Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Part of the Comics are Late!

Well, once again UPS and Diamond have struck and my local retailer did not get all their books. What a colossal pain in the butt! My retailer was so mad she could barely speak and I don't blame her. She was standing there with four of her customers staring at her, just waiting for their stuff.

It seems that UPS is the problem, and that it was a pretty universal one up here in Washington State. Supposedly the customer service person from Diamond is going to try and ship through a different carrier next week to see what happens. It is about damn time. This crap has been going on for a long time with nothing done about it.

This means that Jim or I will have to truck back downtown to pick up the rest of the books tomorrow or Friday. Ouch.

Otherwise, it was pretty exciting to see how many great titles were coming in. I look forward to sitting down tonight and reading 52 and 100 Bullets, two books that actually came in!

Tonight it is short and sweet once again as I use all my self control to not go on a full tilt rant about Diamond and what is wrong with the industry. Give me strength!

4 comments:

John Holland said...

Yea, last week I go to get my new books and Daredevil had gotten screwed up in the shipment and they didn't receive any. My favorite book. And it's taken me until today to get back over there to pick it up.

Lisa said...

Just remember, as much of a pain in the butt as it is for you, it's 10 times that for a store owner.

It is our biggest fear - every week when we go to UPS. We've waited at the hub for an hour or more while the two staff members search the HUGE warehouse looking for one box we know is there SOMEWHERE. We always have every tracking number with us and always know exactly how many boxes we're to get. There are now 5 stores that have Diamond boxes held at the UPS hub that we go to - and there have even been times that a box or two has gone to the wrong store because someone didn't look at it close enough.

Any time something doesn't show up that we thought was coming we cringe. Be it a shipping problem or a Diamond packing problem. We HATE having to tell anyone that we didn't get what we told them we'd have. That they'll have to wait a day or two or week or longer - but please don't go to another store to find it in the mean time because we promise we'll do everything we can to get it... Then we have to do the fight with Diamond to get it and everything. Honestly, in this business where people want the weekly fix, receiving late or partial shippments is one of our biggest nightmares!

Heidi Meeley said...

John, I am so sorry to hear that! I am glad that the books finally came in so you could get yours.

Take care of yourself!

Heidi Meeley said...

Lisa, I couldn't agree more with your post. I think everyone needs to read this. It is your livelihood in jeopardy when Diamond and UPS make errors. It must be terrribly nerve racking. We need to be local to our retailers, especially when we know the problem isn't their making. We need to continue contacting Diamond and making a fuss. It is the only way to make change happen.

Lisa, you do such a wonderful job and have been so busy lately! The last thing you need is shipping problems on top of everything else!