UKC

So I think there's no doubt it's gonna be good - maybe that's why I preordered - I wasn't so bothered about getting it cheaper, I just wanted it asap - for the second time rock fax let me down - seems that if you want something to do with climbing live in hathersage - then you can just wait until Outside opens.
So in stock tomorrow at outside - preorders next week - pissed off or what !!!

Rockfax Eastern grit now available - I think not !!!

In reply to Ciderslider:

Just go climbing eh?

In reply to Bulls Crack:

Unfortunately I live down south so just go climbing involves at least a 200 mile round trip - so I like looking at guidebooks and generally being a bit sad - when I'm not climbing of course (indoors mostly )

In reply to Ciderslider:

Understandably pissed off no doubt. I've never pre-ordered anything and I think the above story pretty much guarantees I never will.

In reply to Ciderslider:

Did they email you to let you know it would be late, or give you the option to cancel?
If not that's a pretty bad show.

In reply to Ciderslider:

There was a caveat that the pre-orders might not get it absolutely first, due to the way distribution works.

OTOH if you can't get to Hathersage you probably can't get on eastern grit either, so it's not going to make a gnat's fart of difference.

Pre-ordered mine as well and disappointed that it hasn't turned up yet even though it's now showing as in-stock on their website. Wouldn't mind so much if they got in touch to let us know about the delay. I upgraded the postage as well to make sure it didn't get held up in the post to me. Should of just waited and picked up a copy at Outside...

In reply to Ciderslider:

There is a bit of a response/explanation here:

http://www.rockfax.com/news/2015/04/17/eastern-grit-is-here/

Sorry about the delays,


Chris

In reply to Ciderslider:

Apologies for this.

The initial delivery was booked in on Wednesday this week which was entirely on schedule. We only found out at 4pm that day that it wasn't going to happen due to a delay at the ferry port - cancelled ferry I understand. This still shouldn't have been a problem though since we fully expected it on Thursday which would have got the pre-orders out ready for Friday or Saturday delivery. The ferry delay turned out to be worse than expected and we were informed at 4:30 pm that no books had arrived on Thursday.

As it turned out, the lorry arrived at the distribution warehouse just after 5pm on Thursday and the driver slept in the cab. The books arrived first thing Friday and were sent out yesterday to all pre-orders, including the shops. The presence of a weekend obviously delays the delivery process in this case. Some books were hand delivered yesterday to Outside in Hathersage and Hitch and Hike which we occasionally do due to one of the Cordee staff living in Sheffield.

I should have sent out an email to the pre-orders when we removed the offer on Wednesday but it was an evolving situation. I will try and make a note of that in future.

Apologies again for anyone who is disappointed. Rest assured that the books are getting to everyone who pre-ordered - individuals and shops - as quickly as we can manage. Circumstances sometimes work against us though. In this case the delay is 48 hours later than the promised publication date that we declared in January - not bad when you consider the reputation guidebooks have for lateness!

Alan

In reply to Ciderslider:

Still got aprox. 1900 routes to do from the 2006 guide (and a fair few from the old bmc series from the '90's) so I'm totally not going to get my arse out over this.

In reply to deacondeacon:

I haven't heard anything via email either. Couldn't even see anything on their site

An offer of a cancellation (so I would be free to buy elsewhere) would be the bare minimum tbh...

In reply to ERU:


Hi. I did write a detailed reply two posts above and there is a similar reply on the news item about the guide on the web site here http://www.rockfax.com/news/2015/04/17/eastern-grit-is-here/


But it isn't available elsewhere (with the exception of one shop in Hathersage), or at least won't be until after the book has arrived on your door mat.

I am curious as to what those who have been let down by this process expect and how they think we could improve it. When I look at it, we have fulfilled what we offer when we set out the pre-orders - buy now at a discount and have the book delivered as soon as we have stock. We give a rough indication of when that will be usually by saying that "we expect the books in the week beginning ....". In this case I refined that to the Wednesday which is what we would have hit had it not been for a delayed ferry.

I can't see how we are going to do better when things completely out of our control happen. Even sending out emails to pre-order customers wouldn't have helped much in this case since we only found out about the delays after they had happened. I will look at doing something for the next time but it may just be easier to remain vague about delivery times rather than trying to hit an actual day.

Any constructive feedback from those 2 or 3 disgruntled customers who have posted on this thread would be welcome.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

I think you handled it well, but perhaps you could have managed expectations better in the beginning - if you'd told people to expect the book a week later, then they would have been pleasantly surprised to get it a few of days early.

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

It seems that some people are making somewhat of a fuss over a mere couple of days delay in getting hold of a book.

A far more important question is the following: can I resist buying it? I can't really justify it, since I already have the first edition, and the 2nd edition, and I also have all the BMC definitives to the grit. But I just know that I'll eventually succumb sooner or later, in a weak moment, browsing in Outside -- even if just to put a lot of ticks on the new graded list -- so is there any point in trying to resist?

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

To be honest Alan I don't think that there is/was a lot you can do really - as I 've said before I suppose it's so frustrating because I just can't wait to get hold of it - but as others have stated it doesn't really matter as I'm not up there this weekend.
I suppose on Friday I was looking at a climbing starved weekend in the good old county of sussex - so at least leafing through the new guide might have cheered me up.
Still Swanage wednesday, then Derbyshire weekend after next

In reply to Ciderslider:

We spent the day at Stanage today and were amazed to discover that the 2006 guide is still fully functional

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

I'm not that bothered about waiting a couple of extra days. Delays happen, I understand that it's out of your control however I would of appreciated a quick email to keep me updated, I consider that basic customer service.

Also, you mentioned that the pre-orders were sent out on Friday although I've had no notification that my order has been dispatched? (unless it's got caught up/lost along the way) Maybe you could look at adding this feature to your shop (if it's not in place already)? It's pretty much the norm these days and would let customers know when to expect delivery.

Anyway I'm looking forward to it arriving - my current edition is in a badly, abused state...

In reply to charley and others:

Thanks for the suggestions. We will look at adding something to keep people informed. It really only arises with pre-orders since all other orders are sent pretty much straight away anyway with an acknowledgement email, and if there is a problem we deal with these individually. The pre-orders are a different matter but since we only deal with them 3 or 4 times a year it hasn't been a high priority to put a system in place however I think this would be relatively simple.

Hopefully the book will slip through people's letterboxes this morning although 'slip' might be the wrong word, 'squeeze' and 'thud' are more appropriate with this one!

Alan

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

Does all this talk of ferries mean you have given up on Uk printers?

In reply to Offwidth:


What does it matter if he has? I don't see how it is any business of yours.

The constant barrage of criticism you direct at Alan and Rockfax gets a little wearing.

He's a nice a guy who has worked hard to find a way make a good living out of what he loves. I don't see how that it is a problem.

It's like you've got some sort of chip on your shoulder.

In reply to Offwidth:


We use several different printers, one of which is in eastern Europe. They have proved to be very reliable and give a good price however we aren't committed to printing anywhere. I would like to print more in the UK. The Northern Limestone book was printed in the UK, but we need to get the best price and print quality so I assess it as each job comes up.

So the answer is 'no, I haven't given up on UK printers'.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

Cheers, thats good news. I think those still trying to use UK printers are setting a good example to others in guidebook publishing.

In reply to charley:

Call me a curmudgeon, but "would of" is a barbarity. It is "would have". All guilty parties please take note.

In reply to David Alcock:

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I'm sure I'll sleep better tonight now that my typo has been pointed out & corrected Please can I have my guidebook now?

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

As a bystander - although probably soon a owner if the new book - it seems to me there was an expectation of exclusivity i.e. preorders would get their books before anyone else. I think it's outside getting the books first (and therefore other customers) that's caused grumblings rather than the delay itself.

Is this a reasonable expectation?

Cheers,

Dan

In reply to FreshSlate:

To be honest the whole thing has taken me a bit by surprise. We have done pre-orders for years and never had anything like this, despite other books being much more in demand, and more than a couple of days late on a few occasions. The shops always have got, and always will get, their books sent out at the same time - it would be ridiculous not to do that since they too have committed to pre-ordering the book.

One thing that was slightly different in this case was that I was more definite than usual on the date, and it was just before a really beautiful weekend in prime climbing season. Had it been a grotty January day, then I doubt much fuss would have been made.

Anyway, lessons learnt and we will be slightly better at communicating with people who pre-order in the future.

Alan