"Custumer Service/New Wave Miniatures" Topic

Has anyone experienced difficulties in dealing with New Wave Miniatures? I palced an order two months ago for five whol miniatures and still haven't gotten my order.

Look through the old messages, this comes up every few weeks. There are a ton of negative responses on this company. I ordered once from them and I will not make the same mistake twice.

New Wave's bread and butter. New people that are unaware of their shoddy track record. Sorry they hooked you Harley. You will find numerous threads in the archives about these guys. I personally have never ordered from them. This is mainly due to the large volume of complaints about their service I started seeing here and on Usenet groups early on. New Wave seems to personify the old warning 'buyer beware'.

You are among the many burned by this company (including me). Just check the Consumer Affairs board on this site to see the many, many, many bad experiences people have had from new wave.

"Has anyone experienced difficulties in dealing with New Wave Miniatures? I palced an order two months ago for five whol miniatures and still haven't gotten my order."

Before you do anything else, contact your credit card company *immediately*. Your credit card company is your best a hard to get things solved when you've got a merchant who hasn't sent your merchandise... that's what I had to resort to when I dealt with New Wave. The only thing, though, is that most credit card companies have a time limit by which you are required to contact them about a problem like this. With both of my cards its 90 days from the date of the statement showing the charge, but I know other companies have stricter rules. If it's not too late for you to get your credit card company involved, ask them what you have to do. (Please note: it will probably involve writing them an actual letter, rather than just a phone call, but speaking to a customer service rep on the phone can at least tell you what info to provide and where to send it.)

As for New Wave themselves... don't even bother at this point. They're customer service is worse than incompetent. As others have suggeted... check the archives here for a host of horror stories about them. You can also check on the minidealerdiscussion Yahoo! discussion group, for dozens of posts by folks who have had similar experiences with New Wave.

Now, wait a minute…

I dicovered that New Wave has a message board.

Perhaps you could try voices the problem on the board. I was just there investigating the GW Internet Sales Ban (and if it was going to effect New Wave any). There a guy with a handle known as El Presidente… And he does read the boards.

Here's the link:
link

Now, there's a board for Customer Help… That might be where to go.

Obviously, you don't want to spam the boards… That will get you banned.
But, if you word your complain right and you give them enough time… Maybe they can get it straight for you. They have to as many other people post there and they read this.

Has anyone had any success using the New Wave Message Boards???

New wave usually deletes the posts about lost/missing orders. Just my what i have seen. If you want dig up the records from the georgia better business bureau. And as quick as you can contact your credit card company. They have been running a shady business for years.

Sorry you fell into the trap.

Several years ago I ordered from New Wave. They didn't deliver, so I called and mailed, and got no response. So I posted to their bulletin board and got some modicum of satisfaction -- but yes, they deleted the thread in question.

And because they (in essence) own CoolMiniOrNot, messages critical of New Wave are deleted there as well.

Every so often you see some sockpuppet of NWMO claiming how much they've cleaned up their act in recent months -- the truth is that they're worse than ever.

And their Better Business Bureau record is astonishingly bad. I have never seen a worse one, and I've looked up restaurants, movers, plumbers and auto mechanics.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but they're scum. Their actions are absolutely indefensible, and I will have nothing to do with them; anyone who defends them directly, such as CoolMiniOrNot; or indirectly, through quasi-censorship as is seen on the Yahoo mini-painter group); or anyone who has any business partnership with them (sorry, Bobby Jackson, but I won't buy your figs so long as you sculpt exclusives for them).

Friends don't let friends buy from New Wave.

The terms 'Customer Service' and 'New Wave Miniatures' are rarely used in the same sentence, at least not in a positive way. I too ordered from them once, but I won't make the same mistake twice.

I would highly suggest you take your business to Neal at www.thewarstore.net or www.chaosmailorder.com I have had great prices and awesome customer service from both of these companies every time I dealt with them.

I have never ordered from them and becuase of all of the helpful feedback on this site I never will. My question is how do they stay in business?

I got burned once by them and have never ordered from them again. I can't believe the Georgia BBB lets them stay in business.

Not only do I refuse to buy direct from New Wave, I also refuse to support stores that buy from them. New Wave has a limited distribution network. If enough local BM stores receive static about supporting New Wave, this distribution network must crumble. Once that network crumbles New Wave becomes vulnerable to negative feedback...No hobby business can survive without repeat clients.

If you think back to the initial release of Heresy miniatures, New Wave had exclusive rights to distribute and sell the line. After repeated complaints on the Heresy news boards, New Wave lost these rights...a direct result of dissatisfied customers speaking their minds and sharing their experiences.

It will take time, but the beast can be slayne!!

Wow! There was a local couple that just got sent to jail vor EBay fraud here locally maybe I will contact the District attorney to see what can be done. Thanks for all the input.

Don't forget to update us!

schobbies
"My question is how do they stay in business?"

Thats what I am wondering about too. The mini-business is supposed to be one of the hardest to survive in. Even many great companies with excellent reputations do not survive longer than a few years. How is it possible for NW to still be in business?

Beacause they have a bright, shiny, well laid out, comprehensively illustrated and easy to navigate website and appear to import lots of ranges which are hard to get in the US.

Living in the UK I have never shopped with NW (and knowing thier reputation never will), but as an 'outsider', their website certainly does look professional and well maintained, generating an aura of respectability.

The ONLY thing I ever use NW for are the pictures of figures. Once I know what something looks like, I'll go somewhere else to buy. They're just not reliable.

It's easy to stay in business when you get paid and don't deliver the product. 100% profit!

I ordered from them 2 times a year or so ago and didn't have any problems, but I then started hearing about the problems that they have, and have not ordered since.

So, I have had some success, but it was in the distant past.

I used to be a long time defender of New Wave. I'm not going to trash them as the guy who runs it is a pretty cool fellow - I talked with him a bit on the phone once to get some insight and I see why he has the difficulties he has. Believe me, greed or deception are not on the table. This is no scam operation - it's just a troubled and inefficient one.

Nonetheless, business IS BUSINESS. And I've given them every opportunity to take my money.

But first, I should make one thing clear - on their website, they list everything they CAN get, not everything they have on hand. That's the main problem. They don't recieve an order then not ship it; they recive an order and wait for the restock to come in.

At any rate they do a great deal of money in the biz and they simply can't keep up with the volume. To them, I do the obnoxious thing and ask'em if they have something in stock - if they do, no prob -I can get it as fast as any other vendor - but if they don't then who knows? But they don't have time to answer those enquiries; at all.

Evidence: I have on three seperate occasions sent them emails asking if they have certain thngs on hand - nearly all GW Empire Box sets of one kind or another. And these were each orders of around $70. Fairly common stuff GW - all over the place right? But no response. Which means to me: No stock. (because why would they just turn away an easy transaction?)

So clearly they got big problems they need to over come:

1) If you list everything you carry (not have on hand) then you must have a reliable way of communicating what is actually there and available to ship. So that when people order and have an expectation of recieving product within the next 2 weeks then they need to know BEFORE they order that that kind of turnaround is not a possibility. (there is a caveat on their site as it pertains to GW in particular that timing was spotty - but I'd rather be told it will be a year from today up front rather than a year going by before my order just shows up)

2) If this means that the stock area needs to be organized to make it quicker for employees to determine stock levels than that needs to be done - either a) have an accurate and electronic search of their own inventory or b)organize it in such a way that phyically checking the shelves is easy. I spose there is a c) but it's not practical: hire more people to answer phones, emails, dig through inventory.

3) or they could do the exact opposite (like most vendors do) and list on the site only what is on hand and available to ship. Maybe have a thing like AlbinoRhino and have color codes indicating the approximate units on hand for each item.

All these solutions mean really, REALLY getting a handle on what you have at every moment of every day.

Now, a lot of the problems they have are not based on business decisions but on technological ones. It is not a cheap and easy thing to organize all this electronically and seeing how they sell a million items it is a gargantuan task to start and to maintain.

It is also a technological problem that prevents them the ability to assign an order number - this would make organizing the customer data base much easier and would be the best first step towards damage control.

Now they know darn well what their problems are, they are just having a rough time getting it all solved - they got some stuff in the works to help fix all this. But until they do it's been far less frustrating to go elsewhere - the amount of quality discount vendors out there is just great - I've ordered from 2-3 others that specialize in one thing or another and have been largely happy doing that - I'd prefer to go to ONE place like New Wave promises but they just aren't there yet.

I am still waiting on miniatures from New Wave from over 2 1/2 years ago. I suggest you call your credit card company and dispute the payment now ... no matter WHAT New Wave or DAVID DOUST says... six months out from your order there is no way the credit card company can help you. I made this mistake when I kept listening to David's promises that my miniatures were in the mail!! Also file a complaint with the BBB, Attorney General and FCC (internet fraud). Sooner or later they will have to do something.

Never order from New Wave!! Only advice I can give is bombard them with e-mails and messages on their boards and answering machine and at some point you will get your money back. Took over six months of this and they finally got mine back.

Scott