Slackware Store Query
 

Hi guys,

How long does it usually take for the Slackware DVD/T-shirts to be delivered to England from the official slackware store?
I bought a DVD and a couple of slackware t-shirts straight after S13 was released. Since then I have emailed the store twice (quoting my order number) however I haven't received any reply yet.

I guess the guys are extremely busy spreading the good word of slackware all around the world.

It can take a while. First time I ordered a CD/Slackbook set it took a few weeks. I think the shipping end is handled by one person (Pat?) and when there's a new release they get swamped. I do remember that my email query did get a response eventually, but the only advice I can offer is to be patient.

I emailed the store shortly after 13 came out about subscriptions/donations. I haven't got a credit card, only a Maestro debit card, so I asked about any/all alternative means of payment. No reply yet.

Ok, Today I received the T-shirts. Still waiting for the DVD.

For the record, did you guys get an email confirmation of your order (assuming you requested one with the checkbox on the order form)??

I haven't yet, but figured it would not come until the order was actually processed/shipped.

I did get confirmation emails on the same day when I ordered the items (I placed two separate orders). Since then I haven't heard from the store. I did not receive any email that the t-shirts had been shipped.

Gosh, I hope Pat has some help with that -- I can't imagine him alone dealing with the lions share of the Store, on top of the distro itself :confused:

Somebody on the Slack forum here mentioned a woman, can't remember her name, in charge of the store.

You're thinking of Theresa Garner. When I ordered Slack 11 I ordered it on 29/08/06 and received it after 16/10/06. I guess it takes time for the disks to be created, along with the packaging, and then for it all to be shipped. So you may not get the disks until October or November.

Besides, I assume the demand for Slackware is probably much higher with this release so patience is the answer.

I assume the same, despite knowing full-well where 'assuming' gets us :p

I received a reply from Theresa Garner from Slackware store. Apparently they'll start shipping some time either the end of this week or next week:)

Slack Store Always this bad?
 

Hello, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this but I was wondering if Slackware is always slow about shipping items. I placed an order for the slackbook some t-shirts and pre ordered slack 13 on 6/21/09.I sent an e-mail 7/19/09 to get some sort of confirmation and never have heard a peep from them since I placed the order. They were sure quick to charge my credit card however. I did send another e-mail to find out what my order status is but does any of you slack people out there know of anyone specific at Slackware I should get in contact with? This is beginning to annoy me and I really don't want to call my card holder for a charge back.

Thanks jonycat

The email addresses on the site are correct and they do answer mail. You should be aware though that it is a very very small operation and they are dealing with printing the CDs and books, etc as well as the shipping. I would suggest dropping the sales person/team another mail as they may have genuinely missed your email.

Not my experience. They were always reliable and replied to all my email questions within a week or less. May be there's a technical problem or you have used a dead email address.

In any case, you can probably just send an email to Pat V. directly, as he is, to my knowledge, running the store as part of his business. Email address is someting like volkerdi AT slackware DOT com.

gargamel

Thanks for the reply Xavier. Yea I did send another e-mail and hope they will let me know something in the next few days.

Thank You jonycat

PS: and thanks to you gargamel for your help I sent my e-mails to: info@store.slackware.com which they list as their addy for order inquiries

Quite possible this is the reason. From a customer's perspective, it might be helpful to receive, at least, an auto response that an email message was received and how long it will take before one can expect a reply. And: The OP sent his first message in June. At that time the argument above was certainly not yet valid, as Slackware 13.0 wasn't there.

But as I said, the store is a serious business. If they charge a credit card, they will deliver. This is, at least, my experience with them.

gargamel

The 6/21/09 e-mail was a confirmation from Slack that they receiverd my order, charged my card and gave me a useless tracking number. The 7/19/09 was mine inquiring the order status asking if they were just waiting for Slack 13 to be released and ship all at once which I stated was fine by me in the e-mail. A response from them would have been nice tho. Slack 13 was released some 3 weeks ago or so? Anyway, I did send another e-mail today so maybe they will let me know something in the next few days. If not, Friday I'll call my card company and let them deal with it. I do a heck of alot of business online and have never been left in the dark on order/shipment status. Granted I know they are a small company but waiting since July for an e-mail is to long.

jonycat

I can understand your frustration. However, Slackware 13.0 was recently released, August 27th. The store in the last few days updated their website to change the status of 13.0 from pre-order to being able to purchase it. The disks are off for replication. I suspect there's quite a few orders that need to be processed.
I've ordered a 13.0 DVD as well. I'm not worried. It will show up. :)

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-query-753287/

The OP may wish to read that existing thread as well -- and maybe we should merge the two threads.

Sasha

My last few Slackware store orders were a few years ago, but they all took a month to arrive and had "Opened by Customs" stickers on them.

I buy every single release by Slackware to support the continuation and viability of the project, and even though the equipment is shipped internationally it always arrives like clockwork and both the Slackware store and volkerdi himself are quite quick to answer questions about shipping and such.

Slackware Subscription
 

Got mine today...........anyone else?

I thought I changed my subscription to the DVD but received the 6 CD Pack.

I'm a brand new subscriber (only distro I ever felt I wanted to support with $) and got mine today.

Still waiting for mine :(

@ escaflown -- I'm In Canada like you, and still waiting patiently :)

Sasha

Well, I guess we just have to be patient: snail mail ...

I've merged the 3 threads dealing with this to keep the discussion in one place.

It just depends when you order.
If you place an order right after a new release you can expect to wait awhile.
I ordered a book a few months ago (between releases) and got a confirmation email the next day and the the book got here 3 days later.
Right now there swamped so cut 'em some "Slack".

Wow, glad someone got their order! As I stated in my first post I placed mine back in June. They took my money and ran I guess. They are dodging my e-mails as well. I should have figured since there isn't a contact phone number or mailing address listed at Slackware.com that it may not be a good place to do business with. I to, wanted to support Slackware by purchasing Slack 13 (and a few other items) but after this fiasco I'll never spend a dime on any Linux distro ever again. I am beginning to feel like I'm being ripped off.

jonycat

What exactly did you order, in terms of media? Like, did you pre-order Slack13?

Yea, I understand they are probably very busy. However, when a customer sends an e-mail in July asking the status of an order placed in June and is still waiting for a reply 2 months later that shows a lack of common courtesy. All I ask of them is let me know what's going on with my order. Taking a customer's money and not answering e-mails for 2 months is rude not to mention borderline credit card fraud. So I sent one last e-mail Sept. 13th if they don't respond by Sept. 18 I guess I'll have to file a claim against them.

Again,I've waited 2 months for a response from them. I think I've been more than patient and cut'em enough "slack"

jonycat

I pre-ordered slack 13 on DVD back in June along with the slackbook and 2 slack t-shirts

jonycat

I've had a subscription for many years and during that time I have also purchased several T-shirts (the black ones are now my favorite). In addition I have 2 plush penguins, books, stickers, etc. Most of the time it seemed to take "forever" for the packages to reach me but eventually, when least expected (almost forgotten...), voilà, they would appear in my mailbox! So, patience people :)
P.S. A few months ago, when buying a couple of T-shirts, I found a duplicate debit entry on my credit card and immediately filed a report with my bank and, without missing a beat, the Slack store reimbursed me and apologized by e-mail. It was clearly just an oversight on their part. I have total faith in the Slackware team, store, etc.

Following this thread with an interested mind.;)

Thought I would, after all these years, contribute to Slackware. With a subscription and a (second T-shirt).

No confirmation email. So I tried again.

No go. (meaning no confirmation. two orders on the spot) so I mailed slackwarestore.

I get cold feet and cancel.

Theresa Garner promptly answered my email regarding the state of my ("2 orders", should only be one order) orders. Both claimed be canceled.

Only one order was can canceled and the outstanding amount, on my VISA account, (the second order) matches the price of money+shipping matches a T-shirt.

Hopefully it will arrive, in due time.
I will try the subscription at a later date.

Bought most of my hardware through the net without problems.

Might it be that Slackware is reaching a . . . hightime.

regards

jonycat:

Tracking Number:
The tracking number your referring to is more then likely a USPS Delivery Confirmation number.
They probably issued it when they took your order.
It won't become "active" until it gets scanned through a postal terminal scanner, then you can track it. It should be noted that it is not a real tracking number, it's a "Delivery Confirmation" number that can in most cases be used "similar" to a tracking number. I use this same method of shipping in my own little business and I'm very familiar with it.
It's coming from the west coast and quite often they (USPS) don't bother to scan them, but when it makes it to the middle of the country or the east coast it will get scanned.
Every order that I have got from Slackware came via USPS Priority Mail with a Delivery Confirmation number.
When they have all of your items ready to ship in "one" box, they will ship it. Those people are as good as gold, there just very busy with orders from all over the world right now. And, they have a very small staff.

Phone Number:
If Slack posted a phone number on there site everybody that's too lazy to read would be calling them for tech support.

Ordered a black Slackware t-shirt on the 8th and received it today (here in Canada). Good stuff!

Cool :)

I ordered a couple of them too -- is it nice?

PS - I think that those of us who have ordered 13.0 media, will be waiting the longest, simply because as stated earlier in this thread, they probably want to get a persons entire order into one box; therefore, if you ordered a CD or DVD item, keep being patient!

Sasha

Yes... Good Hanes cotton t-shirt. Should last for a while...

Well, I gave the slack people a week to respond to my last e-mail and as I expected it was ignored. So, I called the bank for a charge back. This outfit should never charge a customer's credit card until the order is ready to ship. At least post something at the slack site stating shipping may be slow during new slack releases. All I asked is for them to respond to my e-mails. They can take their fly by night dog and pony show and shove it for all I care. I submitted slackware.com to be listed at resellerratings for reviews (they will love mine). This matter is closed for me as far as I'm concerned.

As a die-hard Slacker I look at things in a different way. I am thrilled that Mr. Volkerding obviously has a lot of orders to process. Slackware 13.0 is good for his business; I hope that PV is making a lot of money. I've ordered stuff in the past from the Slackware store and it has always arrived.
I used bittorrent to download Slackware 13.0. I am happy that I bought a 13.0 DVD; I enjoy supporting my favourite operating system. :)

Well, the thread at
http://www.resellerratings.com/
is not active yet so I couldn't post "my" review for Slackware. I'll keep track of it and post a link so "all" of us that use Slackware can post there opinions also.

:scratch:
"Fly by night dog and pony show" is hardly an accurate description of the operations directly associated with the longest running, actively maintained Linux distribution. Surely if it were, Slackware would not be where it is today, and there would also be a lot more people yelling in support of jonycat's view.

This thread reminds me that I need to send a donation to PV... I'll do that now before I forget. Thanks, Pat! ;)

The following address is still valid for mailing a check to PV, correct?

Slackware Linux
1164 Claremont Dr
Brentwood CA 94513-2952
USA

This particular sentence is uncalled for, but I have to say that whilst I love slackware and have used it for 14 years on and off, I've had a couple of problems with the slackware store.

I subscribed to CDs on slackware 12.0 with no problem. Then when 12.1 came out no CDs appeared nor was I billed for them. Theresa couldn't find my subscription on their system so she asked me to sign up for a new subscription and I took the opportunity to switch to DVD. My 12.1 DVD arrived and I was billed correctly, but then on 12.2 I received both the CDs and DVD and was charged for both! Theresa promptly deleted my Lazarus-like CD subscription but I said not to bother with a refund. I'm waiting to see what 13.0 will bring (not got the DVD yet but am in UK).

So in my experience: a) the slackware store isn't perfect; b) Theresa (via email) was helpful and friendly; c) I love slackware.

Personally, I save my consumer guns for big companies that mishandle their transactions - and there's no shortage of them :)

Hi mcnalu,

In my own dealings with Therese via email and post she was unfailingly polite, courteous and prompt. Service from the Slackware store has not been a problem for me and I am more than happy to continue dealing with this store.

Andrew

Yes mcnalu, you are right. I should not have made that wise crack. I was just ticked off. What I never have mentioned in my first post is that I have dealt with the slack store in the past but it was some years back (slack 8.1 and slackbook I think) and honestly don't remember how long/smooth the order process went. So this ain't my first rodeo. I stand by everything else I posted though.

slackass, it may take a couple of days for slackware.com to get evaluated and listed at resellerratings so figure 9/21 to 9/23 when it will show up.

jonycat:
Thanks for the info. ;-)

Yee..haaa...

Just got my subscription dvd today. Been running -current which will stay as such. Now to experiment with 64 multilib on another hd...oh such fun ;)

This is not the correct address.
A donation to the Slack Store would be a better idea. If you look hard enough on the Internet, you will find Patrick's PO Box in Sebeka, MN where he currently lives. Mail to his street address will not be delivered as far as I know.

Eric