The current information I have is this: LEs pre-ordered through the Battleshop will be shipped by a distributor, and those shipments will commence tomorrow morning.

Jason H.

I stopped at my FLGS today and he said that my copy is at the warehouse and would be delivered tomorrow (probably between 11-3). So if I don't get a copy from Battlecorps I'm good.

Just want to exercise some due diligence on my part. While in the past, I was confident that the book would be shipped to my current address and not the address I had when the order was placed, because with my emails first with Troy and then later Tara, both were able to confirm that yes, they were aware of the new address listed in the "order comments" section of my record, the announcement that these will be coming from a distributor and not handled directly by Tara adds another wrinkle.

Is this the usual operating practice for all Battleshop orders, and as such, the distributor knows from experience the quirks of Battleshop's order database like the fact that sometimes the shipping address listed on an order isn't correct and that they need to check the order comments? Or is this direct shipping from the distributor a one time thing meant to expedite the process of getting the already overdue LEs into the hands of the customers?

[Edit]I had also PM'ed JH with the above, with the addition of my order number, and the PM'ed response I got answered my questions to my satisfaction.[/Edit]

In the past, my understanding is that they attempted to ship out stuff to arrive to customers as close as possible to the actual street date, but I know they fell down on this goal a couple times.

Jason, thank you for the heads up...

I was going to complain some more but I deleted all that.

Just... Thank you.

Battlecorps still shows my order as Processing...

If an outside distributor is handling the shipping responsibilities rather than Battlecorps, will customers receive notices that the LEs have shipped? In other words, are the distributor and Battlecorps talking to each other regarding the shipments in order to provide customers an update?

Wait, did your friend order next day delivery recently, or from last year?

Last year.
BlueMax

Per the email I got last night from Tara,

"Orders are shipping as we speak. It goes to processing when they are printed out and since they are being shipped by Alliance I had to print all 400+ packing slips then mail them."

In this day and age, it seems like there should be a better way to handle that process. Beyond that, even if all the pre-orders had to be verified and then sent over en masse to Alliance, it should not have taken a week and a half. Also, per one of Jason's comments on Shadowrun4.com, the LE pre-orders aren't actually being shipped out until today. Yes, that means that customers that paid for the book a year ago don't even get their copy shipped off until after official street date has passed.

And before anyone asks, I only got that email from Tara because I had to send her a mesage asking what was going on with it. Whether she meant to or not, when she responded to the questions I replied to my processing message with she answered using her personal email address. So, last night when I was wondering, I didn't send my message to a battlecorps email address, but rather her personal email address.

Perhaps so, but for my situation at least, I prefer the fact that the packing slips and mailing labels were printed by someone who I've been in direct contact with by email regarding my change in shipping address, and not some random shipping house mook whom I've had no communications with.


JH also posted the same to this thread.


That seems to be Tara's typical operating practice. However, I've found that any emails sent to the quatermaster address get appended with trouble ticket numbers, while emails to her comcast account don't.

just realized my shipping addy is wrong. Luckily, I'm just across the street and live in a really small town. Odds are the mail carrier will drop it off here.

The process was not smooth, in many ways, and we're working to improve it. Without going into the tedious details, books are being sent starting today, and my understanding is that at the end of the day, the distributor will send a report back to Catalyst saying which books were sent, and then we can enter it into our system. Which means that if your order has not yet changed to "Shipped," don't panic! It still might have shipped today.

Jason H.

That also means that some of us will not have there books shipped for at least 1 more day. Considering shipping time, that means that there is a good chance that some books will not arrive until next week.

It has dawned on me. You know what would have helped to make me feel that customer's were valued by CGL? If they had upgraded the LE pre-orders to overnight shipping as a "We are sorry we fucked up, but we do really want to get this to you." Of course, part of that would have also entailed getting the pre-orders released in a timely fashion.

I would have apreciated this much more than the voucher that I got, although, acording to statements made at the time, I technically didn't qualify for the voucher I got.

If you were willing to wait a year, why would they think you won't wait another week?

The money has been received and you figured has been allocated to other things by now, there's not a lot of incentives for the people running things to spend money on a product that's already sold. I know they can do it for future sales, but see my first sentence.

Their incentive is to let me, the customer, know that they do value my business. You are correct, they have nothing to gain on this product as I've already waited. However, they could have possibly found a way to let me know that my business matters so that I will buy future products from them. As it stands, I will not buy a CGL book (either from my local game store, or even moreso directly from them) in the future. Games like SR don't survive based on the sales of one book like this, but rather on repeat business. As much as I love SR, CGL will NEVER get my money again. Everyone else is entitled to their opinion, but this one order has soured me on them to a point where I'd feel like I was doing myself a disservice if I did anything that might help them stay in business.

Don't get me wrong, I completely agree with you. I feel bad for the hardcore fans that "pre-ordered" last year and still have not received their books, compare to a casual fan who can just go down to a local store and pick them up, minus shipping costs. But this has been rehashed enough times. GLTA

910 of 1500 flgs

967 of 1500 from my FLGS. I'm trying to upload pictures to Flickr or Facebook for proof.

This, in combination with the 400 figure quoted above, seems to indicate they shipped the first ~1100 copies to FLGSs. I still have my fingers crossed for #1337.

I absolutely agree. I also didn't understand the $10 voucher thing. I'm a dead tree kind of guy and would rather have the real thing rather than a pdf. I also don't have a FLGS in my area so I'm forced to order online for anything not D&D related. If I have to order the book online anyways, why would I order from the Battlecorps and pay list price plus a hugely inflated shipping cost when I have much better options? Even counting the $10 voucher for this total fubar by CGL, I'd still end up paying more for the same damn book and have to sacrifice a goat to the Gods of Fate in the slimmest of hopes that they mail it in a timely fashion.

Again, some form of expedited shipping would have been appreciated for this ungodly mess.

So Vice has been 'unfrozen' it seems.

If I worked for CGL, I would have made certain that I would have received that copy myself.

Nemafow,

Given that the holds on Vice have now been lifted, perhaps they will now ship together.

Like you, I have had no notification to indicate that my LE has now been 'shipped'.

[EDIT] Dagnabit, you edited your post! [/EDIT]

Yes thats my hope, I never received any replies from my original 'please remove Vice from order' emails, but if I at least get my two books, I will be happy (be pretty pissed if they decide to remove Vice from the order, now that its been released tho! ).

Unfortunately I'm over the otherside of the world, so even if they do get sent off today, I'm still looking at a two week delivery date, been dying to read Vice ever since it was released, and put my LE in a vault.

Yes I did, I checked their website last night and there was no info then, and I made a post today before seeing their new info, so sounded pretty silly

Where is Aus are you?

I'm in Newcastle, NSW. And have a box from Catalyst that arrived today with my copy of Runner's Companion and two of the old novels in it.

Do have to say this for them: they DO pack the books well! Protected with bubble wrap and stuffing at both ends of the parcel box.

South East Victoria, and things I have ordered from them in the past took very long, and thats with the fastest delivery too!

Well based on this Order (Shipped 22 April 2010), we won't be seeing our LEs for about 2 weeks, if they ship today.

I can live with two weeks, I just hope they ship before the IRS or something kicks down their door and shuts them down, or they lose the license.

On that note, wasnt the license renewal thing the other day?

So, has anyone that pre-ordered the book actually had their status changed from processing? Shockingly enough, mine wasn't.

May 16th is what I had heard previously.

Ah righteo, my mistake.

Well, UPS dropped off a nice package for myself and Caine_Hazen this morning. #896/1500, ordered from CGL on March 11th, 2009. ANd still says "Processing" on their web page. Was shipped from Alliance via Ground delivery.

Bull

*edit* That's just my copy, Caine's not home yet, so don't know what number her got, as they arrived in separate boxes.

Happy ye got yers Bull. Because I am close to UPS, I don't get anything until 6 PM. They do right by them dead last here...
BlueMax

Is it...is it everything we've dreamed of?

I will note I'm relatively close to the Alliance distro center, geographically speaking. They're only a few hours northish of me. THat may have factored in to me being one of teh first to report getting my pre-order.



Depends on what you dreamed of. Since mine was not delivered by Jewel Stait and Alyssa Milano wearing whipped cream bikini's, I'd have to say no, not EVERYTHING...

BUll

I would have happily given up my $10 voucher for that upgrade. I must have missed that option. Damn the fine print!

So Bull and Caine_Hazen get to have Dumpshock "discussions" even when they're off-line. That must be fun.

P.S. I'd give my copy to Jewel Staite if she picked it up personally.

Usually they go something like:

"Dude, you looked at Dumpshock in the last few hours?"

*groan* "Great, NOW what, and who's ass do we have to kick?"

<grin>



Hrmm... Tough call, but yeah, I'd have to agree with this. Though, I'd insist she sit down and learn how to play first

Bull

Just to chime in...

Date: 5 May 2010 21:20:29 GMT+01:00

Order Number: xxxxx

Date Ordered: Wednesday 11 March, 2009

The comments for your order are

Your order has been updated to the following status.

New status: Shipped

Please reply to this email if you have any questions.

My order's been changed to Shipped. Still no e-mails, no tracking number, none of that fun stuff.

Now comes the daily checking of the post office!

Mine also updated. Here's to hoping it shows up before the weekend.

Still "Processing." Le sigh.

Like I said above, that doesn't mean much. Mine still says Processing as well. However, I have the book sitting on my shelf 5 feet from me, so... It can process all it wants

Bull

I came home to #783 delivered via UPS, and just got my email saying the order is done processing.

Good enough for me, but I wish the corner of the slip cover wasn't banged up. Looks like it happened before the book was boxed to so I don't know who I need to talk to.

Mine ordered Mar 11 and says shipped.

Carl

The quartermaster@catalystgamelabs.com address is usually a good place to start. They are in regular communication with the distributor.

Jason H.