A Tale of Woe and Customer Service

I don't have any paid advertising on this site.  Any advertising there is happens to be a byproduct of blog and gaming networks I belong to.  This blog is about my love of Warhammer 40K, not about making a buck, or helping someone make a buck.  For Games Workshop and the vendors it's all about making money, and that's fine, but my goal isn't to help them with that.  My goal is to write about the game, share videos about it, and pass along new or interesting information I want to share.

That being said, this hobby of ours does require we buy stuff.  We all have vendors we like, some are based on price, some on location, and some just because we like the people who work/hang out there.  This story I'm about to share is about my first time buying anything from MiniWarGaming.com.  A purchase I made just this last July.



Now some of you might be a little surprised to find out I only recently made my first purchase from them.  After all I am a member of their blog network, and have featured their videos quite regularly in my weekly 40K Neotube feature.  It's not that I haven't looked at them before, because I have.  However, either the timing or the price were never quite right.

Fast forward to July and their free magnet giveaway that I did push.  Can you blame me?  Free magnets, man.  That's a deal everyone needed to hear about.  So when the day hit I ordered.  Right away.  Without informing my wife.

I can't remember what happened but for some reason I never told her I bought the magnets, until she saw the charge on our credit card.  A charge for the full amount of the magnets.  Obviously she wasn't happy, and neither was I.  So I called MiniWargaming.com to clear it.  And they did...faster than the bruises from my wife healed.

While I was waiting for them to refund me the price of the magnets (not the shipping, as per the deal) the box came.  I decided to sit on opening it in case there was an issue with the refund.  Eventually the full price was reversed and we were refunded the $14.99, and I could open my box.  I was so excited, after all this is what I needed to be able to do my Ork Trukk and Deff Dred.  That night after I got out of work and finished all my family obligations I hurried into my computer/hobby room and opened the box.  Only to find a bag of Mike and Ike™ Tangy Twister candies.  I was crestfallen.  I was angry.  I was hungry.  Not even the delicious candy could sate my first two emotions.

I called them up immediately, and they again took care of me.  The day after Labor Day I opened the mailbox and found another box.  I hurriedly opened it and found a package of Mike and Ike™ Tropical Typhoon candies.  I wasn't enjoying the joke when I found - much to my relief - the magnets I ordered hidden under a flap in the box.

I'm of course very happy.  They worked with me twice to do right by me (without any mention of writing about them in my blog), and the second time they could have easily disregarded my complaint as someone trying to get some more free magnets from them (which I wasn't).  Not only that, but I feel vindicated for how much inadvertent advertising I've given them.  Oh sure their videos are enjoyable but whenever I feature a video of theirs I am giving them pub.  And with the metascore and logo on my page that's free advertising for them too.  However they treat their customers well, they work with them when things don't go right, and they went the extra-mile to make me happy.  And now I can begin work on my Dred and Trukk.

Thanks MiniWarGaming.com, thanks for reminding us that even with the vendors it's not always just about making money.  It's about making fanatics like me customers, and making customers like me happy.