I just saw on the Upcoming page that the wave 2 ships are now expected in March instead of February. I guess this is a small enough additional delay that FFG didn't feel like posting anything to the News section like they did when it was pushed back to February, but if any of you hadn't seen - now you know.

My understanding is that the Expansion is going to ship end of February such that it will hit retail store front end of March. Not a big delay,

CPTMcMurphy said:

Cool. I must have missed where they announced that. I only saw the change to the March eta.

They changed it to On The Boat on the upcoming page on January 21st. I work for a company that gets shipments from China all the time and 6-8 weeks is a pretty normal amount of time. The sad thing is, sometimes half of that is just waiting for customs once it's in port.

We need to wait until FFG give us the official Date, to avoid expeculations, greettings.

herozeromes said:

Yes, but customs are important. As a forest entomologist I just have to say that I'm grateful for some of the customs slow-downs because it means preventing the next big insect pest from invading our lands. Last thing we need is another emerald ash borer from all the wooden packing material on transcontinental shipments. I'm sure the rest of the customs paperwork is important, too, but I think the search for exotic fauna is essential.

dbmeboy said:

Yeah I noticed when expected dispatch dates from UK suppliers jumped to 29th March.

Not impressed.

If I dumped unexplained delays after previous delays on my customers (and tried to blame the manufacturer) I would soon be out of a job for poor planning and poor demand forcasting, and my clients would find alternative suppliers.

I guess retail has different rules, …

wikkid_devil said:

Too bad you're not the exclusive producer of your customer's particular product, huh?

I asked the owner of my FLGS if he'd heard anything and he said (I'm in the States now, so take this for what it's worth if you're not) supposed to be shipping end of February, should be in stores at the beginning of March.

Yeah,
This is incredibly disappointing. I also think the FFG need to accept responsibility for these delays. Wave 1 was late and the UK has had horrible stock issues. I placed a preorder for about $100 of wave 2 ships back in October thinking I’d receive them by X-mas.

Kessel run in the UK was a mess with stores keeping the prizes or not running the event at all!
So wave two has been fully spoiled online for three months, I know pretty much everything about wave two. So the fun in opening the package is gone, my pre-order will hold no surprises.

At this point it would be nice if FFG put something out for X-wing.
Online missions? ‘we are sorry we f***** up have some missions’

If it was anything other than StarWars I’d have sold my copy by now so can invest my time and money in a game that is respected by it’s creators.

Incredibly disappointed.

Panic…

Panic said:

To be fair, can't blame FFG for dishonesty at stores, frustrating as this is.

Parakitor said:

I'm not disagreeing with the merits of customs. They are definitely important. I'm just speaking to the fact that identical shipments sent from and to the same places at the same time can sometimes vary in arrival time by a month or more.

Panic said:

Isn't that what the Kessel Runs were? A we're sorry wave 2 is delayed, but in the meantime we'll send out the small amount we do have to be used as prizes in this event.

I don't blame FFG for this delay specifically, but they do have a problem with chronic late releases. I remember months ago asking my local store when we would get the wave 2 ships. At this point the website said fourth quarter of 2012. (Let's just remind everyone that that means any time betyween October and December.) The man at the store said it would be out in February. I aksed him if he had heard anything from FFG that I hadn't. He hadn't.

He told me that if I wanted to know when a FFG release was going to be that all I needed to do was take the latest possible time (December) and add two months. That put the relase for Wave 2 in February. It wasn't for another month or so that FFG anounced the delay.

It is troubling that adding two months to the latest possible predicted release date was the rule that my Local store was using. It is evenmore troubling that the rule works.

I love FFG games. I love X-wing especially, but either their scheduling department is WAY too optomisitc or they have some serious productin problems that they need to deal with.

wikkid_devil said:

Which UK retailers? Could you provide link to their pages?

Panic said:

I sincerely hope that you reported the guilty stores to FFG. I know of one incident here in Denmark where a store simply put the Wave 2 ship prizes up for sale to selected customers. Such a stupid thing to do since the potential/certain reaction and negative impression this gives in these times with FB etc. and in a small community. I will certainly not be buying any stuff from them.

yeah,
I emailed FFG with my problems… they did not help.

Panic…

Hrathen said:

Except this time even that rule was too optimistic ;-)

Forensicus said:

As requested.

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/fantasy-flight-games/x-wing/cat_1255.html?utm_source=onsite&utm_medium=rhs_banner&utm_campaign=XWING

The Wayland games date is pure speculation and they probably put March 29th to avoid any complaints from customers who preorder for them in the meantime. Considering I buy X-Wing models from Gameslore who originally expected to have them around mid Feb. Wargame Store told me late feb and prior to the date change at wayland, they expected an early feb release, I wouldn't take it too seriously.

The stock has been "on the boat" for what 3 and bit weeks now? And that is if the second they updated the upcoming page was when the boat left dock (which is probably more like a day later) then North America will see these in store at the latest the week beginning March 11th. That is 8 weeks after the status change on Janurary 21st. It's more likely to be between the 26th of Feb and 5th of March for NA customers.

UK gamers will probably get that stock a week or so later, judging by how quickly Gamelore get new items from the states when they release new boardgames/CCG/roleplaying/miniatures and the like. It's frustrating I agree but going off on one and bitching at FFG won't really change much. And if the models do arrive around March 29th in the UK, then please feel free to quote me and tell me how much of a noob I am

ThadiusCole said:

I expect you are quite correct on the March 29 ^th thing. I was stating that was what alerted me to the further delays.

The idea of having to wait 6 months for a pre ordered product to arrive sucks hugely. Pre order available from Oct 2012 (as stated by another forum user) and not delivered until March 2013. Really? I know it’s a PRE order, but come on folks.

If I consider the frustration to be justified, who should I address my concerns to if not FFG?

I can’t blame Games Lore (Delivered my order in less than 24 hours of online purchase) or Wayland Games (ordered another X-Wing on Monday night [Games Lore were o.o.s.], awaiting delivery). The retailers are not responsible for the distributers/manufacturers delays.

Final Fantasy XIV for the Playstation 3 has been available for Preorder for just about 3 years now.

The reason I wouldn't bother complaining to FFG is because they don't see it. They have no moderators or admins to see player feedback and e-mailing the company directly will just get a flat response with no actual attention paid to your concern.

That doesn't mean I agree with such a large delay in the first place, it would be nice to see the models arriving next week instead of next month. The original blame should be placed with the Chinese manufacturer since problems over there resulted in the delay to begin with. Shipping is shipping and as others have said the customs process can cause some issues.

FFG should keep new product announcements quiet until they have a more solid schedule for release. Announcing a product several months prior is great initially because of the buzz it creates with fans, but when they have little else to say for 6 months it kind of kills the expectation. The only way you can show your disapproval is to not buy them, but then you lose out and bad sales suggest no one cares so they stop making X-Wing. It sucks really, but at least they are "on the boat" at last In a week or two we will all be complaining about "shipping now" lol.

I doubt this kind of delay will happen again when they announce wave 3 as they have probably worked out a better schedule and timeframe for new models since the wave 2 debacle (I hope).

Keep in mind that with 6 months of "pre-orders", retailers like Miniature Market have literally thousands of orders to fill and ship in a day or 2, so even though we all will be chomping at the bits to get our ships that we've waited so long for, we may have to wait a few more days once they do arrive at the retailers in order to get them to our houses.

While I'm saddened about the projected delay as much as the next guy (yes I have about $120 in pre-orders from last Nov. as well). I'm finding some of the comments and complaints about FFG communicating with their customer base a little interesting.

For comparison purposes, I also play 6mm Blitzkrieg Commander as well as GW Warhammer 40K. The situation with 40K has evolved into a polar opposite of what FFG is doing. Games Workshop have clamped down so hard on rumors, release data, or anything of usable value so you really don't hardly know whats coming out the next week, or what to save $ for, or even get excited about. For me it really sucks the fun out of looking forward to anything, and I really dislike the new ultra repressive information blackout they have created. I will take the FFG comunication every day of the week, even if it may change due to unforseen circumstances.

FFG is at least trying to communicate to its customers when they can roughly expect to see their new products. Not only that, but they actually provided us all opportunites to see and play with some of the new ships at locations around the world to generate interest. If shops sabotage these efforts by keeping or selling the models, report it to FFG but take it up with those stores as they are ultimately responsible for their actions. I can only hope that FFG is keeping track of the stores that generate lots of complains and exclude them on the next go around. As far as delays and problems go, an official announcement from FFG with updates every couple weeks would be nice if it starts looking like there are manufacturing problems. I like to think I'm a pretty understanding guy, and won't sweat delays too much, just let us know what to expect every once an a while.

For you chaps across the pond, remember we often have to wait for your companies gaming products from time to time as well (it goes both ways)! Who knows, given time and FFG continuing sucess, maybe they will opt for local stores and warehouses over there too!

Cheers.

I have a response from FFG for those who are interested.

Outgoing email:

Hi Tony.

The general thrust of my query related to the delayed release of the wave 2 X-Wing expansion minis.

If my retailer in the UK had not amended their eta on pre-orders I would not have been aware, as there was no notification via the FFG website (just a footnote on Upcoming Page now showing 'Expected By: March 2013).

Although we your customers are still committed to the product many are getting weary and frustrated with the continued delays.

May I suggest someone reads through the posts on the forum and responds to your clients concerns (admittedly some more reasoned than others, as is the way with public fora)?

Kindest regards.

Response:

In general, products can be delayed for several different reasons: inclement weather, issues with the factory such as Chinese New Year, waiting for feedback from licensors, etc. It is partially because of these factors that we do not have hard and fast release dates. In this specific case, we wanted to take some extra time to invest in the Wave 2 ships so that they would look and work the way that our customers expect from the X-Wing miniatures and from FFG more broadly. We would rather wait till we have a great product than rush a mediocre product, and we hope that you and our other customers would agree with that perspective. At this point, retail stores are slated to have them for sale near the beginning of March, so they are almost here!

Again, we appreciate your questions, concerns, and continued support of Fantasy Flight Games. We also really hope that you will enjoy the Wave 2 ships! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Tony Mills

So reading between the lines (strictly only my opinion) delays due to national celebrations (I understand China effectively closes down for a week for Chinese New Year).

QC issues (both from the point of view of FFG and the licensors)

I don’t object to delays under these circumstances, but it would have been nice to know without having to ask…

I hope this helps.