Having spent at least 1/3 of my time for the past 9-12 months trying to
clean up a real mess in claims and having made hundreds of phone calls,
sent many, many email messages and having been successful in all but about
5 issues, I would disagree with the experience below.

If I as the purchasing library claim within the prescribed time and 'on a
timely basis' I expect my vendor to provide me with 100% of the issues
claimed.  I am enough of a realist to understand that will now happen,
however.  But a 90-95% return is not unreasonable.

We do a 2nd claim on a 45 day lapse, but I am inclined to agree that 8
weeks is more realistic and then maybe 8 more for a 3rd claim.  I also
believe it is critically important that you reply to your vendor's 'Claim
Response Report' (whatever it is called).  All the above is predicated on
your using a vendor (Faxon, Ebsco, etc.).  If you do and if you 'follow
the rules' I believe you should expect a 90-95% fill rate.  If not, change
vendors.

If you do all your own claiming I would recommend that when a claim gets
to a C3 or C4 that you pick up the phone and call.  It is cheaper than
writing a letter (think of time as $$) and usually much more effective.
Keep notes and names so if the issue doesn't come when they say it should
(and many times it won't) you can call the same person back and say on
June 12th I talked to you and you said ... and the issue is still not
here.

If you do your own claiming there will end up being a few more issues that
you will have to just 'go out and get' yourself than if you deal with a
vendor (my experience).  I'm not pushing this company because I deal with
them, but because my dealings with they have been outstanding.  I would
highly recommend the Hawkeye Company of Redfield, South Dakota
(605-472-1559) as a primary back issue dealer for anyone (don't know
about specialized libraries like medical though). I have dealt with most
of the back issue dealers in
business and have found that Hawkeye is one of the most inexpensive, gives
us the highest fill rate (that may be because we give them first crack at
our list every 2 weeks) and is absolutely the company with the quickest
response to a list (we fax it to them and the issues are usually in the
mail within 48 hours) for the things that a medium sized academic library
like ours goes out to get.

As I alluded to earlier, the special project I worked on last year
resulted in about a 99% full rate using all the above methods.

Joe Edelen
U of South Dakota
<jedelen@SUNFLOWR.USD.EDU>
-------
On Tue, 12 Aug 1997 13:20:19 -0500 Jeanette Skwor <SKWORJ@GBMS01.UWGB.EDU>
wrote in reply to Andrew Leonhart:

> > I am fairly new at this job.  When I don't receive an issue of a journal I
> > file a claim with our vendor (Ebsco).  After a month or two, if I still
> > don't receive that issue I file another claim.
>
> ***A month is really too short a time period in which to expect a missing
> issue to appear.  I used to use a 6-week period for an action date; I've
> recently gone to 8 weeks simply because claims are appearing a week or 2
> after I've filed the second claim.
>
> > 1) Should I expect all the claims I file to result in receiving the issue?
>
> ***Only if you want to set yourself up for a major failure rate.
>
> > 2)  What is a fair percentage to expect?
>
> ***40-50%--but not after only one claim.  I send a claim stating the issue
> is missing and set an 8 week Action Date.  When that trips, and the issue
> hasn't arrived, I send another claim, saying I haven't had a response, and
> including the invoice number on which the subscription was paid.  After
> another 8 weeks has elapsed, I send a third claim, repeating the
> information on the second, and adding, "this is the third claim".  After
> *that* 8 week expiration date has lapsed, I make a judgement call.  If it's
> for several issues, the subscription is pricey, if we bind that particular
> title--I will do one of several things.  A)  Drop it.  (And sometimes, the
> issue will still straggle in, weeks later. :)  B) Send a claim directly to
> the publisher.  C)  Send a 4th claim to the vendor, perhaps with a personal
> note.  D)  Call the vendor.
>
> Each of these claims are counted; last year I sent out 601 claims; I
> received 287 issues in response; in 1995/96 I sent 613 and rec'd 294.
> That percentage is up appreciably over former years, in which I just sent
> the 3 claims at 6 week intervals.  (In 1994/95 I sent 371, rec'd 147).
>
> > 3)      What can I do when I don't receive the issue?
>
> ***See above.
>
> ***Hope this helps.  A lot is your choice to make, weighing your time and
> student help available vs. the problem and costs therein.
>
> Jeanette Skwor
> Cofrin Library
> UWGB