One company that I've always had good luck with is Fantasy Flight. I've had games where we've worn out the cards or broken pieces, and I've contacted them to see about the cost of some replacement parts. Each time, they just send me the replacement for free, without any hassle at all.

I know some folks don't like their board games or RPGs, but their support staff is top notch.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;752246One company that I've always had good luck with is Fantasy Flight. I've had games where we've worn out the cards or broken pieces, and I've contacted them to see about the cost of some replacement parts. Each time, they just send me the replacement for free, without any hassle at all.

I know some folks don't like their board games or RPGs, but their support staff is top notch.

Yeah, just recently had to email them about a couple of X-Wing ships that fell apart while I was taking them out of their plastic. Had new ships within a week. Good turnaround. Their online support ticketing system is pretty shitty however...

Customer Service is supposed to be just that. A good experience will get you PR you can't buy. A bad experience will get around even faster. It's a wise investment.

Honestly, if you can't handle it, you shouldn't be in that line of work.

On a non-gaming note, I've had wonderful experiences with the Chicken Sox / Klutz customer service dept. If I have a problem, they replace or substitute anything, immediately and with a smile. I had a question for the Fresh Brothers pizza company -- they sent me a $30 gift certificate with a profound apology. I went in to spend the certificate, my bill was about $28. The store manager came out to apologize three times, saying that he wasn't allowed to give me the difference in cash. I kept telling him it was fine, but he finally came out and gave me another $10 gift certificate! By way of contrast, I had a problem with Verizon that they ignored over six months while I spent hours on hold. I filed a complaint with the Public Utilities commission, and some santimonious **** called me the following day to say she'd suddenly found my problem and resolved it. I cancelled my account on the spot, and never pass up a chance to tell this story. It was over a $30 charge. Now who was the smarter business?

Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;752021I've had very little need for interaction  with gaming companies, as I've seen precious few fucked books and/or  bunked orders.

Just to be clear, I didn't contact any of the publishers I mentioned because of fucked books and/or bunked orders. In most of the cases I was simply inquiring about the content, compatibility or availability of certain products or something akin.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;752246One company that I've always had good luck with is Fantasy Flight. I've had games where we've worn out the cards or broken pieces, and I've contacted them to see about the cost of some replacement parts. Each time, they just send me the replacement for free, without any hassle at all.

I know some folks don't like their board games or RPGs, but their support staff is top notch.

I'll second this. One of their games I got contained a die with a production flaw, but nothing that made it unusable. I simply mailed them a picture of it and they sent me a new die within the next couple of days.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;752246One company that I've always had good luck with is Fantasy Flight. I've had games where we've worn out the cards or broken pieces, and I've contacted them to see about the cost of some replacement parts. Each time, they just send me the replacement for free, without any hassle at all.

I know some folks don't like their board games or RPGs, but their support staff is top notch.

Yeah, I broke one of the carriers when pulling all the Twilight Imperium 3rd ships off the pegs, and I emailed them about it and they sent me a new one that arrived in less than a week.

FFG customer service is one of the best I've interacted with as far as an RPG/Board Game company.

As noted in an earlier post: Larry Elmore is pretty cool. I already liked his art and the one time I got to chat with him, fun to talk about the naturalism and realism he uses in his fantasy art. He offered to sign prints we bought without asking. I like having his art on the wall that much more.

Reaper miniatures has legendary customer service. The couple of times I have received ganged or miniatures missing parts. Send an email and get the miniature replaced in full with extras on top of it. No fuss. Their boards are littered with stories of good customer service due to a missing sword or such on a mini.

I've never had any bad interactions with industry manufacturers but when you do have an issue good customer service goes a long way to making you respect them more than you did.

I second the thumbs up for Reaper (I'm local to them, so that may factor in) and Fantasy Flight.

In fact, I'd say most interactions with board game publishers have been positive, despite the complications/goofs that brought me to that point.

I had such a poor customer "service" exchange with Fred Hicks that I'm completely turned off by anything from Evil Hat.  I really grooved on Spirit of the Century for what it was, so that's a shame.

Out of respect for the dead I'll just add QLI to the list and leave it at that.

Quote from: Natty Bodak;752455I second the thumbs up for Reaper (I'm local to them, so that may factor in) and Fantasy Flight.

In fact, I'd say most interactions with board game publishers have been positive, despite the complications/goofs that brought me to that point.

I had such a poor customer "service" exchange with Fred Hicks that I'm completely turned off by anything from Evil Hat.  I really grooved on Spirit of the Century for what it was, so that's a shame.

Out of respect for the dead I'll just add QLI to the list and leave it at that.

Really? I always thought Evil Hat had a reputation for good customer service. Not disputing, just surprised.

I chalked it up to a bad hair day for the guy, but it's not like it was some random booth staffer. I stewed for a while and decided I wasn't going to let it slide.

Quote from: Zachary The First;752456Really? I always thought Evil Hat had a reputation for good customer service. Not disputing, just surprised.

Quote from: Natty Bodak;752455I second the thumbs up for Reaper (I'm local to them, so that may factor in) and Fantasy Flight.

I've had good service from Reaper, yup. I actually didn't complain about all the missing noses in my Bones Kickstarter Vampire box as I'd have felt guilty about spending all the vouchers they would have sent me (did get vouchers for the three missing minis). But I've seen on their boards other people who complained about minor flaws and got a lot of compensation. Guess it depends what you're comfy with. Also I once had a minis shipment that went completely missing in transit, probably stolen/lost in customs & excise; they resent the shipment.

Quote from: GameDaddy;750100Also have to include Brendan Davis from Bedrock Games from right here as well... in the Awesome!!! category as Arrows of Indra is my favorite new RPG from last year.

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Thanks!  I agree that Bedrock Games and Brendan Davis has to take 50% of the credit for the job very well done!

There are a lot of good people in RPGs.  Wolfgang Baur (and wife Shelly) are probably top of my list as far as the nicest folks.  I was a subscriber to Kobold Quarterly, and they addressed issues I had with ordering kindly and professionally.  When the magazine folded, they worked very hard to ensure everyone received a refund for any undelivered magazines.  It was my pleasure to tell them to keep the remaining funds because I received far more value from the magazines than I had paid for them.  

I'm not a fan of Pathfinder - I was involved in the Playtest, but I found the experience very frustrating.  They rejected 'issues' that they felt would involve 'too many changes' to the base rules, but made other changes that didn't seem to make sense without regard to compatability.  While those issues have left me disappointed with the way they do game design, I've never been dissatisfied with their involvement with their fans (primarily through their forums), their quality production values, and genuinely interesting product.  I can't say enough good things about the folks at the top.

Kenzer Co has been good to me.  I ordered some back issues and pre-ordered an upcoming issue of a product.  I didn't receive all of my order (I thought it would come with the pre-order) and they made it right.  Jolly's love of gaming is infectious, and I'm glad that a true 'old-school gamer' willing to talk about his passion has a forum to speak to the gaming community.  While the man has dealt with some very serious personal tragedy (no parent should have to bury their child), he keeps going strong.  He'd make one of the best 'ambassadors for gaming'.  

My worst experience was with Wizards of the Coast during the transition to 4th edition - specifically in regard to Dragon and Dungeon magazines being discontinued.  I felt that I was treated rudely and demeaned.  They really did 'fire the customer' and I remain unlikely to support any product line they create.  This was severe enough that I tried to avoid any connection to Hasbro (their parent company), but I've relaxed that (I won't keep my children's fun hostage to my personal grudge).  

Dario Nardi (author of Secrets of Pact Magic) gets a special shout out.  He hand-delivered my copy during Gen Con 2008.

I tend to have good dealings with most publishers, but then again that might be because its me and they have a vested interest in not pissing me off.

I once mail ordered some Greyhawk stuff from TSR and they sent me a 1993 Gen Con duffle bag with the order.  Pretty damn cool of them.  I still have it up on the wall in my hallway.