Blurb staff... is anyone with executive authority listening?
Blurb staff: You offer a service. I have tried to use that service. The standard shipping cost (as recommended by blurb staff in all of the threads I have seen relating to exorbitant shipping charges) for shipping a single copy of a 20 page 8×10inch softcover book to the UK from Holland, where it will be printed is £185.11!!! I actually want to order hard cover books and I want to buy more than one but I have picked the lightest and slimmest volume to help me make the point. The book I am using as an example costs £9.95 to produce. With a standard delivery charge of more than 18 times the cost of the book, I can only conclude that the promised fix has not been forthcoming. The issue of shipping charges has been current for at least as long as I have been a member of blurb and I would like to know why it is not being addressed. I see periodic postings from blurb staff that suggest that the issue is being dealth with and within a short time of such a posting, yet another complaint fills these columns. I have no wish to know what goes on in every minute detail, behind the scenes, at blurb. A sticky that is updated very frequently with some person designated to take care of it, should not be too difficult to manage. From where I sit, it looks as if blurb knows that there is an issue and is doing precious little to resolve it. Perhaps it is considered that your potential user base don’t have any rights to know what is going on. The nonsensical posts made by your staff about postal services not meeting with the high standards that blurb sets for itself, are leading to potential blurb users saying no thank you to blurb. I have read posts where people have said as much and I have only been skimming the entries that have been made about this issue. Where is the managerial sense in permitting blurb to lose custom because it deems the postal services of the world (which all appeared to be working fine before blurb came to my notice) to be inadequate? The responses from blurb on this issue of shipping costs that are, with the best will in the world, unjustifiably high (at its best) and little short of highway robbery (at its worst), have been spectacularly supine. It is time for blurb to stop making pathetic excuses and to deal with the issue. The chosen carrier is in a unique position (that blurb has chosen them to be its sole carrier) and this ought to be a useful bargaining chip to bring the shipping costs to somewhere near normal rates. Personally, I would be expecting much better rates than average… on foot of the increase in business to the carrier but that is a matter for them and blurb. The current business model does not bestow any benefits on the client and it presents a very strong rationale for NEVER using blurb in the future. I would hope that someone within the blurb organisation sees this post and gets a clue. You are driving your customers away!
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Addendum: Look at the Reader’s Digest model of sending books to subscribers…
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I had something similarly strange though not as extreme. 1 7×7 book cost more postage than 2 8×10 !!
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Hi Jayemcee, rest assured that those of us on the Executive Team here at Blurb take the comments of our customers very seriously. So here is the scoop on European shipping.
When we started our European service we wanted to give our customers the best, trackable service available. We chose UPS because we have a good relationship with them in the States and found them to be very reliable, predictable and responsive to our customer’s needs.
The easy way to set this up would be to charge a flat fee that would be sure and cover our shipping costs regardless of where in Europe the package was being sent to. The problem is that shipping costs vary widely depending upon if you live in an urban area or not. In the end we decided to negotiate the best deal we could with UPS and then pass those savings on to our customers on a per-order basis. You will see that if you check the standard shipping charges from UPS, the rates are much higher than what we offer to our customers. That is, when the system is working correctly. By implementing a system where our ecommerce systems have to depend upon a third-party interface to provide shipping costs we have lost a bit of control over the process. And if the system is not returning the discounted rates we have negotiated it’s generally because something has go awry in the linking between you, Blurb and UPS.
This is not meant to be an excuse…it’s our responsibility to take care of our customer’s experience working with us, so it’s on us to make it right. You should be getting the correct shipping costs now. Plus, as those who frequent these forums know, we aren’t totally happy with our current rates, even with discounts. So we are working hard on some alternatives that you’ll hear more about in the next few weeks.The vast majority of our European customers are getting very competitive rates now but we are working on the outliers-primarily those that live outside the major urban areas-to give even more cost effective shipping options soon. In the meantime, the book in your private bookstore will cost you 9.24 GBP to ship UPS standard with a two-day delivery.
Best,
—bw
Bruce Watermann
VP Print Operations
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Sorry Bruce but I’m one annoyed Australian customer. A couple of months ago I bought the Blurb book how to make a book, and the postage was $20.00 happy with that, I then created my own 8×10 book and went to order it, now postage was $39.00 damn double the price! But I need the proof book. Now I have orders for 31 copies and went to order and postage was $115 could handle that, but held order for a day, then went to order the books on Tuesday but system was not working, so I logged a job with Blurb help, yes they said there was a bug will let me know when fixed, which they have today HOWEVER now I find the postage has gone up to$150!! Which will now wipe out any profit I may have got from the book! This is really poor either from Blurb or UPS. I’m really happy with the book quality but this has made me see red. On another note I have ordered 3 7×7 books and UPS has stuffed this up, look at the trace below, I’m in Brisbane Australia, it does go via Sydney but look at all the delays: <table cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad">SYDNEY,
AU </td><td class="sec-pad">09/19/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">10:26 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">HUB SCAN </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/19/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">9:18 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">IMPORT SCAN </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/19/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">3:14 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">A FLIGHT DELAY OCCURRED BECAUSE OF MECHANICAL REASONS </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-ev"><td class="sec-pad">SEATTLE,
WA, US </td><td class="sec-pad">09/18/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">9:28 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">A DRIVER ERROR CAUSED THIS DELAY / FORWARDED TO THE FACILITY IN THE DESTINATION CITY </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad">SYDNEY,
AU </td><td class="sec-pad">09/19/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">12:10 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">PACKAGE DATA PROCESSED BY BROKERAGE. WAITING FOR CLEARANCE / RELEASED BY CLEARING AGENCY. NOW IN-TRANSIT FOR DELIVERY </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/19/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">9:05 A.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">PACKAGE DATA PROCESSED BY BROKERAGE. WAITING FOR CLEARANCE </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/19/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">9:05 A.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">REGISTERED WITH CLEARING AGENCY / SHIPMENT SUBMITTED TO CLEARING AGENCY </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/19/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">9:05 A.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">REGISTERED WITH CLEARING AGENCY / RELEASED BY CLR AGENCY. NOW IN-TRANSIT </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-ev"><td class="sec-pad">ONTARIO,
CA, US </td><td class="sec-pad">09/17/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">10:39 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">ARRIVAL SCAN </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-ev"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/17/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">10:39 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">ARRIVAL SCAN </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad">SEATTLE,
WA, US </td><td class="sec-pad">09/17/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">8:27 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">DEPARTURE SCAN </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/17/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">8:27 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">DEPARTURE SCAN </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/17/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">7:35 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">ARRIVAL SCAN </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/17/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">7:25 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">DEPARTURE SCAN </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad"> </td><td class="sec-pad">09/17/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">7:23 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">ORIGIN SCAN </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-ev"><td class="sec-pad">SEATTLE,
WA, US </td><td class="sec-pad">09/14/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">7:25 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">A DRIVER ERROR CAUSED THIS DELAY </td></tr><tr class="sec-row-od"><td class="sec-pad">US </td><td class="sec-pad">09/13/2007 </td><td class="sec-pad" align="right">1:41 P.M. </td><td class="sec-pad">BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED </td></tr></tbody></table> Bruce – I’m not a happy customer, what are you going to do to make it right?
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Great could read that in the reply area but now you can’t in main screen, up shot is that it has been delayed by driver errors in US, aircraft in Aus problems, somehow it was in Aus and the US at the same time. UPS have dropped the ball on this job!
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One more thing Bruce – I’m also working through an issue with Ben, maybe you could have a chat with him as well. Regards Digitalr
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Thank you Bruce.
I have now ordered two hardback 8×10 inch x 22 page books and the cost for delivery was indeed £9.24, making the delivery charge a more reasonable £4.62 per book. I was unable to enter the promotional code for a 50% reduction on a book because the system refused to accept it.
I am making up another book right now and I would be obliged if you could tell me how to arrange for the 50% discount on the book price… that is mentioned in an email entitled “special summer time offer” which I had received from blurb on the 16th August and this promotional offer is due to expire at the end of this month.
I wont post the promotional code here, for obvious reasons, and I look forward to hearing your solution. It occurred to me that it may only work with a single book order… as opposed to calculating the 50% reduction on a single book. Perhaps you could confirm if that is the case.
Kind regards,
jayemcee
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jayemcee,
I have seen Ben’s comment to one of other participant’s similar question to yours. I can’t seem to find his comment or reply to that participant.
However, I do remember that Ben says it is best IF you contact Blurb Customer Service to address this issue about how to deal with promotion code through contact form.
Hope that helps, no?
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Thanks for your helpful comments, Brian.
I did contact customer service and the one working day response timehas passed and no reply.
It is very frustrating to deal with an automated service where only the automated bit appears to work. I have yet to receive any guidance from customer service.
Regards,
jayemcee
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Jayemcee,
If you received an email (probably automated reply with case ID number) from Blurb, I believe that you probably want to follow up with that case number given to you, contact the Blurb customer service about this issue. Being persistence in follow through is one thing. I know it can be frustrating.
I have been having some problems communicating with them in the past and most recent. To be honest, I was very disappointed with that approach. I mean, Blurb MUST act on every requests through contact forms, every problems, or complaints, and perhaps that someone or a whole team of customer service need to be let to go and hire the PROS in customer service industry to deal with customers promptly, with some respect. We deserve a better communication.
If this continue being this way with lousy response, lack of response from customer service at Blurb, I will consider seriously seeking other business with other company and move on. I do see Blurb have lot of potentials for improvement. But Blurb MUST address with customer service department relations need to work and improve in that area. Otherwise, it is full of joke!
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Well, in fairness to blurb staff, Brian, I have received e-mails and they have fixed my issues very satisfactorily.
I guess the use of the internet can make people a bit impatient. An age ago I used to write (using a pen and paper) to a friend in Australia and I would be delighted if I received a reply within 6 months. These days, if I send an e-mail and it hasn’t been answered within 2 minutes of me sending it, then I tend to wonder what the heck is going on. :)))
I am satisfied that my issues have been dealt with. I have been treated very well and I feel like the paying customer now.
Regards,
Jeff
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To echo Bruce’s comments, we take each Forum post seriously and try to learn both from the praise and constructive criticism. It goes without saying that we’ve realized that by providing a dynamic shipping request to UPS – a model that has worked extremely well over the last year in the U.S. – has not been the best solution for those outside the U.S. Hence we have been working closely with our printers to forge new relationships with additional carriers.
Bruce also mentioned above that we began shipping internationally using UPS because our existing relationship with them meant we could add other countries quickly. To our great disappointment, the UPS option has not been ideal for our customers. We’re now moving beyond UPS and in the process of integrating both Blurb’s backend and our printers fulfillment systems with a new international shipping option. It’s not happening as fast as any of us would like, but I’d like to report that we are moving to a test phase in a few days. We’ll keep you posted. Brent
Sr. Director Ecommerce and Operations
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Thanks for the update, Brent. It is very much appreciated. Internet communications are devoid of all of the visual cues that tell us about the person we are dealing with. When things go wrong (a likely happenstance in all endeavours) it can be difficult to address a screen and make a constructive complaint. Complaints, by their nature, are often painful to receive and that can help to breed defensive responses.
I am pleased to learn that UPS will not be remaining as the sole carrier for blurb, and that a possible by-product of that forthcoming positional change is that they may be pushed into smartening up their act. The competetive nature of the business they are in would probably mandate that they revisit what they are doing for blurb or risk losing the business to a competitor.
The speed of chages for the better is always tempered by the size of the organisation and I hope that your test phase is a success so that you cam move rapidly to a system of carriage that is equitable for all non-US citizens.
Kind regards,
Jeff
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Yes I hope the testing happens quickly to, too late for my order placed tonight which cost me $220! Watching this space….......
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For those tracking this and other posts…. we’ve launched with our new carrier—Swiss Post. This will impact all orders shipped in Europe, Asia, New Zealand, and Australia. I think you’ll be happy, or at least happier, with the updated prices.
To verify yourself, simply place any item from the bookstore in your cart and progress to the Delivery Option page of the check-out process. Also, check out the Pricing and Shipping page for additional information.
Note: neither Swiss Post Priority nor Swiss Post Economy are trackable options. Meaning, you will not have the ability to track the progress of an order shipped via the Swiss Post as you can with UPS. The community has expressed, on a number of occasions, that they would give up the ability to track and order as so long as more cost effective alternative is available. Now you have both options
We’ll continue to work on optimizing our shipping costs to ensure you are getting the best price possible. This includes pushing UPS to lower their costs; giving those users who want tracking capabilities a more affordable alternative.
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Brilliant! Many thanks for listening and being responsive. The prices look very good and the tracking is something that I personally can do without. I suspect that you wont need to push UPS to lower their costs, if they notice a large drop in their business from blurbarians. ;)
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That’s all mind-boggling. You can ship a dutiable package of up to quite a few books via DHL from San Francisco in 2 days for not much over $100. 1 book should be $75. 5 lbs is around $120. I don’t know why it costs $8 to ship a book from San Francisco to San Francisco. I could send a stretch Hummer to pick it up for that price. USPS Priority Mail would be a nice option too. Cheap and the rates to AK and HI absolutely cannot be beat. Or, because it is bound printed matter after all, for large orders, USPS drop shipment at bulk rates.
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