Dear all,

I do hope that Strelets does not mind me posting this. I am a little reluctant to do so, but I am at a loss as to what to do.
[Strelets, I will not be offended if you deem it not to be an appropriate post for this forum and remove it.]

Has anyone on this forum, especially friends in France, had any experience with La Figurine Plastique/Marc Claus?

I ordered and paid for figures from them back in August 2019. The order has been paid for and acknowledged, but has been displayed in my account as being 'in the process of being filled' since September 2019. I have been asking, since early this year for an update, but have received no reply. I have used two email addresses and the form on the website (in both French and English), but not a whisper in response. I have now tried at least five or six times and am at a bit of a loss (not to mention just a little frustrated and angry at a vendor taking my money and not delivering).

At first I thought that they may have had some sort of health or other problem (or even gone bankrupt), but the website has been updated several times over the course of the year (including displaying the new Strelets figures).

What is really strange is that I had no trouble with two past orders. I have a receipt of my payment and an invoice from them for this outstanding order, but nothing since September 2019.

I paid via PayPal, so tried to get them to get the money back for me, but that was in March, so over their 90-day limit—I did not think of doing it earlier! I have even tried sending a money request through PayPal. That did not elicit a response either.

I have used several vendors from UK, Europe and USA and have *never* had a problem such as this. In fact all other vendors are efficient, friendly and professional (as one would expect).

I am hoping that someone may know them personally and could pass on my frustration.

In the very least I would warn everyone to avoid this vendor, lest they also suffer from such criminal activity.

Regards, James

Marc, appears to be in good health, we are facebook friends, I have heard of delays with his stuff in the past, but they were all ultimately fulfilled. I have not bought from him ,so cannot speak of personal experience .He pops up on most of the pages most of us visit, so there is a reasonable chance he will see this post.

Very sorry to hear about your experience. The problem is there is a third factor involved - the postal services. Especially for international orders as more than one service is involved. Unfortunately some bad apples get employed and either steal stuff or dump it if they've had a long bad day.

Years ago I worked for a postal company and 99.9% were solid, honest hard-working people but one day police and internal investigation staff came and took a couple of posties away. The big problem they cause is acrimony between buyers and sellers who both think the other is ripping them off :(

Things have got better with online delivery tracking and I highly recommend that route. All the best and hope you and Marc find resolution.

hi James

i had a similar problem with the same supplier a couple of years ago - where my payment had been taken but nothing was happening with the order and my emails were not getting responded too so after a couple of months i contacted him through facebook and got an apology that my order had been missed and that my figures would be posted straight away, which they were and got them within the week (i am UK based), so i would suggest the facebook route

Dear Bob, Steve and Alan,

Thank you for your replies.

Steve, the postal service cannot get the blame on this occasion as there has been no delivery!

Thank you very much for this suggestion. Bob, I will try that approach.

Regards, James

Hi James.
I had the same problem at the begining of this year.It was with my third order to Claus.Always he was been very slow but the two first orders arrived at end.I sent emails to Claus without any response. I spoke with him on the phone and he told me that he were going to inquire whats happened too without any result. The payment was done by pay-pal and I could recuperate my money but ...without soldiers.
He's not very serious, not recommended.

Dear Alexandre,

Thank you very much for replying. I am sorry that you have suffered the same problem. You are generous in saying "not very serious", I'd call it a rip-off and a complete corruption of the vendor-purchaser contract. I went back to my records and I had first tried to contact back in November 2019 to see what was happening. Unfortunately I did not even think of trying to get PayPal to recoup my money as one does not expect this to happen--particularly when past experiences were okay. Sadly I am not talking about a small order/amount of money.

I tried the Facebook route. There is a 'contact' button on their Facebook page and it redirects you too... the website. It would be funny if it were not serious. I posted a message through the Facebook chat option and, guess what? No reply in two days.

Hopeless, rip-off, dis-honourable and basically criminal.

Regards, James

I’m sorry to hear about your troubles. There’s nothing more frustrating than paying for something and not receiving it. And worse still unable to get a refund or even a response! That is no way to conduct a business. He should be ashamed! I would recommend drum and flag next time my friend, very reliable and swift with every order I’ve made. I even had trouble recently with some figures missing in the new sets that I posted on here, I received an email that day asking if my purchase was ok and the missing figures within 2 days. That’s how you do it.

Dear Jimmy,

Yes, that is my experience too. Drum and Flag are at the completely opposite end of the spectrum. You get friendly, efficient, professional service from Rupert, excellent communication and responsiveness—not to mention a great range of offerings and good prices. Like you I have had one, minor mistake in packing and it was rectified immediately. A vendor you can trust and enjoy purchasing from.

Fortunately my positive experience with vendors greatly outnumber this bad one. They just serve to make this stand out, particularly because as it has been so useless.

Thank you for your comments.

Regards, James

Late as always but yes Rupert at Drum and Flag has always been very good.