HEY WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? Options

[starranger]

I've orderd from the catalyst Website several hardcover books (as well as PDFS) and I haven't received any books yet -

Does anyone know why these haven't shipped yet? I contacted their customer service and heard NOTHING from them.

The books that are missing.....
Running Wild
Ltd Ed. 20th Anniv. Shadowrun
Street Magic
Seattle 2072

[DarkKindness]

I'm not 100% sure that Running Wild and Seattle 2072 are available in print yet - I know that they only had limited quantities available at GenCon, so I'm guessing that they haven't done a full print run on those yet.

The other hard copy books that you ordered from them could be being held up by that, if they hold the order until they're able to ship it complete. Just a thought.

Don't know what would be holding up the PDF's, though.

[Audious]

I would say it's probably because they don't like Texans.

[knasser]

The (understandable) irritation people are feeling, is really starting to build up. And for every one of these posters venting on the forums, there are probably six or more quietly seething.

I got the impression from one of the posts that there is one person in a big room of books with lots of empty boxes and print outs of orders. If that really is the case, they need to get some extra help in before Catalyst HQ gets stormed by angry customers seeking their orders. People are getting pretty annoyed.

K.

[Bull]

I've orderd from the catalyst Website several hardcover books (as well as PDFS) and I haven't received any books yet -

Does anyone know why these haven't shipped yet? I contacted their customer service and heard NOTHING from them.

The books that are missing.....
Running Wild
Ltd Ed. 20th Anniv. Shadowrun
Street Magic
Seattle 2072

Street Magic is the only one of these books that's available in print. Seattle 2072 and Running Wild was available in limited quantities at Gen Con because CGL special ordered a handful of books to be rushed to the con. Neither they nor the SR4A LE have a street date yet.

With STreet Magic, the only thing I can think of is that when you pre-order something, there's a warning that the items may not ship until the last book is available. So it's possible that you won't get that book until the rest are ready to go, if you ordered it as a bundle.

And for the record folks, yes, I understand that you're unhappy with the situation. However, ranting here really doesn't have much effect. We're not an official board and we can't actually do anything to help your situation. Adam Jury is the only official CGL person who posts or reads these boards with any frequency, and he has nothing to do with shipping. he's not even in the same country as the company HQ and warehouse.

Sorry, just seeing a few of these threads pop up, and want to make sure people are aware that we're not CGL. PLenty of freelancers and playtesters, but if you think that means any of us have any real pull with the company, well... Heh. We wish. :/

Bull

[StealthSigma]

Street Magic is the only one of these books that's available in print. Seattle 2072 and Running Wild was available in limited quantities at Gen Con because CGL special ordered a handful of books to be rushed to the con. Neither they nor the SR4A LE have a street date yet.

Does that include the regular SR4A? Amazon has a release date of Aug19 for that, so I had asked my local comic book shop to order a copy in for me. I'm just checking so that I know if I shouldn't be surprised if they don't have a copy in for me Wednesday...

[KarmaInferno]

My local store has copies of regular SR4A on their shelves already.


-karma

[Grinder]

Does that include the regular SR4A? Amazon has a release date of Aug19 for that, so I had asked my local comic book shop to order a copy in for me. I'm just checking so that I know if I shouldn't be surprised if they don't have a copy in for me Wednesday...

The regular version of SR4A has been released already - Bull spoke about the Limited Edition of the book which haven't got a Street Date yet.

[Critias]

I can't help but wonder why it's possible to add things to your shopping cart and hit "order now," if they're not yet available in print. I've never taken a look at the store, but maybe it's an issue about the "PREORDER ONLY" sort of warnings not being blatant enough?

I mean, if someone can order four books when only one of them exists in the real world, and the person who orders them doesn't seem to be even remotely aware of that fact, it seems like something is broken somewhere.

[McAllister]

You'd think customer service (which, IIRC, he contacted) would know what the company is selling at the moment, wouldn't you? And I hate to jump on the "those evil/stupid corporate bastards/buffoons" bandwagon; I have faith that everyone's trying. But it does seem there's a disconnect.

[masshysteria]

I understand completely, Bull, but sometimes people need to vent. So, here's my problem:

I preordered the SR4A book + pdf combo. As a result, I was charged the full amount at time of preorder. Despite the street date for the SR4A book being August 11, my order is still marked as pending on BattleCorps. When looking over the BattleCorps site, I see the SR4A book is labeled out-of-stock.

So, did they run out of stock and can't fulfill all the preorders? If so, what was the point of me preordering? Or did they do a calculation and are still trying to fulfill preorders but can't accept any more orders without running out of stock?

I'm stuck in limbo and now 2+ weeks after release, I'm still waiting on my book. Suffice to say, I've been pleased with Catalyst's work on Shadowrun, especially after reading through much of the pdf. However, I'm not pleased with the business and order fulfillment end.

Enough venting, perhaps a kind email to customer service can will let me know the state of my order.

[Navarre]

Welcome to the "Waiting for Books to ship" queue. We have T-Shirts.

It sounds like most of your order was Pre-order books, as Bull has already covered.

As for Street Magic, which seems to be the only one on your list currently in print, you're somewhere in line with the rest of us. There's one part-time shipping guy trying to handle all of the SR4A orders, plus some recently printed Battletech books, plus all the angry emails from people waiting for those books.

I've tried to be all Zen about this whole thing, with varying degrees of success. I've found that a regular venting regimen on these forums has been helpful.

But trust me, those of us who paid for these books in March are... Less than thrilled... at the moment.

[BishopMcQ]

To check, for Customer Service, did you send an email to the Quartermaster account? Troy is generally on top of responses and I have never had to wait more than 24 hours to get a response.

RE: Pre-Order notification - LINK - Here's what the page looks like. If somebody missed the giant red box, then I think CGL has at least done their due diligence.

RE: 1 part-timer surrounded by books - My understanding is that CGL use a warehouse and distribution company to ship all of their books. This has been mentioned in the past as a reason as to why pre-orders can't be picked up at the GenCon booth (or other conventions).

[Navarre]

I think Troy may be buried beyond his capacity to answer emails, at this point. I sent him an email at the quartermaster address on Tuesday, and haven't heard from him. I'm guessing adding to the email backlog isn't going to help the book backlog, at this point, so despite the fact that he told me on Friday that my book was ready to ship, and yet I still don't have a shipping confirmation a week later, I've decided to leave him alone and just vent here. Not sure how long that resolve will last, though. I'm pretty angry, but I'm trying to stay reasonable.

[pbangarth]

Gee... that is a big red box! It kinda hurts to look at it, it's so big and... red.

[BishopMcQ]

Pbangarth--Yep, but it's possible someone missed it. I've seen people walk straight past a ten foot tall sign with my company name and ask me where to find my company. Literacy sadly does not always include situational awareness.

[Bull]

Pbangarth--Yep, but it's possible someone missed it. I've seen people walk straight past a ten foot tall sign with my company name and ask me where to find my company. Literacy sadly does not always include situational awareness.

Fun story. I worked at Gamestop (Well, Babbages at the time) back in 2000 when the PS2 came out. We had sold enough pre-orders that we weren't going to have any "in stock" on the shelves till well after Christmas (A common problem when new consoles launch).

Anyways, it being the Christmas season, and the Babbages being one of those really little mall stores, we put signs up at the door, signs on the registers, signs all over the stores, all of which said "Sorry, we have no PS2's". They were impossible to miss.

And yet, every 3rd customer or so would ask about them.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

And I'm not slighting anyone here. I'm guilty of not paying full attention to what I'm doing when I'm playing around on the web, and just clicking through things without reading fully. Just that story seemed a little relevant, and it's always amused me a bit.

Bull

[BishopMcQ]

Bull--I think everyone is guilty of doing it at some point. Now really, I need to get back to writing...I have metaplanar quests to finish.

[starranger]

Street Magic is the only one of these books that's available in print. Seattle 2072 and Running Wild was available in limited quantities at Gen Con because CGL special ordered a handful of books to be rushed to the con. Neither they nor the SR4A LE have a street date yet.

With STreet Magic, the only thing I can think of is that when you pre-order something, there's a warning that the items may not ship until the last book is available. So it's possible that you won't get that book until the rest are ready to go, if you ordered it as a bundle.

And for the record folks, yes, I understand that you're unhappy with the situation. However, ranting here really doesn't have much effect. We're not an official board and we can't actually do anything to help your situation. Adam Jury is the only official CGL person who posts or reads these boards with any frequency, and he has nothing to do with shipping. he's not even in the same country as the company HQ and warehouse.

Sorry, just seeing a few of these threads pop up, and want to make sure people are aware that we're not CGL. PLenty of freelancers and playtesters, but if you think that means any of us have any real pull with the company, well... Heh. We wish. :/

Bull

Actually - I did seperate orders on ALL books just for the same reason (and paid shipping seperately on each) just incase they were not relsaed yet. What gets me mad is that I haven't had a reponse from customer service in a week - nothing.

UPDATE - this afternoon I got a reponse about Streetmagic is Processing. At least I got some feedback (that took over a week to get). What's frustrating - as soome have pointed out - this book is out - inface I almost bought it the other day at a bookstore.

I think many of us are willing to cut catalyst some slack - but poor customer service isn't going to fly.

[Navarre]

Just as a warning, I got an email response last Friday that my book was packaged and waiting for a UPS label, and I haven't heard anything since. No confirmation, no further email response from Troy the Shipping Guy, nothing.

But I've been doing my venting in another thread, so I'll leave this one alone. I'm sure there's some critical mass of my whining that DS is able to handle.

[Bull]

Actually - I did seperate orders on ALL books just for the same reason (and paid shipping seperately on each) just incase they were not relsaed yet. What gets me mad is that I haven't had a reponse from customer service in a week - nothing.

UPDATE - this afternoon I got a reponse about Streetmagic is Processing. At least I got some feedback (that took over a week to get). What's frustrating - as soome have pointed out - this book is out - inface I almost bought it the other day at a bookstore.

I think many of us are willing to cut catalyst some slack - but poor customer service isn't going to fly.

Ahh, ok, I just wanted to make sure that you had ordered separately.

ANd yeah, I think CGL is getting a lot of flak on this one. The only thing I can really suggest is A) Be patient, B) Let them know via email that you're dissatisfied with your service (Be polite though), and C) Ponder purchasing locally if at all possible. Either talk to your local game store and see if they can get the books as they are released, or look into your local Borders and Barnes & Nobles. I hate suggesting moving the sales away from CGL, but... <shrug>

Bull

[The Jake]

I would say it's probably because they don't like Texans.

Or Australians. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) I don't even have the option of walking into a store. The books are simply not arriving on this continent from what I can tell - and I've spoken to a couple of sources. At the very least, we normally have a 1 month delay. So far I haven't seen anything new on shelves since Ghost Cartels.

- J.

[Cardul]

Or Australians. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) I don't even have the option of walking into a store. The books are simply not arriving on this continent from what I can tell - and I've spoken to a couple of sources. At the very least, we normally have a 1 month delay. So far I haven't seen anything new on shelves since Ghost Cartels.

- J.

There hasn't been anything new on the shelves since Ghost Cartels in Florida, either....Wait..sorry..we had Dusk this week..nothing else makes it onto the shelves, though..

[starranger]

STILL NO BOOKS - The wait continues......

[Critias]

That angry smiley next to the ALL CAPS THREAD TITLE just makes me all giggly every time I see it.