Subscription Not Shipped by Release Day

[Parry]

I know that there is usually a thread like this with every major release. I don't live in the US so I have a couple subscriptions that I pay redonkulos shipping on because I like the books. My remaster subscription processed on the 27, but now comes release day and I don't have a PDF. I emailed customer service before the long weekend, am I know they are probably slammed, but I am kinda bummed out now.

Subscriptions, especially with high shipping, make signifigantly less sense for the consumer if they don't ship by release date. I will probably be canceling and just buying PDF's on release for now on.

[Craftzero]

I'm in the same boat. Mine went into pending on October 27th, it's still there as of right now. No pdfs.

My friend bought the Remaster this morning and got the pdf immediately.

Why am I subscribing again...?

[Michael Hallet]

Exactly. They sidecarted mine to ship with the next AP volume in 2 to 3 weeks. Not happy about it.

[Paul Watson]

Craftzero wrote:

I'm in the same boat. Mine went into pending on October 27th, it's still there as of right now. No pdfs.

My friend bought the Remaster this morning and got the pdf immediately.

Why am I subscribing again...?

Because

1) He paid for the PDF and you didn't
2) Most months you'd have got it before it went on sale.
3) Even this month, the vast majority of people got it before release date.

If that's not good enough, don't subscribe. Close the subscription at Customer services and pay for the PDF.

[Michael Hallet]

Paul Watson wrote:

1) He paid for the PDF and you didn't

2) Most months you'd have got it before it went on sale.
3) Even this month, the vast majority of people got it before release date.

There is no reason why this shouldn't be automated. Releasing the product should trigger the billing of subscriptions and dropping of the PDF after payment. This is not the sort of process that should require manual intervention in 2023.

Paul Watson wrote:

If that's not good enough, don't subscribe. Close the subscription at Customer services and pay for the PDF.

Which means Paizo will lose out on sales, not just of this book, but of others. Because if I have to cancel my physical rulebook subscription, I will go back to PDFs only.

[Paul Watson]

Michael Hallet wrote:

Paul Watson wrote:

1) He paid for the PDF and you didn't

2) Most months you'd have got it before it went on sale.
3) Even this month, the vast majority of people got it before release date.

There is no reason why this shouldn't be automated. Releasing the product should trigger the billing of subscriptions and dropping of the PDF after payment. This is not the sort of process that should require manual intervention in 2023.

Yes, there is. It’s been explained so many times that their payment provider does not allow them to charge before the product is shipped. You can argue whether that’s reasonable. but that’s the system they have and whining about it is counterproductive.

Unkess you’re suggesting they give PDFs away and take no money back? Because I’m sure no one would cancel their order and get the pdf for free, right?

[Michael Hallet]

Why would you ship something before you know the payment will go through?

My issue specifically is that they sidecarted my Player Core to ship with my next AP shipment in 2 to 3 weeks and gave me no option to have them ship separately as soon as they are available.

I have another idea. How about I can buy the PDF now and when the subscription order ships for it, they refund the PDF price? No, that's not an option either.

[Dancing Wind]

Michael Hallet wrote:

Why would you ship something before you know the payment will go through?

My issue specifically is that they sidecarted my Player Core to ship with my next AP shipment in 2 to 3 weeks and gave me no option to have them ship separately as soon as they are available.

I have another idea. How about I can buy the PDF now and when the subscription order ships for it, they refund the PDF price? No, that's not an option either.

They do not ship anything before they know the payment will go through. In case you missed it, here's a link to the November 2023 New Physical Product Release thread. They post a thread like that every month in the Announcements Forum

November Physical Products

Notice that there is an Authorization (Order Spawning) Date: 10/27/2023.
That's the date they check to make sure the payment will go through.

Then there is the Begin Shipping Estimate: 10/30/2023
•End Shipping Estimate: 11/09/2023.
If there are no problems with your payment method, the order that was spawned during the Authorization process gets sent to the warehouse. Your physical materials will be picked, packaged, and shipped during that time frame (usually).
You will actually be billed for the materials on the date they ship

Finally there is Street Date for Paizo Products: 11/15/2023,
the date on which your local gaming stores can place the materials on their shelves.

Paizo has explained many times that they are not allowed to  charge you for materials that have not yet been shipped.
And they don't give you access to the PDF until you have been billed.

When you order physical items from Paizo, you are given the option to have them shipped as soon as possible, or to have them combined with your next subscription shipment to save shipping costs.

If, at any time, you want to split a purchase into more than one shipment, you can contact Paizo customer service at
[e-mail]

I suspect that you became a subscriber after the order spawning process had happened (10/27/2023). If you want some of those items sooner than next month's subscription shipment, just send an email, and they'll be on their way.

[Michael Hallet]

Correct. I subscribed on November 1st. I sent an email but have got no response thus far.

But why do they have to operate this way? Why only authorize once a month? Is this a manual process? It shouldn't be. If you can authorize payment on October 27th, why can't you authorize payment on November 1st?

I don't recall seeing an option to ship as soon as possible when I subscribed. It certainly wasn't clearly presented if it was there.

If fact this is what it says when I go to my subscriptions page.

Quote:

You do not have a non-Paizo subscription.

(If you only have monthly subscriptions, your non-subscription items will always ship with the earliest monthly shipment.)

I have no ability to select another shipment option.

I don't want a monthly subscription. I want an as soon as it is available subscription.

[Dancing Wind]

Michael Hallet wrote:

I don't want a monthly subscription. I want an as soon as it is available subscription.

If you are a subscriber, you get your items as soon as they are available.

You have several options to buy Paizo products
1) Subscribe to the product line.
This automatically gives you the new release as soon as it is available. Those are shipped to all subscribers at the same time. Usually you get your physical copy before the official street release date.

2) Pre-order the product from Paizo
This also gives you the new release as soon as it is available, but you have to initiate each purchase separately. Usually you get your physical copy before the official street release date.

3) Pre-order the product from your local gaming store.
You can pick it up from the on the release date.

4) Pre-order the product from a 3rd-party source like Amazon.

You weren't a subscriber when the "subscriber" orders were processed. So you aren't in on the first round of shipments for these products.

Because you *now* are a subscriber, Paizo has defaulted to the "ship all my new purchases once a month with my subscription" option.

The option to have new purchases shipped immediately is part of the checkout process for new orders. There's a "shipping" button where you can change shipping details, including whether or not to hold that order for your subscription shipment, or to send it out immediately.

But for product lines you are subscribed to, you're going to get them as soon as they are available. The glitch right now is that you were not a subscriber when the 'subscriber shipments' pick lists were generated.

As soon as they get to your email, they'll be able to get that part of your order sorted. 

[Steel_Wind]

Paul Watson wrote:

3) Even this month, the vast majority of people got it before release date.

If that's not good enough, don't subscribe. Close the subscription at Customer services and pay for the PDF.

I know you think you are trying to help; however, this isn't helping.

Unless you work in the Paizo warehouse, you have no information at all about the % performance of subscription shipments. You might be right, sure -- truth is though, you have no information about this one way or the other.

I've been a subscriber for a dozen+ years. Mine have not shipped yet either. No, I'm not terribly happy about it, but I'm philosophical about it at least. I well appreciate that others are not.

That said, I'd be a good deal less happy about it to receive a smarmy post like yours in response to a reasonable complaint. And his complaint IS reasonable, even if it is grounded in his own narrow self-interest.

Perhaps ad hoc Customer Service and PR for a company you don't own and aren't employed by is not your calling?

[Parry]

I am kinda ignoring the back and forth here. PAIZO got back to me and there had been a hiccup in the system. They pushed ot through to process as soon as possible and gave me access to a PDF.

[Steady Leek]

Dancing Wind wrote:

Michael Hallet wrote:

I don't want a monthly subscription. I want an as soon as it is available subscription.

If you are a subscriber, you get your items as soon as they are available.

You have several options to buy Paizo products
1) Subscribe to the product line.
This automatically gives you the new release as soon as it is available. Those are shipped to all subscribers at the same time. Usually you get your physical copy before the official street release date.

2) Pre-order the product from Paizo
This also gives you the new release as soon as it is available, but you have to initiate each purchase separately. Usually you get your physical copy before the official street release date.

3) Pre-order the product from your local gaming store.
You can pick it up from the on the release date.

4) Pre-order the product from a 3rd-party source like Amazon.

You weren't a subscriber when the "subscriber" orders were processed. So you aren't in on the first round of shipments for these products.

Because you *now* are a subscriber, Paizo has defaulted to the "ship all my new purchases once a month with my subscription" option.

The option to have new purchases shipped immediately is part of the checkout process for new orders. There's a "shipping" button where you can change shipping details, including whether or not to hold that order for your subscription shipment, or to send it out immediately.

But for product lines you are subscribed to, you're going to get them as soon as they are available. The glitch right now is that you were not a subscriber when the 'subscriber shipments' pick lists were generated.

As soon as they get to your email, they'll be able to get that part of your order sorted. 

Sorry to dig this post up, was just looking for some answers myself. Honest question - are we sure option 1 is true / meant to be true? I've been a product line subscriber for a while now,have received several products, but often will wait considerably longer than some subscribers for my order to ship. Even with a solo item. Have been looking for an answer around this but seems to be some mixed views.

Big fan of paizo and their products, it does sting a bit to not get early pdf access with my subscription due to the shipping date gap when I see others getting it.

[Steve Geddes]

It’s true but “at the same time” covers a shipping window of a week or more.
That, coupled with the varying shipping speeds people may choose and the differences between transit times to different regions, means arrivals of subscriber products are spread out over a good month or more.

It can also mean that you get your product after streetdate (when you could buy it at a store) so “as soon as possible” Is a statistical thing, not necessarily true for every single month.

Overall, subscribing is the best method if you want everything as soon as possible. Picking it up from other retailers can get it to you earlier in some cases but you won’t be able to pick which situations.

If I were to tweak it, I’d suggest subscribing November through April (and possibly June/July as well). That would be my guess as to how to genuinely maximise your chances of getting every product as early as possible.

That kind of micromanaging is a bit of a pain in the neck, imo. Plus those odd times that things sell out super fast - I’d rather be a subscriber than gamble my retail outlet is going to have stock for me.

[Steady Leek]

Steve Geddes wrote:

It’s true but “at the same time” covers a shipping window of a week or more.

That, coupled with the varying shipping speeds people may choose and the differences between transit times to different regions, means arrivals of subscriber products are spread out over a good month or more.

It can also mean that you get your product after streetdate (when you could buy it at a store) so “as soon as possible” Is a statistical thing, not necessarily true for every single month.

Overall, subscribing is the best method if you want everything as soon as possible. Picking it up from other retailers can get it to you earlier in some cases but you won’t be able to pick which situations.

If I were to tweak it, I’d suggest subscribing November through April (and possibly June/July as well). That would be my guess as to how to genuinely maximise your chances of getting every product as early as possible.

That kind of micromanaging is a bit of a pain in the neck, imo. Plus those odd times that things sell out super fast - I’d rather be a subscriber than gamble my retail outlet is going to have stock for me.

Thanks for taking the time to explain! I'll do a bit more looking into what's going to be quicker in the long run Long shipping distance for me might not be helping either. Currently it seems like subscription will be reliably the quickest for me to have my hands on the physical copy, but would be cheaper to buy the pdf online on street date and the physical copy in store, while still getting the pdf earlier / same time.

[Steve Geddes]

Yeah - buying the pdf on release and the hardcopy elsewhere is often the cheapest solution - especially for those of us facing international shipping costs.

For me, the big, big advantage of subscribing was that I always got everything, even when print runs were outstripped by demand (which is a rare consideration but happened a couple of times). Our local gaming stores are a bit hit and miss when it comes to RPGs. So the completionist in me wouldn’t take the chance.