Rules of Play - Bristol — Local services in Bristol

I have had a terrible experience with Rules of Play.

Ordered an item listed as Pre order, that at the start of Feb. The item had previously been sold and was the type of item that is often not redone, so I emailed the customer services to ensure that the entry on the web site was not an error and that they indeed did have stock coming pre order.

Ed replied a few days later to confirm that it was on pre order. I that day enquired if they could check with the distributor if it was in fact coming, as the author was under the impression it was NOT being reprinted.

Finaly got a reply 20 days later, after two polite follow up emails. They would get bac to me once they have heard from their distro. Nothing after nearly two weeks. Another prompt email from me and Ed responded in the affirmative that the distro expected stock - and asked -

"Yes, our distributor has informed us that this is a Special Order product and could take approximately 8 weeks to arrive. Would you still like us to order this in for you, or would you prefer to cancel the order?

My first thought was....Jesus... come on! You didn't order it a month ago when I paid? But instead I replied -

HI Ed,

I'm really surprised it wasn't ordered a month ago automatically on 5th feb?

But yes, I definitively want the item please.

thanks,

Which I thought was fairly reasonable.

A month passed. I sent an email asking for an update, nothing.

The second month passed. Nothing. Resubmitted a new query through the website. Nothing.

Now, 3 months after purchase. I had to call the cardiff shop. Seeing as I'm being ignored and they had money.

Ian at the cardiff store was polite, but didn't exactly help me in the way I requested. I wanted an email address for the MD? supervisor? etc, but instead just refunded me. I really wanted to discuss this not in public, but have been forced to as I cannot communicate any other way.

Terrible customer service. And i'm left wondering if they are crooks, or just....clowns?

Do not use...

Reading other reviews I may have been lucky but the person who was staffing the shop today was very pleasant, helped me with what I needed and joked with me about what I could not find

Had the item I was specifically looking for despite many other shops not stocking it (Chessex drywipe map mat - others in stock at the time too), the RPG and accessories were good for the shop size and plenty of other things I could have easily bought

Worth considering when looking for things, was totally by chance I was was walking past and thought I remembered a shop there, will try here first next time

Would give the 5th star but the other things I needed were not there, hopefully next time and will up the...

Wow! Long time since I've experienced such poor customer service. 3 Jan 2023. The guy didn't even bother stop eating whilst we tried to buy a game. He couldn't have been more disinterested in us. Then asked for a bag which he said would cost 10p.OK, No worries. Just spent a lot of money I thought and no doubt it's the law that he has to charge for them but he proceeded to huff and puff despite the fact that I produced a £1 coin at which point he almost threw the change at me. Looks like I'll be visiting Amazon for board games in the future. Shame as the shop had a lot of...