Consumer Alert: Beware of Atlas/Bookmasters!

-
I have been a spectator watching the ball bounce back and forth between our former distributor Atlas/Bookmasters, a client and my operations manager. Our former distributor's level of incompetence is absolutely mind-blowing. Of course, it was shocking the entire time we worked with them, but the level of just pure stupidity is really astounding. Even though they made a shipping mistake on their end, they forced us to pay it or they would not close our account. They even admitted they made the mistake, but under the guise of "doing us a favor" (I think I need to look up favor in Webster's and send them the definition ... and it doesn't include making us pay for their mistakes), they insisted we pay the extra roughly $150. I don't know about you, but $150 by most American's standards these days matters. And this on top of the already couple thousand dollars we were forced to pay, which include inane charges such as a $5 "handling" fee just to move the books to ship them. Oh, I'm sorry, did I mention that's $5 PER BOOK! Yeah, the books retails on average for $14.95. We pretty much should have just bought the books at that rate. Of course, this entire corrupt system was part of a larger bigger problem. They had so many hidden fees like this, you could have played a game of hide-and-go seek and lost every single time. Then even though most commercial shipments cost considerably less to deliver to, we had our books indeed delivered to a commercial site, and they told us there was roughly only a $3 difference between the commercial and residential delivery fees (um what?!). Let me repeat that, what! If you know anything about shipping large boxes you know that is absolutely incredible. When I work with our very reputable printer, we receive discounts up to $200 or $300 per shipment of a pallet to a commercial location. As my husband said, "They just made a lot of money off sticking it to you!"

Let me leave you with these final words. My BAD for ever doing business with them in the first place. Their BAD KARMA for being so incompetent and for absolutely no shame in forcing us to pay for their mistakes and twisted fees. Do not do business with Atlas/Bookmasters lest you be on the receiving end of this kind of horrible customer service.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Step-by-Step Building Sexual Tension Between Characters

-
We'll do a kind of mini-workshop on the blog to show you how to build sexual tension either in a book or script. Watch the two methods I employ between Brea and her love interest Drew. Read it below, and I will deconstruct it for you to show you the slow progression and build up. Please notice, I know the entire storyline between these two, so I'm working by making subtle gestures that only an informed audience would notice, which is why you need to know where your story is going and how you intend for it to end so you can build the foreshadowing into the story. I'm not suggesting you don't let some parts of the story organically evolve, but I do know that to build the story arc you need to the end game and character flaws and motivations. So, let me deconstruct that scene for you. Notice a lot of looks pass between them (keeping the focus on the eye-to-eye contact, which is one of the keys to building sexual tension). And mind you, nothing is sexier than a forbidden
Read more

Can I Pick Your Brain?

-
I am blogging about this in response to another blog I saw on the subject. I didn't completely read that author's total opinion, but I read enough to post a big, "You tell 'em sister!" In my line of work as a publisher and marketing specialist, I run into prospective clients who basically through the excuse of preliminary research, put my staff to work to put together proposals, get print quotes, ask endless advice, ask for multiple meetings, etc. -- all under the guise of "picking our brains" and potential business. While we've gotten better about discerning the difference between real business opportunities and those who make endless requests only to spend time drinking coffee with us and going nowhere fast ... except off to either another publisher with our materials (usually one that in their minds is less expensive) or to try and self-publish (again, using our materials). Whether people set out to deliberately use and run, isn't the point.
Read more

In Loving Memory -- John Andrew Gamble, 1962-2011

-
Image
I rarely discuss my private life on my blog, but I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to my brother who passed unexpectedly sometime in July in Wasilla, Alaska . John was a true mountain man. He wasn't the least bit materialistic and never cared about worldly possessions. In the last 20 years after he moved to Alaska, I saw him three times, so we were not close; but I admire that he decided to live life his way up in the wilderness fishing for endless numbers of day. I always wondered how he seemed to never bore of it. He would catch so many salmon, he would live off fresh fish year round. He loved to cook, and I honestly have no idea why he got a degree in marketing from Sacramento State. Looking back on it, I think he would have made a terrific ranger. From an early age, he loved nature. He used to catch trout with his hands up at our family cabin. We would wander the forest together. When we were little, we spent sometimes two to three weeks up there, hiking around the w
Read more