My book is here! In the mailroom, which doesn't open till Monday. Argh.
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My book is here! In the mailroom, which doesn't open till Monday. Argh.
Whew! Just got my email. Now to enduring the constant checking of the tracker for the next week. If the USPS site is slow, it's me mashing the F5 button
I got my e-mail! Yay! It says it shipped yesterday, hopefully it will arrive before I leave for vacation Wednesday morning... the chances of that aren't spectacular, but still. If not I'll have a friend checking the mail for it.
I just got my email, my package will ship Monday!
They do exist! It's not all a elaborate practical joke!
I got my e-mail, too. :biggrin: My books will ship out on Monday. Yay!
I still do not have my book.
I pre-ordered, and when the delay was announced, I emailed and told them to change my shipping address (as instructed) because we moved at the start of June. I received a confirmation that my new address was received, and then when the book was released...it shipped to my old address.
I waited a week in the hopes that mail forwarding would solve this, but it apparently did not. My book is apparently at our old address in someone else's hands. Or perhaps their recycle bin. Or on eBay. Or who-knows-where.
I emailed Ookoodook on Monday and explained the situation. No reply. The next day, I emailed again and even used their contact form on the web site, asking them to please resend my book to my correct address. I got a one-word reply: "Ok."
My book is still not here. I emailed AGAIN asking when/if it had shipped, and got this response:
I'm sorry, we're still shipping pre-orders and will reship your book ASAP.
I am speechless. Dude, I was a pre-order. Ookoodook made the mistake, and should be bending over backwards to fix this. In the mean time, I am 2 weeks now without my book, and apparently not a priority.
This isn't what I would call excellent customer service. Heck, it's not even good customer service.
I get that it's a small company. I really do. But I am not looking for the world here: I just want my book. I think the most I asked for was that they expedite a copy to me, at their cost. I certainly didn't demand it, or a refund, or a free copy, or someone's first-born child. This should not be a hard problem to solve quickly.
And I should have my book.
So you're a preorder and you don't have your book. Whoop de do. Join the club.
So they made a mistake. Yes, that means they should fix it. No, it does not automatically mean you should get to jump the queue ahead of other people who are in the same group as you were.
If they finish shipping preorders and start shipping regular orders and at that time they still haven't addressed your problem, then you would have a point. Until then, you can wait along with the rest of us preorder folks that don't have the book yet.
When you make a mistake, you fix it quickly. That is customer service.
This isn't brain surgery. You fix this problem by putting a book in an envelope and mailing it.
If there are so many other people that have had the exact same mistake happen to them that you can't do that...well, that's a sign of a much bigger problem, then, isn't it?
They are fixing it. But in the quote you quoted he was talking about how it made no sense to talk about how priority when plenty with equal have nothing as well, you are no less priority than the rest who's book haven't arrived.
As MoonCat said, you are a priority. You are in the exact same priority as everyone else who is waiting for their preorders and haven't even gotten a email confirmation yet.
Like, say, myself. :smallsmile:
Does it suck that you could have gotten your book and didn't? Absolutely. But I also tend to think it sucks for people who preordered the book and haven't received it yet either. Not that I'm complaining of course. I know full well all of the difficulties that are going on.
Sometimes there just isn't an acceptable answer to every problem.
The difference of course being that my book was shipped two weeks ago, but to the wrong address. So if you want to talk "priority", I was already "ahead" of the rest of the people who still haven't received theirs from the normal shipping schedule.
But IMHO that's beside the point. When you become aware of a mistake, you fix it sooner, not later.
I understand your frustration man, we've all been waiting a long time, but it isn't like they're not working with you. They got your e-mail that your book was shipped to the wrong address, and without giving you any hassle agreed to send you a new one. I should emphasize that point, not every company will work with you like that, some would accuse you of lying to get a free book. Regardless, they agreed to send you a new book and put you in the queue. Now this seems to be what you are upset about, they should have put you at the head of the queue. I can see where you are coming from, although those who haven't had their book shipped yet probably disagree. There are however good reasons not to do that. First of all, handling all these books and shipping them is a complicated task. Shuffling around the queue is a bad idea. Secondly, you had a problem which they have hopefully resolved. It makes sense to send other people their books first so that if they have problems they can be resolved in a timely manner. Besides that, there is the simple fact that everyone else who is waiting for their book probably disagrees with your assertion that you should get precedence when in fact you are the one who needs special accommodations. Delaying everyone else's order to deal with your needs is not good business policy.
Hopefully I've helped you see a little why they didn't rush out your book. I do hope you get your book soon and enjoy it.
You are "ahead" only in that an apparently random ordering put you earlier in the list than a lot of other people.
They are shipping preorders. Lots and lots of preorders. They are a small enough company that they may not have anyone specifically devoted to customer service and fixing mistakes. Thus, fixing the mistake with your order would require diverting the attention of someone who's busy shipping the rest of the preorder list. Taking time off from the assembly line shipping setup they've probably got to deal with your one-off problem would fix your one preorder at the cost of delaying multiple other preorders. 1 preorder vs multiple preorders, seems pretty clear to me that the multiples should be handled first - they're all preorders so priority is equal, so it comes down to the numbers. Priority will only become relevant when the preorders are finished shipping, at which point your preorder, if it's not already dealt with, will have priority over the regular orders.
Okay, I've got one mail, now waiting for the second.
Is it me or was that the first "sneak attack bitch" without a note of exclamation?
No, he meant to post that in the #800 discussion thread.
Still no book but I haven't checked my box since thursday. I will check on the way home to see if it is there, as Aus Post said it should be by now.
Not sure if it's just me, but I actually got an email from Ookoodook asking to confirm shipping address (on sunday evening too! I was certain they'd be closed over the weekend, but amazed that the great folks there are willing to work even on a sunday night to get the books out. really going all out there - so, to anyone thinking they're slacking off in anyway, they're not.)
I didn't receive such a mail, but then, they'd presumably only need to send one if there was some sort of doubt about it...not sure what that would be in your case!
I got a "just making sure" email, but I'm at an APO address. Still waiting for my email, but I'm sure it will be here soon enough.
Don't Panic (What font is big, friendly letters?) :smallsmile:
42
I got the mail at august 4th.
Checking USPS.com today:
Processed through Sort Facility - August 10, 2011, 7:28 pm - Houston
Patience is indeed a virtue :smallsigh:
I'm located in Houston, pre-ordered two books (one order was the week of the initial announcement and then about a month ago) and haven't received any - or even an email that they're being shipped. The status info posted on 8/1 "By now, many of you who pre-ordered have likely gotten your shipping emails, and the rest of you will be getting them over the course of this week." seems incorrect.
Definitely NOT impressed with the logistics on this.
Actually, what I am most upset about is that it took three emails to get someone to acknowledge the problem, and a fourth to find out what was being done about it.
All the little arguments people are using to defend Ookoodook in this situation would be fine excuses if there was just one hiccup here, but there are several: pre-ordering logistics, QA on shipping, responsiveness to email, thoroughness of those responses, and follow-through. Add this up and it becomes "shoddy service".
Yeah, it's a small company. But small does not have to mean sub-par.
Other than wanting them "not to get hospitalized" I'm not sure what you want. I'm pretty sure they'd rather not get seriously injured while working either.
They made. a mistake.
You aren't ordering from God here, its allowed to happen. And yes, small DOES mean sub-par in the printing business, where large companies can AND FREQUENTLY DO break small companies' contracts with rush jobs.
There really was no problem with the pre-ordering logistics except that the printer broke its contract (how is this Ookadook's mistake, exactly?) and the QA problem IS the mistake you're referring too. Now they are working short staffed since one of their... what... three employees is in the hospital and you're surprised that they aren't devoting 50% of their manpower to answering emails rather than shipping? And what are you talking about on follow-through? They added your shipment back into the queue, exactly as they should have done....
I don't think it would have been unreasonable to have expected any surviving members of Ookoodook to send out an email "Sorry for the unexpected delays - we'll let you know when we resume shipping but right now we're shut down". But so far they've communicated nothing.