EDIT- edited the title as it sounded rather harsh

i have spent pretty much since the start of this game buying from maelstrom games uk- they didnt get the packs in the quickest (often the last) but i persevered with this as i had a bit of points saved up with the packs and they always had the pre order option months in advance……now i check the site, and BAM! theyve shut themselves down

shame really….i was really looking forward to getting my money off hiers of numenor….but more shame for those at the store who being fair were actually very nice and i was happy giving my money to them

so if anyone else buys off them you may as well find somewhere else

oh well…OG games here i come

rich

Good god! Thanks for posting this, Rich! Sad to see them go really - I've used them a few times in the past (ah, Khazad-dum!) but they were often the last to get stuff shipped out. I'd noticed they were having a lot of sales recently, so I suppose the writing was on the wall there, but it's never good to see someone go out of business like that.

I can heartily recommend 13th floor for an alternative though! The stuff is usually full-price (though I've preordered some things that have been a little cheaper that way), but you do get free first class postage, and free stuff when you spend over a tenner!!

yeah its a real shame that its happened…..especially when its a REAL game store, and not one of those that sells those computer game thingys. (joke-though only a little)

thanks for recommending that store spalanzani- ill check em out

rich

Thanks for that info rich. I mostly get my Aps from Gamesquest or Boardgameextras. They are usually £9.75 plus £1.75 postage and are quick to post. Cheers.

To add to the list of options, I've always found Gameslore to provide a very good service in the UK.

jjeagle said:

yes ive ordered off gameslore a few times and they were very good….the only thing they miss is the early pre order which is a shame

rich

Hello everyone, I suggest you www.bookdepository.com , free shipping on everythings and for everywhere. Some great disconts, the lack is, no preorder, and sometimes they missed some expansions, expecially the "deluxe". I try to find Khazad, and the new Cthulhu but nothing……..

Hope that this will help you.

Sorry for my English……..

Enrico

Yes, unfortunately Maelstrom have 140 of my hard earned British pounds and I have no product to see for it! I fear that I will not be seeing that money again (despite getting my bank on the case). I have since re-ordered my LOTR cards from OG Games and I have to say that they were very good and delivered my order very quickly. So my recommendation would be to use OG Games. I for one will be using them again in the future.

Lee

Chaos101 said:

man thats a pain……sorry to hear that and i hope you have more luck with OG!

rich

I would also like to point out that even though the Maelstrom website has closed down, it has opened a sister site called Eye of the Storm.

http://www.eye-of-the-storm.co.uk/

This website looks identical to the Maelstrom website, including store logo and has exactly the same address and telephone number.

Please DO NOT use this web site as it clearly has little to no stock and if Maelstrom has gone bust how will they honor your puchase?

I have also read on various forums that they will not honor purchases from Maelstrom and (from bitter experience) they do not answer telephones or respond to e-mails.

You have been pre-warned!

Lee

I tried to login to Eye of the Storm with my old maelstrom account but no luck.

Fortunately I did not have any outstanding pre-orders with them. It would have been nice to cash in the loyalty bonus at some stage but no big deal.

Interesting statements on the Maelstrom liquidation page though. I can't really tell if they were shafted by another company or vice versa.

Anyway, plenty of UK providers around…

Chaos101 said:

thanks for the heads up…i took a look at their site and its exactly the same….and eye of the storm/maelstrom….mmm- pretty much the same thing then

rich

I can second a recommendation for Gameslore.co.uk as i have been using them for many years. As has been said they often don't have pre-order stuff up very far in advance, but they have a great range of tiered discounts for bulk purchases, friendly and helpful staff you can call up and ask questions of and a feature i quite like - damage stock for sale! There have been a number of RPG products i have purchases for up to £10 off the RRP because of tearing or damage to the outer box or spine, but with no impact on the actual printed material.

richsabre said:

I do not know how UK legislation works in the case of some "corporation" being closed. But is ti possible that the same owners of Maelstrom open a new "corporation" to do the same that the one that has been closed? And try a new fresh start?

It seems to me that they were forced to close and enter liquidation. So they may want to keep some business and have created a new one…

CJMatos said:

Under British law, that is entirely legal yes, providing that Maelstrom was a limited company. I have no idea if they were…

spalanzani said:

Maelstrom had been refusing to honour their debts for at least a year, and were siphoning off profits into other companies set up by their director (he is sole director of about 5 companies now) including Eye of the Storm, the brick and mortar store for maelstrom with the same phone number, contact details and even **** website! they've not been responding to customers for months now, and allowing customers to place orders on products they knew they'd never get.
So all in all, if you think a company is affiliated with Maelstrom, i'd advise a complete boycott of it to avoid any potential financial issues that WILL arise.

Oh, hell yes! Sorry, I only meant that it's perfectly legal to fold one company and then start up another that does exactly the same thing with no liability to pay any debts if that company was a limited one. Which Maelstrom was, a private limited company.

Whether it's ethical or not, is an entirely different matter!

spalanzani said:

Agreed… As a person that deals with law as a job, I know that some countries allow this (mine included - Portugal) and that is why i asked what i asked.

But If is known that they "had been refusing to honour their debts for at least a year", then my counsel is exactly the same that Kasatka gives:

Refrain from buying products from companies that have the same director/shareholder….

PS: Understood the legal implications of the UK law and thank you for that (it is always good to have knowledge on other contries in my job) - in this case is similar to Portuguese law.

No problem.

Because I have time on my hands, I thought I'd check out Companies House on Maelstrom, see what's happening there, and interestingly they haven't filed a winding up petition for voluntary liquidation - in fact, it looks like they're still a trading concern. What, exactly, that means in this saga, who can say…

spalanzani said:

i dont know if youve checked but if you search in mealstrom games it comes up with a large thread on a wargaming site about it all

rich

richsabre said:

Wow. I have just had a browse at that theminiaturespage forum, and I'm suddenly glad I didn't usually use Maelstrom! I've had a few things from them, including Khazad-dum actually, but still. A company whose registered address is a residential one, and whose capital is just £1? The word "dodgy" just doesn't seem to cover it. I really feel for people who have outstanding orders with them.

EDIT - Wayland Games are involved too? There's a company I've mistrusted since it took them a month to acknowledge the fact that I had paid for an order they hadn't shipped, nor did they have the stock to ship. It just gets worse.

I'm in the UK, and have bought almost all the expansions for LOTR from gameslore.co.uk, always found them to be quite good. Other than that, I occasionally ebay from a US seller if I don't want to wait for the UK to finally get some stock (though given the shipping time, I usually end up no better off than having waited for a UK release).

I did order laketown direct from the FFG store, and got it in just over a week.