Sam and Max: Surfin' the Highway Hardcover Numbers

[Morden]

Get yourself another warehouse? One that gets the job done properly? *looking at the number list from this thread* I actually got the 2nd highest number up to date. I got 1225 and Shanks got 1266. This suck soooo bad. Thanks WAREHOUSE.

[purple_monkfish]

I believe that mislabeling a customs decleration form can lead to higher penalties as well. Customs doesn't take kindly to customs forms being filled out wrong. I don't think they'd care much if it was labeled software instead of book as software levys more of a customs fee but should they open the package and discover the customs form is wrong? According to HM revenue customs they CAN if they deem that the reciever or sender is trying to pull a fast one, actually slap a massive fee on you for fraud.

It's worth knowing that. As I said, I doubt they'd do it for software instead of book.. it's more to stop people writing gift when it's not to avoid a fee... but still.. you never know.

Also, yes, games are charged at a different rate to books which seem to be done on a case by case basis.

[tabacco]

Originally Posted by Morden

Get yourself another warehouse? One that gets the job done properly?

Wow, that never occurred to us! Thanks!

Seriously, though, it's not that simple. Believe me.

[buemba]

Originally Posted by Morden

Oh, and on the topic of customs and tax charges, the packages are labeled "Software made in USA". I don't know if this applies to tax fees by customs aswell but generally the tax for books is lower than tax for software. Not to mention labeling a package containing a book with "Software" is incorrect. It's not software. It's a book!

That's a big problem indeed. Thankfully the package with my book wasn't caught by customs, but if it had I would've been wrongly taxed because although books are except from all taxes here in Brazil software gets charged with an outrageous 60% fee that's calculated by adding the full price of the product with the shipping fee. Worse, any complains filled about wrong taxes applied to imported products take an average of 15 months to resolve, during which the package stays rotting in a warehouse, and another 2 years to receive an reimbursement.

I lost count of how many times I ended up just bitting the bullet and paying the wrong amount just to avoid all that headache.

[Harley Quinn]

Originally Posted by buemba

That's a big problem indeed. Thankfully the package with my book wasn't caught by customs, but if it had I would've been wrongly taxed because although books are except from all taxes here in Brazil software gets charged with an outrageous 60% fee that's calculated by adding the full price of the product with the shipping fee. Worse, any complains filled about wrong taxes applied to imported products take an average of 15 months to resolve, during which the package stays rotting in a warehouse, and another 2 years to receive an reimbursement.

I lost count of how many times I ended up just bitting the bullet and paying the wrong amount just to avoid all that headache.

Baaaaaaaaaang.

[Morden]

Originally Posted by buemba

books are except from all taxes here in Brazil software gets charged with an outrageous 60%

Yea, well ... That's something that won't get sorted in here. It's a Telltale Games forum, not Telltale Useless Warehouse forum, and I'm guessing it's the lovely people at the warehouse who label book pachages with "software" and send people ridiculously high numbers on their Surfin' the Highway.

I hope that Telltale people will understand that the wrong labeling costs us SERIOUS MONEY. If you send a book, label it as a book! I wouldn't give a damn about the label if it didn't make any difference, but this is money we're talking about.

If the warehouse is doing a poor job, convert ladies' bathroom at Telltale office to a warehouse and store your stuff there. The only girl on your staff is Emily and I'm sure she won't mind. Heh.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Originally Posted by Morden

The only girl on your staff is Emily

I wouldn't say that. Check out their team page.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Morden

Yea, well ... That's something that won't get sorted in here. It's a Telltale Games forum, not Telltale Useless Warehouse forum, and I'm guessing it's the lovely people at the warehouse who label book pachages with "software" and send people ridiculously high numbers on their Surfin' the Highway.

I hope that Telltale people will understand that the wrong labeling costs us SERIOUS MONEY. If you send a book, label it as a book! I wouldn't give a damn about the label if it didn't make any difference, but this is money we're talking about.

If the warehouse is doing a poor job, convert ladies' bathroom at Telltale office to a warehouse and store your stuff there. The only girl on your staff is Emily and I'm sure she won't mind. Heh.

Are you trying to just be a loud jerk? Guess what... we're human beings too. We exist as real people outside of this forum.* We DO realize that it costs you serious money, and that knowledge stresses us out and makes us feel bad. Believe it or not, we're even working to solve these issues.

As Doug said, it's harder to solve than just flipping a switch, or "getting another warehouse." The amount of pipeline and infrastructure going on behind the scenes of an electronic transaction (especially through a business which sells a mix of custom manufactured hard goods, wholesale-bought existing merchandise, and electronic downloads) is staggeringly, surprisingly immense. If it were as easy as flipping a magic switch, please trust me that we would have flipped it a long time ago. Our web team has been hard at work for months on working out better solutions to the issues you and others are experiencing. Hopefully someday sooner rather than later, issues like this will be far less common. On that day we will probably dance around, and also, very likely, be a bit drunk.

For now, I'm really sorry that you hate everything. Thanks for sticking around through thick and thin, even still .

As for "converting the ladies bathroom," well, that's fine. You can come in and work for free 40 hours a week packing up merchandise and shipping them off around the world (and also act as the crossing guard to the mens room, for whenever a lady wants to use a toilet). Anything that doesn't fit in the ladies room is going to have to be stocked on palettes in your apartment, as we simply haven't got the space in the office for such an operation. I'm sure you won't mind


* The fact that there are so many staff posts on weekends and evenings is due to dedication, not, as incorrectly rumored, to our web staff consisting wholly of faceless automatons who love slapping you with inappropriate customs charges. Easy mistake to make, I know, but yeah, we are real.

[patters]

Originally Posted by Jake

* The fact that there are so many staff posts on weekends and evenings is due to dedication, not, as incorrectly rumored, to our web staff consisting wholly of faceless automatons who love slapping you with inappropriate customs charges. Easy mistake to make, I know, but yeah, we are real.

really i thought you were all faceless entities...

but for a small company (you still are pretty small aren't you) they are doing very well and have some of the best customer services, dedicated, helpful and friendly staff. they are consistently giving us brilliant products which not all can buy, one day i hope they can expand to have a European (their second biggest audience i believe) warehouse for merchandising etc, if this is at all possible.

[doom saber]

l think some ppl forget that TT is a small indi vg company that does not have to spew out merc like clothing and books.

Being someone who collect toys of all shapes and sizes, l know how difficult independant companies have in releasn a product in time. Even toy collectors forget that some companies that aren't Hasbro or Mattel cannot always keep the release dates on time because they don't own the factory or cargoboats that ships their stuff like the larger companies.

[TrogLlama]

Originally Posted by doom saber

cargoboats

Just wanted to say that I initially read this as 'carbogoat.'
I need help...

[Jake]

Originally Posted by TrogLlama

Just wanted to say that I initially read this as 'carbogoat.'
I need help...

Carbogoat has joined your party!!

[patters]

Originally Posted by doom saber

Being someone who collect toys of all shapes and sizes, l know how difficult independant companies have in releasn a product in time. Even toy collectors forget that some companies that aren't Hasbro or Mattel cannot always keep the release dates on time because they don't own the factory or cargoboats that ships their stuff like the larger companies.

i have experience in this, my dads birthday present, a toy star trek communicator, was delayed from release in the UK for over 6 weeks. i got no explanation of this even though i had preordered it

[Harley Quinn]

What? The Telltale staff are real and have lives? When the hell did that happen?

[Morden]

Originally Posted by Jake

Are you trying to just be a loud jerk?

No, I'm not. I actually really like you guys. I don't see myself as a jerk but I'm sorry if I acted like one.

For now, I'm really sorry that you hate everything. Thanks for sticking around through thick and thin, even still

I was just a bit dissapointed with the number I got. This, plus the additional $23 in customs fees affected my mood I guess. I've been a good Telltale customer so far. At least I think so. I got pretty everything with Sam & Max except for the t - shirts and posters. I will continue to buy your stuff and I hope you will get some of the warehouse related issues sorted out.

As for "converting the ladies bathroom," well, that's fine. You can come in and work for free 40 hours a week packing up merchandise and shipping them off around the world (...) Anything that doesn't fit in the ladies room is going to have to be stocked on palettes in your apartment (...) I'm sure you won't mind

As far as storing things in my apartment, it's small but I wouldn't mind! Talk about perks of the trade. I'd know exactly what number of Surfin' the Highway I was getting! Then again I'm not sure if storing some of the things in the ladies room and the rest in an apartment in europe would be a good combination. This, plus getting to "work" would be a pain.

Anyway, I'm sorry for being such a pain in the ... you know where. I'll try to be good. I promise.

[wisp]

it's a miracle how sometimes issues that seem so simple just won't got away. the customs sticker's thing might have been solved last year, but i guess we all know how frustrating it can be adressing a certain issue and not getting the reaction you hoped for. happens all the time in our modern world. so, if telltale is onto the problem then it will be solved sooner or later. changing the warehouse could solve this issue, but also created several new one. that you should always keep in mind.
about your number: damn, 1225 is totally cool. okay, you could have gotten a lower number, but, hey, it's still nice.

[Hero1]

well getting back on track my number is 853..which sucks considering I bought the hardcover like an hour after it went on sale.. Why couldn't I get lower? Other than that I'm very happy with the book, glad they did a hardcover, very happy with the better paper quality. This is def. the best version of surfing the highway that's been released.

As for Telltale's warehouse issues. I will try and avoid buying anything from Telltale that has to ship out to Australia. I don't blame the telltale employees, but from a business standpoint it's just not good enough, and the problems gone on for far too long(over a year) My paperback edition of STH arrived after 6 weeks and was damaged one of the many problems i've had with orders..In fact if it wasn't telltale, and they wern't selling sam & max stuff I'd prob stop buying stuff from the store all together

[purple_monkfish]

I preordered the hardcover pretty much as soon as the email was sent and still got 1035. Look at Emily's numbers though, they simply aren't being sent out as "first person to order gets one, so on and so forth" otherwise surely she'd have gotten 201, 202 and 203 but she didn't!
I believe the warehouse is just sending random numbers. OK you have a slightly increased chance of getting a lower number if you preordered but if you look at the sheet of orders recieved they are sort of all over the place. None in the 2000 yet though.. so maybe there's some logic to it.
don't really mind to be honest, i'm just happy to have such a pretty book with Steve's sig! YAY! and I have what looks suspiciously like eraser gunk behind the signed paper ahahahaha, telltale eraser gunk! what a bonus.

I have only had one item damaged and that was the art of S&M which suffered a little scuffing to one side. That was a while ago and my current three books arrived in pristine condition *shrug*
The only complaint I really have is the mislabeling of customs forms. My t-shirt last year was also labeled software.

Flog them warehouse staff! or send them for reprogramming.. I mean.. retraining.. yeah... <_< >_>

Aside from that, Telltale, you guys have been awesome. Your customer service is top notch.

[Zeek]

Should I feel special or scared that I'm one of the few that doesn't mind having a relatively high number and is just happy that I actually have the book? I'm getting mixed signals from this thread about that, since everyone is going all hardcore comic-book collector/invester from my perspective.

[OutlawJim]

I got number 731, not bad at all. The number doesn't seem all that important to me but 731 is cool cus you can add the 3 and the 1 to get 4 and then invert it to get 47, which is my lucky number XD