However, I certainly thought I was securing a dragon with the deposit... he even encouraged people not to pay the full amount at first. Later, he put up the further payment installments for people who wanted to go ahead and pay it all, but still encouraged people not to until he made more progress. It certainly did not seem that, if you did go ahead and pay it all, you would have your pre-order placed ahead of those who hadn't finished paying the installments (which again, were not even options at the beginning, and not encouraged until much later).
The £30 deposit secured you the opportunity to reserve and buy the dragon at a guaranteed price of £100. But once people have paid in full for it, then they have paid for it in full and as such, their dragons are cast-iron, no arguments, paid for. So they got to go to the front of the queue, they were risking the full £100 not just £30, I believe that the least they deserve is to have themselves placed at the front of the queue. Hate to use the F-word again but that is, simply, unassailably Fair.
Honestly, this attitude is partly what puts me off from supporting Heresy a bit more- I want to deal with a professional business, and be treated as a business would their customer.
I'm as professional as I can be, considering the lack of funds I have and my customers have been my overriding prioirty since April 2002 when I opened up. Anyone who actually knows me will know how important my customers are to me. Don't be fooled by the jokes and blithe remarks in other threads and things. Just because I have some fun on forums doesn't mean I'm being unprofessional in my business. I'm actually a little shocked and angry at that assumption, to be honest. My whole life is dedicated to getting figures out the door. I haven't even taken a proper holiday in four years just so that orders will still go out if Craig isn't in. (Christmas is an exception, but even that is spent sculpting figures etc)
If I pay over a hundred dollars to a business, I expect to be able to express concerns. Ialso expect regular communication for something that takes this long.
I've been updating constantly on Twitter Facebook and this thread. If people don't follow me on those mediums, I can't be blamed for them not being communicated with. I can't email or telephone 200+ people personally every time the slightest alteration was made to the Dragon, especially if that alteration was unnoticeable to the trained eye. But I can tweet about it, and so I did. You even had th echance to watch me have a small mental breakdown a couple of months back when I just about snapped under th epressure of trying to finish the damn thing.
As to expressing concerns, you of course have the right to express concerns, part of my professional outlook to this business was to set up a forum so that people could raise concerns. However, you should note that other people have the right to express concerns about the first lot of concerns and those people who know me a little better thanks to this forum and the other social media, understand where I'm coming from and might feel a little defensive about Heresy because of that knowledge. A number of the people you've replied to here are also extremely long term customer, even more so than Alastair was, who sadly has decided not to buy any more Heresy figures again. BUt they haven't decided to do that, for which I am more grateful than I can express.
I was really surprised that, after taking 2 years to finish, Andy would set a deadline of under 2 months for people to finish paying deposits at the pre-order price. People took him on good faith... and in my opinion, he should do likewise.
I am? I have forewarned people when reserving their dragon that the price would be £100. They were, so to speak, fully informed that they needed to have the rest available, and given my unforgivable failures to get the thing finished and promising it in 'another month', the vast majority of people have been prepared for a very long time, or so the amount of paid-up dragons seem to indicate. So those who have pre-ordered it have had that length of time to gather together a spare £70. I've had a LOT of emails over the last year or so asking if peoiple could spend the money they had saved as it would otherwise go elsewhere, and other than you, not one single person has commented about the 2 month limit. Thing about that limit is this: this is a business, professional or otherwise, and what you have to do is be realistic abotu certain things. In this case, I needed to set a date that gave people enough notice to get that £70 (£35 a month, which if people are ordering £100 dragons you have to assume they are able to find) but not so long that it would carry over into yet another new financial year and start to cause headscratching with paperwork and stuff. Given that the costs of the Dragon have far exceeded the original estimate, I couldn't say 'pay when you like' as it might drag out for a year or more, in theory. So what Limit should I set? Two months, as I said, seemed ample, and I have emailed everybody who pre-ordered a dragon but had not paid their full £100 to inform them. You swapped your deposit out for the gangers, so you didn't get emailed
However, if anyone DOES have a problem paying their remaining £70, they can simply LET ME KNOW and I will happily work something out for them. It's nice to have a deadline, but deadlines aren't the be all and end all of everything. All people have to do is tell me.
I do not mean this as an aggressive post, but I think the response to the concern expressed was unwarranted. I thought Andy's response was polite, and he has always been excellent in my communications with him throughout the pre-order and changing my order process. But I do not think the explanation is satisfactory. At the least, people who had preordered years before should have been given notice that it was time to pay up to reserve their dragon.
They have been, they were, and they have did. I can count on two hands the amount of people yet to pay for a dragon reserved prior to September. Anyone who doesn't pay by the end of January will be gently reminded, thus giving them further opportunity to tell me of any payment issues they have. There is a recession on, after all.
Again, it's a valid concern, nothing to jump all over someone about. I know this is a 1-man operation, and the logistics must be a nightmare, but 2 years ago it really did seem that you were reserving a dragon by placing that deposit, and there's nothing wrong with his bringing that up now that it's finished, and he's seemingly going to have to wait an extra month for it.
Two weeks, more likely, if Ian gets them out on time. But that is a tenous 'if', I admit... I have discussed the situation with Alastair by email and put my points across. I am 100% confident that I am being fair with everyone by following the scheme I am following. Who knows, if Ian gets a huge wad out in the first batch, say 60 dragons or so, then Alastair will get his at the same time as everybody else anyway. Unfortunately, Alastair doesn't agree and still thinks he should get right of way over those who have paid in full before he paid in full, because he put his £30 down first. I can't honestly remember if I ever promised that, it;s been too long dsince th efirst dragon page ont eh site went up. I don't think I did, I think it's always been £30 gets you £100 guarantee, then last year I made a point of the 'fully-paid-up = first come, therefore first served' thing . I don't have any old copies of the html pages, unfortunately, only my back-ups of the current ones. The point is, terms and conditions change over a 2 year period and I believe I have done my sincere best to make the information publicly viewable on the Heresy site and via social media.
Not the end of the world by any stretch, but these kinds of things do matter, and make it harder for a casual supporter of Heresy such as myself to feel as confident taking the plunge on some larger purchases. That said, I am a big fan of Heresy, but this attitude in the community is something that puts me off, and is something that I do not think is warranted given the investment people have made in this model, and the amount of time they've waited for it to come to fruition...
See previous answer for possible explanations, also there's a big British thing when it comes to queuing, don't forget...
Hope this answers your concerns. Even though you aren't buying a dragon bany more, you stil have the right to express concerns as much as anyone els, that's what the forum is for. Also, I actually like to get complaints like this on the forum as it means that I can weigh up public opinion. If lots of people had chipped in and agreed with Alastair, saying he was right and I was wrong, I would have to completely reconsider my stance. But since it doesn't seem to be the case, I have to conclude that I really am acting in the best way possible given the bizarre situation. Let's face it, accusations of unprofessionalism are easy to come by if you only take the Dragon as an example, but then I don't have a dedicated department for sculpting like GW or other companies. and I made it clear from the outset that I was making this bumfudge up as I went along in terms of the Dragon, as it was a massive learning curve. You yourself acknowledge that, so anyone who put £30 or more down knew what they were getting into, I hope. Certainly I'm not allowing myself to get into anything like this situation ever again. No way. Frankly, I'm astounded that only Alastair has shown outrage out of the 200+ people on the reserve list.
(If I sound curt, forgive me. The pipes in the workshop burst with no way to turn them off this afternoon as there is no stopcock in the unit (long story) and I've been shifting furniture mopping out for the last couple of hours. I was supposed to go home for the holidays, it happened about 5 minutes before I would have been in the car and away for a week and a half. Could have been a lot worse, but fortunately it's mainly soggy carpets and walls. Expensive equipment on other side of rooms, manged to get all electric plugs off the floor prior to flooding, emergency plumber stopped it but no stopcock has yet been found. As with Dragon info and day to day communications from Heresy, see Twitter and Facebook for details!)
