No hobby 'till Brooklyn
After a summer of zero hobby, October looked promising until My Doom™ came after me.
It's been three months since my last post here but it feels like a year. TL;DR version of this part of the story is that I was offered a 3 month contract in a big hospital and I had to decide on the same day, so let's say accepting it wasn't the best decision I've made this year.
As you have noticed this has been the hottest summer in decades and painting here just became impossible, and using primer from a spray could be classified as a suicide mission. If it was hard to paint in the UK, double it and you won't be closer to Spain.
Fast forward, preparing to October (or Should I say #Krootober?) I decided to buy some stuff so I could start painting after my summer gig (and no holidays). Starting late August I ordered 4 nice t-shirts from Warhammer Merch, and a few days later Kill Team: Into de Dark from Element Games (on launch day) and a nice Godhand nipper (given that my friend Champi was visiting Japan; he's a great painter and you should follow him).
Sounds like a good plan, right? Yeah, but that's before counting on My Doom™.
After 2 weeks of waiting for the shirts I wrote an email to customer service and they said the payment never arrived. What happened is that Paypal stopped it for some hours (those random "payment reviews" you get now and then) but completed it the day after. They charged me and my bank account was discounted those 80€. Easy, right? Nope, nope, nope. After weeks of emails (and proof documents) they doubled down and I had to escalate to Paypal, so now I have no shirts, no money and (probably) I'll have to wait a month before I get a refund, if I ever get it.
"Don't worry, you still have the models and the nipper" some of you may say. Not so fast, buddy.
I bought the Kill Team box on pre-order day (minutes after it went live) so it could be sent on September the 10th. A week later I randomly checked the "track shippment" link and guess what: The courier never took the package. Four emails after that my game is on its way but probably won't arrive for my birthday (a month after launch) although the box is avalaible everywhere.
So, if the Spanish mail service works as intended, for my birthday I'll have no new apparel, no new models, 80 missing € and a very expensive nipper.
27th of September update: Today I was notified by the mail service that my Element Games' order was sent to an unexisting address and was about to be returned to the UK. I managed to stop that just to discover my game box is 75 km away from my real address and has been charged with more than 40€ in custom duties. They've offered to refund the VAT so now its a little less painful (they are always fast replying to emails and in this case they've done enough to help me).
And that takes me to the last part: With the Kroot Mercenaries project on the wait list there won't be a new post in a while. So seat comfortably, watch some cool LOTR shows and please don't catch COVID.
Take care,
Wilbur.
PS: I strongly recommend not to buy from WM and/or use Paypal in the future; also, helping streamer friends with affiliate links to UK stores may sound like a good idea, but those cents don't make up for the drawbacks IMHO.
26th of September update: One month after the day I bought the Warhammer Merch t-shirts, Paypal has resolved on my favor and I got a refund.