I had placed several orders with GM over the years. Each time I had to wait several weeks for items to arrive to my house. Having to wait between 4 and 12 weeks for something is just ridiculous.

They have great prices.. and you can go after stuff that's hard to get... I order from GM knowing I may have to wait.. but I know that it's worth it..

If I want something fast.. and it's in stock at Squadron.. but not in stock at GM.. .. then I'd go for Squadron.. but generally GM is a lil cheaper...

Also.. I like the fact that you can make multiple changes to you order while your waiting.. and that you can monitor your order status nightly...
I have gotten a few oop products over the years at GM.. that wouldn't even show up under 'search' at Squadron or other sites... so what you give up in speed, you gain in attempt to acquire limited availability items.

Squadron.. does have some awsome sales on their flyers though.. last flyer.. I saw the DML annivesary Panther A.. 20 bucks.. the new Hummel and Panther D for 14.99!!!.. you can' t beat those kind of sales!

Squadron also is very fast!

So in the end.. it depends on what your looking for in the end result.. speed vs tough to find items.. then if they have the items.. overall price..

Well they should contact you within 24 hours of placing the order with your order status. I find it pretty silly to broadcast all this stuff in stock if it isn't...

As for shipping, there is no excuse for shipping within a country to take 4 to 6 weeks unless it is media mail.

If I thought about ordering from G M, stories about poor service hasn't helped their cause plus their shipping rates are expensive for Canada.

Cheers, Michael

Ok, my turn to chime in. I have done business with GM for 4 years and yes they can be slow. However I do like the customer service I get from them. I have only had 1 order delayed and it was for a set of Model Kasten early Panther D wheels. They e-mailed me and told me up front that they were waiting for these from MK. I waited 4 weeks, since this is a future build, and finally cancelled the order. They told me I had a credit with them and could use it any time. A month later I used the credit on file and ordered the Dragon command Sdkfz 251 and some figures and it was on my doorstep 4 days later with no hassles.
I called them on the phone to thank them for the prompt service and had a great conversation with a lady named Anne. She told me that they were a small family owned business and that yes at times they get innundated with orders and it slows down delivery. They keep their prices low by limiting the number of employees. So there is a trade off, faster service=more employees and higher prices. If you e-mail them and inquire if an item is in stock they get back to you within 24 hours. I will continue to do business with them. If I need an item right away, I'll go to squadron. My experience with Roll models is they are slower than GM! Cheers!
Chief

Well thank you everybody. Hopefully someone from Graeat MOdels has found this thread and taken the time to read the postings. I would like for them to be truthful or at least more accurate in their description of in stock. I ordered a PE set that showed in Stock on 1 Jan. checking the order status says they expect it by Feb 4. Yet part was listed as in stock. So, a five week delay sounds like an order placed to manufacturer to get it. That's fine, but when I searached for the product it should have said..item not in warehouse expect a month to order. I am not curently building the kit, so it isn't a problem, I would like to knowin case I need it quicker than 6 weeks

Steve,
I would not count on that. To my knowledge I have never had any contact with Great Models and as far as I can tell we are not even on their radar screens.

For the members that do order from them I wish they would let them know where they are spending a majority of thier time while on the net.

Thanks,
Jim

I've only ordered from them once and had good luck. I waited a couple of extra days for a Typhoon kit but they shipped the whole order ( 4 kits) as soon as it arrived. I even called them and made a change in the order. In all, it took only a week to ten days for my order to arrive.

one small point about GMs out of stock searching for item status. If you go to the web page you have the option to release the order and not wait any longer for the item.

I do agree that their stock indicators are misleading.

However I have used them and gotten good service on the things I ordered. One item I was hoping for was in "searching for" status for a while but I cancelled it (it was a long shot anyway as no one else had it and it was no longer being made).

OK OK OK !! Here's a gripe I do have with them. Maybe some of you will agree with me. What I am talking about is their DAMN NEWSLETTER !!! The thing is supposed to be done WEEKLY!! Not BI-WEEKLY !!. Heck, sometimes they 3 weeks it seems like before they even update it. We are already going into wednesday and they still have not updated LAST WEEKS NEWSLETTER !! Goodness gracious. They either need to do it weekly or just drop the stupid thing ALTOGETHER ! Thats where I do say they have a problem, its called LAZINESS!!!

Good day !!

I have used them before, but just came to the personal decision that the $2 to $4 dollars on average I would save was not worth the wait or problems (only a couple minor things, but things I would rather not deal with). The big thing that bugs me about the site and main reason I quite going there is the old "item not available". They kept items advertised that were out of production for years. Whenever I would search their site I would have to weed through all the really cool things I might want but had no real chance in the world of getting through them. I got tired of seeing items that were not produced anymore and had been sold out for 5 years still advertised on the site. It seemed like they used that stuff to say "look at all the stuff we carry". I don't know if that has changed but that and the few problems I had allow me to pay an extra couple bucks with a smile when I buy from other places.

I have done alot of business with GM. When they first started out it seemed the orders were fast and accurate. It does appear with growth came some problems and orders started to take longer to deliver. Some of this had to do with ordering items that were not in stock but many items I did order were incorrectly labeled as in stock and the next day after placing an order they were not. So the inventory was not reflecting real time status in my opinion. I will say that I might have the record for the longest delivery of a special order item from them. Azimut 40mm Bofors and crew took approx. 15 months to arrive. I don't blame GM because Azimut casts very few products at a time and production is infrequent. I amazed they stuck to it and finally were able to deliver! That said I do agree that now you are better off ordering only in stock items if you want them within a week or two weeks. Anything else seems to be a month or more. I don't know how much clout they have with the model suppliers but I think something was amiss if they could not aquire at least some of the DML M4A1production while other vendors seemed to have no problem getting them. If you know and expect the quirks of GM you can do just fine with them. I will continue to do business with them and hope someday the quirks will go away.

I love Great Models! I just posted in another thread that they have the best prices and selection in the US.
I ordered two figure sets from them...DML LAH Panzer Crew and the Tristar Tropical Panzer Crew...exactly one week later they were in my mail box.
If you call the Toll Free number 1-800-619-3402 you can talk to a human being and she/he will tell you if the item is in stock and when it will ship!
I have had one bad experience..it was with an Ironside Marder I..they were having problems getting it from the manufacturer in France. The price started out at $27.00 and by the time it was ready to ship it had reached almost $40.00. I called and told them that I had waited almost 4 months for the model and they had quoted an initial price but now wanted to charge me almost $13.00 more. They e-mailed me and politely informed me that I could cancel the order with no repercussions. The fact was that the dollar was much stronger when I ordered the item and because of the lapse in time before it shipped the Euro had become much higher. Hence the price disparity.
I support Great Models for the simple fact that they don't charge an arm and a leg for their stuff. I have about 35 unbuilt vehicle and many more figure kits waiting to be built. If I see something that I like and it is a good value..I'll order it! I can afford to wait. I don't care where you buy...Squadron, HLJ, etc. you'll probably have a bad experience somewhere along the line!
Later,
Bodeen

I've had mostly good experiences with them, but one exception. I orderd a specific PE set (along with a whole bunch of other stuff). Most of the stuff was in stock, but because the entire order was not, they held it. There was a promise date on some items so I waited. They were a few days late but finally the status changed to "in stock". But the order was still held since it was not complete (the PE and one other item).

So I told them to go ahead and ship, which they did, after I called them to ask the hold up. (That's the GOOD news)

Now for the BAD. They told me they were having trouble getting the one item. So I called the company that actually MAKES the item, and they said they'd ship direct to me the next day, which they did.

I called Great Models right back up and cancelled that item.

How hard were they trying to get that item and what were they trying??? I got it shipped direct to me with one phone call.

Overall they seem to do a good job with some improvement available.

At LEAST you can find out on- line the status of your order. I'm not happy about Roll Model's site with respect to that, and I've had an item on back order with them for over two months. (Something I suspect that no longer in production, but can't they tell me that???)

Tom

well, the statement that people hear or see only what they want to still rings through. I sent Great Models an email asking them to take a llok here. The response was one of bewilderment as they oly saw great comments. They said in one foum on another site how they had been slammed. I guess those folks are clueless. Most folks here seem to agree that they always pretty much get their orders, but that the time lag and the status of what they orsder is inaccurate. Personally, if I had known they only listed White Ensign Products and then plced their order would have gone to another source. Whoooosh....right over his head.

Well, as stated in my earlier post, I placed my orders to Squardron, Tarrants, Accurate Armour, and Great models, all with a 24 hour period on the 25 of January. Squardron arrived on Saturday, Accurate Armour and Tarannts arrived on Tuesday.... still no word from Great Models, like I said earlier, I never hold my breath, or order anything I need immediately, just usually stuff for future projects, or really good sales.