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Thaadd Powell
United States
Wisconsin
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Today is my last day at Fantasy Flight Games. I'm still going to be at GenCon (Demoing Arkham Horror!) but will no longer be handling any emails in the office. I'm writing this here, as I get quite a bit of direct mail on BGG, and over the years have become fairly publicly known as one of the faces of the company...
Last December I took a weekend road-trip and visited some online buddies over in Wisconsin for a relaxing weekend of boardgames - something very welcome during that month of post-Holiday Sale chaos, and right before the post-Xmas Customer Service rush. I met a very nice boardgamegeek, who I got along great with even though I was a Cylon, and he was a filthy human... We started dating several months later after chatting further online, and began a saga of 4.5 hour long drives (each way) long distance relationship commuting. In the last 6 months, we've each driven almost 9k miles. We finally decided it was time to merge our boardgame collections, which has surprisingly few duplicates, considering - he's much more of a eurogamer than I am. Logistically, economically, it makes more sense for me to move, as I rent, and he's a homeowner.
It's been great to see Fantasy Flight grow up - I started as one of the 'Midnight Chronicle Refugees' - crew from the movie project Christian Petersen and FFG put together, where I was the Key Grip, a carpenter, and of course an extra. I was the 24th employee, and now we're somewhere around 90 people. In the years since, I've handled thousands of requests from gamers from all over the world. I've mailed bits to places like Saudi Arabia and Tasmania, nearly everywhere in Europe, Siberia and Argentina, as well as pretty much every state in the US and province in Canada. I've heard stories of people's kids, spouses and pets - I started a collection of sheepish looking dogs pictures, in fact. The leeway I've had from the company in using my 'best judgment' on sorting out requests largely gave me the freedom to make people happy. I describe my job as 'I am nice to geeks for a living'.
Going forward, I'll be hunting jobs and putting down roots in Madison Wisconsin - which is a gorgeous town, and just close enough I can come back to visit. I originally started here a few months after receiving a B.S. in Natural Resources, and didn't actually intend to stay past the summer, but the combination of work environment and great co-workers ensnared me. I'm looking forward to starting fresh and have scouted where the local FLGS is and its game night, as well as the Meetup group for game nights. I think it's a good omen that a new store posted today that it's opening up next month 6 blocks from my new home.
Unfortunately due to my apartment's lease - I chose a bit of a rough time for FFG to leave - at GenCon when most of the Marketing department is slammed with new release things and many of the people who cover for me when I am out of the office not free to do so - so please have patience with the new staff, as 175+ games and a small backlog of emails is a hard first day. My 'office' is a labyrinth of plastic tubs of bits, and the requests I get quite varied, so new people are going to be researching answers. I wrote as much up as possible, but the newly hired staff still has a ton to absorb.
I'll be lurking less, and posting more here over time as well. For the last 5 years I've been reading posts trying to find emerging issues, and concerns, as well as just for fun. I've been really lucky that boardgamers in generally are fairly friendly and patient, and it's a rare treat for a customer service person to read POSITIVE feedback about their work.
Thanks for playing,
Thaadd Powell
Customer Service
Fantasy Flight Games
(for a few more hours!)
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David Hoffman
United States
Briarcliff Manor
New York
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Nooooooooooooooooooo!
Also: congratulations and good luck!
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Mikkel Øberg
Denmark
Virum
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A sad day all who play FFG's games.
You were one of the outliers raising the mean of Customer Service, and the only outlier I was ever happy to see.
Good luck going forward!
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David stole the word out of my mouth.
Thank you for all the hard work you did, congratulations, and good luck.
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Gabe Covert
United States
Lexington
Kentucky
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Simple solution: FFG moves to Madison.
Good luck, and thanks from someone who generated a few of the requests you so skillfully and readily handled!
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Kenton Henry
United States
Eugene
Oregon
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Oh man, wow. Thanks for your help over the years...hope your new stage in life rocks!
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Paul DeStefano
United States
Long Island
New York
It's a Zendrum. www.zendrum.com
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Hey, now you can rate games and just be a regular BBGer at least.
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Matt Lee
United States
East Meadow
New York
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Sad to see you go as you really made it great to buy FFG products knowing that we would be taken care of if there was a problem, however it's for a good reason, and I wish you much luck and joy there.
Or FFG can just move the CS dept to Wisconsin. 
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Justin Hoeger
United States
Oceano
California
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Sorry to see you go, Thaadd, but glad for the reasons. Thanks for the occasional replacement pieces over the years.
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Ayyy yii yiiiiiiii
Canada
Winnipeg
Manitoba
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Thanks for replacing my broken Tide of Iron pieces. Best of luck in the future!
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Scott Lewis
United States
Castle Rock
Colorado
Dread Our Coming, Suffer Our Presence, Embrace Our Glory (Solonavi War Cry)
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Good luck, Thaadd! You're customer service skills were top-notch, and you'll be missed! Have fun in Madision!
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Sarge in charge!
Germany
Bremen
Ash nazg durbatulûk
Speak "thriend" and enter!
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Thaadd wrote: Today is my last day at Fantasy Flight Games. (...)
Too sad, Thaadd!
But good luck for your future career, and thanks again for all those replacements you've sent me over the past years! It was always a pleasure.
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Marc Mistiaen
Spain
Torrelavega
Cantabria
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FFG's customer support has a (justified) tremendous reputation here and many of us can confirm this first-hand. I believe it is due to your work in no small part. Thank you and all the best.
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Christopher Hill
United States
Wilmington
North Carolina
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Every time I have written an e-mail for a missing part or damaged card to Fantasy Flight Games, Thaadd has responded promptly and professionally.
Thaadd, I am sorry to know you are leaving FFG, but I wish you the best with your new endeavor.
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Richard Launius
United States
Johns Creek
Georgia
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Thaadd, congratulations on your new life in Madison and I wish you all the best. You have proven yourself to be a valuable member of Fantasy Flight Games and an all around class act that will be hard for anyone to follow. I am sure those qualities will assist you in your search for employment in your new home city.
Thanks for all you have done for Fantasy Flight and see you at Gencon.
Richard
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Matthew M Monin
United States
Branford
Connecticut
8/8 FREE, PROTECTED
513ers Assemble!
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Thaadd wrote:
I'll be lurking less, and posting more here over time as well.
FFG's loss is our gain! Congrats on an exciting new chapter ahead of you. You're leaving FFG with some mighty big shoes to fill.
-MMM
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Gunther Schmidl
Austria
Linz
OÖ
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Congratulations, and good luck wherever you're going next. They can't know how good they'll have it with you.
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Matt Shinners
United States
New York
New York
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Thanks for all of your great customer service over the past year, Thaadd! A large part of my collection is FFG games, and a large part of that is because I know the great service I'll get whenever something goes wrong. You've solved every problem I've ever thrown at you, including parts for games that were long out of print. You'll be missed!
And congratulations/good luck on your new adventure!
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Christopher Taylor
United States
Lake Forest
California
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Thank you for your help and general awesomeness, Thaadd!
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fightcitymayor
United States
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
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The name has become such a brand that the person who replaces you should also inherit the moniker "Thaadd Powell." And the person who replaces them has to be Thaadd Powell as well. And so on and so forth, like a superhero.
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Scott Bartel
United States
Largo
Florida
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You will be sorely missed. All the best in your new job/life.
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Steve Hope
Woodside
California
Likes: Mountains, Tundra Turn-offs: Serpents, Marsh
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Farewell, Thaadd! And welcome, since now you can be much more active on BGG!
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Lukasz Biernat
Poland
Dabrowa Gornicza
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Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
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Matt Buckingham
United States
Berne
Indiana
Have a great day!!
A bad day at gaming is better than a good day at work.
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ohbalto wrote: Nooooooooooooooooooo!
Also: congratulations and good luck!
My thoughts exactly.
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Anthony Santiago
Canada
Vancouver
BC
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Congrats Thaadd and the best of luck to you and your partner in the future. Hopefully we'll see more of you around "The Fort".
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