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Post by Audio Watchdog on Sept 9, 2016 23:46:18 GMT
Looking at these changes I wonder if the quick hook on the discounted price for second volumes of the New Series box sets and the 8th Doctor Time War box was a clue that BF was looking at shipping for some really popular box sets and making a preemptive strike to cut off some of the bleeding?
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Post by elkawho on Sept 10, 2016 2:58:33 GMT
I'm also a download only customer (except for 1 or 2 exceptions). I went to the "Who North America" website and selected A Life Of Crime just to see what their shipping cost would be to New Jersey. They charge $6.95 for shipping. If I was going to get the physical product I would probably end up ordering the download from BF and the CD from Who North America. I don't see how any international customer could afford to consistently buy CDs from BF any longer.
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Post by nottenst on Sept 10, 2016 14:18:57 GMT
I don't know if this has been brought up earlier, but shouldn't they give a postage discount to people who are subscribing to the main range in CD form? They are already getting one package a month. It should be just a minor incremental charge to add in another subscription and ship them both together.
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Post by mark687 on Sept 11, 2016 23:14:13 GMT
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Post by nottenst on Sept 12, 2016 3:39:01 GMT
Well, the podcast addresses the issue and clarifies some matters. Nick really apologizes for the mess.
Regarding the US, I don't know whether it would turn economical or not, but if they could outsource the production and distribution to some company in the US, it would seem that there would be great savings for everyone.
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Post by agentten on Sept 12, 2016 3:56:27 GMT
I appreciate that they took the time to address the topic in the podcast. I hope they'll find a way to implement some mitigating improvements, but I felt Briggs addressed it in a straight forward, genuine manner.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2016 11:05:13 GMT
I hope they'll find a way to implement some mitigating improvements, but I felt Briggs addressed it in a straight forward, genuine manner. Me too. It was good that this issue was addressed and an apology given in the podcast by Nick. So that's fair enough.
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Post by kamica on Sept 12, 2016 19:57:54 GMT
I'm just wondering why the shipping to germany is as expensive as shipping to the US dispite the European Union single market. I'm confused.
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Post by mark687 on Sept 12, 2016 20:20:10 GMT
I'm just wondering why the shipping to germany is as expensive as shipping to the US dispite the European Union single market. I'm confused. Because the value of the Euro to the Pound is now roughly the same as the value of the US Dollar to the pound. The Pre-Oder charge though seems to be an fixed sum rate set by DHL regardless of the package's destination.
Regards
mark687
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Post by Digi on Sept 13, 2016 22:54:53 GMT
While I'm still very unhappy with these changes--and being employed in the logistics industry, seriously questioning whether BF has managed to secure a decent corporate rate from DHL--I do very much appreciate Nick Briggs taking the time to address and discuss it on the podcast. It wasn't anything we'd worked out on our own or heard from the Facebook page, but it was still very good of him to speak to it.
And, incidentally, as both logistics worker and someone who receives personal deliveries very regularly, DHL is a terrible carrier in the first place. They're slow, they're expensive, they hit you with COD charges whether you authorized them to clear it through Customs or not--just all-around bad business. Given a choice between DHL and literally any other shipping company, DHL doesn't even rank.
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Post by coffeeaddict on Sept 13, 2016 23:09:59 GMT
... DHL is a terrible carrier in the first place. They're slow, they're expensive, they hit you with COD charges whether you authorized them to clear it through Customs or not--just all-around bad business. Given a choice between DHL and literally any other shipping company, DHL doesn't even rank. Fully agree. In Canada they have a terrible reputation. My father drove delivery truck for over 30 years - as much as he hated UPS, they at least got some kind words, I can't print is views about DHL as I don't think I could clean up the language enough. They'll hit you with $30 to $40 dollar ransoms on your package saying it is brokerage, where other companies have never tried collecting one. Got into an arguement with them once when they tried hitting me up for import fees on items that were exempt under NAFTA. Working for the government is handy sometimes... resolutions came much quicker.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2016 0:01:20 GMT
And, incidentally, as both logistics worker and someone who receives personal deliveries very regularly, DHL is a terrible carrier in the first place. They're slow, they're expensive, they hit you with COD charges whether you authorized them to clear it through Customs or not--just all-around bad business. Given a choice between DHL and literally any other shipping company, DHL doesn't even rank. Yeah, DHL don't have a good name over here either; the company I work for wouldn't use them... and they are certainly not the cheapest option for BF to send a CD in a jiffy bag from the UK to Ireland either.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2016 0:32:12 GMT
DHL certainly aren't the best but my God, having dealt with Hermes extensively in a previous job, I can't believe there's any courier worse. I like DPD, I've had a few things from them in the past where they email and text "Your delivery is Number 14 and the driver Gary is currently making delivery 9. He should be with you in about 30 minutes" with a little map of where the van is. Very, very efficient - though that service must cost a whack and if the driver fancies a wee skive for 15 minutes it must be murder.
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Post by Ela on Sept 14, 2016 0:47:49 GMT
Huh. DHL has never requested extra fees in order for me to collect my package. It gets delivered like any other package. That said, I have only had to do business with them on very rare occasions. Big Finish is the only company I've bought anything from the routinely uses DHL for shipping large packages.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Sept 14, 2016 1:09:21 GMT
I say this as someone with a lot of love for BF but taking three years to figure out DHL had jacked up their rates is so Big Finish in a nutshell, it's scary. Anyway, I figure the ordering of box sets is for the most part not a huge deal but the monthly subs? Kind of a huge deal. Still working on that.
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Post by mark687 on Sept 18, 2016 23:45:01 GMT
This weeks podcast has a response and buying ideas for the overseas customer.
Option 1 if you want the CDs wait till a 6 or 12 story run, or whole series is released then buy it in one go in a Bundle/Sub for reduced postage and avoid online spoilers.
Option 2 Switch to DL
Option 3 for the US Customer Buy CDs from Alien Entertainment because they're "friends" of BF
Regards
mark687
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Post by agentten on Sept 19, 2016 3:24:35 GMT
Sounds like BF are suggesting what I've been thinking. As a physical costumer, it sounds like I'll be avoiding pre order subscriptions and pre ordering boxed sets in large batches rather than pre ordering as they're announced. This is what I did with all the recent Torchwood announcements. I have all the special releases pre ordered, which I did all at once, and I'll just wait for the third series to all be released before I order them.
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Post by kamica on Sept 19, 2016 6:18:27 GMT
What about the european customers? It is just as expensive as shipping to the US and Alien Entertainment isnt any cheeper because they ship from the US.
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Post by barnabaslives on Sept 19, 2016 14:12:29 GMT
Still don't know why it would be harder for them to just have one shipping date for an otherwise ordinary CD sub instead of managing 6-12 shipping dates for the same items.
I wouldn't want to wait 6 months or 12 months to hear the stories, and it certainly defeats the pre-order ad copy, "be among the very first to hear this stupendous release" - as well as seemingly defeating the whole idea of giving Big Finish money in advance that they can use for productions.
I suppose given the options that the best thing might be to buy DL subs and then purchase CD subs for the same items later when they're all available if you want the CDs? About the same price as shipping CDs on release and you don't have to wait for the stories.
Shame, though - pretty sure Amazon has had the "buy now, ship when all items are available" option for some time now, and up until this I've thought of BF's customer service as superior to Amazon's in every way.
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Post by fuurei on Sept 19, 2016 14:54:23 GMT
It sounds like in the podcast they didn't flat-out reject the possibility of doing a "hold until all items available" option, but Ian (as quoted by Nick) said that it would require big website changes and lots of warehouse storage headaches (though they are still nominally looking into it). Which is approximately what he'd said previously in email to me and presumably many others.
It does really seem like the "hold" option would make most sense, and I don't think they disagree with that; it ends up being a question of what's feasible technically for their operations. I continue to hope that there's enough demand for this shipping option for them to continue considering what it would take to make it happen, but I guess we'll see.
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