No More Replacements for Missing Parts

By ScummyRebel, in Star Wars: Legion

2 minutes ago, AldousSnow said:

Exactly this. These part screw ups are not few and far between. They are numerous and common. If they want to shove responsibility to flgs and customers, they need to get their **** together.

Well I sent them a protest email. Bout all I can do.

14 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

It reduces my enthusiasm for further Legion purchases because something like 1 in 6 of the kits I buy is missing something.

Yeah — I haven’t had that many missing stuff but it’s still been too many to suffer with this new system in place. I’ve had 2x experiences with the infamous RT handle issue (mine plus buying some Rebels second hand and they had the same problem), a snowtrooper was missing an arm in one of my boxes too. I’ve heard other horror stories.

I know I’m definitely NOT going to rush out and buy stuff until we see how well they do with the hard plastic sprues.

Yeah two left arms for a mini, now I have to return the entire box then WAIT for the distributor to send a new box to the local store.

I’ve still never assembled my second set of bikes from my second starter set. Hope they’re ok... 😳

5 hours ago, ScummyRebel said:

We aren’t talking about that though. We are talking about legitimate Asmodee screw ups where handlebars, arms, and gear shift levers are missing for the minis in the box.

Go back and read what I quoted. Dude literally used the example of losing a card...

Guess I won't be buying through eBay anymore

This is very disappointing. I've a dewback sitting in a box with the wrong base. Christmas gift presumably from ebay. They said they'd fulfil the order but the base thing was a major f up on their part

Edited by Alan Noir

Real glad I got my request order away in time... Two stormtroopers were missing both arms from the core set, but on the other hand, I did get two right handles for my AT-RT.

16 hours ago, NeverTellMeTheOdds said:

What do you do if you started assembling things and don’t notice the lost part until later? 🙄

This. I was finishing the last Stormtrooper Captain (bought 4 packs don't @ me) when I saw the bag didn't have a head. My solution was to put Rex's head that a buddy had left over.

I'm curious what the experience will be if you preorder/purchase from FFG or Asmodee directly?

What it really seems incredible to me is tons of customers having issues and still saying "they had a great customer service". Good customer service is when you don't need any replacement. In fact, changing defective items when the costumer has already paid and complaint is as if the costumer is in charge of quality control. I want to be paid a salary.

Edited by Tubb

This is very disappointing. I've been an X-wing player for years and just got into Legion. I've always been very honest and I don't think I ever made a request for any X-wing ship, even if there were minor issues or things broke right out of the box. I always fixed them on my own. When I bought my Legion core, the small movement template had a broken clip. I couldn't see a way to fix it so it would be functional. I had already glued all of the figures and started painting some by the time I found the broken template a few days after opening the box, so it would have been a huge hassle to return online and start over with a new box. I used the form and was very pleased to get a new one with a note a few weeks later. This is what I would expect from a company like FFG. When you consider that companies like LEGO still do this (and think how many LEGO sets are out there), I feel the customer service is what counts and it makes you want to buy more from a company.

I'm sure this will allow them to cut more staff, but it's going to really hurt the customer service aspect of the company. And I think they're going to eventually realize that getting full product returns costs them as much or more as replacing the parts (although I'm not sure who eats the cost when you order from somewhere like Amazon - probably Amazon). If companies like Games Workshop that have thousands of kits can do it, then FFG (Asmodee) should be able to do it.

I'll provide one more customer service experience. My young son and I have been collecting the recent Transformers line and one Amazon exclusive I bought was missing a piece. I called Hasbro (which Amazon auto-suggested as a first option) and was expecting the worst from a huge mega-corporation. Instead, I got a very helpful woman who was a great communicator and explained that they didn't stock the exclusives at Hasbro. Instead, I would have to return it to Amazon to get a new one from their stock, but as an alternative, she offered to send me (at no charge) an equivalent Transformer in the same price range (around $20) and gave me a list of options they did stock. Even though we ended up getting a replacement from Amazon, I was shocked at the level of service from Hasbro and their willingness to replace something without any proof or hassle.

I know people abuse this type of service and it can be costly to keep shipping out little parts here and there, but I hope FFG reconsiders this policy. If you want to be a top-tier toy/game company, you should offer this level of support. It just goes with the territory in order to build confidence with your customers. It also makes your customers much more willing to deal with product errors when they occur knowing you will make it right.

Edited by dadocollin
2 hours ago, ewardell said:

I'm curious what the experience will be if you preorder/purchase from FFG or Asmodee directly?

I don’t know. I’d imagine proof of receipt would be easier, but I can easily see them making you pay for shipping their screw up back to them.

Honestly? The more horror stories I see on the forums about missing pieces, I’ve done some thinking. I will *not* purchase any new soft plastic expansions, period. I’m not taking that chance of a missing element in that trooper upgrade box (example of something I haven’t picked up yet).

I will wait and see how well they do with the sprues for new stuff coming up, and try to fill in only from those. Lower chance of missing pieces that’s FFG’s fault. And if they can’t even do that right? I may just bow out. Mistakes are tolerable to me if you make them right; making mistakes and not allowing for a simple fix is not.

Something to keep in mind: Asmodee is the one cancelling the parts replacement support for all product they distribute. I have no idea how much say anyone at FFG has anymore since the "merger." The Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game is similarly impacted since Asmodee handles North American distribution, despite CMON being the manufacturer (which is an independent company).

Secondly: Asmodee is itself owned by a French private investment firm (I think called PAI Partners). These kind of firms are frequently concerned with pumping up the "value" of the companies they own, and then reselling them for profit. Cutting the Interactive, RPG, and Customer Support, along with any product lines that "underperform" or have a lower return on investment (board game expansions for instance, which I think was previously announced?) are all moves to lower costs and maximize profits. This says to me that their current owner is starting to consider offloading Asmodee... Time will tell.

1 minute ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Something to keep in mind: Asmodee is the one cancelling the parts replacement support for all product they distribute. I have no idea how much say anyone at FFG has anymore since the "merger." The Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game is similarly impacted since Asmodee handles North American distribution, despite CMON being the manufacturer (which is an independent company).

Secondly: Asmodee is itself owned by a French private investment firm (I think called PAI Partners). These kind of firms are frequently concerned with pumping up the "value" of the companies they own, and then reselling them for profit. Cutting the Interactive, RPG, and Customer Support, along with any product lines that "underperform" or have a lower return on investment (board game expansions for instance, which I think was previously announced?) are all moves to lower costs and maximize profits. This says to me that their current owner is starting to consider offloading Asmodee... Time will tell.

I agree with this. This does seem like a return on investment move, cut customer service as much as you can until you see blood. Cut low revenue product lines and eliminate those jobs. I recall Asmodee was for sale a little while ago and I am not sure if it was ever bought as of yet.

1 minute ago, Uetur said:

I agree with this. This does seem like a return on investment move, cut customer service as much as you can until you see blood. Cut low revenue product lines and eliminate those jobs. I recall Asmodee was for sale a little while ago and I am not sure if it was ever bought as of yet.

Hopefully whomever buys them understands customer service and reverses this policy. I was about to get into clone wars, but this has me reconsidering.

2 minutes ago, Uetur said:

I agree with this. This does seem like a return on investment move, cut customer service as much as you can until you see blood. Cut low revenue product lines and eliminate those jobs. I recall Asmodee was for sale a little while ago and I am not sure if it was ever bought as of yet.

Eurazeo acquired Asmodee in 2014, and sold it to PAI in 2018 according to Wikipedia.

22 minutes ago, Caimheul1313 said:

Something to keep in mind: Asmodee is the one cancelling the parts replacement support for all product they distribute. I have no idea how much say anyone at FFG has anymore since the "merger." The Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game is similarly impacted since Asmodee handles North American distribution, despite CMON being the manufacturer (which is an independent company).

Secondly: Asmodee is itself owned by a French private investment firm (I think called PAI Partners). These kind of firms are frequently concerned with pumping up the "value" of the companies they own, and then reselling them for profit. Cutting the Interactive, RPG, and Customer Support, along with any product lines that "underperform" or have a lower return on investment (board game expansions for instance, which I think was previously announced?) are all moves to lower costs and maximize profits. This says to me that their current owner is starting to consider offloading Asmodee... Time will tell.

Customers just need to keep pushing. It's not like the French haven't rolled over before.

This is really stupid, fix quality before enacting such backward customer service

1 hour ago, TheHoosh said:

This is really stupid, fix quality before enacting such backward customer service

But that would cost more money rather than saving money in the short term by cutting customer service.

10 hours ago, Alan Noir said:

This is very disappointing. I've a dewback sitting in a box with the wrong base. Christmas gift presumably from ebay. They said they'd fulfil the order but the base thing was a major f up on their part

The fact that they sprung this like a surprise is really really shady.

Edited by NeverTellMeTheOdds
13 hours ago, Mokoshkana said:

Go back and read what I quoted. Dude literally used the example of losing a card...

Because they don’t offer any other way to get a replacement. If someone steals your ATST card they might as well take the whole model, because you can’t use it anymore. I’m sure everyone would gladly pay for a replacement, but that’s not an option. The only option was parts replacement. They could just offer an app, or printable cards, but then they couldn’t sell you expansions just for the cards...

Edited by NeverTellMeTheOdds
14 minutes ago, NeverTellMeTheOdds said:

The face that they sprung this like a surprise is really really shady.

I suspect it’s as discussed here: corporate overlords plan to sell and want to cook the books to make it look as profitable as possible before dumping it on someone else.

12 minutes ago, NeverTellMeTheOdds said:

Because they don’t offer any other way to get a replacement. If someone steals your ATST card they might as well take the whole model, because you can’t use it anymore. I’m sure everyone would gladly pay for a replacement, but that’s not an option. The only option was parts replacement. They could just offer an app, or printable cards, but then they couldn’t sell you expansions just for the cards...

If you are that worried about people stealing your cards, make copies of them at Kinko's (or some other copy place). I sincerely doubt that any TO is going to DQ a player for using unmodified (no cheaters allowed) printed cards with the actual model. At the right copy place you could likely make identical cards that would be indistinguishable from the originals.

25 minutes ago, Mokoshkana said:

If you are that worried about people stealing your cards, make copies of them at Kinko's (or some other copy place). I sincerely doubt that any TO is going to DQ a player for using unmodified (no cheaters allowed) printed cards with the actual model. At the right copy place you could likely make identical cards that would be indistinguishable from the originals.

This is a distraction from a sudden change of customer service policy that harms customers and local shops.

If a wookie is shipped with two left arms I have to return the whole kit to where I bought it, and hope the distributor isn't out of stock.

This is seriously ridiculous.