War on Terror Blog
Sunday 11th March 2007
All our War on Terror are belong to us. Finally.
After over a month of fighting with our warehouse to get our games back, this week we finally reached a compromise of sorts and the remaining 2,000 games of War on Terror are now back safe in our hands.
So here it is: why Uniserve are the latest - and greatest - addition to the Coalition of the Unwilling.
Things were starting to look bad before Christmas, delayed orders, missing deadlines, a distinct lack of information and general crapness. In January we started to get suspicious. We realised that delivery reports were being falsified and it gradually transpired that nothing had been done with our orders for over 3 (and in some cases, 6) weeks. Oh dear.
Uniserve responded to this situation by first sacking our account manager and then serving us a 'notice to quit', chucking us out of the warehouse.
They then realised they had misquoted us on delivery rates and tried to charge us retrospectively - up to 5 times as much in some cases - all the while, holding our stock and refusing to release any unless we paid what they demanded.
It gets better: when we finally reached a compromise and were about to pick up our games, the MD issued some impromptu 'exit terms', which involved signing away our legal rights regarding making future claims against Uniserve.
It's the end of a very stressful period in TBG's history. We have never - nor has anyone we've told this sorry tale to - heard of anything so unprofessional and we're still recovering from Uniserve's triple whammy of incompetence, extortion and bullying.
Here's to the marvellous reality of "doing business". We're now part of this illustrious network of seasoned professionals and important businessmen. We're living the dream, man, we're living the dream.
Other News: We've handed out our second 'Special Initiative Award'.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 11 March 2007 - 0 comments
Thursday 15th February 2007
United States: War on Terror finished!
Even with the Terror Team stricken with illness induced by haging around warehouses, trying to fix punctures on vans and lifting boxes of games, we've still managed to clear the backlog of UK problem orders and European orders are going out today. It's been quite a slog and big thanks to Jazz for coming in and helping us out in TerrorBull HQ.
With all this activity we failed to notice that our initial batch of 525 games for the United States & Canada was running dry, in fact we've sold out and had to stop taking orders over there. Sorry about that, we're more upset than you are.
How to take our life size (cardboard) suicide bomber on the plane?We've got around 2,000 games left and would like to send another batch over the pond. But the bulk of our stock is still being 'held' in our (ex) UK warehouse. We're trying our best to extract them as soon as we can. We'll be shouting with updates on the blog.
Plans for Vegas are coming together, there's now talk of a road trip to Los Angeles for a 'War on Terror Tournament' and some other great leads coming from the west coast. We just need to find a red mustang and work out how to take our life size (cardboard) suicide bomber on the plane.
And we've heard rumours of an EVIL Sunday football team somewhere in the north of England, but have yet to see photographic evidence.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 15 February 2007 - 0 comments
Wednesday 7th February 2007
A Lesson in Crisis Management
Keen followers of this blog will know that the making of War on Terror has been beset by many problems. We've encountered everything from shipping delays and toy fair bans to media storms and retail disapproval, but we never expected this...
In case you hadn't gathered, things have gone wrong on a scale that was previously only possible to express using advanced quantum physics. We're in a pickle, to say the least. We're so much in a pickle, that even the insides of a real pickle have no idea what it truly means to be 'in a pickle' compared to our present state. We are inside the mother of all pickles.
The gory details will have to wait, but basically the people we'd entrusted to store our games and fulfill all our orders haven't actually been doing much for the past six weeks. We only realised this a week ago and, in fact, the full extent of the problem is still unfolding ...
We are inside the mother of all pickles. In an effort to regain control, we paid them a cordial visit yesterday and managed to fill a van with games and bring them back to TerrorBull Games HQ.
What we know at the moment is that no UK orders have been processed since the 18 January 2007, no European orders have been processed since around 18 December 2006 and no 'rest of world' orders have been processed since around 15 December 2006. (US and Canadian orders are all fine - they're handled by a separate company in the States).
Right now, we're sifting through our order database and matching it up with various delivery reports and invoices as best we can. It's an exhausting (and tedious) task, but at least it's now in our control.
If you ordered a game after one of the 'cut off' dates listed above, we're sure you're wondering when exactly you'll get your game. The truth is, we don't know exactly. The reports and invoices are a mess and we're stuck between wanting to give an indication and not over-promising, only to run into more problems down the line. However, we're working round the clock on this and at the moment it seems realistic that we can clear the backlog in two weeks. Any change to this and we'll update the website.
Right now a career change into small arms trading looks really appealing. No hassle, government kick-backs, loads of profit and no one dicks you around, because, let's face it, even if you're the little guy, you're still seriously tooled up.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 7 February 2007 - 0 comments
Thursday 1st February 2007
Oh bugger
View Gallery (5 Images)
In true TerrorBull style, we're in hot water again. We've been forced into finding a new UK warehouse and distribution partner within two weeks (our third so far).
Until we find a new partner, we've decided to stop taking orders for UK, Europe and 'Rest of the World'. Unfortunatly our solicitors have advised us not to say much more at this stage, but we're making alternative arrangements right now.
Current plan is to move our stock as soon as we can and then we'll be fulfilling orders personally. At least everything will be under our control.
After we've secured our stock, we'll be in touch with everyone who's order has been effected to explain where we're at.
Sorry, once again we're having to navigate our way through a crisis. We really appreciate your patience and we thank you for weathering the seas of change with us. One day, it'll be plain sailing, on clear seas... calm, soft waves lapping at our feet dangling in the water... passing dolphins coming up to play... watching icebergs gracefully melt away...
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 1 February 2007 - 0 comments
Saturday 27th January 2007
TBG Board Meeting
View Gallery (1 Image)
This weekend saw the inaugural TerrorBull Games board meeting. We convened, schemed, plotted and laughed. Then we had a money fight. Then we ate caviar and fine cheeses, followed by swan and a side dish of otter stuffed with quail.
Oh yes, we're living the good life here at TBG HQ. Actually, against all odds, it looks like we're keeping our head above water and if things carry on like they are, then we may have to consider getting another batch of games made in the summer.
In other news, we've just booked our place in Vegas. The GAMA conference has been the only industry convention in the world to actually invite us to participate, rather than turn us away. How could we ignore such generosity?
The only downer of the moment is our continuing struggle to get games to people. It's obviously not rocket science, but things are going far from smoothly with our UK warehouse and distribution partner. We're having an emergency audit carried out as we speak and hope to be back on track soon. *sigh*
Let's end on a happy note: new photos in the EVIL gallery!
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 27 January 2007 - 0 comments
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