I preordered the Dragonlance adventure through the DDB Digital/Physical bundle and my physical product didn't arrive until 2 weeks after Store and Amazon physical order arrivals. Pissed my off beyond belief. I'll only Preorder through DDB/WOTC if the physical books will arrive on the same day as the physical release.
Does anyone have any info on when the physical product will arrive if you preorder?
Ship to store is usually pre-planned to arrive in early and held in the back until the actual release date. This is why you'll sometimes see pictures of products on the shelves before an actual release due to an inattentive store clerk didn't see the "do not put on shelf until such and such date" notice. Timing and coordinating ship to home is a lot more difficult because you're depending on the shipping companies' timetables. With new products and planned release dates, they really do want the product to arrive on the date that everyone else can get their hands on it, not late, but certainly not early.
Considering the crap shoot of shipping and delivery companies across the country and around the world, you can't mail out a product a week early because there's a decent enough chance you could get it days before anyone else and that wouldn't be fair to anyone but you. The larger package delivery companies do have different service levels of priority overnight, next day, 2nd day delivery options. Fedex has at least 7 different service levels alone to pick from. These large companies wouldn't be in business if they had constant failures on delivery deadlines but even with those, things can slip through the cracks. Paying that premium rate to have it expedited is the closest thing you have to a guaranty you're going to get it on time.
Me - 14 year veteran shipping clerk & logistics specialist.
I'm sorry, I'm going to call BS on this one. They have the logistics to get the product across all the stores on time. And they have the logistics to get it to Amazon who will get it to you on time. Saying that you have to pay extra for priority shipping to get it to you on time is just BS and poor customer service. At least they should be up front and tell you that your product will Ship on the go-live date and to expect delivery 7-10 days after. Right now they are not up front because they don't want you to know they are still keeping with their piss poor customer service tactics.
Wizards isn't a parcel delivery company. They don't pay drivers. They have other companies hired to act as the distributor and deliver books to game stores, book stores, and Amazon.
The catch is, those companies aren't package delivery companies either. They delivery to stores, not houses.
To get same day delivery, WotC would have to work with a completely different company (FedEx or UPS) or partner with Amazon. And even Amazon doesn't do release-date delivery for every product.
I'm sorry, I'm going to call BS on this one. They have the logistics to get the product across all the stores on time. And they have the logistics to get it to Amazon who will get it to you on time. Saying that you have to pay extra for priority shipping to get it to you on time is just BS and poor customer service. At least they should be up front and tell you that your product will Ship on the go-live date and to expect delivery 7-10 days after. Right now they are not up front because they don't want you to know they are still keeping with their piss poor customer service tactics.
You obviously don't know the first thing about how the shipping industry works and are looking for reasons to be an angry person.
Ok, so why can't they give me a voucher and deliver my order to the nearest game shop along with their release date orders? I get my physical product on release date, WOTC gets a happy customer. Simple problem, simple solution.
And I don't have to be an expert in the shipping industry to know what good customer service is. WOTC has had 50 years to get customer service right, this isn't rocket science.
Ok, so why can't they give me a voucher and deliver my order to the nearest game shop along with their release date orders? I get my physical product on release date, WOTC gets a happy customer. Simple problem, simple solution.
Because then they'd need to coordinate with dozens of different companies, particularly if you think every FLGS should be in on this. Complex problem, very messy solution if any.
I'll give you this, I see there's only 1 shipping option available when you order anything physical. With a 2 to 7 day window for delivery. That tells me their shipping is the equivalent to FedEx Ground or USPS media mail or something if the like. So you've got an itty bitty little point about lack of options when it comes to such a huge product roll out. But there's a few things that come from that:
You're probably getting the digital copy too and that will be available on the release date. Early access if you have a subscription or possibly preorder (not positive about that second part but probably). It's not like you're missing out on the content on day 1 or even sooner.
Your local game store that you should want to financially support in order to keep their doors open will probably have the new book, on launch day, if not a chance at any limited edition alternate covers that might be very coveted by true fans.
You're literally complaining about what day to expect a book. This isn't the 7th Harry Potter book where people waited in line at book stores for midnight to hit and they could see how the story ended. It's a rule book for a game, a revision to a game at that. Getting pissed off beyond belief is either an eccentric overstatement or you need seek some help.
If you want it day 1, get the digital version or trot your unhappy butt to your local game store and put some cash in their pocket. Don't throw a book publisher in front of a bus because they're not logistics experts. This isn't a customer service issue, this is Karen "I want to see your manager" issue and Karen! You need to sit the f down.
I'm loving you masterclass in gaslighting.... you should do a how to video on it.
Do you work for WOTC? You seem to have a vested interest in defending them and their poor customer service.
If WOTC said "we will ship pre-orders on the release date, you will get a confirmation email and receive your product in 2-7 days after release" that would be acceptable. I know what to expect.
They are asking for payment and publishing a release date, that is my expectation. If I preorder a physical game from Gamestop, I get it on the release date.
This isn't an unreasonable request. Why you are making excuses instead of finding solutions is beyond me.
I'm loving you masterclass in gaslighting.... you should do a how to video on it.
Do you work for WOTC? You seem to have a vested interest in defending them and their poor customer service.
If WOTC said "we will ship pre-orders on the release date, you will get a confirmation email and receive your product in 2-7 days after release" that would be acceptable. I know what to expect.
They are asking for payment and publishing a release date, that is my expectation. If I preorder a physical game from Gamestop, I get it on the release date.
This isn't an unreasonable request. Why you are making excuses instead of finding solutions is beyond me.
No one is making excuses, we're just trying to help you understand the way things are. If you want a physical book on release day pre-order it from a FLGS, otherwise you will have to add a few days for shipping.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
I'm loving you masterclass in gaslighting.... you should do a how to video on it.
Do you work for WOTC? You seem to have a vested interest in defending them and their poor customer service.
If WOTC said "we will ship pre-orders on the release date, you will get a confirmation email and receive your product in 2-7 days after release" that would be acceptable. I know what to expect.
They are asking for payment and publishing a release date, that is my expectation. If I preorder a physical game from Gamestop, I get it on the release date.
This isn't an unreasonable request. Why you are making excuses instead of finding solutions is beyond me.
No one is making excuses, we're just trying to help you understand the way things are. If you want a physical book on release day pre-order it from a FLGS, otherwise you will have to add a few days for shipping.
This is the solution. OP just doesn't want to accept that and is blaming the publisher that I don't work for. I'm just in the shipping business buddy.
Ok, so why can't they give me a voucher and deliver my order to the nearest game shop along with their release date orders? I get my physical product on release date, WOTC gets a happy customer. Simple problem, simple solution.
Well.... it's "simple" but requires them to know what the closest game store is to every delivery address AND ensure that said game store is able to take deliveries. So it's simple but requires a really complicated custom program and up-to-date knowledge of every single gamestore in North America.
There's lots of WPN "stores" that are really someone's basement and set-up to get exclusive Magic cards. And it requires everyone to have 100% trust in their FLGS and hope that some employee isn't going to pocket books and claim not to have received delivery.
Without considering stores that close between ordering and release. Or stores that seem close but are inconvenient to get to. Plus... what's in it for the stores, doing all this extra work and storing all these extra books and having staff hand out books to people who swear they ordered one.
And I don't have to be an expert in the shipping industry to know what good customer service is. WOTC has had 50 years to get customer service right, this isn't rocket science.
WotC was founded in 1990. It bought TSR and acquired D&D in the late '90s.
I preordered the Dragonlance adventure through the DDB Digital/Physical bundle and my physical product didn't arrive until 2 weeks after Store and Amazon physical order arrivals. Pissed my off beyond belief. I'll only Preorder through DDB/WOTC if the physical books will arrive on the same day as the physical release.
Does anyone have any info on when the physical product will arrive if you preorder?
If you want same day delivery, it looks like you'll need to pay for expedited if they have it.
Ship to store is usually pre-planned to arrive in early and held in the back until the actual release date. This is why you'll sometimes see pictures of products on the shelves before an actual release due to an inattentive store clerk didn't see the "do not put on shelf until such and such date" notice. Timing and coordinating ship to home is a lot more difficult because you're depending on the shipping companies' timetables. With new products and planned release dates, they really do want the product to arrive on the date that everyone else can get their hands on it, not late, but certainly not early.
Considering the crap shoot of shipping and delivery companies across the country and around the world, you can't mail out a product a week early because there's a decent enough chance you could get it days before anyone else and that wouldn't be fair to anyone but you. The larger package delivery companies do have different service levels of priority overnight, next day, 2nd day delivery options. Fedex has at least 7 different service levels alone to pick from. These large companies wouldn't be in business if they had constant failures on delivery deadlines but even with those, things can slip through the cracks. Paying that premium rate to have it expedited is the closest thing you have to a guaranty you're going to get it on time.
Me - 14 year veteran shipping clerk & logistics specialist.
How to: Replace DEX in your AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Build a (Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system) | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
Check out my: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
Dndbeyond images not loading A PERMANENT WORKAROUND!!! (thank you Jay_Lane)
I'm sorry, I'm going to call BS on this one. They have the logistics to get the product across all the stores on time. And they have the logistics to get it to Amazon who will get it to you on time. Saying that you have to pay extra for priority shipping to get it to you on time is just BS and poor customer service. At least they should be up front and tell you that your product will Ship on the go-live date and to expect delivery 7-10 days after. Right now they are not up front because they don't want you to know they are still keeping with their piss poor customer service tactics.
Wizards isn't a parcel delivery company. They don't pay drivers. They have other companies hired to act as the distributor and deliver books to game stores, book stores, and Amazon.
The catch is, those companies aren't package delivery companies either. They delivery to stores, not houses.
To get same day delivery, WotC would have to work with a completely different company (FedEx or UPS) or partner with Amazon. And even Amazon doesn't do release-date delivery for every product.
You obviously don't know the first thing about how the shipping industry works and are looking for reasons to be an angry person.
How to: Replace DEX in your AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Build a (Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system) | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
Check out my: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
Dndbeyond images not loading A PERMANENT WORKAROUND!!! (thank you Jay_Lane)
Ok, so why can't they give me a voucher and deliver my order to the nearest game shop along with their release date orders? I get my physical product on release date, WOTC gets a happy customer. Simple problem, simple solution.
And I don't have to be an expert in the shipping industry to know what good customer service is. WOTC has had 50 years to get customer service right, this isn't rocket science.
Because then they'd need to coordinate with dozens of different companies, particularly if you think every FLGS should be in on this. Complex problem, very messy solution if any.
I'll give you this, I see there's only 1 shipping option available when you order anything physical. With a 2 to 7 day window for delivery. That tells me their shipping is the equivalent to FedEx Ground or USPS media mail or something if the like. So you've got an itty bitty little point about lack of options when it comes to such a huge product roll out. But there's a few things that come from that:
If you want it day 1, get the digital version or trot your unhappy butt to your local game store and put some cash in their pocket. Don't throw a book publisher in front of a bus because they're not logistics experts. This isn't a customer service issue, this is Karen "I want to see your manager" issue and Karen! You need to sit the f down.
How to: Replace DEX in your AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Build a (Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system) | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
Check out my: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
Dndbeyond images not loading A PERMANENT WORKAROUND!!! (thank you Jay_Lane)
I'm loving you masterclass in gaslighting.... you should do a how to video on it.
Do you work for WOTC? You seem to have a vested interest in defending them and their poor customer service.
If WOTC said "we will ship pre-orders on the release date, you will get a confirmation email and receive your product in 2-7 days after release" that would be acceptable. I know what to expect.
They are asking for payment and publishing a release date, that is my expectation. If I preorder a physical game from Gamestop, I get it on the release date.
This isn't an unreasonable request. Why you are making excuses instead of finding solutions is beyond me.
No one is making excuses, we're just trying to help you understand the way things are. If you want a physical book on release day pre-order it from a FLGS, otherwise you will have to add a few days for shipping.
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
This is the solution. OP just doesn't want to accept that and is blaming the publisher that I don't work for. I'm just in the shipping business buddy.
How to: Replace DEX in your AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Build a (Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system) | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
Check out my: FEATS | MAGIC ITEMS | MONSTERS | SUBCLASSES Artificer Specialist: Weaveblade
Dndbeyond images not loading A PERMANENT WORKAROUND!!! (thank you Jay_Lane)
Well.... it's "simple" but requires them to know what the closest game store is to every delivery address AND ensure that said game store is able to take deliveries. So it's simple but requires a really complicated custom program and up-to-date knowledge of every single gamestore in North America.
There's lots of WPN "stores" that are really someone's basement and set-up to get exclusive Magic cards.
And it requires everyone to have 100% trust in their FLGS and hope that some employee isn't going to pocket books and claim not to have received delivery.
Without considering stores that close between ordering and release. Or stores that seem close but are inconvenient to get to.
Plus... what's in it for the stores, doing all this extra work and storing all these extra books and having staff hand out books to people who swear they ordered one.
WotC was founded in 1990. It bought TSR and acquired D&D in the late '90s.
I’ll buy one from my FLGS in addition to the one I pre-ordered. I need more than one anyway.