In response to Gaele's inquiry about which vendors we have had problems
with lapses, as it happens, one vendor handles most of our newspapers
so it would seem that our problem is only with the one. However, we
have had service breakdowns on our titles with other vendors. In
general our biggest headache is for the multiple copy order, which
no vendor can provide 100% service, since so many of the titles in
question are coming from fulfillment houses. Its hard to know exactly
where the breakdown occurs, for example, this year the State of NY (for
obvious fiscal reasons) has been really slow paying our suppliers. Could
you blame anyone for not servicing your account when your check is taking
2-3 months longer than usual to arrive in their hands? Some publishers
have strange policies about processing renewals, I recall one whose
policy required the checks before the 15th of the month 2 months prior
to the desired start date. We lost out on a couple issues from them
because our agent at the time did not send in our renewal soon enough.
So problems can occur at any point in the serials order chain.

Susan Davis/Head, Periodicals/University at Buffalo