I am sick and fed up of getting no reply to any of my emails to Discover Dolls!!!

I logged in - for the first time - to my online Account to see when my second issue was due (which I received today actually) only to discover (no pun intended!) that they had my Subscription starting with Issue 11 - but the FIRST issue I got from them was Issue 12!

Ironically, when I first subbed, I emailed them via the site to ask which Issue I would receive first (as I wanted to buy back issues via ebay) and (surprise, surprise) received no reply. I ended up calling them and was told over the phone that my first issue would be Issue 12.

So now I'm up to the third email - no-one ever replies. It doesn't inspire confidence to order their dolls/mags/binders does it?

And yes, I have tried ringing them - again, no reply.

I'm beginning to wonder if they even still publish...


Angela

I received the la-*test*-('") issue no.13 yesterday.They don't seem to publish as regularly as they did at the beginning. I've had a few hiccups with my subs and mailing in the past but things are ok now, hope you get some replies soon. Lynette

Hi,

Firstly sorry if I have not replied to emails, (can I ask if you are on BTinternet or Yahoo, as I have an ongoing problem with these addresses?)

I have read your post over a couple of times and I am unsure what you are asking, its probably just me getting confused! Are you just wanting clarification of when your subs starts?

Basically... Warners subscriptions company are dealing with subscriptions now, mainly due to the fact that I am unavailable most of the day for phone calls so I pay for someone else to be at the end of the phone. Their number is in some of the more recent magazines and its always the best number to call about subscriptions. (01778 392 498)
The online thingie is not working very well at the moment, and as soon as my brother gets back from his holiday I will have it removed and the info will just be available through Warners. It gets a little tricky when there are too many fingers in the pie so they will be dealing with ALL subs, online as well as postal and phone.

If you were told on the phone that your subs starts with issue 12, and you have received issue 12 and 13 so far, then I assume that it will start with issue 12 and not issue 11.

I can't give you an answer right now as all the data is with Warners, but you can give them a call on Monday the number is 01778 392 498. If you don't want to make another call then PM me your detials and I will call them on Monday and find out for you.

Whatever Warners say will be accurate regardless of what the website says.

If you are missing issue 11 then PM me your address and i will pop one in the post to you tomorrow, this won't affect the subscription!

I hope all that makes sense!

I am not going to lie and say I never miss an email because I do. I get a lot of email through and I currently only work at night because of the girls so its getting tricky! However, from next week Phoebe will be in nursery one day a week, so that will make thigs easier, also like I said before we have Warners dealing with subscriptions and some back orders too.

We do still publish... Hope you enjoyed the current mag!

Cathy xxx

P.S. edited to add, we still publish bi-monthly, but we missed a month in January as we were falling behind and also we changed designer. Now that I am working with a new designer, a subscritions company AND a mailing house deadlines will be a lot tighter. Subscribers will get the mags at the end of the month previous and the mag will go on sale on the first of the month.

Thank you for your email to me re. my Subscription. You appear to now understand that you had Issue 11 as beginning my subscription, when my subscription began with Issue 12 as I was told via phone.

Glad to hear that problems with the Mag have been sorted. Forgive me for worrying about this, but I have been in the unfortunate position of losing money with 2 collector's magazines in the past who went bust and so I received no refund of (in one case) 10 months subscription which I had paid.

Angela

Thats OK, I was even a little confused myself as to why the computer said issue 11 as your start date! What happened was the online order went through on August 30th, and then the payment was phoned through in September. Orders placed online up till September 1st would have appeared to start with 11!

Aggghhhh computers! At least now I know that I will for sure remove the online facility and get Warners to deal with the whole lot!!

Hope you enjoyed the mag!

Cathy xx

Does that mean we will have to ring them to renew? I hope not as I find using the phone very difficult and renewing online is the only way I can do it.

Online is also the only way that I can renew my subscription once I'll need to do so!!!!! So please do not remove that possibility!!!

Have you got issue 13, I haven't but guess it must be in the mail then! - Can't wait - I love the magazine!!!!!

You will still be able to renew online, by post and by phone.

As part of the subscription service Warners will send letters out about a week after the final mag in your subscription so you will always know when it has run out.

The only thing I will be removing is the ability to go online and look how many issues you have left to go. However, if for some reason you desperatly need to do this, I am going to add a direct email link to Warners so you can email them and ask.

The reason for this is that Warners now have the subscription information NOT me and the data they have is in a different format than the records stored on the website.
This will only cause massive confusion, as clearly demonstrated by Angela.
She phoned up and was told when her subscription started, and she has the correct number of magazines, but because the online system gave her the wrong information she was panicing.
I don't want this to happen to anyone else.

But don't worry, you will still be able to renew and subscribe online, but the data will do direct to Warners.

Hope that all makes sense!!

Cathy xx

Yes, it makes sense and that sounds great!!!! Thank you Cathy!!!!

Will I have to open a new account now that my password is defunked?? I wish they had reminded me that my subscription had run out I would not be missing my mag and so fed up now

Personally, I've given up! 4 out of the 6 issues I bought didn't even get mailed until I repeatedly emailed asking where they were!
Each time I was told that they'd been 'lost' in the post. I did eventually receive all the issues I paid for but it just got too stressful having to 'nag' to get them.
Discover dolls sure do have awful luck with the postal service. When I realised that I'd got to the point where I didn't even expect them to turn up without chasing them I decided it was time to call it a day.

Lolly, if you have had a subscription and it has lapsed and you have not had a renewal letter, then you will get a letter in the lapsed subscription campaign that we are running in a week or so.

This will give you the option of obtaining the current issue free of charge, and then setting up your subscription with the may issue.

debzluvzdollz, sorry you have had a bad experience.

Actually we do have "aweful luck" with the postal service and are currently in a dispute with the post office since I started to write out proof of purchases and have found that the number going astray and not being delivered is higher than the average. I don't know what will happen, but I do hear horror stories from my postman (we have a postal collection from the house on a Saturday morning and I am always moaning to him and he signs all my POP and rec delivery slips!!)

At the same time, there have been occasions when I have missed things, I know that the set up of the magazine has not gone that smoothly.

Given my time again I wouldn't set up the magazine. It is too big a task for one person, let alone one person with two babies!

Most magazines have got a staff of designers, writers, editors, advertising consultants, web designers, mailers etc. Where as I do the entire thing, I research it, I write it, I do all the advert sales, most of the advert design, the subscriotions, the back orders, the website, the email, the packing and the shipping. Just writing an entire 64 page mag every two months is a hefty task in itself.

I am not trying to make excuses, I know DD is a business and I have a duty to the people who buy the mag, but I try to participate in forums and be available and human so that I am not a hidden entity or a faceless corporation.

I am trying my best, and I am putting procedures in place to correct any mistakes that have occured down the line. but I am still learning.

With the new timetable an new people involved I hope that any problems will gradually start to iron themselves out.

Cathy xx

Thank you Cathy, and thank you for taking the time to answer my query, I have tried emailing but they are bouncing back, i think the problem is my end though,as it is ALL of my emails at the moment hence the post. Thank you again

I have to say i am sorry you have experienced this Deb, or rather fed up with this, i had the same but put it down to teething problems of a new magazine being run by a busy mother trying to do all the things a mommy does and this on top, but like you i felt a little frustrated, but it all came good in the end, once it was explained about troubles with publishers and the post office and the like, which Cathy didnt have to do, but did, as i think she values us as doll friends as well as customers and felt the need to tell us of her problems which i know she was frustrated at also. So i do hope you will give the mag another chance as it is brilliant and we dont have that much in the way of stuff like this in the UK., and if sales drop we may not keep this, and i for one would be sad
Oh and by the way i am in no way connected to DD

i think cathy does a fantastic job, & like ALL new busnisses they have teething problems, xx

i for one can totally sympathize with missing parcels as i have lots of parcels go missing & crrently have several claims in against royal mail, i do feel when royal mail let us down it does reflect badly on the seller but once parcels have left our hands we have no control over what happens to them xx

i have always been lucky & received all my magazines apart from the current issue which we think is because i moved house however i contacted cathy who very kindly offered to pop me a replacment in the post. xx

i do feel for you girls that feel let down but i think if we compare how many satisfied customers cathy has to how many un-happy customers then i think that proves she is doing a fantastic job xx