I recently went overboard and ordered $160 worth of dice from Paizo.
None of my dice (3 of those nice Crystal Forge metal sets, one of each larger set, actually, plus the ping pong metal d20) were immediately available, and that's okay.
What I don't think is okay is not billing me until the item is in stock. Should all 4 items arrive after I've just paid rent and circumstances for that week have depleted my funds, what happens? I mean, I've already committed to buying these things, why can't you just bill me when I click the button to order them? I prefer to know when money is taken from my account, well before it's taken.
I also don't like being charged shipping for each item - I'm Australian, postage adds up. If all 4 items (or 2 then 2, or 3 then 1) arrive in your warehouse, will I get charged for 1 round of shipping? I wish you had a button which said "Send all at once to reduce shipping."
Now, from a logistical point of view, I can understand why you can't hold some purchased stock until all of it is available - I work in a warehouse, I know space is always at a premium and it would be unreasonable. I guess we can wave that concern away as fickle fantasy; figured I'd mention it anyway.
P.S. The procedure for going through the checkout is actually kind of painful. It works, but how many times must I log in or click the same button? D:
Director of Sales
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I recently went overboard and ordered $160 worth of dice from Paizo.
None of my dice (3 of those nice Crystal Forge metal sets, one of each larger set, actually, plus the ping pong metal d20) were immediately available, and that's okay.
What I don't think is okay is not billing me until the item is in stock. Should all 4 items arrive after I've just paid rent and circumstances for that week have depleted my funds, what happens? I mean, I've already committed to buying these things, why can't you just bill me when I click the button to order them? I prefer to know when money is taken from my account, well before it's taken.
I also don't like being charged shipping for each item - I'm Australian, postage adds up. If all 4 items (or 2 then 2, or 3 then 1) arrive in your warehouse, will I get charged for 1 round of shipping? I wish you had a button which said "Send all at once to reduce shipping."
Now, from a logistical point of view, I can understand why you can't hold some purchased stock until all of it is available - I work in a warehouse, I know space is always at a premium and it would be unreasonable. I guess we can wave that concern away as fickle fantasy; figured I'd mention it anyway.
P.S. The procedure for going through the checkout is actually kind of painful. It works, but how many times must I log in or click the same button? D:
The suggestion above by thenorthman is a good one. Changing your payment method to store credit will get your card charged right away. However, I'd like to explain a bit why this order is happening the way it is.
We are prohibited, by regulations from the credit card companies, from charging you for anything until we provide you with that thing. For digital products such as PDFs or gift certificates, this is when you are able to download the product (which happens immediately), and for physical products this is when we ship it out to you. So we can't charge you for these dice until we ship them to you.
The reason you are being charged a separate shipping fee for each item is that you have ordered 3 backordered products and one rolled poster. Rolled posters, as it says on the product description page, are shipped rolled up in a tube, and can therefore only be combined to ship with other things that ship rolled up in a tube.
We do not combine backordered products with other shipments due to the unpredictable nature of their availability. If there is one of these products that has been discontinued, but the manufacturer never announces it's discontinuation (this happens often with backorders), then the entire order will never ship out to you. Furthermore, it is rather difficult for us in Customer Service to find these permanently stuck orders and notify you that it isn't going to ship (although we are working on ways to improve this), so nothing happens to your order until you realize it's been sitting for 6 months or a year or whatever and ask us what's up with it. At this point, we look bad for letting it sit for so long, and with good reason. By preventing backorders (and non-Paizo preorders, which have similar issues) from combining with anyting else, we sidestep this whole issue and you only end up waiting on the one product with availability issues. Therefore, it isn't so much a warehousing issue (although that does also play into it), but rather a customer service issue.
As for the website, we require you to verify your password when you leave the regular site and enter the secure server. This is a security measure intended to protect your information should you, for example, accidentally leave yourself logged in and someone else comes along on the computer you were using and try to buy stuff with your credit card. However, we are always trying to improve the clarity and usability of the website without restricting your choices. If you have any suggestions for possible improvements, we are always open to hear your ideas.
I hope this (unintentionally lengthy) explanation clarifies things for you a bit. If you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know.
Thanks,
cos
As if to highlight your point, the brushed steel die have been discontinued. That was a sad email :(
And now brushed brass are out =(
I'm assuming it's only a matter of time before copper are gone, too.
According to the Crystal Caste store, they still have them available.
Only the copper set is available at Crystal Caste.