Check out the letter provided by the publisher for part 65 of the loved James Bond DB5 partwork collection. The publisher says they have run out of magazines! Seriously! The publisher has run out of magazines.
When I heard this I thought it was a joke, a good joke to play on a dedicated partwork collector. What a hilarious joke on the fans obsessed with this car!
But then I realised it wasn’t a joke. The publisher really has run out of magazines. Instead of the magazine they provide a letter pointing customers to a page on their website. Does Australia not have printers? Does this buisness not engage in planning? Surely they would have known some weeks in advance in which time they could have printed something? They had enough time to print a letter, in colour.
Some avid collectors will not want to continue with the series. I expect some will ask for their money back – and there is a precedent for this. I understand that the distributor has already been asked the question abut this.
There will be newsagents who will say this is another reason to NOT offer partworks. It will be hard to disagree with them. This mess over issue 65 of the James Bond DB5 will generate considerable challenges for newsagents. Someone somewhere is responsible. It’s disappointing that the Australian importer did not have the courage to print a name and phone number on their letter. This shows they do not accept responsibility.
And who will be the one copping the abuse for this. The Newsagent. If I was carrying this I would be adding the distributors/imports name and phone number to the letter and giving a copy to each customer who has this as a putaway.
The distributor should provide these last, late and incomplete issues FREE of charge. I would certainly be glad to hand them over to my customers for nothing for two reasons,
1) They have already spent a considerable amount on this partworks.
2) They have been inconvenienced by poor, insufficient and late supply
This would be a good PR opportunity for all concerned if handled in this way and encourage our partworks customers to continue participating with us rather than turn them off of future part works. Afret all, many customers roll from one part work series to the next and we need to keep them.
I’ll wager all direct subscribers to this partwork got a magazine in the post not a letter of apology from the publisher. Having read lots of post’s on this blog about supply problems with this series I’m glad I don’t have a customer for it, who needs that much grief in their lives.
If a customer complains advise them the importers details so they can claim a refund.
A customer of ours was not happy at receiving #65 of the James Bond DB5 minus the magazine today so we advised him to phone Network and let them know of his dissatisfaction. Network very helpfully advised him that we should not have sold it to him without the magazine and that he should return it to us. Thanks for nothing Network.
The customer, not to be fooled, pointed out that they included the notice stating that they were out of magazines and told them not to blame us. We have some great customers.
Unhappy with this response our resourceful customer contacted Bissett where he said the staff were helpful and told him that they had complete stock, did he want to subscribe? “ No” he told them “I support my local newsagency”
The magazine, while not required to complete the model, is an integral part of the collection and missing any issues surely devalues our customers collection. Also note that part #68 arrived in the same condition, no magazine and a letter from “The Publisher” which means nothing to customers.
Have written to the makers, publishers and any one connected with the DB5 car.The result?????
Nothing. No one wants to know about this .If I ever get hold of the idiot who produced part 65 and did not include the magazine, I’ll throttle the Pommy B—. This renders the whole issue worthless.