crazy_cat's page

As per teh thread title, please cancel my Campaign Setting subscription. Many thanks.

Is Frog God Games Black Monastery eligible for the holiday discount code when it comes off preorder - and will Paizo have it in stock before the end of January when the code expires ?

Is this eligible for the holiday discount code when ity comes off preorder - and will Paizo have it in stock before teh end of January when teh code expires ?

Thinking back to the issues many Europeans had with the Beginners Box, it appears that duties are often charged based on the nature of the goods enclosed. Books, magazines, and other 'printed matter' seems to escape duty (at least to the UK), while anything listed as a 'game' sets off the Customs alarm bells.

Given that the definition of a 'game' often seems to arbitarily hinge on something like the inclusion of dice, pawns, tokens, etc.; would it be possible to ship such products as the Beginners Box, Kill Doctor Lucky, Stonehenge, et al, under the radar, as their component parts?

There may be duty to pay on a crate full of dice or tokens, but it would be on the dice/tokens only. The crate of rulebooks would go through duty-free, as would the boards, reference sheets, and flat-packed boxes.

The European office(s) (or friendly distributor) can then assemble the boxes, add the rules, add the contentious dice/tokens, to match the local orders, and ship them round the EU (or within their own country) duty-free.

Would that reduce import costs to the distributor? Or does that constitute some form of artificial tax evasion?

I don't mind if the local distributor charges a fee for the handling, and passes that on to the retail or home customer, if it results in a reduction of import duties and a net saving for everyone at the end of the day.

Thinking outside the box? Or crazy pipe-dream?

For the UK, Books are VAT exempt - games, and other products, are not. Therefore if a shipment is over the £18 cut off value at which VAT is levied, and contains 'games' in any value it becomes subject to VAT on its full value plus handling charge as Royal mail process it.

The only ways to absolutely avoid VAT on Paizo purchases to the UK are to only purchase books - or to keep orders below the value that attracts taxes, but that simply increases postage costs instead so you don't really save anything overall.

A Paizo UK hub would be fantastic - if it worked properly and was cost effective.

But I do remember how appallingly bad the service was when Paizo last tried something similar and subcontracted TPFG to be European distributor for Dungeon and Dragon magazines. That didn't end well at all - and Paizo took all the flack from very many unhappy Europen customers with no products delivered, and took the financial hit to put it all right.

Just had a bit of a re-think and decided I really can't justify the RPG subscription - please cancel.

Please keep the Adventure Path and Campaign Setting subscriptions running.

Books are VAT exempt, so book only Paizo orders are fine on the way through customs. But, if a shipment contains any games or other 'non book' materials then you become liable for VAT on the value of the whole package.

So many messages with this problem and we haven't any word from Paizo up to this point? What's happening here?

It's been the weekend and it is now about 4am on Monday in Seattle - give them a bit of time maybe?

Now that Rule of Fear has shipped please cancel my Campaign Setting subscription.

No issue with quality - it's just that I've got masses of unread source and setting material already built up in a huge backlog and I know I'll never get round to using/reading it in many cases.

Please keep my Adventure Path subscription running. Many thanks.

Thanks Vic. I'm in no hurry on my orders so I'll just make sure to wait until the previous one ships before ordering the next. Now that I know it's easily avoided.

Thanks Cos and Sara Marie.

Sorry to have had this debate in public and sorry if it came across as abrupt or a bit sharp. It's one of those issues that would I suspect be dead easy to sort out face to face or by phone - but it being transatlantic and involving 8 hours of time difference and thus being done via website makes it all that much harder.

I've got a new small order placed for minis - how long do I need to allow for this before placing any more orders in order to ensure that they don't get combined?

Many thanks.

That is not acceptable. This situation has arisen as you (Paizo) have not despatched what I ordered and because the T&C are not clear on your webstore (which you have admitted as you are apparently now going to be updating your FAQ to address this).

I explicitly placed two separate orders having initially had all the items in my basket as one shipment and then doing calculations on the total value (inc S&H charges) to work out how much I could safely put in each shipment. If I wanted one order I would have place one order. Your webstore quoted me two separate S&H rates and your system and my invoices show you charged me for two separate orders including two separate S&H charges, as does the My Orders page – and this is what I ordered and agreed to pay for.

You are now telling me that because your webstore wasn’t clear, and you have a policy of combining shipments without any input or comment from me (the customer) that you hadn’t told me about, that I am going to be out of pocket. That is unacceptable. I would like my refund now, not when in minimum 2–3 months time (based on 1 month postage each way and 3 weeks at the UK Post Office, plus any delays at US customs on the way back) the package gets back to you. This problem has arisen entirely due to problems at Paizo and I do not expect to have to pay for them.

Incidentally, as of now (10 AM UK time on Friday, so 2 AM in Seattle I think) my package still hasn’t actually shipped according to your website – so you could I’m sure easily cancel it if you tried, by simply not despatching it.

As I said I am normally very impressed by service from Paizo and have had very few problems in my six years of buying from you, but I am very much unimpressed in this case.

Thank you for the quick reply. Normally I have to say I rate Paizo CS quite highly, but in this instance I am very unimpressed.

It is nice to know now that 'Our system is set up so that if two orders are processed through our shipping queue at the same time, they will be shipped together. If you do not wish to have the possibility of two orders being combined into one box, we recommend waiting until the first order has shipped before placing the next order'.

Unfortunately this isn't mentioned on your website during the ordering process or in your FAQ. I placed two seperate orders - and you charged me for two seperate shipping fees. I selected two orders so that I would not incur any VAT chargs when my goods arrived in the UK. Now, with one package I will incur at least $20 to $25 (a rough conversion from £ sterling) in tax before HMRC and the UK post office will release my goods to me.

Given the value of the goods I ordered I do not plan to pay these charges or collect the items when they arrive at my local post office. Please refund me in full for my orders.

Hi,

I placed two seperate orders today (#1646431, #1605639). Just received an e-mail saying they are shipping in one package.

Please send these as two seperate shipments which is what I specifically and by choice paid for. As a combined package they will incur VAT charges on import as their combined value is over the trigger level for HMRC - if you cant seperate the order in to two packages then please cancel and refund the whole order.

Thanks.

VAT - Value Added Tax. Basically a sales tax charged by the UK government at 20% on eligible items sold in the UK or imported to the UK. Books are exempt, but games, dice etc aren't.

crazy_cat: I'm a bit concerned if that's happened - how can they justify charging full VAT on zero-rated items?

You'd need to ask Royal Mail that one - I suspect they do it, and get away with it, because they can as they have a monopoly on delivering post.

The bloke at the depot charging you the money to release the parcel may be sympathetic, but 'rules is rules' in my experience, and if you don't pay up you don't get the parcel. I've never bothered arguing the toss or trying to claim money back afterwards as to be honest life is just too short to waste time arguing with the Post Office.

I just don't order non books from Paizo (or any overseas vendor) unless the value is less than the likely trigger point for tax (about £18 I think).

In my experience if a package contains any non book items (labelled as 'Games' on Paizo labels) then HMRC via the Royal Mail are quite likely to charge VAT on the whole lot if they spot it and the overall value is over the £18 approx trigger point- so 20% tax on the whole thing plus £8 customs handling charge.

It's always a gamble for such orders as some (many possibly) get through with no tax at all - but I think that is a resources issue at the receiving airports in the UK rather than a generous deliberate decision.

Many thanks, email received.

Now that Bestiary 2 has shipped can you please cancel my subscription to the RPG line - I'm now at my limit for rules bloat. Thanks.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks
Sara Marie

Is it here yet? is it here yet? is it here yet? is it here yet? is it...

/impatient child voice

All done. Many thanks Cos (and Sara Marie earlier).

I would like to update my payment details with my new card - but your websiteb wont let me. How do you suggest I get these details to you?

Please hold any shipments until I've entered new payment details. I've managed to lose my wallet and had to cancel all my cards and I'm now without plastic until replacements arrive.

Thanks.

Apologies - was feeling a bit crabby last night. This is all sorted out now. Thank you.

Checked. Reply sent. There is no way I'm paying another delivery charge to get my items in a seperate shipment- I've already paid a charge for this service when I placed the order.

Let me know if there's anything else we can do to help out!

Could you please ship the replacement items in a seperate shipment. On their own they will not incur any tax charges (as they are below the trigger value for customs) - which is why they were a seperate order with postage paid for seperate shipment in the first place rather than in with a subscription package.

I think we can definitely list this as offically lost in the post now -as my last subscription package, sent weekes later, just turned up.

Regarding replacements - will they be labelled as 'Books' or 'Games' or something else on the shipping label? If it is books then I'm fine for them to go in the next subscription shipment, but if it is anything else that goes on the label please send them seperately as per my initial order.

To explain, for the UK books are VAT exempt at customs when imported - but anything else over about $25 in value is taxed for VAT and also incurs a handling charge of about $15, as well as the tax (hence why I try and keep non book orders down in value).

These taxes aren't just levied on the value of the taxable items in a package however they are charged on the entire value of the package (books included) so I'm going to get stung very badly if my next subscription package includes anything other than books.

Thanks.

Still nothing received - and no sign of anything being held at the Post Office.

Starting to get pretty concerned about this order; it's been well over a month in transit now and still nothing received.

'Is the overseas volume too small for cooperation with local partners'

A long time ago Paizo subcontracted delivery of Dungeon and Dragon in the UK and Europe to another company. This company were rubbish and alot of us spent alot of time complianing about them to Paizo as we weren't receiving the magazines that we had paid Paizo for.

I think Paizo spent alot of money salvaging this and sending out back issues when this arrangement finally went completely wrong - and I would expect the experience left them wary of any such future arrangements. For subscriptions only I'd also expect the volumes are so small that the whole idea isn't financially viable - especially with some subscribers taking 3-4 different product lines per month, all on different printing and despatch schedules.

The free PDF with the dead tree version is only available to subscribers.

As the title - please cancel this order and the backordered Queen Ileosa.

I'm reorganising my various orders and will be placing a revised order shortly.

Many thanks.

Many thanks - order placed now :)

Out of interest and for future reference, where is the little box that says "Ship preorder and backordered items separately" I can't remember seeing it (let alone ticking/unticking it) previously?

I'm trying to order some Pathfinder minis - all of which are due to be released in August and are thus currently on pre-order.

They are in my cart no problems - but when I try ancd check out the system breaks down my order from one shipment into seven seperate shipments, so postage costs suddenly become ridiculous. I don't know if this is a bug or a 'feature' of the website, but it is very annoying and is stopping me from placing this order.

Help appreciated - I want to buy stuff!

Just received an email from Paizo CS:
Unfortunately Wizards of the Coast has restricted the availability of this item at the distributor level and all retailers will be receiving an allotted portion of their total number of preorders upon release. This means that we will not be getting the full quantity of the miniatures that we preordered. We do not yet know exactly how many we will receive so, in the interest of fairness, purchases will be limited to one miniature per person, and orders will be fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis based on when we received your original order.

I see a 15% discount on the cover price when I add one to my shopping cart so I think the answer is Yes.

As the title says - please cancel order 1392192. Thank you.

"On the other hand, apparently it's safe enough for a politician to fly to Ireland on an electioneering trip"

Or maybe it's not safe enough - maybe we just don't care if some politicians go up in a plane and don't come back down in one piece :)

Does anyone import the Litko pieces into the UK?

If not, what is the postage from USA to UK?

I've just ordered a load of these - postage to the UK is not very much at all - about $7 for 4 sets of flame markers I think.

Panic over. Pathfinder 29 (posted in January) arrived Tuesday, and Pathfinder 28 eventually arrived yesterday.

The packaging for 28 was in tatters - looked like it had been dropped in a puddle, battered around, and then run over by a truck - but miraculously the books were all intact.

Order 1331376 (posted 19/01/10) arrived today. Unfortunatey still no sign of 1320440.

Haven't received this order as yet and getting a bit concerned.

The order before was posted 6 days before this one and it arrived two weeks ago.

To our friends at Paizo...

Has anyone considered a rewards program for customers who purchase product? Something like each purchase would earn you Paizo Bucks (or gold coins, whatever) that could be used as credit towards a pdf. Keeping it only redeemable for pdf should still protect the value of the hardcopy and you won't have to deal with shipping. Earning 5-10 cents for every dollar spent might encourage more "real" product purchases to earn the rewards. You could also run periodic "specials" that would earn double Bucks. Some might even buy more knowing that they're earning bonuses along the way.

Isn't this already probvided in effect by the % discount Pathfinder subscribers get on other products?

**usual prompt, efficient, and top quality Paizo CS response**

Much appreciated. Many thanks and keep up the good work.

Hi! I'm not CS, but I might recommend that in addition to this post that you reply to the ship notification email.

I've made a habit of posting to the boards and emailing customer service simultaneously, as that seems to yield the best results.

And hopefully isn't annoying the Powers That Be In Customer Service too much...

Thanks for the response - but I've always stuck with an either/or approach and it's always worked just fine.

I know CS will answer an e-mail and I know they'll respond to a post in this forum given time - they always do (Paizo CS have never been less than absolutely excellent when I've had need to deal with them), and I'm in no great hurry here so a post seemed the simplest means of communication.

Sending the query by forum post and e-mail just creates duplicate work for whoever answers my query, and could potentially lead to problems if two different CS staff answer the seperate pieces of correspondence simultaneously.

I also know that CS work from the bottom up in the CS forum, dealing with the oldest queries/threads first - so what your 'helpful' advice has done is actually delay CS from getting to my post in the first place. Thanks.

Hi. I've now receieved both parts of this shipment - and the books are all great.

Unfortunately however the Bestiary has taken a right battering at the hands of the various postal services involved in getting it to me. Once corner of the spine is badly crushed where the packing materials don't seem to have protected it when dropped or mishandled, and about an inch of teh spine is actually torn.

I'm curious. Do all the people who feel unsafe about providing their phone numbers (which, as Vic pointed out, doesn't specify a landline number) also have unlisted numbers (i.e. secret numbers which doesn't show up in phone books etc.)?

Yes. Our number is ex-directory and thus unlisted.

It's not particularly the USPS I'm worried about, and I've got no major concern about the data protection angle (I'm confident USPS and the Royal Mail have got procedures and systems in place for that).

I simply don't trust the service provided by the Royal Mail. I regulalrly don't receive items I'm expecting in the post (including some Pasizo packages in the past) and these I believe have either been lost or stolen by Royal Mail employees. I can't therefore have confidence in them, or trust them fully, and I certainly don't want them having access to parcels addressed to me with my phone number written on them as well.

Is the customs form, including the phone number, part of the label used on the parcel?

I presume the phone number I've provided is just going to be held in Paizo and USPS systems - or is it possibly going to be printed on the label at any time?

I thought about this some more since I initially posted - and I've gone back now and removed my phone number until I know more about how it is going to be used.

I presume the phone number I've provided is just going to be held in Paizo and USPS systems - or is it possibly going to be printed on the label at any time?

Is there a problem with this order - it doesn't appear to be making any real progress towards shipping any time soon.

Thanks