknowledge that in my most recent round of communication, John was courteous, prompt, and did what he said he was going to do, which hasn't always been my experience of Black Tree. And I have finally got figures that I'd mentally more or less written off, and in some cases had already started sourcing alternative options for.

However, it took them 18 months, and I don't know how many messages from me before this happened. As wmyers suggests, I was emailing Black Tree every day, ccing every email address I could find for them, for about a week before I got a response. I also started posting on here, though whether that played a role, I don't know.

Moreover, if I take their statements at face value, there was no real reason for the delay – they were sending out stock they had on hand, and presumably could have shipped sooner, perhaps a lot sooner.

Black Tree have a huge catalogue, with lots of decent models and some great ones. They have ranges that are now pretty unique, and their prices are very competitive. They sell things that I would quite like to own. But I'd be incredibly wary of ordering from them again, and I'd strongly caution other people against ordering from them until I see a lot of evidence that things have improved. If you do order from them, I'd say use Pay Pal and raise a dispute if it gets close to the limit and they haven't fulfilled.

I came close to making an order and then asked myself if i needed the headache? Maybe I should try BlackTree UK rather than USA?

Maybe I should try BlackTree UK rather than USA?

No, it's no better. If anything it's worse.

Yeah, in the end I decided I didnt need the extra frustration.

Pity because some of their stuff I really like but who needs to get abused?

I was looking to get some more of their ancient Greeks but they've pulled the range, and many others.
Probably a good thing I couldn't place an order from what is being said.

You could always try contacting them ahead of placing an order and confirm if the sets you want are currently in stock?

(seems they do a lot of casting of sets when there are orders for them and not stock on hand – it may be the casting of them that delays things?)

I'd love to order some things in their fantasy range from their current sale for Christmas but all these threads have me a bit leery.

I didn't see any Christmas sales. They didn't have a Black Friday one this year, either.

DO NOT BUY from the USA company/site – you will get ripped off. One man's opinion and warning…….buyer beware.

speaking from experience.

Well I took a gamble and made a purchase over a month ago after my post. Small order, roughly $70. USD Nothing. Tried calling the phone number today on their website, its disconnected. Sent them a message via their website but I really doubt I'll get a reply given everything written here. I'll give them till next Friday to respond, if they don't I paid via Paypal so I'll open a dispute and get my money back.