International Shipping

[Farmer]

This is the tale of books well travelled - too well travelled, I suspect. I will mention at the start that matters were well resolved in the end and for that a thank you to SJ Games. Perhaps, though, this tale will prompt some thought about improvements in the future.

A small but active group of gamers and GURPers we have given patronage to well over a hundred titles over nearly two decades of GURPing. Other selections such as Car Wars and Killer were, for me at least, the entry point to the world of SJ Games.

In a hopefully typical antipodean style we have accepted that it takes time to arrive in paradise - not everyone is equipped with Kangaroos and Wombats to ensure speedy and secure delivery. Of this we are accepting and not a little overly smug.

The world has changed in two decades and so too our expecatations. No longer do we curse the local telephone company for the quality of lines, when trying to negotiate a connection to a bulletin board at a breathtaking 1200 baud. No, today we rile if the delay measures more than milliseconds! News and information arrives instantly and our smug isolation in paradise becomes a forlorn exclusion on the other side of the world.

New and wonderful products are promised and delivered. We wonder whether we will be able to participate in the fever of release and our patience is rewarded when we find, lurking in the depths of Warehouse 23 (well, actually, very prominently available and bordering on the neon), a reasonably priced solution to our international delivery.

Our pre-order desires whetted and fulfillment promised we return to our smugness in the expectation that we could have our paradise and read it too.

I am a veteran of international trade. From humble beginnings to nationwide management I have financed and banked the bizzare and the bountiful. I am familiar with the process of import and export. When my money was digitised and sent rapidly over the pond, my expectations grew of the imminent arrival of my new reading and gaming pleasure. My joy was further bouyed with a cyber confirmation from the halls numbered 23.

1 week.

2 weeks.

15 days.

15 days? I could have flown around the world 6 or 7 times by regular commercial routes in that time. Where had my fnordian pleasures been? Did the USSS intercept them - that would not have been unprecedented? Would I have to visit the secret chambers beneath Uluru? Well, perhaps it wasn't worth the effort to discover this secret when, afterall, I had my prize.

Peace was not available on the 19th day, though. A fellow GURPian-down-under was still anticipating an arrival. His plastic had been reduced a day later than mine, and we accounted for the vagueries of weekends on all and sundry, but 18 days was still just another day.

The exchange of emails picked up the pace. There was nothing that could be done, we were told. We have no way of tracing the package, was the response. For speedy or traceable service you should have chosen the arm-and-a-leg courier option, it was suggested. It is far too soon to consider a refund or a replacement, was the counsel. If you dishonour the card drawing we will disenfranchise you, was the warning.

21 days.

28 days.

Long enough? Apparently so. Apparently 28 days is time enough to be sure that something has not travelled a route that can be achieved in less than 28 hours. And, so, a replacement was sent and nearly a fortnight later - more than 40 days since it began - it arrived and the matter drew to a close. The original - months later - is still lost (along, I might add, with the labour of your signatures!).

If you've read this far then you've more than paid a fair price in compensation and proven an unusual committment to your customers. I am not surprised.

With that said, though, I implore you, SJ Games - Steve, even - to please consider removing a delivery option which fails to offer any method of tracking, confirmation or determination of results. Whilst expectations are lowered when the cost is lowered they never sink to the point of expecting nothing which is only just below the level of that particular service.

There are better means of international distribution that offer a more attractive pricing than the direct courier. Regular airmail post would, at least, allow for tracking and verification of delivery. Every article entering Australia requires a custom clearance and can be tracked from that clearance. That in this case such information could not be obtained from those contracted with the delivery is indictment enough of the service being poor and unworthy of your custom.

Thank you for your time and thank you for your wonderful books.