Word of warning re: Ian Allan Publishing / Midland Counties Publications.

[Hanse]

I ordered Amercian Secret Projects : Bombers, Attack and Anti-Submarine Aircraft from the Ian Allan website back during the 1st week of December. My account was charged immediately and still no book nearly 8 weeks later. I put in two emails to Ian Allan and one to Midland (apparently both are involved in the transaction) and have been ignored by both companies. I paid via PayPal but since I gave the company(s) the benefit of a doubt and waited, I exceeded the time limit for a dispute, with PayPal saying in essence "too bad, so sad". I guess the lesson here is I should have went with Amazon even though they didn't have it back at the beginning of December. Would have been here by now at half the price.

 

[Pelzig]

Just as a FYI, Ian Allan (to which Midland is one of their labels) made the news a week or three ago in which their woes in this economy were made known. They are drastically cutting down on their titles and refocusing their publishing lines. They are also downsizing and reorganizing. So, I suspect this is also affecting their distribution network. Not excusing not contacting customers with orders, but, just saying that these issues may be effecting the business at all levels.

I ordered Amercian Secret Projects : Bombers, Attack and Anti-Submarine Aircraft from the Ian Allan website back during the 1st week of December. My account was charged immediately and still no book nearly 8 weeks later. I put in two emails to Ian Allan and one to Midland (apparently both are involved in the transaction) and have been ignored by both companies. I paid via PayPal but since I gave the company(s) the benefit of a doubt and waited, I exceeded the time limit for a dispute, with PayPal saying in essence "too bad, so sad". I guess the lesson here is I should have went with Amazon even though they didn't have it back at the beginning of December. Would have been here by now at half the price.

 

[Stargazer]

Not excusing not contacting customers with orders, but, just saying that these issues may be effecting the business at all levels.

Probably so, but in this world of information highways and global villages, a little e-mail saying: "We can't proceed your order right now due to internal problems but will keep you posted" doesn't cost a thing. Ian Allan have complained about pictures from their books being scanned on this forum, but they don't seem to be able to show their customers the very respect they demand from them.

 

[Steve Pace]

Not excusing not contacting customers with orders, but, just saying that these issues may be effecting the business at all levels.

Probably so, but in this world of information highways and global villages, a little e-mail saying: "We can't proceed your order right now due to internal problems but will keep you posted" doesn't cost a thing. Ian Allan has been whining constantly about their books being scanned on this forum, but they don't seem to be able to show their customers the very respect they demand from them.

AMEN!

 

[foiling]

It's a while since I've bought directly from Midland, although I used to find their service reasonably good. Lately, it seems to me that their site is not user-friendly, as I found it difficult to search for books that I was interested in buying. Several times gave up trying. Could be just me, of course.

 

[frank]

Is email the only way you tried to contact them? I have 2 addies, gmail & another. Gmail generally will always go thru, but for whatever reason, many, many times, my other addy can't get thru. Maybe your emails just didn't get thru. Try calling or mailing before you really condemn them.

 

[phil gollin]

It's a while since I've bought directly from Midland, although I used to find their service reasonably good. Lately, it seems to me that their site is not user-friendly, as I found it difficult to search for books that I was interested in buying. Several times gave up trying. Could be just me, of course.

They re-branded themselves last year and as part of that they got a "new" website search engine / organiser. It was (and is) rubbish. It does not search properly and certainly won't organise releases properly.

I have e-mailed and rung them several times and the poor soul at the other end obviously was just as fed-up with the system as I was. The last time I rang (early December) they claimed that they had a new IT consultant coming in to sort the search function out. Well unfortunately the last time I looked, about 2 weeks ago, it was still rubbish.

I have no idea how much income they have lost, but they really made a mess of the site that used to be helpful and easy to use.

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