I was checking the listing for Creatures Anathema on Amazon US today and I noticed that there are two listings for it.

The first which is the one that has been on Amazon for the last 6 to 8 months is here . This is the one that I think many of us had placed our pre-order though. While this second one ( here ) just appeared this week. The differences between the first are in ISBN and price. The second one is for $39.95 whereas the first is for $34.95. The two listings even have a link to each other. It's like they are treating it as a different edition of the book.

In my worst possible imaginings, I think that those of us who placed our pre-order through the first listing are going to get screwed over by Amazon since the price on the FFG website here matches the price of the second listing. So I'm sure that the seconding listing will become "In Stock" at some point and be fulfilled while those of use that ordered through the first listing will be sitting around waiting.

I've already shot off an email to FFG and to Amazon but others may want to bombard Amazon with similar emails. And if Mr. Watson happens to be perusing this post, if you could please intercede I would be grateful.

Mate check out this thread:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=70&efcid=3&efidt=55812

This is exactly what happened to Amazon UK customers. The pre-order listing was suddenly unavailable and was replaced by a duplicate listing at full price. Amazon seems to think they are two different books and it took me several e-mails to persuade them it wasn't and for them to honour their pre-order price.

Ooops, jst seen your comment in the other thread.

Good luck trying to sort it out.

I hope that other Amazon US customers will harass them because this is ridiculous. I also hope that FFG may help in this matter. I emailed FFG's US retailers contact through the FFG website. So I hope they might get in touch with Amazon, especially since it is their product.

They have a bad habit of posting bogus product listings well in advance, most often making up release dates and declaring products out of print before they've even been in print and now making the mistake of listing the wrong price entirely. Hopefully everyone has their orders sorted out soon enough. The book really is fantastic.

I really can't recommend Nobleknight.com enough though. Until I move and actually have a FLGS to order from they have served me quite well.

I pretty much use NobleKnight.com to order all my RPGs and I've never had a problem.

Replicant253 said:

Rep, how did you get it sorted out with Amazon UK? What did you do? Just send constant emails? Call them?

NiallNai said:

I initially received an e-mail saying that my order was being cancelled and that they were unable to source it. I then bought it from a game supplier on e-bay for full price.

Couple of days later I was looking at Amazon and I saw that they had now re-listed CA at full price. Angered at this I pinged an e-mail off and they then came back with a patronising e-mail about them being different products entirely. I then sent another e-mail poiting out that they were one and the same and they made some investigations. They came back with an apologetic message. Stating that their investigations had discovered that they were indeed the same book. When I pointed out that I had now purchased the book they credited me with a voucher for future use.

Here is my latest reply from Amazon.

Greetings from Amazon.com.

I have reviewed our previous correspondence with you, and I offer my sincere apologies for any misunderstanding thus far.

I understand your concerns regarding the book Dark Heresy: Creatures Anathema listed under used form third party seller.

As per the information we have this book is not yet released and as we did not receive the stock for this book form publishers the orders placed with us are not shipped.

Hence, the book listed by the seller might be the wrong one.

However, to further confirm the details regarding the release and shipping dates, I have contacted the appropriate department and will write back to you with an answer with in next 2 to 3 business days.

We appreciate your understanding and thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

THE OTHER THREAD needs to be linked with this one.

I won't bother re-typing everything I did there. Suffice it to say, this isn't the first time, nor will it be the last time Amazon does this. Unless the book is actually out NEVER pre-order it from Amazon. They always put these attractive priced pre-orders out and never fill them.

I had exactly the same problem with Amazon UK.. Pre -ordered Creatures Anathema as they were selling at almost cost price later to find that they'd cancelled my pre-order saying it wasn't available only to find it listed at a higher price..Got it else where....Grrrrr

Actually, Amazon.com isn't completely guilt in this matter. The store is huge and there are different teams that are responsible for updating the site. If an information regarding one book is incorrectly provided by their suppliers, that's what happens. I guess being so big has some drawbacks.

I want to order the book somewhere else, but the fact that I've got a $10 Amazon gift certificate and they removed my shipping cost for standard shipping after the last e-mail I sent means that if they ever ship it then I'll be getting CA for less than $15. I figure that's enough to give 'em at least another week or so, despite the fact that I want it now...

Redeucer said:

This is completely untrue in my view. I've pre-order numerous titles RPG, and fiction from Amazon. Other than Dark Heresy I've always got the books cheaply, and on time. (Sure sometimes the published date slips, but it's always been the publisher.) This includes the entire WFRPG line when BI published it.

Dalnor Surloc said:

Lucky you. Unfortunately for every person like yourself I know 5 others like everyone here who is still without CA thanks to Amazon.

Dalnor Surloc said:

I wish it were completly untrue. I say its about 50/50 that my RPG books will ship at release or not. Heck I've had RPGs in which I signed up as soon as Amazon put up the order, and friends of mine signed up a week before shipping, and my friends got it shipped out long before I did.

I'd like to say that the e-mail I received from Amazon recently saying that they weren't sure when Creatures Anathema was going to be released (even though it was already released) was a fluke, but I can't say it is unfortunatly. It almost seems to be the norm with Amazon.

I'll have to check out t his Nobleknight.com. Maybe it has better customer service.

Well, since my emails to Amazon about the double listing issue, it seems like they've decided to jerk me around a bit. I had $35 dollars in gift cert credit yesterday. Now, only $10 of it is available for use today. The missing credit is mysteriously attached to my CA pre-order, which was placed on the 25th of December. I haven't placed an order since February 23rd.

That order that was grouped with another item that Amazon decided ship separately. Now if I cancel the order, they'll probably charge me the shipping for the other item since that would bring the order below $25. Boy, the urge to curse is hard to resist.

Look on the bright side, you know have a good source material for how to jerk your players around if they ever have to deal with the Administorium. Just translate your Amazon dealings to Administorium dealings and have at them, especially if they all decided to play combat monsters.

I order all of the my RPG books through Amazon (both released and pre-orders) and the only ones that have had a delay on them have been the DH books. Amazon contacted me on the 2/17 that CA should arrive on 2/27. On 2/26 Amazon sent me an email asking if I wanted to cancel the order, as they have not received it yet. Past experience with me has been that once I receive that emailthe product ships within a couple of days.

From my perspective the delay seems to be more of a problem with FFG's distribution channel into larger retailers as both barnesandnoble.com and borders.com also show CA as being currently unavailable.

Dalnor Surloc said:

"...completely untrue" is an absolute you have no backing for. As I said in the other thread, this has happened to me four times. Once for each of the examples. That is why I refuse to pre-order anything from Amazon anymore. If it works for you, then you must have ordered it after the got the new item with the correct price.

For example, I ordered the FFG Inquisitor's Handbook in June of last year. When it came out, and yes there was some delay due to FFG, I received an e-mail saying that the item wasn't out yet and that they would keep it on order unless I cancelled it. I waited for 5 weeks after I knew absolutley positive that it was out before contacting Amazon customer service. That is when I started getting the run around that it was back ordered, they didn't realize that the demand would be so high so they didn't order enough and they were waiting to get the new shipment in. If that was the case, then why didn't they ship mine first when I had it ordered months before it came out? After two weeks of playing this game with them, I cancelled my order and got it through an ebay store that had it for the same price Amazon didn't want to ship it to me for.

Redeucer said:

I would have to agree, in my experience this has been completely true! I had long given up trying to order RP books through amazon (they did it with every WFRP book and V:TM before that) however, when I saw the CA price they were offering I thought I'd try my luck. Turns out they were up to their old tricks again as sure enough they cancelled it and then up'd the price. I'm glad I never trusted them and also ordered it from somewhere else!

I only buy DVD and fiction books from Amazon now, and even then it's normally through the marketplace as those sellers are often cheaper and much more competant.

I once ordered a flat screen TV with Amazon after being jerked around for a month with no TV (paid for speedy delivery) I cancelled and demanded compensation. I was told I would receive £50 gift cert. I received £20 when I investigated they had applied £30 to the cancelled order. In fairness, the major headaches were caused by Home Delivery Network aka the worst delivery company in the UK. But untill Amazon stop using them I will never purchase anything that can't be sent by royal mail.

I'm sorry if I misstated prior comments. I meant to say that my experince had been different with Amazon. I find generally they are quite nice to me as they know how much my household buys.

Currently I have this response from Amazon

"I have researched on our website and I see that this title "Dark Heresy: Creatures Anathema (Hardcover)" has two different ASIN's (1589944984 and 1589945484) and the release date for this book is displaying as February 25, 2009.

Please note that, Amazon.com offers hundreds of thousands of items in our own inventory and the fulfillment center buildings enclose millions of square feet, which necessitates that many of our fulfillment center processes are automated and computerized. Our Customer Service centers are not in the same location as our fulfillment centers.

Normally we respond to the customers within 24 hours with solutions. However, due to the nature of the inquiry, I need additional time.

I have forwarded this issue to the concern department to check the difference between the items and I expect to hear back from them 3 to 4 business days. I will get back to you with an answer within 4 business days that is by March 06, 2009.

I appreciate your patience while we work on this issue and I apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for shopping with us at Amazon.com."

I ordered mine through Amazon.ca and I am still waiting for it.

Well, here is the latest from Amazon:

"Hello from Amazon.com.

I apologize for any inconvenience this causes, but at this time 'Dark Heresy: Creatures Anathema', ASIN: 1589944984 is unavailable from us and the listing for this item has been completely removed from our website.

Hence as the item is no longer available on our website, the order will never ship, Hence I have cancelled this item from the order #102-7331595-4028203 and the gift card funds applied to this item and the extra funds moved back to your account and are available for further use.

The current gift card balance in your account is $XX.XX. After you placed this order #102-7331595-4028203 this item 'Dark Heresy: Creatures Anathema' became unavailable which is the reason your order was split into two shipments."

So don't be surprised if you get your cancellations sometime soon. There is still a third party person selling on Amazon US so it is still worth searching for it on there. I just placed my order through the third party.

On a related note Anathema was listed in the NobleKnight newsletter but now there aren't any Dark Heresy items listed at their site. Any idea what was going on? My gameshop has it on the shelf but $10 cheaper, as Dark Gods was, is still $10.