Bound and Determined

Pouches wrote:

What gets me is it says to email them if this or that...well I have recently switched from D&D to Pathfinder and Starfinder. I have had two issues, one with the binding of the book the other with characters on their site, and did email them...have ever since been waiting on a reply. At least I have this blog now so I know what to do, days after my email that customer service ignored. Look, I like Pathfinder and Starfinder...but ignoring emails of a customer who has recently spent a lot of money on their site and at stores is not a class act as some are saying.

I can help with the character images part!

I assume you're disappointed in the lack of Starfinder images.

They have their top Tooth Fairy working on it, in the meantime, if you sort by date added, if you go back I wanna say page 5-8 there should be a few images from Iron Gods, and then a bunch more around page 12 or so.

While not exactly Starfinder images, they'll work for now.

Hope that helps! Welcome to the community!!

No. My initial problem is I had a 702 character not a 701 character. I had a reward I was told had to go to my 701 character. I ended up having to delete my character and recreate them before the GM reported my games. And I wasn't sure that would work, I found it suggested elsewhere online. Customer service just never responded to that one. And now with Amazon only able to offer refunds, I wonder if there is any point in trying to email again an taking the chance of no response. I hope not.

Email sent,
Hopefully there is no issue because this was part of my tier-1 rewards. Now I am glad that I didn't get it signed this weekend (or at GenCon), given that I am assuming I will have to ship it back.

I was concerned even that weekend that the binding seemed... off... at least I wasn't crazy!

Email sent,

Hopefully there is no issue because this was part of my tier-1 rewards. Now I am glad that I didn't get it signed this weekend (or at GenCon), given that I am assuming I will have to ship it back.

I was concerned even that weekend that the binding seemed... off... at least I wasn't crazy!

I got 2 copies at GenCon and 1 is fine the other is having binding issues, the one with the issues is the one I started to get signed by Paizo Staff.

I would just like to put out there that as of the printing of Starfinder Core Rulebook there are 4 people on the the Paizo Customer Service Team... and they are probably still working on a backlog of things from Gen-Con. You may have to wait a week to get a response, if not, just send another message. I have been buying paizo products since my first printing of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook in 2009 and have interacted with them dozens of times and spent many thousands of hard earned dollars on paizo products. I have never once been less than 100% satisfied with the customer service. At times I have had to wait a few days or longer for a response but they always came through in the end. Be patient.

No. My initial problem is I had a 702 character not a 701 character. I had a reward I was told had to go to my 701 character. I ended up having to delete my character and recreate them before the GM reported my games. And I wasn't sure that would work, I found it suggested elsewhere online. Customer service just never responded to that one. And now with Amazon only able to offer refunds, I wonder if there is any point in trying to email again an taking the chance of no response. I hope not.

Did you mail it to the correct email adress?

The email adress isn't customer.service@paizo.com but pfsreportingerrors@paizo.com

Pouches wrote:

No. My initial problem is I had a 702 character not a 701 character. I had a reward I was told had to go to my 701 character. I ended up having to delete my character and recreate them before the GM reported my games. And I wasn't sure that would work, I found it suggested elsewhere online. Customer service just never responded to that one. And now with Amazon only able to offer refunds, I wonder if there is any point in trying to email again an taking the chance of no response. I hope not.

Did you mail it to the correct email adress?

The issue with the deleted -701 characters and their restoration should go through the organized play team (see the blog post here).

The email adress isn't customer.service@paizo.com but pfsreportingerrors@paizo.com

See that would have been great to know, except I am new here. And on the character page it dose not say that anywhere. But, it does say at the bottom "Need help? Email customer.service@paizo.com or call 425-250-0800 during our business hours, Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific time." So, since I needed help I did so. And, they could have responded to me saying "For this issue please email pfsreportingerror@paizo.com." that doesn't take long and would have been helpful. Still should not have been ignored.

Damanta wrote:

Pouches wrote:

No. My initial problem is I had a 702 character not a 701 character. I had a reward I was told had to go to my 701 character. I ended up having to delete my character and recreate them before the GM reported my games. And I wasn't sure that would work, I found it suggested elsewhere online. Customer service just never responded to that one. And now with Amazon only able to offer refunds, I wonder if there is any point in trying to email again an taking the chance of no response. I hope not.

Did you mail it to the correct email adress?

The issue with the deleted -701 characters and their restoration should go through the organized play team (see the blog post here).

The email adress isn't customer.service@paizo.com but pfsreportingerrors@paizo.com

See that would have been great to know, except I am new here. And on the character page it dose not say that anywhere. But, it does say at the bottom "Need help? Email customer.service@paizo.com or call 425-250-0800 during our business hours, Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific time." So, since I needed help I did so. And, they could have responded to me saying "For this issue please email pfsreportingerror@paizo.com." that doesn't take long and would have been helpful. Still should not have been ignored.

I will point out that it says that at the bottom of every page on the site, not just the PFS character creation one (did you try calling?).

I know this must be frustrating to you but I promise you are not being ignored, they really are that busy right now are doing their best to respond to everyone who has sent in emails.

And even then, you've gotten a response by coming here and posting about it, so I hope that email Damanta has offered helps you out ^w^

I would just like to put out there that as of the printing of Starfinder Core Rulebook there are 4 people on the the Paizo Customer Service Team... and they are probably still working on a backlog of things from Gen-Con. You may have to wait a week to get a response, if not, just send another message. I have been buying paizo products since my first printing of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook in 2009 and have interacted with them dozens of times and spent many thousands of hard earned dollars on paizo products. I have never once been less than 100% satisfied with the customer service. At times I have had to wait a few days or longer for a response but they always came through in the end. Be patient.

It's fine that they may be working on a backlog. Believe me I understand that. I work in tech myself and generally have a backlog since I am one of two techs for a business. That is why, before I responded her about no communication I try to wait an appropriate amount of time. I am glad you have had exemplary service, but remember it takes just one disatisfied customer in a group to make a group sour against a company, and it can spread like the plague during the dark ages. As of right now my groups dissatisfaction with the condition of the product and mine of poor customer service is taking away from potential anything related Paizo. I have no problems waiting a few days, a week, even a month. And, you shouldn't make a rash judgement on me not knowing exactly how long I may have waited.I did not just now send the request and then jump on here and complain, I don't do that. And congratulations on your 100% satisfaction.

Pouches wrote:

Damanta wrote:

Pouches wrote:

No. My initial problem is I had a 702 character not a 701 character. I had a reward I was told had to go to my 701 character. I ended up having to delete my character and recreate them before the GM reported my games. And I wasn't sure that would work, I found it suggested elsewhere online. Customer service just never responded to that one. And now with Amazon only able to offer refunds, I wonder if there is any point in trying to email again an taking the chance of no response. I hope not.

Did you mail it to the correct email adress?

The issue with the deleted -701 characters and their restoration should go through the organized play team (see the blog post here).

The email adress isn't customer.service@paizo.com but pfsreportingerrors@paizo.com

See that would have been great to know, except I am new here. And on the character page it dose not say that anywhere. But, it does say at the bottom "Need help? Email customer.service@paizo.com or call 425-250-0800 during our business hours, Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific time." So, since I needed help I did so. And, they could have responded to me saying "For this issue please email pfsreportingerror@paizo.com." that doesn't take long and would have been helpful. Still should not have been ignored.

I will point out that it says that at the bottom of every page on the site, not just the PFS character creation one (did you try calling?).

I know this must be frustrating to you but I promise you are not being ignored, they really are that busy right now are doing their best to respond to everyone who has sent in emails.

And even then, you've gotten a response by coming here and posting about it, so I hope that email Damanta has offered helps you out ^w^

Yes, I have seen that it is ob rhe bottom of each page, while the other is not. I was trying to give ample time before calling. Pulse, my work schedule is not conducive to calling usually. But, I was trying to be patient before that. I was going to call by the end of the week. Thanks.

In any case, the community, though I am assuming they are trying to help, is leaving me frustrated. Telling me, someone new here, blatantly that I am doing it wrong or not waiting long enough, is making me regret trying to use Paizo. They could say, try this email...and leave it at that...they don't even need to tell me that they are backed up. I would have guessed that. Not tell me to be patient, I am and was.

No one here is telling you are doing anything wrong, or that you are not being patient enough. Most of the response are stemming from your claims that you are being ignored, which, we are trying to assure you, is not occurring, they are just backed up.

I just want to say thank you to the Paizo team for being upfront about this. Mine is going bad on one end, but I probably wouldn't have noticed until it became a problem during a game if I didn't know to look.

Whelp, found out my book is a victim. Added myself to the pile.

I'm not at all affected by this as I have zero interest in Starfinder, but do want to say that I think the approach Paizo is taking on this issue is awesome, but not surprising as Paizo's customer service has always been the most exemplary thing about the company.

One of our group does some home rebinding, mostly due to trying to keep up old and hard to find 1st edition D&D or Unseen BattleTech books. If we've tried our own repairs, will that keep us out of the replacement option? All 4 of our group's books have failed, but we've only trialed a repair on his so far.

One of our group does some home rebinding, mostly due to trying to keep up old and hard to find 1st edition D&D or Unseen BattleTech books. If we've tried our own repairs, will that keep us out of the replacement option? All 4 of our group's books have failed, but we've only trialed a repair on his so far.

It could depend on where you purchased them from.

If you ordered them from Paizo then no, it won't matter - provided you take photos of all of them and email those photos to customer.service@paizo.com first. (I had a couple of flawed copies, so be clear that they were unique I sent a photo of both at once. I think that's a good policy if you have multiple copies). If you bought from them directly and email photos to the above email they will send you a replacement in due course - that could be a few weeks away due to the backlog.

If you purchased them from a different retailer, Paizo have asked that you first try to return your copies there. I have heard conflicting accounts - some stores have demanded the defective copies back and others have just demanded you present them as proof. I wouldn't get too carried away with repairs until you were sure which path of restitution was going to apply to you.

I am curious to know if Paizo's talk with the printer came up with 'what exactly happened?' answer. Or are you just coming to the conclusion that this was just random.

How long does it take to get a response back from Paizo support? I submitted a message a couple of days ago and haven't seen so much as an auto-response.

How long does it take to get a response back from Paizo support? I submitted a message a couple of days ago and haven't seen so much as an auto-response.

They are extremely backed up atm with this issue so be patient. They will answer you but you can try posting in the Customer Service Thread as well if you want assurance your e-mail was received. They stand behind their product its just a lot of us out there right now affected by this issue so its going to take some time to work through all the defective books.

To give a time-frame: When I emailed them about my Core Rulebook binding defect, I got an answer about 2 weeks later.
But that was before the blog was posted, so the respons time now can be quite different (in either direction, we just don't know). Maybe they have way more emails in their inbox, now that people know what to look for.
Maybe they found a way to speed up the handling of those emails so it doesn't take them 15 minutes but only 5 (made up numbers).

So take that two weeks timeframe as anecdotal evidence, not a hard rule.

Customer service has been top-notch on taking care of these issues.

Unfortunately, lightning has struck twice here. *sigh*

Both the original I picked up at GenCon and the mailed replacement are showing signs of this issue, the replacement book actually in worse shape after less use than the first book.

Does anyone know a good way to fix this short of requesting a third copy that will probably have the same issue?

Please do not suggest .pdfs, they make me motion-sick.

Customer Service has been mailed the side-by-side photos.

Well, you could detach the covers, seperate the signatures or cut that binding alltoghether, drill holes through / punch holes in the pages and put them in a binder.

Customer service has been top-notch on taking care of these issues.

Unfortunately, lightning has struck twice here. *sigh*

Both the original I picked up at GenCon and the mailed replacement are showing signs of this issue, the replacement book actually in worse shape after less use than the first book.

Does anyone know a good way to fix this short of requesting a third copy that will probably have the same issue?

Please do not suggest .pdfs, they make me motion-sick.

Customer Service has been mailed the side-by-side photos.

The same here.

Hopefully, third time is the charm. :-)

Has anyone gotten a book that wasn't defective?

Ugg my replacement ships out soon with my next subscription order. Really hoping I dont have a repeat issue with the replacement but I have seen a lot of reports where the replacement was worse than the original. In my case though the original was completely detached but still lol. the issue is certainly looking much more widespread than originally thought. If you just look at a informal poll taken in the Starfinder community Facebook page the numbers are showing just under 50% of those responding to the poll received a defective copy.

Granted these numbers are for sure skewed and the sample size is relatively small but it still shows a fairly high failure rate. I love the game and their customer service. They clearly care and stand behind the product. Just hoping this issue is resolved for future printings of their hardback as I would hate to see it damage the growth of what is otherwise been a stellar roll out.

Has anyone gotten a book that wasn't defective?

Haven't yet.

Would it be possible to get a 'wider' spine in the next run -- would it help any? It looks like part of the problem is trying to fit too much *AWESOME* into too small of a spine, and it just can't handle the *COOL*.

Do you have a link to this poll.

captain yesterday wrote:

Has anyone gotten a book that wasn't defective?

Haven't yet.

Would it be possible to get a 'wider' spine in the next run -- would it help any? It looks like part of the problem is trying to fit too much *AWESOME* into too small of a spine, and it just can't handle the *COOL*.

Thats really not the issue at all. The size, though quite large, is completely bind-able. This is just insufficient binding agent applied or some other screw up in the curing process. From an examination of my own book another possibility is not using enough material to reinforce the spine. That said the spine is intact it just separates from the page block in the most common cases indicating the problem is primarily in the binding agent / process of how it was attached to the page block.

Do you have a link to this poll.

For what its worth here is the link:

Facebook Pole

Not sure if you will be able to view it however seeing as its a closed Facebook group.

For the record, my first printing Pathfinder CRB that I bought in spring of 2010 is still holding together better than my two Starfinder CRBs. :-)

My theory is the warehouse where the glue dried was too cold (this type of thing happens with wall adhesive when it's applied in freezing temperatures).

Thinking on it some more, I'm fairly certain that's what happened, the Starfinder books I've gotten had the same yellow and brittle look that other adhesives I've seen that were applied in freezing temperatures.

For context, I'm a landscaper with extensive wall building experience, including with industrial strength adhesive.

In case anyone thought I was just making s~#~ up. :-)

Vexies wrote:

Captain ? wrote:

Do you have a link to this poll.

For what its worth here is the link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StarfinderRPG/permalink/713582572185938

Not sure if you will be able to view it however seeing as its a closed Facebook group.

Fixed it for you.

Too bad it's on Facebook, I won't touch Facebook.

Thanks anyway! :-)

Yeah just realized you could format text lol. Thanks though still fairly new around here. Like I said the sample size is small but it's data for whatever its worth to those that might want it.

You are quick grasshopper!

I deleted that right away when I saw you'd fixed it yourself. :-)

Welcome to the community!

Has anyone gotten a book that wasn't defective?

I checked my copy the other night and found no signs of the binding issue. It looked and felt pretty solid.

-Skeld

Has anyone gotten a book that wasn't defective?

My PDF is a bit horny and tries to bite the carpet, but I'm fine with that.

My replacement (sent with my Sept. subscriptions) looks just fine.

I haven't really checked out my physical copy, I'll do so when I get home. Nothing seemed off when I got it though.

My theory is the warehouse where the glue dried was too cold (this type of thing happens with wall adhesive when it's applied in freezing temperatures).

Thinking on it some more, I'm fairly certain that's what happened, the Starfinder books I've gotten had the same yellow and brittle look that other adhesives I've seen that were applied in freezing temperatures.

This is the type of information it would be nice to get - something that says 'we know why this happened, so you can trust it won't happen again.'

For the record, my first printing Pathfinder CRB that I bought in spring of 2010 is still holding together better than my two Starfinder CRBs. :-)

My theory is the warehouse where the glue dried was too cold (this type of thing happens with wall adhesive when it's applied in freezing temperatures).

Thinking on it some more, I'm fairly certain that's what happened, the Starfinder books I've gotten had the same yellow and brittle look that other adhesives I've seen that were applied in freezing temperatures.

For context, I'm a landscaper with extensive wall building experience, including with industrial strength adhesive.

In case anyone thought I was just making s~*~ up. :-)

I cut the back cover away with a stanley knife, reglued the fabric strip to the pages with a flexible cloth/paper glue and then taped the cover back on once it was all dry - replicating the desired tension/structure as best I could.

When I cut it open, the glue from the publisher was still sticky and appeared to have seeped through the fabric strip - erroneously attaching the strip to the spine as well as to the pages.

My guess was that the resultant tension from being attached to the spine pulled the strip away from the pages and that the problem was one of attaching the cover too early (before the glue had dried properly). Perhaps it's temperature related.

For context, I have no practical experience in anything related so I AM just making stuff up. :p

How long does it take to get a response back from Paizo support? I submitted a message a couple of days ago and haven't seen so much as an auto-response.

At least you got the auto-response, I didn't even get that so not sure if I should do something more but I don't want to flood them with more emails, this must be already very bussy.

dWhisper wrote:

How long does it take to get a response back from Paizo support? I submitted a message a couple of days ago and haven't seen so much as an auto-response.

At least you got the auto-response, I didn't even get that so not sure if I should do something more but I don't want to flood them with more emails, this must be already very bussy.

Paizo does not do auto/robo-responses at all to my knowledge.

Ladis wrote:

dWhisper wrote:

How long does it take to get a response back from Paizo support? I submitted a message a couple of days ago and haven't seen so much as an auto-response.

At least you got the auto-response, I didn't even get that so not sure if I should do something more but I don't want to flood them with more emails, this must be already very bussy.

Paizo does not do auto/robo-responses at all to my knowledge.

The very first comment on this thread states that he got an auto-reply, therefor I thought they enabled some kind of auto-reply in this time of trouble.

Ah, I missed the Edit to the OP.

*scratches head*

It's possible?

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

Ladis wrote:

dWhisper wrote:

How long does it take to get a response back from Paizo support? I submitted a message a couple of days ago and haven't seen so much as an auto-response.

At least you got the auto-response, I didn't even get that so not sure if I should do something more but I don't want to flood them with more emails, this must be already very bussy.

Paizo does not do auto/robo-responses at all to my knowledge.

The very first comment on this thread states that he got an auto-reply, therefor I thought they enabled some kind of auto-reply in this time of trouble.

I suspect it was an automated-looking mail sent by a human.

Hey, for those of us who haven't gotten much use out of our books yet, is there an easy test that doesn't risk causing a problem in a book that doesn't have one? Or is it really obvious if something has gone wrong?

Id suggest lying it open flat on the table. The white strip should remain attached to the pages, not come away as it has in the picture above.

You should be able to look through the spine as a kind of "tunnel" underneath the fabric strip.

Hey, for those of us who haven't gotten much use out of our books yet, is there an easy test that doesn't risk causing a problem in a book that doesn't have one? Or is it really obvious if something has gone wrong?

I have used my book twice with absolute care (mainly because those creeking sounds hurts my soul) and it shows the problem at the top end. If you lay open your book and go throught several chapters the problem should appear (if it's present).

Hey, for those of us who haven't gotten much use out of our books yet, is there an easy test that doesn't risk causing a problem in a book that doesn't have one? Or is it really obvious if something has gone wrong?

Build a character and a starship. By the flipping and cross referencing needed for those two activities, the problem will manifest if you have it. In other words, normal usage causes it to happen if you do have the binding issue.

Ah, thanks folks. I now realize I'd misunderstood one or two details of what the problem actually entails, but with that help I'm good. Thanks again.

Ladis wrote:

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

Ladis wrote:

dWhisper wrote:

How long does it take to get a response back from Paizo support? I submitted a message a couple of days ago and haven't seen so much as an auto-response.

At least you got the auto-response, I didn't even get that so not sure if I should do something more but I don't want to flood them with more emails, this must be already very bussy.

Paizo does not do auto/robo-responses at all to my knowledge.

The very first comment on this thread states that he got an auto-reply, therefor I thought they enabled some kind of auto-reply in this time of trouble.

I suspect it was an automated-looking mail sent by a human.

Point, it seemed like a form letter, and came within a minute of me sending my email, but it does have a signature block from Sara Marie, she may have just been that on the ball at the time.

Steve Geddes wrote:

Ladis wrote:

Rysky the Dark Solarion wrote:

Ladis wrote:

dWhisper wrote:

How long does it take to get a response back from Paizo support? I submitted a message a couple of days ago and haven't seen so much as an auto-response.

At least you got the auto-response, I didn't even get that so not sure if I should do something more but I don't want to flood them with more emails, this must be already very bussy.

Paizo does not do auto/robo-responses at all to my knowledge.

The very first comment on this thread states that he got an auto-reply, therefor I thought they enabled some kind of auto-reply in this time of trouble.

I suspect it was an automated-looking mail sent by a human.

Point, it seemed like a form letter, and came within a minute of me sending my email, but it does have a signature block from Sara Marie, she may have just been that on the ball at the time.

That would be in character.

Has anyone gotten a book that wasn't defective?

Keep in mind that threads like this are going to give strong confirmation bias that will skew the "visible" percentage of books with binding issues, because the majority of the people that will read this and/or comment are the ones that are having issues.