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

[Imaro]

I don't disagree that it's not their fault.

I do disagree that silence is the best choice.

What happened isn't something they had control over; how they responded and reacted are things they had control over.

Yes but what's an adequate amount of time to allow them to decide how to address the issue and then make their statement?

 

[mamba]

Yes but what's an adequate amount of time to allow them to decide how to address the issue and then make their statement?

they are not limited to making one statement… say something now to show you care and mention that you are looking into a solution or something like that. Silence is the worst they can do (short of saying ‘serves you right, and we are not refunding you either’…)

 

[GreyLord]

Some news: I just received my alt-cover PHB, slightly delayed but now it's here, yay!

It says "printed in the USA", so it seems like the speculation that the overseas alt-covers are printed in China is wrong. At least here in Europe we're getting American books.

Which makes me wonder why there is a specific shortage in Oceania. Was there a separate print run for that region, or did WotC decide to prioritize retailers closer to home?

Do people even KNOW it's WotC that's cancelled orders. All WotC did (and this was before the OTHER Distributors started to make and say things that caused either them, or those they distributed to, to cancel orders) was announce a change in availability dates. This announcement (referred by me earlier in this thread and ignored by practically everyone) was made shortly before people started getting cancellations on their orders.

Until those dates actually occur, or WotC says something more specific, there is no way to know whether there will actually be a shortage or not.

It would still be seen.

I'd speculate to say that someone panicked over something, and that's where all the cancellations suddenly started (for those who got them) down the line. It's still 3 weeks out for the Books to hit the stall over there officially at this point.

Speculation:

(If they are coming from the US, and not China, it takes no more than a cargo container or two accidentally falling overboard to cause difficulties. At that point, it probably would be seen as to how to plug that gap, and that would affect the availability dates).

Another possibility, the ones who were one of the groups distributing the books were also online sellers...and these covers were NOT for online sales. AS this group was online selling, their numbers were decreased accordingly. Shops that were going to get the special covers from that distributor are being affected. That sucks, but break the rules and you lose the numbers estimated that were going to be sold online. What sucks even more, is that I expect that distributor will STILL sell the books online and take those books that they sell online from the numbers that COULD have been sent/allocated to the hobby shops.

Is that really WotC's fault in that case?

To put this in better perspective, there was a D&D book I ordered half a year before it's release date. That order was cancelled. Ironically, I have no idea why it was cancelled as there was actually no shortage. I expect that they just didn't want to honor to pre-order price as the actual price turned out to be higher.

Cancellations can happen for all sorts of reasons.

I have not heard anything OFFICIAL (not even in this thread) from WotC or Hasbro addressing this yet EXCEPT for the announcements of changes of the dates of when the books should be expected and the changes to the official release dates.

Beyond that, thus far, I think everything is speculation EXCEPT for the official statements from certain distributors, and those are saying they are getting less than they expected for allocation. The problem, though, as I stated in my speculation, is that they have also been contrubuting to online sales from what I gather, which is expressely NOT what the alternative covers were supposed to be benefiting.

If anyone has OFFICIAL statements from WotC concerning this, I'd be interested in reading them. Of course, it's a bad PR move to just stay silent in the wake of the rumors, but sometimes nothing doesn't necessarily mean the rumors are true either.

 

[Imaro]

they are not limited to making one statement… say something now to show you care and mention that you are looking into a solution or something like that. Silence is the worst they can do (short of saying ‘serves you right, and we are not refunding you either’…)

No silence is not the worst... the worst would be stating something without properly vetting it and not being able to follow through on it.

Edit: We are looking into it isn't going to satisfy anyone... and creates just as much negative speculation as saying nothing.

 

[mamba]

No silence is not the worst... the worst would be stating something without properly vetting it and not being able to follow through on it.

sure, they could do worse than saying nothing.

Edit: We are looking into it isn't going to satisfy anyone... and creates just as much negative speculation as saying nothing.

I disagree, at least then ‘we’ know they are looking into doing something about it, staying silent is worse

Staying silent is almost never better than saying something noncommittal, the exception being a police interrogation…

 

[Imaro]

sure, they could do worse than saying nothing.


I disagree, at least then ‘we’ know they are looking into doing something about it, staying silent is worse

To be honest I'm more interested in the oppinion of those actually affected by it vs. those outraged on their behalf.

 

[mamba]

To be honest I'm more interested in the oppinion of those actually affected by it vs. those outraged on their behalf.

you do you, I am not outraged, I just do not like / disagree with the ‘WotC is not to blame here at all’ narrative

 

[Argyle King]

Yes but what's an adequate amount of time to allow them to decide how to address the issue and then make their statement?

Depends on the situation.

Given the situation of being in the midst of rolling out a new core product -for which you took preorders and customer money- I think some cursory statement about still looking into what happened with the printer and (more importantly) that you're exploring options for ensuring that the early adopters (who had faith enough in your product to pay in advance) have an option for still getting their order should be (imo) within a week of the issue being announced.

This early statement need not have many details, and it likely won't. It is mainly to communicate that the company is looking into the issue and that more details will come later. That also establishes communication in a positive and pro-active way, while giving the company control over when/where the next step in communication will occur.

"...we're having our team look into it and collecting information about what went wrong at the printing facility... blah blah blah... as we get more information and come up with a plan to ensure that our loyal fans and customers... whatever whatever... and going forward, we will have the head of Community Relations take point on this... they will have an update on [social media channel] on [whatever date]."

If I was getting paid to sit down and craft a statement, it would be better than that, but I think that covers the basic idea.

Take a negative and turn it into a positive by driving community engagement, having control over the time & place that an update will occur, and driving traffic to a channel of your choosing (which could later be a place to start sprinkling in positive news during updates).

Next, be sure to avoid lying and avoid corporate jargon or double-speak. It's okay to admit that you don't currently know something -but you'll look into it and try to have more information at the next update. It's also okay to say that you're not yet able to speak on something because it's still under review by a legal team (or something similar,) but you expect to be able to give a statement on [date]. Either way, you are taking control, communicating, and building forward.

Once you do have solid answers, make it simple: this is what happened; this is what we're doing to make sure it doesn't happen again; these are your options for resolving the issue.

 

[Imaro]

you do you, I am not outraged, I just do not like / disagree with the ‘WotC is not to blame here at all’ narrative

Because you know exactly what happened and why... sort of like our earlier discussion around the complexity of having both 2014 and 2024 options in DDB. Simple... right?

 

[Imaro]

Depends on the situation.

Given the situation of being in the midst of rolling out a new core product -for which you took preorders and customer money- I think some cursory statement about still looking into what happened with the printer and (more importantly) that you're exploring options for ensuring that the early adopters (who had faith enough in your product to pay in advance) have an option for still getting their order should be (imo) within a week of the issue being announced.

This early statement need not have many details, and it likely won't. It is mainly to communicate that the company is looking into the issue and that more details will come later. That also establishes communication in a positive and pro-active way, while giving the company control over when/where the next step in communication will occur.

"...we're having our team look into it and collecting information about what went wrong at the printing facility... blah blah blah... as we get more information and come up with a plan to ensure that our loyal fans and customers... whatever whatever... and going forward, we will have the head of Community Relations take point on this... they will have an update on [social media channel] on [whatever date]."

If I was getting paid to sit down and craft a statement, it would be better than that, but I think that covers the basic idea.

Take a negative and turn it into a positive by driving community engagement, having control over the time & place that an update will occur, and driving traffic to a channel of your choosing (which could later be a place to start sprinkling in positive news during updates).

Next, be sure to avoid lying and avoid corporate jargon or double-speak. It's okay to about that you don't currently know something -but you'll look into it and try to have more information at the next update. It's also okay to say that you're not yet able to speak on something because it's still under review by a legal team (or something similar,) but you expect to be able to give a statement on [date]. Either way, you are taking control, communicating, and building forward.

Once you do have solid answers, make it simple: this is what happened; this is what we're doing to make sure it doesn't happen again; these are your options for resolving the issue.

They released a statement saying there was a delayed release date. As another poster stated... are we sure WotC is actually cancelling pre-orders,... that they haven't already implemented a solution... or that the info we received secondhand is accurate? I'll wait until there is more first hand evidence before condemning them on something like this.