(no subject)

[graculus]

Following my rant here and getting absolutely no response to my emailed complaint, I have now written to the company in question. I used the phrases 'shoddy merchandise' and 'appalling quality', as well as stating that I expected better from a product that sells for £7 a pop (and not mentioning I got it for £4 on Amazon, which is none of their business anyway...).

So, let's see what Random House customer service is like, shall we? ;)

And in other news, I just ordered my Christmas present to myself... not quite as pricy as last year's (so I might buy myself something more, if anything takes my fancy), but equally purple!

Comments

[mer1973.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Amazon too? Random House might have made it, but Amazon sold it to you. They deserve to share in the love hear how shoddy the books they're selling are.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Well, let's see if Random House have the courtesy to respond to me, first. It's not as if Amazon are going anywhere... ;)

[tryfanstone.livejournal.com]

Hello.
Putting my bookseller's hat on for the duration, mer1973 is right. Amazon uk (name your retailer) are responsible for the condition of the book *as sold to you*. Random House are responsible for the condition of the book *as sold to Amazon*.
However, RH are responsible for the quality of the binding, per se. I suspect Amulet, like the vast majority of paperbacks, will have been tendered to a short-term printing contractor working to a very reduced budget. Many paperbacks these days are also printed in areas of cheap labour. They are expected, indeed, budgeted and constructed, to have a shelf-life of no more than three years - which is almost insulting to the rows of orange and green Penguins on my bookshelves and I suspect on yours!
This is, sadly, the way of the booktrade. However, there are small publishers who are moving in the opposite direction - well bound and beautifully produced reprints and new texts. Some of these publishers are dealing in teenage and children's fiction - I'm thinking of Janet Neels and Just for Girls, for example.
Pendulum swing, just to extend the Stroud metaphor.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Yep, I read something about expected shelf life of new paperbacks and my Penguins scoff at them...

Meanwhile, I'm much more inclined to vent my spleen on Random House than I am on Amazon - maybe I've just been lucky, but this is the first of the many many things I've bought from Amazon that I've had problems with. If Random House choose to employ monkeys to produce their merchandise, what does that have to do with Amazon? Had I bought the (apparently perfect on purchase) book from a high street store and paid £7 for it, I expect my language would have been even worse. ;)