This will be a longer post. 😀
But I bet you don’t mind since it’s been a while since the last post here on The Bench. I finally ran out of interesting stuff to post about for a while, hehe.
In addition, it’s been a very long time since the last POD quality post here on The Bench. I haven’t really felt that the need for those remained after a while. But since I recently placed a large POD order myself, it seemed like a good opportunity to evaluate everything and bring constructive feedbck to SFG and to all of you.
This post is to evaluate my customer experience for this order, from start to finish.
Fulfillment time, quality, shipping, price, taxes, and overall feedback.
Quick tl;dr
Really overall it was all very good! Go get those GB minis that you know you want. 😉
I placed and paid the order on 9th of July. Got a confirmation email.
The order showed up in my webshop history behind the login wall on SFG website.
Everything worked smoothly.
After that I heard nothing for a while, which is absolutely what I expected. The official estimated time for Guild Ball orders over 200$ is 40 work days after all (on smaller orders it is 15 work days by official SFG estimate). Now and then I logged in to double-check if anything had changed in the order history. But nothing. Expected and perfectly fine.
Then on the 29th of July i recieved another email from SFG about my order. That is 14 work days from ordering. This email specified that my order was Partially Fulfilled. This I found out was due to the fact that me and a local friend ordered Warmachine products as well, to save on shipping and customs.
I was completely sure that it was the Warmachine stuff that got shipped and the GB stuff would take longer, since Warmachine in general holds a higher priority and has a different manufacturing chain and all that.
Didn’t think much more of it at the time.
Customs fee
Then I got an invoice a few days later from the customs office (I live in Sweden) that I had to pay almost 40$ to get my package released from customs. That was a bummer, but of course I paid it.
I want to note here that customs are nothing that SFG can do anything about. Many companies offer to declare packages as “gifts” to avoid/lessen the customs fees, but to be honest that’s not how it’s supposed to work. Also, customs laws will differ between countries and over time. Buying stuff from Brexit Land will be a bit expensive even for EU, and it’s still way cheaper than when items need to cross the big sea.
Delivery
Then yesterday the first package arrived! Yay!
However, it didn’t contain any Warmachine items. Imagine my surprise! It contained the complete 6 Guild Ball boxes that I ordered. I went back to double-check the email, and indeed further down than I had scrolled last time, there was listed all items that would be shipped at this time, and it specified the Guild Ball stuff.
Happy days! 😀
Regardless of my error in not reading the email (haha!) I want to say that this email makes a lot of difference.
In the beginning of the POD we didn’t get such info, so now that this information is being sent (presumably on all GB orders) it is really a huge improvement. To be clear I mean the email saying that a shipment is ready to go, and will include [this]. Simple as that. It keeps the restless people like me in the loop what’s happening with my order, so that waiting is just boring and doesn’t lean over towards annoying or frustrating.
I tend to lean towards the positive and forgiving side of things, but I’ve seen other good and sensible people on the Guild Ball discords get really upset about the long wait times with no info. This is a really good step towards better info to the customers to keep us happy while waiting.
Kudos to SFG for getting this sorted out.
(Now the second package that contains the WM stuff is most highly longed for as well, by both me and my friend. But naturally that’s not something I’ll cover here.) 😉
Packaging
Overall the packaging felt good and sturdy.
The order was packed in two separate cardboard boxes, each containing a number of the smaller white boxes that we’ve seen before. The two outer boxes was wrapped with a black plastic bag, which had the shipping info taped onto it.
Inside the white boxes each miniature is bubble-wrapped separately. Unlike last time I ordered, this time they actually had one wrap for each model, and not 1-3 together in each wrap. This was way better.
Overall really good packaging.
Quality
This order was for the full Engineers Guild and full Butchers Guild. That is both team boxes of each, and the Bench for each, so a total of 6 products with lots of models.
Lots of models mean lots of individual chances for a print to be messed up, I thought. And recently there’s been a bit of criticism about the Butchers specifically, both about print quality and missing parts and such. But not today!
Overall looking really good, including both guilds. The details are crisp and the material has enough flexibility to not break easily, but to not at all be bendy.
There are a few issues that I’ll show further down, but overall I am very happy with these miniatures. None of the issues are big enough to make me the least bit annoyed, but they still bare showing to you.
First quality issue
The Engineers captain Pin Vice model has some holes in it that aren’t supposed to be there. One on the head and a few more on the back on her cloak.
I don’t know enough about 3D resin printing to say what could’ve caused it, but they’re clearly visible. Marked by arrows in the pictures below.
Second quality issue
Tiny Tendy makes another appearance! I saw someone the other day saying that “just make the new size canon at this point” and being frustrated. While I can absolutely understand the frustration, I’m still in camp “kinda fun so not angry, but I do want a proper sized one”.
Third quality issue
Support leftovers.
Last time I ordered (Shepherds Guild and Skatha Hunters then) there were quite a few supports left on several models. I don’t really mind that since I still think it’s way better than mould lines on metal models.
This had improved since last time, for the models in this order barely have any visible supports remaining at all. A few of them do have support leftovers though, and in the case of Ox his entire back and base was studded with it.
It’s nothing that can’t be easily handled, so I’m not annoyed by it, but it’s still somehting for the QC to look out for a bit more maybe.
Fourth quality issue
One of the models I recieved had a warped base. Not so bad that it can’t be used as it is, but i really wobbles when lying on a flat surface.
Since it’s only a Nest Marker though, I really don’t mind that much. 🙂
Fifth quality issue
Broken pieces. I’ve seen some people’s order that have lost multiple pieces, and some that wasn’t even in the package at all. I think some/many of those instances will be due to international shipping rather than due to anything done wrong by SFG or the printing partners.
One broken piece each on vBoar and on vVelocity. Both can easily be fixed with super glue hopefully.
Summary
Overall I’m really happy with the whole order. The quality issues are relevant, but I do consider them relatively small. The shipment and delivery was absolutely way faster than anticipated, which was obviously great. And the email notification about the shipment was a real improvement compared to last time I ordered from the POD.
I will contact SFG Support and apply for a new Pin Vice and a correct Tenderiser, and maybe also an extra Nest marker.
But I am in no rush to get the replacements, and other than that I’m really happy with all of it.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my thoughts!
Now I just need to get on with painting this lot 😀
See you on the pitch people!
