The Lord of The Rings Deluxe Illustrated Problems Issues - WM print

I would try this page for support details.

https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/corporate-customer-service

Thank you, I'll give it a shot. If I hear anything back or get it resolved, I'll update this forum to let everyone know. I have never in my life seen such a poorly designed and manufactured book from such a large company, which is supposed to have been a higher than average quality book.

FYI for anyone reading this who might be curious, it is printed by Rotolito

Harpercollins has insisted that I have to work with Barnes & Noble to get a good copy of the book. They also stated that I can't report these quality issues directly, but that Barnes & Noble has to report them. Here are the issues I'm seeing, all printed from Rotolito:

1. Green page tint inside page crease
2. Ink smudges on letters (small)
3. Ink smudges page wide, in multiple colors (usually found around paintings)
4. Folded pages
5. Multiple colors of paper in close proximity from dark tan to stark white
6. Double printed pages (sometimes the same page printed twice on top of itself, other times different pages printed on the same page)
7. Bad page or book cover cuts. Pages, or covers not square as a result.
8. Fraying cloth
9. Misaligned maps
10. REALLY dark ink (with shadow, or blurry like low pixel count) and REALLY light faded, almost non readable.

mntdewdskie wrote:

Harpercollins has insisted that I have to work with Barnes & Noble to get a good copy of the book. They also stated that I can't report these quality issues directly, but that Barnes & Noble has to report them.

Dealing with the point of purchase I understand but bygum talk about evasive tactics to not engage with customers. If it was compliments I expect they could take those comments directly. I remain unsurprised.

MODS: Do HarperCollins evade feedback passed to them from this site?

onthetrail wrote:

mntdewdskie wrote:

Harpercollins has insisted that I have to work with Barnes & Noble to get a good copy of the book. They also stated that I can't report these quality issues directly, but that Barnes & Noble has to report them.

Dealing with the point of purchase I understand but bygum talk about evasive tactics to not engage with customers. If it was compliments I expect they could take those comments directly. I remain unsurprised.

MODS: Do HarperCollins evade feedback passed to them from this site?

I think we’re all hoping HC ditches Rotolito for future releases, they seem to not be able to get their act together.

No onthetrail, not in my experience. A few from HC do monitor the site too, but not sure how often

I haven’t dealt with US HarperCollins customer support yet. It sounds like you have gotten brushed off (either a bad policy, or someone on their side is confused). Either way, not appropriate.

The US side of things is new(ish) from the acquisition of Houghton Mifflin. It isn’t the same as the UK team at all.

I just received my first copy of the Silmarillion deluxe yesterday, and surprise surprise its got so many issues. So 9 copies of lord of the rings, 3 copies of complete guide to middle earth, 2 copies of unfinished tales, and 2 copies of silmarillion. They all have the same issues. All rotolito. I think its time I make a youtube video pointing all of this out so people wanting to buy any of these books can know and learn what they're getting into. Then maybe we can start blasting the video on social media. This is just ridiculous. Like its one thing to get a one-off problem book, but how is it that 100% of my 16 purchases thus far have been bad with the same issues, of products that have been manufactured since early 2021??

They clearly either aren't listening to feedback or don't care, or cannot figure out how to solve these issues. I've talked to people on reddit and youtube, who thought their book was great (but never opened it) only to open it after I spoke with them to find out that they too have a nightmare book. I think HC knows that most of their customers are going to purchase these and NEVER open them because they want it to stay beautiful on the shelf as a collector piece. And I think so many customer who are noticing issues, are just choosing to overlook them instead of reporting them.

So far all of my books have been purchased brand new since December 16th 2022. The locations that I have gotten them from are: California, Nevada, Ireland, Utah (2 locations) and some other undisclosed location from within the UK (ebay). Kind of insane that ALL books have been bad, from all around the world.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

mntdewdskie wrote:

Harpercollins has insisted that I have to work with Barnes & Noble to get a good copy of the book. They also stated that I can't report these quality issues directly, but that Barnes & Noble has to report them.

Dealing with the point of purchase I understand but bygum talk about evasive tactics to not engage with customers. If it was compliments I expect they could take those comments directly. I remain unsurprised.

MODS: Do HarperCollins evade feedback passed to them from this site?

I think we’re all hoping HC ditches Rotolito for future releases, they seem to not be able to get their act together.

No onthetrail, not in my experience. A few from HC do monitor the site too, but not sure how often

@Mr.Underhill, Do you know the tags or accounts of the HC reps who roam this site? Can we tag them in here for comment or help?