Dear Random House: Please stink less.

whitearrow · 11-11-2010, 05:13 PM

I've been waiting for early Anne Rice books to be available for ebook, and was happy to see that a bunch of them are being released next week.

Some poking around led me to conclude that the only vampire chronicles book that would be unreleased in the US was The Vampire Armand. The Amazon ebook link, which is the same one on Random House's site, points to a geographically restricted version not available in the US.

Thinking this is probably an error, I write to Random House at the CS address on their site. You would think they might like to know that they are losing sales, and would do something to fix it, yeah?

Here is the response I received:

"Thank you for contacting Random House and for your interest in our publications.

"This appears to be some sort of a problem on Amazon’s part. The eBook edition of “The Vampire Armand” is available in the US, ISBN 9780345464538. Barnes and Noble has it for their Nook reader at http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The.../9780345464538. You should contact Amazon and ask that they add this title to their library for the Kindle."

(Bold added.)

Are they kidding? In what other business is it the consumer's responsibility to contact a retailer about a problem with the availability of a distributor's product? Seriously, I should contact Amazon? Why isn't Random House contacting Amazon?

The sheer arrogance of that aside, it would, of course, not work -- I would get back the canned response that the title is geographically restricted, etc. etc. I pointed this out to Random House with the suggestion that they should be the ones to contact Amazon, and got back the response, "We appreciate your feedback and will forward your comments to the appropriate department for review."

I'm not all that reassured this is going to be fixed anytime soon.

This kind of incredibly poor response is so typical of the major publishers' arrogance when it comes to dealing with consumers in general, and concerns about ebooks in particular.

HamsterRage · 11-11-2010, 05:23 PM

Yeah. Personally I go off the deep end whenever I contact customer support anywhere and get told, "You should call someone else". I figure I've called someone, and even if it's not the right someone that someone should take assume responsibility for the problem and contact the right someone to get it fixed.

daffy4u · 11-11-2010, 05:29 PM

According to this thread several Ann Rice novel will be available as of November 17th. Maybe The Vampire Armand will be part of that group.

Random House is not part of the Agency Pricing madness, so I would like to cut them some slack.

queentess · 11-11-2010, 05:44 PM

Sometimes things show up like that in the Kindle store before they're actually released. I have no idea why, but I've seen it before and it always resolves itself by the release date.

whitearrow · 11-11-2010, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daffy4u

According to this thread several Ann Rice novel will be available as of November 17th. Maybe The Vampire Armand will be part of that group.

But apparently it's not. The restricted book has been available for quite some time. As CS pointed out, it's available already on the Nook.

And if that is true, then CS gave me the wrong information.

In either case, telling a customer to contact the retailer isn't an acceptable response.

Skydog · 11-12-2010, 01:35 AM

I support RH as they are not part of the Agency 5. The only "big" publisher to whom I will give my $$.

NightBird · 11-12-2010, 01:57 AM

Never mind.

Kali Yuga · 11-12-2010, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whitearrow

In either case, telling a customer to contact the retailer isn't an acceptable response.

Why?

It is not RH's fault that Amazon is making an error. B&N got it right, for example: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The...vampire+armand

RH doesn't own Amazon and they don't control Amazon's databases or listings.

If I go to a bookstore and they refuse to carry a paper copy of Vampire Armand, even though it's still in print, to whom do you complain?

HamsterRage · 11-12-2010, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Why?

It is not RH's fault that Amazon is making an error. B&N got it right, for example: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The...vampire+armand

RH doesn't own Amazon and they don't control Amazon's databases or listings.

If I go to a bookstore and they refuse to carry a paper copy of Vampire Armand, even though it's still in print, to whom do you complain?

It's not a matter of assessing blame. There's a problem with a product produced by RH, and the customer has contacted RH to complain. What should RH do?

I think the answer's obvious, RH should try fix it. Because it's good customer relations, it's a problem that is preventing them from making sales, and they undoubtedly have communication channels to the management at Amazon to get it fix quickly. BTW: Even if the third point isn't true, it's a good bet that the customer thinks it is true - and perception is reality.

From a good customer service perspective, it's absurd to expect a customer with a problem to have to do some kind of analysis to figure out who they should call. Customers that actually get to the point of calling are probably already 3/4 of the way to being totally annoyed at the situation. What they really want to hear is, "I understand your problem, and I'll work to get it solved". Even if that means that the CS department has to contact a second company to get them to fix it.

fafaforza · 11-12-2010, 10:57 AM

Maybe there was a reason Amazon didn't carry them, and RH already tried to resolve the issue and they both ran into some type of a disagreement? Telling the customer to call Amazon would somewhat amount to a petition to let Amazon know that their customers want that particular product.

You're not only RH's customer, but also Amazon's. A call to Amazon, who, as far as I know, fully control what purchased books can go on your device, isn't that far out of the question, in my opinion. Like calling your cable company to carry a certain channel.

HamsterRage · 11-12-2010, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fafaforza

Maybe there was a reason Amazon didn't carry them, and RH already tried to resolve the issue and they both ran into some type of a disagreement? Telling the customer to call Amazon would somewhat amount to a petition to let Amazon know that their customers want that particular product.

You're not only RH's customer, but also Amazon's. A call to Amazon, who, as far as I know, fully control what purchased books can go on your device, isn't that far out of the question, in my opinion. Like calling your cable company to carry a certain channel.

Agreed. My point was that it's reasonable to expect that either company should be able to deal with the issue, even if the problem isn't directly under their control. In that case, they should contact the other company and get it worked out.

Telling the customer, "Sorry, not our fault. Call someone else.", is bad customer service and leads to "Please stink less" threads about their company on public forums.

whitearrow · 11-12-2010, 03:47 PM

Okay. To those of you who think I should have contacted Amazon -- okay, I just did. Let's see what response I get.

As for supporting RH because they are not part of the Agency group, I generally agree, and I probably buy more of their books than the others because of the pricing. But that doesn't mean that they are incapable of screwing up, either.

khalleron · 11-12-2010, 03:50 PM

Huh.

If I go to Border's and they don't have a book, I ask them to order it for me (at least I used to before online retail became commonplace).

I didn't call up the publisher and ask them why the book wasn't in the store. Suppliers don't control what stores carry, the stores do.

"Sorry, it's not our fault," is the only true and honest response in this situation. Even good CS can't control another company's actions.

Especially since Amazon has all sorts of ways to leave feedback.

whitearrow · 11-12-2010, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Why?

It is not RH's fault that Amazon is making an error. B&N got it right, for example: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The...vampire+armand

Since RH is the publisher, I would think they would want to resolve it so they can sell books. If a retailer is making an error with a product, it's up to both the distributor and the retailer to work together to solve it. Since RH now knows about the problem, brushing me off with a "go tell Amazon" is not, to me, an acceptable answer.

Quote:

If I go to a bookstore and they refuse to carry a paper copy of Vampire Armand, even though it's still in print, to whom do you complain?

If they bookstore "refused" then I would pursue it up the bookstore's corporate chain of command. That doesn't appear to be the case here, according to RH's own explanation. As between me, the customer, and RH, the publisher, they are in a better position to solve the problem than I am.

whitearrow · 11-12-2010, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by khalleron

"Sorry, it's not our fault," is the only true and honest response in this situation. Even good CS can't control another company's actions.

Really? You don't think an executive from RH calling up Amazon's contact person for big-6 publishers and saying "hey, there's a DB error with this book, please make it available in the US" wouldn't fix it in about 5 minutes? You think RH is totally powerless here? Really?

Comparing this to a retail store situation is pointless, because the two situations aren't the same.

11-11-2010, 05:13 PM	#1
whitearrow Guru Posts: 808 Karma: 2260766 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Kindle Oasis 2	Dear Random House: Please stink less. I've been waiting for early Anne Rice books to be available for ebook, and was happy to see that a bunch of them are being released next week. Some poking around led me to conclude that the only vampire chronicles book that would be unreleased in the US was The Vampire Armand. The Amazon ebook link, which is the same one on Random House's site, points to a geographically restricted version not available in the US. Thinking this is probably an error, I write to Random House at the CS address on their site. You would think they might like to know that they are losing sales, and would do something to fix it, yeah? Here is the response I received: "Thank you for contacting Random House and for your interest in our publications. "This appears to be some sort of a problem on Amazon’s part. The eBook edition of “The Vampire Armand” is available in the US, ISBN 9780345464538. Barnes and Noble has it for their Nook reader at http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The.../9780345464538. You should contact Amazon and ask that they add this title to their library for the Kindle." (Bold added.) Are they kidding? In what other business is it the consumer's responsibility to contact a retailer about a problem with the availability of a distributor's product? Seriously, I should contact Amazon? Why isn't Random House contacting Amazon? The sheer arrogance of that aside, it would, of course, not work -- I would get back the canned response that the title is geographically restricted, etc. etc. I pointed this out to Random House with the suggestion that they should be the ones to contact Amazon, and got back the response, "We appreciate your feedback and will forward your comments to the appropriate department for review." I'm not all that reassured this is going to be fixed anytime soon. This kind of incredibly poor response is so typical of the major publishers' arrogance when it comes to dealing with consumers in general, and concerns about ebooks in particular. Last edited by whitearrow; 11-11-2010 at 05:17 PM.

11-12-2010, 01:57 AM	#7
NightBird Wizard Posts: 2,364 Karma: 3724797 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: California Device: KPW, KF, KF HD, iPod Touch	Never mind. Last edited by NightBird; 11-12-2010 at 02:07 AM.

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11-11-2010, 05:23 PM	#2
HamsterRage Evangelist Posts: 435 Karma: 24326 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: Kobo	Yeah. Personally I go off the deep end whenever I contact customer support anywhere and get told, "You should call someone else". I figure I've called someone, and even if it's not the right someone that someone should take assume responsibility for the problem and contact the right someone to get it fixed.

11-11-2010, 05:29 PM	#3
daffy4u I'm Super Kindle-icious Posts: 6,734 Karma: 2434103 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Long Drive, Calinadia Candafornia Device: KDXG, KT, Oasis	According to this thread several Ann Rice novel will be available as of November 17th. Maybe The Vampire Armand will be part of that group. Random House is not part of the Agency Pricing madness, so I would like to cut them some slack.

11-11-2010, 05:44 PM	#4
queentess Reading is sexy Posts: 1,303 Karma: 544517 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	Sometimes things show up like that in the Kindle store before they're actually released. I have no idea why, but I've seen it before and it always resolves itself by the release date.

11-12-2010, 01:35 AM	#6
Skydog Wizard Posts: 2,286 Karma: 7409537 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Circling Earth @ Mach .83 Device: Elipsa 2E, Sage, Libra Colour, Libra 2, Clara 2E, Oasis3, Voyage	I support RH as they are not part of the Agency 5. The only "big" publisher to whom I will give my $$.

11-12-2010, 10:57 AM	#10
fafaforza Zealot Posts: 140 Karma: 26780 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Brooklyn, NY Device: Aura ONE	Maybe there was a reason Amazon didn't carry them, and RH already tried to resolve the issue and they both ran into some type of a disagreement? Telling the customer to call Amazon would somewhat amount to a petition to let Amazon know that their customers want that particular product. You're not only RH's customer, but also Amazon's. A call to Amazon, who, as far as I know, fully control what purchased books can go on your device, isn't that far out of the question, in my opinion. Like calling your cable company to carry a certain channel.

11-12-2010, 03:47 PM	#12
whitearrow Guru Posts: 808 Karma: 2260766 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Kindle Oasis 2	Okay. To those of you who think I should have contacted Amazon -- okay, I just did. Let's see what response I get. As for supporting RH because they are not part of the Agency group, I generally agree, and I probably buy more of their books than the others because of the pricing. But that doesn't mean that they are incapable of screwing up, either.

11-12-2010, 03:50 PM	#13
khalleron Kate Posts: 1,700 Karma: 3605799 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Oregon, United States Device: MeeBook, Kobo Libra Colour	Huh. If I go to Border's and they don't have a book, I ask them to order it for me (at least I used to before online retail became commonplace). I didn't call up the publisher and ask them why the book wasn't in the store. Suppliers don't control what stores carry, the stores do. "Sorry, it's not our fault," is the only true and honest response in this situation. Even good CS can't control another company's actions. Especially since Amazon has all sorts of ways to leave feedback.