Buying wargaming is hell (sometimes)

I've been selling services all my professional life. Plus services where you can't control part of the service, so a lot of things can just go wrong. Communication with clients is the alpha and omega of our whole business and it's something I pride myself on. Things like answering every email and getting it out as quickly as possible I consider not only key but necessary. Someone is giving me money and I'm here to earn that money, and I will only earn that money if I treat the client as the one giving me the money. That doesn't mean subordination to one party or the other, of course, but a form of partnership.

Could someone explain this to wargaming shops, from one-man-show studios to large (at least in our hobby) enterprises?

 

Communication isn't about throwing statuses on a social network, it's about working with your clientele. The client comes to you to buy, and you're there to make the purchase easier, simpler, and more engaging so that they come again.

 

This isn't just true for brick-and-mortar purchases, but also about Kickstarters and Online Shops.

I've now tackled a Kickstarter from an established company. I'm not going to address the delays, no one believes that the delivery date in the campaign is realistic (but it should be). However, she company for example has priced significantly lower for the domestic audience than for the rest of the world (which is in line with EU law for online sales), for the rest of the world she has burned the high flat postage. And when asked if something could be done about it, she pauses in the middle of the communication, so that finally, after four urgings within a month and a message on a public Facebook profile, I get the answer that yes, but that the poor guy is on his own and it is not possible to make special services for everyone. I got the discount, but even the IRS is nicer to you. As a client, I don't care. What I care about is that the backerkit quoted me almost double the postage they have on the regular eshop for the same item. Even if they don't give me a discount and politely apologize, I'll be more at ease than if the whole discussion makes me feel like I'm asking for a handout and they've graciously agreed to give it to me. I admit it may be a subtlety of my perception of the email I received, neither I nor he are native speakers of the language we were communicating in. But the sheer length of time I'm waiting for a response is driving me crazy.

Lets talk about other experience. 

An established company has a complaint only possible over the phone. He doesn't answer emails. I remind you that the cost of the call can be more than the price of the goods being claimed.

I'm also surprised that in 2024 some sellers have a webshop, but without photos of what I'm buying.

Or when a game store put clients' terrain into the thrash. Yes he has the right to do that, on the other hand we are back to the communication thing again.

Or when a company literally sends me up the ass (I admit I compared their sales tactics to GW's corporate practices, and previously criticized the historical inaccuracy of their sculpts).

Or when a vendor gets a flag wrong, they delete the review and don't respond to requests for correction (and I don't mean fantasy-sized flags only).

Or when a rules publisher doesn't proofread the rules, so they publish rules that are missing entire paragraphs.

When I compare the above to the approach of studios and companies like Oathsworn Miniatures, Footsore Miniatures, Oddzial Osmy, WDS Minibox, Warbases and others, the difference is glaring. And I'm not talking about plastic model companies and their customer care. But the best was Frontrank.

 

Dear Vendors, I would also agree with Dzhuro (from Facebook comments) that it's a hobby in which you pretty much excuse the lack of quality control on your part, to the point where it's almost a trend with some companies.

 

Dear Sellers. We appreciate your work, without you our hobby would not exist. Appreciate us, and if not us, then our money. Without it, you wouldn't exist.