I'll let Wayland speak for themselves but it looks like they have (legally) worked around the embargo by Games Workshop on shipping outside of the EU. For starters it appears they are using previous stock to ship to the Rest of the World (ROW) which is obviously limited but from there they have apparently been able to effectively ship outside the EU. There seems to be an associated and minor price hike with this to cover whatever they are having to do but that's still 49% cheaper than here. It will be interesting to see Games Workshop's response, if any, and I give massive props to Wayland. For the time being I will still be holding off from any purchases as I wish Games Workshop to change their outlook on their customer base but for those who cannot wait, you at least have options that aren't going to bankrupt you.
Here's Wayland's explanation and Q&A copied below:
Hi Guys,
Just a quick note. Firstly we'd like to thank you again for bearing with us during this order spike. As you've seen from some of the photographs we've posted things have been very busy and even a business with our footprint and infrastructure didn't expect for a moment the unprecedented, colossal demand during the last week of May. So we'd like to thank those of you who are waiting for orders to be shipped, once more, for bearing with us whilst we work through the backlog.
I will ramble some more then move to a Q and A format as it is better able to answer many of the questions that have been asked over the last few weeks.
We at Wayland would have had to react to the trade terms changes, we as a business would have hoped that a dominant supplier such as GW would have had a grasp of the consequences such a double whammy of terms changes and price rises would have on their business partners of any size. The impact of these changes and especially the surge of orders over the last week of May was beyond our control. We believe that short of closing the store there was nought we could do to reduce the orders we received. In the day to day operations under normal activity we are able to control order volumes relatively easily. In this instance we have had no control at all. All this has occured as we are hard at work readying our new Warehouse and Website launch. So again we would like to apologise to those of you waiting far longer than normal for your orders. As you can tell by the number of times we have posted about it it is of serious concern to us.
Right on with the show. From here on in ROW will be used to represent "Rest of World", our customers outside of the EU, and EEA (European Economic Area).
Q. What will I be able to order.
A. You will be able to order pretty much any product that you can now. Stock allowing.
Q. Will I be able to order new releases?
A. Yes, though shipping might occur a day or two after the official release date.
Q. Will I have to use some third party shipping/broking service?
A. No, your order will be handled completely by Wayland, and we will be fully responsible for getting your order to you as we are now. There is no need for mail forwarding services to be used.
Q. How are you achieving this?
A. Complicated, this is also commercially sensitive. However in the first instance, we will utilise stock that we had on hand prior to the "conditions of sale" changes. We moved the stock when the announcements were made as we had the "plan" quite soon after we were notified. This stock is finite. How we replenish is sensitive, but it is coming.
Q. What will the pricing be?
A. Until we run out of the stock we have on hand, the pricing will be identical as now. Once the replensihment stock has arrived the prices will be slightly higher as there are additional costs involved. But we will continue to offer at least UK RRP with a 10% discount.
Q. When will the categories be active.
A. We had hoped that would be populated right away, however the current backlog and what is now a cramped 5000Sqft warehouse mean that we cannot pouplate the categories (stock check the pre embargo stock) until the backlog is dealt with. It would be innapropriate for us to spend resources doing this until all our customers patiently waiting for their orders have been served. We anticpate 2 weeks, though we will do our very best to reduce this time.
Q. Will we still be able to order Forgeworld and other "Direct Only" products?
A. Yes, we disabled many direct only items over the change weekend but as we become sure of supply they will be re-introduced.
Q. Will postage be free on the ROW items.
A. No, the costs are higher for stock and we operate on thin margins already. However we will continue to offer subsidised ROW shipping with the VAT as we do now. Though we will soon be launching another site that might be of interest.
Q. Will your delivery times be extended?
A. We anticipate that they will be identical for ROW items as now, however there are some points later which expand on this.
Q. Does your ROW of solution breach GW's trade terms and conditions of sale?
A. Not in anyway whatsoever. They follow both the letter and spirit of both.
Q. Is your ROW product genuine GW product.
A. Yes, Wayland will never sell second hand or counterfeit goods.
Q. How long until replenishment stock arrives?
A. We anticpate 6 weeks, however as pricing is complicated, as is how we must segregate the ROW stock from our normal stock, this is being delivered to our new Warehouse. And the pricing difference means that we cannot launch the replenished service until our new website is live as it will ask you for shipping location when to access the store and show you the correct products automatically.
Q. Why is that?
A. We are wary of the overheads required to inform customers that they have added incorrect products to their baskets. No matter how well we label the items, most people will not notice.
Q. Why is it taking so long?
A. We had almost no notice at our busiest time ever to adapt to the term changes. The solution requires significant space to operate in properly and without putting our existing business at risk. We also have an obligation to ensure all that we are doing is legal and beyond challenge. This all takes time.
Q. You guys rock, why be so nice to us when its so difficult?
A. Please remember that Wayland is a business and we want the sales, however we are what we are by serving our customers and we wont forget how we got here. Ok no one asked that question but we thought it worth mentioning.
This list will be updated if more questions are asked.
So, there we have it. A broad stock offering, at substantially discounted cost with our usual great service. It is coming, we shall provide it for you and we hope you're interested. If you are we'd simply ask that you publicise this wherever you feel appropriate and we look forward to serving the rest of the world very soon.
Keep on wargaming!
Richard
Wayland Games Limited
If you visit the Wayland website you'll find there is a ROW section under the Games Workshop tab. Unpopulated as of yet this will hopefully be filled with product soon :).
