I had problems with a particular publisher (American with a European office) who said that they had been sending the journal and that it must have been mislaid by the hospital. We’re a small hospital with a small post room and it would be very unlikely that every issue of a journal would be siphoned off by someone.

 

Our subscription agent tried hard to get copies of the journal for us. We were even given the telephone number of their contact in the publisher in Germany. The americans kept telling us that they’d sent the journal to the correct address. We spoke to the publisher in Germany & in the end they managed to get the US office to send copies to the European office & they forwarded them on to us.

 

The back issues eventually arrived and, touch wood, we’ve had no problems since.

 

I felt very well supported by the subscription agent who took up the cudgels on our behalf, but find that the quality of service varies depending upon who has been allocated to look after my account. Also, they seem to have frequent personnel changes and don’t always pass on relevant information to their successor.

 

I find that the subscription agent has been very helpful, has set up electronic access via Athens for me with some publishers (where current year full text online is included in the subscription) at no extra cost to me. A few years ago I changed from one of the agents to the other on the grounds of cost and have been happy with the service I receive.

 

The moral of the story is – BE PERSISTENT – I think.

 

Dear All

 

Complaining about the non-arrival of hard-copy journals and the apparent inability of subscription agents to *do* anything seems quaintly old-fashioned these days, but I’m being driven to despair and I wonder if I’m the only one.

 

My hard-copy journals have been whittled down to only about 45 titles, but actually getting them has become a nightmare. Our subscription agent takes our claims, sympathises on the phone but still fails to deliver.

 

Some examples:

One of our core titles has 6 issues a year and for 2008 we have had issue 2 in the right month and issue 7 in the right month, but no others at all.

For another core title we received issue 7 in August, issues 2-6 in September, issues 8&9 just before Christmas but are still awaiting issue 1.

A third and final example is another one where we’ve had just 2 out of 6 issues for the whole of 2008.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as we have a large number of other non-arrivals all currently being chased to no avail.

 

I could almost understand it if none had arrived – possibility of wrong address, payment slipped through the net etc, but what can be the reason for getting just 2 a year instead of 6? Surely not *all* lost in the post? And even back in the days when I took 80+ subs, it was never this bad.

It is just me?

Any suggestions how to force the subscription agent into some useful action?

 

Thanks!
Christine

 

Christine Lawes

Library & Postgraduate Education Manager

Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Harperbury

Harper Lane

Radlett

Herts

WD7 9HQ

 

Tel. 01923-427322

Fax. 01923-427390

 

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