Yesterday's mail brought a nice package of Hinchcliffe figures for incorporation into my armies. I bought them from The Colonial Connection, out of Williamsburg, VA. The owner, Eric Grosfils, is a very nice guy. Not only am I impressed with the figures, but I was most impressed with his service. Right now he's in progress of selling off his last Hinchcliffe stock, and going to a drop-shipping model with the manufacturer, where you can buy through him but Hinchliffe will ship the figures direct to you.
First off, I sent him a query regarding whether he had stock on hand to fill a figure order. It's important, if you order one of the items he still has in stock (it's noted in the PDF catalog he sends), to let him know whether you want him to finish an order off with the drop-shipped figures (which of course are not on sale), or only fill what he can from his existing stock. It turned out, he didn't have stock on hand to fill the quantity I wanted for a good bit of it, so I sent off a list of about 10 item numbers to ask his stock for, and he quickly got me back counts for them.
I finally ordered about 30 figures, with a mixture of 4 of this and 9 of that and 3 of the other, to form up a militia unit from various SYW and AWI poses, plus a couple of spare officers to use for unit variety. It turned out when he went to assemble the order that one of the ones I'd ordered 9 of, he only had 7 intact, plus three with broken bayonets. So he only charged me for the 7 intact, and sent the 3 that were missing bayonets free!
And I've saved the best for last. You actually don't pay him till you've received the figures. I can't name any other company that does that any more. Now, I can't say whether he does that with the drop shipped figures, since I didn't order any of those.
Prices for drop-shipped figures are rather higher than RSMs, but should be better than buying direct from Hinchcliffe, as he's able to apply his distributor's discount to them. His sale figures range from $0.50 to $0.75, for foot figures. Worth seeing if he has any left of what you're looking for.
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3 comments:
While I'm not looking for anything, it is nice to hear such positive feedback.
-- Jeff
Hello Jonathan,
I second that. Sounds like top-notch service. Now, what about a photo or two of the little guys?
Best Regards,
Stokes
To All - He does indeed apply the pay after delivery method on the drop-shipped orders as well. Eric wants his customer's to be satisfied with what they received, and will have England (Hinchcliffe or Museum) replace the figures at no charge if they are damaged or the wrong figures.
The best example I can give of this is an order I placed for Museum 15's that had to come primarily from the UK. Apparently, my original order was lost in shipping and I had waited well over a month without word. When I notified Eric, I had a replacement order from the UK within 2 weeks that included a very nice note from the owner's advising me that the figures were "Compliments of the manufacturer's per Eric's instructions". I immediately contacted Eric and asked for a total so that I could send him a check and he refused, saying his reputation for service was worth more than a handful of lead!
Bill
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