Rohan Stronghold kit sold out?

[zoidpinhead 12476xp 2]

I’ve been very impressed by the Rohan scenery kits that GW are producing.  I was very keen to get some and was interested in the Stronghold that would be a combination of the various kits to make a small settlement.  I was sent an email by GW this evening at 18:07 which mentioned that the kits were up for pre-order.  I got to the GW site less than an hour and a half later to find the stronghold is already “No Longer Available Online”.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Rohan-Stronghold-2019

WFT GW?  If you can’t be bothered to make even enough for an hour’s worth of online demand in the UK on a Monday evening then what are you playing at.  Is it just that you only really want to sell the kits individually.  Why bother with a combined set at all?

Deliberately making runs that are too small to meet even a fraction of the likely demand is just weird business practice.  Do they not bother to research what their customers might actually order or is there some strange benefit to be gained from selling out immediately.  They did it with the Sisters Army Set and now again almost immediately with another hot product.  I’m struggling to understand what they are up to?

[sundancer 42596xp 2]

This is why I can’t take GW seriously any more… they start to drift into very bad FOMO territory and are hyping their stuff up to “collect them all now!” levels more and more.

Nope, GW, you ain’t seeing any of my money soon.

[ninjillyParticipant 11673xp 1]

I don’t know why they emailed today tbh – the pre-orders went up and sold out on Saturday. Unfortunately they continue to either underestimate demand or deliberately short to drive a “buy it immediately” mentality. There hasn’t been a dice set since the game got a new edition that hasn’t sold out within 2 minutes of going live, now they seem to have added in this bundle to that tactic. The buildings are all available separately and if you buy through local retailers it will get close to the price.

[phaidknott 7012xp 0]

Well I said my piece in the last thread, and the findings were “not a problem if GW want to do things their way”. But they’ll continue to do so, and push the envelope as far as they can with the FOMO marketing. I SERIOUSLY doubt GW are able to make the same “mistake” to this magnitude by accident 🙁

 

[frankeleeParticipant 1159xp 1]

It’s a frustrating, very customer last sort of way they do business at GW. Whatever their unfailing fanbois say about “don’t buy it then/capitalism/shut up because other’s opinions hurt my ears,” put safely aside for the moment, most companies at least have the decency to do the meta-elements of driving up sales and other un-nice practices with a nod and a wink. Not so openly, and in your face with it. With most of these large box sets it seems they’d prefer to drive up the FOMO, the desperation, and then once you’re emotionally set on getting it, sell out before you get there and instead sell you the individual elements for two to three times the price weeks or months later. Hopefully after you’ve spent that month’s fun money and some of their other available product to tide you over. It’s basically what stores in America used to do before state governments started making them give rain checks out, because it’s such a deceitful practice.

Though at least those buildings look pretty doable if you’re into homemade terrain. Might even take them a few steps further on size and details for a lot less money overall.

[silverfox8 3936xp 1]

Yeah a lot of pissed off SBG fans!  Me included!   Cant for the life of me understand why they do this.  I tried to get a set of dice inside the first hour and they were sold out.  Ridiculous.  I just wish if there is some type of business reason that they would tell their customer base why they do this.  We may not like the answer but at least we would understand why and not feel so betrayed!  I cant help but think they are driving away business that they could also be keeping.

[zoidpinhead 12476xp 1]

Thanks for the comments.  If this is purely FOMO marketing then they aren’t getting their calculations on demand right at the moment.  Dice sets that sell out in minutes and a big ticket item like the Sisters Army or this gone in an hour or so.  They are leaving customers’ money on the table.  Worse they are marketing a product they have no real intention of supplying.  That means channels like ours get suckered into featuring the product and helping to build customer expectation.

To buy the same setup in individual kits is not a big difference in price if you avoid full GW retail.  With the discounts available from the OTT store the set bought severally comes in not far over £150.  I’m sure that isn’t a coincidence.

Unfortunately they have seriously annoyed another potential customer.  Deliberately setting out to not meet customer expectation is a terrible communication strategy and this customer is taking his money and putting it somewhere more appreciative.  I see Fougou’s Mud Brick Starter still has 48 hours left.  I’m off to do some sums and see if I can manage the all in pledge.

[tobymagillMember 1414xp 1]

TBH this isn’t a demand issue or a FOMO issue with regard to the stonghold set. You can still pre-order all the componants individually so the stock is still there if you want it. All that has changed is they have limted the 36% discount for the Stronghold set to x number of sets. Limiting how much you sell on  discount is pretty standard commercil practice. Still highly annoying if you missed out, but it isn’t anything sinister.

If it helps you can order the pieces from our very own OTT shop (and get a very nice letter from Warzan to boot) at a 21% discount and free delivery if you order over £40. Not quite matching the Stronghold discount but still very good (industry leading for online stores as far as i can see).

[phaidknott 7012xp 0]

Well it’s obviously a demand issue as gamers want to buy but it’s not available….

At the end of the day the Customer isn’t there to be messed around with (or ideally frustrating the customer is simply “bad customer service). Advertising a deal to generate hype and then snatch it away is never good PR for those that weren’t quick enough). What GW need to do is stop with the marketing gimmicks and just release items to stock (rather than have anything that falls under “limited release”), then gamers CAN buy the goods as advertised.

It’s what they used to do, it’s only these past 5 years or so we’ve seen the “Limited” shenanigans start and then continue to grow until it’s the dominant form of marketing from GW. It’s impact is starting to drive customers away (when there’s no need to do so). Just release items to the retailer list, make it so that customers and retailers can still order the thing a month after release and you’ll see a lot less moaning from the frustrated customer.

…..at the end of the day it’s all basic customer service, happy customers mean customer loyalty and repeat sales at the end of the day.

 

[sundancer 42596xp 2]

If GW would do this in stores in Germany they would be in a bit of trouble. Consumer rights here say that if you do a promotional sale you have to make sure there is enough stock to last, I think, 2 weeks. If the organization for consumer protection gets to many complaints about a store doing those “baiting” offers they can be sued.

[sulphurParticipant 952xp 0]

I really wanted the first profile cards that came out ,but they sold out in quick time.

I emailed GW to ask if there was going to be a restock and was given some bullshit excuse and about keeping an eye on the website . There are only a couple of players in my club and nobody got them. This is driving people away from the game . I emailed  them back and told them I wasn’t happy and was considering selling my middle earth models.

[ninjillyParticipant 11673xp 0]

On the cards – news from Throne of Skulls this past weekend is that they are coming back into stock after another print run. No date yet but at least in this instance they have acknowledged that the demand merits a reprint.

[sulphurParticipant 952xp 1]

lets hope that they reprint enough to go round, cheers

[ninjillyParticipant 11673xp 1]

Hahaha, that’s just crazy talk!

[onlyonepinman 18053xp 2]

I have mostly given up on GW stuff these days. If it’s not the speed of releases with multiple big ticket items being released in close proximity to each other it’s a complete lack of supply which feels very much like artificial scarcity. I don’t like being pressured into buying something in a specific day and in many cases I can’t afford to buy on the first pre-order day because of life. So rather than even give them the benefit of my attention and end up disappointed because it sold out within minutes of preorders going up, I just look at other games, other miniatures and other scenery.

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