Hassles with Hasslefree - merged issues thread

[Wachaza]

I'm only at five weeks from order but still being ignored.

Three weeks later and still being ignored. One last attempt and then paypal dispute.

[dadlamassu]

On 2 March after 11 weeks of unanswered phone calls, ignored emails and intervention by others on my behalf I received this email: 

Shipping Despatch Notification
We are pleased to say your order has been despatched and will be on its way to you.

As is typical nothing has arrived.  The "despatch" comes after the Ice Age and predates the latest Biblical excuse so should not have been affected.  Plagues and Floods this time so a delay of 40 days and 40 nights and my figures ending up in the Mountains of Ararat?  Maybe soon the Taff will run with blood, or a plague of frogs or locusts? 

I have emailed them again today.  Considering Advertising Standards (email and phone contacts are false) maybe Trading Standards (theft of money, breach of H&S law, breach of contract).

[Mr.J]

Another newsletter this morning...

Slight Delays at Hasslefree HQ

Hello Everyone

Just a quick announcement to let people know we currently still  have slight delays. We were hoping to be back to normal this week but sadly I have been in hospital.

I picked up another infection in my face, I have had tests and they are fairly confident it isn't my TN back but I am still in a lot of pain and there is no easy solution due to covid restrictions limiting oral surgeries under sedation.

I'm hoping to get some kind of surgery this week. It's not life threatening, just incredibly painful.

What Does This Mean?

Other than the 'slight delays', not a lot. I still haven't been able to answer some people questions etc because the answer is at the warehouse, so also some delays in communication.

We have got in some emergency help to limit the delays and make sure regular orders are going through.

Our metal caster is back from his sick leave so we have had in a huge restock which should cover all 'pre orders' and the temp help will make sure they are going out.

Just a little more patience required and we should be back to schedule again, we have had to scrap March's releases obviously so we'll just skip a month and release again later this month.

Other News

'Please' check if your order has a pre order in it before emailing about it. A lot of people don't seem to have noticed this and I have spent a lot of my non-sick work time letting people know that they have ordered a pre order (Which is why we don't normally do them ).

And if you are after an answer about an order, please use BWARTEMIS at GMAIL dot COM and give me a little more time to get to them, I am staying away from the ocmputer during painkiller hours so people don't get weird replies

That's it! I hope anyway, next newsletter had better have some good news in it!

Arty.

Just for anyone awaiting an order/response.

[cadbren]

A real cowboy outfit that does not care.

I'm sure they care at some level but in my experience most miniature companies are slow and few are honest when it comes to what is in stock.

[Wachaza]

Three weeks later and still being ignored. One last attempt and then paypal dispute.

Now they're ignoring the paypal case.

[Karadek]

Some mixed news on this front. I looked them up on Facebook, sent a message, and got one back requesting me to forward an email to them. Nothing since then, so who knows?

So an update. Nothing happened. Over a year after my order, I still have no minis, and no responses to emails and messages on FB.

[dadlamassu]

I have used all 4 of their email addresses and their phone number.  Yesterday I sent them this, it is not a threat but a promise. 

To  bwartemis,    Hasslefree Miniatures Website,    HF Minis Crew,    info@hfminis.co.uk 

You may ignore this as usual but if you do be aware that on 1 May I will lodge a complaint with Advertising Standards Authority and your local Trading Standards unless you respond and complete my order.

[nozza_uk]

Now they're ignoring the paypal case.

Not surprised, they ignored my Paypal dispute when I raised one last year. There is hope, it only took 10 days for Paypal to make a ruling in my favour.

[Wachaza]

Now they're ignoring the paypal case.

Still no response to paypal.

[dadlamassu]

I have used all 4 of their email addresses and their phone number.  Yesterday I sent them this, it is not a threat but a promise. 

To  bwartemis,    Hasslefree Miniatures Website,    HF Minis Crew,    info@hfminis.co.uk 

You may ignore this as usual but if you do be aware that on 1 May I will lodge a complaint with Advertising Standards Authority and your local Trading Standards unless you respond and complete my order.

Complaints now submitted.  The ASA process was remarkably easy.

[Mr.J]

Newsletter dropped today, further admin issues:

Just keeping you guys up to date on the issues here at HF.

Both 'admins' i.e. the two of us who answer FB and emails etc are down right now. We#re both being a bit screwed by the end of the covid issues. Sal's operation was cancelled due to admin issues and she is currently in alot of pain due to complications with her meds and I am still awaiting surgery and spend some days high as a kite.

Please don't ask Kev about order issues, he literally will have no ability to answer as he doesn't do admin and he's in a different country to the warehouse. We will be back on top of it as soon as our bodies let us

What Does This Mean?

Admin is screwed at the moment, I am adjusting meds and should be fine this coming week to catch up a fair bit.

Actual orders, those not requiring admin assistance like pre orders or those with questions/requests etc., are going out fine as we have temp help in to sort that. So 90% of business is going smoothly.

However, as a bunch of you probably found out, the admin side is experiencing delays. A bunch of people would have received their orders before their despatch emails and that kind of things.

It did have a couple of real effects. First, some resin delay, as I left a resin order open on my computer without pressing send for days while pretty high on pain meds. And second a couple of errors/delays with pre order items, I'm listing those below ..

Pre Order Issues

The biggest one is Post Apoc Gang, that needed a complete remould, which is currently underway. Shouldn't take too long.

The others, which are all currently being sorted are ...

40mm Artemis (metal)
Dwarves w Spears
Titania
Elite Vince
Maybe a couple of others, I will update on the front of the website tomorrow when I double check.

All are being resolved, resins shoudl all be fixed this week (might be a slight delay with Oakley), metals are in poroduction and waiting on an ETA.

Please' check if your order has a pre order in it before emailing about it. A lot of people don't seem to have noticed this and I have spent a lot of my non-sick work time letting people know that they have ordered a pre order (Which is why we don't normally do them ).

And if you are after an answer about an order, please use BWARTEMIS at GMAIL dot COM and give me a little more time to get to them, I am staying away from the computer during painkiller hours so people don't get weird replies

That's it! Apologies we had a bump in the new schedule, we are awaiting my surgery and the above to be fixed before getting back on metal releases but they are coming back asap. We appreciate your patience as always


Arty.

[Paratrooper 42]

I saw this same message posted on another forum.  Seeing it here again got me thinking.

I do wonder why companies that get into such troubles persist in trying to make their business model work. Albert Einstein is widely credited with saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

IMHO Hasslefree are great at sculpting miniatures, they're some of the best figures out there. Even if they're not your period or scale I think most gamers would agree the figures are of a very high standard.

Clearly they're not so good on the production and order fulfilment part of things - so why not outsource that?  Outsourcing costs can be recouped through wage/rent savings and offset by using the time freed up from production to create more sculpts. I'm not saying that would be an easy option, or an easy choice (especially where friendships and family are involved) but sometimes in business you have to make some tough decsions.

Personally, I think if Kev had a reliable production capability that could get his sculpts to market and fulfil orders in a timely manner, then Hasslefree could indeed live up to their name.

[BZ]

I love their sculpts, want to buy a lot of them, but Im always scared off...

[Storm Wolf]

Paratrooper,

Yes I agree completely, I used Hasslefree extensively over the years and I have lots of their minis, but I agree the past few years has seen the delivery side go down the poop shute a bit, although I have not had this misfortune myself.

I think they should do what Copplestone did and outsource the stock/delivery side etc to something like Northstar, job done

Glen

[Wachaza]

Can't respond to emails, can't respond to paypal cases. I love the miniatures but using Artemis Black as a fulfilment system has destroyed the business for me. You can't get the minis and if there's a problem you are completely ignored.