Poll

How do you feel about your online shopping experience with Cundco?

Very happy
50 (65.8%)
Somewhat happy
17 (22.4%)
About 50/50
5 (6.6%)
Somewhat unhappy
2 (2.6%)
Very unhappy
2 (2.6%)

Total Members Voted: 76

Author Topic: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)  (Read 38887 times)

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #30 on: April 13, 2016, 01:51:19 AM »
I've probably made about a dozen orders from Cundco in the past and they've never really let me down that I can think of. Plus, every single order has included some small freebie whether that be sweets, stickers or big cloth bags. I know it isn't much, but I can't think of anywhere else I regularly order things from that does the same, and it's not like I need the goodwill gestures to keep shopping with them either as most of the stuff I order from them can't be bought anywhere else for a comparable price.

It's very easy to let individuals bad experiences taint what is otherwise a very good, and valuable service that is still comparatively little known. If more people knew about it they would never have anything as it would all be on eBay for twice the price (at best).

I don't think they do themselves any favours by creating artificial rushes once or twice a year when new expansions come out for a limited time only. That must at least double or treble their workload during those periods and I'm not entirely sure why they do it unless for the benefit of those who don't want to wait until October? So, I will heed whaleyland's words of wisdom and continue to avoid ordering at peak times...

Offline jungleboy

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #31 on: April 13, 2016, 03:27:26 AM »
I don't think they do themselves any favours by creating artificial rushes once or twice a year when new expansions come out for a limited time only ... So, I will heed whaleyland's words of wisdom and continue to avoid ordering at peak times...

Right, but therein lies part of the problem. If you want the Easter promos before October, or if you want Besiegers when they release only 100 copies etc, then ordering at peak time is unavoidable. As you say, they create these limited time rushes every Easter themselves, and then if/when they can't handle the volume of orders and things go wrong, they plead that they are a small company and we should forgive their mistakes.

Even though I created this thread, I will hold off on giving my full opinion (and revealing my vote!) for another couple of weeks after I see how my two most recent orders play out.

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #32 on: April 13, 2016, 03:48:57 AM »
Right, but therein lies part of the problem. If you want the Easter promos before October, or if you want Besiegers when they release only 100 copies etc, then ordering at peak time is unavoidable. As you say, they create these limited time rushes every Easter themselves, and then if/when they can't handle the volume of orders and things go wrong, they plead that they are a small company and we should forgive their mistakes.

Exactly. But far from people expressing their gratitude that these expansions have been made available early, the main upshot of their efforts seems to be that people are unhappy about the disrupted service. Rightly so in some cases.

So, with this in mind, I think they should make life easier for themselves (and consequently receive less bad press) by not offering anything until it is officially released on a permanent basis. There will still be rushes when stuff is first released, but hopefully this peak demand won’t be quite so high given that there will be no official end date on its availability (until stock runs out of course).

Even though I created this thread, I will hold off on giving my full opinion (and revealing my vote!) for another couple of weeks after I see how my two most recent orders play out.

Looking forward to it! :)

Offline hunnymonster

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #33 on: April 13, 2016, 03:54:51 AM »
Exactly. But far from people expressing their gratitude that these expansions have been made available early, the main upshot of their efforts seems to be that people are unhappy about the disrupted service. Rightly so in some cases.

So, with this in mind, I think they should make life easier for themselves (and consequently receive less bad press) by not offering anything until it is officially released on a permanent basis. There will still be rushes when stuff is first released, but hopefully this peak demand won’t be quite so high given that there will be no official end date on its availability (until stock runs out of course).

Or - they could open orders for the Easter promo 4 weeks before Easter for 2 weeks (or until the stock runs out) with *no* shipping of the orders until the 2 week period is closed. Then they have up to 2 weeks to package the orders (in quiet times) and then ship them out in the 2 weeks before Easter.

It's all about expectation management - especially when the operation is so small.
Whatever it is, it's probably in the post from Germany...

Offline Decar

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #34 on: April 13, 2016, 04:40:51 AM »
Ridiculous!  ;D

Offline kettlefish

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #35 on: April 13, 2016, 06:26:30 AM »
I've send an email to CundCo and shows them this topic here and some postings at the "I love the postman" thread.

We will see if we get a response.

Offline egamar

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #36 on: April 13, 2016, 06:46:19 AM »
You could draw their attention to this post on BGG too

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/22307468#22307468

The poster is somewhat flamboyant in his language, but if he has been waiting for 6 months for a problem to be resolved, maybe he's entitled to be.  OTOH he has  caused problems in the past even with shipments from his next door neighbouring country,  so it may be entirely his fault to begin with.
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Offline JoeSesquipedalian

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #37 on: April 13, 2016, 09:48:31 AM »

Suggestions for them:  1.  offer to open a box and dump the tiles and pieces into an envelope so I can order Princess and Dragon for a total of 17 euros instead of 42 euros.  2. put a limit on number of expansions someone can buy if there are very limited quantities.  (I missed out on Besiegers by minutes).   3.  Double-check orders, please?

Cundco have now made quite clear that their tile service is a 'replacement' tile service, not a service for ordering expansions.
Besiegers was only recently not available at Cundco.  I bought my copy from them in late 2014 it had been available for a long time.  Also their last batch was limited to 1 per customer.
I'm not sure what you mean here but - They ask you to correctly fill in your order, so they don't need to email every customer to verify their order was was intended....no online retailer does this since the advent of online forms and shopping carts.

I was not referring to tile replacement.  I want to purchase the full expansion of Princess & Dragon, which they do have available for sale, for 11.99 euros.  I just want them to open the box and put the contents in an envelope instead of a box.  That way I'd pay just 4 euros for shipping instead of 25 euros.

The last batch of Besiegers was not limited to one per person.

As far as double checking the order, I mean to re-read the order to themselves and double-check to make sure they have put all of the items into the envelope.  Obviously if I make an error when I am order I am the only one to blame, and it would be highly unreasonable to expect them to read my mind and know I did not properly order what I had intended to order.
Who got a smudge on the tile?

Offline danisthirty

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #38 on: April 13, 2016, 09:56:13 AM »
@Joe: There's every chance that you may be able to arrange delivery to one of our German friends for a greatly reduced postage rate. Then ask them to extract the contents of the box into a padded envelope and send it on to you. Would probably end up costing a few Euros more as you'd have to pay for two lots of postage, but since you're unlikely to get someone at Cundco to open the box for you and offer a reduced postage rate, you'd still be saving on the > 10 Euro outside of Germany rate...

Offline CKorfmann

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #39 on: April 13, 2016, 10:02:59 AM »
I ordered on 21/3 and haven't seen it yet.  I hope by posting it will come today.  ;D
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Offline jungleboy

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #40 on: April 13, 2016, 10:13:23 AM »
I ordered on 21/3 and haven't seen it yet.  I hope by posting it will come today.  ;D

Have you checked the status on the Cundco website? I also ordered on 21/3 but it hasn't been processed yet (despite two reminder emails).

Offline CKorfmann

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #41 on: April 13, 2016, 07:48:39 PM »
I ordered on 21/3 and haven't seen it yet.  I hope by posting it will come today.  ;D

Have you checked the status on the Cundco website? I also ordered on 21/3 but it hasn't been processed yet (despite two reminder emails).

I did, and it says it's been shipped, but it doesn't say when.

Offline Decar

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #42 on: April 13, 2016, 11:39:36 PM »
If there's a tracking number you can load it into DHL and see where your order is.

Offline jungleboy

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #43 on: April 14, 2016, 11:12:30 AM »
Today's package was a good example of what I see as the 'hit and miss' nature of Cundco.

Hit - Crop Circles I. Huge thanks to Valheru for the tip. I know this was a bit sneaky, but what I like is how Cundco seemed to recognise it as sneaky and said, 'Well played, sir.' They obviously knew that we were going for the full expansion, so they even included the rules for us. I like it how they saw a flood of these orders after Valheru's tip, and decided to respect and honour those orders while at the same time preventing anyone else from doing it in the future.

Hit - Extra meeples. As detailed here, I ordered some extra meeples to try to make the King and the Falconer for the Falcon expansion for Carcassonne: the Castle. I actually tried to order the light and dark coloured wood as Hunters and Gatherers pieces, saying 'if possible' afterwards because I figured that they didn't have that type of meeple in those colours. They didn't, but they sent me two regular meeples instead along with the two Mayors, and these regular meeples will work just fine as Falconers.

Miss - I ordered four spare abbey tiles, and the Friday expansion for Carcassonne: South Seas, and neither was included in the shipment, without explanation or refund. I only ordered the abbeys to try to 'hide' my intention for Crop Circles I but including some more tiles, and I don't even own South Seas (yet) - I just added it because I still had some room to spare under €10 - so these aren't critical items for me and to be honest I'd forgotten I'd even ordered Friday until I looked at the order sheet again today. So I'm thrilled with my crop circles and my Falcon meeples, but a bit bewildered why they couldn't complete the seemingly more simple parts of the order.

Offline Valheru

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Re: Ordering online at Cundco (HiG)
« Reply #44 on: April 14, 2016, 11:21:41 AM »
Today's package was a good example of what I see as the 'hit and miss' nature of Cundco.

Hit - Crop Circles I. Huge thanks to Valheru for the tip. I know this was a bit sneaky, but what I like is how Cundco seemed to recognise it as sneaky and said, 'Well played, sir.' They obviously knew that we were going for the full expansion, so they even included the rules for us. I like it how they saw a flood of these orders after Valheru's tip, and decided to respect and honour those orders while at the same time preventing anyone else from doing it in the future.


You are very welcome, Jungleboy. Happy to see that I've made a couple of people happy and at the same time saved some money for them. And you're hitting the nail on the head here, well put and credit to Cundco for this.
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