Shouldn't I have Received My Dec Issue By Now?

Seems like I should have. Did you guys get yours?

Yep. I've had several fall through the cracks, though. I like to think that my local post office has a bathroom with a few (of my) GRM magazines in it!

In reply to mike:

What do you do in that case? Should I email them and see if they can send another copy?

bravenrace - call our subscription service at 877-677-6878. They can find out what's going on and get another issue out to you.

I get all of mine, but I think my postman is a car enthusiast as well. By the time I get them, folks here have been talking about the articles for 2 weeks or better.

I haven't seen mine yet, but mine is usually late. Not worried.

Mine tend to be late (but at least they show up at our address now - they tended to disappear at our previous address) but I've received that issue a couple of weeks ago.

I stole it. Sorry.

mndsm wrote: I haven't seen mine yet, but mine is usually late. Not worried.

Same here

bravenrace wrote: In reply to mike: What do you do in that case? Should I email them and see if they can send another copy?

I call the subscription number, and they send me another copy. Easy as that.

In reply to z31maniac:

I don't normally pay much attention to when they come. How late is it? Should I wait a while before requesting another copy?

Not sure, I don't really know when my issues are or are not supposed to show up.

I just notice discussions of the new issue show up on the board usually 10-14 days before I receive the new issue.

DrBoost wrote: I get all of mine, but I think my postman is a car enthusiast as well. By the time I get them, folks here have been talking about the articles for 2 weeks or better.

Same here... I swear a lot of my car magazines all arrive within a day or two of each other... the only ones that arrive "on time" are shipped in a bag for some reason...

Does the Dec issue have the Challange coverage?

Ian F wrote:

DrBoost wrote: I get all of mine, but I think my postman is a car enthusiast as well. By the time I get them, folks here have been talking about the articles for 2 weeks or better.

Same here... I swear a lot of my car magazines all arrive within a day or two of each other... the only ones that arrive "on time" are shipped in a bag for some reason... Does the Dec issue have the Challange coverage?

Funny you mention that. I usually do get all my mags on the same day, all stack together....

The December issue mailed October 17. Give us a call to get a replacement. And speaking of mailing delays, this press release from the Postal Service was sitting in my In box this morning:

USPS promises to fix “unacceptable” flats processing delays

Thursday, December 1st, 2011: US Postal Service executives resolved to fix problems in their periodicals processing yesterday, as mailers pressed their concerns about significant delays.

On-time performance levels for one-to-two day periodicals delivery have slumped to as low as 44% this year as USPS expanded its use of automated flats sequencing systems (FSS) as a way of improving efficiency in processing flats immediately prior to delivery.

FSS machines automatically sequence newspapers and magazines into delivery order for houses along a mail carrier’s route, meaning the mail carrier does not have to sequence the items manually.

Over the past year the Postal Service has accelerated its plans to expand its FSS fleet from 10 machines in five sites to 100 machines in 42 sites, as an extra effort to cut costs from the network. But, after the roll-out was completed this summer, the new machines have been plagued with problems that has seen significant periods of down-time.

Largely because of the FSS issues, the number of delays to Standard Mail flats has increased 16% this year, while delays to Standard Mail overall fell 20%.

Yesterday’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee meeting saw USPS chief operating officer Megan Brennan stating frankly that the situation was “unacceptable” and current service performance for periodicals “lousy”.

Part of the problem, Brennan explained, was that the deployment of the machines came while volumes were at their low point during the spring and summer, and USPS did not react quickly enough as volumes surged during the fall.

USPS has now deployed a number of specialist teams – “Tiger Teams” – to investigate problems at the FSS locations, and put in place corrective measures in areas like mail preparation and maintenance procedures.

“It’s about improving the performance of the machines, reducing the down-time for failures,” Brennan said. “When these machines go down, they go down hard.”

And then there's this:

In reply to Marjorie Suddard:

Okay, thanks.

Out of morbid curiosity as I watch it circle the drain: when the USPS goes belly up, who's gonna deliver the mag?

Speaking of circling the drain, here's the latest screw-you news from the USPS, courtesy of a watchdog group that tries to keep them from running mailers completely out of business:

Summary The Postal Service formally announced today(see link below) that it will file with the Postal Regulatory Commission(PRC) a request for opinion, concerning proposed changes to service standards and network optimization(reduction in the number of processing facilities). This process is mainly a formality as the Postal Service is not bound by the opinion of the PRC. The result, unless the USPS changes its proposal, will be that most Periodicals and First Class Mail will be delivered at least one day later. For ABM members with time sensitive publications this is a concern.

Detail Though the elimination of most overnight delivery for First Class mail is receiving the most publicity, overnight delivery of periodicals will also be greatly reduced. The Postal Service is saying that overnight delivery will still be offered for First Class and Periodical mail-if it arrives at the destination facilities by the required arrival times. The problem is those arrival times will be much earlier, from 8 am to 2 pm depending on mail makeup. This will make it almost impossible for many publications to meet those times unless they can change editorial and/or production schedules. Until last July, when arrival times were first made earlier, most publications could arrive as late as 5pm and receive a commitment for next day delivery.

What has ABM been Doing? To reduce periodical processing costs the Postal Service first proposed earlier arrival times last spring. A group of mailers, including ABM, worked with the Postal Service to obtain arrival times as late as possible while reducing postal costs. Those earlier arrival times went into effect July 1st and though not what we wanted, it was later than what the USPS had originally proposed and a fair compromise.

In September the USPS announced they would be closing over 250 processing facilities and eliminating all overnight service for periodicals and making arrival times even earlier. They asked for comments through the federal register process and received about 5,000 including comments from ABM. In addition we, along with other mailers, met with Postal officials to express our concern about losing overnight delivery. The good news is overnight delivery was reinstated but the bad news is the arrival times are so early it will be difficult for most publishers to make.

Next Steps The Postal Service will be publishing the latest proposed rules in the Federal Register and we will make comments as needed.

http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2011/pr11_132.pdf

Thanks, Jack Widener American Business Media Postal Counsel

I'm waiting on the issues with the calender in it. Both GRM and CM. Decorate my cube at work.

This is what I intended to link to in my post above.