Arrived today ! (UK)

Got it today!! (Gothenburg, Sweden)

Received it today (Germany)

Hello Everyone: Just in case any of you ordered a copy of Lost World's #4 from Seele-Brennt, either from the website or off of eBay, Nick has been out of town taking care of his father who has had some major health issues. I received an e-mail from him a couple of weeks ago and he said that he hopes to have all orders filled and in the mail around the second week in December.

I'm still waiting for my copy of this to turn up. I have tried e-mailing Nightshade books, but with absolutely no success (or even acknowledgement).

Does anybody have any suggestions for what my next move could be? I'm in Europe, so I'd prefer to only call them as a last resort.

Any and all help gratefully received!

Scott Connors Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Night Shade has one guy working the email. They
> are essentially a three-man operation (they
> recently hired a guy, Ross, to help out with the
> shipping chores). They once had 1500 emails about
> a forthcoming title they were in the process of
> shipping, and I expect that this didn't do much
> for the sunniness of their disposition. Amazon
> has a much bigger staff, and frankly I don't find
> their c.s. all that better since half the time the
> response is "sorry we don't have that
> information."
>
> Scott

I agree with your sentiment, Scott. I've met Jason Williams as well as exchanging emails. Night Shade is committed to putting out quality books that SHOULD be published. On the REH forum, there were several members that squealed when they saw after-market prices for the Dunsany and KEW editions. I told 'em, "Hey, you should've supported Night Shade and bought those editions NEW." Night Shade is a SMALL press publishing BIG things, IMO.

BTW, I purchased what I thought was a bundle of Avon A. Merritt paperbacks from Amazon, only to be emailed by the dealer that Amazon had mislabeled everything. He was in a double-bind. Amazon wouldn't take any credit for the snafu, so he had to take a financial loss for the 5 volumes OR get a bad customer rating OR get yanked from Amazon (his big outlet) for a week or more. I a nice price for a nm copy of Seven Footprints to Satan and the dealer sent me a refund for the rest.

I have to say my experience with Amazon has been radically different, as both buyer and seller. I had to return a book that was sent to me by mistake, and there was no problem; they credited back every dime of the transaction. When I set up my seller account, I had a query about it, and they responded within an hour or so by phone. (Contrast that with ebay and paypal, or for that matter Yahoo, who seem impenetrable.) I also had to cancel my subscription to the CAS series (ordered through Shocklines) starting with volume 3 because Shocklines kept promising to send it to me and never did. I waited, I think, two months after the pub date, and it was never clear to me if it was Shocklines' fault or Nightshade's. The Shocklines guy was prompt in replying, but I eventually despaired of getting a copy of vol. 3 from him and so canceled the order. Incidentally, the first copy I received from Amazon had a slight wave in the dust jacket; I printed out their return slip, sent that copy back, and got a new one a week or later. No hassle.

I realize Nightshade is a small operation, but honestly, there are other small presses that can't have much more of a staff than Nightshade, and they are very responsive in my experience. I've had great luck in this regard with Hippocampus (my favorite!), Arkham, and Wildside. So I don't believe size is a legitimate excuse. Also, hasn't Nightshade heard of interns? Maybe getting some enthusiastic student-types could help ease the apparent burden and bump up the customer service to a professional level.

Have you tried Night Shade recently? I understand that the situation has improved recently. I'm glad that your experience with Amazon has been positive, but this is definitely a YMMV situation. Funny that you mention Hippocampus as a small press who has good CS. I don't want to say anything against them, after all they are one of my publishers, but I've had people write to me saying the same things about them. Once more, "Your mileage may vary." I guess everybody falls short of the ideal every so often.

Scott

Subterranean Press is one of the oddest presses I've ever encountered and I've never even purchased from them directly. They will post a book up for preorder for years on end before it actually becomes available! Very frustrating.

Thanks for mentioning Bud Procissi - his name had dropped out of my memory entirely,though we used to uip one now and then at the Happy Hour in more sunlit days.