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Hi,
I have until recently bought my magazines at the local gaming store but are looking at signing up for a subscription, to Denmark that is. I am a bit unsure of the delivery time to here in regard to when you can buy it in the shops. It usually would not matter that much, but guess we all would like to hold it in our hands when we read about it on the web.. or?
Welll, hope some of you have experiences to share.
Thank!
Stegger
Well, I'm subscribing to Malmö, Sweden. The delivery time here seems to be 6-8 weeks. Some issues have gone missing as well, but as soon as I contacted customer support at Paizo I got a replacement issue by priority mail, so I'm happy.
Customer service at paizo is pretty good. You'll have to factor in the time difference of course, but in all, I've never had any complaints.
I live in the Netherlands, and up last april, I subscribed to both Dungeon and Dragon. I dropped the subscriptions because delivery was pretty irregular. Sometimes I got no magazines for 2 months, the I got a whole bunch at the same time. At other times issues where 3 or more months late, and I went out to my game shop to buy the mags. I have several issues double, sealed and all.
I have my game store hold back issues of both dungeon and dragon right now, and it works out pretty well. Delivery is still somewhat irregular, but nowhere near as bad as when I subscribed. Plus, I support my local game store. Yay.
If you don't mind the delivery scedule, or your nearest store is two towns away, a subscription may be the way to go.
I live in Israel, and it's pretty much the same. I got dragon #322 on september 14th (I've started timing the arrivals so I know when to expect the next), and am still waiting for #323, which should come any day now.
Btw, dragon #323 arrived today (finally), that should give you an idea of how long it takes...
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Hi there,
I am writing from Germany.
Until this month I also "subscribed" to my local game store. Availability of new issues always was *very* irregular. The shop owner and I always suspected the importing company to be the reason for the delays.
Apparently the problem is somewhere else.
Nevertheless I decided last month to subscribe both magazines. After reading promises on www.paizo.com to improve the regularities of both monthlies, I am quite curious about delivery time of my first subscribed Paizo magazines...
Greetings from Cologne, Germany
Günther
Well, I'm from Slovak Republic and I'm subscribed via The Place for Games as at the time I wanted to subscribe (two years ago), Paizo didn't accept International subscriptions.
As for arrival times, Dungeon comes at the start of month and Dragon at the middle of month, both before the month issue is for (e.g. September issue of Dungeon 1st August week, Dragon issue 2-3 August week).
I've been a subscriber from Australia for nearly two years.
The first year (when the distribution problems were really bad), every second issue went missing but the friendly customer service people simply sent me a new one.
The second year I seem to be down to every third issue going "walkabout" but, again, customer service fixes this pretty quickly.
I should mention, though, as it takes 8-10 weeks before the magazine reaches me... it takes 8-10 weeks before I know that I need to contact customer service because the magazine hasn't arrived. I should also mention that it only takes about 7-10 days for the replacement issue to arrive.
Considering the premium that is paid for an international subscription I am surprised both by the delays and the irregularity of deliveries.
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Hi again,
here is my first Dungeon subscription experience:
I subscribed to Dungeon on the start of october. Paizo promptly debited my credit card.
Issue #117 was supposed to be the first issue to be delivered to me. My subscription information on www.paizo.com stated that the issue was to be sent on october, 19th. Today is november, 4th, the very same Dungeon issue is available in a local gaming store for several days - it still did not reach me, though. Do not ask me why a subscriber in Germany receives Dungeon issues several days later than a local gaming store... *big shrug*. It is probably the post's fault?
Having a look into Paizo's subscription price list already showed me before subscribing that the U.K. seems to be considerably closer to the Paizo-headquarters than Germany (from my point of view both are part of the E.U., flying distance is about one hour, just once across the North Sea, so postage costs should be the same, but apparently I am too dumb for understanding this, or non native speaking europeans are unwelcome subscribers...)
Now it seems to be right time for the next lesson: Shop owners in Germany seem to be considerably closer to Seattle than private subscribers! I am curious what my next subscription experience will be...
Greetings from Cologne, Germany
Guenther
Chief Technical Officer
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From our FAQ:
Q: I live outside North America. How long will it take me to get my issues?
A: We estimate overseas shipping times to be approximately 8 weeks from the time we ship the issue.
Our European subscribers are served through a redistribution point in the UK. This is why European subscriptions cost more than UK subs, and it's also why UK and European subs both cost less than other international subscriptions - issues heading outside of North America or Europe are mailed individually from our US printers, while European issues are in a freight shipment to the UK.
-Vic.
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Ok. My apologies to you, Vic, and the rest of Paizo stuff.
I could have been considerably more polite! :-(
It is just hard to understand that your favourite gaming store already sells Dungeon for some time while you still wait for it! Maybe they are selling direct imports from the U.S.?
Hhhhmm... *pondering*
Does Paizo/ WotC have any plans to start printing a european version of Dragon and Dungeon again? I remember - way back in the early 90ies - the U.K. and american versions of Dragon magazine. :)
Eight weeks is pretty long, but I will try to be patient.
Greetings from Germany,
Guenther
P.S.
About a year ago I ordered some Dungeon back issues. Delivery of those issues just took two weeks. I must have been pretty lucky then.
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Chief Technical Officer
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It is just hard to understand that your favourite gaming store already sells Dungeon for some time while you still wait for it!
The shipments to European distributors leave the printer at the same time as the shipment to our European redistributor. I suspect that at least one of those distributors regularly manages to get their shipment before our redistributor, presumably due to shipping time variations within the EC. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot we can do about that.
Does Paizo/ WotC have any plans to start printing a european version of Dragon and Dungeon again?
The numbers just don't justify it, I'm afraid. (I suspect they never actually did.)
About a year ago I ordered some Dungeon back issues. Delivery of those issues just took two weeks. I must have been pretty lucky then.
International shipments of back issues go out Global Priority where available, and air mail everywhere else, so as long as the various postal services don't mess up, that should be pretty prompt.
-Vic.
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I do not like to get back to this topic again and again, but there really seems to be a problem with delivery of Dungeon and Dragon issues to me:
My subscription information on paizo.com says that by now two Dragon issues were sent to me, and that my second Dungeon issue is going to be sent tomorrow.
Needless to say that so far not even one of those issues reached me. I was told that delivery might take up to four weeks. These four weeks are over for some time by now.
Vic, you wrote that some redistributors in Europe manage to get their shipment before your redistributor, which means earlier delivery to some shops. I just cannot believe that these other redistributors are faster by one and a half month!! (yes for that time my first missing dungeon issue is already for sale in gaming shops here in Cologne)...
I willingly payed considerably more money than subscribers in the U.S. and the U.K. pay: more than 180$$ / year for my Dungeon & Dragon subscription. I payed the money, but two months later I still did not get any issues! I would like to get my issues at least approximately as fast (i.e. weeks and not months later than american subscribers) for so much money! :-(
So please have another look at your delivery records. I had another look on my subscription dates: my address is correct, this cannot be the reason for my missing issues!
Thanks for your help,
Guenther Hamprecht
Cologne, Germany
P.S.
wIng's experience seems to confirm: third party delivery is *considerably* faster than delivery by the publisher?!?!
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Ok. Apparently everyone here in Forum considers subscription delivery times of > 1 month to be normal, although back issues are delivered in less than half of that time...
I did not know that my request for an answer was so brazen...
a disappointing non-reaction.
I love the paizo magazines. I am deeply disappointed about the delivery conditions and Paizo's attempts to improve them, though.
Ok. Apparently everyone here in Forum considers subscription delivery times of > 1 month to be normal, although back issues are delivered in less than half of that time...
I did not know that my request for an answer was so brazen...
a disappointing non-reaction.I love the paizo magazines. I am deeply disappointed about the delivery conditions and Paizo's attempts to improve them, though.
Guennarr,
We know that subscription deliveries take considerably longer than the same back-issues take over the mail. It's nothing new. In fact, it used to be much worse. Almost everyone on this board agrees that delivery is not up to the standard we would expect from a magazine such as Dungeon. Still, it is not something that Paizo can do anything about (as Vic pointed out).I would sugest contacting Paizo's customer service instead of complaining on this forum. You could try the customer service forum (which is where these questions shoud go IMO)or you could call them. I phoned a couple of times last year when I had the same problem you have. They were very helpfull. I know there's a time difference, but it's not that bad really. Just try round 4 pm.
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Hello Slaad,
thanks for this info.
I just called Paizo and spoke to David (?) and of course I got to hear the same... :-p
He was very patient and listened to the complaints of that odd german guy... he said that Paizo is working on this european delivery problem. It is the printing company's fault, for back issues are delivered considerably faster (see above).
*End of thread* Promised! ;-)
Guenther
P.S.
Sorry for having spammed this forum: I never realized that there is a service forum!
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I am a three year subscriber from Germany and would like to comment on Chef's Salads last post, which has an unjustified intimidating tone. The general topic of this thread is the qualitiy of delivery, so it is the perfect place to find out, if you are the only one who have problems with delivery.
Nevertheless, he said some true things: Yes, Paizo's Cust Serv is great. And: Yes, we all know about problems with the delivery schedule.
BUT: Paying money for a product (the magazines) AND a service (the timely delivery) to a company should result in the company taking responsibility. For the product (this works perfectly) and for the service (which did work poorly) If any other company (from whatever industry) without this monopol status (hard earned; the quality of the magazines is top notch) states that they can do nothing to improve delivery schedule, they would be out of business before you can say "Huzza!".
Hey, European subscribers paying for delivery, so it should be not the standard to have to contact paizo service desk to get your issues.
I am getting other magazines/scientific journals from the US and some their publishers had problems with (re)distributors in the past. Here's what they did: They contacted long-standing subscribers and asked them to report the date of delivery back to them. After confronting the distributor with the compiled delays and offer him the choice to improve or loose the contract, he improved very fast. These distributors prioritize distribution and a publisher who just accept that nothing can be done to improve, is easy prey and always comes last. And it cannot be a questions of copies to distribute: The scientific journals have a lot less copies than Dragon has.
Bottom line is: Paizo should take responsibility for improvement of delivery schedule and stop hiding behind distributors. Before Paizo took over deliveries worked perfectly. It is just a nuisance to have to control each and every delivery and have to take action to get what you have paid for.
I am a three year subscriber from Germany and would like to comment on Chef's Salads last post, which has an unjustified intimidating tone. The general topic of this thread is the qualitiy of delivery, so it is the perfect place to find out, if you are the only one who have problems with delivery.
Hi Hajo, Gunnar,
I'd like to apologise if the tone of my post offended you. That certainly wasn't my intention.
Sorry.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Before Paizo took over deliveries worked perfectly.
Well, maybe you were lucky. When we took over, the majority of European deliveries were in far worse shape than they are now. European subscriptions were at a low, yet practically a majority of our failed delivery claims came from overseas.
All I can tell you is that generally, things have gotten better, and they continue to get better. Customer service complaints do often lead us to identify problems that we can correct, or at least try to workaround, though the problem does, more often than not, lie with the postal systems involved.
If you have a specific problem you'd like to know more about, send as much data as you reasonably can to customer.service@paizo.com, and we will do our best to fix you up.
-Vic.
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