i did not renew my subscription in Feb. this year because i never received about a third of the issues. well, i received Vol. 14, Number 5 today(which i assume was from Sept- Oct of last year). one of the articles that tweaked my curiosity was about bow hunting crocs. unfortunately it was the second part of a 2 part article and i never received the preceding issue with part 1. if anyone out there has Vol.14 Number 4 and is willing to part with it, i will gladly pay shipping. as an aside, i never received Number 6 either. and the publishers wonder why people don't renew?????????????. 5-6 years of this was enough.

I'm assuming that Number 4 of 2008 is the issue you are refferring to, about Bow Hunting Crocs. It is labeled as the 14th Annual SCI show edition on the front.

PM me your address and I'll send it along, no problem or cost.

Joel Blankenship

I also got No. 5 of Issue 14 yesterday. If you e-mail them at fishunt@zol.co.zw they will send you your mising issue. They are having delivery as well as trouble getting behind on publishing dates. No. 6 should have gone to the printer by now.

465H&H

JDOLLAR

e-mail Ant at fishunt@zol.co.zw as 465H&H suggested, or call Ant on Zimbabwe - Telephone (+263-4) 572786 or 572787. Fax+263-4) 576627. i know that he is running uphill at the moment due to no power in Zim and hardly any internet connection.

If you dont come right mail me and ill pass it on

Ant fixed up all my problems and the magazine is worth it.

Thanks for the comments.

I did a post in January to a very similar set of comments, part of which read...

“We have in fact produced six magazines this year, though the issue numbers are out of kilter. This was primarily due to problems we had in 2007, when our production was thrown off by the escalating collapse here in Zim.

At this stage, the issue numbers are still out - with Issue No.4 completing the six for this year (No.4 is arriving in the USA now) and while we attempted to get it back in line through 2008, the situation highlighted by Bryan with reference to Zimbabwe has hindered this. The latest thorn in our side, was the Cholera outbreak here in the last few months, which saw most staff off battling bouts of the disease. This hot on the heals of the disruption of the presidential election re-run, thwarted our efforts to get the extra two issues out. We could have opted for a couple of “quick fix” magazines, but did not want to undermine our good reputation by cheating our readers with sub-standard magazines.”

Obviously AR offers some anonymity, so I am unable to reply to the Jdollar poster directly. I am confident in stating though, that if Jdollar had raised these queries directly with our subs department or me personally, the issue would have been resolved to his satisfaction. Even if that meant a full refund. I am still prepared to do this should he feel so inclined to communicate the details to me.

I suspect anyone who puts up with 5-6 years of bad service deserves a medal of some sort?

Production is well in hand now and in spite of all the drama here (thanks to the others for acknowledging them), we are confident of getting the issues numbers back in line. Zimbabwe is not an excuse, and we DO deliver on our promise! All we need is communication and we will stop at nothing to ensure satisfaction.

Joel, thank you for sending on your copy of the magazine. Jacqui has instructed the Johannesburg mailing office to send you off another one today in way of replacement. She has also renewed your subscription for a further year (according to our records it was about to expire) and this is by way of thanks for your assistance.

PLEASE, should anyone else have a problem, take the time to contact our offices in either Zimbabwe (fishunt@zol.co.zw) or Johannesburg (adhunt@mweb.co.za) and I GUARANTEE we will resolve the problem to your satisfaction. Posting on AR behind a “handle” gives us little opportunity to make right on unsatisfactory service - perceived or real.

Wishing youi all a good day.

Ant: Thanks ever so much for the post for everyone to read, about situation in general and also answering the specific problem areas. I have heard from Jacqui already. I am glad to be able to get the magazine to JDollar quickly, and at little cost here in the States.

I have always found this magazine to be worthwhile, and as one of my favorites, I look forward to each issue. I have thrilled friends about African hunting, just by letting them read a few issues.

Joel Blankenship

I've always received mine with no problems. jorge

I got mine yesterday.

ANT, I got mine Friday,

Leroy

got mine today

Mine arrived yesterday and it is quite good.

It says alot about the magazine's quality with this level of service and people still subscribe.

Blank is sending me his issue and i greatly appreciate it. and i think it is great the publisher is sending him a replacement issue.

Thanks for the support guys and letting us know the magazine is arriving. We do monitor this and know it began arriving worldwide last week, less than two weeks after being mailed from South Africa. This was in fact quicker than the issues mailed to Zimbabwe... ours only arrived yesterday.

Some years ago we had terrible problems with the mailing from Zimbabwe - this was as things started falling apart here. Although we did print and mail from the USA for a while, our move of production back to Africa worried us due to possible mailing problems. But we have a good relationship with the mailing authorities in Johannesburg - they actually provide a service - and have experienced very few problems with this service worldwide.

We do have some peculiar problems to deal with on the communication side though, and this is why I listed the Johannesburg e-mail address earlier. Some of what goes on is amusing, even if it brings us all close to stress related heart-attacks. I want to share some of it, simply because it is almost unbelievable.

Our land lines have been down for about ten weeks now, due to the theft of some electricity cables used to power the exchange. I send my messenger weekly to the government phone provider to check on things. In the past, we have financed repairs just to get our lines up and running and supply fuel to their technicians so they can get out into the field. My messenger returns from his weekly visit last week with a hand scribbled note from the manager saying all numbers starting with 57 (which is our exchange prefix) are affected, but should I require any further information, I should call them on 572522! I wanted to write back, but it just seems pointless.

Meanwhile, our internet has been down for three weeks with limited e-mail connectivity. The service provider - ZOL - were at a loss to explain this, and as one of the biggest in the country, their lack of service affected a great many companies locally, bringing many businesses to a standstill. Like us, most companies here rely on e-mail for communications as little else works. Finally, it came to life yesterday - hence my posts - and an explanation from ZOL arrived in our Inbox. It read in part “Unfortunately every backup system including generators, UPS and routers were totally flummoxed by 2 painters painting the building where our satellite dish is housed. Being diligent men, they decided to remove a junction box to paint behind it. Unluckily that box belongs to Telecontract and houses a fiber optic cable joint connecting to ZOL. This took down not only ZOL, but many ISP connections on the same fiber.” Incredible! A painter with his finger in his nose almost brought the country to a standstill!

While on the subject of ZOL, we often have a problem communicating with some USA based mail servers, as the ZOL name or ISP prefix is blocked under some ban on a Zionist organisation somewhere in the world. It is frustrating, but use of an alternative mail server here, and our South African addresses overcomes this.

It can never be said that life in Africa is dull or unamusing.

quote:

Originally posted by editor-ant:
My messenger returns from his weekly visit last week with a hand scribbled note from the manager saying all numbers starting with 57 (which is our exchange prefix) are affected, but should I require any further information, I should call them on 572522!

Ant Sir - sterling job you are doing - consider it a minor miracle if a mag. finds its way to a tiny corner of Europe called Slovenia - got mine last week as the rest of EU I guess (minus rifle )

got mine

in FRANCE

today.
They are pretty good with shipping in time.

Hey, that cover looks quite good with the rifle over it. I should get the studio team to have a look!

Yes, we have some subscribers in far flung places and I often wonder if those readers, while sitting paging through the magazine, feel the magic of Africa there. Our daily lives truly are incorporated in every magazine... That's what makes it fun.

Ant, you are a good man and I've met you frequently, going back to the late '90s. As a past president of the SFBA chapter of SCI I tried to support you and AH magazine as much as possible.

However, I did not renew many years ago after suffering the same failure of delivery back then as others are now. I've listened to all the excuses over the years, but it seems there is no way to correct the problem. Why should anyone pay for an annual subscription and receive only one or two magazines? I gave you four years of my money and received only a few issues.