Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Lulu In Trouble?

I got a promotional e-mail from Lulu yesterday, indicating that they were offering a Canada Day discount to Canadian authors. For any order of $25 or more, entering the promotional code of "CANADADAY" would result in a $5 discount. Since I'd been thinking about ordering some copies of the AgileMan collected edition (as I have none on hand), I saw this as a good opportunity to do so.

However, when I went to the site and filled out my order, the promotional code wasn't recognized (and no $5 discount was applied to my total). So I decided to use the messaging-based support system that I've employed in the past to talk to a support person at Lulu... only to discover that it doesn't exist anymore! Then I went looking for a link to their e-mail support, found one, and clicked on it... only to be told that "the help node you requested does not exist." In other words, there's absolutely no way to get any Help whatsoever from Lulu right now, beyond their FAQ pages (which I searched, to no avail).

This is either a bug that's been introduced into their webpage or an indication that the company is going under (first: cut the live support to reduce that expense; next: deactivate the e-mail links so no one has to be available to respond to them). I guess, given the economic climate, it wouldn't be all that surprising if they're in trouble. But it would also mean that I'd have to find a new publisher for my AgileMan (and any future) books... which would be a drag for me, looking at it selfishly.

Needless to say, I didn't complete the order (no point in sending $100+ their way if I'm unsure as to whether I'll ever get the books). I just hope the $45 in online creator revenue that's owed to me from last quarter will still find its way to me!

1 comment:

Mike said...

Too many accidentally free copies with accidentally free shipping from North America to New Zealand? ;-)