[Theepistle] Just a reminder...

[Delmo Walters Jr.]

Sorry to hear that you had such a hard time getting the new Saint reprints. 

The Amazon.uk article was quite eye-opening.

Delmo Walters Jr.


--- On Fri, 12/19/08, Tim Forcer <tmf at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:

> From: Tim Forcer <tmf at ecs.soton.ac.uk>
> Subject: Re: [Theepistle] Just a reminder...
> To: THEEPISTLE at ogham.org
> Date: Friday, December 19, 2008, 9:11 AM
> At 18:04 12/12/2008, Ian wrote:
> 
> >  What intrigues me is the 1p difference between the
> two volumes if
> >  you buy them as new from Amazon UK. Which is 25p more
> than their
> >  pre-release price and about 10p more than they were
> last night...
> 
> Waterstones have gone down in my estimation.
> 
> On Monday, I trundled the dozen yards from where 
> I work to the University branch of Waterstones, 
> and set about ordering the books.
> 
> First problem - couldn't be found on the 
> system.  This was because the titles were registered as
> volumes  1 and 2 of:
> 
>    The Best of the "Saint"
> 
> (note quotes) and because no author was 
> given.  Searching for 'Saint Charteris' (a lovely 
> thought) gave only results of the most recently available
> other volumes.
> 
> Second problem - price.  They could order at full 
> price only - since this was the price shown by 
> the in-house system.  All references to the 
> online information were waved away with "we're 
> nothing to do with the online system, despite my 
> attempts to say that I was talking about online 
> information about IN STORE pricing.
> 
> Not to worry, I thought.
> 
> Back online, I checked out the full details 
> again.  Definitely £5.99 "in store".  So I 
> checked stock - allegedly "small" at one of the 
> central Southampton branch, "moderate" at the 
> other (yes, there are two large Waterstones 
> within a few hundred yards of one another).  I 
> used a link to email the manager of the branch I 
> prefer, asking about stock and requesting that one of each
> be put by for me.
> 
> On Wednesday, needing to be in town anyway, and 
> despite having had no response from the branch, I 
> wandered into my preferred branch.  Three copies 
> of vol 1, two of vol 2 on the shelves under 
> "Crime".  All at full price.  Wander down to the 
> other branch.  Five copies of vol 1, four of vol 
> 2, again all at full price.  Give up, go home, 
> order from Waterstones online - they are somewhere in
> transit right now.
> 
> Incidentally, Amazon UK have a somewhat 
> Scrooge-like attitude to Christmas working conditions:
> <http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article5337770.ece>
> 
> Compliments of the season to one and all,
> 
> Tim 
> 
> 
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