Archive-X problems with orders?

[RealDaveWinter]

I ~think~ this is the correct place for this thread given it's studio scale colours, but if not, please move it someplace more appropriate.

Has anyone else had any problems ordering Archive-X paints? Their own online store has been shut down and sold out for ages, so I never bothered to order from there. Their US store no longer ships to Canada for reasons. So I had to order from their distributor in the UK that has, according to them, been waiting on stock from Archive-X for weeks.

Anyway someone on a Facebook group was gushing about how amazing that company is, I just mentioned to them my experience was quite the opposite. I placed an order through their distributor over a month ago, and have had multiple emails explaining that delays in filling that order are due to not getting their supplies from their supplier. Then the Archive-X owner (some dude named Guy) jumps in, writing in barely legible English, claiming I'm lying, and that he only just received his order for colours. Also that I'm not a customer of his because I never ordered from him.

Is that how he normally operates? I purchased his product, I'm a customer, it doesn't matter who the middle man was.

I ran Canuck Model Products for over a decade before it was just not viable any longer (the costs of materials skyrocketed), but during the time I did operate it, I don't believe I ever dismissed someone as not being a customer because they purchased my products from a hobby store and not directly from my website. I'd usually simply replaced products directly, even if that customer purchased second hand from his buddy or from a swap meet. Personally I take customer service pretty seriously, so you'd think when someone places an order worth many hundreds of dollars for your product, you'd try to help. This guy just seems off his rocker.

Has anyone else ever had dealings with this company? Is their paint really worth it, or should I just cancel the order, keep my money, and mix my own colours?

thoughts?

 

[swgeek]

I've never had any problems with Guy. I love the whole Archive-X paint line. The paints are hard to get some times. I know there are still supply chain problems and Archive-X isn't a big company which makes it difficult.
It sucks that you're having trouble getting the paint shipped to Canada. I'm sorry you've had such a bad experience.

 

[nailuj]

Guy is a straight up chap.
The paint is very good.
I find the design of the bottle with the twist close nozzle very useful and the ball bearing inside for mixing is spot on.
I would hold on for the delivery if it were me.

 

[RealDaveWinter]

Well, the saga continues. After Guy calling me a liar over on the big FB for claiming that their supplier hasn't placed any orders, I received this gem this morning. Guy blames them and calls me a liar, Element Games claims that Guy isn't supplying his product (and based on the one interaction I've had with him, I sort of believe Element Games). In ether case, I don't think I'll be ordering products from either in the future.

My experience so far has been far less than positive from any of these guys.

 

[Jaitea]

Did you order from Guy? Or order from Element Games?
If I ordered a TV from Curry’s (UK Electrical Store), they took my money, then they say they don’t have the Sony TV I ordered I wouldn’t start a war with Sony

J

 

[RealDaveWinter]

I did originally try to order directly from Guy's (Archive-X) website. He's sold out of everything and the store portion seems to be shut down. After asking, he's telling his customers to order from one of his two suppliers. The American supplier doesn't work because they don't ship outside the US. So off to Element games, who have apparently been struggling to get stock orders filled. But according to Guy, I'm not a customer because I didn't order directly from him, which I can't do because he's not accepting orders (rinse and repeat).

I'm 100% sure that Curry's would have no issues getting stock from Sony assuming that Sony was still in business and that TV was still a thing they manufactured. If Sony was refusing to fill orders from their suppliers, their suppliers would just go to Roku to get a better TV.

 

[swgeek]

I understand your frustration, but Archive-X isn't a multi-billion dollar company like Sony, they are a small company that can't make the supply demands of a Sony size company. It's frustrating to try to order a product and have it continually out of stock, I'm waiting for restock myself. Customer service is another issue all together.

 

[joberg]

To our U.S. friends; anything and everything is hard to get in Canada, compared to the variety/availability of products for our U.S. friends.

1: Tariffs/protectionism are killing us here, North of the border. I will not go into details; it's too political.

2: U.S. companies do not, automatically, ship to Canada. Why? Well, the amount of Canadian customers vs American ones is negligeable and not worth the headaches of shipping/insurance, etc...

3: Many times we, Canadians, have to go through other channels/third/fourth parties to get the same products readily available in store/on-line for the U.S. consumers.

4: There's almost no consumer protection in Canada, compared to the U.S. (another political problem).

 

[RealDaveWinter]

I understand your frustration, but Archive-X isn't a multi-billion dollar company like Sony, they are a small company that can't make the supply demands of a Sony size company. It's frustrating to try to order a product and have it continually out of stock, I'm waiting for restock myself. Customer service is another issue all together.

Canuck Models wasn't a multi-billon dollar company either. I ran everything (including the screen printing operation for decals) out of my basement. Most sales were direct, but some were with shops that wanted to sell them - Hannants for example saved me a lot of hassle shipping to Europe because they did it for me. But I never treated my customers like this. I didn't care if someone purchased one of my kits or decal set from a store, a flea market, or me directly. I helped them, I never called them a liar and blamed someone else. Never make your customers responsible for your own problems.

 

[RealDaveWinter]

To our U.S. friends; anything and everything is hard to get in Canada, compared to the variety/availability of products for our U.S. friends.

1: Tariffs/protectionism are killing us here, North of the border. I will not go into details; it's too political.

2: U.S. companies do not, automatically, ship to Canada. Why? Well, the amount of Canadian customers vs American ones is negligeable and not worth the headaches of shipping/insurance, etc...

3: Many times we, Canadians, have to go through other channels/third/fourth parties to get the same products readily available in store/on-line for the U.S. consumers.

4: There's almost no consumer protection in Canada, compared to the U.S. (another political problem).

5. Companies/individuals that do ship, over charge for shipping. A bottle of paint I can ship to the US costs me $12 CAD. That same bottle of paint shipped back to me costs $35 CAD. Lots of folks out there like to add shipping to their profit margin.

But anyway, this is all mostly moot now. After a couple of new emails from Element Games today, it sounds like these two are talking to each other again instead of blaming each other. Still no idea when they'll have stock though, whenever Guy gets around to producing more I suppose.

 

[Jaitea]

Yes but Guy has set up the business, he creates more colours to get manufactured, makes sure that the quality is maintained, he doesn’t manufacture the product

Element Games does the ordering from the manufacturer & maintains stocks

If there’s a problem with Element Games or the manufacturer Guy can step in & try & find out what’s going on

But really Guy isn’t the one to blame as far as I can see, he is fiercely proud of his product though, maybe that’s why he was so defensive

J

 

[RealDaveWinter]

That doesn't seem like a business model that makes sense. If Element is ordering directly from the manufacture, why is Guy involved at all? I sure wouldn't pay a middle man if I can order direct from the manufacture.

If Guy is the 1st line distributor of his product with manufacturing done someplace else, he needs to do a better job of staying on top of the stock levels of his whopping 2 distributors and ensure they have product on hand to full fill orders.

Guy didn't step in to find out what was going on. He blamed his customer, then he blamed his distributor, who was already blaming him.

In any event, I've sort of stopped caring. I seem to be in the wrong here because I didn't blame my customers when they had problems obtaining my products.

 

[Jaitea]

Ok, I was chatting to Guy, he says that all Element Games orders go through him, but they hadn’t ordered some of the parts that you had ordered, they did try & imply that Guy was at fault
In any case EG has apologized to you & refunded your money

J

 

[RealDaveWinter]

Yep, and Guy still called me a liar in a follow up DM. He refuses to accept that, as someone that purchased his product, I'm a customer, regardless of the middle man. That's how sales work. He also won't acknowledge that he knew about the problem because I'd already contacted him about it. He didn't reply to anything until today.

Element actually helped solve the problem. Guy just denied there was one.

[edit] - also, I wouldn't call it an implication. The statement was "they chase their supplier regularly". That seems like a pretty straightforward claim.

But like I said, I've stopped caring. Guy may have a good product - I wouldn't know - but he sure has no concept of customer service.

 

[RealDaveWinter]

Yeah, this dude is off his rocker;
- Claims I never reached out to him about the problems, that post from him is literally under my telling him.
- Now he's claiming his distributors are lying to his customers. Everyone just lies to this guy left, right, and centre.

Anyway, I'm done with this. If admins want to lock the thread, please do.

 

[Mr. E Man]

I ordered all of my Archive-X paints as a complete set, plus extra Reefer Whites and a large bottle of thinner from newtype.us.

They had very competitive prices and shipped very fast.


E

 

[RealDaveWinter]

So I've heard yes, but they do not ship outside the US.