Amazon.com and release dates

[Dark Psion]

I have spent the last two weeks tilting at windmills and exchanging e-mails with various people at Amazon.com over their inability to meet the release dates of WotC books. They still have Waterdeep listed as "not yet published". And while my complaining did get me a $5 off my Waterdeep book, I was starting to feel like Don Quixote.

But As I was looking at this month's books, I noticed that they have the following release dates;
Weapons of Legacy: July 8th
Five Nations: July 6th

Maybe someone else can confirm these, I doubt the 6th, WotC books are usually released on Fridays.

BTW, Amazon.com has also brought back the Gold Box Specials and they seem to be based on your past purchases now. I got DMGII for $25 thru mine

 

[Nightfall]

NEVER trust Amazon.com with release dates. Psion can back me up, but honestly they just don't do it right. I site the NUMEROUS times they said "Yes Book 8 of the wheel of time will be released this date" when Tor said other wise. Guess who was right? *And no it wasn't Amazon. *

 

[drothgery]

NEVER trust Amazon.com with release dates. Psion can back me up, but honestly they just don't do it right. I site the NUMEROUS times they said "Yes Book 8 of the wheel of time will be released this date" when Tor said other wise. Guess who was right? *And no it wasn't Amazon. *

Amazon's bad habbit with release dates is making them up before they actually exist; with novels, they usually switch to the correct date not long after it exists. With WotC books in the last year or so, though, Amazon's release date has always been a few weeks after its print street date. I'd like to think it's Amazon's fault (as they might be able to fix it), but I think I read something about WotC doing this on purpose, to help gaming stores,

 

[Nightfall]

Drogy,

That may be so, but I honestly NEVER trust and still don't trust any release date from Amazon. I buy from them, but I don't believe it until I see evidence to back it up.

 

[cmanos]

I have spent the last two weeks tilting at windmills and exchanging e-mails with various people at Amazon.com over their inability to meet the release dates of WotC books. They still have Waterdeep listed as "not yet published". And while my complaining did get me a $5 off my Waterdeep book, I was starting to feel like Don Quixote.

But As I was looking at this month's books, I noticed that they have the following release dates;
Weapons of Legacy: July 8th
Five Nations: July 6th

Maybe someone else can confirm these, I doubt the 6th, WotC books are usually released on Fridays.

BTW, Amazon.com has also brought back the Gold Box Specials and they seem to be based on your past purchases now. I got DMGII for $25 thru mine

My copy of Five Nations is due to my doorstep by the 9th and according to Amazon it hasn't been shipped, or released yet. My copy of Sharn was posted as not shipped yet, 5 days after Amazon posted it as available for 24 hour delivery.

 

[cmanos]

According to Amazon, my copy of Five Nations should be to my doorstep by the 9th. According to Barnes and Noble, it is available on July 28th.

My copy of Sharn, accordingto Amazon, was still not released 5 days after I saw it in stores. I picked it up in a local store, cancelled my order with Amazon and told them exacty why I was cancelling it. I got some excuse about not being able to properly judge release dates from the publisher's info, but they couldn't explain why I could buy the book in the store, before they could release the product.

Oh well, just goes to show if you want something, you buy it at a local store. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has had problems with them.

 

[Psion]

NEVER trust Amazon.com with release dates. Psion can back me up, but honestly they just don't do it right.

Actually, I was quite surprised that I was actually able to convince them that it's okay to ship my package. Historically, I expect to have an additional 1-2 month wait for any release (especially from WotC) after the theoretical street date, and my experience has shown that it is typically useless to argue with them (the only reason I got them to ship my package that is due today is because they actually tell me "ships within 24 hours" on the website.)

The typical amazon customer rep experience makes it sound like they have a bot that grabs the closest "pat answer". I almost feel like Durkon when he is doing the dial-a-prayer thing. "You have chosen colon tumor..."

 

[Kanegrundar]

I've gotten tired of Amazon. I'll buy from them if it's an older book I can't find at my FLGS or Noble Knight Games, but I never buy new releases from them. My FLGS offers a discount on all new releases, plus if you're a member of the store you get an addition 5% discount on top of that, so I can usually beat Amazon's price after shipping easily.

Kane

 

[DaveMage]

Since the price is so low, I simply set my expectations lower with amazon.

I expect to have a product I order from them 1-2 months after release.

If there's a product I want *right now*, then I order from somewhere else.

 

[IronWolf]

Amazon's service has slipped in my opinion. I used to order books, get the free shipping and I would still get it pretty quickly. Now the free shipping option itself seems to take forever whether you are waiting for a new release or ordering a book they say they have in stock. I still order from them because the price is low and I simply lower my expectations. But I do look at other online booksellers much more often than I used to.