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This is not at all directed towards CS. I understand that they are stressed. This is directed towards Management whose decisions in the last month or so have helped to cause this mess.
Why are customers having such a difficult time downloading their tracking information? Why are people having issues downloading their pdfs? I have followed your directions on how to download and it is still showing up as a blank folder.
NOT COOL!
When can I and the rest of your customers, expect any of this to be rectified?
All of these problems could have been alleviated with simple communication.
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Well...it appears the October Subscriptions thread has been locked for some reason. It could just be me, because sometimes the pages play tricks on me in my browser. However, signing in from my phone also shows the thread as locked.
At first I thought this was an accident. But after re-reading Tonya's post (the final one in that thread), it sort of feels like an "I'm officially locking this thread" moment. Which is a strange choice for a thread with a conversation going on about...communication. Double strange, considering that we're currently in the middle of the actual month and orders are still pending/converting/shipping.
And I'm sorry for posting this in your thread, Terevalis. I'm just not entirely sure where else to post it at this point. I don't even know what I'm trying to get at? Maybe I'm trying to say that I'm tired of trying to figure this company out. It's pretty exhausting, and locking down topical threads seems like a counterproductive way of handling customer feedback.
I'll admit that not all folks are particularly good at handling their frustration when posting, and that lashing out can sometimes happen. But outside the direct mocking of other posters, most of the conversation from previous days seems pretty healthy in that thread. It's interesting to hear what others have to say on the subjects brought up, even if I don't always agree. Monthly shipping threads generally die a pretty quick death anyways, once all orders have been shipped out and most folks receive their packages. So it's not like the October thread would have lived much longer in some sort of never-ending debate. Again, I'm just a bit confused as to why the thread was closed. There's certainly a ring of punitive behavior behind it, at least in my ear.
Hopefully just an error.
I know they often lock threads when they have to go through and moderate a bunch - there was a fair bit of sniping that was cut out (quite appropriately, in my view). Perhaps they locked the thread, cleaned it up, posted an explanation and then forgot to unlock it (since they can still post it’s probably not as obvious that the thread is locked from their side).
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I don't know what is going on at Paizo these days but more and more it seems like a company with a good product but terrible management. I am not just talking about the stories that came out after Sara Marie's firing but it seems that there is just basic principles of customer communication, good process, business continuity plans, forward planning for IT system updates and more that just aren't being given the attention they deserve which is otherwise hurting a company with a great product, incredibly loyal (although small) customer base.
I don't usually like to give flack but her I think flack is due. They fired there most experienced customer service person in the middle a global supply/shipping crisis right before the biggest convention of the year. The reasons for firing are a mystery (fair enough) but lets hope it was worth the damage it has done to the company and the frustration it has caused customers. I can't think of many things that couldn't have been sorted out with a bit of human resources mediation especially with such an important staff member at such a critical time but management made the decision anyway. Those that made that decision should be taking a long hard look at the consequences of it.
Even a simple thing like unlocking a thread after you locked it for moderation, especially when you promised the community an update more than 5 hours ago about the delays. There is no good excuse for shipping a product after the street date or not having some other measure in place to mitigate the impact.
Lack of a plan to deal with shipping delays this far into a shipping crisis is another failure of management. Lack of a comms plan to give timely updates to customers is another management issue.
I second the OPs post, seems management in the CS and warehouse/shipping areas are seriously lacking. Good management doesn't fire a competent staff without a plan to fill the skills gap in a timely manager before it affects your customers at what is known to be a difficult time. Good management requires good planning, good processes and good communication and I haven't been seeing this from Paizo.
Well...it appears the October Subscriptions thread has been locked for some reason. It could just be me, because sometimes the pages play tricks on me in my browser. However, signing in from my phone also shows the thread as locked.
At first I thought this was an accident. But after re-reading Tonya's post (the final one in that thread), it sort of feels like an "I'm officially locking this thread" moment. Which is a strange choice for a thread with a conversation going on about...communication. Double strange, considering that we're currently in the middle of the actual month and orders are still pending/converting/shipping.
And I'm sorry for posting this in your thread, Terevalis. I'm just not entirely sure where else to post it at this point. I don't even know what I'm trying to get at? Maybe I'm trying to say that I'm tired of trying to figure this company out. It's pretty exhausting, and locking down topical threads seems like a counterproductive way of handling customer feedback.
I'll admit that not all folks are particularly good at handling their frustration when posting, and that lashing out can sometimes happen. But outside the direct mocking of other posters, most of the conversation from previous days seems pretty healthy in that thread. It's interesting to hear what others have to say on the subjects brought up, even if I don't always agree. Monthly shipping threads generally die a pretty quick death anyways, once all orders have been shipped out and most folks receive their packages. So it's not like the October thread would have lived much longer in some sort of never-ending debate. Again, I'm just a bit confused as to why the thread was closed. There's certainly a ring of punitive behavior behind it, at least in my ear.
Welcome! :)
I don't know what is going on at Paizo these days but more and more it seems like a company with a good product but terrible management. I am not just talking about the stories that came out after Sara Marie's firing but it seems that there is just basic principles of customer communication, good process, business continuity plans, forward planning for IT system updates and more that just aren't being given the attention they deserve which is otherwise hurting a company with a great product, incredibly loyal (although small) customer base.
I don't usually like to give flack but her I think flack is due. They fired there most experienced customer service person in the middle a global supply/shipping crisis right before the biggest convention of the year. The reasons for firing are a mystery (fair enough) but lets hope it was worth the damage it has done to the company and the frustration it has caused customers. I can't think of many things that couldn't have been sorted out with a bit of human resources mediation especially with such an important staff member at such a critical time but management made the decision anyway. Those that made that decision should be taking a long hard look at the consequences of it.
Even a simple thing like unlocking a thread after you locked it for moderation, especially when you promised the community an update more than 5 hours ago about the delays. There is no good excuse for shipping a product after the street date or not having some other measure in place to mitigate the impact.
Lack of a plan to deal with shipping delays this far into a shipping crisis is another failure of management. Lack of a comms plan to give timely updates to customers is another management issue.
I second the OPs post, seems management in the CS and warehouse/shipping areas are seriously lacking. Good management doesn't fire a competent staff without a plan to fill the skills gap in a timely manager before it affects your customers at what is known to be a difficult time. Good...
Paizo seems to have great products DESPITE management.
Agree with this thread entirely although I'm wary of posting again here as it was the argument I got into with someone on the October Subscription thread that resulted in moderation. I was attempting to call out bad behaviour but clearly the back and forth went too far.
Anyhoo, I am still waiting for my shipping email for October and (hopefully) access to my PDFs but if there are issues then maybe I won't be lucky with that either. Disappointed at how this month has been handled and how the issues with shipments are (or are not) being communicated to customers.
We still don't have an estimate for when shipping might be complete and meanwhile the Paizo home page and twitter feed is filled with promotion of the new releases that plenty of customers can't get access to unless they're prepared to pay again for PDFs they'll be getting for free when orders eventually ship. It's a bit frustrating and this is another month where my experience with Paizo (and on these boards frankly) is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
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When you come from a country where unions are everywhere it comes as a mild culture shock how the US villifies them, but perhaps it is a conversation for another place.
In case y’all have missed it, a number of employees have just announced their intent to form a Paizo Workers Union. We should translate our frustration here into support for those workers getting the resources they need to avoid months like this happening in the future.
Where was that announced?
When you come from a country where unions are everywhere it comes as a mild culture shock how the US villifies them, but perhaps it is a conversation for another place.
I love my Union.
Interesting.
I am all for Unions. I am a fed rep for my union at work.