Update regarding the Obsidian Flames delay

We are super sorry for the delay in getting Pokemon - Obsidian Flames pre-orders out to customers. We’ve received a large number of what can only be described as abusive and hateful comments and calls towards our staff which is not reasonable. We’re collectors and players just like yourself and our staff in all departments are not to be the target of any hurtful or threatening behaviour that you may have.

Our delivery arrived on Friday from our suppliers, which was not ideal, and management worked closely with our suppliers to have the delivery arrive with us much sooner than it did. We seem to be the target of being left till last to have stock dispatched and we can only apologise on their behalf for this but please be assured we have never been the reason why stock arrives late with us, despite what some customers believe.

Not only this, but the volume of pre-orders we have is almost double what we had for SV2. For a normal release, we would have at least a week beforehand to work on preparing orders to be dispatched in time for release. At this time all staff were called to assist with the delivery and packing of orders, whilst still doing other jobs that require them. We have not stopped dispatching orders all weekend with thousands of orders being dispatched in record time.

This is not the first time it’s happened and we chased compensation from our suppliers with regards to previous delays with the biggest being Silver Tempest. They had agreed to a plan of offering something which took till last month to reach a settlement of; NOTHING! This was a huge blow to us given the communication over the months and preparing offers and negotiating what was going to be offered in terms of chasing compensation. This was then just disregarded and the terms and conditions from the Legal department were read to us, removing all responsibility for delays of deliveries.

Our support team is working extremely hard to deal with hundreds of emails, which would normally be something they work through in a week being something they are currently having to deal with in a single day. These guys are full of passion and joy for the games we sell and want to help you, so please show them some love and allow us to help you without having to deal with the disrespect and abuse.

If you have reached out to us please allow us time to work through the hundreds of tickets that we have received and we will get around to you, the guys are doing their best.

We had to sadly disable the phone lines as every minute they are dealing with calls, they are then not able to answer emails. We have to balance logistics with this situation, not only that but we would love for them to help pack orders too, as you can imagine we don't have an unlimited number of warehouse packers and with the entire team helping out we are at max capacity on resolving the backlog.

All staff have been in the warehouse packing and any content you see posted online from our social team is scheduled in advance and is not monitored over the weekend, so please bear in mind when reaching out on social media that we may not reply instantly on weekends. We do like to point out that we are the ONLY TCG store that has 7 days a week dedicated phone and live chat support, we ensured that this was a business practice that allowed you guys to reach us 7 days a week including our weekend deliveries. We want to help you get your order ASAP but we do also have to be realistic with what is possible with such little time and allowing us a little understanding before sending us any concerns that are unwarranted, given our best efforts and such little time to turn around thousands of pre-orders.

For those that do not know we were the victims of 2 burglaries last month, resulting in the loss of goods exceeding 1 million pounds and this has had serious repercussions on daily operations and sales as a massive amount of stock has been stolen. This also happened to 2 other suppliers and a fellow business who were also targets of what we believe to be the same criminal gang. The police have yet to prosecute anyone nor have our insurance company completed their work, so this has left us with significant stress on the business.

We’re not using this as an excuse as to why the delivery is late. However, we have operationally taken a massive blow and are working day and night - pretty much round the clock through the night - to maintain business as normal whilst we deal with the fallout from this. During this time we would love for the community we have helped serve and be part of for the last 11 years allow us a little understanding and friendliness whilst we handle the delivery of Obsidian Flames and also prepare to also dispatch Lorcana.

We could have put out a funding request for your support to help us during this complex and challenging time. However, the best way to help us during this time would be to help show our staff some love and respect whilst we work through this delivery. We all love it when things go to plan, however when they don’t as much as we welcome the feedback and hearing your opinions please bear in mind that our team are also humans on the other end, wanting to help you and being respectful is all we ask. We understand your frustration, we really do!

We understand as players and collectors how important it is for you to get your order on time and we have done more than we physically can to help eliminate as much of the delay as possible. We still haven’t stopped dispatching orders since Friday and will continue to work continuously till we’re caught up. We can’t thank you enough for your continued support, it means a lot to us. We’re not just a business, we’re a group of passionate and super-friendly gamers who do this job because we love the games. We would hate to lose your custom because of this and hope that you can continue to shop with us.

As we continue on from our break-ins we want to thank you for your understanding and hope this has elevated some of your doubts that we are working as best we can. We honestly believe that we could have sourced stock from a different supplier to arrive earlier which we have done in the past if we know a delivery is going to be late, in this instance if we hadn’t been dealing with the loss of over 1 million pounds in stock we would have had the extra revenue to avoid this delay.