Getting extra pieces?

My Tac Bombers were really short. I only received 4 for Japan and 4 for the US, as well as the bad battle strip, and I also got shorted on chips. Needless to say I wasn’t happy, so after reading through this thread I sent them an email a few hours ago and have since had two responses. I’ll detail them here:

Message #1 from me:

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Jason Shaffer, and I am an Axis & Allies loyalist. I love the games, and recently purchased Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940. The game seems great, but upon initial inspection I’ve noticed that there are some issues with certain game components that I’ve received.

• The first issue is with the “Battle Strip”. It appears that not all of the units are listed, and some of the units do not have the correct numerical information on the strip. This makes battles more inconvenient to do. Is there anything to be done about this? Replacements? It seems like this is something that shouldn’t be overlooked.

• The second issue is regarding actual units. I’ve received only four (4) Tactical Bombers for both Japan, and the United States. This isn’t enough for setup, let alone regular game play.

• The third issue is regarding the chips. The manual says I should have 50 grey chips, and 10 red chips. I count 43 grey, and 9 red. This also makes gameplay quite difficult when coupled with the lack of regular units.

Overall the game seems to be well designed and of good quality. It is also fun to play, but very annoying when I have to use makeshift pieces to even set the game up, and then when the game gets going, it’s not hard to run out.

So if there is anything that could be done about the battle strip, Japan & US units, and chips, that would be wonderful. I love Axis & Allies and hate to feel let down after paying for such a premium for this game. I expect a better quality control than this, and I’m sure you can resolve the issue. I want to be able to feel confident when Europe 1940 comes out, so hopefully you can help.

Thanks,
Jason S

This was their response:

Hi Jason,

The Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 game has a known issue where the Battle Strip is misprinted. Some of numbers are wrong or missing. While we don’t have any correct Battle Strips available for replacement at this time, we do expect to receive them by February. Please reply with the following information so we can make sure to send you a correct Battle Strip when we get them in:

First Name:
Last Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Phone Number (with area code):

In the mean time, the correct information is the provided in both the rulebook and the game board itself. The information provided above will also be used to order replacement pieces for your missing units. To clarify, you received 4 tactical bombers each for Japan and the US, for a total of 8 tactical bombers between the countries. If this is incorrect, please let us know in your reply.

We very much appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.
We would appreciate your feedback on the service we are providing you. Please click here to fill out a short questionnaire.

To login to your account, or update your question please click here.

Jason W

My response to them:

Thanks for your quick response.

My Contact info is as follows:

First Name: Jason
Last Name: Shaffer
Address: **
City: **
State: **
Zip Code: **
Phone: **

To clarify: I only received 4 Tactical Bombers for Japan, and 4 Tactical Bombers for the US. I also only received 4 Mechanized Infantry for Japan.

Also, the correct amount of grey chips was not included (short by 7 chips), nor the correct amount of red chips (short by 1).

So if the units, battle board, and chips could be fixed, that would remedy the situation.

Thanks again,
Jason S

Their second response:

Hi Jason,

This email is to inform you that we have received your incident and have escalated it for further review. A representative should be contacting you concerning your incident in 24-48 hours or less. We apologize for this delay and appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this.

We would appreciate your feedback on the service we are providing you. Please click here to fill out a short questionnaire.

To login to your account, or update your question please click here.

Jason W

So who knows where this will go. I don’t like the sound of “further review”. But we’ll see.

-Jason

That’s a stock reply from them as I have seen it many times. It means they will be sending you 2 Jap tacs, 2 US tacs, and your missing chips.

Ok, I guess I’ll have to wait and see if I get any packages…

that was the quick and dirty fix for this game.  call them, say you got it and only got 4 Tacs.  they send you 2 more in the mail (supposedly) and you’re a little better off.  problem is, if everyone does this, then anyone who actually WAS shorted pieces will not get them as they will curtail this policy.

Of course, if you need ANZAC heavy bombers and carriers you should be ok, as i’m sure no one will abuse getting those.

This is in no way ill-intended whatsoever.

(I know how internet posting can be misinterpreted, especially from a new member like myself  :-)).

To clarify, are you saying I’m being dishonest about the pieces I received? I just want to say that those are exactly the number of pieces I received – I just counted them an hour ago. I am not a dishonest or deceitful person and in no way would want to take pieces away from anyone, I just want to have 6 tac bombers like everyone else. I’m not trying to get more than 6.

I don’t want to get started off on a bad foot in this forum so please don’t take this in any shape or form as me being upset. I’m aj jovial happy person  :lol: I just don’t want people to misunderstand and think that I’m trying to “cheat” the system.

-Jason

nope, not saying that at all.  I’m saying that people have been doing what you did to get extra pieces, when they got the 6 they were supposed to get.

YOU are well within your right to get more pieces if you only got 4 Tacs in your set.  That BLOWS!

Some people have been getting extra pieces and some haven’t in this thread, leaving many people wondering if they just weren’t lucky or if they weren’t saying the right thing.

If a customer drops down $90 for a game and is unhappy and what will make him happy is an additional 9 cents worth of plastic, then customer service should be more than happy to give it to them, but they are going to let their pride get in the way.

agreed.  there is no reason that every single person who calls or emails shouldn’t get a complete japanese refill.  It would shut us up.  I for one would be saying how great WOTC’s customer service is.  I wouldn’t care about typo’s and the cardboard as much, because they did their best to make me happy.

but they can’t even read our emails.  they cut and paste their reply and move along.  you have to call them, and “call them” on their BS.    I supposedly have 4 Tac Bombers coming just to stop me from calling them.  We’ll see.  If I don’t have them Friday, the calls begin again.

@MaherC:

nope, not saying that at all.  I’m saying that people have been doing what you did to get extra pieces, when they got the 6 they were supposed to get.

YOU are well within your right to get more pieces if you only got 4 Tacs in your set.  That BLOWS!

Some people have been getting extra pieces and some haven’t in this thread, leaving many people wondering if they just weren’t lucky or if they weren’t saying the right thing.

Ok, that’s fine, I didn’t want any misunderstandings  :-) I could see how that would be an easy “tactic” for some to do, and I agree with you that that would be plain wrong – and could make it so I get zip!  :cry: lol

don’t worry about making anyone upset, I’ve been on the forums for all of about a month and everyone hates me, but they still answer my questions :)

Cant they sell some lot on ebay?
Cant any dude able to mold, mold us some tac and sell them?
Sure i can pay 5 bucks to get them!  I would even buy mech.

I actually had to call them because I was missing some Chinese, odd I know, it’s being taken care of, but I haven’t seen them yet.  I was told it can take up to 2 weeks to process the request before they get mailed out.  Which yesterday was the 2 week mark.

Anyone else have similar experience with these time frames?

what did you say to them?

Nothing much, I skipped email all together and just called them up on the phone.
Explained that I only received 5 chinese infantry and couldn’t even start the game as I was missing so many.

It was only chinese infantry, they apologized for the problem, asked for my address and such and told me they would process it and send out replacements.  Before I hung up they also mentioned to me, I didn’t bring it up, that there was a problem with the battleboard and new ones were being made.  They put me on the list for it.

I called back last week as I hadn’t seen the parts yet, but then informed me it can take up to 2 weeks to process the request before it ships, so monday was 2 weeks, so if I don’t see anything by friday I’m planning to call again.

I have access to a kit for making lead musketballs.  Now I need a tacbomber mold.

@valthonis:

Nothing much, I skipped email all together and just called them up on the phone.
Explained that I only received 5 chinese infantry and couldn’t even start the game as I was missing so many.

It was only chinese infantry, they apologized for the problem, asked for my address and such and told me they would process it and send out replacements.  Before I hung up they also mentioned to me, I didn’t bring it up, that there was a problem with the battleboard and new ones were being made.  They put me on the list for it.

I called back last week as I hadn’t seen the parts yet, but then informed me it can take up to 2 weeks to process the request before it ships, so monday was 2 weeks, so if I don’t see anything by friday I’m planning to call again.

I have always received replacements from WOTC when they said they were on the way. It may be the fine folks at the US Post Office…

friday will be day 14 for me.  we’ll see.

I’m greatly interesting in Pacific 1940 but with this thread I don’t see myself getting it anytime soon. Has WotC said anything about a ‘fixed’ version being sent out to stores that I have missed? And if so when will that be?

Honestly there has only been one person who has said their copy is unplayable (getting 2 copies of the same 1/2 of the map…which you can check easily enough if you buy it at your local hobby store and open it in house)

Odds are you will get the 6 tac bombers they intended.  It is enough to set the game up and play with, just a pain at times.

The rule changes can be found on this forum.

I wouldn’t hold your breath for a re-release.

Well, I called customer service to complain about the TAC bomber shortage.

Again, nothing the grunt on the phone could do about it except pass the feedback on. He admitted mine was not the first complaint, lol.

Told him a lot of third parties had already corrected their mistakes: I already printed out correct Battleboard, correct Set up sheets, etc…(In large part due to this website)

Related that the games I hosted at my home all had one thing in common: Japan has a shortage of Tactical Bomber pieces on turn 1. Ridiculous that they expect players to improvise pieces on turn one. How could this not have been caught during play-testing?

Praised the game overall but was disappointed in the production and editing problems for a premium-priced game.

Told him that I knew about their correct battlestrip offer.
I said keep the battlestrip, keep any correct set up sheets, keep the corrected rulebook. Those issues I was able to resolve on my own.

Just send me 6 additional TAC bombers for Japan and I’m a happy customer.

Was planning to buy the Europe1940 game but NOT before I received additional TAC bombers for Japan.

I received a reference number and I followed up with an email quoting the reference number in the subject line (thought it would be more likely to be opened and read.)

Squeaky wheel, gang. Everyone needs to complain multiple times.