Just as a matter of interest, did your LE come with extra Golden Bullets? I'm interested to know because Play.com are offering this for £299.99 and the FE price is $449.00 (Which is the same given an exchange rate of £1/$1.50) and no duty to pay, no postage to pay. Also delivery seems to have flown in the face of what Barry has told us in the past. These resin bullets could end up costing us more than real Golden Bullets at this rate.
Just as a matter of interest, did your LE come with extra Golden Bullets? I'm interested to know because Play.com are offering this for £299.99 and the FE price is $449.00 (Which is the same given an exchange rate of £1/$1.50) and no duty to pay, no postage to pay. Also delivery seems to have flown in the face of what Barry has told us in the past. These resin bullets could end up costing us more than real Golden Bullets at this rate.
Well on one hand, it's great that the GG looks so good
But on the other hand it sucks that those of us that ordered direct have been screwed over. 8-)
Truth – but honestly – I feel like I have been raped… naturally we want to support the original makers and not distributors,,, but this is just wrong ?:)
Well on one hand, it's great that the GG looks so good
But on the other hand it sucks that those of us that ordered direct have been screwed over. 8-)
Truth – but honestly – I feel like I have been raped… naturally we want to support the original makers and not distributors,,, but this is just wrong ?:)
I hear ya ICS. I'm majorly pissed off aswell, especially since there were no import fees for people who ordered from play.com.
I wonder if we would lose our deposit if we cancel our FE order and re-order from play.com :v
This is what happens when Toy Makers start messing with props - a major screw up against the real fan community :v
From the beginning my opinion has been that there should be a company, which makes ONLY high quality
Bond Props and not fooling around with god damn Hobbits n Hornets.
I'm pretty sure this "delay" was not because of packaging problems, but main reason was completely something else.. :v
However, product does look good...but
Knowing who to trust is Everything in this business.
TIS - "The moment you think you got it figured - you're wrong"
Ok, firstly everybody we are sorry if anybody feels cheated or lied to here. That is not what has happened. This is a simple mix up, all be a frustrating, one that only affects a very small batch of LE guns in the UK only.
Direct orders do receive priority and we are shipping them first. We are shipping orders as we speak. we have paid extra to airfreight the product for direct orders to our warehouse to ensure that it arrives before the product for regular wholesale orders which is being shipped by ocean freight to us. The delay in replying to this thread was because everybody here in the US office is in the warehouse labeling boxes.
Play.com did place a wholesale order with us, for LE guns, as did many other wholesale customers. Play purchased these items FOB (or factory direct) This means they collect them from the factory gate and they handle their own shipping and importation etc. However their order was allocated by us, this means there was not enough free stock available (it had been sold elsewhere) and they were only able to provide a very small quantity to them. About 20 units I think. Less than they actually wanted.
Their product and product for direct orders left the factory at exactly the same time. However we were assured that all of their product was for existing orders and that it would not be shipped out until a pre-agreed date. Clearly this has not happened, and we are now unsure if the product they received was for orders they already had, as was advised, or for another purpose. There is no additional product available and I would not have expected them to be able to show this product as in stock.We cannot and will not be supplying them with any more Golden Guns as they are all accounted for.
Honestly we do not know how they have managed to ship the product so quickly, import it, pay all the applicable duties and still sell it for a profit. But that is their business. We have no control over what retailers choose to do with our product.
More worryingly we are staring to get emails and calls from customers who have placed orders with Play, who are now receiving notifications to say their orders have been canceled by Play. We have no involvement in their business so do not know what they are doing. But its all quite unusual.
We can only assume that this is an unfortunate screw up, some people are lucky to have received guns from Play, and are the first people in the world to do so. It was not planned or arranged to happen that way. Play are the only wholesale customer in the world who has purchased FOB so this is thank fully a one off accident, but its annoying none the less.
Direct orders are shipping now, so there is no reason to be concerned. But this is a stupid and ugly mistake that we have to take the blame for. We are not happy about it and understand people's frustrations.
All guns shipped to wholesale customers are without the extra bullets.
Incidentally we did investigate importing orders into the EU through our UK office and shipping them directly from there, but we found the costs to be prohibitively expensive. There is no legal way to avoid any applicable duty and taxes and we would have had to add these costs to the selling price of the goods, which would have made them them practically the same as buying directly from us here in the USA, even with additional shipping and any tax/duty when you consider you are buying from us directly in $ and the exchange rates with GBP and Euros.
Once again we are sorry that we failed some people here. We hope that the product will more than make up for it, when it arrives. Anybody who still feels the need to discuss this should contact us directly.
Is it risking too much to ask the lucky few who got guns early what they think of the product?
So who has received an email from FE to confirm their info? I have order # 70ish for an SE and have not received an email yet. Should we be expecting one?
Incidentally we did investigate importing orders into the EU through our UK office and shipping them directly from there, but we found the costs to be prohibitively expensive.
You mean your profit margins were down?! But hey, 'we' don't mind paying the extra :v
we would have had to add these costs to the selling price of the goods, which would have made them them practically the same as buying directly from us here in the USA, even with additional shipping and any tax/duty when you consider you are buying from us directly in $ and the exchange rates with GBP and Euros.
That really was amusing! Play sell at £299 you sell at $449, that's £280 NOW That's practically the same NOT after you add shipping! Which incidentally was $86.17, now $70.78. Wonder which I will be charged?
But don't tell me "you've since negotiated better rates" MMmmmmm
Failed "some" people?????? Failed all.
And risky asking about the product????? How many bullets in the Golden Gun?
For those in the UK that were wondering what additional charges there will be....
Typically £8 for "Clearance Fee" And 17.5% VAT (soon to be 20%) on the 'declared' value.
So, for SE; that's $649 (£405) + £44 (shipping) + £8 + £71 = £528
And for LE; that's $449 (£280) + £44 (shipping) + £8 + £49 = £381
Play price for the LE = £299 inc shipping.
Mmmmm, wonder what all the fuss is about???????????? 8-)
Regardless of screw ups, people that are angry that they aren't getting their item first need to have things put in to perspective. I'm happy to be getting one AT ALL! First or last, at least I know that I'm guaranteed to get one. These things didn't HAVE to get made, but they were... and we want them. Everyone overseas already knew about import fees, so this shouldn't really be a surprise. Asking a legitimate company that is trying to get their feet off the ground to cheat on forms and do things in a "shady" manner is just downright stupid. There are 1000 LE guns, and a good amount are probably going overseas. If every single gun had "sample yadeyada", customs would get suspicious.
For those in the UK that were wondering what additional charges there will be....
Typically £8 for "Clearance Fee" And 17.5% VAT (soon to be 20%) on the 'declared' value.
So, for SE; that's $649 (£405) + £44 (shipping) + £8 + £71 = £528
And for LE; that's $449 (£280) + £44 (shipping) + £8 + £49 = £381
Play price for the LE = £299 inc shipping.
Mmmmm, wonder what all the fuss is about???????????? 8-)
That's called business - way of the world today
Knowing who to trust is Everything in this business.
TIS - "The moment you think you got it figured - you're wrong"
So who has received an email from FE to confirm their info? I have order # 78 for an SE and have not received an email yet. Should we be expecting one?
I was wondering the exact same thing, I am order # 97 for the SE and have not gotten an email except the one that said shipping updates-November, but no confirmation email or anything.
So who has received an email from FE to confirm their info? I have order # 78 for an SE and have not received an email yet. Should we be expecting one?
I was wondering the exact same thing, I am order # 97 for the SE and have not gotten an email except the one that said shipping updates-November, but no confirmation email or anything.
Me neither.
If you can't trust a Swiss banker, what's the world come to?
hmmm, still in stock.... maybe they found a few spares down the back of the sofa like SD does? :v
so has the FE nag fallen at the first hurdle?
I can understand people being upset about play getting theirs to their customers first, but this ultimately was in FE's hands. If they really wanted to guarantee that direct order customers got theirs first, they could have held back the wholesale orders until the direct customers were dealt with. It's a bit shocking how FE can promise something to their customers publicly on this forum, and then have that promise broken not 24hrs later.
I can also understand what a logistical nightmare it can be to get this product to market, and that its no easy task, so on that one, well done FE for doing it. The thing I don't get with some people on here is that they seem to act like FE are doing everyone a favour. Be under no illusions people, FE are doing this for a profit, this is what's called business. I know without people like FE and SD taking a pop at this replica market we wouldn't be able to have many cool items in our collections, but I don't think that FE would still be doing it if they weren't making any money out of it.
As far as the shipping goes, I find it really confusing. Import tax, handling charges, its different if you're in the EU, it changes from country to country, you might get caught out at customs, you might not. Personally, I wouldn't want to be sat here with a deep though computer trying to work out what this would cost me. In my mind it should be simple and straight forward. Here's the product, here's what it'll cost you. I know its hard to deal with that from FE's side of things, but that's how it should be.
The bottom line is it's late, it's been delayed a few times, it's been promised as priority to direct orders, and when it does hit the market it goes to play.com customers for roughly £100 cheaper before some direct customers even get a confirmation email.
I'm not trying to shoot down FE, or big them up. I'm not a customer of theirs purely because its the wrong time of year for me to be buying pricey presents for myself. I'm not connected with FE in any way and I'm not here to personally attack them.
As most of you know I have championed FE for some time now. Mainly for selfish reasons, I wanted a GG and a good one plus the promise of other sought after goodies. I also have a little understanding of what it takes to bring such a product to market and therefore didn't chime in about every little hiccup along the way. I take my hat off to Barry for trying to be as up front as possible and addressing even the most trivial points in this whole process.
I think that FE, being a fledgling company, are going through a very steep learning curve. Whilst I agree with Jeff that, of course, they are there to make a profit, they are also trying to go about it in an honest an honorable way. As always you get let down by third parties on a day to day basis. Without trying to teach my granny to suck eggs, I would like to think that with the next tranche of props they will lock their suppliers and manufactures into strong penalty clauses and also only sell direct. This will alleviate a lot of the problems experienced this time around and also giv FE more room to manouvre in terms of existing customer discounts, incentive schemes etc.
To quote a learned colleague of mine
I'm not trying to shoot down FE, or big them up. I'm not connected with FE in any way and I'm not here to personally attack them. I'm simply voicing my opinion on it all.
Love them or loathe them?, Factory Entertainment that is, as of 5 minutes ago Play.com are still listing the LIMITED EDITION Golden Gun in stock @ £299.00 inc' of FREE 24 hour delivery.
As committed collectors or collectors who need to be committed?, I think we will all give serious thought to purchasing direct from Factory Entertainment again unless they bloody well make it worth our while and although nice and they are, 5 free resin gold plated rounds aint gonna swing it for me!
Love them or loathe them?, Factory Entertainment that is, as of 5 minutes ago Play.com are still listing the LIMITED EDITION Golden Gun in stock @ £299.00 inc' of FREE 24 hour delivery.
As committed collectors or collectors who need to be committed?, I think we will all give serious thought to purchasing direct from Factory Entertainment again unless they bloody well make it worth our while and although nice and they are, 5 free resin gold plated rounds aint gonna swing it for me!
I'm with you here and would sacrifice the 5 golden bullets (and the blueprint too as there's no mention of that) to get my GG a few weeks earlier and for £80 cheaper. I've now emailed play.com to see if they've got any stock for immediate delivery.
Thought I had missed out on this as no funds in June to pay deposit as holiday costs
but my wonderful wife just let me buy one for xmas on play.com
Now I am a very happy bunny
Time for a martini I think! :007)
Thought I had missed out on this as no funds in June to pay deposit as holiday costs
but my wonderful wife just let me buy one for xmas on play.com
Now I am a very happy bunny
Time for a martini I think! :007)
Congratulations on that -{
Knowing who to trust is Everything in this business.
TIS - "The moment you think you got it figured - you're wrong"
Comments
Deal -{
TIS - "The moment you think you got it figured - you're wrong"
Formerly known as Teppo
www.justgiving.com/inMemoryOfLewisCollins
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
Andy – you can join me and Teppo in Sweden..
www.007jamesbond.dk
http://thedangermen.com/
Too funny -{
Look here:
http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/15957652/James-Bond-The-Man-With-The-Golden-Gun/Product.html
"in stock"
www.007jamesbond.dk
http://thedangermen.com/
Yeah and i was dumb enough to contact play.com customer service and questioning their advertising methods
Trust and truth are beautiful things
TIS - "The moment you think you got it figured - you're wrong"
Formerly known as Teppo
But on the other hand it sucks that those of us that ordered direct have been screwed over. 8-)
Truth – but honestly – I feel like I have been raped… naturally we want to support the original makers and not distributors,,, but this is just wrong ?:)
www.007jamesbond.dk
http://thedangermen.com/
I hear ya ICS. I'm majorly pissed off aswell, especially since there were no import fees for people who ordered from play.com.
I wonder if we would lose our deposit if we cancel our FE order and re-order from play.com :v
From the beginning my opinion has been that there should be a company, which makes ONLY high quality
Bond Props and not fooling around with god damn Hobbits n Hornets.
I'm pretty sure this "delay" was not because of packaging problems, but main reason was completely something else.. :v
However, product does look good...but
TIS - "The moment you think you got it figured - you're wrong"
Formerly known as Teppo
Direct orders do receive priority and we are shipping them first. We are shipping orders as we speak. we have paid extra to airfreight the product for direct orders to our warehouse to ensure that it arrives before the product for regular wholesale orders which is being shipped by ocean freight to us. The delay in replying to this thread was because everybody here in the US office is in the warehouse labeling boxes.
Play.com did place a wholesale order with us, for LE guns, as did many other wholesale customers. Play purchased these items FOB (or factory direct) This means they collect them from the factory gate and they handle their own shipping and importation etc. However their order was allocated by us, this means there was not enough free stock available (it had been sold elsewhere) and they were only able to provide a very small quantity to them. About 20 units I think. Less than they actually wanted.
Their product and product for direct orders left the factory at exactly the same time. However we were assured that all of their product was for existing orders and that it would not be shipped out until a pre-agreed date. Clearly this has not happened, and we are now unsure if the product they received was for orders they already had, as was advised, or for another purpose. There is no additional product available and I would not have expected them to be able to show this product as in stock.We cannot and will not be supplying them with any more Golden Guns as they are all accounted for.
Honestly we do not know how they have managed to ship the product so quickly, import it, pay all the applicable duties and still sell it for a profit. But that is their business. We have no control over what retailers choose to do with our product.
More worryingly we are staring to get emails and calls from customers who have placed orders with Play, who are now receiving notifications to say their orders have been canceled by Play. We have no involvement in their business so do not know what they are doing. But its all quite unusual.
We can only assume that this is an unfortunate screw up, some people are lucky to have received guns from Play, and are the first people in the world to do so. It was not planned or arranged to happen that way. Play are the only wholesale customer in the world who has purchased FOB so this is thank fully a one off accident, but its annoying none the less.
Direct orders are shipping now, so there is no reason to be concerned. But this is a stupid and ugly mistake that we have to take the blame for. We are not happy about it and understand people's frustrations.
All guns shipped to wholesale customers are without the extra bullets.
Incidentally we did investigate importing orders into the EU through our UK office and shipping them directly from there, but we found the costs to be prohibitively expensive. There is no legal way to avoid any applicable duty and taxes and we would have had to add these costs to the selling price of the goods, which would have made them them practically the same as buying directly from us here in the USA, even with additional shipping and any tax/duty when you consider you are buying from us directly in $ and the exchange rates with GBP and Euros.
Once again we are sorry that we failed some people here. We hope that the product will more than make up for it, when it arrives. Anybody who still feels the need to discuss this should contact us directly.
Is it risking too much to ask the lucky few who got guns early what they think of the product?
You are definately living up to your name!
And IF you don't want to do that, then put a realistic 'replacement' value there. That really was amusing! Play sell at £299 you sell at $449, that's £280 NOW That's practically the same NOT after you add shipping! Which incidentally was $86.17, now $70.78. Wonder which I will be charged?
But don't tell me "you've since negotiated better rates" MMmmmmm
Failed "some" people?????? Failed all.
And risky asking about the product????? How many bullets in the Golden Gun?
Typically £8 for "Clearance Fee" And 17.5% VAT (soon to be 20%) on the 'declared' value.
So, for SE; that's $649 (£405) + £44 (shipping) + £8 + £71 = £528
And for LE; that's $449 (£280) + £44 (shipping) + £8 + £49 = £381
Play price for the LE = £299 inc shipping.
Mmmmm, wonder what all the fuss is about???????????? 8-)
That's called business - way of the world today
TIS - "The moment you think you got it figured - you're wrong"
Formerly known as Teppo
What do they say 'the only guarantees in life are death and taxes'
Actually, it wouldn't be so bad if it was in that order
I was wondering the exact same thing, I am order # 97 for the SE and have not gotten an email except the one that said shipping updates-November, but no confirmation email or anything.
Me neither.
hmmm, still in stock.... maybe they found a few spares down the back of the sofa like SD does? :v
so has the FE nag fallen at the first hurdle?
I can understand people being upset about play getting theirs to their customers first, but this ultimately was in FE's hands. If they really wanted to guarantee that direct order customers got theirs first, they could have held back the wholesale orders until the direct customers were dealt with. It's a bit shocking how FE can promise something to their customers publicly on this forum, and then have that promise broken not 24hrs later.
I can also understand what a logistical nightmare it can be to get this product to market, and that its no easy task, so on that one, well done FE for doing it. The thing I don't get with some people on here is that they seem to act like FE are doing everyone a favour. Be under no illusions people, FE are doing this for a profit, this is what's called business. I know without people like FE and SD taking a pop at this replica market we wouldn't be able to have many cool items in our collections, but I don't think that FE would still be doing it if they weren't making any money out of it.
As far as the shipping goes, I find it really confusing. Import tax, handling charges, its different if you're in the EU, it changes from country to country, you might get caught out at customs, you might not. Personally, I wouldn't want to be sat here with a deep though computer trying to work out what this would cost me. In my mind it should be simple and straight forward. Here's the product, here's what it'll cost you. I know its hard to deal with that from FE's side of things, but that's how it should be.
The bottom line is it's late, it's been delayed a few times, it's been promised as priority to direct orders, and when it does hit the market it goes to play.com customers for roughly £100 cheaper before some direct customers even get a confirmation email.
I'm not trying to shoot down FE, or big them up. I'm not a customer of theirs purely because its the wrong time of year for me to be buying pricey presents for myself. I'm not connected with FE in any way and I'm not here to personally attack them.
I'm simply voicing my opinion on it all.
Cheers,
MG -{
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
I think that FE, being a fledgling company, are going through a very steep learning curve. Whilst I agree with Jeff that, of course, they are there to make a profit, they are also trying to go about it in an honest an honorable way. As always you get let down by third parties on a day to day basis. Without trying to teach my granny to suck eggs, I would like to think that with the next tranche of props they will lock their suppliers and manufactures into strong penalty clauses and also only sell direct. This will alleviate a lot of the problems experienced this time around and also giv FE more room to manouvre in terms of existing customer discounts, incentive schemes etc.
To quote a learned colleague of mine
www.justgiving.com/inMemoryOfLewisCollins
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
As committed collectors or collectors who need to be committed?, I think we will all give serious thought to purchasing direct from Factory Entertainment again unless they bloody well make it worth our while and although nice and they are, 5 free resin gold plated rounds aint gonna swing it for me!
I'm with you here and would sacrifice the 5 golden bullets (and the blueprint too as there's no mention of that) to get my GG a few weeks earlier and for £80 cheaper. I've now emailed play.com to see if they've got any stock for immediate delivery.
but my wonderful wife just let me buy one for xmas on play.com
Now I am a very happy bunny
Time for a martini I think! :007)
Congratulations on that -{
TIS - "The moment you think you got it figured - you're wrong"
Formerly known as Teppo