Has Any Pre-Order Customers Got their Game Yet

[Intruder]

This is getting pathetic. The game has been shipping for almost one full week, yet EB, GameStop, BestBuy, ect do not have it. Matrix why do all the other game companies games reach these stores the day after ship date and yours is taking forever? As on now I have abandoned EB and will be ordering here soon from GoGamer. com for total of $30.89 You can't buy ToS at a retailer for cheaper than that. So hopefully I will have it by Thursday or Friday. Hopefully

[Marc von Martial]

Matrix why do all the other game companies games reach these stores the day after ship date and yours is taking forever?

Well, as I have replied in an earlier thread. This is not something we have influence on.

[Munkie]

Originally posted by Marc Schwanebeck
Well, as I have replied in an earlier thread. This is not something we have influence on.

While you might not have control... are you not concerned?

EB is the largest distributor in the US, and they have moved back the release of your product 4 days in a row.

I know if someone held up getting my product out there I would be on the phone asap to my US distributor.

[Paul Vebber]

One can yell, but but once the UPS trucks start moving there is little calling on the phone can do. Patience in these matters bears more fruit than jumping up and down with your hair on fire at the speed with which a supply chain operates.

Like yelling at the gate agent when your plane is delayed.

There is always a few days of slop inherent in the system.

Are you really not going to buy a game becasue it didn't show up in the store on the estimated date?

The Matrix Games prayer:

God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I Cannot change…

Courage to change the things I can

And Wisdom to know the difference…

[Intruder]

Well my worries are now taken care of. I just ordered ToS:WS from GoGamer. I got it overnighted Fed-Ex for $34.89 I will have it tomorrow thank goodness. As a previous customer of Matrix games, I suggest that you do two things. Get your shipping and handling charges fixed and make sure that your distribution system can meet the demand. I understand that you have little power behind the shipping process, but you are a customer of Fed-Ex, etc. and therefore you can complain to them. I am not trying to be hateful or anything, just saying how I see things. Matrix Games distributes some great games, however their support is lacking. When complaints arose about the lack of product, they responded with "It's not our problem." instead of "We will check into that, thanks for letting us know." Busniesses sometimes forget that many potential repeat customers base their future buisness with a company on on one transaction. If that transaction does not go smoothly, the customer may go elsewhere. Use these criticisms to try to improve your business. I am a huge supporter of the small developer and publishers. I will support them over the big boys anyday, but only if they give me a reason to. Like I have said before, I am done with buying directly from Matrix games due to their inflated shipping costs. They haven't given me a reason to choose them over someone else. Anyways, WOOOHOOO!!! I should have ToS tomorrow WOOHOO!!!!

[Munkie]

Since you were inclinced to hurl quotes instead of action, I have a few for those that can't see the forest for the trees.

The purpose of a business is to create and keep customers.
--Theodore Levitt

Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.
--W. Edwards Deming

Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny
--Elbert Hubbard

Let criticism motivate you.
--Jan Ruhe


You asked if someone would not buy a product because it was late?

Of course not...

I won't buy a product if the support staff is not motivated to call their dsitributors in the US and inquire as to why their customers are not getting the product.

That would just be service above and beyond what you are showing at this point.

Originally posted by Paul Vebber
The Matrix Games prayer:

God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I Cannot change…

Courage to change the things I can

And Wisdom to know the difference…

[Marc von Martial]

Originally posted by Munkie
While you might not have control... are you not concerned?

EB is the largest distributor in the US, and they have moved back the release of your product 4 days in a row.

I know if someone held up getting my product out there I would be on the phone asap to my US distributor.

Yes, we are concerned and we also deal with it.

You can be sure that we do not just sit here and say, "Well, whatever", but we´re also honest in our answers. If we know from experience that some things are out of our control (TOS is not the first game we release), then we say so and don´t come up with typical support phrases like "We will look into it, thanks for letting us know." Of course, if you want to hear these phrases then we can switch to that .

Paul is dead right with his prayer, a prayer that shows years of experience

[Rebel Yell]

For what its worth, there have been many times that I have waited several days, or even a couple of weeks from the date that EB Games, Best Buy, etc show that they will have games.

I would love to have it 5 minutes ago, but unless Matrix feels like paying a ridiculous amount of money to get folks to ship overnight to stores, it takes days to get things places.

UPS ground from New York to Texas takes 5 freakin days, so I would recommend deep breaths, and no breath-holding from all.

[Intruder]

Yea I understand. Things like this are not good for anybody. The publisher gets to take heat, the retailer may lose customers, and most important, the customer gets cheesed off. Ohh well,

[tarendelcymir]

I have to agree with Rebel Yell. There's no point in complaining about something Matrix has no control over. I don't see the problem with their answers, either. They were asked a question, and responded with the truth. Just because it's a truth not everyone might like doesn't mean there's something wrong with it. Sometimes the truth isn't what we want to hear. Instant gratification is hard to come by in this world. I can't speak for others in how long they've been waiting for WS, but it's been close to three years for me now. A few more days, or even a few more weeks isn't going to make a difference, I'll still have it soon.

[LarkinVB]

... and don't forget that you are hurting us (Vicious Byte) too if you feel not buying the product because FedEx/EBGames/Matrixgames/CompanyXYZ is not acting in a way you would like to see.

[Intruder]

Just to clear things up, I never have wanted instant gratification. Didn't mean to sound that way. I just wanted to make some concerns known. A company will only grow and better itself if its customers voice their opinions. Hopeful Matrix leanred from this and makes sure that their next release goes well. I can wait as long as need be, it is only a game. Vicious Byte are the ones who are truely not in control of if the game gets shipped to everyone quickly. I will support them as much as I can. It is great to see a small company such as them produce such a quality freeware game, and then move on to commercialization. That is truely a great thing. When I get it, i am sure that I will love it. Like I said, I will support any such company as long as they provide their customers with the support that they deserve. So the moral of the story is, if you don't like how Matrix or EB or GameStop do business/ship etc. go somewhere else to get the product you want.

[Paul Vebber]

I won't buy a product if the support staff is not motivated to call their dsitributors in the US and inquire as to why their customers are not getting the product.

And what leads you to beleive that inquires have not been made that have satisfied us that all proper actions have been taken?

Get your shipping and handling charges fixed

We charge $8.95 flat fee for shipping in the "lower 48". Other companies charge more, some less. No more than a buck or two difference. Overseas the charge is what the charge is. We use a fullfillment house that does the shipping and customer ordering. So far we have not received complaints about their service that would lead us to sack them.

What is it about direct shipping that you think needs to "be fixed".

and make sure that your distribution system can meet the demand.

The fact is that its not possible (unless enlist the US postal service to hold packages for you as was done in the Harry Potter case) to have every location in the country receive a product on the same day. THe product is currently in many stores in many loactions. IT left the distributor on a given day and it simply takes different amounts of time for deliveries all over teh country to be made.

This as a simple fact of product distribution when you are a low volume producer. If we were shipping a 100,000 PS2 boxes, and had a nationwide ad campaign and thought there was a valid reason to have the product available all on the same day, then we would have had stores hold teh product for a week and then all put it out after it had sat in their back room waiting for the "go" signal.

No we saw no reason to prevent those of you who happen to be near stores that got it first to have to wait just becasue a store across the country hadn't.

This is not a customer service gaffe, but a design to live with logistical realities and not penalize some just for the sack of "everybdoy getting access the same day".

I understand that you have little power behind the shipping process, but you are a customer of Fed-Ex, etc. and therefore you can complain to them.

And if the complaint is that some stores will get the game before others and that causes some confusion because the stores aren't sure the specifc day they are going to get it, and that confuses some of our customers and would you be so kind as to fix that for us?

One would expect their response would be, what?

Matrix Games distributes some great games, however their support is lacking.

Just what support are you looking for that we are not providing you, except for the "Your call is VERY important to us BS, that customers COMPLAIN ABOUT.

Here you get to talk to the horses mouths and get straight answers about why things are how they are. Is that not the support customers really want" Not a bunch of mealy mouthed platitudes?

When complaints arose about the lack of product, they responded with "It's not our problem." instead of "We will check into that, thanks for letting us know."

Yes we could have lied and said that. Or we could explain the real reason why some stores get the game before others and that we made a conscious decision not to tell stores to hold the product in their back rooms, but to let then sell it when they got it.

Busniesses sometimes forget that many potential repeat customers base their future buisness with a company on on one transaction.

Customers sometimes forget that it often is easier to just mouth marketing blurbs, than to take the time to address points they think are important and help to educate their customer into why things happen the way they did.

If we didn't care. I would not betaking the time to expalin all this...

If that transaction does not go smoothly, the customer may go elsewhere.

What about your transaction did not go smoothly, other than the fact that we do not have the volume to get the shipping price breaks that those who move thousnads of items a day get?

We charge a couple bucks more than other wargame companies. We are also the only one that offeres phone orders, a choice of shipping methods, and full email tracking notification as your order is processed. You have to compare us to Battlefront, HPS, Shrapnel etc, not the online game distributers that move thousands of mainstream games per day. Comapred against our peers we charge a bit more but offer a wider variety of services. You can choose to pay the extra or not. We offer our games to a wide variety of distributers to give YOU THE CUSTOMER the widest variety of options, from the cheapest out of your pocket, to the choice to pay a couple bucks extra and help us out more on the margin.

If we didn't care about the customers, we would not offer all the alternatives that we do.

I am a huge supporter of the small developer and publishers. I will support them over the big boys anyday, but only if they give me a reason to. Like I have said before, I am done with buying directly from Matrix games due to their inflated shipping costs.

We are about selling games and realized that we - all by our lonesome, could not offer cost efective alternatives to all our varied groups of customers. If you choose to buy our game from Gogamer becasue you saved a few bucks - YOU STILL BOUGHT THE GAME! Were we not focused on customer choice and enabling opportunites for customers to get out games through whatever means, we wold only offer our games online at our store. We choose to accept lower margins on many of our sales to make sure customers had as many options as possible to suit them.

Anyways, WOOOHOOO!!! I should have ToS tomorrow WOOHOO!!!!

THis is the bottom line - to see this means a success for us!

[Voidhawk]

Hehe. You know, there are far worse things in life than having a bunch of people complaining because they can't get your game quickly enough to satisfy them.

I'd be complaining too!

[Intruder]

Now see this is the response I was wanting. A response that would explain the concerns and the motivations behind them. Thank you.

My biggest compaint is the shipping and handeling charges. For the same price of your standard shipping rate, I got it overnighted and 5 dollars off the SRP. I really don't care, like you said I am getting the game so everyone is happy.

I have done business with al of the mentioned companies, except for Shrapnel, as their shipping is not competitive with the other two.

I understand the problems that a small company must inherently face. I don't expect them to compete with the big boys. However, BattleFront and HPS S&H 7 dollars and yours is 9. Two dollars does make a difference.

"would you be so kind as to fix that for us?" Nope that is not my job, it's yours. As for your support, looking back most of the responses to these types of comments boiled down to "We have no control over it." This is the first reply that explains the reasoning behind it. See the difference? Don't get upset, I am just offering some criticisms, some of which you have answered and I thank you.


I never said that my transaction did not go smoothly. In fact my Uncommon Valor transaction was great, despite the shipping cost I was simply stating that if some people do not like your buisness, they can always go elsewhere. Thats all. I am trying to help. Instead of getting a ton of hatefilled whailing, they can go elsewhere.

I never said that you do not care about your customers.

I'm sorry that you seem to be getting agrivated, I never intended it to be such. I was just trying to voice some of the concerns and hoped for some answers. For those answers I thank you. My entire point, is that we as customers have choices. I chose to save near $10 by going elsewhere. That is all. I never intended for this to become an argument. I am truely sorry if I offended someone.

So, lets start over okay, Hi my name is Intruder. Can we be friends?

[tgcook]

Got mine in the UK from sps-systems this morning. Way to go lads!:)

[Paul Vebber]

If I sounded aggravated, it is not because of the question, but the frustrations of dealing with things that seem on the surface to be simple, but become exceedingly complex (and aggrevating) when you must deal with them!

My apologies, and "Hi, my name is Paul. Welcome to Matrix Games"

[Intruder]

Hi Paul!!! I understand. Your answeres have explained alot. Its the Rubix Cube syndrome. At first it is easy and fun, then you just want to thrown the friggin thing across the room, run over it with the lawnmower and then char the remains with a blowtorch.

[rosary]

I just got my copy. Also, I'd like to say that I know Matrix games and especially David Heath worked his butt off to make this game great. Since you don't know all the circumstances I won't mention them all. But in the darkest hours of production it was David Heath that saved it. Now its here and we can all enjoy it.

[Black Cat]

I just ordered it direct from Matrix`s EStore, besides helping them I`m fed up with EB in N.J. changing the arrival date every day.

I go in Sat last after being told it will be in, Nope, be in Mon.

I call Mon, nope, it`s due in Tuesday.

I go in today, No it`s do in the 7th...later for those Clowns.

The amount I spent in gas is more the the Matrix shipping costs...