Ordering Issues from APE Games

[APEGames Help]

I have called in inquiries for several International Priority shipments, and they will be contacting me on those within the next 16 days. *sigh* That is the good news.

A few people who have voiced questions about their order were those who used International First Class mail. What I am being told at the moment is that it is too soon to make an inquiry for any First Class shipments, based on when they were mailed. Unlike Priority Mail, which has a delivery time window, First Class International has no set delivery time expectation. So I am told I have to wait at least another week. Possibly longer, for those who did not ship the first two days.

So at this point, if you want to let me know that your order has still not arrived, I will ensure that you are on my list of orders to watch, and if eligible I will file an inquiry on your shipment. If I have put in an inquiry on your shipment, I will email you to let you know that I have done so.

Once again, I wish there were more I could do, but unfortunately customs and mailing procedures Internationally often require patience.

Amy
APE Games Shipping Dept.

[Mighty]

Right, so many many months ago I preordered Start of Darkness from the APE site and figured, oh well might as well get Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, while I'm at it so I ordered both. Then there were all the delays etc etc and then today I come home (I live in Denmark) and see a slip from the postal service that there's a package waiting from Amy Pike. Being I already have "On the Origin of PCs" I think yay! and rush down to the postal office and get the package. Then I come home, open it, looks at the included ordering recipe where it says

"Order of the Stick: Start of Darkness"
"Order of the Stick: Dungeon Crawlin' Fools"

Then I look in the box and what do I find..

"Order of the Stick: Start of Darkness" aaaand
"Order of the Stick: On the Origin of PCs"

So basically now I have two copies of On the Origin of PCs and no Dungeon Crawlin' Fools. I feel I've been patient with all the delay of Start and Darkness and I appreciate receiving that book but it's just really dissapointing to then find out that my order was screwed up and that I paid for the order AND customs on a book I already had.

My order number is 6709 and I'll be happy to take a picture of the two books and the order slip if you dont believe me.

[Seeker]

I have a similar problem to Mighty's...

I ordered Start of the Darkness and On Origin of the PC's. It got here yesterday, but for some reason when I opened the box/envelope, only SoD was there, but the receipt said that I had got both.

However, I got the lowest cost shipping available, and it only ships 1-2 items, so I'm hoping that they shipped differently and it just hasn't arrived yet. But could I have this cleared up? Order number is 9752.

I really hope someone didn't screw up and forget to package OootP... I've been waiting in suspense, and while SoD is awesome, I need some more greyscale action!

[APEGames Help]

I have addressed the issues Mighty and Seeker had by e-mail.

If either of you has any further concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me via e-mail at [email protected] for additional assistance.

Amy
APE Games Shipping Department
[email protected]

[WeAreOuttaHere]

Ha ha ha ha! Got my OotS books today!

More exclamation points for all !!!!!!!

*Phew* Took a bit of work and a lot of information from APEGamesHelp, but it all got sorted in the end.

Many thanks to Amy for her sterling work and help.

Must go read more now,

WeAreOuttaHere.

[apegamer]

*Phew* Took a bit of work and a lot of information from APEGamesHelp, but it all got sorted in the end.

Many thanks to Amy for her sterling work and help.

Isn't she the best?!

I want to let folks know a couple other things:

1) Those of you that have tried to order the Start of Darkness from apegames.com will have noticed that we'd sold out. We've got more books coming in a few days, so I've turned that product back on again in the store. Feel free to order away.

B) If you've not already seen it, note the new Shipping Questions link on the bottom of all store pages. I noticed the number of emails for shipping questions decrease dramatically since I put the link up, but in case you've not seen it, I wanted to point that out. Amy has done a great job getting additional information put together regarding how to track shipping internationally if you're in Canada, the UK or Australia (some of our biggest international buyers.) It appears that international tracking sucks far less than tracking on usps.com. I'll be putting those links into the Shipping Questions section over the next few days.

[tremodian]

Got my books today (yipee!) all the way down under in Australia. Order# 9683, ordered on the 11th of July. The delivery itself was quite fast (Priority Mail International) but it took six days (4 working days) to process and ship my order. It seems I must have ordered just as things were getting busy at APE. I had similar tracking problems to everyone else, my tracking status stayed on "electronic notification" for the better part of 5 days.

My biggest concern was the state of the books when I got them. All of the books were damaged in some way. I'm not entirely sure the polysterene bead/bubble things used to pack the books were sufficient to protect them from transit damage. One corner of the delivery box is dented with corresponding damage on the corner of the books. The damage looks like someone gripped the corner between thumb and forefinger and bent the book corner. Also one of the books has a 5cm long gouge out of the back cover (stripping off all of the glossy colouring).

I've had similar problems with other orders placed through USPS. All of the packages in the last six months that I received via USPS have been damaged in some fashion with corresponding damage to the goods inside. The damage never looks fresh so it can't be the fault of the local delivery agent (Australia Post).

Strange as I never had damage or tracking problems when I ordered the Oots boardgame.

By the way all of the Oots goods I have bought so far have been excellent quality (except for the cafe press t-shirts which had less than stellar quality colouration and fabric strength as compared to shirts from say Thinkgeek.com)

Thanks.

T.

[apegamer]

All of the books were damaged in some way.

Well, we carry insurance for many types of international orders. You should contact our shipping department at [email protected] for more information. It wouldn't hurt to send pictures of the damage.

[tremodian]

Thanks, but I'm not entirely sure it is worth the effort. I presume that if the damage was deemed sufficient I would have to send the books back for replacement? This is hardly ideal given how long it took to get them here (which effectively means I would need to wait double that time).

Thanks.

T.

P.S. I'll contact them anyway just in case.

[Girdag]

My order of Start of Darkness and Dungeon Crawlin' Fools was apparently dispatched on the 29th of June. Over 5 weeks later, and still nothing, the tracking sites don't show anything. Getting a bit ridiculous now.

[APEGames Help]

Girdag,

If you want to email me and provide me with an order number, I will see what I can find out for you.

It has been frustrating that there have been delays of this length for some of our customers, but I want to do whatever I can to help get your order to you.

One of the most common reasons at this point has been returned packages due to customs issues or address problems. These are handled on an order-by-order basis, but most have been taken care of with a fast turnaround to get a new shipment back out in the mail.

I would be happy to research your order and see what more I can tell you. My email address is below.

[tremodian]

Hi Amy,

I've sent you two emails (from Bryan Paton) in regards to the status of the damaged order (mentioned a few messages up) but have not received any reply. It has been two weeks since your email regarding your investigation of the claims process. What exactly is the status?

Thanks.

T.

[Train2nowhere]

I've placed an order for Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, and No Cure for the Paladin Blues a couple of days ago (order #10407), and I still haven't received an update or a tracking number.

[apegamer]

I've placed an order for Dungeon Crawlin' Fools, and No Cure for the Paladin Blues a couple of days ago (order #10407), and I still haven't received an update or a tracking number.

Please let us know if you've still not received anything for this order. Sometimes email addresses bounce on us.

[APEGames Help]

I have addressed Tremodian directly, in regards to his damaged order, but I want to be sure that there are no other concerns that remain unaddressed.

At this point my records show that all damage or printing issues have been addressed via email. If you still have an outstanding issue, please email me so I can help provide information to you.

[AlfonZ]

Hello.

I have couple of questions.

I was trying to create APE account. I selected "State/Province" "Outside US" and left "Other State/Province" blank.
Although it is in italic (=optional), system was complaining about blank field (both "State/Province" and "Other State/Province" became red).
So I just entered some random characters instead.
But apparently this field will get into address. As I am from Slovakia (which is not quite big country, you see), I can see no usage of this field for me.
What should I enter into it?

Can you log into your account on apegames.com and confirm your email? You'd be surprised, but maybe 1 in 5 emails bounce back to us. A lot of those are probably on purpose, I guess.

As apegamer recommends, I wanted to confirm my email address, but I couldn't find any confirmation link. So I just subscribed to newsletter and got email all right. I guess this makes my email sort of confirmed

I am thinking about ordering all 4 books and game.
Would you recommend to order all together or to split them into more orders?

Thanks.

[APEGames Help]

If you will email me directly at [email protected] that will allow us to look at everything you are asking and find the best way to order for you.

I am always happy to confirm address information and email addresses before an order is sent to ensure it gets where it is going. By emailing me we can look at your information privately and answer all your questions.

As for whether ordering once or placing separate orders would be best, I would have to look at postage information based on your address as well. It is best that I do that BEFORE you do any ordering.

Please email me at your convenience and I will help with placing the order.

[Laros]

I ordered SoD & OoPCs around 2 weeks ago and recieved a tracking number. According to the shipping agency, they've been told to expect the package but that it isn't yet being shipped.

I was just wondering how long it might take before the books are on their way.

[APEGames Help]

Without knowing more, it is hard for me to make a general statement because shipping times vary based on where it is going, and what method is chosen. I can tell you that if you are in the US, then two weeks is longer than usual. If you are intenational, the delivery times vary a lot more, but 2 or even 3 weeks is not unusual because of customs processing.

If you give me an order number I can look at your specifics, tell you when it was delivered to USPS, and possibly dig a little further.

You can post here or email me directly at the email below and I will be happy to help all that I can.

[Laros]

The order number is 11065

[APEGames Help]

The good news is that I show the package was scheduled for delivery to you on 10/24, which was Wednesday. I got that information from Canada Post's tracking system. You can enter the tracking number we sent you and see the message showing it was sent out for delivery. If you need that number again, email me. Canada actually gives me the best tracking information of all the countries I deal with. The link to that page is:

https://em.canadapost.ca/emo/basicPin.do?language=en

The link below is a page with how to contact Canada Post, and near the top center of that page is another link to their tracking system.

https://ssl.postescanada-canadapost..../default-e.asp

If you inquire with them about whether they attempted delivery, they should have an answer for you. If not, contact me again here or via email.

[Laros]

Thanks. I was checking the United States Postal Service site that the Tacking # button links to. It says that they still have yet to recieve the package.

Thanks for clearing that up :)

[APEGames Help]

No problem at all. I apologize for what USPS shows, but unfortunately they are not required to scan any package until delivery. So while some post offices or customs stops in between do show a scan, it is not always the case.

If you do not have the package in a day or two, let me know.

[Threeshades]

around the middle of september I ordered Start of Darkness and OtOoPCs. Except for an email i recieved on the 15th of september i didnt hear or see anything of it so far.

This is what the email is:

APE Games would like to apologize for the delay in shipping your order. The delay was due to technical problems beyond our control. We hope you enjoy your Order of the Stick products!


Your order 10746 will be shipped to you on 09/14/2007 via U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail Intl, Flat Rate Env to the following address:

[...]

The package's Customs ID is LJ551633748US



This package is trackable at www.usps.com.


Amy Pike
APE Games

I'd justl ike to see if i can get any information on that.

[APEGames Help]

I will look into your order by Tuesday at noon and get back with you, most likely directly via email.

[APEGames Help]

As I posted before, I have also sent you a direct email. Here is the current investigation status:

I have check the records I keep that verify what is delivered to or picked up by the post office, and your package DID go out on 9-14-07. I have gone to the USPS website, but they archive records after 60-90 days. I have made an email request to have the details restored to my email, and that should happen by tonight when I am back in the office. I will also inquire directly with them.

I am extremely sorry that the package has not yet reached you. I am going to do everything possible to find out ASAP what has happened and will email you as I know more.

If you have any questions, or if I can provide further assistance or information, please do not hesitate to let me know.

[AciD]

Woohoo, got my books !

Date of order : 2007-12-10
Date of delivery : 2007-12-24

14 days from US to France is ok.
\o/ just in time for Christmas, thanks !

The 4 books were well packed, but it seems usps don't really take care of their packages : I got all of the 4 books bottom left corner damaged :(

Anyways, reading once more the Order of the Stick (now I know why it's named like this !) adventures is great :>

cu

[Threeshades]

Any info on my order yet? I'm getting desparate.

[APEGames Help]

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I would like to personally thank those customers who sent well wishes my way, and I hope that OOTS helped to bring holiday cheer.

For the last couple of posts:

Threeshades - your order is definitely an unusual one. I will email you off the forums, but chances are that a reshipment will be made pending a few details I need from you. Please reply or email me at [email protected]


AciD - I am happy to hear you received your books. I would like to address the damage to the books. If you will email me directly, we may be able to do something about the fact that your books were damaged during shipment. Please email me, and pictures of the damage will be helpful.

[Muzzafar]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask my question, but I will try.
It says on the APE website that Start of Darkness is not available.
Can you give a rough estimate on when it will be on stock again?
(I live across the ocean so I am really interested in getting everything in one shipment.)