The Obi-Wan clone statue and the crooked headed Royal Guard got me to give up on the statue line and sell most of the ones in my collection. I will honor my remaining preorders, but sell them unopened when they arrive. (My unopened Slave Leia is on eBay right now, in fact.)
I will continue to collect the SW animated maquettes and the HP busts, but the SW busts are getting to be nothing but hassle. The pieces either get overproduced and take a dump in value, making you regret your preorder for twice the going rate, or else they underproduce and make them nearly impossible for the average collector to afford on the secondary market.
But their stubborn refusal to simply listen to their customers is what has really burnt me out with them. Whereas SS interacts and makes changes and improvements based upon our feedback, GG just continues to do the opposite of what we ask and suggest--and with almost universally disastrous results. We begged them to give PG members an advance preorder window for the SDCC items. "Don't worry," they said, "We've increased server capacity." And then many of us spend five hours in front of a computer screen last Thursday, some ultimately to have the system continually dump their shopping cart out or give them an error message when they try to check out. Based on what I heard about how they handled their lines at CIV, we will be in for a real treat next week. My e-mails have gone unanswered, they have no publicized GGLTD customer service number, and they have now shut down the blog. Could they make it any harder for their customers to contact them? All I found on their website was this, in the FAQ:
How can I reach you by mail?
A: All mail can be sent to: Gentle Giant Ltd. 7511 N. San Fernando Road, Burbank, CA 91505.
Then they bury the e-mail submission even further down, but good luck getting a response from them--mine have gone unanswered. Apparently the person reading them also deals with inquiries about scanning services and press inquiries. They simply don't have the manpower to deal adequately with the needs of their customers.
When I thought the system had messed up my credit card last Thursday, I got someone to PM me a contact number. When I called and asked for customer service, they told me that she (singular) was busy and I could leave my name and number. I asked if I could be put on hold or leave a voice mail. They said no, but they could take my name and number and write it down and walk over and hand it to her, and she would get to it later. I'm sorry, but even the smallest of small businesses have a better CS setup than that. To be fair, I actually did get a call back hours later. But when I have called Sideshow (using the toll free number printed on just about every page of their catalog or website or on the bottom of every package they ship) I get a person who helps me ASAP. I'm talking about, "Let me put you on hold while I go talk to my manager" with the problem solved less than five minutes later.
GG has a lot to learn--there stuff is great, but part of the fun of collecting is the relationship with those who
make the stuff, and that part of the hobby when it comes to GG is just getting to be so unpleasant. Visiting the Sideshow booth at SDCC is going to be a lot of FUN, whereas my time at the GG booth is going to be like a trip to the dentist--you have to go and get it over with, but you can't wait to get out of there.
