I just have to ask about this as I'm waiting for my issue of Dragon to show up. What is the deal with the shipping times that appear in the Dragon section of the web site. It says that my copy was shipped to me on August 2, it's now the 18 and no magazine. It also says that it will appear on newstands on August 23, except that my local game shop had the magazine on display on the 15 (and since they only get new deliveries on Fridays that means they had the magazine on the 12!!). I just wonder why I'm subscribing if I can get it faster buying it at my local shop? What usually happens is that I buy the copy and then my subscription copy shows up a few days later. It's getting a little frustrating. The main reason for me to subscribe is to get the magazine faster, which just isn't happening.
Hey there, Hangfire-
Thanks for bringing this up, as it's a recurring issue and one that I should have answered en masse a long time agol. Here's the deal...
The ship date is the date that the magazines get sent out. From that date, the average delivery time is:
*Europe- 1-2 weeks
*US - 2 weeks
Canada - 3 weeks
International orders (not-Canada or Europe) - 4-6 weeks
Thus, if you live in Canada and a magazine shipped on the 2nd, we won't be able to consider it lost and ship you a replacement until the 23rd (at which point we'll be happy to replace it immediately). It's as simple as that.
Now as for the game store/newsstand thing - while the magazines are often delivered to the stores by the distributors in advance, the shops technically shouldn't have had it on display before the 23rd- it's a violation of contract. Are we going to sue them over it? Probably not. But next time you're frustrated by the fact that you could get your issue faster by going to the shop, remember that LOTS of things are faster and easier when you aren't concerned with breaking laws.... Whether you choose to do so is entirely up to you.
So that's the answer, or at least the best one I've got. Thanks for being patient, and if your magazine hasn't shown up by the end of the time period listed above, just email customer.service@paizo.com so that I can get your replacement copy shipped out!
-James
James
First, thanks for responding so quickly, I appreciate that.
I guess the point I was really trying to make was this - if the store can get their shipment by the 12, why can't I get my by then too? In fact, for the distributer to get it to the store by the 12 they had to have it before then. It is obviously possible to get the magazine into Canada before the middle or end of the month. Maybe there should be an option for a better class of mail when you subscribe. I would pay a little more to get the magazine early. Also, the delivery times have been pretty good during my last subscription period - it seems though that the last three or four issues (and this includes Dragon and Dungeon) have taken a very long time to get to me. Has there been some problem of late that has been causing delivery to be slow?
Also, the delivery times have been pretty good during my last subscription period - it seems though that the last three or four issues (and this includes Dragon and Dungeon) have taken a very long time to get to me. Has there been some problem of late that has been causing delivery to be slow?
Nothing's really changed in our delivery methods - as with most everything around here, the answer seems to be "it's the post office's fault". You can really never tell why a given issue takes longer than another to arrive when they're going to practically (or exactly!) the same place... once they leave our printer/warehouse/wherever, it's all a big guessing game.
As for why you can't get your copy as quickly as the store, it's probably because the store isn't dealing with several tiers of residential post offices - a UPS truck delivering several boxes of magazines to a given location is going to undoubtedly give the mags a higher priority than a bunch of annonymous postal workers shuffling through a pile of bulk-rate mail. There are even rules in place that if a mail carrier has too much to do, he can temporarily ditch your magazines and focus on first class stuff, coming back when he has the chance. All in all... there's honestly nothing we can do to speed up the process short of (as per your excellent suggestion) posssibly establishing a premium subscription service that used priority mail or something = but even then, it might not be faster, as we'd have to wait for the printer to deliver the issues to our warehouse before we could ship them out, and from what I've seen we're nowhere near the top of the delivery list.
Whew. I realize that's long-winded, I just thought you deserved the full explanation. We're always open to suggestions, so please feel free to keep making them, and know in the meantime that we really are doing everything we can to get the magazines to you as quickly and efficiently as possible.
After all, if we were just in this to make bank, we'd all be accountants or computer analysts or something. Having you reading the magazines is the whole point, and that can't happen until they're in your hand....
-James
Thanks for the detailed explanation James, I appreciate it. I would really like to see some kind of expediated mailing option for subscriptions. After all, one of the main reasons I subscribe in the first place is that I'm not patient enough to wait for my local hobby shop to have the mag. Anywya, I guess I'll just have to develop some patience. Thanks again James.
Okay, so looks like I screwed up on that post here... the 2 weeks for Europe is after the EUROPEAN ship date, not the US one. So you're looking at more like 5-6 weeks after the US ship date, which I'm sure makes a lot more sense to you folks that have been wondering where your issues are.
Sorry about the confusion.
-James