Boardgameguru Reviews 

Game received after a brief delay. Angus replied and updated me whenever I chased up. I would definitely use the company again and I say this after reading some of the very negative reviews on here.

As a very longtime Guru user (circa 15 yrs when Paul was personally dropping orders off at my London office), it is hard for me to write this, but my experience in the past two years has been very poor.

I will, unfortunately, not be using them again, regardless of price.

Recent experience was a preorder that was released and never sent for months, despite chasing multiple times. I miraculously received a shipping email on the final day of my credit card payment dispute, which had also gone unanswered for a month.

Prior to that, we had a similar experience at the previous Christmas time with an ignored and very delayed Christmas gift order. I chalked that one up to the illness excuse, but the fact it continues, with no contingencies in place, a year later is unacceptable.

It’s just not how you run a business.

I’ve made dozens of purchases including this year and never had a single issue. The vitriol I’ve read on certain Facebook groups from people who have never used but commenting on a few customers posting regarding delays etc, is unfounded are probably the cause of the really low score on Trust Pilot.

Angus went out of his way to ensure my purchase arrived with a family member for their birthday after I enquired about probable arrival date.

Still haven't received my order from months ago. Have been sent multiple emails saying "It will be sent by the end of next week". I don't buy the sickness excuse at all, if there's really too many orders then surely they could take on extra staff. Just a scammer trying to do the bare minimum to seem like a plausible business.

Had used several years ago with no issue - read on BGG that the website potentially changed hands at some point.

Same issues with every one else on here, wish I'd read the other reviews first. Seller responded to my emails at first, claiming illness and pushing back the expected delivery date. When the new date came and went I asked for a refund and just got radio silence.

DO NOT USE

Personally I will be reporting to trading standards.

Same as the rest, short email after ordering that it would be a few days extra to dispatch. 2 months later I still have nothing. All you get when trying to contact them are automated illness emails or voicemail. If you really want to purchase from them, contact them first, and if it's the automated message, go somewhere else.

Same as everybody else I'm afraid. Ordered item. Money taken. Item out of stock next day. Its been a week. No item. Sent him an email today but got the auto reply of he's ill with covid.

According to these reviews, he's had Covid for about a year.

Also based on these reviews I can look forward to no item, no refund and no response from Angus...

If he should act like a business and respond to my queries regarding my order, I will reflect that in my review.

But, based on other people's experience, I won't hold my breath.

Edit: Sent multiple emails and Facebook messages which he chose to ignore. Received a refund via chargeback on my card.

Took the money on order, but didn't try to ship nor reply to any messages chasing matters until requesting a refund many weeks after the purchase

I don't even buy the illness excuse.

I ordered an expansion from him in 2023 and got the same issue, it wasn't despatched for around 6 or 7 weeks. With the excuse that he was ill.

I ordered another item from him on July 3rd 2024, got the same excuse - it's still not delivered to this date, and he isn't responding to emails outside of the first where he gave his excuse.

If he was really ill why is his store still up and why are things still available for purchase. Please never buy anything from this con artist.

Six weeks ago I ordered a game expansion and requested 48-hour delivery. I got an email explaining about his (it's a 1 man operation) recent illness which was causing delays. No problem, I said. I can wait a bit. Several weeks of emails and phone calls later, and I now have no hope of anything ever being dispatched.

I understand what it's like to be ill and trying to run a business. What I don't understand and can't accept is that if someone can only work 2 days a week, why don't they turn off the website and stop taking orders they can never fulfill?

When I placed the order, the item was on offer in 3 other retailers. Now it is completely out of stock in the UK. So Board Game Guru has not only failed to deliver my item, he's denied me the opportunity to get it in the UK in the near future. This is unacceptable.

To Board Game Guru: If you are genuinely ill, immediately turn off your website shop and reach out for help. I'm sure that there are several previous customers and games enthusiasts that would be very willing to lend you a hand at the warehouse, in order to keep a games store going.

Do not use this company! A complete and utter sham. Even though the owner states they are ill this is no excuse to rip people off! Requested a refund twice now heard nothing. If it was 30 quid I'd have let it go but over 90 quid completely unnnaceptable avoid at all costs unless you want to be out of pocket! Utterly disgraceful should not be allowed to trade

Avoid.

After three months of back and forth I now managed to get a refund but it was a lot of work.

I don't know whether Angus is actually ill or not, but if he is and it prevents him from fulfilling orders, he just needs to stop taking people's money.

I never got my order, just excuses, empty promises and auto replies.

There are so many decent stores out there, no need to put up with this nonsense.

I hope he gets better if he's actually ill, but he needs to stop using it as an excuse to basically scam money out of folk.

Wish I had read these reviews prior to ordering. Its now been a month since my order and it has still not been shipped.
Despite multiple attempts to contact the store I have not received a call back and only been met with automatic replies. Communication is a bare minimum, and they failed to meet this standard.
I am having to go through the card provider to get a refund.
Save yourself the hassle and don't use this store.
Sidenote: I was unable to either obtain the products or a refund and reorder else where, this meant the games missed the annual event for which they were intended. This was incredibly disappointing.

There has been a bit of an internet pile-on elsewhere about Boardgameguru's recent difficulties. I too had been chasing and waiting for a game for weeks and weeks.

However, I have this week received a gracious apology and a full refund (because they can't locate the remaining copy of the now OOP game they thought they had) and I'm satisfied with that and will consider using them again in future, as clearly they are getting through their backlog and back on their feet.

I have always had good service from them in the past and personally I trust their explanation of an illness which caused a big backlog. Something people in the board wargame community seem to forget or ignore when dealing with designers, publishers and sellers is that not all of them are huge corporations like Amazon or whatever, so one man down can have a big effect. My two pennies, YMMV, obviously.

Edit: I have received a refund for the order, so while not ideal, I am grateful the refund was processed.

I ordered Galaxy Trucker from this website over 3 weeks sadly without reading any reviews. Sadly every enquiry has only been met with an Autoreply filled with excuses. Avoid avoid avoid.

Although I have not bought a game recently Iput a number of items into their cart totalling over £260.I got an E-mail back pointing out I had left the cart and encouragd me to complete the order.I reached out to them saying they had a lot of poor reviews but (in fairness)stating they had a few good reviews.so I asked questions about stock availability,delivery schedules and,not surprisingly got no reply.Until they get their act together I would not recommend this company.

While I have had a couple of successful orders in the past, I have had a preorder (which I have already paid for) waiting for over 9 months. I have sent 4 emails requesting it be cancelled, as it is in stock with the supplier so I see no reason for this long wait. But all my emails have been ignored.
What was a good company appears to be no longer. Avoid.

So the issues are true. I have bought from here before but I think until the issues are dealt with it is probably best to only purchase small ticket items and expect a huge delay. I claimed my purchase cost back via PayPal but the wait and stress isn’t worth the risk.

Avoid at all costs. Takes money, doesn't ship orders and when the owner does respond (which is rare) he always has an excuse lined up. Illness, short-staffed, COVID, change of warehouse...you name it and it affects Guru. Save your time, effort and money and shop literally anywhere else