Cheshire Cat Computing

It's been 12 days since I ordered Steve's book from lulu.com and they've just finally put it in the mail (I've yet to receive it). I've spoken to Angela at lulu.com several times via email. She has been defensive and unapologetic the entire time. In all my years of ordering online, this has been the absolute most frustrating and disappointing online ordering experience. Angela's email bedside manners have been most putting off. I will never order anything from them ever again. It is truly sad lulu.com is the only place to buy Steve's book. Marcus

I'm really sorry about this - obviously I have no control over the Lulu process but it still reflects badly on me here.

So far, I've not had any problems with anything I've ordered for mthem, and the only other complaint I've heard is about their excessive postage charges to some parts of the world.

Normally, they only take 3 -5 days to print and another 5 to deliver internationally, making about 2 weeks in total. Possibly the intervention of the bank holidays of Easter has affected this and then pulled in another weekend, but 12 days to print still sounds excessive.

Please drop me an email when you finally receive the book and let me know how long it took from order to delivery and I'll send Lulu a complaint too, not that it is likely to do much... I'll also send you a free copy of the reference PDF.

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Steve Shipway
UNIX Systems, ITSS, University of Auckland, NZ
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning... -- Isaiah 5:11

I have just thought - did you order a hardback or a paperback? The paperbacks should take 3-5 business days (so usually under 1 week, but possibly up to 10 days if it overlaps a bankholiday weekend), but the hardbacks take 10-12 business days (so 2-3 weeks real time). If you ordered the hardback then this would explain the issue.

I'll see if I can get a note onto the ordering page to make delivery times clearer. Since I make the same (small) commission on either I have no reason to encourage people to buy the hardback anyway, I only made it available because someone asked for it.

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Steve Shipway
UNIX Systems, ITSS, University of Auckland, NZ
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning... -- Isaiah 5:11