Anyone have good or bad experience with this company?
I just got into D&D dropped about $200 on books this month. I decided to buy my 1st campaign "humblewood" But Im a big fan of physical media and wasn't clear if the DDB version was physical. I found a sale deal for an imperfect print @ hit point press website...so bought it...and regrettably forked over the additional $12 for shipping. So deal didnt seem that great at the check out. Its been 2 business days and my status still says "Awaiting Fulfillment". So sent an email today to their support to inquire. I was shocked by the automated email response.
first line:
"due to the current high volume of tickets we're receiving please be aware a response may take between 6-8 business days."
LOL 6-8 business days to find out an update on my order.=pathetic
The worse part was the email's closure...
"We know that you're likely reaching out to us because something hasn't gone entirely right with your order, pledge, or download and understand how frustrating that can be! Please note, Hit Point Press reserves the right to discontinue support services to those directing disrespectful or belittling language towards the support team."
What the Flippin Heck! This aint charity...I bought a book and the service to put it in a box and ship it!
I was really looking FWD to this book but if a company has to take 6-8 days for a response and a threaten you to eat it if they dont like your tone ....This is probably a crap company!
Hope I'm wrong and they beat my expectations.
But If I was Wizards of the Coast...I'd say, "You're licensing our name for our playerbase"...you cater to them and not the other way around. This is how licensing is suppose to work. If you don't represent the brand you license in a positive light, you lose your license!
To me 3rd party creators shipping kills the buying of their physical books for me, and as someone that likes to have both a physical and digital copy the shipping stops me from purchasing lots of 3rd party stuff. I understand they do not control shipping costs, but they do choose to limit the shipping options, and that is where they lose my business on all platforms. They can either absorb some of the cost, or give me the option to choose the cost/method that suits my needs. The biggest reason I didn't/won't buy Humblewood is the shipping cost of the physical book. DDB's cost is very reasonable for digital, but the total cost to buy the physical book stopped me from buying either. It has been similar with other 3rd party publishers too. I assume it is due to scale of economy and laziness vs return on investment, but when I can buy a book of similar size and weight on the Bay and the shipping is a few dollars I just have a hard time paying almost 25% of the book price (it goes up if you buy more books too) for shipping which is what most of these 3rd party publishers want to ship the book to me. One would think the cost of employing someone to shop shipping options would offset the cost of that employee with total sales, but I am not fluent in this particular box of business, so what do I know other than I will not buy any of it if I am getting screwed on the shipping of the physical part of it.
The situation reminds me of a toy company. Years ago I collected Masters of the Universe figures from a Mattel monthly collectors club. Figs were 20 something then 30 something after shipping. I was lucky and never had a shipping problem...but several others did. The whole community was up in arms about the distributor they chose. Eventually Mattel killed they line and license went to Super7.
After my post visited hpp's socials...saw slot of shipping complaints from a year ago after the kickstarter. Just crazy after 1 automated email I knew exactly the kinda company I did business with. Typical of them to also ship their product for free to influencers to get them to shill for them and then crap all over actual paying customers.
That sounds like a pretty reasonable shipping time for most small online retailers. And also a fairly standard Terms of Service clause: don't act like the kind of person often written about on Not Always Right and there won't be an issue.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
To be perfectly frank, given your first reaction to a pretty standard small business delay is to mock them on a completely different company’s website, can you really blame Hit Point Press for spelling out “don’t be a jerk to our customer support?” The way you are handling yourself here kind of indicates you are the exact kind of person that needs the “be polite to support staff” forewarning.
Hit Point Press is not the problem here - they are a small business who recently got a big boon from a much bigger business and thus is having some big business level attention, while still having a small business sized staff. Your unrealistic expectations and overreactions are the problem.
It also is very clear you fundamentally do not understand how Wizards’ licensing deals work. Wizards has an open license to certain aspects of the game anyone can use to make D&D content. The way that license is set up, Wizards cannot really revoke it (and, if they tried, it would be a PR disaster given some recent issues regarding that license). Hit Point Press is also not licensing the brand D&D they are licensing the content; it is not a trademark license, but a copyright one. So, not only can Wizards not really revoke the license, your statement about Hit Point Press is incorrect, as they are not licensing the “brand” as you seem to think.
"We know that you're likely reaching out to us because something hasn't gone entirely right with your order, pledge, or download and understand how frustrating that can be! Please note, Hit Point Press reserves the right to discontinue support services to those directing disrespectful or belittling language towards the support team."
What the Flippin Heck! This aint charity...I bought a book and the service to put it in a box and ship it!
As someone who is involved in a community facing position, you skipped over the key part:
right to discontinue support services to those directing disrespectful or belittling language towards the support team
I don't see anything at all wrong with a company having a clause in place to protect their staff from abuse? The fact someone has bought a product/service does not entitle them to be abusive to staff. Any company that looks out for the wellbeing of their staff in this way gets a thumbs up from me.
Your experiences including shipping time and support ticket turnaround sounds pretty reasonable/typical, especially for smaller companies such as Hit Point Press
Anyone have good or bad experience with this company?
I just got into D&D dropped about $200 on books this month. I decided to buy my 1st campaign "humblewood" But Im a big fan of physical media and wasn't clear if the DDB version was physical. I found a sale deal for an imperfect print @ hit point press website...so bought it...and regrettably forked over the additional $12 for shipping. So deal didnt seem that great at the check out. Its been 2 business days and my status still says "Awaiting Fulfillment".
$12 isn't nice, but at least in my country, shopping through someone other than Amazon and not to a store, that's not abnormal. As for 2 days without changing fulfilment status...that's pretty normal. Amazon might beat that, most other companies take a week or more. Give them time to breathe.
So sent an email today to their support to inquire. I was shocked by the automated email response.
first line:
"due to the current high volume of tickets we're receiving please be aware a response may take between 6-8 business days."
LOL 6-8 business days to find out an update on my order.=pathetic
That is pretty bad. If I've paid money, I want to be assured that the process is at least working. Most aim for a 1-2 days. Still, be fair, you've only waited two days.
The worse part was the email's closure...
"We know that you're likely reaching out to us because something hasn't gone entirely right with your order, pledge, or download and understand how frustrating that can be! Please note, Hit Point Press reserves the right to discontinue support services to those directing disrespectful or belittling language towards the support team."
What the Flippin Heck! This aint charity...I bought a book and the service to put it in a box and ship it!
I was really looking FWD to this book but if a company has to take 6-8 days for a response and a threaten you to eat it if they dont like your tone ....This is probably a crap company!
Hope I'm wrong and they beat my expectations.
Have you noticed the similar signs gone up in shops since pandemic? My local hospital is flooded with them. Customers can be freaking jerks, and it's not fair to the customer service reps, who are getting paid near minimum wage in part because you want cheap books, to be shouted and sworn at because of things they have no control over. Like, decent human beings don't shout and swear because someone else made a mistake or are so busy that they're struggling to get things out timely. So don't be that guy, much less to some guy who has no control over it.
Story time: One of the companies that sells the stuff for a game I play was really struggling to fix a problem with my order, they'd sent me messed up dice. Their customer service was swamped and struggling to respond to requests. After a while, I reached out to one of the higher up guys (not CEO or anything like that, but someone that had responsibility) and had a polite chat with him and enquired about getting it sorted. Not a problem! Dealt with that day.
I now have a contact in that company that I can leverage if something goes wrong. He knows that I'm not a jerk and just want to be fair. If I say there's a problem, then he probably knows that it's a problem and will likely get it fixed. I probably won't need it or ever cash that in, but it's there. I would not have that contact if I'd flown of the handle - and would have gained nothing but cathartic release had I done so. Don't be a jerk, and you're fine. Better yet, with good relations, you can often get better things anyway.
But If I was Wizards of the Coast...I'd say, "You're licensing our name for our playerbase"...you cater to them and not the other way around. This is how licensing is suppose to work. If you don't represent the brand you license in a positive light, you lose your license!
It's not WotC's responsibility to regulate the 3rd parties to the point of pulling licences if they don't get an order out in two days. To be blunt, it would be pretty hypocritical of them if they tried - WotC would probably struggle to do it. Regardless, just chill. If it hasn't changed order status in a week or two, then you can send an email. If they haven't got back to you within the 8 days, you can start getting firmer (not rude). Right now is the time to relax. It's a book, there are a lot of things that are more important that take longer.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Anyone have good or bad experience with this company?
I just got into D&D dropped about $200 on books this month. I decided to buy my 1st campaign "humblewood" But Im a big fan of physical media and wasn't clear if the DDB version was physical. I found a sale deal for an imperfect print @ hit point press website...so bought it...and regrettably forked over the additional $12 for shipping. So deal didnt seem that great at the check out. Its been 2 business days and my status still says "Awaiting Fulfillment". So sent an email today to their support to inquire. I was shocked by the automated email response.
first line:
"due to the current high volume of tickets we're receiving please be aware a response may take between 6-8 business days."
LOL 6-8 business days to find out an update on my order.=pathetic
The worse part was the email's closure...
"We know that you're likely reaching out to us because something hasn't gone entirely right with your order, pledge, or download and understand how frustrating that can be! Please note, Hit Point Press reserves the right to discontinue support services to those directing disrespectful or belittling language towards the support team."
I have to say give them time, but I would also have the same reaction to seeing the byline of “we reserve the right to discontinue support”
discontinuing support is one thing, talking your money and not supplying the product is another - consider consumer support in the suppliers area if the item(s) don’t turn up in a “reasonable time”. It should be sent within a few days if it was in stock, if it’s more than 30 days dispute the charge. You can be angry with them, but even being angry is not a legal justification for them not supplying the goods you purchased, they would have to give you a full refund by law.
discontinuing support is one thing, talking your money and not supplying the product is another
Where does it say they can keep your money and not send the product?
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Please note, Hit Point Press reserves the right to discontinue support services to those directing disrespectful or belittling language towards the support team.
Gotta admit, knowing that they have the backs of their frontline staff and aren't willing to sacrifice them on the utterly bull$#!+ altar of "the customer is always right" makes me far more likely to buy Hit Point Press products
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I was really looking FWD to this book but if a company has to take 6-8 days for a response and a threaten you to eat it if they dont like your tone ....This is probably a crap company!
discontinuing support is one thing, talking your money and not supplying the product is another
Where does it say they can keep your money and not send the product?
It does not - and here I suspect we are in furious agreement :)
maybe I’m reading Seth’s post incorrectly, however Seths post implies that the item will not be delivered as a consequence of rude behavior to staff “and threaten you to eat it”.
Of course that would not be legal and I pointed out that if the seller did behave that way, then Seth has a legal avenue to pursue.
personally I don’t think that is the sellers intention by the statement.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Please note, Hit Point Press reserves the right to discontinue support services to those directing disrespectful or belittling language towards the support team.
Gotta admit, knowing that they have the backs of their frontline staff and aren't willing to sacrifice them on the utterly bull$#!+ altar of "the customer is always right" makes me far more likely to buy Hit Point Press products
Yeah, same here. I am not their target audience, but they definitely earned some of my respect. If I am feeling adventurous with third party stuff, I will definitely consider Hit Point Press in the future.
And in addition to being more empathetic, people should also like maybe pay attention to the news a bit more. Everyone can use a bit more empathy and knowledge. The pandemic happened four years ago, and retail and supply chains are still having an iffy recovery. I mean, hell, Wizard's own delivery of the physical books from their digital-physical bundles are a bit subpar, and they are a big corporation.
Its been 2 business days and my status still says "Awaiting Fulfillment".
Take a deep breath. The modern conveniences of instant-gratification services like Doordash and Amazon delivery have very real human costs that smaller companies are not willing or able to pay.
On the bright side, these smaller businesses can focus more of their value on the actual product you paid for. But yeah, it's not quite as convenient. Try to have patience, and if in the end you feel the content wasn't worth the wait then you don't ever have to give them another cent.
Please note, Hit Point Press reserves the right to discontinue support services to those directing disrespectful or belittling language towards the support team.
Consider how it might feel to be support staff. They are not in charge of how many support staff there are, which determines wait times. They are not in charge of shipping, so there's nothing they can do to speed up delivery. They often do not have the authority to give you a discount or whatever you might want for your inconvenience. Yelling at them fixes none of those problems and only serves to make them miserable. Support is a hell job when it's just people venting at you for mistakes you didn't make and can't do anything about. Every company should have a policy like this to normalize basic human decency towards support staff.
I've bought a number of products direct from HPP (who also are very present in FLGS if anyone in the US/Canada want to cut out shipping costs). Since at least buying D&D and I'm guessing TTRPGs are seemingly new to the OP, they may be surprised to understand that this is actually how many if not most TTRPG publishers operate. Many consumers are used to Amazon-style fulfillment timetables (the sustainability of which are a debate that's too far a digression for this thread). TTRPG publishers, being much smaller operations (the 'warehouses' are nothing like Amazon fulfillments centers). Case in point, Paizo, an arguable "#2" in "D&D" spaces, take over a week for my orders to go from "awaiting fulfillment" to "shipped" and we're talking about a new release not some back catalog material.
It sounds like to me Hit Points Press is behaving entirely normally, especially since what we're talking about is an order from what's basically the company's "ding and dent" section, so they'll likely be reviewing their stock in that section to get you best piece among the imperfect they can get you.
So in short, no Hit Point Press doesn't suck (if they were a bad actor in the TTRPG space, WotC likely wouldn't have brought them into their 3rd party partner stable, nor would Hit Point Press have the reputation they have in TTRPG spaces). What's a little questionable is entering a hobby, having some confusion about the practices of the smaller entities in that hobby, but rather than asking substantive questions (and maybe on forums more focused on discussing Hit Point Press' products, of which there are many), leading with "does x suck?", I'd argue that conduct requires some reflection. There's a place on Reddit for that genre.
Consider how it might feel to be support staff. They are not in charge of how many support staff there are, which determines wait times. They are not in charge of shipping, so there's nothing they can do to speed up delivery. They often do not have the authority to give you a discount or whatever you might want for your inconvenience. Yelling at them fixes none of those problems and only serves to make them miserable. Support is a hell job when it's just people venting at you for mistakes you didn't make and can't do anything about. Every company should have a policy like this to normalize basic human decency towards support staff.
While I do not disagree with you we all should be polite to each other, however company policy and CS prep before the rep gets involved goes a long way in how customers respond to CS reps. I have not personally dealt with Hit Point Press, and likely will not due to shipping costs, but plenty of CS departments have the customer so frustrated by the time they get to talk to a rep that the rep takes the full brunt on the chin, and you can't tell me this is not by design in this day and age. I do feel bad for the reps as that job sucks, I have friends in that field and try to remember that they are people and I would not want to be treated poorly if I was on the other end of the coms. But spending several minutes with a non-human pushing buttons and entering information with the keypad only to have to give all of the information again once the rep gets on the line does set the whole thing up for a bad outcome. If you don't want customers treating your CS reps poorly why do companies use systems that frustrate and infuriate your customers right before they speak to a human rep? I do my best when I find myself in this situation, and inform the reps that I am frustrated, why I am and that I am doing my best not to direct that at them, again I am not familiar with HPP's CS, but I can say CS in many cases has the effect of causing issues it should be preventing.
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CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
You're correct that the companies make it worse. It's all down to money though - if they hired enough staff, things could be dealt with quickly, efficiently and with reasonably good humour. That costs money.
My experience has been that the solution to "Do we spend money or try to work harder?" is "don't spend money and just make the low paid grunts deal with the crap that results". It's not nice, but the problem with companies is that the people making these decisions aren't the ones who have to deal with the consequences. Even with statements like HPP, it is often cheap talk. It's free to put such disclaimers on emails.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
To be fair, there is also the simply matter of what they can actually afford. Having twice as many people working customer support would certainly make the support easier, but will it bring in twice as many sales? An extra 50%? 20%? If the company is incorporated, then they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to not sink a ton of extra payroll into something that won't generate significant revenue. If this is a small operation like a lot of content creator stuff out there, they probably don't have that kind of capital to spare.
If the OP bothered to look around their website under contact us and read the FAQ (these exist to provide info one not need to wait for a customer service response), they'd see "Orders should typically ship within 5-7 business days from when you place your order for it to be processed before it’s shipped." Dude hits them up after two days and goes to DDB with an unconscious AITA [REDACTED].
To be fair, there is also the simply matter of what they can actually afford. Having twice as many people working customer support would certainly make the support easier, but will it bring in twice as many sales? An extra 50%? 20%? If the company is incorporated, then they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to not sink a ton of extra payroll into something that won't generate significant revenue. If this is a small operation like a lot of content creator stuff out there, they probably don't have that kind of capital to spare.
Also in addition it's a small operation that has probably had a sudden surge in orders above and beyond what they normally experience. Having Humblewood added to DDB would have raised the profile for that book and brought it to the attention of a lot of people who weren't previous aware it existed and many of them might prefer physical to digital. Were they supposed to double their staff just in case they got extra business? Even if it is worth it staff don't normally start immediately
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Anyone have good or bad experience with this company?
I just got into D&D dropped about $200 on books this month. I decided to buy my 1st campaign "humblewood" But Im a big fan of physical media and wasn't clear if the DDB version was physical. I found a sale deal for an imperfect print @ hit point press website...so bought it...and regrettably forked over the additional $12 for shipping. So deal didnt seem that great at the check out. Its been 2 business days and my status still says "Awaiting Fulfillment". So sent an email today to their support to inquire. I was shocked by the automated email response.
first line:
"due to the current high volume of tickets we're receiving please be aware a response may take between 6-8 business days."
LOL 6-8 business days to find out an update on my order.=pathetic
The worse part was the email's closure...
"We know that you're likely reaching out to us because something hasn't gone entirely right with your order, pledge, or download and understand how frustrating that can be! Please note, Hit Point Press reserves the right to discontinue support services to those directing disrespectful or belittling language towards the support team."
What the Flippin Heck! This aint charity...I bought a book and the service to put it in a box and ship it!
I was really looking FWD to this book but if a company has to take 6-8 days for a response and a threaten you to eat it if they dont like your tone ....This is probably a crap company!
Hope I'm wrong and they beat my expectations.
But If I was Wizards of the Coast...I'd say, "You're licensing our name for our playerbase"...you cater to them and not the other way around. This is how licensing is suppose to work. If you don't represent the brand you license in a positive light, you lose your license!
To me 3rd party creators shipping kills the buying of their physical books for me, and as someone that likes to have both a physical and digital copy the shipping stops me from purchasing lots of 3rd party stuff. I understand they do not control shipping costs, but they do choose to limit the shipping options, and that is where they lose my business on all platforms. They can either absorb some of the cost, or give me the option to choose the cost/method that suits my needs. The biggest reason I didn't/won't buy Humblewood is the shipping cost of the physical book. DDB's cost is very reasonable for digital, but the total cost to buy the physical book stopped me from buying either. It has been similar with other 3rd party publishers too. I assume it is due to scale of economy and laziness vs return on investment, but when I can buy a book of similar size and weight on the Bay and the shipping is a few dollars I just have a hard time paying almost 25% of the book price (it goes up if you buy more books too) for shipping which is what most of these 3rd party publishers want to ship the book to me. One would think the cost of employing someone to shop shipping options would offset the cost of that employee with total sales, but I am not fluent in this particular box of business, so what do I know other than I will not buy any of it if I am getting screwed on the shipping of the physical part of it.
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
The situation reminds me of a toy company. Years ago I collected Masters of the Universe figures from a Mattel monthly collectors club. Figs were 20 something then 30 something after shipping. I was lucky and never had a shipping problem...but several others did. The whole community was up in arms about the distributor they chose. Eventually Mattel killed they line and license went to Super7.
After my post visited hpp's socials...saw slot of shipping complaints from a year ago after the kickstarter. Just crazy after 1 automated email I knew exactly the kinda company I did business with. Typical of them to also ship their product for free to influencers to get them to shill for them and then crap all over actual paying customers.
That sounds like a pretty reasonable shipping time for most small online retailers. And also a fairly standard Terms of Service clause: don't act like the kind of person often written about on Not Always Right and there won't be an issue.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
To be perfectly frank, given your first reaction to a pretty standard small business delay is to mock them on a completely different company’s website, can you really blame Hit Point Press for spelling out “don’t be a jerk to our customer support?” The way you are handling yourself here kind of indicates you are the exact kind of person that needs the “be polite to support staff” forewarning.
Hit Point Press is not the problem here - they are a small business who recently got a big boon from a much bigger business and thus is having some big business level attention, while still having a small business sized staff. Your unrealistic expectations and overreactions are the problem.
It also is very clear you fundamentally do not understand how Wizards’ licensing deals work. Wizards has an open license to certain aspects of the game anyone can use to make D&D content. The way that license is set up, Wizards cannot really revoke it (and, if they tried, it would be a PR disaster given some recent issues regarding that license). Hit Point Press is also not licensing the brand D&D they are licensing the content; it is not a trademark license, but a copyright one. So, not only can Wizards not really revoke the license, your statement about Hit Point Press is incorrect, as they are not licensing the “brand” as you seem to think.
As someone who is involved in a community facing position, you skipped over the key part:
I don't see anything at all wrong with a company having a clause in place to protect their staff from abuse? The fact someone has bought a product/service does not entitle them to be abusive to staff. Any company that looks out for the wellbeing of their staff in this way gets a thumbs up from me.
Your experiences including shipping time and support ticket turnaround sounds pretty reasonable/typical, especially for smaller companies such as Hit Point Press
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$12 isn't nice, but at least in my country, shopping through someone other than Amazon and not to a store, that's not abnormal. As for 2 days without changing fulfilment status...that's pretty normal. Amazon might beat that, most other companies take a week or more. Give them time to breathe.
That is pretty bad. If I've paid money, I want to be assured that the process is at least working. Most aim for a 1-2 days. Still, be fair, you've only waited two days.
Have you noticed the similar signs gone up in shops since pandemic? My local hospital is flooded with them. Customers can be freaking jerks, and it's not fair to the customer service reps, who are getting paid near minimum wage in part because you want cheap books, to be shouted and sworn at because of things they have no control over. Like, decent human beings don't shout and swear because someone else made a mistake or are so busy that they're struggling to get things out timely. So don't be that guy, much less to some guy who has no control over it.
Story time: One of the companies that sells the stuff for a game I play was really struggling to fix a problem with my order, they'd sent me messed up dice. Their customer service was swamped and struggling to respond to requests. After a while, I reached out to one of the higher up guys (not CEO or anything like that, but someone that had responsibility) and had a polite chat with him and enquired about getting it sorted. Not a problem! Dealt with that day.
I now have a contact in that company that I can leverage if something goes wrong. He knows that I'm not a jerk and just want to be fair. If I say there's a problem, then he probably knows that it's a problem and will likely get it fixed. I probably won't need it or ever cash that in, but it's there. I would not have that contact if I'd flown of the handle - and would have gained nothing but cathartic release had I done so. Don't be a jerk, and you're fine. Better yet, with good relations, you can often get better things anyway.
It's not WotC's responsibility to regulate the 3rd parties to the point of pulling licences if they don't get an order out in two days. To be blunt, it would be pretty hypocritical of them if they tried - WotC would probably struggle to do it. Regardless, just chill. If it hasn't changed order status in a week or two, then you can send an email. If they haven't got back to you within the 8 days, you can start getting firmer (not rude). Right now is the time to relax. It's a book, there are a lot of things that are more important that take longer.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I have to say give them time, but I would also have the same reaction to seeing the byline of “we reserve the right to discontinue support”
discontinuing support is one thing, talking your money and not supplying the product is another - consider consumer support in the suppliers area if the item(s) don’t turn up in a “reasonable time”. It should be sent within a few days if it was in stock, if it’s more than 30 days dispute the charge. You can be angry with them, but even being angry is not a legal justification for them not supplying the goods you purchased, they would have to give you a full refund by law.
Where does it say they can keep your money and not send the product?
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Gotta admit, knowing that they have the backs of their frontline staff and aren't willing to sacrifice them on the utterly bull$#!+ altar of "the customer is always right" makes me far more likely to buy Hit Point Press products
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
It does not - and here I suspect we are in furious agreement :)
maybe I’m reading Seth’s post incorrectly, however Seths post implies that the item will not be delivered as a consequence of rude behavior to staff “and threaten you to eat it”.
Of course that would not be legal and I pointed out that if the seller did behave that way, then Seth has a legal avenue to pursue.
personally I don’t think that is the sellers intention by the statement.
Ah ok, fair enough!
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Yeah, same here. I am not their target audience, but they definitely earned some of my respect. If I am feeling adventurous with third party stuff, I will definitely consider Hit Point Press in the future.
And in addition to being more empathetic, people should also like maybe pay attention to the news a bit more. Everyone can use a bit more empathy and knowledge. The pandemic happened four years ago, and retail and supply chains are still having an iffy recovery. I mean, hell, Wizard's own delivery of the physical books from their digital-physical bundles are a bit subpar, and they are a big corporation.
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Take a deep breath. The modern conveniences of instant-gratification services like Doordash and Amazon delivery have very real human costs that smaller companies are not willing or able to pay.
On the bright side, these smaller businesses can focus more of their value on the actual product you paid for. But yeah, it's not quite as convenient. Try to have patience, and if in the end you feel the content wasn't worth the wait then you don't ever have to give them another cent.
Consider how it might feel to be support staff. They are not in charge of how many support staff there are, which determines wait times. They are not in charge of shipping, so there's nothing they can do to speed up delivery. They often do not have the authority to give you a discount or whatever you might want for your inconvenience. Yelling at them fixes none of those problems and only serves to make them miserable. Support is a hell job when it's just people venting at you for mistakes you didn't make and can't do anything about. Every company should have a policy like this to normalize basic human decency towards support staff.
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(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I've bought a number of products direct from HPP (who also are very present in FLGS if anyone in the US/Canada want to cut out shipping costs). Since at least buying D&D and I'm guessing TTRPGs are seemingly new to the OP, they may be surprised to understand that this is actually how many if not most TTRPG publishers operate. Many consumers are used to Amazon-style fulfillment timetables (the sustainability of which are a debate that's too far a digression for this thread). TTRPG publishers, being much smaller operations (the 'warehouses' are nothing like Amazon fulfillments centers). Case in point, Paizo, an arguable "#2" in "D&D" spaces, take over a week for my orders to go from "awaiting fulfillment" to "shipped" and we're talking about a new release not some back catalog material.
It sounds like to me Hit Points Press is behaving entirely normally, especially since what we're talking about is an order from what's basically the company's "ding and dent" section, so they'll likely be reviewing their stock in that section to get you best piece among the imperfect they can get you.
So in short, no Hit Point Press doesn't suck (if they were a bad actor in the TTRPG space, WotC likely wouldn't have brought them into their 3rd party partner stable, nor would Hit Point Press have the reputation they have in TTRPG spaces). What's a little questionable is entering a hobby, having some confusion about the practices of the smaller entities in that hobby, but rather than asking substantive questions (and maybe on forums more focused on discussing Hit Point Press' products, of which there are many), leading with "does x suck?", I'd argue that conduct requires some reflection. There's a place on Reddit for that genre.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
While I do not disagree with you we all should be polite to each other, however company policy and CS prep before the rep gets involved goes a long way in how customers respond to CS reps. I have not personally dealt with Hit Point Press, and likely will not due to shipping costs, but plenty of CS departments have the customer so frustrated by the time they get to talk to a rep that the rep takes the full brunt on the chin, and you can't tell me this is not by design in this day and age. I do feel bad for the reps as that job sucks, I have friends in that field and try to remember that they are people and I would not want to be treated poorly if I was on the other end of the coms. But spending several minutes with a non-human pushing buttons and entering information with the keypad only to have to give all of the information again once the rep gets on the line does set the whole thing up for a bad outcome. If you don't want customers treating your CS reps poorly why do companies use systems that frustrate and infuriate your customers right before they speak to a human rep? I do my best when I find myself in this situation, and inform the reps that I am frustrated, why I am and that I am doing my best not to direct that at them, again I am not familiar with HPP's CS, but I can say CS in many cases has the effect of causing issues it should be preventing.
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
You're correct that the companies make it worse. It's all down to money though - if they hired enough staff, things could be dealt with quickly, efficiently and with reasonably good humour. That costs money.
My experience has been that the solution to "Do we spend money or try to work harder?" is "don't spend money and just make the low paid grunts deal with the crap that results". It's not nice, but the problem with companies is that the people making these decisions aren't the ones who have to deal with the consequences. Even with statements like HPP, it is often cheap talk. It's free to put such disclaimers on emails.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
To be fair, there is also the simply matter of what they can actually afford. Having twice as many people working customer support would certainly make the support easier, but will it bring in twice as many sales? An extra 50%? 20%? If the company is incorporated, then they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to not sink a ton of extra payroll into something that won't generate significant revenue. If this is a small operation like a lot of content creator stuff out there, they probably don't have that kind of capital to spare.
If the OP bothered to look around their website under contact us and read the FAQ (these exist to provide info one not need to wait for a customer service response), they'd see "Orders should typically ship within 5-7 business days from when you place your order for it to be processed before it’s shipped." Dude hits them up after two days and goes to DDB with an unconscious AITA [REDACTED].
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Also in addition it's a small operation that has probably had a sudden surge in orders above and beyond what they normally experience. Having Humblewood added to DDB would have raised the profile for that book and brought it to the attention of a lot of people who weren't previous aware it existed and many of them might prefer physical to digital. Were they supposed to double their staff just in case they got extra business? Even if it is worth it staff don't normally start immediately