RIP Gentle Giant Blog Comments

[jason2885]

I am trying to finish off my collection of busts at the moment. I will be buying a guys entire collection soon of 22 busts of which I already have half of them but at the price I will be getting for all of them I will take them all and sell off the ones that I already have. I will probably keep a couple duplicates like the Stormie and Leia Boussh. I have all the statues except US Maul and Chrome Vader. I have also got all of the OT maquettes except the Holiday Boba and B&W Boba.

I really wish GG was not such a pain to collect but Im almost caught up.

 

[One of Nine]

I was kind of thinking the same thing.

VULTURES!!!

 

[The Josh]

VULTURES!!!

Couldn't help myself.

 

[Batty]

They do care about our money, and whatever else may happen, their stuff will continue to sell out. As long as that happens, it seems that everything else is just details to them. For every person who gets fed up and walks away, there will plenty more to take their place. Bummer though it may be.

I was one of those got fed up and walked away.

Last year's BHT debacle was the beginning of the end of my love affair with GG. Not so much that I didn't get one, as much as how the whole thing was handled. And the more complaints I continue to read, the more disappointed I get. It's too bad, too...they put out some nice pieces.

They should try and learn a thing or two from Sideshow about dealing with their customers.

 

[tomandshell]

The Obi-Wan clone statue and the crooked headed Royal Guard got me to give up on the statue line and sell most of the ones in my collection. I will honor my remaining preorders, but sell them unopened when they arrive. (My unopened Slave Leia is on eBay right now, in fact.)

I will continue to collect the SW animated maquettes and the HP busts, but the SW busts are getting to be nothing but hassle. The pieces either get overproduced and take a dump in value, making you regret your preorder for twice the going rate, or else they underproduce and make them nearly impossible for the average collector to afford on the secondary market.

But their stubborn refusal to simply listen to their customers is what has really burnt me out with them. Whereas SS interacts and makes changes and improvements based upon our feedback, GG just continues to do the opposite of what we ask and suggest--and with almost universally disastrous results. We begged them to give PG members an advance preorder window for the SDCC items. "Don't worry," they said, "We've increased server capacity." And then many of us spend five hours in front of a computer screen last Thursday, some ultimately to have the system continually dump their shopping cart out or give them an error message when they try to check out. Based on what I heard about how they handled their lines at CIV, we will be in for a real treat next week. My e-mails have gone unanswered, they have no publicized GGLTD customer service number, and they have now shut down the blog. Could they make it any harder for their customers to contact them? All I found on their website was this, in the FAQ:

How can I reach you by mail?
A: All mail can be sent to: Gentle Giant Ltd. 7511 N. San Fernando Road, Burbank, CA 91505.

Then they bury the e-mail submission even further down, but good luck getting a response from them--mine have gone unanswered. Apparently the person reading them also deals with inquiries about scanning services and press inquiries. They simply don't have the manpower to deal adequately with the needs of their customers.

When I thought the system had messed up my credit card last Thursday, I got someone to PM me a contact number. When I called and asked for customer service, they told me that she (singular) was busy and I could leave my name and number. I asked if I could be put on hold or leave a voice mail. They said no, but they could take my name and number and write it down and walk over and hand it to her, and she would get to it later. I'm sorry, but even the smallest of small businesses have a better CS setup than that. To be fair, I actually did get a call back hours later. But when I have called Sideshow (using the toll free number printed on just about every page of their catalog or website or on the bottom of every package they ship) I get a person who helps me ASAP. I'm talking about, "Let me put you on hold while I go talk to my manager" with the problem solved less than five minutes later.

GG has a lot to learn--there stuff is great, but part of the fun of collecting is the relationship with those who make the stuff, and that part of the hobby when it comes to GG is just getting to be so unpleasant. Visiting the Sideshow booth at SDCC is going to be a lot of FUN, whereas my time at the GG booth is going to be like a trip to the dentist--you have to go and get it over with, but you can't wait to get out of there.

 

[Wetanut]

The Obi-Wan clone statue and the crooked headed Royal Guard got me to give up on the statue line and sell most of the ones in my collection. I will honor my remaining preorders, but sell them unopened when they arrive. (My unopened Slave Leia is on eBay right now, in fact.)

I will continue to collect the SW animated maquettes and the HP busts, but the SW busts are getting to be nothing but hassle. The pieces either get overproduced and take a dump in value, making you regret your preorder for twice the going rate, or else they underproduce and make them nearly impossible for the average collector to afford on the secondary market.

But their stubborn refusal to simply listen to their customers is what has really burnt me out with them. Whereas SS interacts and makes changes and improvements based upon our feedback, GG just continues to do the opposite of what we ask and suggest--and with almost universally disastrous results. We begged them to give PG members an advance preorder window for the SDCC items. "Don't worry," they said, "We've increased server capacity." And then many of us spend five hours in front of a computer screen last Thursday, some ultimately to have the system continually dump their shopping cart out or give them an error message when they try to check out. Based on what I heard about how they handled their lines at CIV, we will be in for a real treat next week. My e-mails have gone unanswered, they have no publicized GGLTD customer service number, and they have now shut down the blog. Could they make it any harder for their customers to contact them? All I found on their website was this, in the FAQ:



Then they bury the e-mail submission even further down, but good luck getting a response from them--mine have gone unanswered. Apparently the person reading them also deals with inquiries about scanning services and press inquiries. They simply don't have the manpower to deal adequately with the needs of their customers.

When I thought the system had messed up my credit card last Thursday, I got someone to PM me a contact number. When I called and asked for customer service, they told me that she (singular) was busy and I could leave my name and number. I asked if I could be put on hold or leave a voice mail. They said no, but they could take my name and number and write it down and walk over and hand it to her, and she would get to it later. I'm sorry, but even the smallest of small businesses have a better CS setup than that. To be fair, I actually did get a call back hours later. But when I have called Sideshow (using the toll free number printed on just about every page of their catalog or website or on the bottom of every package they ship) I get a person who helps me ASAP. I'm talking about, "Let me put you on hold while I go talk to my manager" with the problem solved less than five minutes later.

GG has a lot to learn--there stuff is great, but part of the fun of collecting is the relationship with those who make the stuff, and that part of the hobby when it comes to GG is just getting to be so unpleasant. Visiting the Sideshow booth at SDCC is going to be a lot of FUN, whereas my time at the GG booth is going to be like a trip to the dentist--you have to go and get it over with, but you can't wait to get out of there.

Mebbe we should all gather and line up all at the same time and face up to them when they start their stubborn "can't be bothered with mere geeks" attitude? mwahahaha!!!:maul

 

[tomandshell]

Last year they were previewing the Luke Skywalker animated maquette. The prototype was just standing on a plain, round base. I asked if that was the final style, because it wouldn't match the others. He pointed to the Boba Fett maquette and said, "Look, that one has flames, so they're not all the same." Then he walked away. I was left scratching my head with my reasonable question left unanswered until the time came to preorder it online and we saw images of the Hoth base. But instead of a courteous answer at the booth, I got condescension and a brushoff.

 

[cco805]

About time, that blog was really getting on my nerves. It's basically a few people bashing GG. Good decision GG, for once, if I were a new collector and was on the blog for the first time, I wouldn't go near that company.