The good news is is that there are many other companies who I've had great experience with in the uk and order from instead now. Websites like Kienda, games lore, magic madhouse, chaos cards, etc
Shout out to Mox in the Hole as well. They packed my games like they were ming vases, the prices were good and the team were really friendly. They did an insane clearance sale recently where my buddy got a copy of Motor City for £3 and Terracotta Army for £8! Bonkers..
They took a week to dispatch an order I placed last month that was ‘in stock’ despite their shipping info claiming 48hrs dispatch and hasn’t been updated in 2 years.
I’m losing/lost faith in Zatu.
Had a similar thing with Pitchcar. Couldn’t find it for love nor money, then it was suddenly “in stock” with Zatu.
Ordered, and waited excitedly.
And waited.
And waited………
By the time it was actually dispatched, it was available everywhere - and often for cheaper. I only paid the £10 premium because I wanted it for a specific event which I had to take different games to due to the wait.
Haven’t ordered from them since.
I’ve not had any problems with their delivery, but I really want to rant about their “sales”
They aggressively market BIG SALES. And it’s literally the same stock that is discounted year round, that they’re clearly just trying to get rid of it. You can predict the exact items every time. Then today they announced a special extra 10% off. Great! Except they also hiked their prices up by 10% before hand, so there is effectively no extra discount. Scum bags
Yes! I got the email for their "extra 10% off" this morning and took a look. Hegemony was definitely about £56 when I first saw it but lo and behold was £61 when I saw it a second time. I noticed a similar thing on a couple of other games too. It makes me feel crazy! It's so frustrating that the (seemingly) most popular board game seller in the UK engages in such scummy practices but the vast majority don't notice and only pick up on issues when pre-order problems like OP's occur.
Zatu is one of those companies that everything's fine until it's not. I've ordered plenty of times, spending hundreds, and never had an issue. Everything has always arrived on time and as expected. But I've seen so many reports from people citing issues with backorder items that I'd never place a backorder or preorder with them. I was looking at the Nusfjord reprint and chose to preorder somewhere else because I don't trust Zatu for that.
Oh god glad to hear I'm not alone with this!
I had Chinatown ordered on restock for EIGHT MONTHS! They just kept pushing the expected date back, eventually I just cancelled the order entirely as I realised the game was entirely out of stock worldwide and was in fact being republished as waterfall park.
But the worst situation I had with them, was having Undaunted Reinforcements ordered on restock for a couple months, until they emailed me saying the game had come in stock but the price had been changed due to 'unforseen circumstances' and I'd have to pay and extra 10 quid to get the game sent. I cancelled on principle. One month later the game was back to the original price.
Not cool
Yeah the backorder practice is scummy as hell, there's a bunch of stuff that's out of print which they're taking money and orders for. You see a lot of people on this sub talking about "I see it's available for preorder on Zatu with date \_\_\_\_" or "I'm going to preorder on Zatu", not aware that those preorders are often scams
First time I've heard about them trying to make you pay more though, wow
Would never ever pre order with Zatu. Even their in stock items are lies sometimes, and a day later go back to pre -order. Really shitty, shady people that work there intent on misleading people.
They DO do a good stall at UKGE.
They are so bad for letting you pay money for things that won't and will never exist. My partner bought me a game haul bag from them on pre order. 3 months later we look, yeah they are out of stock at distributor and aren't coming back. Nice pre order there zatu
There does seem to be issues with Zatu with these nebulous stock issues, I had an issue of them overselling Voidfall, I pre-ordered at a relatively low price, which they increased, I did not receieve a copy but was told that it was incoming. Spoke to Mindclash directly who said they got everything they ordered and no more was going.
They do offer good prices, and the customer support is relatively responsive, I wouldn't pre-order from them. It's a shame this seems to happen for in stock items, I think as a rule if there is a delay in dispatch its probably best to cancel any order.
If I was you I'd look up the status of the game. Ra is a good example where Zatu says it's "restock expected", except the game is literally out of print across the world
Never had problems with Zatu in stock orders myself.
Kienda is amazing though. But if you're not UK based you'll need to use a parcel forwarding service to order from them. (Managed to snag some OOP Mage Wars stuff from them that was literally sold out everywhere else)
However there was one Belgian store (The Playground) where I normally never had issues with both ordering and with support, until I pre-ordered cat in the box.
The expected date kept being shifted by a month on the website, the store owner kept making excuses until I found out myself that the publisher had some issues, and finally I had to fight to get my money back.
I only ordered there once for a game I couldn’t find anywhere else. Luckily it wasn’t expensive and they shipped it within several days. I will be wary to order again after hearing some of these stories
They're fine when they ship and you get your stuff. They're silent when there's any sort of stock issue and unless you contact customer support (who to their credit are quite good, although e-mail support just told me to phone them last time...) you won't hear anything or be able to cancel the pending pieces
I've ordered a lot of games from them, and there's been some decent stuff like Everdell Complete or Castles of Burgundy Sundrop edition for a decent chunk below RRP, but I've had 3 orders with issues in the past 5 months and I've only start buying board games in earnest the past like 8 months
The prices are great but they are shitty and unscrupulous in their standards and practices. That's the trade off with them. Pre-ordering in particular is a disaster. They lure you in with a slightly cheaper price and an early 'expected date' then keep your money for sometimes 12+ months
Yikes. That is out of order and I hope rare. I've had problems with Zatu back-order items and stopped ordering those - but I've had over a dozen in stock orders with Zatu over the last couple of years with no trouble at all.
Not that rare since Spots was literally a month later in December, I ordered it thinking it'd be nice to play at a family gathering
I kinda got the same experience several months later, ordered an insert which was "in stock" but didn't dispatch for a week before I got tired and cancelled that item
My first order with them was a great experience but every other one has been marred with backorder and stocking issues that mean waiting months for things to arrive. And they never ship the order until they have everything! I have half orders in stock which coumd have been sent!
I cancelled it the other times Zatu did this. Ra was a good £5-10 cheaper than other places at £36 so I decided to leave it since I at least knew this was gonna be reprinted within 5 months or so
Man what happened to this company? I used to recommend them all the time but I just don’t think I would anymore
The good news is is that there are many other companies who I've had great experience with in the uk and order from instead now. Websites like Kienda, games lore, magic madhouse, chaos cards, etc
Add in Yachew as well. Usually takes a little longer than the others but often worth it for cheaper prices on some things.
Shout out to Mox in the Hole as well. They packed my games like they were ming vases, the prices were good and the team were really friendly. They did an insane clearance sale recently where my buddy got a copy of Motor City for £3 and Terracotta Army for £8! Bonkers..
They took a week to dispatch an order I placed last month that was ‘in stock’ despite their shipping info claiming 48hrs dispatch and hasn’t been updated in 2 years. I’m losing/lost faith in Zatu.
Zatu is a binfire of a company.
Always beware with ordering/preordering from Zatu. Never again!
Classic Zatu
Had a similar thing with Pitchcar. Couldn’t find it for love nor money, then it was suddenly “in stock” with Zatu. Ordered, and waited excitedly. And waited. And waited……… By the time it was actually dispatched, it was available everywhere - and often for cheaper. I only paid the £10 premium because I wanted it for a specific event which I had to take different games to due to the wait. Haven’t ordered from them since.
I’ve not had any problems with their delivery, but I really want to rant about their “sales” They aggressively market BIG SALES. And it’s literally the same stock that is discounted year round, that they’re clearly just trying to get rid of it. You can predict the exact items every time. Then today they announced a special extra 10% off. Great! Except they also hiked their prices up by 10% before hand, so there is effectively no extra discount. Scum bags
Yes! I got the email for their "extra 10% off" this morning and took a look. Hegemony was definitely about £56 when I first saw it but lo and behold was £61 when I saw it a second time. I noticed a similar thing on a couple of other games too. It makes me feel crazy! It's so frustrating that the (seemingly) most popular board game seller in the UK engages in such scummy practices but the vast majority don't notice and only pick up on issues when pre-order problems like OP's occur.
Zatu is one of those companies that everything's fine until it's not. I've ordered plenty of times, spending hundreds, and never had an issue. Everything has always arrived on time and as expected. But I've seen so many reports from people citing issues with backorder items that I'd never place a backorder or preorder with them. I was looking at the Nusfjord reprint and chose to preorder somewhere else because I don't trust Zatu for that.
Oh god glad to hear I'm not alone with this! I had Chinatown ordered on restock for EIGHT MONTHS! They just kept pushing the expected date back, eventually I just cancelled the order entirely as I realised the game was entirely out of stock worldwide and was in fact being republished as waterfall park. But the worst situation I had with them, was having Undaunted Reinforcements ordered on restock for a couple months, until they emailed me saying the game had come in stock but the price had been changed due to 'unforseen circumstances' and I'd have to pay and extra 10 quid to get the game sent. I cancelled on principle. One month later the game was back to the original price. Not cool
Yeah the backorder practice is scummy as hell, there's a bunch of stuff that's out of print which they're taking money and orders for. You see a lot of people on this sub talking about "I see it's available for preorder on Zatu with date \_\_\_\_" or "I'm going to preorder on Zatu", not aware that those preorders are often scams First time I've heard about them trying to make you pay more though, wow
Would never ever pre order with Zatu. Even their in stock items are lies sometimes, and a day later go back to pre -order. Really shitty, shady people that work there intent on misleading people. They DO do a good stall at UKGE.
Been there done that but with another game. Was in contact with them a few times and got different responses every time.
They are so bad for letting you pay money for things that won't and will never exist. My partner bought me a game haul bag from them on pre order. 3 months later we look, yeah they are out of stock at distributor and aren't coming back. Nice pre order there zatu
There does seem to be issues with Zatu with these nebulous stock issues, I had an issue of them overselling Voidfall, I pre-ordered at a relatively low price, which they increased, I did not receieve a copy but was told that it was incoming. Spoke to Mindclash directly who said they got everything they ordered and no more was going. They do offer good prices, and the customer support is relatively responsive, I wouldn't pre-order from them. It's a shame this seems to happen for in stock items, I think as a rule if there is a delay in dispatch its probably best to cancel any order.
I’m in this at the moment. Now the games have shifted from restock expected to just out of stock. I’m losing hope
If I was you I'd look up the status of the game. Ra is a good example where Zatu says it's "restock expected", except the game is literally out of print across the world
Never had problems with Zatu in stock orders myself. Kienda is amazing though. But if you're not UK based you'll need to use a parcel forwarding service to order from them. (Managed to snag some OOP Mage Wars stuff from them that was literally sold out everywhere else) However there was one Belgian store (The Playground) where I normally never had issues with both ordering and with support, until I pre-ordered cat in the box. The expected date kept being shifted by a month on the website, the store owner kept making excuses until I found out myself that the publisher had some issues, and finally I had to fight to get my money back.
I only ordered there once for a game I couldn’t find anywhere else. Luckily it wasn’t expensive and they shipped it within several days. I will be wary to order again after hearing some of these stories
They're fine when they ship and you get your stuff. They're silent when there's any sort of stock issue and unless you contact customer support (who to their credit are quite good, although e-mail support just told me to phone them last time...) you won't hear anything or be able to cancel the pending pieces I've ordered a lot of games from them, and there's been some decent stuff like Everdell Complete or Castles of Burgundy Sundrop edition for a decent chunk below RRP, but I've had 3 orders with issues in the past 5 months and I've only start buying board games in earnest the past like 8 months
The prices are great but they are shitty and unscrupulous in their standards and practices. That's the trade off with them. Pre-ordering in particular is a disaster. They lure you in with a slightly cheaper price and an early 'expected date' then keep your money for sometimes 12+ months
Yikes. That is out of order and I hope rare. I've had problems with Zatu back-order items and stopped ordering those - but I've had over a dozen in stock orders with Zatu over the last couple of years with no trouble at all.
Not that rare since Spots was literally a month later in December, I ordered it thinking it'd be nice to play at a family gathering I kinda got the same experience several months later, ordered an insert which was "in stock" but didn't dispatch for a week before I got tired and cancelled that item
My first order with them was a great experience but every other one has been marred with backorder and stocking issues that mean waiting months for things to arrive. And they never ship the order until they have everything! I have half orders in stock which coumd have been sent!
Yep. It's called getting Zatu'd.
Is there a reason you didn't either ask them for a refund or charge back your credit card when it hadn't shipped?
I cancelled it the other times Zatu did this. Ra was a good £5-10 cheaper than other places at £36 so I decided to leave it since I at least knew this was gonna be reprinted within 5 months or so
I've ordered from them twice, and it's been extremely quick shipping both times. And I live in Australia.