Matrix Shipping Practices

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HansHafen
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Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by HansHafen »

Just received John Tillers Campaign Series shipped via FedEx from Matrix. It was in a cardboard envelope and the plastic cd case was crushed. I even paid extra to upgrade from USPS to FedEx. Unfortunately, I wasn't home to deny the package and there was no shipping documentation in the envelope. I haven't opened the cd case yet. Why would anyone ship something like this in an envelope that is very easily crushed like mine was?

So, if you want a hard copy of your game shipped to you in addition to the digital download, be forwarned of Matrix shipping practices.

I will now begin the journey to get a new cd case from Matrix.
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V22 Osprey
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by V22 Osprey »

Honestly I would just send it USPS Priority Mail. I've bought 10+ games and things through priority mail and never had a problem with broken or damaged merchandise. And it gets here pretty fast as well.(3 days) Pretty reliable, but sometimes they put the package in the wrong lock box or mailbox.[:@]

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Erik Rutins
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by Erik Rutins »

Hi Hans,

They should be packing those to avoid damage. The last test order I received had the game in bubble wrap and had no damage. Can you e-mail me at erikr@matrixgames.com with your order info and a picture of the package if possible? We can discuss this with the warehouse to make sure everyone is packing these properly.

We are happy to ship you a replacement case.

Regards,

- Erik
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by Phatguy »

ORIGINAL: HansHafen

Just received John Tillers Campaign Series shipped via FedEx from Matrix. It was in a cardboard envelope and the plastic cd case was crushed. I even paid extra to upgrade from USPS to FedEx. Unfortunately, I wasn't home to deny the package and there was no shipping documentation in the envelope. I haven't opened the cd case yet. Why would anyone ship something like this in an envelope that is very easily crushed like mine was?

So, if you want a hard copy of your game shipped to you in addition to the digital download, be forwarned of Matrix shipping practices.

I will now begin the journey to get a new cd case from Matrix.

I have never received a package from Matrix in the shape you mention so your situation must be one of those "oops" moments that happen every once in a great while.Have you ever considered that maybe Fedex crushed it? I dont think Matrix goes out of their way to pre-crush our games before tossing them to the mail carriers of the world.....

You make it sound like they are a horrible shipper......

Matrix shipping practices are fine....
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by decaro »

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

Honestly I would just send it USPS Priority Mail. I've bought 10+ games and things through priority mail and never had a problem with broken or damaged merchandise. And it gets here pretty fast as well.(3 days) ...

Ditto!

USPS is the way to go.
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by parusski »

ORIGINAL: apathetic lurker
ORIGINAL: HansHafen

Just received John Tillers Campaign Series shipped via FedEx from Matrix. It was in a cardboard envelope and the plastic cd case was crushed. I even paid extra to upgrade from USPS to FedEx. Unfortunately, I wasn't home to deny the package and there was no shipping documentation in the envelope. I haven't opened the cd case yet. Why would anyone ship something like this in an envelope that is very easily crushed like mine was?

So, if you want a hard copy of your game shipped to you in addition to the digital download, be forwarned of Matrix shipping practices.

I will now begin the journey to get a new cd case from Matrix.

I have never received a package from Matrix in the shape you mention so your situation must be one of those "oops" moments that happen every once in a great while.Have you ever considered that maybe Fedex crushed it? I dont think Matrix goes out of their way to pre-crush our games before tossing them to the mail carriers of the world.....

You make it sound like they are a horrible shipper......

Matrix shipping practices are fine....

Despite the years that have passed I distinctly recall receiving WitP shipped just this way(except my game was not broken).
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by Phatguy »

Well, I believe it's rare......15+ Matrix titles and every one in tip top shape.......
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by Zakhal »

Ive bought matrix games for years and so many of the boxes have been broken that I quit buying boxed ones.

In comparison Ive bought ten times more from places like amazon, ebay or play.com yet their boxes have always been in top-shape.
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by hgilmer3 »

I bought the physical version of WITP-AE and WITE and neither arrived damaged.
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by Kubel »

I just recieved an email asking if I recieved my WitE purchased 14 December; sadly I'm sure the zelous Canadian Border Guards have it and will ship it when they figure how much HST I owe to the state. Matrix offers to re-ship games at no charge to you if you don't recieve them in a timley manner.

My bottom line is [&o][&o][&o] Service from Matrix is second to none; and from what I see Eric posted have no doubt they will fix it to your satisfaction.
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HansHafen
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by HansHafen »

I was angry when I posted because this is the second hard copy I have ordered that was stepped on by someone in the shipping process. The other one was a year or more ago. I estimate that I have bought about twenty games and 2 have been crushed. I know the Matrix guys wouldn't do it on purpose. At least they know that the fulfillment center is not shipping all of the packages the way Matrix wants and the way it was promised to them by their contractor. If we all report damaged packages then Matrix can take appropriate action to remedy the situation. Matrix contacted me about this with lightning speed which was awesome.
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by NefariousKoel »

ORIGINAL: Kubel

I just recieved an email asking if I recieved my WitE purchased 14 December; sadly I'm sure the zelous Canadian Border Guards have it and will ship it when they figure how much HST I owe to the state.

Ouch!

Sucks to have your own country holding your packages hostage and demanding a ransom. [:@]
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by diablo1 »

I'll tell yah a little shipping secret: If you send things 1st class mail or media mail they get treated a lot better in the Post Office than Priority Mail. Reason being they are in such a rush to get Priority Mail out because it is Priority they don't treat it with respect. They will throw Priority mail like baseballs and footballs into the canisters thus breaking things and curshing things because small Priority mail goes in the same cans as the heavy packages which get tossed in on top of the smaller packages. UPS practices are no different because it is speedy mail they don't care what's on top of what. Some of these conveyor belts are 25' to 30' long and so these guys are throwing your mail that far sometimes just like baseballs and footballs.
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by Les_the_Sarge_9_1 »

I rented dvds from Zip.ca for about a full year a bit back. They mail the disc to you in an envelope with a return envelope included.

Paper, nothing but paper. Not shipping packaging whatsoever.

I received hundreds of discs this way never once a problem.

My buddy that showed me the service was able to move more than myself, and never once a problem.

Now, I can't fathom how they can do this other than they ship in letter sized mail, which is NOT parcel processes as it is just letter sized mail.

It might be 100% due entirely to how letter mail and parcels are treated and handled.
Not sure it would matter a bit if it went cross border between Canada and the US.
I can't speak for international.

But hell, its 2011.
Explain to me precisely why anyone, ANYONE actually needs that damnable silk screened disc and dvd case with jacket and maybe, just maybe minor booklet?
For 10 bucks?
And people actually complain about the price of games? Yet they can justify spending 10 bucks on a 20 cent disc and a 1 dollar dvd case?

You can't even buy a computer without a disc burner drive. So if your computer hasn't got one, well that's impressive.
And we all laud how Matrix Games rule due to their being just simple no strings attached installers you can copy anywhere.

The LAST thing I would spend 10 bucks on, is a Matrix Games physical copy. Not because it has no worth, but because I can't claim to think there's any need.
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diablo1
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by diablo1 »

Hey we complain about shipping and handling fees too. I think Matrixgames has the highest shipping and handling fees of anyone I've ever ordered physical shipments from. NWS has been as low as $2.99 for shipping the same thing Matrixgames does and charges you $20 for. Amazon.com is $3.99, Ebay around $4 as well. But, yes I'll pay $10 for a cd or dvd case, a disc and a Printed Manual (doesn't have to be color). I like physical, I like the box art. I like holding what I buy in my hands not just looking at it on a screen. Plus all those boxes make for showing off when your friends come over and see your gaming library. Not much to see from a computer but a bunch of ugly yellow folders. I also like carrying my printed manuals around and reading in bed or in the throne room. I've yet to see a good PDF reader either. Perhaps when someone makes one of those that actually works then I might give-in to PDF manuals only.
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HansHafen
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by HansHafen »

Here's ANYONE to explain some things to you...ok here goes, Matrix can go out of business! Their precious download can go away. Yes, I could burn a copy, but I would rather have a nice box to store it in with a cover and maybe a manual! And they put my name and registration number right on the disc! Why would ANYONE not want a hard copy with a box and cover? (I can be just like you, dialectically speaking of course.)

And maybe I want to help Matrix survive by sending them some more money? Why should you even care?

And what about the games that do come with a very nice printed manual? Like Gary Grigsbys War Between the States? I prefer to have a professionally printed manual than printing a pdf at home and putting it into a binder somewhere when I can just leave it in my nice boxed case with pretty cover art sitting on my shelf in my den where I can find it.

These are just a few reasons I spend the extra money I earn on a box and a cd dude. So there.
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by diablo1 »

lol Hans +1 to you! You told him good. [8D]
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by Les_the_Sarge_9_1 »

I didn't pay a single cent for shipping and handling of a digital download.

Makes it easier to buy 4 games and call the 4th game 'free' when I consider that I didn't pay out for all those pointless extras.

Now if impressing friends was even possible, with just a game box on a shelf, well I'd need to wonder about the nature of my friends minds :)

Not that I can't just make the box, and make the dvd case jacket myself. It's just cardboard after all. But them I have an unfair advantage too. When not playing wargames, I am likely making models. Or potentially nearly anything else actually. I made the bookcases the games sit on. I've worked as an architectural modeler, I'm used to making nearly anything.

As for pdf readers, it is not about are they out there, it is about, are you willing to pay for one really. And not every manual I have seen in physical form, was all that great. Highway to the Reich, superb game. Manual that I got in the box, features VERY faded washed out nearly impossible to see pictures and very faded indistinct printing. The game is great, the manual a waste of paper. I see some good manuals occasionally. Combat Mission VERY good manual. But that is more than a decade ago, times change and so does the cost of printing. Not to mention where it comes from, such as the supposedly nice manual for WitpAE that Matrix Games got screwed over for from China.

Sometimes cutting a business some slack, means not forcing the business to indulge something unnecessary too.

Sure I'd like War in the East to have a nice manual. Who wouldn't.
But not if it means the company loses damned near all the profit from selling the game.

Every time Matrix Games sells me a digital download, all they are out, is the cost of bandwidth.
In 2010 then, I likely saw too it that Matrix Games made some very fine profit from selling me games.
4x Close Combat
Battles from the Bulge
War in the East
Operation Barbarossa
Some of my other titles, I can't recall precisely when I bought them. But just the above was a nice bit of profit from me.
And no loses to selling me physical. I call it loses, because it costs them staff time to process the orders eh. They don't pocket the entire 10 bucks with no loss.

I don't really think 'he told him good' at all actually diablo.
I LIKE that my life bothers them,
Why should I be the only one bothered by it eh.
vonRocko
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by vonRocko »

Someday I have to learn how to burn these games. I don't want too, but it looks like I'll have too. Should be easy for an Elite wargamer type person.
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RE: Matrix Shipping Practices

Post by Phatguy »

ORIGINAL: Les_the_Sarge_9_1

I rented dvds from Zip.ca for about a full year a bit back. They mail the disc to you in an envelope with a return envelope included.

Paper, nothing but paper. Not shipping packaging whatsoever.

I received hundreds of discs this way never once a problem.

My buddy that showed me the service was able to move more than myself, and never once a problem.

Now, I can't fathom how they can do this other than they ship in letter sized mail, which is NOT parcel processes as it is just letter sized mail.

It might be 100% due entirely to how letter mail and parcels are treated and handled.
Not sure it would matter a bit if it went cross border between Canada and the US.
I can't speak for international.

But hell, its 2011.
Explain to me precisely why anyone, ANYONE actually needs that damnable silk screened disc and dvd case with jacket and maybe, just maybe minor booklet?
For 10 bucks?
And people actually complain about the price of games? Yet they can justify spending 10 bucks on a 20 cent disc and a 1 dollar dvd case?

You can't even buy a computer without a disc burner drive. So if your computer hasn't got one, well that's impressive.
And we all laud how Matrix Games rule due to their being just simple no strings attached installers you can copy anywhere.

The LAST thing I would spend 10 bucks on, is a Matrix Games physical copy. Not because it has no worth, but because I can't claim to think there's any need.

Why are you getting so worked up because some of us like physical copies?
My life is complete. 1000 Matrix posts.....
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