I have received multiple replies about Heckman and suggestions on other binderies. I appreciate everyone's input. I copied below the replies that dealt with Heckman. The other replies dealt with recommending other binderies. Like many of you, we have tried communicating with them to no avail and then our rep changed. Answers were usually general and of no help. We finally were told yesterday that our shipment has been started and will be sent to us next week. One librarian suggested sending these emails to them. I am thinking about doing that since I have an email address for them that they have replied to me on. Jean ############################ Miss Jean Shankle Periodical Librarian jshankle@pcci.edu Pensacola Christian College Library Box 18000 Pensacola, FL 32523 ============================================ If any of you use Heckman Bindery, how has your service been? I have hesitated for some time to post this, but I would like to know if any of you know more than I do. We have normally received excellent service from Heckman, with typical turn-around times of 4-6 weeks. However, the shipment we sent to them in July has not come back after 4 and a half months. The last indication we got from them was that our materials had not even entered the production flow. Has anyone else had these problems? Does anyone know what is happening in the company? The responses from their customer service department have been far less than adequate. (Again, this does not match their normal record of service.) ========================================= We were considering switching to Heckman after a very promising sales pitch. I sent a test shipment which they kept for 4 months. Everytime I called customer service they promised that my order would be ready within a week or two. I finally had them return everything unbound, they had never even opened the boxes. ========================================= You are not alone. I am copying this email to our Circulation Manager in the event you would like to make contact with her for specifics. The bottom line is something significant has occurred at Heckman over the last several months. Pickups have not been made, materials have not been returned, customer service reps no longer work there, etc. If I understand correctly, we have learned, because we sent and email to their (president (?)), that some major changes have occurred at Heckman recently. These changes were supposed to have helped Heckman to be more effective when in fact they have made a tremendous mess of their service and product. We have finally received a small corrections shipment this week that we sent in August. So, they are getting to things, but not very efficiently. ======================================== I'm sorry to hear you are having problems with Heckman. We haven't had any major problems with them, thank goodness. There was a representative who wasn't very responsive . . . and quite frankly didn't seem to understand much that was going on, but he's not there any more. ========================================= We use Heckman. They have had a shipment for us since September 23. I got a call today saying they will be shipping it back to us within the next week. I think 3 months is too long for them to do a job. We use them because the state puts out the contract for bid. They have bid on this region for several years, at least 10 and won it. We have to send boxes to them by freight (they pay the freight). They do send a delivery truck to pick up shipments from some parts of Texas, but not us. We are about 130 miles form Dallas and the same from Oklahoma City. So I ship them when I want to. They do kind of have us over a barrel so to speak. We have to use them, and the contract says they have 30 days to complete the job. But the state never fines them for being late. So I do not have any suggestions, I can only offer my symphony for the same situation. =========================================== We have always had good service with them as well until management changed. So far they have lost two journals. We had to wait three months to process the refund. Heckman will now only pick up shipments that are invoiced $500 or more which means we will have to either bind our journals earlier than plan to have a large shipment or reduce the number of pickups from monthly to every other month. They also charge a fuel fee for delivery/shipments. Now, if a journal is anywhere near three inches, a fee is charged for binding over three inches. They have downsized customer service reps. Our representative left two months ago. When I finally called to inquire about a bindery pickup which they have not picked up, I was informed that we had a new rep. She has yet to contact me nor has she responded to emails. Which means they will not pick up until the beginning of the new year. I have yet to receive requested supplies, forms and bindery pick up schedule. What is the response you are getting from other libraries? ============================================ We also use Heckman. We also sent an order in August and received only a partial shipment back (less then half). We have tried at least 5 times to get information from them about this shipment--a confirmation or something--but have not been able to get them to do this other than to say that their records do not show that they have this material. If they were based in New Orleans, I could understand the problem, but they are not. Please let me know if you hear from others. ============================================ We have used Heckman since 1987 and until recently the delivery service was fairly good. After speaking with our new customer service representative, I understand the delivery problem is due, at least in part, to a major backlog in Production that was caused by several changes in their manufacturing system. We received our September shipment via UPS, but they will not be picking up any of our material until January. At that time, they hope to be back on schedule. It is my understanding that libraries may request UPS or Roadway delivery or pickup. However, please check with your representative before doing so. Roadway, we discovered, needs equipment we do not have in order to make a delivery. And we have chosen not to entrust Special Collections to anyone other than our Heckman driver. Although our state contract will allow us to use a small bindery in Shreveport, Louisiana, we have decided to stay with Heckman for the time being. If anyone knows what else may be happening at Heckman, everyone here would love to know about it. ============================================ We were with Heckman since about August of this year. We had nothing but trouble from the first. Some of our books were sent to a library in Colorado. Several of the books were not bound correctly. Some had the wrong information on the spine. We just went back to our old bindery, Northwest Library Bindery (part of ICI Group) and we are very happy with them. ============================================= Our Purchasing Department had us go out to bid for a new binding contract this year. Although we were very happy with our former binder, Heckman significantly undercut their prices and was awarded the new contract. The three points of our contract that were essential to me were the two week turnaround specified, that the shipments stay together (also specified in the contract), and that there was a quality product. I am sorry to report that Heckman failed on all three of these basics. We had shipments held up at the bindery for weeks, some of our materials were sent to Colorado, and out of the four shipments sent none of them were returned together. They did not make the two week turnaround once. We had monographs returned bound as journals, call numbers incorrectly placed on the volume (and even that wasn't consistent), and they did not add our imprint. I could go on. There was no quality control. At our Purchasing Department's request, Heckman stopped work on our fourth shipment. It took a month to get it back (not together) and it was returned unprocessed. Our patrons have been without this material for the 4 weeks Heckman had it. We had to reprocess it and send it out for another 2 weeks to our former binder. We documented all of Heckman's failings and have filled a huge binder. I have to say that I was very surprised at the service we received because I know that Heckman is a large, respected bindery. They got good references from other libraries. Our contract with Heckman has been canceled. They did not attempt to retain our contract. We now have a new contract with our former binder. They are fixing Heckman's errors. ============================================
