Director of Sales
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Now that the changes we have instituted on your My Subscriptions page have been rolled out, I can explain what you're seeing, how these shipments will go down, and why. You can also see what I'm talking about on our Product Schedule.
First of all, is the "why".
The biggest monkeywrench in the the system is Gen Con. We will be releasing all of our August releases at Gen Con and Gen Con is the very first weekend of August. As a rule, we always ensure that we send out subscriber copies of our books at the same time we send them out to distribution. We want to make sure that subscribers' books show up in your mailbox on or about the same time they show up on stores' shelves. Therefore we will be shipping these books the week before Gen Con, which means at the end of July. However, after Gen Con, our next shipment isn't until the September shipment, in mid-September.
Let's take a closer look: If you look at the page right now, you will see a shipment pending for this month. This shipment will have already been authorized and be going out sometime tomorrow or early next week. This shipment will have Pathfinder #33 and other books coming out this month.
The next shipment you see is listed in mid-June. This shipment, the "June Shipment", will contain Pathfinder #34, as well as the "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide" and the other June releases. We expect to be shipping this shipment out about 5 weeks from now, which is on or around the 18th.
Three weeks after this, on or around July 9th, we will be shipping out the "July Shipment". This shipment will contain Pathfinder AP #35, as well as the other items listed on our Product Schedule as being released in "early July".
Three weeks after that, which is on or around July 30th, we will be shipping out the second shipment within the calendar month of July. This will be the "August shipment", which was been moved up to coincide with the beginning of Gen Con. These are items listed on our Product Schedule as being released in "late July". Since all of our August releases will be shipped at this time, we have no scheduled subscription shipment within the calendar month of August.
This means that after three shipments each three weeks apart from one another, there will not be another shipment for around seven weeks. The September shipment will probably occur sometime around mid-September.
thanks,
cos
I have hold for monthly and I have two shipments also because late july is really the August shipment
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Director of Sales
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I set my subscriptions to "Hold for monthly" for this month. I assume that means all three APs scheduled for this month will arrive at the end of the month? The simulated order thing on the subscription page shows one at the beginning of the month and the other two coming together.
Nope, there will be two shipments. The first shipment, which is listed on your My Subscriptions page as "mid-July", will be going out next week. The second, which is listed on your My Subscriptions page as "late July", will be shipping out the very last week of this month (July 26-30) and this shipment is the August shipment as there will be nothing shipped again until mid-September.
Thanks,
cos
So is this why I still haven't gotten my June shipment yet? I know things get wonky about this time, that's why I'm asking.
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Argh. So, no Orcs of Golarion for us not attending GenCon?
When I sub'd, I was given the choice of starting with the Sargava book or OoG. I chose Sargava because that meant I'd get a book now, and another when the OoG book came out. Another person in our group is sub'd to a couple of different book sets, and he received his OoG book just fine, this is why I'm wondering.
Argh again. Which also means I won't get my PDF of my OoG book, right?
You probalby want to start a seperate thread if you haven't got it yet- it's after Savgara, so your subscription should have hit it.
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honestly, with all the issues I see constantly in this section of the forums (damaged shipment, partial shipments, duplicate orders, etc) I have resolved to NEVER subscribe to any products or ORDER from the paizo store.
Not to say I dont LOVE pathfinder. I will just make my purchases at my LGS to ensure proper payment and physical quality.
I take that back...I'll still order pdf's.
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Director of Sales
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honestly, with all the issues I see constantly in this section of the forums (damaged shipment, partial shipments, duplicate orders, etc) I have resolved to NEVER subscribe to any products or ORDER from the paizo store.
Not to say I dont LOVE pathfinder. I will just make my purchases at my LGS to ensure proper payment and physical quality.
I take that back...I'll still order pdf's.
This is a somewhat unfair assessment actually. Please remember that this forum, the Customer Service Forum, is were people come when they have problems. By it's very nature, this forum is where you will see all of the problems that people have in one place. By proximity to one another, these issues will seem to fit into a context that seems to show that all subscriptions and orders are problematic.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
What you see here represents probably less than 1% of our total shipments in any given month. We actually have a very high success rate with our shipments. You just rarely see the successful ones.
Think about it this way: Look at the number and frequency of posts that occur on the Customer Service forum. Then compare that to the number and frequency of posts that occur in the rest of the Paizo forums. You will see that this forum is maybe a 1/10 as active as the rest of the Paizo fora. Then consider that it actually is a pretty low percentage of subscribers and customers who are posting on the messageboards. When you look at the problems listed here in the Customer Service Forums, you are seeing a low percentage of a low percentage. It's just all collected in one place with no reference to the whole, so it looks bigger than it is.
All this being said... What I really want you to see when you look through the Customer Service Forum is not the problems people are having. I want you see the solutions that they receive.
This is my job. And I kinda love it. :)
I just want to take a moment to add my praise for Paizo's customer service.
I've been ordering products from Paizo for over three years now, and in that time have purchased a lot of things. I've lost count of how much I've bought. In that time, I've had to contact customer service only a few times, and generally that's just been for things like confirming a change of address or changing a preorder that hasn't released when expected (things that really aren't Paizo's fault at all). I had a Dungeon issue not show up once, but I was very promptly provided with a replacement issue. When you compare that small number with the total number of things I've purchased, it becomes negligible.
As Cosmo said, on a customer service board, you're only going to see the people who NEED to contact customer service. If everyone who had no problems at all with their order were to contact customer service, I think you'd suddenly find a situation where it was impossible to find the posts that were actually from people who need assistance.
Anyway, to sum up, Paizo has some of the best service I've received anywhere, and I have nothing but praise for what Cosmo, Sara Marie, and all the rest there do.
Keep up the good work!
As you can see, I have many subscriptions.
I have had no problems. Zero. Nil. Nada.
That's well over 100 products of different shapes and sizes and 24+ monthly shipments.
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As you can see, I have many subscriptions.
I have had no problems. Zero. Nil. Nada.
That's well over 100 products of different shapes and sizes and 24+ monthly shipments.
in 82 shipments, I have had one shipment come damaged - and that's because it looks like it was dropped in a 3 foot deep puddle and then stepped on to make sure the box got soaked through... and then UPS tried to hide it by taking it out of the box and putting it in a manila envelope, and delivering it.... the manila envelope was dry, the cardboard envelope inside was still dripping wet. I in NO way fault Paizo for this, but they replaced it anyway.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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I have to say, Paizo are the best company I've ever ordered from. With 60-something shipments to me in the Netherlands, in the region of $2500 (eek!) over the last two years, I've had one problem. Once. And that was when the postal service managed to use it to shovel mud out of a ditch or rescue a drowning pigeon or something. They then squeezed the torn, muddy, soggy envelope into my letterbox while I was at work.
Paizo replaced everything in my next order even though I just asked for their advice about how to claim from the postal service.
If everyone with a problem also posted every time the shipment arrived normally, there'd be 100x as many messages here saying "Thank you!" Go for it!
honestly, with all the issues I see constantly in this section of the forums (damaged shipment, partial shipments, duplicate orders, etc) I have resolved to NEVER subscribe to any products or ORDER from the paizo store.
Not to say I dont LOVE pathfinder. I will just make my purchases at my LGS to ensure proper payment and physical quality.
I take that back...I'll still order pdf's.
HI Cardinal Malik,
There is nothing wrong with supporting your LGS and many people have chosen that over subs with Paizo for very good reasons! However, I think you should know that after being a subscriber to Paizo since 2007 and having over 78 sets of items (both subs and individual items for birthdays, Christmas etc.) sent to me over that 3 year period, I have only ever had one problem.
My postman left my (very large, several books including a few hard cover copies) packages out in the open and then we had a rain downpour all day. It ruined my packages. I contacted this forum to ask the customer service people what was the best way for me to re-order and pay for new copies for all the books that were now useless without mixing up my future subscriptions. I was very pleasantly surprised that Paizo said not to worry about payment and that they were sending replacement copies free of charge. Now I live in Australia and this was a big order and add together postage you were looking at about $US170-200. This was not Paizo's fault but my lazy local postman yet Paizo rose up and beyond expectations. This is not a stand alone case. Look deeper into this forum and you find there are many stories like this.
I say all because as I said originally there are very good reasons to support your LGS, however, concern about the quality of delivery and the service provided by Paizo is truly not one of them. I just thought you should know!
Cheers
Blackcat