Big Chief Studios - 1/6 Doctor Who - #1 William Hartnell

[DVD1]

And sorted. Thanks for the advice and support. I never really thought it was just me, but it begins to get that way!
Anyway, ordered and paid for. Well, with my dad's credit card! I told him I'd wire him the cash later today.

 

[Ombudsman]

Glad it worked out!

 

[Captain Britain]

Glad you got your order DVD1.

I've never had any hassles before but this is making me worried that paying for Sherlock will be a pain, especially as there's confusion now over whether I can complete the order using Paypal (I made my deposits with Paypal).

 

[DVD1]

I just paid it all up front. I would do so anyway, but I reckon that a payment plan would be even more hassle.
Over the course of 5 figures, I can recall some issues along the way.
The latest, I wasn't being allowed to pay ! The 11th Doctor, the site crashed (or that might have been Amy). 4th (or 10th); the link didn't work at all for me, and I got some help (thanks).
Ah, wouldn't it be so much nicer to just stroll into a store and pick it up off the shelf ?

 

[Underworld54]

And sorted. Thanks for the advice and support. I never really thought it was just me, but it begins to get that way!
Anyway, ordered and paid for. Well, with my dad's credit card! I told him I'd wire him the cash later today.

Congrats man, that wasn't so bad right? It only took 3 days or so.

 

[DVD1]

Haha!! I'm glad that I didn't wait to hear back from the priority preorder notification thing!! Still heard nothing from that.
I suppose all swell that ends well, but I agree they could be loosing sales from folk that don't persist, or the impulse buyer.
Now, I wonder what those unannounced accessories could be. See, I can be excited and enthusiastic about this now, instead of frustrated and concerned!!

 

[Ex-Parrot]

Glad you got it all sorted finally, but it's really disappointing that you never heard a single response back during that time in regards to the issues you were having.

Maybe we should start a support group.

Now, when's that Capaldi preview? Maybe the BBC can leak pics of the next figure in the line, they seem to be on a roll with that kind of thing lately...

 

[DVD1]

On Capaldi, I've seen the shots of the CO versions.. Yuk!
The 3 3/4" is a joke. The 5" is silly to look at and is 30 quid for one body and three heads. I wanted a 5" Capaldi to keep that range up to speed, but I'm not entertaining their price.

 

[Captain Britain]

Ah, wouldn't it be so much nicer to just stroll into a store and pick it up off the shelf ?

Well, you usually can, given your location, and at a reasonable price! It's karma - I think you deserve a bit of palaver for being able to pick up HT figures so easily!

 

[DVD1]

Haha!! That is very true.
I guess not too many people on these forums can just stroll down the street on day of release of any given HT figure and pick it up.
On that note, I found that the Enterbay store is a short walk from my apartment as well. That is a very tidy place. I'm not interested in buying their 1/4 scale stuff but it all looks amazing.
Back to these guys. These cost me about twice as much as an average HT figure. So yeah, karma.

 

[Taibhse]

...God, how many sales must they be losing? How many people would just give up, not email or try to struggle through, but just give up frustrated, with a bad taste in their mouth, and little chance of returning?

With a niche line where every sale is important, they really can't afford to continue down this kind of path, yet they always seem so apathetic about doing something to fix the frequent ordering problems that seem to continually arise. It's crazy...

I ordered the Exclusive and Limited Edition Dynamix 10th Doctor figures last year.. and I was surprised at the time, how bad the retail interface of Big Chief's website was.. I think I ended up having to effectively order the two figures separately and then add the combined shipping to the second figure.. intuitive it was not.

I assumed at the time it was teething problems with a new layout to the website, or something like that.. if BC's site is still that bad now, there really is no excuse for having such a poor interface (you can buy software of the shelf, with good online retail templates).. making it easy to buy your company's products, should always be the mandatory priority for a retailer.

So many people regularly shop online nowadays, virtually every customer who visits their website will recognise just how bad the experience is..and I agree, it will definitely be costing them lost sales.

 

[pixletwin]

I can't wrap my head around how my experience was so easy and others are having such a hard time. We all ordered, presumably from the same site. I clicked a few buttons, got my email, and I was done.

 

[VincentVegaFFF]

Hartnell looks really good, I think. Get him clutching his lapels and have him looking down a bit more and he'll look better than he does in those promo pictures, I think. Yes, I do, hmmm?

 

[kl241]

Anybody on the installment plan get a billing invoice to make a second payment? I have received nothing.

 

[The Mike]

I just came into this thread wondering the same thing, other than the initial order, haven't heard a thing about this from BCS

 

[Ex-Parrot]

Sorry, paid mine in full, so no idea.

 

[pixletwin]

I did the installments with my Baker figure and I don't recall ever getting any notices to pay. I just went to the website on the 20th of each month and paid.

 

[JonWes]

I kind of got the impression, though, that this WorldPay was different than that? Maybe not. I thought it was an automated pay system from the way it was described during check out. I haven't really understood the system they are using at all. I just tried to click on "Make A Payment" to try that, but it just spins and doesn't load anything.

 

[pixletwin]

Strange. Have they mentioned it on their website? I have never seen a company that made it so unintuitive and difficult to purchase their product. banghead)

 

[Ex-Parrot]

It's insane. I actually know people on other forums that have given up and won't buy anything else from Big Chief. Not because of price, or from being unhappy with the quality of the final product, but simply because of bad prior ordering and/or purchasing and/or customer service experiences, which has left them with a very bad taste in the mouth, and an overall feeling that trying to buy any of the new releases is just too much of a hassle to even bother with. This is an expensive line, so distancing any percentage of what is already a very niche customer base seems like something that a company might want to actively try to avoid as much as practically possible, rather than just let fester or largely ignore

And even as someone who desperately wants to see the Who line survive, and preferably thrive, I still can't in good conscience tell them to hang in there and encourage these fans who have given up to give Big Chief another shot, or say that it was just bad luck, and that it'll get better, and easier, and more streamlined, because we're actually talking in years now when it comes to promised website and payment system improvements, and more regular updates, and a smoother customer service experience, and it just hasn't happened, nor does it look likely to any time soon. So while I choose to grit my teeth and bare it, fight my way through whatever happens, and try to be extremely patient with whatever frustrations or issues may rear their ugly head along the way, I'm frankly not surprised that a lot of fans simply aren't willing to do that any longer. I mean we all expect teething difficulties, but when you've been around for years, not months, and have released a number of products, with a slew of others put up for pre-order, and yet more future releases being worked on, the 'give us time' excuse simply doesn't cut it any longer. It just doesn't.

Sorry about going off on a rant, but I just find the whole ignoring of the importance of the website, ordering system, and customer service component to be utterly insane and counter-productive for a primarily web based business. It truly boggles my tiny little mind, it really does...