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Author Topic: Issues with Black Tree Design - ongoing  (Read 40969 times)

Online nicknorthstar

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #15 on: March 23, 2019, 05:48:18 PM »
Hi everyone.

I know the BlackT guys personally. I've been watching the complaints about their company over the past 15 years, it never changes.

I've not said anything publicly all these years, and I'm not happy about doing it now, but they are not a company in the sense I am, or Warlord, or Foundry, or anyone really. My advice would be don't go to their website, look for alternative figures. Doesn't have to be from North Star, this is advice from gamer to gamer, it's not intended to be about bad mouthing other miniature suppliers.














 

Offline Dr. Zombie

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #16 on: March 23, 2019, 06:56:36 PM »
Admittedly I have only bought from BTD 3 times but without any difficulties all times. By the sound of it I might have been lucky.

Offline Shahbahraz

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #17 on: March 23, 2019, 07:03:47 PM »
Thanks Nick, I have raised a dispute with Paypal. And in all likelihood, that money will be spent with Crusader instead.

The reality is that ALL the wargames vendors I have dealt with over the years, have been so fantastic, from Eureka, through Warlord, Supreme Littleness, and yes, Northstar, and many others. this is way beyond my ken. I seriously wonder how they stay in business.
Wargaming since the dark ages...

---https://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com/---

Offline beefcake

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Re: Black Tree Design
« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2019, 07:36:19 PM »
I've been waiting on a big order since December also. At first I was in good contact with them, always with promises of "next week ". 25 unanswered emails later I'm starting to get a little  pissed. I thought PayPal extended the dispute time from 45 days to 180?
That is correct.


Offline Inkpaduta

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #19 on: March 23, 2019, 10:43:08 PM »
Now, I had heard that the service for BTD from the USA site had gotten much better.
Which one are you using when making these complains? Just would like to know.

Offline fitterpete

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #20 on: March 24, 2019, 12:42:21 AM »
Inkpaduta, I've dealt with the US side for years and never had a problem, till now. But this is the first time I've ordered in about 2 years.                                    Nick's advice is sound but during the 40-50% off sales no one can even come close to the per figure price. That's what sucks us suckers in lol   . Of course 40% off figures you never get is no deal anyway. For instance unlike Shahbahraz there is no way I can get the type of orc and goblin I wanted , and in the amounts I ordered , without spending 5 times what I did. So sometimes I roll the dice. This time it came up snake eyes  lol
« Last Edit: March 24, 2019, 12:47:32 AM by fitterpete »

Offline katie

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #21 on: March 24, 2019, 11:44:34 AM »
"I know the BlackT guys personally. I've been watching the complaints about their company over the past 15 years, it never changes."

Is something that's actually fixable?

(Do they just need some process re-engineering doing or something?)

Online nicknorthstar

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #22 on: March 24, 2019, 04:43:54 PM »
No, it's not fixable Katie. It's the nature of what they are doing. I don't want to go into details, except to reiterate, they are not a business. They can't be judged by the same standards. And I get the price thing Fitterpete, course I do. But if you're not running a business, you can sell at whatever price to get some money in. So they collect a pile of money through a sale, and then try to work out how to get the stuff to people through a cockamamie Scotland-Texas-Cornwall shenanigan... 

Offline Dolmot

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #23 on: March 24, 2019, 07:33:39 PM »
Nowadays I refuse to call them sales because it's barely possible to buy anything from them at the "normal" price. I remember when their twice-extended "50% off everything" summer sale turned overnight into a Christmas sale. Then the reason was dropped for good and it was just a permanent sale. lol

But yeah, those de facto normal prices (aka sale prices) are often incredible. I've ordered stuff from them a couple of times within the last 15-20 years. Sometimes the price was 50p per mini or something like that when picking the craziest unit deals. I don't know how it works. (OK, some ex-sculptors have explained how that side worked. It was...optimised.)

And yeah, already in the mid-00s the orders could take several months to arrive. I can't remember the exact details, but I'm pretty sure that one time it took over three months and even then a whole 20 figure unit was missing from the box. (I got it, eventually, after even more waiting.) My latest order was probably in 2015. I think it was reasonably fast that time, but a factor which appears as sheer luck to the observer plays a major role in the result. Communications have also been quite random, always.

So...I'd say it's not a scam, but it has been erratic by its very nature for as long as I can remember. Business as usual. :?

Offline Shahbahraz

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #24 on: March 24, 2019, 09:20:11 PM »
And it would be discourteous of me not to advise that a package has finally arrived from BTD. Not all the figs, but a decent start.

I also wonder why the 4 MG34 teams I ordered seem to have 6 MG34s and not enough loaders, and the flash on some of the figures is horrendous! 

Offline Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #25 on: March 25, 2019, 01:11:31 AM »
They've started doing KS so things can only get worse!

Offline boneio

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #26 on: March 26, 2019, 12:46:32 PM »
They delivered quite nicely on the pirate kickstarter. Still waiting on the adventurers one, but that's not entirely unusual for Kickstarter.

Offline SABOT

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #27 on: March 27, 2019, 01:07:11 AM »
Just spotted this on FB .......



An apology and explanation
Hi

 

About a month ago I appeared to vanish from the face of the earth. No emails were answered, no phone calls returned, nada. I apologize for all the chaos this has caused.

 

After all the troubles at the beginning of the year, we were finally making great strides sorting out the problems in early February. Many of those advances were put back.

 

About a month ago my Father was rushed into Hospital with Stage 4 Heart Failure and shortly after we were told that he only had about 2 weeks to live. He spent a week at the VA Hospital, was transferred to Northwest Texas Hospital and after both informed us there was nothing they could do, he was admitted into a Rehab/hospice. Dad has stabilized a bit but the prognosis is not good. I was/am devastated. I could not handle things very well and only managed to return to work a few days ago. I know this may seem like way too much information but I wanted to explain what had happened.

 

We are doing everything to get things back on track as soon as possible. I hate to ask you to be patient again but we only need a little more time. Restock deliveries are expected in the US next week, deliveries to Cornwall are imminent, and I am scheduled to cut a number of moulds to improve shipping times.

 

John Olsen

Offline fitterpete

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #28 on: March 27, 2019, 01:32:38 AM »
Just got it in my inbox. I feel for him, I really do. My mother has terminal cancer so I get it. That being said my order was from December, thay had 2 months to get it out the door. I was told constantly thru Jan. and Feb. "Next week the restock arrives"  I wish his family well but I'm done with BTD. I'll let this order go till right before the paypal cutoff because there is nowhere else to get the orcs and goblins anyway. But later this year I was going to do a dwarf army with their figs and whatever I could scrounge of old GW metals off ebay. No way now.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2019, 01:37:29 AM by fitterpete »

Offline grant

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Re: Issue with Black Tree Design !?
« Reply #29 on: March 27, 2019, 03:55:33 AM »
I think I’ve been lucky in that US BTD has never let me down, and I’m always impressed by the quality and of course prices.

That said... I read so many horror stories.

It’s been a few years since I’ve ordered from them, and although I feel sympathy for the owner’s father - any proper business would be able to persevere. My opinion.

Good luck everyone ...
It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words - Orwell, 1984