Medriev's page

Virellius wrote:

Jhaeren Embercrest wrote:

Given how bad the original three-volume AP was, is anyone actually excited to re-purchase this in a single volume, while hoping that Paizo actually fixed it sufficiently that it no longer sucks?

I'm on book 3 running this and I really don't get the hate. It's not the strongest AP of all time but it's also not as bad as I hear people say. My players are having fun, they are invested in dealing with the fallout of the missing moment, they all have a shared distrust of whales and bald men... Not sure what the major complaints are.

GCN had a less than stellar playthrough made with random characters and a GM skimming the book. In that fan circle it's now considered the worst AP ever.

FWIW I'm in the GCN fan circle (long time subscriber) and I don't think the AP is the issue so I'm looking forward to this hardcover release. There is an issue with how GCN implemented it and particularly (for me) GM refusal to use Hero Points as PF 2E clearly intends which has affected game balance.

Do you know if your UK customers are getting hit by import duties or are the shipments coming OK?

I Would like to know before I pull the trigger on the subscription.

Thank you

I'm in the UK and having no issue with import duties.

Shipments usually arrive about 2-4 weeks after shipping.

Whilst the news there is a portal is welcome (if announced in a somewhat obscure way) the fact that subscription PFS downloads that people have paid for are still not being added to accounts automatically despite this problem existing for several months is worrying to say the least.

I cancelled my Paizo subscriptions in the autumn due to issues with severely delayed shipping but have now re-subscribed to just about everything. I am now already worried that this was a mistake. The PFS issue is one thing but I am also concerned at the wider CS backlog and the fact that there is no post announcing the scheduling for March releases.

I remain hopeful that things are ok but they don't look good right now.

It looks like I can order the November books I want in the UK and have them shipped on the 28th for free with a 1-2 day delivery window. They are also cheaper than on the Paizo site so this has become a no-brainer for me. I'm not abandoning Pathfinder but subscription is no longer worth the money.

Hello! I know y'all are wanting to know what going on with your subscription shipment and I am here to give everyone an update.

We have gotten an immense amount of support for the release of the Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core, and we couldn’t be more humbled and grateful for this amazing outpouring from the Pathfinder Community. Seriously… you folx are the best!

Unfortunately, however, this added volume is coming in at the same time as a perfect storm of other issues (both foreseeable and unforeseen) and this has resulted in an overall delay in orders leaving the warehouse. Due to some internal shipping issues, a number of orders were erroneously marked as “shipped” but have not yet left the warehouse. Furthermore, a number of customers rightfully reached out to CS about the delay, and we set them up with replacement orders, not realizing that the order being replaced is still waiting to be picked up. The real catch here is that we are unable to determine which orders have left and which are still waiting to go out.

On behalf of the CS team, and all of Paizo, I sincerely apologize for these errors. Rest assured that we have taken steps to address the issue to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Now, for the plan forward, here is what we are going to do:

• As we cannot determine which “shipped” orders have arrived at their destination, which have left and are still on their way, and which are still awaiting pick up, we need to re-establish a baseline shipping estimate that will cover all existing shipped orders. We will now consider the shipping window for all orders that “shipped” since Nov 1 to have left the warehouse on Wednesday, November 22nd. Please note that we will be closed for the holiday on Thursday the 23rd and Friday the 24th. This should account for both orders that have yet to leave as well as the general holiday-related shipping slowdowns and give all orders, even ones that have yet to leave, all the necessary time to arrive before we give them up...

Thanks Cosmo but this is a pretty confusing update.

My main takeaway is that shipping will only return to normal from 27th November onward and on that basis I've cancelled my subscriptions, including my pending November order. I will say that Jackson, who has posted in this thread, has dealt with my email queries compassionately and professionally throughout but I'm afraid the subscription model no longer seems to be worth the additional cost to me.

Customer Service have now given me access to my PDFs so worth asking for that if you haven't already.

The frustration for me is the lack of engagement / acknowledgment of an issue here on these forums even though we are now a week beyond the end of the shipping window. I have asked CS a couple of times if they can advise when my order might ship and been told they can't which is frankly bizarre. When there have been previous shipping window issues, the announcement thread has been updated with new estimated dates and yet all we are getting here is radio silence. Not a good way to manage relationships with customers in my book but what do I know?

Without my stuff shipping, I cannot buy the Foundry module for the new AP release for the discount. I guess I'll be waiting on that too.

Same thing here but with Demiplane. Was thinking of starting to buy into that with the new rulebooks but not doing it without the discount.

FWIW am still in the same boat as others (awaiting shipping on release day) and reconsidering whether subscribing is the right option. I'm also an international customer so the early access to PDFs is a big benefit of subscribing as physical books take up to a month (and sometimes more) to arrive and shipping costs are high.

I have made the same points to customer service as others have made here ie. communication has been poor this month and some of the key benefits of subscribing for me are not being delivered upon.

I do think that subscribers deserve something a bit better given the predictable income we deliver to the company but I've been saying that for some time and usually get shot down when I do say it so won't go any further here.

Best of luck everyone. Hope PDFs (at least) arrive soon for those still waiting.

Make that six. Sorry

Coming to this discussion somewhat late and, for reasons I'll explain a bit more below always a bit nervous of posting these days.

That said, on UK / European subscriptions, I am in the UK and have been a subscriber on and off (mostly on) since Dragon and Dungeon days. I could count on one hand the shipping issues I've had in those two decades and the free PDF (which I would buy anyway even if I got physical books elsewhere) pretty much offsets shipping costs. The Large South American River Company can rarely get Paizo products to me as quickly as Paizo can so even when I cancel my subs to see if the other option is better it never is.

On the forums, I have experienced harassment and made Paizo seniors (all the way to the top of the company) aware of the individuals involved but nothing was ever tackled. This is disappointing and frankly has put me off engaging with the community even in the limited way I have time to do so I post rarely now. And yet, here I am (mostly just lurking and reading), because they do produce games I love and I am keen to continue to support them and occasionally throw in my views when I feel comfortable doing that.

James Jacobs wrote:

Yup... the backgrounds are meant to contextualize what role your PC plays in Osprey Cove, your hometown, and also to contextualize why the town elders choose YOU all as the ones to go on this adventure.

Are Osprey Cove and Iron Harbor (mentioned in the blog) two names for the same place (one perhaps being the town and the other an institution within it or the geographical feature where it's built), or are these two separate towns?

From the Paizo Con PF Adventures session they are two separate towns.

One is

And the other is

Want to add this subscription but have everything up to Impossible lands. Any chance it could be updated to offer Firebrands as the starting book please?

Thanks

Any news on UK fulfilment? Last from Paizo was two weeks ago and we don't seem to be any further forward.

Could we get an update on this please? Announcement above is two weeks old now and we seem to be no further forward on UK fulfilment.

Medriev wrote:

Thanks for the feedback on how I share my opinion. Feedback is important and always useful. No doubt you'll extend the same courtesy to others in the thread including the sarcastic post I was responding to. Thanks again

All you're doing now is arguing with people. You're not the only person who hasn't gotten their shipping notice.

So I thank someone for their feedback and get criticised for that too? You really can't win around here can you.

Your opinion is quite valid. The way you share it needs some work. I'm pissed that it isn't a 1e love fest, but I will take my 1e book and pretend the 2e parts are a misprint. We are all a bit upset about something and as long as we are all equally frustrated, I can live with the imperfections in both product and process.

Thanks for the feedback on how I share my opinion. Feedback is important and always useful. No doubt you'll extend the same courtesy to others in the thread including the sarcastic post I was responding to. Thanks again

Medriev wrote:

I spent hard earned money backing this project

So did every other backer

Medriev wrote:

there are always people who pile in to tell them why their opinion isn't valid.

No, there's people rebutting your opinion.

Why should you be allowed to post unopposed? That's basically your complaint here.

People disagreeing with you isn't automatically a personal attack against you.

My complaint is not that I should post without people replying or debating the points I am making and it's disingenuous to suggest that. Your use of the word unopposed is interesting as it suggests the need to "oppose" my personal views about the service I am receiving for money I paid out. That's probably where the problem lies. This isn't a confrontation with the community, I am simply trying to find answers to something that Paizo is conspicuously silent on.

I am happy to have a constructive debate but people don't engage with the content of posts that complain, but instead just offer explanations of why I shouldn't feel how I feel or indeed share it here (which I only did reluctantly due to a lack of communication from Paizo). This is why I stopped engaging with this "community" last year (and flagged a number of posts that amounted to bullying to Paizo that they did absolutely nothing about) and why I already regret engaging with it again now.

There is debate and then there is essentially telling someone their opinion is irrelevant which is what generally happens here. Once again, I wonder why I bother trying to raise things here.

In case any other UK backers are interested, I've had this from Spiral Galaxy Games (Paizo's UK fulfillment partner):

"Kingmaker is onboarding right now with all data and stock still arriving on site. Its been a little slow on information this one so we didn't want to post up until we were certain everything was in place. That said I expect this to be moving in the near future."

Obviously, would have been nice to get this update from Paizo given than it confirms that shipping is not yet underway for UK backers but an update is an update.

My bud, when the shipping date was pushed to September back earlier this year, there was an uproar from people, despite it being communicated over six months in advance. If they changed the target date again at the last minute you don't think there would have been more of an uproar? How very optimistic of you.

Thanks. Would be grateful if you could dial back the sarcasm if you don't mind.

I spent hard earned money backing this project and I'm entitled to offer an opinion after waiting patiently for three years and more about how distribution should have been handled. I rarely frequent these boards any more because if anyone raises a word of dissent there are always people who pile in to tell them why their opinion isn't valid. This "community" needs to do better and be more respectful of those who are not happy with the service they are getting.

I was basically bullied out of this "community" a year or so ago for raising issues about bad customer service. It won't happen again.

And I'll wait patiently for those who inevitably pile in and tell me that "this is the internet" and I should live with it.

Okay but it they did that, you'd have just as many backers complaining about yet another delay to their products that, as you pointed out, they've been waiting for three years for. It's a no-win situation, and considering Paizo is based in the US, of course, that's who gets prioritized. You might not think it's fair, but it is what it is.

Not if they managed expectations on shipping dates and only sent shipping confirmations to US backers once they knew they were going to ship to RoW backers as well at the same time. The publicised shipping window is September and so if Paizo set a date later in the month and honoured it for everyone then no one would be complaining. The issue seems to be that they have begun shipping for US customers before international partners are ready. Setting a realistic timeline that works for everyone seems like fairly basic project management and customer relationship management to me.

And I would add that it is demonstrably unfair, not just something I think, but appreciate I'm in a minority as complaining about Paizo isn't popular here (as I've found out before) so guess I'll shut up and go back to waiting.

Medriev wrote:

Must say that it's disappointing that Paizo shipping for US customers doesn't seem to have been synchronised with overseas partners. Can't see why Paizo should be "asking for updates" from partners when US customers seem to be receiving physical books already. Given they are shipping from partners fairly local to international customers, someone should have coordinated so that backers all receive physical products at about the same time (or at least they ship at the same time). Think it's a public holiday in the US today so don't expect any updates until tomorrow but we really should be told when the products we've paid for are shipping.

Pretty much every crowdfunded campaign I have been backed or followed that has or is shipping products in the last couple of years has abandoned any attempt to coordinate shipments internationally. The current state of shipping is too unpredictable to allow for it. The once or twice it was suggested, most backers told creators not to even try.

As someone stuck in Australia, where I will likely be one of the last to receive physical goods, I choose to savor what other share when they receive theirs. I live vicariously through their joy.

Thanks. Appreciate the insights on other campaigns.

Doesn't really seem too tricky to me, though, in that you wait until all your fulfillment partners have confirmed they have all the products they need to ship and then agree with them when you will all commence shipping. Any other solution prioritises the continental US which is hardly fair to backers elsewhere whose money is just as good as everyone else's. I don't think a level playing field is too much to ask for, given the significant amount of my money Paizo has had for more than 3 years, nor is it frankly too difficult to achieve.

Must say that it's disappointing that Paizo shipping for US customers doesn't seem to have been synchronised with overseas partners. Can't see why Paizo should be "asking for updates" from partners when US customers seem to be receiving physical books already. Given they are shipping from partners fairly local to international customers, someone should have coordinated so that backers all receive physical products at about the same time (or at least they ship at the same time). Think it's a public holiday in the US today so don't expect any updates until tomorrow but we really should be told when the products we've paid for are shipping.

Have you checked your spam? The email did not come from the standard Paizo email, but from news@email.paizo.com

Yep. Checked all folders.

Customer service have now sorted super quickly and it does include all PDFs and not just those in my order so pleased with that.

sanwah68 wrote:

Steve Geddes wrote:

sanwah68 wrote:

Is there any timing for shipping to Non-US?

May I ask if you've received your PDFs?

I received them today, but I prefer to read the paper versions :)

For sure, I’m the same. I just haven’t got mine and I wondered if it was an Australia problem or a me problem.

Now I just need to work out if the me problem is that I didn’t get my PDFs or if it’s that I didn’t order them..

I think I saw further up the thread that backers get all the PDFs as a goodwill gesture for waiting so long.

That said, I've definitely got PDFs in my order and not had anything (shipping email or PDF codes).

I've had nothing on shipping (I'm in the UK) and no email with PDF codes. Have posted on Gameontabletop and now posting here. Really disappointing given a date of 31/8 was set for PDFs and after 3 years that deadline has also been missed.

Could someone from Paizo update please?

Back on watch after a hiatus of some months. As technically a new subscriber this month I expect to be late in the shipping window (although I know it doesn't necessarily work like that) but that's fine. Best to expect a long wait and be pleasantly surprised.

Don't really want to be here posting again but as per my emails can the charges pending on my bank account associated with this order be removed asap. I currently have a substantial amount of money tied up because of those charges and I'd like it back please.

Thanks

CS is looking into what is going on with the Oct subscription order and will send you a reply via email.

Please cancel this order asap. Your disgusting approach to the bullying I have experienced which is to delete all posts (including mine where I challenge it) is frankly appalling. I won't be dealing with Paizo again and am deleting the card details from my account.

Confirmed you have two tickets in the CS queue - one for an Oct status update and one for cancelling Nov subs. Please look for the answer to your issue via email when your ticket is processed.

Thanks. I've had confirmation my subs are cancelled but all I've had on this October order is another spawning email (same as I had on 23 September). Could I please have an update on when this will ship as frankly I don't want engage with these boards anymore thanks to Paizo's strange tolerance for the bullying of its customers.

I should add that at this point I'm happy for this order to just be cancelled as long as you can assure me that the charges on my bank account will be reversed.

Hi

As per my email, could I have an update on this order please?

My bank account was charged on Saturday (UK time) but it remains pending.

In addition, as per previous emails, due to the ongoing delays and the appalling bullying tolerated by Paizo mods on these forums, please cancel all my subscriptions with immediate effect.

Just to be clear, I do not want any subscription items for November so please cancel order creation for that please.

Thanks

Jeff

Hi Paizo

Please cancel all my subscriptions as soon as my October order has shipped.

The delays this month and the appalling lack of communication around them have been terrible. It is clear that mismanagement continues within the company and those that communicated well with customers seem to have been the ones who have been fired and not replaced.

In addition, customers who raise concerns / issues on these forums are being bullied, harassed and insulted with no effective intervention from Paizo moderators other than to in one instance just delete all relevant posts (the "there were bad people on both sides" approach). The environment here is toxic and frankly bad for my mental health so I won't be engaging with this community again unless it improves. Cancelling my subscriptions ensures I won't have to.

Thanks

Medriev

Agree with this thread entirely although I'm wary of posting again here as it was the argument I got into with someone on the October Subscription thread that resulted in moderation. I was attempting to call out bad behaviour but clearly the back and forth went too far.

Anyhoo, I am still waiting for my shipping email for October and (hopefully) access to my PDFs but if there are issues then maybe I won't be lucky with that either. Disappointed at how this month has been handled and how the issues with shipments are (or are not) being communicated to customers.

We still don't have an estimate for when shipping might be complete and meanwhile the Paizo home page and twitter feed is filled with promotion of the new releases that plenty of customers can't get access to unless they're prepared to pay again for PDFs they'll be getting for free when orders eventually ship. It's a bit frustrating and this is another month where my experience with Paizo (and on these boards frankly) is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Jeff, thank you for listening, and thank you for prioritizing this message to come before the long awaited playtests. That's an act of good faith that I appreciate. I also appreciate you taking the time to address specific allegations in a way that gives a clear path forward and clear actions. This is the statement I think many of us were hoping for last week, and I'm happy we're getting it now.

Agree entirely with Cori Marie on this. Pleased this statement has been prioritised on the Monday morning after a hectic Gen Con weekend and above the Playtest announcement. Also agree that this is the statement I (and many others) had hoped to see last week. Definitely a positive step here setting out some concrete actions.

Hi Wonderful Customer Service People

Please cancel all my subscriptions with immediate effect.

This is due to recent events surrounding staff departures from the CS team, accusations subsequently made, and the frankly appalling response to these issues from the President of the company.

I wish the very best to all those within Paizo working hard to change the company for the better and to all the wonderful creatives, Customer Service staff and others in the company who have provided me with such great service and great products over the last nineteen years.

I really hope to return at some point if those who are supposed to be leading the company actually start doing that and show a real willingness to address the issues that have come to light this week. Sadly, I am not optimistic at the moment.

Stay strong and keep safe

Medriev

Jester David sums up my thoughts on the reddit poster pretty much perfectly.

Agreed. Too neat to be a genuine whistleblower and says more or less nothing other than keep buying our stuff.

But I mean, given your personal feelings here, would a bland corporate dismissal satisfy you?

It wouldn't at this point. The time for bland corporate denials is some hours past, particularly on the eve of the showcase gaming convention of the year. I am also not optimistic we will get a clarification from Paizo on any of this soon but, as others have noted above, we have only heard one side of the story so before I made my own personal decision on subscriptions I wanted to give the company all the opportunities I could to respond to what are pretty devastating accusations.

In case relevant / of interest, the first post I put on this thread talking about cancelling was purely a reaction to Sara Marie and Diego losing their jobs. I had not, at that point, read the Price thread. Firing good people is reason enough for me to cancel unless Paizo can explain that. The other accusations (if true) not only make me feel terrible for the people who had to suffer this terrible treatment but also make me feel duped by a company I have been loyal to for two decades. A company that pretends to be ethical and isn't is, in my eyes, probably worse than one that doesn't even bother to pretend.

Medriev wrote:

The deafening silence from Paizo seems pretty telling to me. I've tweeted the company, Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn (Jeff Alvarez is not on Twitter) seeking clarification. I'll give them until tomorrow to offer some explanation and if it's not forthcoming I'll be cancelling.

And incidentally, this is not a decision I make lightly. I have been a subscriber since Dungeon and Dragon days but I will not support them any longer unless they can offer some sort of plausible explanation for both what has happened in the CS Team and the accusations made in the Price thread.

I hate to say this, but even if Jessica made up 100% of her allegations and there was definite proof of it, you still wouldn't be seeing an individual response from Jason or Erik. This sort of thing is much too sticky to not go through PR and probably an attorney.

I may be incorrect, it's true, but to my eyes you set an impossible ultimatum.

Maybe, maybe not. But given this is now 24 hours plus old and there isn't even a bland "nothing to see here" denial on this site is pretty telling to me. If everything is false then I'd expect a quick denial. Delay suggests, as you say, lawyers getting involved and some sort of PR response being crafted. That leads me to believe that not everything is 100% untrue.

Mergy wrote:

Don't worry, you've made it crystal clear that if something doesn't affect you personally, you prefer to not give thought or energy to the issue.

If it makes you feel better to be so utterly impotent in life that you have to engage in hashtag activism on a corporate message board, then I'm happy to be the strawman you need. It costs me nothing to be the object of your ire.

Meanwhile, I got what I wanted. I have a shelf full of books, and they don't disappear out of my hands just because you guys cancelled Paizo.

An interesting stance from someone who was suggesting they might cancel a week ago due to increased shipping costs but as I said above, each to their own.

If shipping costs and not the ethical treatment of staff is the hill you want to die on then you do you.

I'm not going anywhere. When the last Starfinder book is released, I'll be the last box they send out.

Maybe it's because I have a family and my own life, so I'm not here to get immersed in corporate drama (I have my own office job, why would I want to get involved in company gossip when I'm not even getting paid for it?).

I thought Sara was a hard worker, and working under the circumstances of the past year and a half would be hard for anyone in her position. At the same time if Paizo doesn't ship its stuff, it dies. I don't think the PDF's keep the lights on around here (because piracy, thanks "loyal" customers). I don't envy anybody who has to make decisions in that kind of environment.

But I don't know what's going on and the only people talking are ex-employees with an axe to grind and a SUPER ex employee who acts like the crazy ex-girlfriend from Hell when it comes to every job she's ever held.

All I want is my books & PDF.

Of course everyone should make their own decisions but FWIW I have a family and my own life so please don't assume that people posting things about this issue don't. Thanks

The deafening silence from Paizo seems pretty telling to me. I've tweeted the company, Erik Mona and Jason Bulmahn (Jeff Alvarez is not on Twitter) seeking clarification. I'll give them until tomorrow to offer some explanation and if it's not forthcoming I'll be cancelling.

And incidentally, this is not a decision I make lightly. I have been a subscriber since Dungeon and Dragon days but I will not support them any longer unless they can offer some sort of plausible explanation for both what has happened in the CS Team and the accusations made in the Price thread.

Saw Sara Marie's tweet yesterday and was gutted. Always been excellent in CS and super visible and present on these forums even when she's had to deliver difficult messages.

Found out from here that Diego has gone as well which is also a blow. He has also been outstanding.

Whilst the line from Paizo will probably be that it is an internal matter that they won't discuss publicly, I would certainly like to have some clarity about what has happened here. One of the reasons I have subscribed to Paizo products for so many years is that the company has always seemed to be morally and ethically centred and an organisation that places the wellbeing and good treatment of its people at the heart of everything they do. I am now wondering whether that continues to be the case and as a result I am thinking about whether continuing my subscriptions is the right thing to do. I will not patronise companies that are not ethically sound, particularly companies that mislead as to their ethical position.

I would welcome clarification from someone senior in Paizo as to what has happened here as soon as possible.

And of course, I wish Sara Marie and Diego every success for the future. I am sure they will thrive in whatever they do.

Hi

I am a Starfinder AP subscriber and I pre-ordered Junker's Delight after seeing the free PDF offer. My book has shipped but I don't have access to the PDF. Could someone sort please?

Many thanks

Hi

Please could I cancel my Starfinder RPG subscription (rulebooks and setting books). I will keep the Starfinder AP subscription and all other subscriptions as they are.

Many thanks

Just got my pdf. Holy crap it's worth it just for the art, but I didnt expect this level of flavor for pretty much every race that comes into play.

Only skimmed so far but agree with this. The art is amazing as is the flavour for the races. From what I've seen this book is outstanding. A real masterpiece

So, what's the state of international shipping now?

I'm in the UK and my card was charged today at about 8am Paizo Standard Time but no shipping emails yet. Was hopeful for a minute but nothing yet.

So, delays are always disappointing but none of this is Paizo's fault and I'm taking a couple of massive positives from this.

Firstly, Galaxy Exploration Guide is coming early so I get something in May.

And secondly, June's shipment for me will have five AP volumes in it (including the whole Fists of the Ruby Pheonix AP!) and Malevolence and the Mwangi Expanse book. I am going to enjoy that when it arrives.

Keep powering through this Paizo. Looking forward to my next two shipments whenever they land.

Terevalis Unctio of House Mysti wrote:

I was listening to a radio podcast and they said that the mess in Egypt has totally thrown off Garden Gnome availablitity in the US.

I am very interested in these kinds of cause and effects. If you don't mind sharing, I'd love to know what podcast/episode if it is one that is covering the issues from the Suez Canal blockage.

I don't have much insight into why the container(s) with April items are taking longer, if the Suez Canal issue caused a back up with port inspections, or if its just a delay with inspections, etc. I'm super curious of course, I just don't have eyes on that kind of information.

Just speculating but the kind of issue they had with the Suez Canal will just leave ships out of position in their schedules and so have random knock on effects all over the place. Same thing happens with aircraft when there's a storm or other unforeseen event (you know, when we all used to fly places). Massive cascade effects can happen from sometimes even a relatively small disruption.