A Company should replace a book up to...

[JoeGKushner]

Reading about the "crappy spine syndrome" on another post, I noticed a lot of people have issues with their Tome of Horrors. Mine is still in pretty good shape, but with all the updates in various products like Glades of Death, I don't use it too often anymore.

Anyway, at which point should a company stop replacing products that are faulty? For example, say you go out and buy Midnight 1st edition and it falls apart within days. Should Fantasy Flight games give you a new copy? Would that even be possible for the game company as the book is on a 2nd edition and probably doesn't exist anymore in their warehouse?

At what point does a company say, "We would like to help you but you're warranty has expired?"

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

If a book is in stock and available to the publisher, I would like to think that they would replace the book. If it has gone out of print, then there is really nothing they can do, nor would I expect them to (it's hard to replace something if there is nothing to replace it with).

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

1. Book needs to be in-print and still available. (Some books are OOP, yet the publisher still has some sitting in a warehouse taking up space)

2. I'd guess problems within 6 months to a year of release should be considered.

I'm aware some people treat their books horribly, and that ANY book they own that makes it past 3 months would need to be made of steel plates.

I am not one of those. I have a bookcase at home & a sturdy book to transfer books between home & the game. I make sure the books are alwasy properly stored on the shelf, when not in use.

As such, most of my books are in really good shape. Books I've owned (and used heavily) for over a decade, Skills & Powers being a good example, are still in great shape.

That said....

Creatuer Collection I, Creature Collection II, Tome of Horrors, Denizens of Darkness, Denizens of Dread, Relics & Rituals ALL are falling apart, despite light use. (As is Goodman's Book of Templates- isn't Goodman using White Wolf's Printer now?)

I now treat my WW hardcovers with kid gloves, as I'm sure they'll fall apart. I think my Tome of Horrors II is staring to break up. Of all the books I own from all the publishers, White Wolf is by far the worst. White Wolf's books just don't seem to hold up under normal (even below normal) use.

Am I alone in that observation? Just unlucky? Does anyone know about White-Wolf's Printer?

 

[PatrickLawinger]

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That said....

Creatuer Collection I, Creature Collection II, Tome of Horrors, Denizens of Darkness, Denizens of Dread, Relics & Rituals ALL are falling apart, despite light use. (As is Goodman's Book of Templates- isn't Goodman using White Wolf's Printer now?)

I now treat my WW hardcovers with kid gloves, as I'm sure they'll fall apart. I think my Tome of Horrors II is staring to break up. Of all the books I own from all the publishers, White Wolf is by far the worst. White Wolf's books just don't seem to hold up under normal (even below normal) use.

Am I alone in that observation? Just unlucky? Does anyone know about White-Wolf's Printer?

Everyone has different experiences. Necromancer Games had terrible luck with Tome of Horrors (1) but this was due to the fact the book was simply so large the bindery couldn't handle it. We did our best to replace faulty books when we could. This significantly hurt the bottom line on Tome, but it was done anyway. Even though the publisher can get a refund from the binder/printer for problems like this, this doesn't match the money lost (nor the extra shipping costs to keep fans happy).

As for White Wolf hardcovers as a whole, well, I am not sure. I have heard about problems on some books but really haven't seen any problems with the books I have received. This could be due to the fact that I receive most of those books directly from the WW warehouse so they haven't gone through any special storage problems. How and where books are stored before and during shipping can alter the way the glue and bindings respond. White Wolf, to the best of my knowledge, has used different printers and binders. The books Necromancer Games has coming out through WW this year are/were pritned and bound in China. I have multiple copies of all of this year's NG books and none of my copies have any binding problems nor any of the bowing that was reported for a few books on our (NG) message boards.

As for Goodman, I believe only their DragonMech series is published through/with WW but I am not certain. You'd have to ask Joe. I don't know where Joe has books printed or bound so can't answer for him.

It looks like you have binding problems with books that came through different binderies, if you bought them all at a local store their might be a shipping/distribution/storage problem. I really can't explain that. The only WW/SSS book I had problems with is a copy of Tome (1) and that is because I traded a copy I rec'd with a customer/fan whose copy had a problem. None of my R&R or CC books have any binding problems. I live in a relatively dry, warm climate (San Antonio, TX) so this could have an effect as well.

Patrick