D&D (2024) Hobby Store Exclusive (Special Cover) PHB Pre-Orders Cancelled

[Chaosmancer]

The problem books were apparently printed in China. Chinese companies are eager for business and will tell you whatever they think you want to hear about their capabilities, so if you're not doing due dilligence when evaluating them you're risking ending up with results like the current fiasco.

Aren't they using their normal printers, who they have worked with for the last 10 years, and have thoroughly vetted?

 

[Chaosmancer]

WoTC has no control over a printer botching a print job.

However, what they can control is PR and coming up with a plan to (at some point) deliver the product for which customers have already paid.

True, but they do eventually learn to recognize a pattern. Making an immediate statement will only lead to backlash and recriminations until they release a clarification. So, I doubt they are in any rush to get information out.

 

[John Lloyd1]

No, I believe they are long gone at this point.

That's a shame.

 

[Argyle King]

True, but they do eventually learn to recognize a pattern. Making an immediate statement will only lead to backlash and recriminations until they release a clarification. So, I doubt they are in any rush to get information out.

That they're not yet ready to make a statement could also be a valid PR statement if they have a PR representative.

Good PR tends to be pro-active rather than reactive. Better communication can go a long way when it comes to fostering a better relationship with a customer base.

 

[Stormonu]

WoTC has no control over a printer botching a print job.

However, what they can control is PR and coming up with a plan to (at some point) deliver the product for which customers have already paid.

Hopefully, they didn't go with the same printer that did the Deck of Many Things and that fiasco. Though, considering the lead time on printing, they may have made printing arrangements before they got the 1st prints back from that series.

Good luck to ya'll, hope they get the issue ironed out and we don't run across more issues down the road.

 

[Hussar]

That they're not yet ready to make a statement could also be a valid PR statement if they have a PR representative.

Good PR tends to be pro-active rather than reactive. Better communication can go a long way when it comes to fostering a better relationship with a customer base.

You'd think.

But, history has shown that anything WotC says can and will be used against them, no matter what they say or how they say it. The fandom has proven this time and time again. Nothing WotC could possibly say will help the situation, so, radio silence until they actually have solid information is the best policy.

Trying to engage with the fandom and expecting the fandom to be any kind of reasonable is like sticking your hand in a blender, hit the button and expecting to get a tasty smoothie.

 

[DEFCON 1]

You'd think.

But, history has shown that anything WotC says can and will be used against them, no matter what they say or how they say it. The fandom has proven this time and time again. Nothing WotC could possibly say will help the situation, so, radio silence until they actually have solid information is the best policy.

Trying to engage with the fandom and expecting the fandom to be any kind of reasonable is like sticking your hand in a blender, hit the button and expecting to get a tasty smoothie.

People should have learned that back in the 3E days when D&D employees actually went onto places such as this to engage with the fandom and then got nothing but crap thrown at them so they all stopped.

But apparently they never did. So they now are asking "Why don't they respond quickly to my carefully thought-out and well-reasoned inquiry that in no way treats them like I think they are unintelligent goons?" And the company employees are choosing not to engage.

For some reason, people apparently don't get that there's actually an invisible 'Ignore' feature in ALL internet communication and that no one has to respond to you, LOL.

 

[Argyle King]

You'd think.

But, history has shown that anything WotC says can and will be used against them, no matter what they say or how they say it. The fandom has proven this time and time again. Nothing WotC could possibly say will help the situation, so, radio silence until they actually have solid information is the best policy.

Trying to engage with the fandom and expecting the fandom to be any kind of reasonable is like sticking your hand in a blender, hit the button and expecting to get a tasty smoothie.

I completely disagree with that assessment.

 

[Nikosandros]

No, I believe they are long gone at this point.

@LaTia J has posted here at the beginning of the month and I agree that they've always been super-nice, both here and on DDB forums.

 

[Dausuul]

Some folks are going to complain no matter what. Some of them are going to be vile about it. This is the Internet. Trolls gonna troll, bring fire damage.

That doesn't mean WotC gets a pass for doing a bad job. I agree that they are not to blame for the printer screwing up*. They are, however, to blame for a) not publicly addressing the issue once it became clear that it was an issue, and b) telling a distributor that they aren't going to reprint the missing books. Anyone who put in one of those orders has every right to be mad at WotC.

(On the "not reprinting the books" thing, I debated whether that was being fair to Wizards, since we are getting this information secondhand and paraphrased. But as of now, that is the only communication from WotC that anyone seems to have gotten; so yeah, I think it's fair to put that on them. Getting out in front of a highly visible screwup, even if only to say "We are aware of the issue and we are working on resolving it," is customer relations 101.)

*Well, probably. If they've had problems with this printer before, or if they switched to an unknown new printer right before the big 2024 release, then they are to blame. I wouldn't think either of those would be the case, but who knows.