I have finally recieved my Hotz star double sided mat yesterday. When I made the order, after they cleared the payment and confirmed the order, they told me to wait at least 5 weeks but I should get it MUCH sooner, believe it or not I recieved my mat exactly 10 weeks on the dot after I recieved that email.

Besides that, I also ordered it as rolled in a tube as my shipping cost and paid an additional 10 dollar fee for that. Needless to say they couldn't even follow that and sent it folded instead.

I understand mistakes happen, but their customer service is also absolutely disgusting, the entire ordeal from ordering it, to asking for shipping / tracking numbers, to trying to figure out everything else, it took me DAYS sometimes even a full week, just to get a reply on a simple question or order detail corrected.

While the quality of the mat is half decent, I don't like that they're spraying their logo on the bottom of my mat either, I ordered a space playmat for a more realistic feel to my game, not so that my x-wing will fly past a "Hotz Matz" logo floating near the gravitational pull of Tattoine. I feel I could have ordered a mat anywhere else for the same quality, and better service.

TLDR; took them 10 weeks to deliver my mat, ignored my shipping while charging me 10$ more for it, and their response / customer service is god awful.

When making a purchase from them expect purchasing it to take at least 1-2 weeks, recieving it 10weeks, and then have your shipping downgraded.

Sorry to hear that man, if anything gets up my skirt its lousy customer service. I was going to suggest a refund on shipping (its a new ship) but that will likely take 1-2 weeks before they acknowledge it and then stuff it up by sending you only five Pesos.

I hope others read this and are aware of dodgey retailers.

My mat is a 3x4 sheet of MFD, painted black and speckled white for stars, simple and smooth.

Gale force nine is making what appears to be good mats, though admittedly I have not yet seen them personally just photos on line. I have ordered thier stuff before for other mini games and have never been disappointed. 

Flames of War has a mat that looks like the surface of the Deathstar.

http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=79&ProductID=5221

That is a bumer about Hitz Matz.  They look very cool online (I've never ordered or seen one in person).  

I did pick up a yard of this:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Party-Time-Organdy-Stars-Fabric-Black/21668317

for playing x-wing.  I weighted down the corners and edges with magnets and it has worked out pretty well.  Id prefer a thicker surface that feels more like a mouse pad, but this was cheap and it  beats having the ships slide around with the slightest tough on the wood table.  

I have the GF9/Flames of War star map and it is great quality, comes in a carry tube all nicely rolled up.

Harleequin said:

My experience mirrors yours.  It took around 9 weeks for me to get mine, and I ordered it to be rolled, but they folded it instead.  When people ask about my mat I tell them to go someplace else.

I have ordered from Hotz twice in recent history and a few times prior to that also.  I've never had a problem

CarWashKid said:

would a spray adhesive work to a 1/4" piece of foam board from Staples? It might give you the mouse pad feel, but not foldable.

jetsetter said:

Ships were still sliding on the Walmart star fabric because its made of polyester.  It wasnot as bad as playing on a wood table, but still not great.  I picked up a 36" x 60" roll of craft foam (about 1/8" thick) from Michael's for $8.  Totally stopped the sliding issue.  I'm flattening it and using a silver paint pen to give it some sci-fi flair.  Good to go.  

I'm rather happy with my HotzMat. I did hear bad things about their delivery times before, and assumed that it'd take 3-4 months. It did.

The quality of the mat is good, playing on it feels great. It's single-sided though, and larger than any game I'd want to play on it, so the logo on the bottom doesn't bother me.

I built mine into a table I already had for gaming:

Just black paint, a few spots and a bit of glitter.  Oh and 40 LEDs attached to the underside of the table with holes to shine the light through.  Seemingly a lot less hassle than a Hotzmat.

I like the LEDs!  We already use some halhemisphere planets on mechanical rotating bases on our boards.  They give the visual of a planets rotation.  We were considering building a new table with a airbrushed plexiglass surface and fiber optic lights for a starfield but with a pulsing color change.

Now I'm worried, I only ordered mine the other week, didn't know they had a bad rep.

Hello,

I am new to this forum.  This is my first post.  I have a 6 X 4 mat from Monday Knight Productions.  It is a good quality product.  And they have them in a 3X3 format.  I have put the link below.  They have pictures of there mat.  What you see is what you get.  Shipping is okay and quicker than most.

Jean

http://www.mondayknight.com/Index-Mats.html

I also have a mat from Monday Knight, it is okay for the money but the Hotz is far better quality IMHO.  I'm keeping my Hotz mats but giving away the MK mat that I bought (sorry it is sea not space).  Just my $0.02