Question to Aussie Subers Re: Damaged Issues

[JD!]

The first issue of my subscription to Retro Gamer was delivered this week in typical Australia Post standard. The mag had been folded and crammed into the letterbox resulting in a big crease up the front and back covers. This cramming also resulted in the plastic covering being ripped so that the due caused water damage to the right bottom corner. While the mag is still readable I would prefer it if the magazines I pay for are not ruined before I get a chance to read them.

Obviously, this is a problem with Australia Post and not Imagine Publishing. I was wondering if any other Aussies have face this issue and if so what you did about it and if you got any satisfaction. I'm going to be contacting Australia Post and my local post office about this as it's unacceptable. However, I'm not holding my breath in anything coming of it.

So, if anyone else in Australia has had these problems please let me know how you went about fixing (or not) the issue. If issues keep getting damaged I'll have to go back to buying them at newsagents at the inflated price.

[RetroBob]

I would write to your local and also the head office. Others should do this too.

[JD!]

I'm just about to e-mail head office. I'll be going into my local branch WITH the magazine next week (it's Saturday here now) to complain.

[ncf1]

We had here a tube put next to the box for that specific reason - so that things like magazine subscriptions wouldn't get mangled in the rather smaller letterbox. I think it is therefore utterly extraordinary that they sometimes fail to place it in the tube and instead opt for the more difficult, time-consuming and overall mystifying option of squashing the siht out of it, forcing into the letterbox. It's impossible to actually miss the tube as it extends out further than the letterbox and is also literally glued right next to the box in order to clearly define it as a mail-receiving piece of hardware.

I have come to the conclusion that the average postie is perhaps not overly qualified, and a disturbng amount obviously did not take the time to attend the class in which the different types of home postal boxes were defined and so they are therefore ill-equipped to recognise anything other than a square, brick formation with a small slit with the words 'Letters' above it. Time constraints and perhaps further wagging of postie classes means that they also cannot comprehend the notion of driving their motor-bike a few metres north of the letterbox and simply placing it on the ledge at the front door, it did happen once but it was so infrequent and unexpected that it was passed off as an hallucination for some weeks afterwards.

In summary, if you want a pristine, clean, unsoiled copy then yes, your best bet is the Newsagency. But if you want a mostly clean copy and get it quite a bit earlier, the sub is always the way to go. I like the subscription risk simply because I am something of a gambling man firstly and secondly there's no way I can wait 4-6 more weeks for it to arrive on shelves - I'm simply not that patient a man.

[RetroBob]

You raise a good point, if the destination letter box is too small then of course they're going to censored it up - there needs to be an adequate place to put this stuff.

[themightymartin]

You should demand wider post boxes for Australian residents!

Sriously though, that's annoying. Not something that's ever happened to me in good ol' England thankfully. Out of interest though, how long does it usually take for RG to get out to you?

[ncf1]

the latest copy for me arrived 3 days ago - usually its around about 2 weeks after its announced on the forum and it has been very consistent for a couple years now.

[JD!]

That's the thing though, the mouth for our letterbox is perfectly wide enough for the magazine to be put in flat. Anyway, I filed a formal complain so hopefully future issues will be OK.