Anyone else heard of UK FLGS selling Falcons to staff not customers?

By thruud2, in X-Wing Off-Topic

Hi folks, long time lurker here.

Heard an interesting one from my friend the other day about a UK based FLGS which was taking orders for Falcons. Apparently according to the shop, when he went in to get his order, he was told that the store only got 6 Falcons allocated, and chose to sell them to staff first rather than fulfill customer orders.

Is it me or is that pretty poor behaviour by the store, and has anyone else had similar experiences?

That is terrible behaviour by the store and its staff. They all should've realized that the customer takes precedence as they are the actual people keeping the store alive. If that means the staff have to wait longer on their shinies, so be it.

So, I think you can drop the F on that LGS.

My local store (Beanie Games) told me that they would be only getting 6 Falcons in last Thursday. I ordered mine back in September without having to leave a deposit and was second on their list. I got a message on Thursday saying it had arrived and could collect it that day, so I now finally have a falcon. This may be the case with some retailers but IS NOT the case in Stockton. I have ordered x-wing expansions in advance from Beanie Games quite a few times and always had my orders fullfilled. Excellent service, excellent set up.

Edited by VNV

Contact trading standards they slap a £300 fine on the spot and then investigate only refunding the money if the complaint is without merit and if it's valid harsher fines are applied.

Most shops who've had to deal with them before will become very reasonable just at the mention of you calling them.

They've also committed fraud by taking money under false pretensions and you can call the cops.

What ever you do don't just bend over and take it.

You have consumer rights use them.

Thankfully I bought my falcon ages ago before they became so popular. My mate has been shafted big time - I think he got his money back, but he's not too impressed at the stores customer service. Its typical of the FLGS mentality that some have that think that owning a gaming shop is the same as being a full time games player.

Curious,

Did he actually pay something like a deposit or something? Or did he just tell the store he wanted a falcon?

My FLGS deserved a big "F" for friendly when imperial aces came around. I saw on the stores website that they had 2 left in stock the day the order came in. I went to pick one up and only one left (after a 10m in drive) but it was earmarked for a store employee. He said he'd wait for the next order and sold me the last aces pack.

I've picked up expansion packs from that store everytime since and spread the word about how good they are to the x-wing crowd. Will be going to this same store tonight to play in our bi weekly x-wing games.

Few weeks wait, more sales, more customers. That's the way.

Well *technically* if his staff are paying full wack and pre ordered like everyone else , they *are* customers and their pre order is as valid.

Playing devils advocate here.

Uk allocation has been awful lately. When i got my YT2400 and Deci my local store pretty much ran out of what they had been alloacted (about half what they had ordered) purely via pre orders... very glad i pre ordered with them.

Again , devils advocate but unless staff are getting 'free' minis, then if they put their order in first and paid full (whether its wages deduction or not) they have as much right to a falcon as others.

Otherwise staff can only ever have whats 'leftover' and thats going to really suck

'oh so you work at 'xwing games' , bet you get all the cool models'

'no i actually never get any as i cant buy anything until all the none staff pre orders go out'

Its not cool for you but i imagine its a perk of working in a traditionallynot very well paid line of work, first dibs on rare stuff.