Like, I suspect, a few other forum members, I can still recall Bryan Ansell's infamous 'open letter' on an early mid 90's incarnation of the Foundry website when he claimed quality 28mm figures were being undervalued and the 1980's boom in 'cheap and nasty' 15mm ranges had ruined wargaming! I dread to think what the current crop of keyboard warriors on TMP would make of that statement now! (...the subtext to Ansell's rant was kind of - "all wargamers are ungrateful cheapskates"!
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I have to admit though - I wasn't
entirely unsympathetic! I was something of a Foundry fan boy in those days, and I didn't mind paying Foundry prices as I thought the product was worth it (and back then I was pretty penniless so it's not like I didn't care about money). In better times I later became a Standing Order customer for several of their new ranges.
However, the relationship soured over the years. I was unimpressed when they introduced their 'FREE postage included in the price of the blister' policy, which had more than a whiff of price gouging by stealth about it. Then came the familiar Foundry game of 'hide the range' we all know as ranges were 'temporarily' withdrawn, or they disappeared completely to be replaced by versions from new in-house sculptors that in some cases were inferior to their predecessors.
For me the end came with a succession dire customer service incidents around 2000-2001, which included incomplete orders, over-charging, and the top prize going to a farcical and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to update them with the new expiry date on my credit card (for my standing orders). Four times I phoned them from Australia to Nottingham and gave them this information and four times I subsequently received an email a week or so later informing me that "...according to our records your credit card is now out of date. Please contact us to..." After the fourth attempt I just gave up! Never got the remaining blisters in my standing orders and Foundry never got my money - which is a shame as I would have been more than happy to give it to them.
I've not bought a Foundry product since, except for one visit in person in 2006 when I was met at the security door by a bloke with a phone glued to his ear who impatiently ushered me inside and then continued his phone call (which was clearly social and not work related) for more than 10 minutes before he finally had the grace to hang up and ask me if I needed any help. His side kick meanwhile had disappeared into the back of the factory the moment I walked through the door and never reemerged. I was then informed they were in the middle of a "major reorganisation" (although no one seemed to be doing any actual reorganising) and sure enough none of the blisters seemed to match the range headers displayed on the racks and a lot of stuff was just piled up on tables (I'd rung ahead the day before to say I was coming - but was not warned about any of this). Finding anything was a very drawn out and sometimes fruitless process and my 'sales assistant' was soon back on the phone again, leaving me to it. I'd gone with the intention of spending a couple of hundred pounds or more - I left with a book and about half a dozen blisters...
Sorry for the long story, but as you might be able to tell, it still hits a nerve. I LIKED Foundry - and I suppose I felt betrayed and disappointed. In retail there's nothing worse than wanting to give someone your hard earned cash only for them to be disinterested in taking it off you! Even so, I still have a soft spot for most of the old and some of the 'middle period' (immediately 'post-Perrys') ranges, so if there is a new broom sweeping through Foundry perhaps I'll buy again one day - but it will have to be one heck of a turn around.
DPT