Has anyone else not received their June/July issue of Computer Pilot? I've been a subscriber for many years and obviously liked the magazine but having emailed their "service lady" (as directed on the forum) several times and only received a reply once I'm not very happy with the publisher. The time I did get a reply was about 5 weeks ago and was told I would receive it in 2 weeks. I emailed another dept. who promised to deliver it within 18 days but when I said I would like a refund on my subscription if it did not arrive in that time I was told that they do not give refunds. I know that there may be teething troubles with a new publisher but it seems ridiculous that I've not received the magazine 4 monthe after publishing. Am I being unreasonable? At least I still receive PC Pilot which is a fantastic magazine.

 

Phil

Seems like they are still having problems. Francois just announced that he is stepping down. If I were you I would contact my credit card provider and launch a complaint, most will back you up and order that your money is refunded. They will ask you a series of questions but once satisfied will contact the publisher on your behalf.

 

Good luck.

I have mine - received it two weeks ago. Don't know about any problems.

 

Frank

I received a new issue not too long ago. They missed a few issues, but are supposed to make them up at the tail end of your subscription.

I don't know why Francois Dumas left, but he is one heck of a super nice guy who also really knows flight simulation from every angle, so they really dropped the ball, big time, in letting him go.

Dear Phil,

 

Has anyone else not received their June/July issue of Computer Pilot?

yes, nearly to 10.000 other flightsim fans received the magazine.

 

 

 

The time I did get a reply was about 5 weeks ago and was told I would receive it in 2 weeks. I emailed another dept. who promised to deliver it within 18 days

our service department will send a second magazine out to you, that's our free service.

At the moment this magazines are send from Luxembourg to all over the world, sometime in only 5 days, but often we need +- 14 Days for the delivery. (worldwide)

 

 

but when I said I would like a refund on my subscription if it did not arrive in that time I was told that they do not give refunds.

 

that's is true. We (the new publisher) don't pay refund from former payments. The simple reason, we can't. You paid to PC Aviator, so we can't do a refund now.

 

I have mine - received it two weeks ago. Don't know about any problems.

 

that's very good

 

 

 

For all the questions, please contact us on [email protected] , we will do our best to help you.

I used to buy every copy when I used to do frequent flying as you could always get a copy at the airport. It's more difficult to find a copy outside of the airport however.

Dear Marc,

Thanks for your comments. I'm not too sure how to post quotes so I'll do my best by printing your comments in bold. In reply to your comments :

 

"our service department will send a second magazine out to you, that's our free service.

At the moment this magazines are send from Luxembourg to all over the world, sometime in only 5 days, but often we need +- 14 Days for the delivery. (worldwide)"

 

Surely you mean fourth magazine. One will have been sent out originally and I was told one was sent out 7 weeks ago plus the one that was sent out 18 days ago. I live in England and could walk to Luxembourg in 5 days (apart from the English Channel) so it should not take too long. Will you please let me know when I could expect it in the UK?

 

We (the new publisher) don't pay refund from former payments. The simple reason, we can't. You paid to PC Aviator, so we can't do a refund now.

 

I've been in contact with PC Aviator who say they will not refund either. When I originally subscribed, a quote in the magazine regarding subscribing was "Your subscription is totally risk free. You can cancel at any time for whatever reason for a prorated refund on unmailed issues. This seems not to have been true. When you took over publication did you not receive payments for outstanding subscriptions from PC Aviator? I find it hard to believe that you would take on responsibility for, say, 11 issues remaining on a subscription without any remuneration from PC Aviator. Has PC Aviator kept all the money I paid to it for my subscription or did you receive any of it?

 

As regards Frank who posted : "I have mine - received it two weeks ago. Don't know about any problems."

 

This was posted in October regarding a June/July issue. I would have thought that receiving the issue mid September was a problem but perhaps I am being unfair.

 

Phil

I gave up subscribing to magazines years ago. I often received copies months later than the shops. It seems subscribers are second class as your money has already been banked

We (the new publisher) don't pay refund from former payments. The simple reason, we can't. You paid to PC Aviator, so we can't do a refund now.

 

I've been in contact with PC Aviator who say they will not refund either. When I originally subscribed, a quote in the magazine regarding subscribing was "Your subscription is totally risk free. You can cancel at any time for whatever reason for a prorated refund on unmailed issues. This seems not to have been true. When you took over publication did you not receive payments for outstanding subscriptions from PC Aviator? I find it hard to believe that you would take on responsibility for, say, 11 issues remaining on a subscription without any remuneration from PC Aviator. Has PC Aviator kept all the money I paid to it for my subscription or did you receive any of it?

 

As regards Frank who posted : "I have mine - received it two weeks ago. Don't know about any problems."

 

This was posted in October regarding a June/July issue. I would have thought that receiving the issue mid September was a problem but perhaps I am being unfair.

 

Phil

 

I do think the OP raises a very good, fair point here.......... Is it really acceptable for a new publisher of an existing concern to simply tell a pre-paying subscriber "sorry that was before we took over, we're not interested, contact the last guys...".

 

That seems really short-sighted, unhelpful and morally suspect to me.

 

To the new publisher: Aren't you interested in the customer base that you have adopted? .......... Can't you see that if you treat people in this way, you will lose your subscribers. Having seen your response in this thread, no matter how much I was interested in your magazine, I would never risk subscribing. It clearly is far from being risk free (or for the OP any way).

Surely you mean fourth magazine. One will have been sent out originally and I was told one was sent out 7 weeks ago plus the one that was sent out 18 days ago. I live in England and could walk to Luxembourg in 5 days (apart from the English Channel) so it should not take too long. Will you please let me know when I could expect it in the UK?

 

so something with the address is wrong.

 

 

I find it hard to believe that you would take on responsibility for, say, 11 issues remaining on a subscription without any remuneration from PC Aviator. Has PC Aviator kept all the money I paid to it for my subscription or did you receive any of it?

 

we didn't received money from PCaviator and yes, we will honour all the subscriptions.

 

 

I gave up subscribing to magazines years ago. I often received copies months later than the shops. It seems subscribers are second class as your money has already been banked

 

That was in the past, the new computer pilot will be different. The subscriptions are always first class for us. This relaunch of the magazine isn't my first. It was in 2007, the same situation with our Flight! Magazine. Now we will publish the 50th Edition of the magazine, this in only 5 years. Not so bad at all

 

 

For all the other questions, here my letter to the computer pilot readers (from aug 2012)

 

 

 

 

Dear readers,

Joyful news is that the first issue of the restructured Computer Pilot finally left our warehouse and is now on its way to your mailboxes – all throughout the world.

The re-organization and negotiations we had to perform in order to ensure the move from the print shop and the delivery to your home was more complicated than we hoped and greatly delayed our planned delivery; and therefore, we want to supply you with some firsthand information about the current situation of the magazine, as well as the changes that we had to make.

As a long-time reader and Computer Pilot enthusiast myself, I was shocked after I received the message that the last issue under PC Aviator’s ownership was PDF-only and that the future of the magazine was uncertain. As soon as possible, having the experience of the German Flight! Magazine, we stepped in, and with a significant investment, saved Computer Pilot magazine.

To be honest with you, the transition tasks were quite difficult. The magazine’s financial losses were very high, as they led to the crisis that it was in. In record-breaking time the new team had to find solutions to deliver your beloved magazine at earliest convenience. Often, we had to break down the barriers of bureaucracy that we encountered in the management of several subcontractor companies we need to use. It was complicated to establish an editorial team that is spread all over the globe and to reorganize it. After those problems were solved and the first magazine issue was actually printed, we had another obstacle to tackle: setting up a reliable delivery system. We assumed we had that in place already, but at the very last minute that proved not to be the case. We contacted many companies that specialize in the area of worldwide distribution of magazines, but only very few of them were able to fulfill our high standards. Finally, after weeks of work, 'French Post' agreed to send out the more than 15,000 magazines to over 120 countries all over the world. At the time of writing the first issues have already made it to the mailboxes of many Computer Pilot readers.

Our highest priority is the quality of our magazines as well as preserving the independence of them. This is the only way to guarantee fair and critical articles on the latest flight simulation products and businesses. Because of this policy and with the problems at hand needing to be resolved first, we decided to wait with production of the next issue

 

 

instead of sending out an unfinished magazine. So yes, there will be some further delays in production and delivery before we are back on track with regular bi-monthly shipments.

From the outset we agreed to deliver ALL Computer Pilot issues, even those that were paid for prior to the takeover. For the publisher this meant that we had to make major investments, but for our devoted readers we were happy to do so. The transfer of the subscription data was very difficult but we even took this hurdle, in order to offer smooth service for our customers. Currently we are working on changing the structure from the European system to the US’s. We are not entirely done yet, but getting close.

So what does the future look like?

First of all we continue FIXING the problems that ensued after taking over and moving the subscription administration to a 3rd party company. There are still some problems left to solve, but we are confident we get that done within the next few months.

Secondly, we will continue producing the new magazine if and when it is ready. That means it will still take some time before we are back onto a regular bi-monthly schedule, but that should all be done before the end of the year. We have an awesome pool of talented, skilled and above all enthusiastic writers to ensure interesting reading for years to come.

Thirdly, although we did a LOT of work on the new website, we are still not happy with it and there will be more changes. Specifically the 'member' part and the 'payment section' need work. But it takes second place in our efforts. Our prime goal is to deliver a PRINTED magazine every two months.

Despite all those investments we want to keep the sales price of your favorite magazine as low as possible. Therefore we will keep up our work on the financial restructuring.

Computer Pilot and Flight! are run by flight simulation enthusiasts who are interested in delivering high quality information to their readers throughout the world. We are not a commercial publisher that made an acquisition; we care about Computer Pilot magazine and its readers, and together we are looking forward to a bright future.

 

Marc Goergen

Computer Pilot Publisher

Marc,

The reason you give for my not having received a copy by now is : "so something with the address is wrong".

I have emailed [email protected] many times. On both 26/8/12 and 14/9/12 I quoted my address to ensure that there was no mistake. I have gone back to these emails to check them and the correct address was given both times. I received replies to these emails so I know they were received. I suggest you go back to these emails to check the address. If you are unable to do this please let me know an email address I can contact to give my address again. Will you let me know how long you think a copy will take to go from Luxembourg to my address in the UK. Thanks.

 

Phil McEvoy.

Dear Phil,

 

please send me an e-mail to [email protected] , I will resend you the current edition of the Computer Pilot Magazine.

 

sorry for the delay, I will also take a look to the ticketsystem to know what was the problem with your magazine.

I recently bought a copy of "PC Pilot" magazine from Barnes and Noble. I really like this magazine and plan on occasionally buying it from B&N. Something you might want to check out. Think for a while, I am just going to pay a little more for copy and buy it occasionally.

I've been getting Computer Pilot Magazine for quite a few years. I enjoy it very much, especially Cpt. Mike Ray's articles and the "Round Robin" flights.

I did get my recent issue also. Thank you. I always look forward to my next issue.

Dear Phil,

 

please send me an e-mail to [email protected] , I will resend you the current edition of the Computer Pilot Magazine.

 

sorry for the delay, I will also take a look to the ticketsystem to know what was the problem with your magazine.

 

I just got another unsolicited email from your organization telling me that my subscription (which hasn't been active in many years) is about to expire and I need to renew.

 

Your email is not even professional in nature. It's completely blank with only a PDF attachment in it, which is tossed into the 'Junk E-mail' folder and locked down due to the high security risk of the attachment.

 

You need to stop sending unsolicited emails, it's actually a violation of U.S. law to continue.