This is THE Day

ars_belli · Post by **ars_belli** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:02 pm

spike wrote:Hmm sorry no- Amazon's ording is entirely to blame, If they have large numbers of advance orders, they should pass this though and ensure they can fulfill orders taken well in advance of a publication date.

And your evidence that they have not done so is... ?

Cheers,
Scott

spike · Post by **spike** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:12 pm

ars_belli wrote:
spike wrote:Hmm sorry no- Amazon's ording is entirely to blame, If they have large numbers of advance orders, they should pass this though and ensure they can fulfill orders taken well in advance of a publication date.
And your evidence that they have not done so is... ?

Cheers,
Scott

The important word is "ensure", so the answer is obvious the mail from Amazon stating there is a delay...

We are sorry to report that the following items have been delayed:

Richard Bodley Scott (Author), et al "Field of Glory Rulebook:
Ancient and Medieval Wargaming Rules (Field of Glory): Ancient and
Medieval Wargaming Rules (Field of Glory)" [Hardcover]
Estimated arrival date: 04/03/08 - 21/03/08

I have nothing to prove, but they do as my contract is with Amazon, not with the people who supply Amazon.

Spike

ars_belli · Post by **ars_belli** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:18 pm

spike wrote:
ars_belli wrote:
spike wrote:Hmm sorry no- Amazon's ording is entirely to blame, If they have large numbers of advance orders, they should pass this though and ensure they can fulfill orders taken well in advance of a publication date.
And your evidence that they have not done so is... ?

Cheers,
Scott
The important word is "ensure", so the answer is obvious the mail from Amazon stating there is a delay...

We are sorry to report that the following items have been delayed:

Richard Bodley Scott (Author), et al "Field of Glory Rulebook:
Ancient and Medieval Wargaming Rules (Field of Glory): Ancient and
Medieval Wargaming Rules (Field of Glory)" [Hardcover]
Estimated arrival date: 04/03/08 - 21/03/08
I have nothing to prove, but they do as my contract is with Amazon, not with the people who supply Amazon.

Spike

Sorry, but none of that indicates, or even suggests, that Amazon failed to accurately report preorders to Osprey, or that Osprey has sent ANY copies to Amazon to date. Still waiting for some actual evidence that might support either contention.

Cheers,
Scott

spike · Post by **spike** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:31 pm

ars_belli wrote:
Sorry, but none of that indicates (or even suggests) that Amazon did not accurately report preorders to Osprey, or that Osprey has sent ANY copies to Amazon to date. Still waiting for any evidence to support either contention.

Cheers,
Scott

Pointless discussing the evidence or lack of it. However there are several hundred disapointed fellow gamers, who have not received rules that they ordered in good faith. There "is" a foul up, and it is between Amazon and their suppliers. My order is with Amazon and therefore is is there responsibility to sort this out.

If they ask me what I want, I'll tell them straight. A written apology from them, stating that they will ensure as far as humanly possible that it will not happen again, and that they will post all back orders of these books on receipt from Osprey to their customers First Class - no extra cost to the customer.

If I had ordered from Ospery my complaint would be with them, but I did not.

Spike

kustenjaeger · Post by **kustenjaeger** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:36 pm

Greetings

I had been thinking about giving up gaming purchases for Lent - I hadn't counted on Amazon being so in tune with fate as to push my receipt of FoG - ordered in early January - to Easter as well. Well, I suppose it's my fault for going for a 34% discount.

Regards

ars_belli · Post by **ars_belli** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:01 pm

spike wrote:Pointless discussing the evidence or lack of it. However there are several hundred disapointed fellow gamers, who have not received rules that they ordered in good faith. There "is" a foul up, and it is between Amazon and their suppliers. My order is with Amazon and therefore is is there responsibility to sort this out.

Well, I am in fact one of those customers, and I personally do not see any point in blaming Amazon (or any other retailer) for being unable to send copies of a publication that they in fact may have ordered in good faith, but have not yet received from the publisher. I also fail to see how sending angry emails to Amazon will do anything to help the publisher provide those copies to Amazon more quickly, unless you assume that Amazon is forwarding them to Osprey.

But we're going around in circles now, so I'll just sit back and wait patiently for Osprey to sort out their distribution issues. Then hopefully Amazon and their customers (including both you and me) will receive our copies in a reasonably timely fashion.

Cheers,
Scott

marco · Post by **marco** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:34 pm

message send by amazon today (i'm french, amazon.fr) :
"Date d'envoi estimée : 14 avril 2008
Date de livraison estimée : 15 avril 2008 - 16 avril 2008"

april for the rules ?????????????????

marco

stenic · Post by **stenic** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:24 pm

ars_belli wrote:
Well, I am in fact one of those customers, and I personally do not see any point in blaming Amazon (or any other retailer) for being unable to send copies of a publication that they in fact may have ordered in good faith, but have not yet received from the publisher.

You are right, it's going round in circles, but as customer the people responsible for my product are the peope I bought it off. If my restaurant meal is poor I blame the restaurant, not the farmer they bought it from. If I buy a defective electrical item I return to where I bought it I don't hike back to the manufacturer.

That ultimately the fault may lie with Slitherine/Osprey is Amazon's problem, not mine. It's up to Amazon to sort out their issue with their supplier.

I accept that there's not much that can be done, but to do nothing and just wait implies acceptance of mediocre customer service, and I think it only fair to give Amazon the chance to show how good their customer service can be

Steve P

hammy · Post by **hammy** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:43 pm

I have sent a grumpy E-mail for Amazon too along the lines of "if you took a load of preorders for this why did you not make sure that the supplier knew you wanted the stock?". As part of the reply I got this

While researching your order further, I found that these items is currently not available from our supplier and we ordered it from another supplier.

Do Amazon buy direct from Osprey? Is there another company in the chain? The plot thickens.

ars_belli · Post by **ars_belli** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:04 pm

So can we all at least agree that Amazon has not received any FoG books yet, and that the delay appears to lie higher up the distribution ladder?

And I still find it interesting that FoG can be ordered directly from Osprey if shipment is to a UK address, but not to an address in the US.

Cheers,
Scott

jdm · Post by **jdm** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:48 pm

All

I can confirm that the books have left the warehouse and are in transit or are already with the retailers; the cupboard is pretty bare here, although we do have a few copies only for immediate delivery.
I cannot of course comment on the turnaround time with a company like Amazon or how long it will take them to process goods inwards and dispatches. Suffice to say that their distribution of the product can only be days away. I cannot believe that they will sit on the books unnecessarily. Smaller retailers should be dispatching goods anytime now or the books will be appearing on store shelves near you. It sometimes pays to ask in bookstores as deliveries to stock rooms does not mean that it is instantly put on shelves.
The situation in the United States is exactly the same and they should be in a position to commence deliveries as per their originally detailed scheduling which has always been a week behind UK.

I assure you the books are either in transit or in retailers stock rooms we have hit our forecast dates.

Now having said all that there is a problem with repeat orders and we already have these from certain retailers and more are coming in as their initial quantities sell through. We are working to get extra books into the Channel to meet these reorders and I will report back just as soon as we have a solution.

All I can say is it should not be too hard to find an opponent…........ soon!

Regards
JDM

ars_belli · Post by **ars_belli** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:56 pm

Many thanks for the quick and detailed update, JD. It is much appreciated!

Cheers,
Scott

kustenjaeger · Post by **kustenjaeger** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:50 pm

Greetings

It would be interesting to know how many copies have been printed to date.

The Amazon UK order tracking on my 6 January order changed overnight from estimated despatch 12 February to "Dispatch estimate: 28 Feb 2008 - 11 Mar 2008". With the free delivery option that translates into delivery 4-20 March (however to date my experience is that the actual delivery is likely to be sooner rather than later once despatched).

So best case is about two weeks later than planned and indeed estimated by Amazon up to and including release date.

From a personal perspective the timing isn't critical, it is rather a minor irritant. I'll assume the rules and lists will come by Easter and I'll take the opportunity to spend some time on the rules then. They sound as if they are worth waiting for.

Regards

babyshark · Post by **babyshark** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:59 pm

Thanks for the information, JD. Updates such as that go a long way toward establishing and maintaining trust between producers and clients (that is to say, between authors and gamers). It doesn't stop me twitching to get my fingers on my copy, but it might stop me complaining so much that my wife starts rolling her eyes at me.

Marc

marshalney2000 · Post by **marshalney2000** » Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:01 pm

Have been looking at the Amazon US site and they are predicting despatch on 19th February with delivery between 21st and 25th of February to me in the UK. With current favourable currency rates the cost is probably better and no worse than those for next day delivery in the UK from amazon UK. The UK is currently quating delivery for me as 29th February.
The above assumes no hit from customs of course although the value is small enough to get by.

Scruff · Post by **Scruff** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 2:21 am

Well Great news here, Amazon has just shipped my order, 6 days early and I know of at least 1 other person that got the same email, Was supposed to ship 19th Feb.

Cheers Amazon USA and Madaxeman

cheers

spike · Post by **spike** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:14 am

Scruff wrote:Well Great news here, Amazon has just shipped my order, 6 days early and I know of at least 1 other person that got the same email, Was supposed to ship 19th Feb.

Cheers Amazon USA and Madaxeman

cheers

It appears Amazon have sorted out their ordering system my delivery date has been moved back to 21-27th, so it seems all the complaints may have worked.

Spike

marco · Post by **marco** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:17 am

always the same for amazon.fr

in mid april for the shipping

tell me where lives this M AMAZON!!!!!!

marco

carlos · Post by **carlos** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:21 am

From Waterstones...

We have processed payment for the following items in your order #741996 on 2008-02-14:

1 RICHARD BODLEY SCOTT SIMON HAL Field of Glory Rulebook GBP 14.87

WOOHOO!

dallascowboy · Post by **dallascowboy** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 11:36 am

from waterstones also
shipping rulebook plus army lists today on 3-5day delivery!

clive