Pathfinder 1E Rate Paizo as a Company!

[Jack99]

And why is that Paizo's fault?

I've had trades, marked as gifts, stopped by customs to otehr countries postal system and the folks had to suck up teh customs.

you werent expecting them to do what about it?

Doesn't really matter, if you know the specifics. I wrote them several times, and it took them 3 emails/posts and 13 days to respond. Had they responded in a timely fashion, there would never have been an issue. Understand? The poor service (compared to what I am used to from them) was a 13 days response time, on an issue that was time-sensitive.

I hope this concludes my need to explain the matter.

 

[rounser]

Doesn't really matter, if you know the specifics. I wrote them several times, and it took them 3 emails/posts and 13 days to respond. Had they responded in a timely fashion, there would never have been an issue. Understand? The poor service (compared to what I am used to from them) was a 13 days response time, on an issue that was time-sensitive.

If I'd been that impatient, my phone and internet would never have got connected. And they're local companies, not an international one.

I hope this concludes my need to explain the matter.

It clarifies exactly where you're coming from, yes.

 

[Samuel Leming]

Hopefully somebody from WotC will review these two threads and learn something. Can anyone make an argument that having better customer service and PR would hurt WotC?

Paizo obviously knows what to do and is doing it.

Sam

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If I'd been that impatient, my phone and internet would never have got connected. And they're local companies, not an international one.

It clarifies exactly where you're coming from, yes.

Remember that it wasn't just about taking more time - it resulted in extra monetary cost for him!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Hopefully somebody from WotC will review these two threads and learn something.

I hope so, too.

Can anyone make an argument that having better customer service and PR would hurt WotC?

I could try claiming that better customer service and PR costs more money then they get for it.

Paizo obviously knows what to do and is doing it.

I think so. But: They haven't won me as a customer yet! I didn't read Dungeon or Dragon, and I never bought any of their adventures. I am a "customer by associated", since we played the Dungeon adventure paths and also two of their Pathfinder adventure paths. But this might come to an end with every Pathfinder/3E DM converting (or planning to convert) to 4E now!

 

[DeusExMachina]

Ack, wrong button...

Disregard post...

 

[ThirdWizard]

Paizo obviously knows what to do and is doing it.

My guess: People who are sticking with 3e are voting WotC down, 'cause they don't like 4e. People who are moving to 4e have no hard feelings so they are honestly reviewing Paizo's business practices. In other words, lots of people have WotC whereas nobody hates Paizo. I don't think it means much, though, as I think Paizo is a great company who unfortunately doesn't sell anything I want (well nothing I can't get cheaper from other places at least).

 

[rounser]

Remember that it wasn't just about taking more time - it resulted in extra monetary cost for him!

I really, really can't sympathise. It's a case of unrealistic expectations on his part, IMO.

The most recent thing I ordered took two weeks for the importer to get back to me, said they were waiting on the manufacturer to make more of them...three weeks later they contact me saying it'll be another 6 to 8 weeks to ship. I expected all of this (delays of months), and am not disappointed as a result.

That's the real world. Most companies that aren't Amazon or Dell don't seem to run on internet time.

 

[delericho]

...though they definitely lose marks for the continual disastrous subscription problems that made every damn magazine arrive four months late if at all for us Australian types, and which they never did anything about...

Maybe a year before they lost Dragon and Dungeon, Paizo ran into a problem with UK subscriptions (something to do with their distributors). As the magazines got a couple of months behind, the CEO of Paizo herself stepped in, first to directly address complaints on their messageboards, and then the arrange an alternate delivery of those missing magazines.

Obviously, it would have been better not to have the problem in the first place, but I definately rated that incident as a 'win' for Paizo.

It's unfortunate that your experience was otherwise, of course.

 

[delericho]

Hopefully somebody from WotC will review these two threads and learn something. Can anyone make an argument that having better customer service and PR would hurt WotC?

Yes. Wizards have many many more customers than Paizo. I would also be willing to bet that the costs of a really good PR/customer service operation aren't linear with the number of customers, but are at least quadratic, and probably exponential.

In other words, to get PR/CS at the level that Paizo (mostly) display would cost WotC a huge amount. Even a marginal improvement might cost so significantly as to be not worth doing.