Order Reporting Broken

[gbonehead]

Things around here are vastly different than they used to be, so it's hard to say for sure but I'm pretty darn certain the order reporting part of the software is busted.

Back in the day, the monthly threads would always say "this month's subscription orders are complete" or something similar, but now there's only an "estimated completion" during the initial post.

I would guess a person would run a report for the month's subscription orders, and when that report showed zero items outstanding, they'd post it was complete.

So, this results in the following conclusions:

1. For some reason the "end of shipping" post has gone by the wayside, which is a crying shame because it makes the next one a guess.

2. The "orders complete" report is broken. Or no longer exists. Or something :)

Again, with the loss of the "end of shipping" posts (at least I've been unable to find any for the past few months), it's hard to state that as a fact, but I have pretty strong evidence that if it does exist (and if anyone uses it) it's broken, since my subscriptions haven't shipped since last Spring (i.e. Spring 2022).

I'm not reporting this as a customer support issue because I still have a morbid curiosity what the heck is up - I'm reporting this as a software bug becuase I certainly hope there's a "orders complete" report that someone in CS is actually using, and if so it's broken :)

[Dancing Wind]

First, Paizo completely closed the Customer Service forums in January, 2022.

You should also be aware that Paizo has undertaken a massive rework of their software platform, so asking for non-critical bug fixes isn't going to get much attention.

Paizo has stopped sharing some of the details of their business activities in the past few years. This may or may not be one of those details that they don't think the general public needs to know.

[David knott 242]

And you should have sent e-mails to [e-mail] a long time ago about your missing shipments. Since you were apparently willing to let it go for so long, I would recommend sending an e-mail to them canceling all of your subscriptions with the reason that they haven't shipped anything to you in over a year. After all, you probably don't want them to suddenly and all at once catch up on all those shipments now.

[Steve Geddes]

It’s useful feedback for the community team, if anyone feels like letting them know.

The “shipping is now complete. If you haven’t received a shipping email, please email customer service” message at conclusion of the subscription run solved a lot of angst and grar, back when it was implemented.

[David knott 242]

And a posting that the end of shipping has been delayed could save them some e-mails/tickets. I have gone with (and suggested that others go with) assuming that end of shipping happens on time and thus lack of an order by the end of the last scheduled day of shipping indicates a problem and thus send an e-mail to Customer Service at that time if I haven't received a shipping e-mail. Obviously, if there is a posting in the appropriate thread in the Announcements forum about a delay in shipping, I would hold off on doing that as long as the revised end of shipping date remains in the future.

[Steve Geddes]

Yeah I used to do the same. Its pretty much impossible to give too much information, imo.

[gbonehead]

@Dancing Wind: I've been around here since somethings like 2008, and I'm fully aware of all the changes made. I won't call most of them improvements.

It's truly a shame. I love Paizo dearly, and back in the day I would have said their customer service was the best in the world, hands down, but I can't in good faith say that any more.

Zero to do with *people* and everything to do with policies and procedures. Such as this. While I 100% understand the policy of moving customer service entirely to email, it removes so many of the wonderful aspects of having a customer support forum without really adding anything of apparent value to the customer.

It's also why I reported this as a bug in the closest thing to a bug reports forum. If you read my post, I was not trying to get my order fixed as I'm quite aware this is not a customer support forum.

I'm quite sure someone somewhere has metrics saying removing the customer support forums improved service by 12.04% or some other number, but such things are corporate speak and do not make up for the wonderful but now lost ability to see if other people were having similar trouble or for other visitors to the web site to give answers.

Was it perfect? Heck no. Did it feel more like a friendly community centered around a wonderful small town company than some sort of offshore customer support black hole? Heck yeah.

It's like watching a loved grandparent as they start slipping into senility. Of course you still love them dearly, but you also miss the days gone by and fear the future.