Sometimes, the Little Things Are the Big Things

My experience with vendors and manufacturers in the hobby is that they almost always offer excellent service.  Orders are filled and delivered quickly even from overseas.  I have grown accustomed to this almost universal, first-rate customer service.  OK, there are times when expectations fall short but these instances are few and far between.  Recently a few transactions stand out having surpassed my expectations.  Three of these recent encounters, I highlight below.

Lancashire Games always provides good figures at good value.  Shipping is always quick and communication superb.  Shipping is set to a percentage of total order value as is typical from many UK vendors vendors when shipping to USA.  Sometimes, the postage estimate is off but usually the actual is close to the charged.  On smaller orders, the difference can be exaggerated.  On my last order, however, charged postage was double the posted postage (BP20 vs BP10).  A quick email to Allan and a refund of the postage overage appeared in my PayPal account with a courteous explanation.  Outstanding!          

19th Century Miniatures has been a key supplier for my 1859 project and a small pile of Russian SYW figures.  Turn-around from order to delivery is usually within two weeks.  In the past when receiving figures that were not properly cast, figures were replaced without question.  The transaction I describe to today goes above and beyond my expectations.  What happened?

In mid-summer 2019, 19th Century Miniatures announced a new line of French for the French Revolutionary War.  Always interested in sampling new figures for possible inclusion into my 1799 project, I ordered a number of bags of infantry and cavalry.  When the order arrived, the figures looked good but some sculpts were not as crisp as expected.  One noticeable attribute of the infantry was that some of the legs seemed rather thin.  I thought not much about the casting quality since no figures had yet pushed into the painting queue.  Three dozen were primered but were left to linger.

In December, I received an email stating that the French infantry neither met their sculpting expectations nor quality control.  To rectify the situation, they offered to replace any infantry purchased from the new FRW line for free.  After a couple of email exchanges, a box of replacement French infantry is on its way.  I look forward to comparing the old sculpts with the new replacements.  Awesome customer care, right?   
   

Finally, a recent ebay purchase arrived in a less than pristine state.  The postal box received some rough handling in transit.  Had the contents been well-packaged, I expect no damage to have occurred.  As it was, the game was simply put into the USPS Priority box with no packing materials.  While I still rated the seller highly in all categories, I noted the packaging shortfall in my comments.  Less than a week later, an envelope arrived with the game, Merrill's Marauders (MM), and an apology.  Very commendable gesture and certainly a surprise.

With little interest in this WWII theater, I put the game aside.  Only this week was the game pulled out, read, and put on the table for a game.  As a solitaire game, MM is terrific and perfect for someone restricted to play on the kitchen table while a broken leg mends.  Expect to see a review of this little gem soon.

Seems I recall one more example of going above and beyond but that transaction fails my memory for now.  I am sure others have experienced similar levels of commitment from vendors.