Adventures in Online HorrorClix Shopping
by Anonymous

I've asked for this to be published anonymnously because I'm an envoy for WizKids and fear repercussions should they find out how much of my product I buy online.

Although I had played HeroClix for a couple of years, HorrorClix just felt more comfortable to me, so I changed over. I was able to trade the bulk of my HeroClix for monsters from the base set and the Aliens, but didn't want to wait for either The Lab or the Alien Queen Collector's Set, so I preordered both online. Unfortunately, this only led to greater delays and more headaches.

The Lab-

I was worried about shopping for a full case of The Lab online as it's a lot of money to me. So I asked around my local gaming community for who was trustworthy and several people mentioned Hill's Wholesale Gaming - www.wholesalegaming.com They had a pretty good price at $220 for a sealed case, but I wanted it fast so I paid another $45 for 2-day shipping.
This order was placed January 22nd (a week before release) and paid for immediately with PayPal.

On February 1st I read on several forums that some parts of the country had difficulty getting The Lab. So I dropped an email to Hill's asking if they had received their order and when I could expect my order to ship or arrive. No response.

Four days later I still hadn't received my case. I also hadn't received a response to my email. So I sent them a harsher email demanding to know when I would receive my case or my money. A few hours later I received a form letter email from Hill's stating that:

---WizKids has decided to drop all of their distributors and deal exclusively with one. Unfortunately they also chose to cancel all of the orders from these other distributors and as a result, their products have become impossible for us to supply.

This was a blatant lie as several dealers I know received their lab product from non-diamond distributors and the forums make it clear that this is the case as well. Even if it WERE true, that change was announced on January 11th, giving Hill's plenty of time to notify me that I wouldn't be receiving my case and giving me the opportunity to purchase elsewhere. Instead they decided to hold my money, and who knows how many other peoples money, in their bank account earning them interest, for more than a week AFTER the release date. At this point I was the only person in my area WITHOUT The Lab. So much for the speed of preorders!

The Lab (Take Two)-

I received my money back, but that didn't get me The Lab. And all the local stores wanted WAY more money then I had since I stopped saving once I placed the order. None of the other online shops I had found still had any Lab available, but I managed to find gamingstoreetc.com and they had Sealed Lab cases available for only $255 with two day delivery. Bingo! I placed my order that evening - February 5th, expecting to finally have my lab by Thursday the 8th. Whew!

The 8th comes and goes, the 9th, the 10th - I bought a brick locally so I could play in the Lab Only tournament at my store. The 11th, the 12th (life distracted me and I'd basically forgotten about it now), the 13th, the 14th. Boom! An email arrives saying my order has been SHIPPED! SHIPPED?? It had been 9 days since they accepted my money! The 15th, the 16th, the 17th, the 18th, the 19th, the 20th, the 21st. I send a rather pissed off email asking where my case is that I paid for 2-day shipping on and had shipped a WEEK earlier. Received a response blaming it on "our shipper" whoever that is and they refunded my shipping costs. It arrived the next day, but the clear WizKids tape had clearly been cut open and the box retaped with regular packing tape. What happened to sealed? So I open the case and don't receive the full set that should be in a sealed case. Not only that, but the LE cards that come in the case aren't there! Off goes another email. No response at all to this one. Though 10 days later I did receive the prize pack in the mail without so much as a note of apology.

The Alien Queen-

I went shopping for the Alien Queen shortly before Christmas. The best preorder price I could find was $24.95 from CCG Armory - http://store.usacomicbooks.com/ I'd purchased some singles from them in the past and had a decent experience, so figured they were safe to preorder from. On December 19th I preordered 2 Alien Queen packs and prepaid with PayPal.

Scheduled release date was February 21st, but when they didn't arrive that day I wasn't too worried. I knew that some dealers shipped the day (or two) before release, but others waited until release day itself. When a week had passed I began to worry and followed their handy "check the status of your order" link they provided in the order confirmation email. Apparently my order was still "On Hold". Strange as I'd paid for it already and the Queen was showing on their site as available with 24 hour shipping. So I sent off an email asking what was up. I received a canned email the next day saying my order had been shipped USPS Priority Mail that day. No explanation for the delay, no apology, nothing.

It still hasn't arrived as I write this article. I just went to the "check the status of your order" link again and it still shows my order as being on hold, but also states thatit was shipped - via UPS! Apprently it's due to arrive this Friday (March 9th), more than 2 weeks after the release date. And since it's being shipped UPS instead of USPS as they told me (and since I'm not home during the day) I'l lprobably end up with a note on my door instead of a opackage come friday. Meaning I won't be able to get it until Monday, March 12th, if I can get to the UPS depot after I get off work and before they close.

Conclusions-

So there you have it. I wish I could steer people to a good online retailer, but I never managed to find one. Hopefully this article will at least helpe steer some people away from some bad ones.

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