Edited to Add - I have brought this post to the attention of the Assistant Editor of Interweave Knits so that the magazine may be able to recognise some of the problems of the Subscription service. Please feel free to add any other comments you may have in regards to Interweave Knits Magazine Subscription Service. I have always believed in trying to do something about problems I encounter, when possible, rather than whinge about it. Now is your chance to add your voice. Thanks very much for all the comments already left. I hope they help in the long term.
Donni 23 October 2006 (PS – still haven’t received my IK issue mark2)
**************************************************************************************
JULY
From: Donni / Mon July 17/2006 / To:Interweave Knits
Magazine interweaveknits@pcspublink.com
Subject: New Subscription
Hi there! I just re-subscribed to Interweave Knits
but want to make sure that my subscription is recorded and I receive the next
issue of Interweave knits with the Fall issue. I write because subscriptions for this magazine to Australia are notoriously bad
with lots of issues turning up late or damaged….a very common
occurrence. Can you let me know if this
subscription has been recorded and will start with the fall issue?
Donni
***************************************
From:Interweave Knits Magazine/ July 19, 2006 / To: Donni
Subject:
RE: New Subscription
Hello, Thanks
for contacting us. To further assist you and locate your account. May I please
have your full name and address?
Interweave
Knits Customer Service
********************************
From: Donni / Sent: July18/2006 / To:Interweave Knits
Magazine
Subject: RE: New Subscription
Yes – [insert name and address].Thank you for your prompt
response.
Donni
****************************************
From:Interweave Knits Magazine/ July 20, 2006 /To: Donni
Re New Subscription
Thanks for contacting us – your new subscription will begin in August – enjoy!
Interweave Knits Magazine
**********************************
AUGUST
From: Donni / Tue August 15/2006
/To:Interweave Knits Magazine
Subject: RE: New Subscription
Hmmmm, I am still awaiting the arrival of this magazine and
other Australian subscribers received theirs some days ago. This is the exact reason why I considered not
subscribing in the first place. What do you suggest?
Donni
*****************************************
Interweave Knits Magazine / August 19/2006 To: Donni,
Thanks
for contacting us. Due to the fact that you renewed late (5 months after your
exp issue from the first subscription) your issue was sent out later, it takes
6-8 weeks to receive the issue. Your first issue from the renewal, Fall 06
should arrive by Sept 8, at the latest. I do apologize for the delay on this
issue. the following issues will arrive on time 2-3 weeks before they are out
on the newsstands.
Interweave Knit Magazine
*******************************
From Donni / August 17 2006 / To Interweave Knits
Re New Subscription
Sorry. I don’t understand. Isn’t the fall issue already out? Many Australian subscribers have already received their issue.
Donni
From:Interweave Knits Magazine/ August 19, 2006 / To: Donni
Subject:
RE: New Subscription
Yes, the
Fall 06 issue is out. But due to the fact that you renewed late your subscription
was placed as a new order. A new label have to be made and then shipped out to
you. Like a new subscriber. The following issues will arrive on time, it’s just
the first issue that will arrive late.
Interweave Knits Customer Service
SEPTEMBER
From: Donni / Sept 20/2006
To: Interweave Knits Magazine
Subject: RE: New Subscription still hasn’t arrived
Hmmm, thought it was worthwhile to mention that I am STILL
waiting for the fall issue to arrive. As
you mentioned Sept 8th "by the latest" and it is the 21st Sept
thought you should know. What can you
suggest?
Donni
From: Interweave Knits Magazine/ September 22, 2006 /To: Donni
Subject:
RE: New Subscription still hasn’t arrived
I will
reship another Fall 06 issue to you today. I do apologize for the inconvenience, please allow 10 to 15 business
days for the issue to reach you.
Interweave
Knits Customer Service
________________________________
OCTOBER
From: Donni / October 8/2006 To: Interweave Knits
Magazine
Subject: RE: New Subscription still hasn’t arrived
Any Idea when this should arrive. To say I am exceptionally unhappy with this
service is an understatement. I would
like this to be forwarded to someone that may actually take an interest in
International Subscriptions. I simply
love the magazine but really – this kind of
sub-standard service when it comes to posting out issues is
really a shame as it reflects so badly on the Magazine. I await a response.
Donni
From:Interweave Knits Magazine/ October 12, 2006 / To: Donni
Subject:
RE: New Subscription still hasn’t arrived
Well we
reshipped the issue on the 21st of September and for reshipments overseas, it
does take 10 to 15 business days, however, that is not including if the
magazine gets stuck in Customs which can delay a shipment by two additional
weeks which often happens for international subscribers. I apologize if the customer service is not of
satisfactory but all
I can do is resend the issue to you again if you wish, but please keep in mind
that if I were to do that you will end up with duplicates.
Interweave Knits Customer Service
In search of a response I found the Editors email….read on….
From: Donni / October 19, 2006 To: Knits
Subject: FW: New Subscription still hasn’t arrived
I hope that this email goes to the Editor as I really want to
highlight a major problem with the Interweave Knits subscriber service for International
Subscribers.
I apologize for contacting you via this email but I simply don’t
know what else to do.
If you re-read this mess of emails you will see that I began
contact with your subscription department back on 20th July….with the experiences
of past subscriptions always arriving late or simply not turning up.
I am, to date, still awaiting the fall issue of Interweave
Knits. I believe that when it arrives it
will be the second issue sent to me….neither have arrived.
My Winter issue is due to be shipped in 5 days.
I really want to say that I love the Interweave Knits
Magazine- it is my knitting magazine of choice, but the
subscription service is appalling. I do
not mean the staff responses as they have been very prompt and polite, but such
a sub-standard service of actually delivering a magazine reflects badly on the magazine.
I am a knit blogger, and have been for a few years now. I can confidently say that my experiences are
not limited to myself. Australian subscribers, for some reason, now expect the magazine
to be late or not turn up. In fact I
know many people that no longer subscriber and simply ask their newsagent to
put away the issue when it arrives. They
are not content to actually pay subscription and either not see the magazine or
have it turn up months later.
I write this to ask you to please look into this. I am, at this stage, going to see when the
Fall Issue actually turns up (no doubt it will be today as I have sent this),
and then, the Winter issue.
Thanks for your time. I
hope you can understand my frustration at such a simple thing.
Regards
Donni
********************************************************
—–Original
Message—–
From: Katie Himmelberg [mailto:katieh@interweave.com]
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 20067:26 AM
To: Donni
Subject: RE: New Subscription still hasn’t arrived
Dear Donni,
I’m
sorry to hear that you are having such extensive trouble receiving your
subscriptions. I spoke with our
Circluation Manager about the problems you are experiencing. For some reason, we have been having trouble
shipping our magazine to Australia for some time now. We use a distribution service to ship out the
international subscriptions and have been tracking the rate at which the
magazines are delivered- for Australia, the time period was 10 weeks
versus one week to ten days in most other locations.
The
answer seems to be in the Australian customs or post systems. I’m sorry to say that there is no solution at
this time, but please know that you have been heard and we are looking into
what the source of the hold up may be. Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention.
Sincerely,
Katie
Himmelberg
Assistant
Editor
Interweave
Knits, Interweave Crochet, knitscene
katieh@interweave
.com
201 E 4th St
Loveland CO 80537
Hi Donni
I subscribed to IK mid last year when they had the “5 issues for the price of 4″ deal on. The first issue I was supposed to receive was Fall 2005. Guess what? it didn’t arrive. weeks and weeks went by. I emailed them, they were quite apologetic, assuring me that yes, my Fall issue had been posted and yes, it was sent air mail, but hey don’t worry they’ll resend it. Weeks and weeks and weeks went by, no IK Fall 2005. I emailed them again, same conversation. About three months after I subscribed (and after the Winter issue arrived) I received the Fall issue. It had been posted surface mail and had been in transit for nearly 3 months. Over the next few months I recieved two more copies. I’m not sure if the problem was with IK or the US postal service, but if they’d told me it was coming surface it wouldn’t have cost them three copies. After much umming and ahhing I recently resubscribed, hopefully this time will be much smoother!
I live in Sydney and was given a subscription in June for my birthday in July, but have yet to receive one copy. I was given this ridiculous excuse that new subscriptions take 6-8 weeks longer than the deliveries to existing subscribers, but still no magazine. I’ve now been told that another is on its way but that was 19 days ago. What form of transport are they using, for Heaven’s sake?
I didn’t have any problems with my IK sub but haven’t renewed for other reasons (too many WIPs). However, I do take issue with blaming Australia post. I regularly order yarn from the US and most deliveries arrive within 10 -14 days. I have also had magazine subs from the US. ALL have arrived before the issues have been available in the newsagents here. It is TOTALLY incorrect to blame this end. I’d be more interested in looking at their distribution service if I was them!!!
Hi Donni,
welcome to the club. Subscriptions to IK also fail to appear in Germany. Until now I could resist to subscribe to this magazine myself but I have read in numeros blogs that people have trumendos troubles getting their subscriptions and have intense email relationships with the subscription service department. Just to hear after several emails that the magazine they paid for fair and square and are awaiting for several weeks is sold out!!
Best wishes
Petra
Like Susan, at the risk of jinxing myself, I have to report nothing but sunshine, smiles, and happy puppies with my IK subscription, which is in its 2nd year. Once I did have a renewal query for the subscription service people and it was answered promptly and satisfactorily. Guess I’m just lucky!?
I’m in the U.S. and mailed a card for my first subscription, a month after the Fall issue was out. They sent me a card saying my Fall issue would arrive soon. I sent an email to the “subscription service” email address asking if my first issue could possibly be Winter, not Fall, since I’d already bought the Fall. You guessed it — no response and the Fall issue promptly arrived. So the savings from subscribing went down the gurgler. I understand that they perhaps couldn’t accommodate my request but how hard is it to send a reply?
I’ve not renewed my subscription due to a couple of issues. One was the lateness (I actually ended up getting three of the same issue 4 months late), another was the fact that it was just the mag, no wrapping or anything (with a “singapore airlines” luggage tag used as a bookmark when one copy eventually arrived!) And waht amazes me is the back issues that I’d ordered only took 2 weeks to arrive and were envaloped and bubble wrapped! I’ve now got my local newsagent ordering a copy for me, but there are still dramas attached to that, ie time! The fact that the mag is actually quite good is the most frustrating part.
I have heard of similar problems with subscriptions in the UK, although I haven’t had any experience of it myself. I tend to buy the new issue from one of the online suppliers when it comes out rather than subscribe. Hope things get sorted out for you soon.
I actually had a similar problem (shorter time spans though) a few years ago and I live in New England, that’s a part of the US the last time I checked. Now, if I want an issue I will get it from my local lys. By the way, if you want the special holiday knitting issue I’ll send you the one I got, there were only one or two patterns I liked.
I’m sorry with your problems with IK. So far I have had no problems with Interweave magazines getting here (Finland) on time.
Donni
let me reassure you somewhat in telling you that this problem is not exclusive to Australia. It happens in Ireland too, and I am not the only person who has had the same sort of issues with interweave. I subscribed about 2 weeks after a friend of mine and she has still not received her fall copy, whereas I received mine about a month ago. I also received 2 issues of the spring one, after subscribing and the first issue not turning up and contacting them *blah* number of times just like your posting.The second spring one turned up after the summer one did.
I have since also received numerous letters from them saying to resubscribe now and save money (etc)and I havent received my winter issue, whereas my friend has….
I certainly won’t be resubscribing to them, which is a pity because I like their magazines and newsagents dont stock Intervweave here.
That would be right, it has to be Australia’s fault!
I just took out a subscription a few weeks ago. Hope it doesn’t take 10 weeks!!
Gosh! What a hassle. I buy mine direct from the newsagent or Woolshack (or some other AU online retailer). BTW: did u receive my lace leaf scarf PDF (via email)?
Customs Schmustoms! It sounds like the systems are just incompatible (like NTSC v PALS). How frustrating for you.
I tend to try and avoid ordering things from the US because of problems like these (eg – I use amazon.co.uk instead of the amazon.com because the delivery is cheaper and quicker).
Hi Donni
Until this past 12 months I have subscribed to Interweave Knits without a delivery problem… but, this past 12 months subscription has been bungled with not receiving copies, receiving duplicates and to finish off my subscription, not receiving the last issue! Obviously I’ve not resubscribed.
I cannot see why it is such a problem sending mail to Oz and as blaming customs, etc .. I don’t think so. Vogue knitting doesn’t seem to have a problem, with delivery every time. Interweave have had delivery problems for years. It’s about time they got their act together and stopped blaming outside sources.
That’s my two bucks worth (and that’s Aussie bucks too!).
Hope they sort your sub out soon.
The ridiculously insular and faintly racist need to blame the foreign countries mail system from interweave knits is infuriating, false and stupid and a complete cop out.
Oh yes customs find the international knitting magazines ‘most interesting’, as it is a known fact in Australia that knitting women are potentially dangerous to society at large.
Send an email back to them suggesting they use the postal system that the knitting zone use – they manage to get animal fibres (an item of significant customs interest) delivered from the US in ten days tops, usually more. And you’d be hard pressed to find a dissatisfied customer.
Oh yeah I have a very similar trail of emails!!!!
I have NEVER recieved my IK subscripition before it hit the newstands and that’s going on 2 yrs.
Subscription sent to me…. I send to you. Solved! Do it already!
You know what.. I empathise. Guess who else is stillw aiting for her Fall issue! Like you I was told that the second mag had been shipped and to date, I have seen nothing – nada! I have a subscription till next summer (that’s US summer) and I think I’ll see how many more missing issues I have between now and then before deciding whether to re-subscribe. I love the magazine, but it’s not worth the hassle if subscribing means waiting 2-3 months for my magazine when my local newsagent has already had it in and sold out!
Ugh, that sounds like a mess. Sorry that you’ve had such a hard time with it! Someone should start a service where you can order a magazine from a company rather than the people, and they ship it all nice to you.
The same thing happened to me last year and I ended up getting the Fall issue at the same time as the Winter one came out. So it’s not just Australia that the problem is with (or maybe it’s just Australians no matter where they live!) They told me they would extend the subscription by an issue to compensate but didn’t. I didn’t renew.
I think you should send another email with a link to this post. And let them know that you have made the issue public. They are no longer dealing with just your opinion but the impression that has been left with several others. Maybe other bloggers should express a public opinion and let the magazine know that as well.
I don’t think it is completely the Australian post. I typically receive my IK magazine 2 – 3 weeks AFTER the newstand date. And I live in the states. Wonder what excuse they would give me.
I know how you feel, but it’s worse if you live in Tasmania. It takes mail 10 or more working days longer to get here. AP don’t know why. It is 30 minutes in a plane for goodness’ sake. I have cancelled most of my subscriptions and I have 2 nice newsagents who put things in a file for me. I can’t bear seeing magazines in the shops and I still don’t have mine. It is all so very frustrating. It makes me want to yell but in magazine space, no-one can hear you scream.
my new subscription took 5 weeks after payment to be due (ie when they said it would arrive) and it arrived a couple of days earlier, about a month before the next issue ws due to ship out (17 oct). Still waiting for the Winer issue. I have to subscribe or check about 12 different newsagents for a copy. does this info help you in any way?If you want precise dates, I can dig those out for you
Precisely why I canned my subscription. And I was less than impressed with the fact that the issue was shipped sans envelope or any other sort of cover – just an address label slapped on the cover. With the cover then bent or torn.
I sub to IK, and have done so for about 3 years. My issues have turned up on time, I think one issue might have taken a week or so more than expected. Though I’ve probably now jinxed myself for the next issue. The only problems I’ve had with international subs were two issues of Cast On that took 2 months to arrive – that seems to have sorted itself though.