Is anyone else having problems with recent Osprey purchases ?

[Tony Hughes]

I bought 2 lots of 4 titles in the sales a few months ago. Most of them turned out to be ‘print on demand’ titles (which you are only told after you enter the order).

The first lot were OK, slow to deliver – but that was understandable in the circumstances. Print quality not quite as good as ‘properly’ printed books but not an issue.

The second batch had 3 of the 4 a few mm smaller than all earlier Osprey’s and one had the colour section completely missing. With so much reading material coming in during the recent situation when we can’t game, it was a couple of weeks before I noticed the missing pages. Put in a complaint message to Osprey via the online form and waited a fair while to get an answer.

The message said they has changed printers and small changes in size & quality were to be expected ! The images in two of the books were poorer quality than I’d expect from this publisher but how can a change of size be just a minor glitch that they expect customers to put up with ? The best bit was that they asked me to take a picture of the problem !!! I explained that you can’t take pictures of what isn’t there in my reply.

That was the last I heard from them – still waiting for a reply and a replacement.

Is this now the new ‘normal’ from Osprey or is it just me ?

 

 

[David Holden]

I bought a Warrior title from Books etc. via Amazon. There was a delay which suggests it was printed on demand. It had been trimmed so only half of 4 colour plates were on the page. I returned it but the replacement had exactly the same fault.

[deephorse]

I cannot comment on recent Osprey releases because I haven’t bought any for nearly a year now.  This is because they are no longer publishing books that I have any interest in.  This being said, I have encountered the problems described in the posts above, so it’s not a new issue.

I have received Ospreys that have ‘washed out’ colour plates, have the text printed at an angle, have the content bound upside down and back to front when compared to the orientation of the cover, and one where the content was of an entirely different book to that of the cover.  If I see an indication that the book is ‘print on demand’, which is sometimes present on Amazon listings, then I steer well clear.

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[Steve Johnson]

Sadly it is rarely stated that the book is print on demand.

[deephorse]

Having said that I hadn’t bought any Ospreys in nearly a year, last week I caved in and bought two.  They were on the PIAT and the Hotchkiss machine guns and there was nothing physically wrong with either of them.  I can’t make any comment on the value of the content because I’m no expert on either weapon.  If I was I guess I wouldn’t need to buy an Osprey!

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[Tony Hughes]

They did finally send a replacement – it arrived just over a week ago. Service is rubbish and torturously slow.

 

 

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