UMW Store - Shipping Suspension

[LidlessEye]

As those in Canada will already be aware, Canada Post has been in the throes of an ongoing labour dispute for several weeks.  While this started as a series of rolling strikes, which only affected us directly for one day, it has now escalated into a full service shutdown.  We'll therefore be unable to ship any orders out until the situation is resolved.  For those who placed orders recently, orders from last week will likely have escaped the country prior to the service stoppage, so only customers from the last few days should be affected.  Obviously for those in Canada, you have a wait ahead of you.

If there's something you really, desperately need, we can look into an alternative shipping option, but be aware that the price tag for international courier service could cause cardiac distress.  In addition, companies like FedEx and UPS will often ding you again with "brokerage" fees to clear your package through customs - this is over and above whatever government fees/taxes you would normally encounter.  Still, if there's something you just gotta have, let us know and we'll see what we can do.

While I hate to keep saying it: we do apologize for the inconvenience, but the situation is completely out of our control.  All we can do is hope it will be resolved quickly.

[matakishi]

Would this have affected my order from month ago which hasn't arrived? I did email a couple of days ago but haven't had a reply yet.

[LidlessEye]

I can't personally investigate the status of individual orders, so you'll have to wait to hear back from Mike. 

What I can say: for customers outside of Canada, no order placed prior to last Tuesday should be impacted by this whatsoever.  I'm not sure exactly when the last parcel drop took place, so a few from mid-late last week may have made their way out as well.  Every single pre-order for Shocking Tales #1 and 2 was well away before any trouble hit, and will therefore not be affected.

[einarolafson]

Sorry to hear that!! Thatīs a big problem!!

Would this have affected my order from month ago which hasn't arrived? I did email a couple of days ago but haven't had a reply yet.

Sometimes UK Customs takes the orders "under arrest" for several months. I donīt know why, I hope they are reading all the rulebooks and they need a lot of time. They stopped my order from Uncle Mikeīs for two months and then they asked a ransom for it.

[Anatoli]

That sucks 

Hope it will be resolved soon though.

[Uncle Mike]

Hopefully all the pre-orders are in the mail and out of the country. They are all off my desk and in the capable hands of Don in shipping. I'll be seeing him tomorrow and will find out exactly how many orders have shipped or are still waiting to be shipped out. Sorry about the delay and all that folks. Looks like the take home message is: Canadians love to strike, just in time for summer holidays...

[Calimero]

Looks like the take home message is: Canadians love to strike, just in time for summer holidays...

strange isn't?

but maybe there's hope... http://finances.ca.msn.com/actualites/postes-canada-ottawa-forcera-le-retour-au-travail-2?wa=wsignin1.0

[pixelgeek]

Canadians love to strike, just in time for summer holidays...

CUPW is locked out, they aren't on strike. The reason you can't ship books is because of Canada Post and not the union.

[supervike]

CUPW is locked out, they aren't on strike. The reason you can't ship books is because of Canada Post and not the union.

Same result for the customer, but the distinction is VERY important.


Anyhow, my Pre-order arrived yesterday, so luckily I missed this trouble.

Hope those folks can come to an amiacable agreement for both parties soon.  It sucks that little guy sometimes gets caught up in these things.

[Uncle Mike]

Just seen Don about the orders, most have gone out but some remain awaiting an end to the various conflagrations we as Canadians are experiencing. No real rhyme or reason to which orders are left but I will personally pop in a preview figure to all orders that I can physically touch...as an additional 'sorry'. Best I can do my friends. Hope you folks can be a bit forgiving in your wait times...

Thanx again to everyone who pre-ordered, you keep the company going and we love you. 

[LidlessEye]

Canadian postal carriers have been legislated back to work, and will resume service within the next few days.  Shipping is therefore back up and running.  Thanks for your patience!

[gnomehome]

Would this have affected my order from month ago which hasn't arrived? I did email a couple of days ago but haven't had a reply yet.

Matakishi,

have you received your order yet (or a reply ) ?  I ordered May 18th and my order is still shown as 'processing' - I somehow doubt the postal strike is the cause of that.

[LidlessEye]

We don't use the order status system in the online store, so your order will still show as 'processing' until Azathoth devours the universe.

Delivery lately has been a vortex of chaos.  I can't recall ever seeing so many delayed orders, and that was even before issues with Canada Post flared up.  We can ship two packages to the same country on the same day: one person gets their order in five days, their neighbour has to wait five weeks, and it doesn't seem to be isolated to one country.  Not like this is an especially busy time of year either, so I honestly can't make sense of it.  All I can ask is that everyone be patient - once the parcels are out the door (which we try to do as quickly as we can), the rest is unfortunately out of our hands.

[gnomehome]

We don't use the order status system in the online store, so your order will still show as 'processing' until Azathoth devours the universe.

Delivery lately has been a vortex of chaos.  I can't recall ever seeing so many delayed orders, and that was even before issues with Canada Post flared up.  We can ship two packages to the same country on the same day: one person gets their order in five days, their neighbour has to wait five weeks, and it doesn't seem to be isolated to one country.  Not like this is an especially busy time of year either, so I honestly can't make sense of it.  All I can ask is that everyone be patient - once the parcels are out the door (which we try to do as quickly as we can), the rest is unfortunately out of our hands.

Thank you for the clarification - I gather that you are an employee there ? I would like suggest to remove the order status all together. Since I did not get a reply to my enquiry through the website contact form, this is the only form of info that's available. You have to consider the fact that a buyer only has 45 days to open a dispute with paypal (I never had to do this, so I'm a bit hazy on the details), so when there's no sign of life (either a status update, a shipping confirmation or a simple reply) some people (like myself) begin to wonder.

[LidlessEye]

I'm the graphic designer/webmaster, but try to help out where I can.  While not personally involved with shipping, I used to operate a mail order department so I'm quite familiar with the process and typical delivery windows.  I can therefore state with authority that package losses are extremely rare.  On the handful of occasions a replacement has been sent out, the original package has typically turned up within a few days.  Delays are almost invariably the result of customs seizure.

Just taking a look at the online form, and I have the nasty feeling it stopped operating properly either when I recently upgraded the website or our host changed their management platform.  I assure you, not replying to messages is very much not our policy - we always try to respond within 24 hours.  If anyone needs to follow up on an order, I'd recommend sending a message to info@strange-aeons.ca.   While most packages can't be tracked, we can at least let you know when the order went out.