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They've been hit by something of a perfect storm:
- Every year August/September is a manic time for Customer Service due to a large number of releases around GenCon.
- This year I also understand there were a few Customer Service Staff away during that busy period.
- They also attracted a huge influx of new customers and new subscribers (which always brings a spike in Customer Service queries).
- Related to the above, there were many people who pre-ordered Starfinder thinking they'd get the PDF. Paizo then offered to manually adjust those users' accounts to grant a 'restrospective' subscription - this process requires CS input that is not usually a drag on their time.
- The Starfinder AP sold out and there's another CS-intensive solution for new subscribers to get access to backordered AP1 and its PDF.
- There was an unforeseen problem with the Bookbinding affecting a large number of both the regular Core books and Special Edition core books.
- Starfinder was way bigger than they anticipated - I don't know how long they were expecting stocks to last (at least six months, I would guess) but they blew through everything in like a week.
- Paizo's CS interface is somewhat idiosyncratic and not necessarily aways cooperative - it's not easy to just bring in replacement staff at the drop of a hat
They will definitely resolve your problem - Paizo Customer Service is exceptional. This is very much an extreme circumstance and one I'm sure they're doing what they can to resolve.
I realise none of that really helps address your issue (especially if you're one of the new customers I mentioned) but I figured it might be worth hearing from a long term customer. These delays are very unusual: typically, CS resolves issues almost immediately (and are always very professional, diligent and helpful about it). In this specific case, they've been inundated with way, way more emails/messageboard posts/phonecalls than they are really equipped for.
The relatively small team of CS people will get to everybody in time. You'll get a replacement book and you won't need to send the defective one back, so you can continue to use it without fear of the ever-increasing damage. It will be made good.
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Let me second Steve's response.
This is the most unusual situation I've ever seen with a Paizo product. Everyone who has been helped and who has posted back on these boards is full of praise for the way Customer Service treated them.
It's hard to trust a company if you're a new customer with no prior experience, but believe us old-timers, it's quite unusual and their handling of it has been uniformly praised, by the people they've helped.
Which is little consolation if they haven't gotten down the list to your problem.
Keep using your book; it's going to be replaced, for free, without you having to mail it in or anything. But it will take a bit more time.
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Hello Ghost725,
We did receive your email. We have an extremely large influx of emails and are working to get them all answered.
Since you did not purchase the book from us your first step should be to see if the store you purchased it from will exchange it for you. We have steps in place to replace damaged or defective items through distribution. They should exchange it for you, then they will get a credit or replacement from their distributor, who will do the same through us.
Hi Ghost725,
More information about the binding and replacements can be found here:
http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lk4w?Bound-and-Determined
Hello Ghost725,
We received your email and I have responded to it.