That's one great thing about the mass retail stores. They opperate on such a large scale they don't need to be polite to an individual customer, as there are thousands in line right behind you.
As something of a side note, my local Hastings has UM now. Sometimes I think things wind up in the public domain before they become available at Hastings...
I think this is an issue of a misinformed rep, not a rude one. Either them or management has been misinformed, and they are passing the information down the line. I have done customer service, not for Amazon, and been given bad info also.
Of course this does not change the fact that I have had a "changing date" issue with them before, and they need to fix it.
Just for the record:
Our release dates are universal. We don't have any one channel release earlier than another (and we don't release items ourselves earlier than we give them to other people, with the exception of subscriber PDFs).
There are two reasons that a store or company may not have a particular Paizo item that is still in print:
1) They haven't ordered it yet.
2) There was a breakdown in the supply chain. (This usually means #1 happened somewhere farther up the chain.)
Our distributor in the U.S., to the book trade, is Diamond Book Distributors. We ship all books intended for the book trade, including Amazon, Overstock, BN, Borders, Hastings, BAM, et al, to Diamond. Then they ship to the individual chains (except Amazon, who always pick up their books at the Diamond warehouse). Then the chains break down the shipments and send them out to their individual stores. Figure the chains get their copies 2 weeks after we ship to Diamond, on average. Then the individual breakdown and distribution times vary from chain to chain and store to store. Hobby has a simpler distribution flow so your FLGS will almost always have the book before a book chain store will.
As for on sale dates...we set an approximate date when we solicit the book five months in advance. We set an exact date once the book has arrived at our warehouse. Typically, the book chains are very slow at adapting to new on sale dates, and in some cases, they have formulae which determine on sale dates that are only kinda-sorta related to any dates supplied by the publisher.
"and obviously they are wanting to sell directly first before any 3rd party company gets it."
Is why I'm of the opinion that the sales rep was being rude. Not absolute extreme rudeness that everyone wants to hear about, or you see on tv/movies, but by tossing their little opinionated remark in there, it qualifies as "you likely have a grudge, and are taking the oportunity to vent" in my mind, which is rude. Part of it is my own grudge toward those type of stores, so I'll happily call myself rude in this case. Biggest difference is, I'm not selling anything, nor am I representing a company.
Thank you for the insight into how the supply chain works. I love posts like these!
And, yeah, I'd just get it from B&N (or, better yet, a FLGS or -- equally cool -- Paizo directly).
Often times, pre-ordering yields a discount or sale price. For me, that is worth while and gives me reason to pre-order.
I pre-order sometimes from Amazon to get a better price. Then I just try and forget I ordered it. So many factors affect delivery, one can be driven nuts...assuming one is not there already. I was fretting this morning over the delay of the new Jim Butcher book...but beyond my control.
I know this is completely pointless, but there is a mystical, magical way to get your books instantly, avoid delays and hassles, save loads of money, AND let Paizo make more money per book...
Ghost Stories is, at least in theory, out? Dude...I've been slackin'...
I know this is completely pointless, but there is a mystical, magical way to get your books instantly, avoid delays and hassles, save loads of money, AND let Paizo make more money per book...
Please tell me how I can get my book instantly and save loads of money.
EDIT: And if you referring/suggesting to get the PDF, I'll pass on that. I've never enjoyed having a 200+ page PDF to scroll through.
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I know this is completely pointless, but there is a mystical, magical way to get your books instantly, avoid delays and hassles, save loads of money, AND let Paizo make more money per book...Please tell me how I can get my book instantly and save loads of money.
EDIT: And if you referring/suggesting to get the PDF, I'll pass on that. I've never enjoyed having a 200+ page PDF to scroll through.
I'm pretty sure that he means the subscription plans that Paizo has available, in most cases, the discounts offered, make the difference on the shipping that you are charged, so you end up not paying more than you would retail, AND you get the item as fast as possible.
They toss in the PDF (which is nice for those of us who like em,) And like the 3D said, more than likely Paizo makes a tich more, as they don't have to give the bookstore a cut.
Win Win Win... (and a loss for the book store I suppose...)
Also you can have a PDF of each chapter, so it's not a two hundred page lump PDF you have to scroll through.
Just wanted to point this out. I pre-ordered Ultimate Magic through Amazon (and we all know how well that went). So I transferred my pre-order to Overstock.I just got off the phone with the customer rep who cancelled my order (by request from me). She asked why, and I explained they had a June 7th release and now pushed it to a July 28th release.
She said,"That is entirely due to Paizo, not us. They decide when we get the books, and obviously they are wanting to sell directly first before any 3rd party company gets it."
I then said,"But you can go to Barnes & Noble or Borders right this second and buy it off the shelf."
"Then I would definitely go do that."
Just wanted to toss that out.
Enjoy.
File a complaint.
Whatever the Hell it is that they're doing wrong, they can't seem to fix it. Telling you to buy the product at another store isn't being rude, it's being helpful; if you can not provide the service or product that the customer requires, best practice is to refer the customer to somebody who can even if it's a competitor.
I have to disagree with Viktyr here; to me the rude part of the conversation was precisely the "Then I would definitely go do that" statement, not the placing of the responsibility on Paizo (which could have come from bad information).
Maybe I'm just hearing it wrong in my head, but assuming the statement is accurate, it just says to me "I don't care about you as a customer, or keeping you as a customer, just go away and leave me alone."
Most CS phone reps have their performance based on average call time and a checklist of things they are supposed to say or offer. Additionally this is a situation where nothing can be done for the customer. Unless they are getting an upsell commission or bonus they have very little incentive to offer any type of additional service and are probably told to offer discounts or vouchers only under limited circumstances (and may need a supervisor to OK it). The name of the game is to placate the customer as quickly as possible and move on to the next call if you can't actually do anything to solve the problem.
Oh, and I wouldn't be surprised if the rep doesn't work for Overstock directly, but for an outsourced call center that handles their CS.
All quite possibly true. I just makes me appreciate good CS (Paizo being a good example) that much more.
Ghost Stories is, at least in theory, out? Dude...I've been slackin'...
No, I had pre-ordered Ghost Stories but now it is delayed until July.
I have to disagree with Viktyr here; to me the rude part of the conversation was precisely the "Then I would definitely go do that" statement, not the placing of the responsibility on Paizo (which could have come from bad information).
Maybe I'm just hearing it wrong in my head, but assuming the statement is accurate, it just says to me "I don't care about you as a customer, or keeping you as a customer, just go away and leave me alone."
I dunno, to me it sounds like they're recommending the actual smart play, and they might be telling you in the way least likely to get them in trouble with some d-bag floor manager 'I get calls like this all day, this place is inefficient, and you're better off just hopping over to the bookstore and buying the damn thing, and chalk up the price difference to time saved getting frustrated on phone calls like this one'.
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I have to disagree with Viktyr here; to me the rude part of the conversation was precisely the "Then I would definitely go do that" statement, not the placing of the responsibility on Paizo (which could have come from bad information).
Maybe I'm just hearing it wrong in my head, but assuming the statement is accurate, it just says to me "I don't care about you as a customer, or keeping you as a customer, just go away and leave me alone."
It depends on how it is approached. If the rep was snarky or sarcastic then yah, it was rude. If the rep was all "Miracle on 34th Street," where the store Santa is telling people other stores that have what they want if Macy's doesn't then it might actually be a good buisness practice.
Director of Brand Strategy
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If the rep was all "Miracle on 34th Street," where the store Santa is telling people other stores that have what they want if Macy's doesn't then it might actually be a good buisness practice.
Didn't the Santa in Miracle on 34th Street work at Gimble's, the competitor of Macy's across the street?
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If the rep was all "Miracle on 34th Street," where the store Santa is telling people other stores that have what they want if Macy's doesn't then it might actually be a good buisness practice.Didn't the Santa in Miracle on 34th Street work at Gimble's, the competitor of Macy's across the street?
According to Wikipedia he worked at Macy's but sent people to Gimbles.
Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) is indignant to find that the person (Percy Helton) assigned to play Santa in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is intoxicated. When he complains to event director Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), she persuades Kris to take his place. He does such a fine job that he is hired to be the Santa for Macy's flagship New York City store on 34th Street.
Ignoring instructions to steer parents to goods that Macy's wants to sell, Kris directs one shopper (Thelma Ritter) to another store for a fire engine for her son that Macy's does not have. She is so impressed, she tells Julian Shellhammer (Philip Tonge), head of the toy department, that she will become a loyal customer. Kris later informs another mother that archrival Gimbels has better skates for her daughter.