Little Book Series 3

[Martin]

For what it's worth we confirmed with Borderlands that we'd be able to get the same number of books for every book in the series, including a King one if there is a King book.

Let's hope Borderlands sticks to that agreement, I assume you had that deal last series and Borderlands chose not to honor it.

[Martin]

This will be my first experience going directly through Borderlands. May of the Hill books were damaged I believed and I'd heard that their packaging isn't that great. I guess I'll find out first hand soon enough.

I don't recall the fiasco that surrounded the Hill book. Did they oversell it? I had to get a copy on the secondary market.

It has been over 10 years that I ordered directly from them but I do not recall ever having issues with receiving damaged books. I will admit they were not packed to CD's standards but they were bubble wrapped and a box and arrived undamaged.

[Brian861]

Borderlands oversold, and someone posted the secret CD link over at TDT prior to open orders here, so they (CD) sold out before at least some folks that had been getting the whole series had a chance to buy their copy.

Here's Brian F.'s post on the topic.

Ah! Now I remember. Thanks.

[Martin]

Borderlands oversold, and someone posted the secret CD link over at TDT prior to open orders here, so they (CD) sold out before at least some folks that had been getting the whole series had a chance to buy their copy.

Here's Brian F.'s post on the topic.

You are missing the part where Borderlands chose to reduce retailers orders rather than cancel the orders they oversold. So retailers like CD who have helped Borderlands sell their product were then required to cancel customers orders through no fault of their own. I believe CD did have an issue with someone posting a link prior to general announcement but they also sold to people like me who they had notified and had to cancel those orders because Borderlands screwed up and punished them and their customers. I state this was not my issue with Borderlands, just another brick in the wall.

[slayn666]

You are missing the part where Borderlands chose to reduce retailers orders rather than cancel the orders they oversold. So retailers like CD who have helped Borderlands sell their product were then required to cancel customers orders through no fault of their own. I believe CD did have an issue with someone posting a link prior to general announcement but they also sold to people like me who they had notified and had to cancel those orders because Borderlands screwed up and punished them and their customers. I state this was not my issue with Borderlands, just another brick in the wall.

I didn't know about that part, or just don't remember it. That's pretty terrible; I hope they've learned their lesson, especially if they plan to offer something signed by King.

[jeffingoff]

I have opted to stay quiet on this as I will not order directly from Borderlands Press.

Side Note: I have been unwilling to order from Borderlands long before the Joe Hill Little Book issues. I had issues with them back around 2006 and they are simply a company I will not deal directly with. As they have produced books I want I have picked them up from other retailers, and that has worked for me. The first snag in that was last year with the Joe Hill book. With my prior issues with Borderlands that was a last straw for me and I decided it would be very hard for me to buy a Borderlands book again.

Well then this series comes along with many confirmed authors I want including Owen King and Richard Chizmar, including a possibility of a Stephen King book. I initially disregarded them as not for me as I expected with the reduced quantity and the issues from last year that you could only buy it from Borderlands and I will not do that. Trust me on this, I will never buy directly from Borderlands without regard of what they offer. Then today I got the offer to begin the series III little books with rights to each subsequent book. I truly believe that Borderlands as a company does not care about its customers but I do like some of the books they produce. I am trying once again to buy their books through another retailer. Hopefully it will go well, I will not be surprised if it does not.

Regarding a King signed book for $30.00, I do believe they would have no problem doing that. One of my prized books is actually a Borderlands book bought directly from Borderlands. Quietly Now is signed by Stephan King and many others and retailed for $40.00.

Thank you for your insight into this. I will say that I haven't dealt with Borderlands before this week, but they've been really great in our communication. I ordered the first book of Series III and emailed them to request matching numbers throughout the series and they offered me the entire Series II at a very good price with an option to pay in installments. I still don't have the books, but I got the shipping notice the day after paying my first installment. I'm pretty happy about everything so far but I'm bummed that you all had such a crappy experience.

Maybe they've turned a corner and learned to be better at customer service from the episode? Or maybe I'm heading for the falls in a kayak.

[jeffingoff]

I didn't know about that part, or just don't remember it. That's pretty terrible; I hope they've learned their lesson, especially if they plan to offer something signed by King.

Yeah that's terrible. Well, they must have mended some fences since CD is willing to sell them again. I hope this is a MUCH BETTER go around for you Martin!

[Martin]

Thank you for your insight into this. I will say that I haven't dealt with Borderlands before this week, but they've been really great in our communication. I ordered the first book of Series III and emailed them to request matching numbers throughout the series and they offered me the entire Series II at a very good price with an option to pay in installments. I still don't have the books, but I got the shipping notice the day after paying my first installment. I'm pretty happy about everything so far but I'm bummed that you all had such a crappy experience.

Maybe they've turned a corner and learned to be better at customer service from the episode? Or maybe I'm heading for the falls in a kayak.

I certainly hope they have decided their customers matter and take good care of you.

[Dan Hocker]

Let's hope Borderlands sticks to that agreement, I assume you had that deal last series and Borderlands chose not to honor it.

No not really. We just ordered what we needed from book to book. No locked in quantities or anything like that.

[Dan Hocker]

I don't really want to get into the details, but there was no bad blood or anything to patch up with Borderlands. It sucked, but at the core of it we totally understand the situation they were in. This is just my opinion, but I think had it been me I'd have made the same choice to reduce retailer quantities as well. From both a financial and "PR" standpoint it just seems like the right choice to make (at least to me).

[Brian861]

Thank you for your insight into this. I will say that I haven't dealt with Borderlands before this week, but they've been really great in our communication. I ordered the first book of Series III and emailed them to request matching numbers throughout the series and they offered me the entire Series II at a very good price with an option to pay in installments. I still don't have the books, but I got the shipping notice the day after paying my first installment. I'm pretty happy about everything so far but I'm bummed that you all had such a crappy experience.

Maybe they've turned a corner and learned to be better at customer service from the episode? Or maybe I'm heading for the falls in a kayak.

I placed in the note section when I ordered requesting the same number throughout. After reading your post, maybe I should send them a separate email.

[jeffingoff]

I placed in the note section when I ordered requesting the same number throughout. After reading your post, maybe I should send them a separate email.

When I wrote my email, I thought it was a little silly telling them I wanted the same number for every issue of the series when I don't even have a number to ask for. Felt like I was getting ahead of myself. The only reason I did it was because of the message sent by Borderlands quoted in the first post in this thread.

[jeffingoff]

I placed in the note section when I ordered requesting the same number throughout. After reading your post, maybe I should send them a separate email.

Rereading their message, you probably did it the way they wanted--a note IN the order.

[Brian861]

I don't really want to get into the details, but there was no bad blood or anything to patch up with Borderlands. It sucked, but at the core of it we totally understand the situation they were in. This is just my opinion, but I think had it been me I'd have made the same choice to reduce retailer quantities as well. From both a financial and "PR" standpoint it just seems like the right choice to make (at least to me).

I think we as CD customers would have expected the same thing. Fill the orders at home base before the outside retailers. I guess it's a bit of an assumed risk when you order off the reservation. I believe CD oversold the Lettered Flights or Fright as well and had to cancel some in-house orders. Nothing disparaging towards them; just seems it's not uncommon. Maybe Dan and can provide a little insight in general how these things happen. System can't keep up with an ultra high demand, etc.

[Brian861]

Rereading their message, you probably did it the way they wanted--a note IN the order.

Spoiler!

Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.

Never hurts to cover one's bases

[jeffingoff]

Spoiler!

Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.

Never hurts to cover one's bases

True. And that email led to me getting all of Series II, so I couldn't be happier.

[Dan Hocker]

I think we as CD customers would have expected the same thing. Fill the orders at home base before the outside retailers. I guess it's a bit of an assumed risk when you order off the reservation. I believe CD oversold the Lettered Flights or Fright as well and had to cancel some in-house orders. Nothing disparaging towards them; just seems it's not uncommon. Maybe Dan and can provide a little insight in general how these things happen. System can't keep up with an ultra high demand, etc.

Well how they happen with us is real easy. We have web software for the shopping cart and we have an order management software to actually keep track of inventory and orders. The problem is that they just don't really communicate very well. The web software can't see the inventory of the management software, but you can't use the inventory function of the web software if you're linking it to the management software.

So monitoring sales has to be done manually. If something sells super fast it can be real easy for the manual process to just not be fast enough. Which is why if you're a part of the CDCC you'll have seen the "email Mindy" sales for when we only have one or two of something to sell. On top of all that there's some other things with the store software with how it treats products that have already been added to a shopping cart, that get a little funky.

Mostly what it comes down to though is that software that is good for a company our size doesn't really exist. Big companies can afford to have software custom made for their needs, while medium companies have to work with the limited amount of stuff that's available while still doing some things manually, and really small companies have even less affordable options so end up doing even more things manually. Once you introduce the manual aspect into the equation it's becomes really easy to oversell something by mistake.

[Brian861]

Well how they happen with us is real easy. We have web software for the shopping cart and we have an order management software to actually keep track of inventory and orders. The problem is that they just don't really communicate very well. The web software can't see the inventory of the management software, but you can't use the inventory function of the web software if you're linking it to the management software.

So monitoring sales has to be done manually. If something sells super fast it can be real easy for the manual process to just not be fast enough. Which is why if you're a part of the CDCC you'll have seen the "email Mindy" sales for when we only have one or two of something to sell. On top of all that there's some other things with the store software with how it treats products that have already been added to a shopping cart, that get a little funky.

Mostly what it comes down to though is that software that is good for a company our size doesn't really exist. Big companies can afford to have software custom made for their needs, while medium companies have to work with the limited amount of stuff that's available while still doing some things manually, and really small companies have even less affordable options so end up doing even more things manually. Once you introduce the manual aspect into the equation it's becomes really easy to oversell something by mistake.

Thank you, Sir! I figured it was something along those lines.

[Brian861]

True. And that email led to me getting all of Series II, so I couldn't be happier.

Win-Win.

[jeffingoff]

I love to be an alarmist, but should we be worried that Borderlands Press pulled the first book of Series III from their home page and dropped the image for the book from their Little Books landing page? Is this an omen?

You guys got me freaked about BP.