GW Stock / IT System Issues

[alfred_the_great]

13 hours ago, Halandaar said:

Not sure how GW solves this problem; they finally implemented a 1-per-customer rule and they've still all gone on eBay. So is it people with multiple accounts? If so how do you stop that? 1 copy per delivery address even if it's multiple accounts that bought them? Even that can be gotten around to an extent, just seems like unless you come up with a pretty convoluted way of manually allocating books to buyers it's always going to be a problem.

 

The other thing though, is it even organised scalpers or just a lot of individual buyers taking a chance? I mean £400 profit for two minutes work makes it so appealing that probably even people who wouldn't normally do that sort of thing went after a copy. Frankly if I'd known people were genuinely prepared to pay £500 I might even have been tempted to try it myself, you can hardly blame people when that amount of money is involved. The people paying the prices have just as much to answer for as the people buying to re-sell, imo.

My understanding from mates who run semi-automated Amazon web stores is that this is fairly well done by bots. A person just has to point them in the right direction, and the programmes do it all themselves. 
 

they don’t care it’s 40k LE stuff, they just know that there’s a market for it all. 

[Zoatibix]

Was the poorly nature of the GW site the result of so many scalping bits hitting it? A sort of low level DDOS attack?

[Ubiquitous1984]

1 hour ago, Zoatibix said:

Was the poorly nature of the GW site the result of so many scalping bits hitting it? A sort of low level DDOS attack?

I’m not an expert in this field, but my guess would be: yes, it must be bot activity.  BL fans are a tiny subset of the greater GW fanbase.  The proof for this is the complete lack of attention/respect that GW gives BL and its fans.  The website was much slower yesterday for the BL celebration than it was for any major faction release that I can remember.  The SoT LE books are the most lucrative GW product for any scalper to get their hands on.  Therefore all the scalpers and their technology descend on the website when these SoT books are released, and buy as many as they can.

 

As I type this there is a guy on the BL Sales facebook group (which is a scalper sanctuary, the admin of the group has no problem with scalping as opposed to the BL Nutters fb group which is massively anti-scalper) who has FOUR copies of the SoT LE and is trying to flog them with offers accepted over £350! 

 

 

[Dark Shepherd]

My local GW also had no BL celebration books...for BL celebration Day

 

Ordered a book in there, was told 10 days or so for deliveries to arrive, and Im 240 miles from Nottingham

[Ubiquitous1984]

5 hours ago, Dark Shepherd said:

My local GW also had no BL celebration books...for BL celebration Day

 

Ordered a book in there, was told 10 days or so for deliveries to arrive, and Im 240 miles from Nottingham

In 2020 they had actual LE Lion books sent to the stores. 

 

These days, you’re lucky to find the BL section in a store.  

[crimsondave]

18 hours ago, Redcomet said:

This is a ridiculous idea. 
 

Either make more, make a POD system for these books a couple of months in advance, or however long their supply chain needs, or add a queue system and a “I am a human” thingy at checkout to make it as hard for the scalpers as possible 

Seriously!  How hard is to add a I am human tester?  They’ve been around almost as long as the internet has been publicly used.

 

If they don’t so something 10th edition rollout  will be a total cluster.  9th was bad enough.

[Kastor Krieg]

5 hours ago, crimsondave said:

If they don’t so something

Why would they, all stock gets sold, shareholders are happy.

[templargdt]

On 2/18/2023 at 11:38 AM, Valkyrion said:

I don't know how possible such a system would be to implement, but could GW offer those who have bought previous Collectors Editions from GW direct first crack at any future ones? 

At least that way if they still sell out they have at least been sold to a collector, rather than scalper, even if said collector then scalps their copy. It can't be botted, at least.

I've suggested before something that Wizards of the Coast used to have (don't know if they still do, I gave up Magic a long time ago) but players who registered for sanctioned events (even small ones) got a card and a "DCI number" that was unique to them.  GW could do the same thing, tie a specific number to a specific human, and use that to register for stuff like LE products.  

[MithrilForge]

As stated... GW only really cares if they get the sale and move the Limited stock they have and make max profit on it, bang boom ... move on to the next thing to make money on without needless warehouse space taken up. 

The fact that scalpers are Ebay'ing it is a double edged sword, if GW gamers weren't so fanatical about paying any amount to get the LE book then scalpers would be left high and dry with a ton of books/boxes of models no one's buying...but unfortunately "Greed" always wins out so it's our fault (not me though, I've never bought an LE book ever ,so not worth it ) that they (scalpers) exist in the first place...

I do blame GW largely though, for not caring enough about their loyal consumers to actually organise to make enough copies for a pre order, Limited Edition of anything is a bad thing really (yes, you are correct, I'm certainly not a capitalist )  

I do understand a lot of Gamers out there live just for this and LE books are their Hobby... i do lament for you though...  I feel like GW is losing their newly created Caring for our customers look that they manufactured after the kirby days... it's like they've forgotten and slumped back into the old habit of Money first customer satisfaction second... 

 

M.  

 

[Halandaar]

7 hours ago, templargdt said:

I've suggested before something that Wizards of the Coast used to have (don't know if they still do, I gave up Magic a long time ago) but players who registered for sanctioned events (even small ones) got a card and a "DCI number" that was unique to them.  GW could do the same thing, tie a specific number to a specific human, and use that to register for stuff like LE products.  

 

It doesn't seem to avoid any of the existing problems though; like if I register 5 times to the event under 5 different names and email addresses (and 5 different postal addresses to receive my cards) then I then get my 5 "unique" identifiers I can use to buy multiple LE products.

 

 

[StraightSilver]

I am still feeling annoyed with GW about this. I got up early on Saturday with the intention of dropping a couple of hundred quid on books, but ended up not being able to buy anything from GW.

 

And, because I'm a idiot, ended up instead spending £400 on ebay. That's £400 that GW could have had, if they sorted out their website issues.

[MARK0SIAN]

They should scrap truly limited editions and make them print to order for a limited window. That way it’s still limited as no more will ever be made but people can still get them if they want them. 
 

Something like the siege of Terra series could even have been a subscription series for the limited editions with the amount automatically paid as and when the new one was available. 
 

I think the days of anything genuinely limited in numbers being a sensible thing to choose for a business, when they know their customers will have to contend with bots, are a thing of the past. That won’t stop them doing it though. 
 

The people paying such ridiculous prices on eBay are also a huge part of the problem. 

[sarabando]

the fault lays 100% at our feet. its only because of the sheer lack of impulse control in some members of this community that this can happen. GW could easily look at ebay and go "oh they are willing to pay £400 for these books why arent we selling them at £400?" that is why we are in this situation, GW has no incentive to fix this issue because the more scalpers make it hard for real collectors to get their stuff the more susceptible we are to FOMO. Its a 100% win win for GW 

[skylerboodie]

22 minutes ago, sarabando said:

the fault lays 100% at our feet. its only because of the sheer lack of impulse control in some members of this community that this can happen. GW could easily look at ebay and go "oh they are willing to pay £400 for these books why arent we selling them at £400?" that is why we are in this situation, GW has no incentive to fix this issue because the more scalpers make it hard for real collectors to get their stuff the more susceptible we are to FOMO. Its a 100% win win for GW 

 

It's not though is it? GW do have responsibility for a lot of the fault in this, whether they take ownership of it or not. Whilst encouraging scalpers by paying their prices does fall on consumers, the whole situation is not of our making.

 

It's not a 100% win win for GW either, as they're currently leaving a lot of money on the table that scalpers are hoovering up. Clearly if they made more copies available, whether through print on demand or adjusting initial quantity, then they could do so in a way to increase their current profits without risking being out of pocket. Also, they should have an incentive to fix this as they are pissing off a lot of their book collectors and if they're not careful it won't be long before all interest in their limited editions completely drops off, especially once the Siege is over.

 

I get what you're saying but it's a bit of a black & white take.

[Joe]

 Chaps, the scalping issue is better suited for a different thread at this stage; this thread is for the on-going stock / system issues that are affecting the wider hobby, not the limited production books.

[Doobles57]

Have I missed GW taking responsibility for these delays and issues anywhere? I've seen posts from FLGS saying they've not been receiving everything on time and apologising for the delays, but they seem to be taking the flack (on SM not here) for something that isn't their fault. 

[Redcomet]

 

24 minutes ago, Doobles88 said:

Have I missed GW taking responsibility for these delays and issues anywhere? I've seen posts from FLGS saying they've not been receiving everything on time and apologising for the delays, but they seem to be taking the flack (on SM not here) for something that isn't their fault. 

It has been radio silence from the Ivory Tower as usual

[G8Keeper]

Has anybody managed to get any guidance on when things will be available/back to normal from emails to GW? I haven't been able to access the chat feature on their website today, but sent an email earlier re: arks of omen: abaddon, fingers crossed.

[Rusted Boltgun]

1 hour ago, G8Keeper said:

Has anybody managed to get any guidance on when things will be available/back to normal from emails to GW? I haven't been able to access the chat feature on their website today, but sent an email earlier re: arks of omen: abaddon, fingers crossed.

I had pre-ordered AoA:Abaddon via Element and was informed that it was unlikely to be available until 10 March so cancelled my order. 

Unfortunately, other elements of my order had by then gone out of stock so I'm left with no idea of when that might arrive.

[System Sound]

Another update on my order. I pre ordered the Boarding Actions terrain set. So around January 7th...

 

"Due to delivery problems and stock bottlenecks at Games Workshop, I have to inform you that there are still delays in your order. Unfortunately, it is currently not foreseeable when the missing items can be reproduced or delivered. Experience has shown that it takes about 4 weeks for the corresponding article to be reproduced, but in some cases this time has long since passed and even my sales representative cannot provide any information on how long it will take."

[Harrowmaster]

I received notification today that my Kasrkin and jetbikes pre order has been shippes by the retailer.

[sairence]

Yeah, my FLGS told me my Kasrkin are there and my Rough Riders and Aegis line should be there on time as well. Kinda surprising, a year or two ago, I at some point waited almost 6 months for 2 boxes of Scions.

[Lord_Ikka]

 

=][=  Moved to the Amicus section for further discussion, as this topic has become no longer news but sadly a fact of life. Continue on fraters!  =][=

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Lord_Ikka

[Doobles57]

This was the update from my FLGS. No restocks at the moment either, it's that much of a mess. Comments mention that the official Stores aren't fairing any better. 

[G8Keeper]

Happy that some fraters are getting their guard stuff