Hi guys.
Just to share the experience, this is how things used to be in France. You emailed or posted your order, (as it's been said it's advisable to join a quick description of the item such as playmoDB's when you haven't already checked the item number with a previous order), they wouldn't take orders by phone, though you can reach them during office hours very easily. Then (after a long time) you'd get an invoice for the parts that were actually available featuring the amount due with shipping. You'd just send a check to pay and acknowledge for the invoice by signing it. By then, i.e. until last year, you could order as many items you wanted withut any restriction providing they were on stock. EG: I used to order the archer's armguard for my knights (30 22 8840) by 80 at a time!
That was last year though...
Nowadays they have limited the number of parts you can order for each item number. There's no definite rule, but for my last I order I only 20 of the 80 armguards I wanted. No restrictions it seems regarding the figures, though of course, I never ordered 80 identical figures! My last order was sent in two different packages with a couple of weeks gap. The restriction seems to be around 20 items for the same reference, no matter if it's a helmet or one of the struts for a Roman tent.
When I asked the reason behind those restrictions I was answered that the DS was not originally designed to be a spare parts ordering service, and they now had had so much "success" they couldn't cope with it.
For what I know, ordering spare parts from the German DS is easy, no matter how many you want. Why should it be so complicated everywhere else??? (Not asking, just complaining.)
Well. That's about it.
Cheers.
Arnaud