What is with Andrea?

[Michaelg]

I just emailed them looking to replace a broken battle axe on one of their knights.
Here is the reply

Dear Sir Michael:
Regarding your order, we appreciate to inform you as follows:
Your order: 3 Euros
Shipment by air mail: 28.4 Euros
TOTAL: 31.4 Euros Over $50 for one small part that would cost $2-$3 to mail.
Great way to build customer loyalty!
(Please, confirm us which one you have chosen).
The useful way of payment is by credit card (Visa, Mastercard or Eurocard).
You can give us your credit card number and expiry date by fax ( +34 91 857
00 48) because this is the most secure way.
Best regards,


Andrea Niño
Dpto Facturación
Invoicing Department
Miniaturas Andrea S.L.
c/Talleres 21.pol.Ind. Alpedrete
28430. Alpedrete.Madrid.SPAIN
Telf/Phone:+34 91 857 00 08
Fax: +34 91 857 00 48
web: www.andrea-miniatures.com
mail:[email protected]

 

[Joe Hudson]

I am not sure what is going on but I had a broken pair of photo etch glasses and I sent them a fax copy of the little paper in the kit and got it for free. You might want to check with them again.

Joe

 

[Paul Kernan]

I had the same experience several years ago. I initially sent the kit coupon as mentioned by Joe and then received a response similar to Mike's. To this day unless I find a great deal for a 'bargain bin' figure at a show, I do not buy Andrea figures. There are too many top notch figures produced by companies that also pay attention to customer service (MR, Time Machine, etc) to accept this type of response.

 

[abbo]

i bought the andrea sitting bull bust at euro militaire a couple of years ago .
when i got home and opened it the face was so badly cast you couldnt use
it.sent the piece of paper off to spain with a photo of the casting and never even got a reply.bad quality control bad customer service.i wont buy andrea anymore.
Martin

 

[AJLaFleche]

Compare that to Pegasso. A few years ago I bought their Spartacus. It was missing the crest for the helmet. I e-mailed them but due to language problems, they sent the wrong part. I popped another e-mail with the part highlighted and got the correct part. Total replacement cost to me: $0.00.
When I dropped them a note about the difficulties I had with crooked lance in their Absarokee kit, I was offered a replacement. I opted not to accept since I'd scratchbuilt a stronger part with brass rod.

 

[Jeff]

Andrea has gotten really big. They now produce most of their kits in China. It may just have something to do with the fact that the product does not necessarily move from a factory in Spain where you could go form the office to the casting area and just pull the piece. Now all of that is done in China, and then it may go directly to its distributors in the rest of the world. It may be hard for them to put their hands on the kit parts needed for this type of thing. That being said it is in the company's best interest to provide good customer service. They like to boast that they are the best figure company in the world. This is the type of thing that you should just eat the costs on as business owner. Providing replacement parts to build good will with your customers. The money it costs always comes back to you in customer loyalty.

 

[schley]

Andrea Chasseur a Cheval

Hi I am posting this as I thought I was in the minority on this one. I purchased the newly released mounted 90mm chausseur some time ago, there was a problem with a very bad fit on the horse halves and a protruding steel rod on the hind leg I e mailed them to see if they would replace the pieces, After a couple of weeks with no response I tried to correct the mismatched halves with no luck as they appeared to be warped. I again e mailed them and received a response to ask me to return the Q.C. Slip and they would replace the parts. I e mailed them a scan of the slip and two weeks later was asked to return the pieces for them to have their quality control people look at them! No mention of replacing parts , now they wanted to inspect the pieces! I finally brought the kit to the Stand at Euro Militaire where, in fairness to the company , the kit was finally exchanged .

As a customer I expected a lot more from Andrea and a lot sooner, It took 3 months for them to resolve my complaint and only for the fact that I brought it to Euro I expect I would be still waiting!

 

[Michaelg]

For the record I have sent an email to their President about all our problems (I sent them the link to this page), that was Monday, it is now Wednesday and no response.
Verlinden is also very good, replacing a missing part of a figure at no charge even when I offered to pay as I was the one who lost it.

Re Jeff's comment about outsourcing to China. They still managed to quote me a replacement cost of 3.00 euros and, at the most, the cost to mail it from China to Canada would be $5.00? We are talking a tiny part that would fit in a letter sized envelope.

 

[Franco]

Good service from La Torre Models

Recently I received a badly cast figure from la Torre Models. Mr. La Torre responded immeditaly to the email and confirmed that he had sent a replacement figure not only the part. I received it within two weeks of him sending the email.

Well done to La Torre Models for great service.

Ciao
Franco

 

[gorgosaurus]

Would like to add that United Empires Miniatures treated me very differently.

John Leas found out that a nock was broken off the bow of my Wars of the Roses Archer (see wip thread at Bench) and he sent me a free replacement even though I´d not requested one. Now, more than ever, I want to do some good work on this figure to please him.

Spike.

 

[Paul Kernan]

Having met John for the first time a number of years ago, your story does not surprise me. A class act.

 

[moore]

John Lea / UEM

Spike, Paul,

You guys are right on about John. He is a first class guy. Honest,
wants to do what is right. You could not ask for a better person.
I have not done too much business with a lot of other companies
but the 2 I have, other than John is Mike at Michael Roberts and
John at Military Miniature Warehouse. I just bought the Andrea
kit, Watch the Birdie, I am going to check out the parts on that now
and see what they are like.

Dee

 

[renarts]

Thats the beauty of small owner operator companies. You still deal with a person that has a true vested interest in the company. John Lea is one of many owners that I have run into that are a pleasure to deal with and genuinely care about their product, their customer and the hobby in general.

Lately, I have been very unimpressed with Andrea. Their quality has dipped below what I would consider to be acceptable and I will no longer buy Andrea products sight unseen. To me the gamble is too expensive and if there is an Andrea figure I minght be interested in I will wait till a show where I can open the box and look at the pieces before laying down hard earned money rather than gamble on an overpriced shanghai "off shore" produced, fancy fishing weight. As they see fit to seek cheaper production methods, I become more discerning on what I find to be acceptable quality. And for the prices being asked these days by figure companies, I have become one pickey little podex. I don't mind spending big but I want something for my money.

My thought these days is to pour my money into smaller resin companies to help them get started and increase thier ability to offer some really nice, quality pieces. Sure the variety isn't there yet but with more business success come variety and offerings that will eventually do well. I've always been happy with companies like UEM, Michael Roberts, M Models, and the stuff I'm seeing comming out of New World, HELO, and Alan & Marions new company looks very promising. The nature of success in companies like this is that they have to keep quality up to to insure success so its a win win situation all the way around. Besudes, I can get two or three resin figures for what I pay for a metal figure these days and the clean up (if any) is much easier than the metal. Quality is certainly comparable if not better.

Maybe we need to be more vocal about quality to these larger figure companies to tweek them now and then to make the trip to their factory subcontractors in china to stay on top of quality.

 

[Hammond_Lord]

Sad as it may sound, but it's true, the quality output of the Andrea figures is going down!

Although I never had any problems with Andrea figures, last year I had a problem with the Verlinden 120mm Vokssturm Officer (http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25327&highlight=Volkssturm).

When I opened the figure box, it was missing right boot/leg, so I e-mailed Verlinden Company two times in order to resolve this (I was ready to pay for the missing part!), but never got any reply. I will continue their figures because I like them, but I think this wasn't very professional for a company of such reputation!

Regards,

Nemanja Stefanovic

 

[Stephan]

But, dont forget in such times like now, everybody will send an email, its very easy and cheap, and a company will get on a day onehundred or more emails.

Its not an appologize, but we dont forget this.

sure its a problem when a company will growe up and gets bigger and bigger and the qualityservice dont grow.
But would you pay more for a figure when they will do more service.

Everybody waits for news every month of andrea, and is satisfyed when they will bring out a piece where you interested in.
I think its very difficult for a company to do it right for everyone.
Maybe there is a lot of blacknumber which want to get part of the company on to that way and dont need a part.

I whised for the future to get more service like my favour figuralia.com

Hope you understand my english its hard for me to find the right words.

 

[renarts]

Nemanja,

Alternatively, I have an older Verlindedn 120mm viking kit that had two left arms. I e-mailed them explaining the situation and in a week had a new arm to replace the missing/wrong part. Possibly the issue comes not from a companies ability to replace the part but the logistics of getting it across the ocean to different continents.

Stephan,
"But would you pay more for a figure when they will do more service."

Absolutely. If there is quality and customer service to back it up, I'd gladly pay more. Seems though the difficulty comes in getting the two together.

One has to ask the question, how much prep is warranted or necessary of the figures we buy at the prices we pay? Some clean up, flash, pitting, soft detail, some filling, is expected. Mis-aligned molds, missing parts, broken or damaged parts, poor detail, imperfections or breakdowns in the molds, poor or in some cases, no alignment, granulation of surfaces are unacceptable. Sure its expensive to make new molds or it takes a little extra time to look at components before packaging. How expensive is the process to find and go through the logistics of resending parts? Poor customer service? loss in sales because of poor quality or ill will?

As the economy continues to teeter expendable income becomes tighter and consumers go two ways. They look for cheaper alternatives or they look for quality and are determined to get more for their money. I would rather pay for 1 really good product than 5 poor ones at the same price.

 

[Glen]

Well, this is all a bit of a conundrum, isn't it? Material and shipping prices are going up, while the US dollar goes down. This forces hobbyists to be more choosy, which lowers overall sales for any one company. This forces the company to cut some corners: overusing the molds, cheaper materials, moving production, and cutting back on customer service. Mike is right about it being a false economy - especially when the replacement parts are coming from the same overused molds as the kit.

I build mostly medieval subjects, so I tend to stick with Pegaso, Romeo, Soldiers, and Seil. I've also picked a few Durendal and Elite figures; they seem fine. FWIW, my last Soldiers figure suffered from several casting issues. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, since all previous kits have been fine.

I used to get Andrea, but their fit and finish has suffered over the past two years or so. I've also painted two LaTorre figures and both suffered from extensive mold misalignment. I no longer purchase Andrea/LaTorre unless I can see the kit first; there are simply enough options out there where I can be this picky.

I suspect it'll get worse before it gets better...

Cheers,

Glen

 

[Paul Kernan]

Bang on, Glen. I've painted several Soldiers figures. In all three cases, I didn't have a complaint with the casting and fit of the figure. However, I found the weapons were generally poorly cast/damaged.

I've been in the hobby long enough that I hold onto an element of 'if I can fix it, no problem'. But when faced with a combination of economics, a large 'grey army' and alternate smaller companies that still strive to offer a top-notch product, excellent customer service and reasonable/acceptable pricing then it follows as a customer, I will be much more selective on future purchases. My concern is economic pressures hurt some of these companies robbing us of the variety of selection that we currently enjoy. The hobby has come a long way in the last 10-15 years and I don't want to see it taking steps backwards.

 

[Cesar Alvarez]

Dear Friends,
in Andrea Miniatures we received daily a lot of piece claims. We answer and attend all.
Sometimes people ask for pieces impossible to produce because they never were manufactured in the company (pieces from other companies, pieces impossible to spare and something like that).
We only ask for the coupon control to attend a claim (Essential requirement).
If we attend all without a little control, imagine the thousand of euros it cost for all every year.
Of course we make mistakes, but
We only manufactured 6 references in China, the other ones are manufacturing in our company in Madrid. In a near future all the production will be there.
We care for a complete quality control: metal, casting, printing, packaging.
We are working very hard to give you the best, in sculpture and in the quality of the casting. Some people of our staff are placed in China to control all the process.
We improve the quality in all the pieces to make our figures the best choice for the discerning collector.

I appreciate too much your comprehension and patience.

receive my best regards


Cesar Alvarez

 

[Guy]

Thanks for the posting comment Cesar. Much appreciated. I have 2 Andrea figures / busts on order and look forward to seeing their arrival.