Date:         Thu, 21 Mar 2002 08:44:41 +0800
From:         Alice Wong <amywonga@HKUCC.HKU.HK>
Subject:      Re: Fair deal? (Sharon Wieczorek)

Dear Sharon,

        Thanks great for your reply and the kind advice. We received only
one issue according to the schedule so far and the 'replaced' issues all
came after our claims with the address on them were correct. I just cannot
understand why and how this could happen and hence I have no idea how to
prevent. Maybe, I should put the publisher as my last resort.

        Thanks again for your sincere comment.

Yours sincerely,
Alice Wong
<amywonga@HKUCC.HKU.HK>

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU]On Behalf Of Sharon Wieczorek
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 2:27 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: Fair deal? (Sharon Wieczorek)

Date:         Mon, 18 Mar 2002 12:58:30 -0500
From:         Sharon Wieczorek <swieczor@MERCYHURST.EDU>
Organization: Mercyhurst College
Subject:      Re: Fair deal? (Alice Wong)

Dear Alice Wong,

I had a similar problem with another publisher and went round and round
with them. I finally sent them a copy of the label when I did receive an
issue to prove that their computer was wrong. The label was set for a
three line address and the computer was set for a four line address. Our
building name was missing on the label. The problem was fixed for the
future but to this date I have not had an apology from them or even the
missing issues. That magazine has since merged with another title so I put
those issues on our permanent missing list. Thank goodness it was not a
title that I bind regularly.

I don't know if this is the same problem you have but I would check the
number of lines printing on the label to be sure that what the publisher
said is there is actually there.

Hope this helps.

Sharon Wieczorek
Serials Supervisor
Mercyhurst College
Hammermill Library
Erie, PA 16546
<swieczor@MERCYHURST.EDU>

Alice Wong wrote:

> Date:         Mon, 18 Mar 2002 09:12:12 +0800
> From:         Alice Wong <amywonga@HKUCC.HKU.HK>
> Subject:      Fair deal?
>
> Dear Colleague,
>
>         I am new to Serials but came across one problem in my first week
> of this new area. We order, claim and invoice a title "Ambio" from the
> Allen Press. The payment for year 2001 was made in Dec 2000 but so far we
> have not received the issues v.30 no.4 - v.30 no. 7 (2001) and thus claims
> were sent.
>
> (1)  The replies from them are "I have checked your address and it is
> correct in our system. ....It is our policy to replace only 3 issues free
> of charge per subscription year. Claims in excess of three are considered
> an indication of indiscriminate claiming" (2)  After we replied that the
> issues they 'replaced' before were issues that had not been sent to us on
> schedule until claims made, what they insisted was "without evidence of an
> error on our part, I am still unable to replace issues in excess of 3 per
> year"
>
>         Maybe I am a green-horn, I do not expect payment done without
> items is normal to serial subscription. I do not intend to engage in any
> "publisher bashing" by posting this, but I'd like to know if anybody else
> out there has experienced similar problems this year. Is it really a
> common practice that subscribers have no guarantee in item supply?
>
> Regards,
>
> *************************************************
> Alice Wong (Miss)
> Acting Serials Librarian                          (T) : (852) 2859 2209
> Serials Department                                 (F) : (852) 2546 5340
> Hong Kong University Libraries
> Pokfulam Road, H.K.