Lordfiredeath
Topic Author
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat 17 Sep 2022, 22:06

Two Weeks and Order Still Not Shipped

Fri 30 Sep 2022, 02:39

I have been having some issues with my first order with Free League. I emailed customer support last week (after a week of no shipping or communication and having to email them the week before for missing PDFs- see a previous post) and they noted they expected to receive the out of stock element of my One Ring Bundle this week. Fast forward to this week and still no shipping or communication. So I emailed the below to Customer Service yesterday…

“I am checking on the status of this order once more. Last week it was expected to ship out once the Starter Set restock was received. As of today I still have not seen a shipping notification. I understand that the supply chain is difficult these days but I am slightly disappointed that it has take this long. Generally out of stock items are labeled as such on a website or unable to be purchased or at least have a notification that shipping times could be increased due to the item being out of stock.

There was nothing like this on the shop for this bundle. In fact a few days prior there was a bundle that didn’t include the Loremaster Screen that was considerably less expensive and I would have purchased that. However, once I went to order it, it was gone so I assumed that bundle has simply “gone out of stock” and ordered the other assuming that it was “in stock”.

Now I am nearly two weeks out and the items still haven’t shipped (one of which, the Starter set, was meant as a gift for a friend on October 5th). Again, I understand the difficulties of supply chains but I do feel like the whole process could have saved me some concerns. I wouldn’t even know there was a stock issue has I not contacted Customer Service.

I think highly of Free League but the issues with this order have me doubting if I would recommend people ordering directly from the site. I had previously heard great things about your Customer Support so I hope I can still count on that ideology in the days ahead. I would appreciate an update on the status and I have to stress that I understand this is beyond your control but communication is everything.”

Still nothing in terms of communication. Is this common with Free League? Should I be concerned?
 
Exeyr
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun 18 Sep 2022, 15:42

Re: Two Weeks and Order Still Not Shipped

Sun 02 Oct 2022, 11:30

There seems to be some sort of general issue at Free League right now when it comes to items being shipped. I've also had to wrestle with customer support and going all the way to contacting their fulfillment hub directly.

It took some time, but I did get an answer from them and a promise that the things will be shipped out sooner rather than later.

If I had to guess, it comes down to 2 things (and someone correct me if I'm wrong):

1) Their main fulfillment hub is in the UK, which, thanks to Brexit makes any shipping a complete nightmare (on top of the already problematic shipping issues across the world)
2) Their bundles aren't really "bundles" per se, but a collection of individual items that get put together at a fulfillment center before they get shipped to you. This means that if a fulfillment center doesn't have an item (or it's out of stock or whatever), the whole order gets delayed.

While the lack of communication and respone to customer support queries is a little concerning, generally I would not be worried about Free League not delivering on the promised items. I've ordered from them on ~10 seperate occasions and am only now experiencing any issues (first time I ordered a large bundle).
 
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Lehto
Posts: 255
Joined: Fri 31 Jul 2020, 22:29
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Re: Two Weeks and Order Still Not Shipped

Sun 02 Oct 2022, 13:40

Hello!
We tend to see to e-mails as fast as possible, but are behind schedule at the moment due to many ongoing issues. We also had an error with the contact sheet in the website, making messages sent that way not reaching us. Really sorry about that, but at least it's working now. We hope to be up to date during the upcoming week.
Best regards,
Daniel
Customer support
Daniel
Customer support
 
Lordfiredeath
Topic Author
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat 17 Sep 2022, 22:06

Re: Two Weeks and Order Still Not Shipped

Sun 02 Oct 2022, 14:31

So does this mean I should resend the email I already sent if the system was messed up?
 
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Lehto
Posts: 255
Joined: Fri 31 Jul 2020, 22:29
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Re: Two Weeks and Order Still Not Shipped

Sun 02 Oct 2022, 20:29

So does this mean I should resend the email I already sent if the system was messed up?
PM sent.
Daniel
Customer support
 
Lordfiredeath
Topic Author
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat 17 Sep 2022, 22:06

Re: Two Weeks and Order Still Not Shipped

Fri 07 Oct 2022, 02:44

Brief update for anyone else who might be having the same issues as me. After PMing a few times with @Lehto it appears that the Distribution hub is at least 1-2 weeks behind on orders and working through them as they can. This was after having just started receiving reprints of materials in the last week. So conservatively, if you placed an order about 3 weeks ago or so, it might be an additional 3 weeks for your items to arrive.

I advised FL to maybe put a disclaimer on their page saying their distribution hubs are backlogged and orders could experience significant delays. I know that personally if I had know that I would have planned accordingly. I will continue to update as I learn more.

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