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A Digest Subscriber's Report - 2016

Started by DeCarlo Rules, January 07, 2017, 03:48:31 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

DeCarlo Rules

I subscribed to every single digest title that ACP published in 2016. Here's some data I compiled by tracking the in-store released dates (taken from Diamond Comics Distributors' website, so these are the dates that they would have appeared for sale in local independent comic retailers' stores) and the dates I received those same issues of my digest subscriptions in the mail. I unfortunately did not begin seriously tracking my subscription delivery dates until February 2016 (thus the titles released in January 2016 appear in gray font and are notated as "no data"), but otherwise tried to list all digest issues released in 2016. A single exception to that is ARCHIE COMICS DOUBLE DIGEST #275, released in comic shops on 4-Jan-2017. It was close enough to 2016 for me to include the data this summary, replacing delivery data that I failed to record for ARCHIE COMICS WINTER ANNUAL #265 (released in comic shops on 30-Dec-2015) so that I could have a total of 10 issues of that title (the proper annual frequency) represented.

Some other notes:
Issues listed in a RED font were ones I received later than they appeared in comic shops. Issues that were delivered by mail egregiously late (by which I mean 2 weeks or more late) are in BOLD font. Issues that were SO late that I had to email the subscription department to complain are highlighted in YELLOW, except for a single issue highlighted in RED -- JUGHEAD AND ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS #23, which, when it was over 3 weeks late, and I emailed ACP to complain, I was informed that they no longer had any copies of that issue to replace the one I was missing, so they issued me credit for another issue on my subscription for that title instead (and I had to special order that issue from Diamond Comics through my LCS).

Issues listed in a GREEN font were those that were delivered earlier than the comic shop on-sale date, and if they were received a week or more earlier, I listed that issue in BOLD font.




A few other comments seem appropriate here. It hardly seems likely that too many other digest subscribers are tracking issues of their subscriptions in this kind of detail (notice how I avoided the word 'obsessively' there - but looking at the data overall, there may be some good reasoning behind my obsession). Which leads me to wonder how many kids are missing issues from their subscriptions that simply never arrive and they never notice, or possibly their parents don't know where to direct their complaints (or can't be bothered, if they're even aware of it). This data certainly doesn't present a pretty picture for anyone thinking of subscribing to the digest titles, but it is what it is. I've already cancelled my subscription (after 2 issues, but by that time issue #3 and 4 were already in the pipeline) to ARCHIE 75th ANNIVERSARY JUMBO COMICS, and I'm planning to let my subs to both ARCHIE COMICS DOUBLE DIGEST and WORLD OF ARCHIE COMICS DOUBLE DIGEST expire (they currently only have a couple of issues left). I've got a few more issues of both ARCHIE'S FUNHOUSE and JUGHEAD AND ARCHIE before I have to worry about making a decision on those titles, and I already re-subscribed to both B&V FRIENDS and BETTY AND VERONICA a couple of months ago (those are the two most important titles to me, that I don't want to miss an issue of). My LCS doesn't even normally preorder any of the digest titles for their shelf, so I'd have to order these special for myself every month, or go looking for them at the local Barnes & Noble every month.

It's hard to say how much of the blame here should be allotted to my local USPS (they can't possibly be handing even bulk rate mail this badly, this often, can they?), how much to ACP, and how much to "Subscription Genius". Subscription Genius is what is basically handling the subscription orders, although the order help department at ACP can obviously make modifications manually (and users can see certain data of their own and modify things like their mailing address, and renew subscriptions). Subscription Genius may be no more than an app that ACP licenses from a software group that automates certain tasks like tracking issue #s, addresses and billing. I don't know if they're an actual service that has anything to do with the printing and mailing of subscribers' copies. My own admittedly non-documented recollections as a subscriber from 2015 is that delivery of issues then seemed more or less timely, with most issues arriving up to a week or so either early or late, but things seem to have taken a significant downturn after October or early November of 2015, when online comic news sites carried the news of ACP having slashed its in-house staff, eliminating several permanent employees. I wouldn't even consider getting issues delivered a week or so late that big of a deal, if there was any kind of consistency to it, but this is too much.

SAGG

I guess this is why I'm just going through digitals to buy now, because I can download them immediately. I rarely buy a ACP book anymore hands-on, with the exception of the new Archie one, just to see what it was about. I think I'd blame ACP more than anything else, since they're the ones in charge of producing the product for the distributors. To sum up, ACP seems to be having trouble with getting out the hands-on books, as opposed to getting them out digitally....

DeCarlo Rules

Quote from: SAGG on January 07, 2017, 04:20:59 AM
I guess this is why I'm just going through digitals to buy now, because I can download them immediately. I rarely buy a ACP book anymore hands-on, with the exception of the new Archie one, just to see what it was about. I think I'd blame ACP more than anything else, since they're the ones in charge of producing the product for the distributors. To sum up, ACP seems to be having trouble with getting out the hands-on books, as opposed to getting them out digitally....

Well, this is one of the unknowns. I don't know if ACP slashing its in-house staff means that somehow a service called "Subscription Genius" is being subcontracted to track, bag, label and deliver subscribers copies to the USPS, or if "Subscription Genius" is just a piece of software that ACP leases to help (what's left of) their in-house staff to accomplish the task (but it's on them to actually get subscribers' copies bagged, labeled and out the door to the USPS).

I doubt very much if this is influencing me in any way to go the digital route, though. I have bigger problems with that (a whole other discussion which you may or may not recall) than with the mail subscriptions. No, it seems if anything this would be prodding me more in the direction of buying back issues of print titles, thus cutting ACP out of the loop of making any profit off me altogether.

SAGG

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 07, 2017, 04:57:27 AM
Quote from: SAGG on January 07, 2017, 04:20:59 AM
I guess this is why I'm just going through digitals to buy now, because I can download them immediately. I rarely buy a ACP book anymore hands-on, with the exception of the new Archie one, just to see what it was about. I think I'd blame ACP more than anything else, since they're the ones in charge of producing the product for the distributors. To sum up, ACP seems to be having trouble with getting out the hands-on books, as opposed to getting them out digitally....

Well, this is one of the unknowns. I don't know if ACP slashing its in-house staff means that somehow a service called "Subscription Genius" is being subcontracted to track, bag, label and deliver subscribers copies to the USPS, or if "Subscription Genius" is just a piece of software that ACP leases to help (what's left of) their in-house staff to accomplish the task (but it's on them to actually get subscribers' copies bagged, labeled and out the door to the USPS).

I doubt very much if this is influencing me in any way to go the digital route, though. I have bigger problems with that (a whole other discussion which you may or may not recall) than with the mail subscriptions. No, it seems if anything this would be prodding me more in the direction of buying back issues of print titles, thus cutting ACP out of the loop of making any profit off me altogether.
I think either way we can agree ACP just doesn't have its act together. I hate to say it, but they're really slipping up. And the slope is getting steeper....  ???

DeCarlo Rules

Quote from: SAGG on January 07, 2017, 05:01:28 AM
I think either way we can agree ACP just doesn't have its act together. I hate to say it, but they're really slipping up. And the slope is getting steeper....  ???

I can't begin to list ALL the ways that ACP as a publisher is frustrating to me as an individual comic book fan and collector having a desire and expectation for certain things, but I'll try to cover the broadest strokes.

1. New material: I'm 180 degrees in opposition to their publishing philosophy. Long story short, the things (not to mention the people) they left behind to move forward with the New Riverdale reboot are pretty much the ONLY things that made Archie Comics worth reading to me in the first place.

2: Reprint program: It's a mess. Nearly everything about ACP's approach to reprinting (this applies to digital 'reprints' as well) stories from their vast library is counter to the way comic book collectors think. We want to collect specific stories, specific characters, specific writers and artists. What we GET is an anthology of whatever ingredients were convenient to toss into the stew they happen to be serving up. I don't get to pick the ingredients. ACP picks them for me, and I can take what they're serving or leave it. Even worse, they're not even going to tell me what those specific ingredients are going to be before they serve it up. I wind up paying for things I don't want, or things I wanted the first time I read them, but don't need to pay for again.

3: Digital program: While the economics of print make Problem No. 2 kind of dicey to solve, the digital format should remove all those barriers, so that the consumer can get exactly whatever he or she wants. Instead of selling me a digital copy of an issue of JOSIE from the 1960s that I want to read, I still have buy a whole anthology worth of stories (including Little Archie and L'il Jinx stories that I would never consider paying for by themselves) to get the story by Frank Doyle and Dan DeCarlo that I really wanted (assuming I somehow even knew beforehand that the story I wanted was in there). When they do Digital Exclusive collections, they won't even tell me exactly what's in them. If I want JUST the new Dan Parent stories from the current digests, I can't buy those.

That about covers most of the main issues, apart from the lack of new classic Archie stories (refer to Problem No. 1).

PS -- Oh yeah, almost forgot. Their subscription service stinks too.

DeCarlo Rules

#5
PPS -- When I look at the record of delivery dates for WORLD OF ARCHIE digest, that one title seemed to have an okay delivery rate. Half of them were up to a week late (only one was 9 days late), and the other half were even delivered a few days earlier than comic shops got them. If ALL of the digest titles had a similar record of being delivered, I'd have absolutely NO complaints about subscriptions. So WHY just that ONE title? Are they somehow paying closer attention to that one because it has the most subscribers or something?  JUGHEAD AND ARCHIE wasn't bad overall (five out of six) either, but then one had to turn up missing, and not even replaceable, so that just ruined it.

Ottawagrant

When Archie closed shop for 2 weeks for their move to new offices, that's when the problems started. During the move, you could send them email, but nobody answered you back. During that time I missed 3 (THREE) digests. When they finally answered me back they said they couldn't resend the books because they were 'sold out'. An Archie digest sold out? Right. And the check is in the mail. From that point on I had nothing but trouble. For every six digests released I was missed either 2 or 3 of the 6. You'll notice when you email Archie subscriptions no one ever uses their real name. You get replies from 'Betty Cooper', or any other character name. I had taken a 2 year subscription on every book, but this was before many of the digest were reduced in totals. The worst was 'B & V Friends' that went from 11 times a year to 6. So my 2 year subscription became 3 for that book. The other 'strange' thing is that every time the digest was an oversized book (Annuals, jumbo, etc.) those were the books I was usually missed on. I've mentioned this before, I don't subscribe any more. I head over to Wal-Mart & pick the books up 3/$10.00. A VERY good deal for me because the subscriptions are all in U.S. Dollars, & the Canadian Peso doesn't smear that far. Here in Canada the books are mailed from Southern Ontario, I believe it's the City of Burlington. But every now & then one of my digests would arrive mailed from the U.S. I suspect that the subscription department of Archie is done by either part-time or casual employees. A few days work a month, & then the rest is probably machine done. If it's done by computer, Archie really needs to replace those Commodore 64's.

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