Matrix Taking Orders for SPWaW Desert Fox NOW!

Fabs · Post by **Fabs** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 12:20 pm

I am concerned about the commercial implications of the high cost of shipping to Europe. Most SPWAW enthusiasts can't be extravagant with their money, and matrix needs to sell as many of these goodies as it can.

Surely, there must be someone among us in each European country with enough supporters who would be willing to act as "Consolidator" and be a central receiving point for orders to that country, so that the Transatlantic shipping can be done in bulk.

It would then mean paying local postage costs to get the individual packages to the final destinations.

This way, you bypass the big distributors who would probably not be interested in small turnover specialist prtoducts like this one.

European customers would have to wait longer for delivery, but if that means bringing the cost down significantly they may be happy to do so.

I can order it for shipping to my brother in Denver, who can then let me have it through our company mail for free, as long as the procedures set up for shipping/payment make provision for a shipping address that is different from the Credit card billing address, and as long as I can get beyond that damned error message after I enter my full shipping details and before the credit card details are presumably taken.

Krec · Post by **Krec** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 12:35 pm

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!! JUST ORDERED AND CANT WAIT...............ITS JUST LIKE XMAS...MY WIFE SAYS IM LIKE A KID...(39)...I TELL HER I'M A BIG KID. THANKS MATRIX

:p

David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 1:31 pm

Originally posted by Fabs:
I am concerned about the commercial implications of the high cost of shipping to Europe. Most SPWAW enthusiasts can't be extravagant with their money, and matrix needs to sell as many of these goodies as it can.

Surely, there must be someone among us in each European country with enough supporters who would be willing to act as "Consolidator" and be a central receiving point for orders to that country, so that the Transatlantic shipping can be done in bulk.

It would then mean paying local postage costs to get the individual packages to the final destinations.

This way, you bypass the big distributors who would probably not be interested in small turnover specialist prtoducts like this one.

European customers would have to wait longer for delivery, but if that means bringing the cost down significantly they may be happy to do so.

I can order it for shipping to my brother in Denver, who can then let me have it through our company mail for free, as long as the procedures set up for shipping/payment make provision for a shipping address that is different from the Credit card billing address, and as long as I can get beyond that damned error message after I enter my full shipping details and before the credit card details are presumably taken.

Fabs they will NEVER let you ship to an address that is not the billing information Sorry that the only way they will do it.

marklaker · Post by **marklaker** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 3:35 pm

Matrix:

I've tried countless times, during all hours of the day/night and haven't been able to process my order. The system keeps telling me "All Services Failed to Rate" -Incorrect or incomplete shipping information. I've completed all the blocks and my address is valid, so I'm stumped. Any ideas?

Mark.

3rd Recon · Post by **3rd Recon** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 3:49 pm

Marklaker, you might want to try just sending a money order or check. i had the same credit card problem over and over and finally hit snail mail option. Just print the email invoice and send it in. May take a few days to Puerto Rico but its better than nothing. Besides if its not ready to ship for a week or two, your check will be there already and when it is ready(the game), you'll get it just as fast. Unless of course Matrix waits to cash the check when the game is ready in which case you'll have to wait a few days like me.(matrix feel free to cash mine when you get it next sat. or monday

).
May not be the besy solution, but hope it helps.

3rd Recon

Kilroy · Post by **Kilroy** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 5:11 pm

Ordered mine yesterday morning. The ordering process was flawless and very well constructed. I am continously impressed by the support and interaction we receive on this forum. Thanks Matrix!!

Greg Kilroy

Secapra · Post by **Secapra** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 5:36 pm

Still can't get my order in.Could someone at Matrix let us know when this is fixed via this forum?Understand teething problems,just anxious to get going.Thanks.

Cirrus · Post by **Cirrus** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 5:50 pm

If the MEGA Campaign part of the package is only 50 megs. I can't see any reason why you couldn't make that as a separate pay per download product. Of course if it's somehow linked with sp waw 5.0 so that it can't be separated easily there is problem, but seems that that isn't the case.

So far people have managed get that over 300+meg game package to themselves from various download sites. I bet that case with 5.0 will be same. We can get our hands to the free sp waw 5.0 and if you make the mega campaign part available as pay per download product everything will be perfect.

--
Cirrus

troopie · Post by **troopie** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 6:13 pm

Put in my order. Now I'll be pacing around headquarters waiting for my orders. You promise it's North Africa? Last time it was Russia. I near froze my a*se off.

troopie

JNL · Post by **JNL** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 6:46 pm

I'm with DOD currently stationed in Europe. I have an APO address - but have been unable to place an order.

The shipping info page doesn't recognize my APO AE as a valid address.

Did I miss something? Or at present will this screen not support shipments to APO Addresses?

Anyone else with an APO get this to work?

Fabs · Post by **Fabs** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 7:26 pm

Quote:

"Fabs they will NEVER let you ship to an address that is not the billing information Sorry that the only way they will do it."

Not so. I have used services like Amazon, CDNow.com or online wine merchants who will accept orders from people on their credit cards but ship to a different address, when they want to make sdomeone a gift of a book, a CD or a case of wine.

These sites will allow multiple addresses on a single account.

The account holder's billing address is taken as the billing address at the time of opening the account.

Any other address subsequently added on the account can be specified speparately on any order as the shipping address.

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 7:32 pm

There is link between the Mega Campaign and v5 - you have to have v5 to play the Mega Campaign so you need at a minimum some 100MB or new material to play the Mega Campaign. Our experience to this point has shown the internet not to be reliable enough a method of transmission of that much data for commercial purposes.

We want to offer reliable, trouble-free service so we can make your buying experience "delightful" and not have to emloy a bevy of Customer Service Reps to handle problems. If we all have to be customer Service reps, we aren't desinging games. IF we aren't doing that we die.

We are working toward a good compromise the lets you buy from us with confidence and allows us the freedom to make the games you want to buy with the minimum of overhead.

IT will take some time to reach a "steady state" there. We appreciate your support and forbearance as we strive to that end.

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 7:38 pm

We will look into this, but understand that we are not Amazon and not even comparable to a Wine Merchant in sales. We are very limited in the services we can support with the MICROSCOPIC market we cater too.

With a bootstrap organization like we are trying to establish (without deep pockets) there are limits to what we can do and how fast we can do it.

It hopefully will come, but its extremely complicated and extremely expensive to deploy a small market, international business overnight.

Keep offering suggestions thogh, we have explored most options pretty exhaustively, but there may well be something out their somepne suggests we slap our heads and go "Duuuhhhoooo" when we hear it

Trolz · Post by **Trolz** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 7:53 pm

i got an error msg also!
ERROR:Couldn't Contact Rating Server!
help!!!!!!!!!

David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 9:43 pm

Originally posted by JNL:
I'm with DOD currently stationed in Europe. I have an APO address - but have been unable to place an order.

The shipping info page doesn't recognize my APO AE as a valid address.

Did I miss something? Or at present will this screen not support shipments to APO Addresses?

Anyone else with an APO get this to work?

JNL Please send me your information and I will mail it to you directly myself. My e-mail is davidh@matrixgames.com

David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Thu Mar 29, 2001 9:47 pm

Originally posted by Grouch:
I had the same problem on two attempts from two different machines.

Yes we know about this bug. I been told it was corrected. Please try it again. Please let me know how it goes. Thank you.

Keebler · Post by **Keebler** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 1:54 am

You guys at Matrix deserve a medal for all the selfless work you have done to get Steel Panthers to where it is now. I’m glad to see you will finally begin to see some just compensation for the hard work you have been doing.

But you really have to find a better shipping method for your product. SPWAW + the first Mega Campaign is 19.99 US (31.45 CAN) + shipping 33.00 US (51.50 CAN) that’s 83.00 CAN!!!

I really want to send you the money with or without the “Mega Campaign” but I’ll be dammed if I give the US postal service 51.50 CAN.

I’m not sure why you would not ship regular US Mail. My wife is an ebay seller that has sent or received about 300 parcels in the last twelve months. In that time only two parcels have gone missing. That’s 0.66 per 100! Yes it can take several weeks but we’re not talking transplant organs here!

Charge an extra handling fee of 5.00US for foreign orders, as an insurance against lost or damaged shipments. I’d guess you would be hard pressed to have one package lost for every ten shipped. That leaves you with 50 US to deal with and reship lost orders.

I’d rather pay 40.00 US to Matrix games and 10$ for shipping than the option you have now. I hate to say or even think it but the option you have now is almost going to force foreign players to pirate a copy.

As it stands now I’ll just mail you a check for the game… opps the Mega Campaign, and wait for the 50 meg file to find its way onto the net.

You have no idea how much I want you guys to succeed. I imagine you must have already thought of this, but you could use some form of online registration. Distribute the Mega-Campaign file on gamming mag cd’s the net limewire ect, but require some form of keyed online registration, where a small unlock file is emailed to the registered user.

Lets face it no mater how you distribute this there will be some that will pirate it. I for one what to make sure you get what you have coming, but I’m not about to support the US postal service to do it!

Paul Vebber · Post by **Paul Vebber** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 3:26 am

When I checked the system last night it quoted me a rate of 7.70US$ for shipping to Canada?

We will continue to look at our options to get the game to our substantial international audience.

Anthony_MatrixForum · Post by **Anthony_MatrixForum** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 6:04 am

Ouuchh !!

20 + 48 = 68 USD = 140 Aus

At these prices the meagacampaigns are out of my league (sorry, but new games cost about 90-100 Aus = 45 USD)

I have had stuff sent from US on a regular basis, mailing cost < 10 USD for RolePlaying stuff (A4 books, upto a kilogram)

I have also had stuff through chips and bits,
again 5-10 USD postage. Never had a single problem.

But I really would prefer a online solution, esp cause I am going to download V5.0 ASAP.

Anthony

David Heath · Post by **David Heath** » Fri Mar 30, 2001 7:04 am

Hi Anthony and Keebler

Please e-mail me your address I like to see the rates you are getting.