Hi Paizo
Apologies if I've got hold of the wrong end of the stick, I've long been puzzled by the process when I preorder something you stock (or plan to stock) that is published by someone else. I wonder if you can shed some light on what's going wrong, or if things are actually proceeding as they should, as far as you're concerned. My experience on paizo.com is quite different from other online retailers in this regard.
The latest example is the recent WotC adventure, but it's behaviour I've noticed several times over the years.
This product's streetdate was last week (the 15th September, I think) and I preordered it back in mid July when it first listed on your site. What I thought I was doing was letting you know in advance that I wanted one so that you would let your distributor know you wanted one so that it would be in your warehouse when streetdate rolled around. (It lists as shipping 'within 4 to 18 days business days' which as I understand things means you don't keep them on site but you can easily get them from the distributor).
What it seems to me is actually happening in this and similar situations is that your computer waits until the book is released and then contacts the distributor to say that you want one. As such, it seems like there's very little benefit in preordering (other than remembering to get something that isn't due out for a while).
Am I understanding things correctly? If so, is there anyway to revisit your process so that you will have stock on hand in the warehouse to meet preorders as soon as the book releases?
I appreciate the perils of theorising about what's going on from this side of the screen, but it seems to me that if I preorder you should be able to source it from your distributor in time to send it to me around streetdate (with the usual caveats about subscription runs, staff sizes and so forth). I'd appreciate any light you could shed.
Cheers
Steve