***I agree with what you say. The thing is, this was not a graced
subscription. We (and Faxon/Rowecom/divine, Inc.) had paid for the
Traffic World renewal from Sept. 2002 - August 2003. Commonwealth
Business Media, the publishers of Traffic World, then "graced" us 9
issues.
***Now we are re-starting our subscription, and ordered it for the
period of Sept. 2004 - August 2005. That subscription has been changed
by Commonwealth Business Media to a period from Sept. 2004 - June 2005
to pay for the 9 "graced" issues.
***Many many entities did grace libraries, including us, during this
whole divine, Inc. crisis, and have been wonderful about it. And
actually no one who did so shorted us.
***However, I repeat, Traffic World was not one of the "gracee"s, except
for the 9 issue runover at the end of our paid subscription.
Jeanette L. Skwor
Cofrin Library
University of WI-Green Bay
(920) 465-2670
"Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will
get you through times of no libraries."
Anne Herbert, The Whole Earth Catalog
-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of SHORE,J
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 3:12 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] How not to win friends and influence people -
Traffic World
I disagree with this falling under the "unordered merchandise" laws. For
sake of arguement, let's say the Subscription Agent did submit a number
of renewals for libraries but they didn't pay for them and declared
bankruptcy. In that case, the Publisher has a valid order for the
merchandise, but they weren't paid for it. The issues the Library
receives are "extended credit".
Now, the Library asks for another year's worth of issues, I can easily
understand the Publisher saying, "OK, but you owe us 9 issues you didn't
pay for, so the total sum you get will be 9 issues less."
I do agree that it is tacky, but I don't think it is illegal.
J.
J. Shore
MEDLINE Quality Assurance
National Library of Medicine
Bethesda, MD, USA
shorej@cablespeed.com
On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 15:21:18 -0400
"DuBose, Stefanie" <DUBOSES@MAIL.ECU.EDU> wrote:
>Hey Jeanette,
>
>To me, if the title was not ordered, regardless of how the publisher
>describes it, the charge should not be paid. So yes, I'd think that it
>would fall in the same realm of those other headache-inducing 'standing
>orders.'
>
>Stefanie
>
>Stefanie DuBose
>Head, Acquisitions
>Academic Library Services
>East Carolina University
>Greenville, NC 27258-4353
>(p)252-328-2598
>(f)252-328-4834
>duboses@mail.ecu.edu
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum
>[mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU]On Behalf Of Skwor, Jeanette
>Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 2:56 PM
>To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
>Subject: Re: [SERIALST] How not to win friends and influence people -
>Traffic World
>
>
>***An update - I called Deborah Blok, the Customer Care Supervisor at
>Commonwealth Business Media, on this; she is the person I quoted below
>stating that the 2003 graced issues were subtracted from our 2004
>subscription. She was quite adamant, but later consulted with the
>Director of Circulation. The upshot is they will not correct the
>subscription dates; this is "Standard Policy in the publishing
>industry"
>and they are standing firm. "All they can do" is see to it that issues
>are not graced at the end of our current subscription period, which
>also means we will not receive any renewal notice. (I'm not sure how
>that follows, but it's what I was told.)
>
>***I find it interesting that they, as well as I, use the term "graced
>issues". Apparently Commonwealth Business Media uses a different
>dictionary than we have here at the library, to define "grace".
>
>***Has anyone dealt with this before? I have to admit in eleven years
>on the job, it's a first for me. Don't "graced issues"
>fall under the
>law regarding unordered merchandise?
>
>Jeanette L. Skwor
>Cofrin Library
>University of WI-Green Bay
>(920) 465-2670
>
>"Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money
>will get you through times of no libraries."
> Anne Herbert, The Whole Earth Catalog
>
>
>
>
>> _____________________________________________
>> From: Skwor, Jeanette
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 8:10 AM
>> To: Serialst
>> Subject: How not to win friends and influence
>>people - Traffic
>> World
>>
>> Or, at least, not influence them to any respect towards you -
>>
>> Traffic World was one of our subscriptions affected by the divine,
>>Inc. bankruptcy. They did not sign the PPA and made no promise to
>>grace the issues. However, though our paid subscription expired with
>>the Sept. 3, 2003 issue, they did send 9 more issues before they
>>stopped.
>>
>> We could not afford to pay twice for the majority of our
>>subscriptions, and so a certain number of them that were not graced
>>just had to be allowed to lapse. Traffic World was one of those
>>titles.
>>
>> Now we're well into 2004, a new vendor, and new subscriptions. We
>>requested renewal of Traffic World to begin with Sept
>>2004 and run
>> through August 2005, and we did get, for our first issue, the Aug.
>>30,
>> 2004 issue. However, the expiration date shown on the label is June
>>13, 2005.
>>
>> I contacted our vendor.
>>
>> I just received the response - Traffic World informed them that they
>>had graced us 9 issues on our previous subscription and have
>> *subtracted* those graced issues from the current subscription, to
>>wit
>> - "The subscriber is due 51 issues, this number includes the nine
>>issues that were graced in 2003."
>>
>> My take on it: "Let's see - we'll grace these people just in case
>>they are planning to renew but their renewal is delayed, and if they
>>are dropping us forever we'll take the loss. However, if they do
>>renew eventually, we'll stick them for those freebies.
>> That'll teach
>> 'em."
>>
>> Yup, I'm taught. And of course I will contact them and
>>protest. But
>> I also thought this is one of those new and unique marketing ideas
>>that needs to be shared with other serialsters.
>>
>> Jeanette L. Skwor
>> Cofrin Library
>> University of WI-Green Bay
>> (920) 465-2670
>>
>> "Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money
>>will get you through times of no libraries."
>> Anne Herbert, The Whole Earth Catalog
>>
>>
>>
