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Statuesque

Freakzoid
Joined
Oct 28, 2015
Messages
61
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0
Location
UK
Hey guys/gals.

Although I have been a member on these forums for some time now more as a lurker than a poster on a different profile I thought I would introduce myself and the store. I know this might all be a bit TL:DR but I hope that you persevere and that our thoughts and ideals ring bells with some of you :)

In case you got no further than here : here’s the store link

There’s already a fairly large selection of stores online and on the high street to choose from to purchase your statues and action figures, I always use the theory that once you find a good Indian restaurant or Sushi bar, you tend to stay with it if you wake up without stomach pains the next day. The same is true with your favourite stores.

With all of that said then, I do not expect you to wake up tomorrow feeling perfectly great and start placing orders with us. I do want to let you know though that we are here and more than happy to fill up your shelves with all sorts of comic and movie polystone/PVC goodness. I am not sure I have the magic words to suddenly convert everyone, I wish I did, What I will do though is explain our store and the rest will come over time as you use us and we earn your trust and custom. It’s the only way it can work in truth and until then please stay with your existing store until you feel let down or you fancy a change.

To me, how you are treated as a customer is far more important than how many pretty pictures and tempting prices my store might have on display. If you are not appreciated and are given lousy service then the store remains a website full of pretty pictures and numbers and nothing more.

My name is Steve, I come from a background of customer support and customer services, almost 25 years [Yes I am that old!] and so I do understand how to look after a customer or two.

This is the strength of Statuesque. Customer contact, updates and the care taken with your order. These are things we work very hard at and intend to improve these points as time progresses. I wish we were perfect!

Online purchasing can often be heartless process. You spend your cash and then sit and wait for a box to arrive. Each process punctuated with a generic store email and a whole heap of silence, I know, I have been there more times than I care to remember!

I don’t believe this is a great experience and when I decided to create Statuesque, my vision/ideology was to make the store as sociable and personal as possible. I had this idea [call me old fashioned!] that an online store could be as personable an experience as you walking in to your local high street store, Of course, not everyone likes to chat but it really doesn’t hurt to open up a line of personal dialect where possible. it’s not normal for an online store to send you an email discussing your most recent purchase, sending you a personal welcome when you sign up for a newsletter or Chat with you about your thoughts on new releases and your past purchases, but It should be normal though, buying online should have the same options for interaction as your local store might have, all be it digital.

I love this hobby, have done for almost 10 years now. i enjoy selling these items and i look forward to the next email from a customer. I spend hours each week chatting to customers and browsers. I like to think that its a good start to getting that local high street store vibe. I don’t think I have received a contact yet where the person does not at least start the message with my first name or mention my first name during the course of their email! How many stores have you bought from where you call the shopkeeper by his first name either online or on the high street?

So, about us then. We are a UK business although we are currently located in France! I often find myself going in to all sorts of explanations as to why. The simple answer is that a few days a week i do have a commitment with a well known gaming company. We will ultimately return to the UK once my obligations have finished. In the mean time then we are British through and through, we rejoiced when marks and spencers opened up stores over here as we finally had access to English sausages and bacon :)


We have been operating now for almost 8 months. We are not brand new but I would certainly consider Statuesque to be a new kid on the block.


What can we offer you then?

Well we provide most of the major manufacturers I am sure you will browse the store and so you will be able to see for yourself what is on offer.

Are our prices any good ?
I know it all boils down to money with most buyers. I believe that our prices are very competitive. Browse the store yourself though and make up your own minds. Top right is where you’ll find the change of currency option if you get there and it shows up in Euro’s :)

What about discounts ?
Well I think we have you covered there as well to be honest. As well as the very competitive prices, we also fill your store wallet with approximately 2.5% of your purchase total for you to use on your next order. Almost all new preorders have an earlybird discount on them for a limited time. Check the store often to grab a deal on future releases.

Preorders? Do you have them ?
Hell yes we do.

I know preorders always cause big discussions on these forums about how they should be done. I read many variations , generally they are stacked in the customers favour. I have no issues with that but … As a business I have to ensure that the business continues to operate. I have a commitment to existing customers who like the flexible payment options and those that have paid in full for items released in the future. Preorders can easily be the nail in the coffin to a business. If 30 preorders arrived for an item from guys/gals who have eyes bigger than their wallets and they cancel, Statuesque is left with 30 statues still to sell. The supplier will not let me cancel the order, they are a business too. To that end then we don’t take preorders via a promise a customer will buy when it arrives or via a £20 deposit.

So, Here’s how we do it. Preorders can be ordered and paid for on a monthly basis. Once final payment is made and the item is in stock, we send it to you [think Sideshow Collectibles preorder system but without all of the payment movements when items get delayed ;) ] alternatively you can wait for them to arrive in stock and buy them once we have them. This is a gamble , I appreciate that and you are allowing the gods of good fortune to decide if any remain in stock.

Our partial payment options are exceptionally flexible and our existing customers do like to make use of it. I am not aware of any store that will let you pay over 12 months for an item due to arrive in one years time. Super small payments really help to make this expensive hobby just a little easier to manage. We also go one step further and if a plan does not suit your needs completely, we are more than happy to listen to your preferred option and see what can be done.

Payments are made via paypal so you can use all of the major credit cards. You do not need a paypal account to purchase through paypal with your credit card though.

As this is now turning in to a novel, I will stop here and answer any questions that might be presented. In the mean time though I will leave you all in peace to browse the store :)


Steve
 
47897 - R2Q5-min.jpg

SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES - STAR WARS 1/6 SCALE R2-Q5 IMPERIAL ASTROMECH DROID
Preorder available - September 2016 release
 
You have a UK business but you're based in France and what you're selling on the website is in dollars, a currency that is not used in either the UK or France?

:dunno

Edit...OK I see the option to change it, seems a strange default option though.
 
Hey there. Should actually default to your country or rather your browser country setting. Maybe US/english is a standard setting and so defaulting to $. Adjusted now to resolve that default. :p
As for uk and listed as France, I mentioned this in the TL:DR post. We will be back in the UK soon[tm] after commitments have been completed in France.
 
Hey there. Should actually default to your country. You broke the site :p

I'ts not the first thing I've broke just by looking at it.

Just out of interest, how are you getting statues like the Superman Premium Format figure in one year, when it was released ages ago and is sold out?
 
Sideshow are doing reprints or certainly that's what the suppliers have them listed as on the catalogue. Doom, superman, catwoman,batman,wonderwoman etc are all rereleased by Sideshow. They want to make more money by selling them again :p I think the run is 2000 of each if I remember correctly. Sorry to those who bought them originally and now have more on the way to help keep your resale prices stagnant :(
 
Yeah. Over the past 2-3 months theres been 6 PF's listed as reprints. As an etailer it is cause to rejoice but the collector inside of me weeps as i bought some of these on the initial release :(
 
Welcome to the forum Steve, Always good to hear of other retailers for the UK.
 
:welcome1:

Being in the UK, and having bought over 300 figures in two years, I have just one request : Please, God, stick to this:

To me, how you are treated as a customer is far more important than how many pretty pictures and tempting prices my store might have on display. If you are not appreciated and are given lousy service then the store remains a website full of pretty pictures and numbers and nothing more.

I have a thread HERE that talks about retailers, so hopefully some collectors will mention you soon and I can add you. If you look through the thread, you'll see that I've dealt with most UK retailers and my one pet peeve as a collector is bad customer service. UK retailers just don't care. Look at Norton - they have the most recent comments from me - a couple of days ago.

Are you going to Stock Star Ace? I'm having huge difficulty getting their figures at good prices in the UK.

Good luck and I hope you do well!
 
Thanks for the welcome Anx10us.

I have read the mega thread so am familiar with your work so to speak haha

To be honest with you, I have been involved in customer care and customer support for such a long time now, as I mentioned in the initial introduction just about 25 years, it's pretty much part of my grain. I don't expect folk to read my post entirely nor do I expect them to rush to buy things from us, The Pied piper of Hamlet I am not ;)

You will all get used to long posts from me given the chance. I truly can talk for Britain ;)

I took a great deal of time to provide some idea of the way I work and why we work this way. It's a true fact though, it's all just pretty pictures as these items sell themselves, it's just as well really as my only sales experience is being a double glazing salesman in my youth :). If they sell themselves then really what do we have left as retailers to do ? The bulk of the work should be customer focused. It's not rocket science.

Here is a true story about someone on these forums and I will mention his company :D
In all of the years I have been buying these figures and statues I have never, not once had a personal email from an online store. Never have I had a Thank you beyond the generic generated store thank you templated email created from the order. Not once did Sideshow contact me beyond yet more generic mails even when I had 10 preorders active all at the same time. I never had contact when an order might be delayed from anyone and when I did contact one of the stores about something, I got a one line reply back! I bought a statue though once, It was a Yoda 1/4 scale statue from MYC sculptures, Michael. In the box that arrived was a very simple card that said 'Thank you', he was the only one that had ever done that. The simple gesture of a thank you card to this very day causes me to sing his praises whenever I can.

Customer service isn't always about treating the person like it's the shop scene from Pretty Woman. Just the simplest of things actually show that you do really care and the customer actually matters. The card Michael sent was a printed card, he didn't write it but the fact that he had these cards even made shows something about him and his business. He also contacted me when he had shipped personally and he also messaged me on Facebook and said he would hold one statue back for me if I was seriously going to buy it - That is customer focused.

I wanted collectors to know of us and maybe one day, feeling let down by their current store or looking for a change will give us a try.

Star Ace is not on the suppliers list though currently, I'm sure i have seen stuff pop up though so I am confident that we will be able to offer some of their items from time to time. Sideshow are distributing the new Severus so I would be very surprised if he wasn't picked up at the suppliers.I'll keep an eye out and be sure to let you know if he shows up and then you can decide if the price is what you were looking for :p

Harry Potter would not necessarily be something I would stock at this time typically, I have nothing against young Harry but I also tend to shy away from game of thrones as well, 8 months old is still a pretty young store and while there's a million and one figures and statues released I do keep the reins held tight about choices made for what goes in to the store.Once we get some age under our belts then I'll think about expanding the store offerings and taking more risks with what we stock. I am more than happy to provide prices though to anyone that nudges me for stuff that isn't on the store but is available at the suppliers.

So as it's getting late and I am heading toward writing another Novel here I will bid you a Good night until next time we meet :D
 
I've dealt with most UK retailers and my one pet peeve as a collector is bad customer service. UK retailers just don't care.

I sometimes wonder if the attitude from a lot of collectors towards service actually promotes a lack of effort. I'm continually amazed by the amount of ridiculous fawning on these forums by people receiving what I would consider to be the most basic of service. You get people who order something, it gets sent to them when it was suggested it would and it's well packaged and they're practically creaming their pants about it.

I buy loads of stuff online, generally it arrives as suggested and it's well packaged, it's just what you'd expect to happen. Seems a lot of people on here seem to think that getting an email acknowledgement and a next day delivery is the pinnacle of online retailing.

In addition there are/were people who continue(d) to order from One Sixth Bruce/Mother's Basement despite being well aware of the fact that their service is absolutely appalling. It makes me wonder if retailers pick up on this and don't really care about service because they repeatedly see many collectors being so easily impressed by bog-standard service and seemingly happy to, not just put up with terrible service, but continue to give money to the company providing it.

If the message is being sent that we're a bunch of mugs, you can expect some companies to treat us as such.
 
There's no excuse for bad service and putting the blame on the customer is wrong.

I say in my thread -

"Most transactions go smoothly, but it's also handy to see how sellers/retailers react when they don't and how to deal with any problems that may arise."

and

"Remember, rather than get angry or trying to guess the cause of delays and problems, please try to contact the retailer involved and give them adequate time to answer. A lot of delays are out of their hands and due to manufacturers. Most problems can also be solved through good communication."

Out of over 300 transactions, I've had around 20 with problems and 10 were a nightmare. Not bad odds.

I think Statuesque has a good attitude towards it.

Anyway, that's my opinion, and not hijacking his thread, so I'm leaving it there.
 
I'm not blaming the customer, merely a thought that forums such as these show customers continually putting up with and still ordering through, companies who display awful service. Maybe if they didn't, those companies would have to up their game.

I must say you seem to be contradicting yourself, you've gone from saying that "I've dealt with most UK retailers and my one pet peeve as a collector is bad customer service. UK retailers just don't care." to "Out of over 300 transactions, I've had around 20 with problems and 10 were a nightmare. Not bad odds."

So what, UK retailers just don't care, or most of them actually do? You seem to be disagreeing with yourself.
 
No, I'm not and before you say something like that, you should read the thread properly.

I'm not going to argue with you, but seeing as you're accusing me of something - 300 figures, most through Ebay, a few from abroad retailers and around 40 were UK retailers (hence most retailers). Not bad odds = me overall. Not good UK odds because around 10 were a nightmare.

Also, "UK retailers just don't care." was in reference to when I emailed them to ask polite questions. Again, read the thread.

Customer service is not just about transactions, it's how you're treated - hence Statuesque's comments.
 
I'm not sure what you're getting so annoyed about. I only said you were contradicting yourself, what are you talking about accusations for? I never said you killed someone.

In response to both our posts about UK retailers, you quoted the 300 figures remark. So if only 40 of those were actually from UK retailers (most of which were bad) why did you quote it in the first place? It has no relevance to the discussion.

I'm not sure how you think I'm not reading the thread properly, I think anyone would assume you were talking about 300 UK retailers as that's what we were talking about.

Why is everyone so overly dramatic on here?
 
I guess it depends what you are used to and/or what you expect to get. I didn't actually mean to turn this all in to a customer care thread just wanted to say Hi but hell , seems to be a topic we all have opinions about, we're all customers.

Everyone is different and if subjected to bad experiences then one that goes smoothly is going to be worth fawning over haha

I do think that as a nation, the UK is perhaps not as advanced in customer service as say the US is. I know this now opens me up for a million Americans to tell me how bad the service is in the US but it's a standing joke that the UK is 20 years behind the US and we endlessly try to be more like the Americans. The US is so much more advanced in customer care/service than us but I do believe we are trying to be better and some companies/businesses offer supreme experiences.

It's easy to get customer care confused with how much is given away for nothing. For me , it's great to give away vouchers with discounts on them but that is simply a selling tool, more often than not it's used to sell particular items and generally has no personal motive attached to it. Sure it's a gesture but it's a selling tool to get you to come back to use it. If you get rubbish service but they give you a voucher it can often be too tempting to ignore the savings and just return again for more possible abuse :p

If the voucher personally improved your store experience then that is what it's all about. If it didn't then your love is sort of being purchased :p

It's great as a customer to get a 5% discount, I do it all of the time in Newsletter updates as I mentioned in my original post but I don't actually do it as part of the 'experience' and I think for me that's what it's all about. I would be more tempted rather than using a voucher to actually organise something for a customer for them directly.

I have a customer mad on one particular TV show. We have chatted via email quite a few times now about this show amongst other stuff. He's bought a couple of things released in the coming months. I spotted a trinket type gift from the TV show at the suppliers. Doesn't cost much but I know he'll appreciate it. I'll put it in his box when one of his items arrives to surprise him. I don't stock the item I got him as a gift. It didn't cost much but that's not the point. As I have taken time to chat to him via emails, I know him better as a customer and I know he'll like the gift for sure. I could have given him a 5% voucher. If he used the voucher on a premium format then the voucher would have more value than the item I got him. To me though, the gift will mean more to him than the voucher.I think it's going to improve his experience.

Just this morning I had someone join the store, maybe he came from these forums, I have no idea [Hi Z if you are reading :)] As I always do, I wrote an email to say hello to him personally, gave my name and welcomed any future contact for whatever reason he might need to contact. I have never had that from any online store. I did mention I try for the 'local store' vibe. He joined the store [walked through the door] I said Hi [welcomed him personally via email] - he then replied to the email with quite a mammoth email, thanks Z haha, and I spent probably 30-40 minutes writing a reply [We chatted as he looked at the shelves]. Z has since written another long email to which I replied.

I know that some people would not respond to an email saying Hello etc. Everyone is different. Doesn't mean I won't do it though, causes no harm. Z has not spent a single penny/cent with me. He may never spend anything with me but even if that's the case, I know he had some sort of an experience at a store that he may not actually have expected. I would like to think that he will remember us for that if nothing else.

I am not trying to blow my own trumpet here. All I am saying is that there is service and then there's care. The service part is something as an etailer I should provide as a minimum standard. The care part is something we should look at doing when the service element is done. Takes 10 minutes to put something in a box, take absolutely no time to sell the stuff as they sell themselves. We do need to think about what we can do beyond that basic service.

Please if anyone reads this, I don't put gifts in every box hahaha - I just know I'll now be slammed to high heaven each time I send something with no gift in it, if we did that for everyone then it wouldn't be personal or special you see. Loses all meaning.
 
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