Shut down the Catalyst store

[abou]

Have you sent an email to Brent Evans, with the subject line as noted?

Thanks,

W.

Twice so far. Most recent received an out of office notice due to the convention early in July.

[worktroll]

Bringing it to Brent's attention again.

W.

[pheonixstorm]

Use the same subject line for an email over missing orders that didn't properly transfer? Bought a lot of PDFs on BC but the majority are not listed in the new store...

[worktroll]

Okay, do - but provide as much information as you can. If you know what titles, that's going to help. If you have the order acknowledgement email from the old shop, include it. That sort of thing.

Brent had no involvement with the old shop, so the more detail, the more helpful it'll be.

W.

[Konrath]

Twice so far. Most recent received an out of office notice due to the convention early in July.

I tried messaging via facebook on Wednesday and today Ray messaged back to email Brent and if I had not heard to let him know. Perhaps try that and state you tried Brent multiple times without a response. Somehow. Some way, maybe through a fax or carrier pigeon we may be able to get through someone to get us our bloody orders.

[abou]

Bringing it to Brent's attention again.

W.

Yeah, I guess... I just don't know how much of a difference it will make at this point. He has the emails, as well as apparently a whole host of other persons'. I don't even know if I am angry anymore or just disappointed. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I will never get my faction dice.

I acknowledge Brent is new to the role and needs to hit his stride, but still.

[worktroll]

Better to do it now before he leaves for GenCon.

[Feenix74]

Gents, I too had similar issues with the Catalyst Store. I followed the advice and contacted Brent, he emailed me the TRO that I had been waiting 9 months for the Store team to fix the download link. Brent also emailed me some additional TROs as a thank you for my patience and as a way of saying sorry for the issue that I had been having (and technically am still having as the download link is still linked to the incorrect document).

Brent is new to the BT Line Developer role and I understand that he normally does not work on the Catalyst Store. I appreciate his offer to fix the problem (I know plenty of people in the big organisation I work for who would happily just say it is not their problem, say that their hands are tied and blame somebody else) and I found him to be good to his word on fixing the issue I had with the Catalyst Store. I know it is frustrating and should not be what us customers/fans should have to put up with but I would suggest to you that, from my own experience, give Brent a chance to make it right for you. I do note that we are currently right in the middle of convention season, I assume that Brent is up to his eyeball at the moment preparing for Gencon. Yes it is not ideal but it is the reality. Brent took about 1 week to respond to my email, which was 3-4 weeks before the Origins convention, so hang in there and good luck. I hope that Brent can resolve your issues, like he was able to resolve mine.

[Peter Smith]

As for who did fulfillment for the BattleShop, I have no idea. Just like I have no idea who does fulfillment from the current CGL webstore.

PSI for a number of years now.

[Kit deSummersville]

PSI for a number of years now.

Not to be confused with PSY.

[Sir Chaos]

Gents, I too had similar issues with the Catalyst Store. I followed the advice and contacted Brent, he emailed me the TRO that I had been waiting 9 months for the Store team to fix the download link. Brent also emailed me some additional TROs as a thank you for my patience and as a way of saying sorry for the issue that I had been having (and technically am still having as the download link is still linked to the incorrect document).

Brent is new to the BT Line Developer role and I understand that he normally does not work on the Catalyst Store. I appreciate his offer to fix the problem (I know plenty of people in the big organisation I work for who would happily just say it is not their problem, say that their hands are tied and blame somebody else) and I found him to be good to his word on fixing the issue I had with the Catalyst Store. I know it is frustrating and should not be what us customers/fans should have to put up with but I would suggest to you that, from my own experience, give Brent a chance to make it right for you. I do note that we are currently right in the middle of convention season, I assume that Brent is up to his eyeball at the moment preparing for Gencon. Yes it is not ideal but it is the reality. Brent took about 1 week to respond to my email, which was 3-4 weeks before the Origins convention, so hang in there and good luck. I hope that Brent can resolve your issues, like he was able to resolve mine.

Sorry, but if Brent is the Line Developer... I had this idea in my head that this means he develops products for the BT line. But now we´re treating it as perfectly normal that they let this guy do customer service instead?

[Feenix74]

In my personal opinion, I would not consider it to be one of his primary duties as BT Line Developer. I do not think it should be one of his duties at all but I do appreciate the efforts he is going to above and beyond his primary duties as BT Line Developer to try to improve the customer service experience.

[JadeHellbringer]

Sorry, but if Brent is the Line Developer... I had this idea in my head that this means he develops products for the BT line. But now we´re treating it as perfectly normal that they let this guy do customer service instead?

In my personal opinion, I would not consider it to be one of his primary duties as BT Line Developer. I do not think it should be one of his duties at all but I do appreciate the efforts he is going to above and beyond his primary duties as BT Line Developer to try to improve the customer service experience.

That's really the right of it. This isn't his primary responsibility as LD any more than it was Herbs or anyone elses. But he IS making an effort to try to help out regardless.

As has been repeated ad nauseum, there's VERY few actual full-time employees at Catalyst. Those that there are (and a lot of the volunteers as well, such as yours truly) end up wearing many hats at once as a result. This is an extra hat that Brent has grabbed from the box- not one that is required of him, but one he's wearing regardless as well as possible.

[Sellsword]

Sorry, but if Brent is the Line Developer... I had this idea in my head that this means he develops products for the BT line. But now we´re treating it as perfectly normal that they let this guy do customer service instead?

I believe he also heads the art for all of CGL products and not just battletech.

From my perspective, the B-Tech line is a mess right now and has been for some years.  Partially, this seems to be because too few people are wearing too many hats.  Its unfortunate but seemingly unavoidable.

Brent has his work cut out for him.  I wish him luck.

[Vition2]

As has been repeated ad nauseum, there's VERY few actual full-time employees at Catalyst.

And as has been repeated, this point does not excuse Catalyst.  A paid-for product ought to be available in a reasonable period of time.  Multiple months is not reasonable.  As much as I will laud the efforts of the current staff to make right errors of the past, the fact remains that the CGL webstore continues to be sore point to a significant-enough portion of the BattleTech community.  The suggestion to shut down something that is such a stain on the product line (and which could cause significant issues in attracting/retaining new customers) is reasonable in this context.  At what point does it become a greater burden than benefit?

Now I do not have anything at stake here - I purchase all my products through Drivethru - but the amount of effort it seems to take to put out the fires the store causes seems to be more than reasonable, but I don't see the bottom line, perhaps it's not as bad as it seems.  But comments cropping up on a monthly basis (or more frequently) about issues with the store dampens the ability to attract new customers.

My opinion: cut the dead weight.

[Sir Chaos]

That's really the right of it. This isn't his primary responsibility as LD any more than it was Herbs or anyone elses. But he IS making an effort to try to help out regardless.

As has been repeated ad nauseum, there's VERY few actual full-time employees at Catalyst. Those that there are (and a lot of the volunteers as well, such as yours truly) end up wearing many hats at once as a result. This is an extra hat that Brent has grabbed from the box- not one that is required of him, but one he's wearing regardless as well as possible.

I wasn´t criticizing Brent. I was criticizing CGL for running their webstore in an exceptionally unprofessional way.

I get it. They don´t have the manpower to run a webstore in a professional manner. But then they shouldn´t be running it at all.

Selling stuff via a webstore isn´t just fluff, you know? Those are contracts they are making with their customers. CGL is unable to fulfill their end of the contract in a timely and professional manner, and they know it. However, they STILL promise to do so whenever they put something up for sale at the store. They are NOT saying outright "Deliveries might take 6-12 months to be completed; Customer Service might take even longer to reply to queries", so they are implicitly promising to deliver and answer Customer Service queries within a timely manner. They are offering something that they KNOW they cannot provide. That is not doing business in good faith.

[YingJanshi]

I guess I'm an outlier in that I haven't had any problem with the new webstore. Got my faction dice order in 2-3 weeks. And PDFs are fine (well, other than the old ones that haven't been put up yet).

But I understand everyone's frustration. There's no excuse for it. I do know that cause of one of the biggest headaches of the old BattleShop (not getting DTF product on combo orders) was because of the way the BattleShop order system interacted with the computer system of whoever they were using to warehouse and fullfil orders (basically because the PDF was instantly available it would show the order as completed and shipped in the other system).

I do believe (but don't quote me on this) that when they sit up the new webstore, they switched the company that actually warehouses their products and ships orders out. (Because that is not something CGL actually does themselves.)

[Death by Lasers]

  I'm also fortunate not to have had any major issues with the Catalyst Store.  Might be because I haven't bought anything tangible from them yet, just a couple hundred dollars worth of PDFs over the last two years.  I did have an issue where a download link wasn't sent for a PDF.  I sent an assistance request that went unanswered for a month but when I emailed Brent he got back to me within a week.  My only current frustration is waiting for the 2nd:SS book to be released, but that's pretty standard fair really. 

[Cryhavok101]

I hope CGL survives whatever legal mess the very poorly run webstore eventually gets them in. Personally, I think it goes way past unprofessional, and I would also recommend shutting it down if for no other reason than to avoid that kind of mess. Personally, I'll never shop there ever again, and I recommend the same to anyone who asks.

I understand not having enough people for all the hats, but that webstore seems like playing with fire to me. Please don't get CGL's very small number of people burned with it.

[Konrath]

So just an update: Ray reached out to me on FB, and told me to email Brent. I followed up with Ray as I didnt hear back for a week from Brent. Ray emailed him and now he's on vacation. He just got an out of office email. So anyone else trying to get help you'll probably not hear back until he's back or after Gencon?

[Force of Nature]

Basic rule for any business. Redundancy. This way people can take vacations, retire or leave the company and there is still someone that is able to fill in the vacancy and do the job. Clearly, CGL is incompetent in this regard as SOMEONE should be helping you Konrath WHILE Brent is on vacation...

Shut down the Catalyst store because of CGL incompetence or fire someone high up and hire people who know what they are doing to run the store.

[Sharpnel]

Once again, CGL is a company that has less than 10 people that are permanent hires. It is difficult to cover someone being gone when you already have a bus load of work to do.

[Sir Chaos]

Once again, CGL is a company that has less than 10 people that are permanent hires. It is difficult to cover someone being gone when you already have a bus load of work to do.

Once again, we get it. We really do. This already well-known and everyone understands it. There is NO FREAKING REASON to keep repeating this.

But you, and above all Catalyst, need to get something else: When you have too many hats and not enough people to people to wear them, you need to reduce the number of hats, hire more heads, or both.

This has been going on for years, Catalyst is well aware of the problem, and refuses to do anything about it.

[Fear Factory]

Once again, CGL is a company that has less than 10 people that are permanent hires. It is difficult to cover someone being gone when you already have a bus load of work to do.

No matter how many hats are worn, taking money from customers and not delivering the materials they paid for isn't acceptable at all.  They're not going to care about "hats" in a courtroom should things (hopefully NEVER) ever get there.

So just an update: Ray reached out to me on FB, and told me to email Brent. I followed up with Ray as I didnt hear back for a week from Brent. Ray emailed him and now he's on vacation. He just got an out of office email. So anyone else trying to get help you'll probably not hear back until he's back or after Gencon?

I'm basically ONE "hat" covering service for an area in chicagoland and I even do work out of state as needed.  I'm even on path to be regional which would put me in a huge chunk of the US.  When I go on vacation, someone is required to cover me, because I have contractual obligations and my customers can't wait.

[DEZOAT]

 ;D >:( :-\ Well I just ordered the PDF of the 2nd SW and two turning Stars . Down loaded them with no problem so far. My past history of down loads are in , so that good if need to down load again. Yea they have a long way to go still.