-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: HBR -- Janice White Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 08:21:21 -0600 From: "Skwor, Jeanette" <skworj@uwgb.edu> ***I've been to Harvard Publishing's website and had shaken my head over the mission statement posted there; thank you to David Goodman for thinking to share it here. I am in total agreement with Janice White, and I felt that HBR may not have been aware of the policies of their fulfillment house, so I wrote directly to them. ***See my letter to them, and their response (in reverse order) below: ----------------------------- Dear J. Skwor: Thank you for your valuable comments and feedback. A one-term subscription to Harvard Business Review was to be 10 issues effective with new orders beginning in January 2001. The invitations to subscribe along with the insert cards in our magazine state the amount of issues a customer is due to receive in the offer, along with the term and price of the subscription. You have ordered your subscription is via Faxon/Rowecom, a subscription agency. If you do have a missing issue claim within the term of your subscription (Nov/Dec 2000 to September 2001)please contact them at 1-800-999-5594. They are due to represent you with missing issues, inquries and subscription orders for Harvard Business Review. Our customer service office has placed your subscription order correctly. We apologize if the subscription agency did not make the terms of your subscription apparent. Sincerely, Liz Sottile Circulation Coordinator Harvard Business Review 60 Harvard Way 300NB Boston, MA 02163 ph: (617) 783-7410 fax: (617) 783-7494 esottile@hbsp.harvard.edu -----Original Message----- From: cem@hbsp.harvard.edu [mailto:cem@hbsp.harvard.edu] Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 3:21 PM To: esottile@hbsp.harvard.edu Subject: DT20011213_0000000377 Feedback <skworj@uwgb.edu> > Feedback from user@143.200.208.50 > > Name: J. Skwor > > E-mail: skworj@uwgb.edu > > Subject: Suggestions and Feedback > > Topic: General feedback > > Order ID: > > Message: > > I am the serials librarian at Cofrin Library, University of WI - Green > Bay. I am having a disagreement with your fulfillment house. > > Cofrin Library has not been receiving all the issues of Harvard Business > Review in a given year, and I am told by Neodata that is because at the > time we paid, HBR was publishing (#) of issues, and that's all we paid > for, so that's all we will get. > > They cashed our vendor's check for 2001 on Oct. 26, 2000, and ended our > subscription with the Sept. 2001 issue because, I am told, in 2000, only > 10 issues were published and therefore that's all we paid for, and all we > have coming. > > I had sent in subscription corrections twice during the year, and last > week went around and around with a customer rep at the "Orders, Inquiries > and address changes" number given in the magazine. > > I also sent a letter describing the problem to a library serials listserv > I am on, and copied hbursubs@neodata.com. I received the automatic reply, > saying I would receive a response in 2 -3 business days, but nothing > since. > > My letter to the serials list started quite a conversation, with several > libraries hopping on my bandwagon, and others being told issues as current > as Sept. are out of print (in response to claims.) > > I think you need to know how these matters are being handled. If you want > to sell HBR by the issue, I would suggest you change your "Rates per year" > to "Rates per issue". > > Yours truly, > > J. Skwor > Cofrin Library Serials Dept. > Univ. of WI - Green Bay > 2420 Nicolet Dr. > Green Bay, WI 54311 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: HBR -- David Goodman Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 09:21:42 -0500 From: "Janice White" <janice.white@fct-cf.gc.ca> Ok now I know I should let this go but after reading these mission statements and policies, I couldn't let it go without a comment. I speak my mind when I see things that are unjust and wrong. I am sorry but they have negated their claims to work at improving the practice of management by creating such a huge disaster with their customers and their subscriptions. If this is an improvement, I would hate to see how they run their offices. Publisher of choice for those experts with important management ideas? Is there a new management idea out there that I am not aware of? I always thought management should accommodate and encourage feedback from their clients and employees? I see the total opposite. I wonder if they have a management directive on communication skills? I wonder if the latest thinking in management involves not thinking at all. I have not seen 1 thing that they have done that has been forward thinking, in fact it seems we have gone back to the dark ages of communication, where it takes months to resolve problems. For all our technology, we seem to have lost a key factor, courtesy, effective communication and plain old thinking.. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: HBR Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 22:37:45 -0500 From: David Goodman <dgoodman@phoenix.princeton.edu> >>From the HBR web site, http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/inside/about.html I quote: "The mission of Harvard Business School Publishing is to improve the practice of management and its impact on a changing world. [...] We strive to be the publisher of choice for those ... experts with important management ideas and a desire to improve the practice of management worldwide. [...] As a result of our association with Harvard Business School, we have access to the latest thinking in management." David Goodman, Princeton University Biology Library dgoodman@princeton.edu 609-258-3235
