Wizkids Miniatures - Quality Control issues and their status

[KingOfVrock]

I just asked about some of my outstanding replacements and they told me in no uncertain terms that I would have to send them back. not sure how you got away without doing that BB.

They also told me they wouldn't replace my JoD mini without a head, even though I just recently bought it through one of the standard retailers.

Not too happy with them

[MyriadTabletop]

I didn't have to send back my grey glossy Arvieaturace, but I think that was more of an issue with space and disposal.

[Kualan]

I've only filed a couple of replacement requests over the years, and these have always been for medium/small singles. Never been asked to send the faulty figure in.

For larger/premium (i.e. more expensive) minis, they may apply more stringent criteria. The number of requests an individual user has made over a select span of time may also factor into it.

Many companies follow a policy of not overly scrutinising refund/replacement requests in the interest of good customer service (you're more likely to shop with them again if the process for fixing things that go wrong is quick and painless) and only start being stricter when an individual customer hits a certain value/frequency threshold, as a precautionary measure against false claims.

[KingOfVrock]

These are mostly commons/uncommons worth a few dollars at best. I agree that is silly for me to send them in, especially if there is no guarantee they ever send anything back or they are allowed to just declare them 'discontinued' and not send anything.

[coyotee]

These are mostly commons/uncommons worth a few dollars at best. I agree that is silly for me to send them in, especially if there is no guarantee they ever send anything back or they are allowed to just declare them 'discontinued' and not send anything.

They said the same thing to me, but I would not accept that BS answer.

Hold firm on not sending anything back. Wizkids is the one who sent out a bad product and they have to be held accountable.
I told them I am willing to destroy the minis and send them picture proof, but I would not spend my time and money to fix their mistake.

HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE

[Imbalance]

I just asked about some of my outstanding replacements and they told me in no uncertain terms that I would have to send them back. not sure how you got away without doing that BB.

They also told me they wouldn't replace my JoD mini without a head, even though I just recently bought it through one of the standard retailers.

Not too happy with them

That's strange, indeed. I just got done thanking them for finally taking care of my claim from last year, where I did send in a rare Solar Dragon (that they apparently lost) and only mentioned the problems with the Astral Dreadnaut. They replaced both. No mention of sending in the bigg'n. I sent the pics that I posted upthread, plus two more to emphasise those assembly gaps. I'm now putting an order together from the store, non-clearance, because good service means that much to me.

My contact was David T, if that helps. Aside from the long wait, they did good by me.

[KingOfVrock]

Yes, David T is who I am talking to as well.

He told me to pursue the JoD mini through the retailer. I told him it CLEARLY a wizkids QC issue (the head was nowhere to be seen) and not something damaged in shipping or anything the retailer had any control over.

we'll see but I am not exactly getting the helpful vibe from David T.

[BBShockwave]

Same here, I also am in contact with David. It is possible that they do not ask me to send it back as I am overseas to Wizkids? Then again, when my Verbeeg was missing the keg and his arm, Thiemtwork replaced it as well without asking for the damaged mini back, and they are here in Germany.

[Kikoli]

Yes, David T is who I am talking to as well.

He told me to pursue the JoD mini through the retailer. I told him it CLEARLY a wizkids QC issue (the head was nowhere to be seen) and not something damaged in shipping or anything the retailer had any control over.

we'll see but I am not exactly getting the helpful vibe from David T.

To confirm, was the JoD mini purchased through a singles retailer or such?
If it was bought and sold as a single, then it muddies the water horrifically on who is the liable party here.

Working in retail, the general rule is that if we get a product that is defective, we report it instantly to the manufactors and do not sell it. An example is the white dragon mini at my FLGS arrived without the top half of its head. They did not sell it and instead contacted their distributer / Wizkids directly to get it sorted.
When they sell you a blind box and there's a fault, because the FLGS didn't open it themselves, that's where the process through Wizkids comes up.
But, when a singles vendor opens the boxes and sells the singles, this opens up a huge can of worms. Did the vendor simply didn't notice when they sold it? Did they sell you a defective one at a lower price and you're trying to cheat the system? Did a staff member at the vendor damage it? For Wizkids, there's too many variables here to know if it was indeed their fault or the fault of the vendor, so they are within their right if you purchased through a singles transaction to refer you back to them about it.
While it may not seem fair, but if it's through a vendor that is well known for singles (Auggies, Miniature Market, etc...) they might make the assumption that it was purchased as a single, unless you can show evidence that it did indeed come in a sealed blind box.

As for the comment someone made about number of returns and such, a customer's history is indeed taken into account. At my work place we have several flagged accounts from people who try to cheat the system (they buy all the $1 and $5 games on sale and then sell them back for $20-$30 when the sale ends or as trades to profiteer from it. Some staff have also attempted this and been dismissed when caught). Because of this, their history shows there's a history of possible dodgy behavior and to alert staff to take on extra precautions.
In this case, I would say that if someone has many, many returns then they may want evidence of the miniatures to ensure the transaction and the faults are legitimate.

Finally, the last point I saw I wanted to add to was the comment about sometimes wanting returns and other times not, being that in the case here from what I understand, there's again a number of factors.
First, is the cost to ship it back and storage and possibly, repurpose the minis. In the case of lets say my Aspect of Tiamat, she's completely off point and glue damage. That's going to be a send back and destroy, and the cost to me to send her back will likely be somewhere in the hundred dollar figure given her size and all and in addition to that, she's probably not really able to be repurposed. In that case, there's no point getting her back; just issue the replacement. (It also might be worth pointing out I included photos of the box and receipt for her purchase so that was more evidence included that i wasn't just trying to chest the system).
Same thing happened with good ol' Arvie, which also in both cases would have had a huge storage issue. However, in her case as well, it was a massive manufacting fault that all of her first run was. If you had that mini in the first run, they knew you had a faulty one, so further steps weren't needed. Just issue the replacement.
But, smaller minis or ones that there's no other damage than say, a frost giant I had to send back that was missing the shoulder pads. The cost of sending her back isn't going to quite as bad as Tiamat and there's a good chance Wizkids can reuse that mini, placing the missing shoulderpads on and using her as another replacement / product in the future. So in that regards, its better for them to get it back and exchange it for another replacement. It's little different than say someone bringing a faulty controller to my work place, we replace it and send the faulty one off to be repaired and later, resold.

I know that on the consumer side of things, it can feel like it sucks, but these measures are generally in place to prevent unethical asses abusing the systems, ensure that the replacements are being done the right way and provide a service that doesn't just benefit you, but everyone else who uses it as well as ensure that customer protections are in place, while still operating like a business should.

[coyotee]

But, smaller minis or ones that there's no other damage than say, a frost giant I had to send back that was missing the shoulder pads. The cost of sending her back isn't going to quite as bad as Tiamat and there's a good chance Wizkids can reuse that mini, placing the missing shoulderpads on and using her as another replacement / product in the future. So in that regards, its better for them to get it back and exchange it for another replacement.

So Wizkids makes and ships a faulty product, then wants the customer to spend their time and money to solve the issue, so Wizkids can make some money back reselling the product.

The customer should not have to pay again to get their product, and help wizkids recoup loses.
Wizkids sold the bad product, so any loss should lie with them.

And if it is such a common issue that wizkids is worried about recoupjng money loss... the real issue is with the amount of faulty products they are selling!

And FLGS, you are on the hook for this as well. You are a business; if there is an issue with a product YOU sell, YOU should be the one talking to the manufacturer.
If the FLG were the ones talking to wizkids, it would cut out most of the false claims.

[Kikoli]

But, smaller minis or ones that there's no other damage than say, a frost giant I had to send back that was missing the shoulder pads. The cost of sending her back isn't going to quite as bad as Tiamat and there's a good chance Wizkids can reuse that mini, placing the missing shoulderpads on and using her as another replacement / product in the future. So in that regards, its better for them to get it back and exchange it for another replacement.

So Wizkids makes and ships a faulty product, then wants the customer to spend their time and money to solve the issue, so Wizkids can make some money back reselling the product.

The customer should not have to pay again to get their product, and help wizkids recoup loses.
Wizkids sold the bad product, so any loss should lie with them.

And if it is such a common issue that wizkids is worried about recoupjng money loss... the real issue is with the amount of faulty products they are selling!

And FLGS, you are on the hook for this as well. You are a business; if there is an issue with a product YOU sell, YOU should be the one talking to the manufacturer.
If the FLG were the ones talking to wizkids, it would cut out most of the false claims.

The single issue here is that your view doesn't fit with any other return policy.
I can't complain my PS5 is no longer working and expect Sony to come to my home to collect it. I have to make the journey to where I bought the console or a Sony retailer to hand it over for the replacement. Or expect they give me a new PS5 and I keep the old one still.

And you act like they are selling faulty products all the time. Yes, mistakes happen, and things slip through the cracks, but other than the Arvie situation, they are a tiny fraction.
We're all mini nerds here so we have higher standards, but that doesn't mean the majority of their work isn't fine or for that matter, still suitable for it's purpose.
Of all the hundreds of minis I've bought, the only actual major faults were my Aspect of Tiamat and the first giant missing shoulder pads.
And when it comes to the blind boxes, the minis are packed on mass. It's not feasible they check every single box and miniature for individual faults.

And thats why they have returns. Because in almost any other purchase, you return the product to where it came from and that's sorted, but collectible miniatures are a harder situation because there aren't warehouses all about. By having a return the miniature policy, it means that people will only return a miniature that's actually faulty vs "Oh the eye are painted crooked." It also prevents people cheating the system.

Is it the best method? Maybe not. But it's better than the alternative of shrugging and doing nothing. After all, your giant mini might be missing shoulderpads, but it still dies the job its advertised to do.
End of the day, they are a business and need to make a profit and still provide aid in situations like this. So yeah, there has to be done middle ground consumers and the business meet in. It cannot all be one way.

Case in point, I was frustrated with the delays of my Aspect replacement. But when they explained the situation, I could make the choice to be understanding or ho full Karen mode.
And after working in retail, I can safely say no one should ever go full Karen.
So, I'm a little miffed it took this long, but I can understand the situation and feel escalating it further just makes it more miserable for me or anyone else.

And yes, the FLGS isn't off the hook. However the minis that are not visible to them are again, a little outside their control.
However if I ordered from Auggies and they sent me a faulty mini, I'd contact them first about it, not drag Wizkids into it if the retailer has an option to fix it.

[Imbalance]

Agreed. Never go full Karen.

On the other hand, WK established their returns policy because they knew that brokering with Chinese factories implies varying percentages of error, and that forcing the customer to simply accept any degree of error is unfair. I'd really have to dig, but I know I've read that as a full-on company statement from their website back in the day. Clearly, they still believe it to some extent even under NECA.

My current account (going back to 2011? iirc? Not sure they even tracked them previously) shows 6 claims last I checked. Each of those is a legitimate factory f-up that left the miniature either incomplete or mutilated or clearly broken prior to shipping. That number doesn't even scratch the surface how many imperfect paintjobs, missing parts, bad assembly, and basic breaks I've simply dealt with or repaired myself over 20+ years, because I see it as part of dealing with a company that has all of their product made by the cheapest bidder so that it's cheaper on my end. That's also part of the partnership WK has with their retailers: dealing with unhappy customers.

When it's egregious...when I've had too many over time...when their prices keep going up and up but the quality does not match - they deserve some Karen.

[BBShockwave]

It's kinda weird how these things work. When I had quality issues with Tritex or Thiemtwork, I emailed them and they replaced the damaged mini.
When I had quality issues with stuff I got from Miniaturemarket, I emailed them and they told me to contact Wizkids as it is their responsibility. Both of these are webshops, so I dunno what is the difference here...

[KingOfVrock]

To confirm, was the JoD mini purchased through a singles retailer or such?
If it was bought and sold as a single, then it muddies the water horrifically on who is the liable party here.

Not a single, but part of a brick sold on MM, so the burden falls 100% on wizkids. They even say on their website that if the product is no longer available they will try to replace with something similar. No effort to do that here. Just poor customer service.

[Kualan]

To confirm, was the JoD mini purchased through a singles retailer or such?
If it was bought and sold as a single, then it muddies the water horrifically on who is the liable party here.

Not a single, but part of a brick sold on MM, so the burden falls 100% on wizkids. They even say on their website that if the product is no longer available they will try to replace with something similar. No effort to do that here. Just poor customer service.

I'm surprised they didn't offer an alternative replacement; JoD is an older set, so them not having the stock to give a like-for-like replacement is perfectly plausible - but I would still expect them to offer a replacement of a similar size/rarity (and, hopefully, theme).

What was the specific JoD mini in question, out of curiosity?