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September 25, 2000 Recent changes and consolidation in the legal publishing industry are reflected in the new organization of the CRIV Mediation subcommittee this year. We have recently decided to assign each of the major vendors/publishing groups to a different subcommittee member. In this way, the work will be divided up more equally among the members of the committee, and everyone on the committee will have more of a chance to be involved. More importantly, we believe this change is one more way CRIV can promote an effective working relationship between the committee and the vendors/publishers. Concerns and questions relating to all publishers should still be forwarded to the Mediation Chair, who will coordinate the assignments. In the last couple of months, the Mediation subcomittee has followed up on ten complaints from librarians, distributed fairly evenly among the major publishers: West (3), Lexis (2), Aspen (2), CCH (1) and other smaller publishers (2). In one of the complaints involving Aspen, a firm librarian reported that an effort to consolidate three accounts in 1999 resulted in most of the library's standing orders being canceled. By the time the librarian turned to CRIV for help, more than 8 months had gone by and the standing orders had still not been reinstated. When CRIV got involved, Aspen's Director of Customer Service, Judith McRee, immediately assigned the problem to one particular customer service representative. Although there were some problems initially with follow-through (the librarian reported that she received no response at first to her voicemail and email messages), progress is being made toward a resolution at this writing. An account
problem of this magnitude requires a great deal of patience and determination
to solve. For help on follow-through with problems that persist for weeks
and even months on end, see the tips offered in the November 2000 issue
of The CRIV Sheet. A complaint in August about inaccurate price listings on the West website was quickly addressed by West. A librarian at Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis reported that her library ordered a set of West's Supreme Court Reporter at the price listed on the website, $4027.75. Her sales representative had price information that was consistent with this quote. However, when the billing was received, one invoice was for the quoted price, and another for an additional cost of $915.27, to cover the interim volumes and advance sheets that would bring the set completely current. The librarian pointed out that this was 25% higher than the price listing on the web would lead one to expect for a current set. West immediately responded to this complaint by investigating the completeness and accuracy of all of the product listings in the West Group online store. Customer Service managers at West determined that the error was confined to this particular set, and probably resulted from the fact that the updating of this set is unique in West's product line. Within a couple of days, West made a correction to the website, expanding the product description to include current supplementation. The additional invoice charges Dorsey & Whitney received for current supplementation were dropped, and the complete set was supplied at the price listed on the website.
Thanks are in order to Betsy Sandell at Dorsey & Whitney for bringing this error to our attention. We all have come to rely on publishers' websites to obtain price and other information that influences what we purchase. Remember the old days when West declined to publish a price list and told everyone to contact their sales rep? We need to continue to insist on access to correct price information. A recent
posting by Robert Ryan, Librarian at Hill, Farrer & Burrill in Los
Angeles, took West to task for a sudden change in billing and shipping
practices for Rutter Group products. Rutter is owned by West, but until
recently, updates with that imprint were shipped with Rutter shipment
notices. With no advance notice, Ryan received a Rutter update in September
accompanied by a West shipment notice (although the Rutter account number
was still clearly referenced). Julie Merriam at West explained that the
stock of Rutter notices ran out, and West decided to print the shipment
notices on West stock. However, after speaking with customers like Ryan,
West is looking into ways of making the notices for the Rutter line stand
out better for the convenience of Rutter customers. Aspen System Upgrade Keeping customers abreast of any changes in billing practice is essential to good customer service. In May, 2000, a CRIVGram was issued to inform members of AALL that Aspen was beginning to implement its new system upgrade. According to the letter to law librarians from Aspen's Ernest Manzella, Jr., quoted in the body of the CRIVGram, the conversion was to begin in late June (it was, however, slightly delayed, until early July) and is expected to take several months. At the time of this writing in September 2000, all of the pieces of the conversion process are not yet in place. Aspen has promised to keep CRIV up to date on the status of this major project. In the meantime, there are a few important changes Aspen customers will begin to notice. First and most importantly, new account numbers have been assigned to every account with the conversion to the new system. Your new account number will be evident in the upper right hand corner of the invoices you receive, and in the lower right hand side of statements you receive. During the transition period throughout the conversion, you will be able to reference either the new account number or the old account number for all customer service and ordering functions. However, after the conversion to the new system is complete, Aspen will ask customers to use their new account numbers. Customers concerned about duplicate accounts will need to note the new account numbers as well as how the names and addresses appear (some of the duplicate accounts result from slight variations in this information). Unfortunately, most duplicate accounts that existed before the conversion will continue to exist in the new system, unless you take action by bringing them to the attention of Aspen Customer Service and requesting a single account. You may email this information to Judith McRee, Director of Customer Service, at Judith.McRee@aspenpubl.com. Include the following information if possible:
Invoices with a new format and look are being sent out for all standing order shipments and new orders shipped since July 2000. The account number, invoice number, purchase order number and date of the invoice appear in the upper right hand corner of the invoice. The new format allows for a slightly expanded description of the product. New statements are also being sent out for all accounts. According to Aspen, credits and any open invoices will be automatically transferred to the new account. If customers have used purchase order numbers at the time of order, those numbers will appear on invoices and statements. The remittance address (Aspen's post office box in Baltimore, MD) is clearly noted on invoices and statements. If you have other, previous addresses for Aspen payments in your system, you should update your records to show that the Baltimore post office box is the correct address to use. Notify your accounting department also so that they will also have this information. CRIV will publish any further information we receive about Aspen's new system as it becomes available. Stephanie
Edwards, Mediation Chair |