For my part, despite my request last week, I haven't had any news since January 6. At that time, I was told that the copies were manufactured and the production was successful, but that the delays were due to Alan Lee's schedule...
In my opinion, it's only a short step from there to Alan Lee taking the blame. It's not serious.

This is beginning to be disappointing, almost 2 and a half months after going on sale.

Bergelmir wrote:

For my part, despite my request last week, I haven't had any news since January 6. At that time, I was told that the copies were manufactured and the production was successful, but that the delays were due to Alan Lee's schedule...
In my opinion, it's only a short step from there to Alan Lee taking the blame. It's not serious.

This is beginning to be disappointing, almost 2 and a half months after going on sale.

I must admit, I don't really see a problem with not having had a further update since January 6th unless they have reason to tell you something different than they already told you. I do think no updates in two months is a bit sloppy, though (just by virtue of letting people know that they are definitely on the list and haven't been forgotten).

I'm not at all bothered personally by the *overall* delay. I have a perfectly readable copy if I'm so inclined. I might balk at much longer than three months and switch to a refund, but that's more because I don't think the edition is particularly good (page block notwithstanding), so I wouldn't lose sleep by not having a copy. I would lose sleep having paid full price for the book I was initially supplied with, though!

Sorry The late Stu, I didn't make myself clear (damn English :p).
I have no problem with the waiting time: to be honest, I'd rather have a book delivered in June in perfect condition than a damaged book delivered again in January.

What I was criticizing was this way of pointing the finger at Alan Lee's schedule to explain a further delay. From the start, it seemed obvious to me that, with the end of the year and the Christmas holidays, the books could not be replaced quickly, and there was no point in looking for culprits for these delays.
So it was unhelpful and unprofessional of them to refer to Alan Lee here (he's not the one who made failed copies).

Apart from that, I'm lucky enough not to be affected by the unpleasant relationship with the publisher that Mr. Underhill mentioned.
As long as my copies eventually arrive, I won't hold it against Folio.

They will be signed and numbered by him so what they’re stating about his schedule is pretty reasonable 🤷‍♂️

Bergelmir wrote:

What I was criticizing was this way of pointing the finger at Alan Lee's schedule to explain a further delay. From the start, it seemed obvious to me that, with the end of the year and the Christmas holidays, the books could not be replaced quickly, and there was no point in looking for culprits for these delays.

I have no skin in the game beyond living vicariously through all of you 😅 but I agree. At no point should Alan's name be in any correspondence with customers as why it is yet to be resolved. Throwing his name in there is not fair, or professional on their part. Aside from the fact that some places on the internet are not as understanding or knowledgeable about the process as those here, people do jump to conclusions.

The only conclusion anyone should be able to make here is that Folio are doing their best to get the books to customers and they are still being produced. Alan's side of this is part of that process, so there was no reason to name check anyone at all. Their mistake, again, they need to take it on the chin.

I haven't seen the original wording, so I don't know exactly what was said, but if it was just along the lines of:

"The books are now manufactured, but we now need to get time with Alan to get them signed and he has a busy schedule that we need to get some time in with him".

Then that would just feel like a status update letting the customer know that progress is being made, but there is still a final stage to go that is resource-constrained. Again, without the exact wording, I could be missing some nuance, but it isn't something I would have thought twice about or felt any annoyance at Alan about.

From my perspective, the next time I will really care about this is when the book arrives and I can see if they managed to make it properly. At which point, I will probably never open it again, because the binding materials aren't up to handling. I have enjoyed the "dud" copy, though - so in some ways this has been a blessing, having an expensive, overly fragile book and being able to read it.

Seems like a tough spot for Folio. On one hand you want to give the customer a detailed description of what’s holding things up. On the other hand, any description invoking Alan Lee’s name will run the risk of sounding like they’re throwing Alan under the bus.

The best solution would have been to have immaculate quality control on an $850 book, but that ship has sailed.

rosshm16 wrote:

Seems like a tough spot for Folio. On one hand you want to give the customer a detailed description of what’s holding things up. On the other hand, any description invoking Alan Lee’s name will run the risk of sounding like they’re throwing Alan under the bus.

The best solution would have been to have immaculate quality control on an $850 book, but that ship has sailed.

Honestly, the poor QC from Folio (and LEGO) is really the daft thing. They got this similarly wrong with the LotR, which was also a train-wreck of a release. They had all this previous experience of having gotten it wrong once and then literally repeated the same mistakes (albeit arguably slightly worse the second time). Classic case of non-existent organisational learning. The whole thing is a bit bizarre.