Anyone a member of Star Wars Insider? (1 Viewer)

[CraigL]

Ugh...so annoyed with this magazine.

I've been a fan club member since 1989 and have every issue printed. They just were taken over by another printing company and the last two issues have been mailed without the plastic protective wrapping and with the label printed right onto the magazine. To make matters worse, newsstand issues do not have the white label section in the corner, they come polybagged AND they are packaged with exclusives only found in the newsstand version.

So what do you get for your $40 membership? A wrinkled magazine with printing on it and access to their oh-so-wonderful website with content found on others. It really sucks that this had to happen and maybe i'm just a fanboy pissing in the wind but it's really aggravating that now I'm going to have to stay on top of this magazine and constantly buy it on the news stand to get a clean copy of it. I just got off the phone with a rep and she was very nice. She also said that they've gotten a lot of complaints about this from collectors but ultimately it was Lucas who is responsible. She just kept saying Lucas. Is he REALLY sitting in on meetings for the fan club and saying..."let's cut spending and ship them WITHOUT the bags and exclusives?" Even she agreed with me. There is no positive side for being a part of the fan club.

*sigh*

Just really pissed at the moment. I'm surprised theforce.net hasn't picked up on this.

 

[Brett_B]

Did you ask for a refund on the balance of your membership? This would definitely send a "message" to whoever is in charge that they better think of something else quick or lose the entire membership.

 

[Ernest Rister]

Cancel your subscription.

 

[CraigL]

Already canceled. Yes, they prorate your membership so that you get the money back. You'd think that someone who's been a member for almost 16 years and cancels would send a clear message. They told me to send an email because that's the best way to "complain" but I tend to prefer the old fashioned regular mail so that it's a hard copy sent to them. With an email, I just feel like you never know who will delete it or who will get it. Same with a letter but I just feel like at least I put in SOME effort.

I guess it just means off to Virgin Megastore every month for me.

 

[Joel...Lane]

I noticed that to.

The same thing happened when the last publisher took over, I think it was Paizo. They sent out 2 or 3 issues without being wrapped, got a bunch of complaints, apologized for their stupidity and started shipping the magazine in bags from that point.

Now we get the same thing all over again with a new publisher.

I'm starting to get burned out on that magazine anyway. I really just renewed my subscription for Hyperspace. Not that I had a choice in the matter. It's all or nothing now.

 

[CraigL]

Yeah, when I complained I told them: "you guys realize that the same thing happened when the last publisher took over and after 2-3 issues, they were right back with the plastic covers." They just keep responding with "well, to cut costs, this is what Lucas wants." Lucas Lucas Lucas!!

Hyperspace can be fun and I enjoyed watching the videos but to be honest, they'll all be on the DVD. And I'll end up downloading the trailers from other sources. The only thing I used it for were the extremely rare photos they would put up from the original trilogy: Photoreceptor. Otherwise, didn't interest me.

Such a shame. I'm hoping they get their act together so i don't have to bother with this.

Does anyone know how to contact Theforce.net? I'm surprised more of their people aren't complaining.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I remember they refused to renew my subscription and cancelled it after so many years just because I live in France! And the stupid people, I was going to pay for both the French and the US edition. Now I pay for none!

 

[Tony Whalen]

Sorry, but I think the phone staff I've heard of are a little to quick to blame Lucas. Give me a break... do people REALLY think that he'd be concerned about the costs of a plastic bag? C'mon. MORE likely that they got a cost-cutting directive from LucasFILM ... maybe some bean-counter with his head up his hoop?

Sorry...people are too damn quick to demonize Lucas for the littlest thing nowadays.

That being said, I'll continue to pick up my copies of INSIDER from my local Chapters store.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I used to get the Star Wars newsletter when it was called Bantha Tracks but that was a long time ago when the Star Wars movies were actually entertaining.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

At least they didn't call him "G€ORG€ £U¢A$". (But I guess that's kind of hard to do over the phone.)

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I was a happy and satisfied Hyperspace customer. I had no interest in the magazine. When they went all or nothing for US subscribers, I chose nothing. Now I get the same stuff a day later for free through other venues when I'd still be happily paying the $20 for Hyperspace right now.