11/22/63 Collecting Discussion

[SkippyD023]

I still had not received any e-mail from S&S stating the book has shipped so I decided to give them another call and they say it has shipped and I should receive it tomorrow at the latest. I will stop worrying once it is in my hands.

[Ben Staad]

I still had not received any e-mail from S&S stating the book has shipped so I decided to give them another call and they say it has shipped and I should receive it tomorrow at the latest. I will stop worrying once it is in my hands.

That's good news. I called customer service but they had no news and said a gentelman named "Stephen" would get back with me.

[Randall Flagg]

The trade edition has black cloth around the binding, and boards are red paper. They call it 1/4 cloth bound if I am not mistaken.

The trade is quarter bound in black, having red boards with white pastedowns.

[burial]

my facsimile edition from H&S just arrived... still in shrinkwraps... i don't know if i will open it it looks so nice...

I'm still waiting for the messeges from two of you who offered to try the lottery for me... please - make this my day!

[ChristineB]

Now that I have gotten some sleep and have some time to write it out I decided to share my fiasco from Tuesday morning 11/8/2011 with you guys.

It's Monday evening and I have agreed to get a 11/22/63 SL for Mr. Rabbit Trick on Tuesday morning. Maybe the extra 1/2 glass of mountain dew squared (ever clear and mountain dew) was not the best idea ever, and I forget to take my sleeping pill so I remember 2330, 0030, 0130, 0230, don't remember 0330 or 0430, but remember 0530 and get up at 0630, the ordering begins in 1.5 hours for me, I'm in Central time so 0800 is when I need to get the book. Not the best start to the day since I got about 2 hours sleep and had a bit too much to drink the night before.

David (my husband) notices I'm up and says "your UPS died last night". Now that wakes me up! I had everything all set up on my desktop so I was ready to just sit down and start hitting the button at 0800. Change of plan. I decide just to do it with my bigger then my laptop (it's a 17" Asus monster thing) instead. Dig around the house for a working surge protector so I can plug in again at my desk. Use a bull dozer to make room on my desk for the laptop, get it up and running, get to the S&S site, open up TDT.org and sign in, says welcome..., go to my profile to open up the 11/22/63 thread and I'm NOT signed in *best Garfield indignant face here*.

"Ok no biggie, maybe since I didn't sign out from TDT.org when the comp crashed last night it's not happy, whatever, this is something I can deal with after I get the book ordered, shouldn't need to do any posting to the forums before then anyway." I should have known.

So I have time to grab quick breakfast bar and see David off to work before it starts, he wishes me good luck and I decide to wait to take the dog out until after I get the book ordered, she usually doesn't go out until around 0830-0900 anyway, again it's only gonna take me a few minutes. I take a handful of pain killers to quiet my aching head, I sit back down about 10 till 8 and get settled in to hit that button.

My comp clock hits 0800 and I refresh the order page, still no button to order so I refresh every few seconds till the button shows up at about 0805 on my clock. Hit the order button and get the "this page does not exist" page, hit it again, same thing, hit it again, same thing, rinse and repeat for a few more minutes. Now it's 0810 and I am getting worried. Time to see what's up on TDT.

Go through the forums to find the 11/22 thread and see that pretty much everyone is getting the same thing, though some have gotten through to the "add to cart" page so I just keep trying. Around 0820 (now that I see these numbers in print it's a wonder I wasn't a complete basket case by this time ) I finally get the page to start loading, head over and refresh the TDT thread. See many people talking about being able to get one in their cart but not being able to check out. I am getting a bit scared by this point but I think the hangover is tempering my reaction. So maybe it was a good thing I had that extra drink.

The page finally loads up, sort of, the top part is just words instead of pretty pictures and such. I scroll down and find the "add to cart" button, hit it and get the "page does not exist" page again. I gather myself and hit the add to car button again, same thing. This is starting to get old fast, it's now 0830 central time, one hour after I started this mess. I decide to take the dog out and plug in my desktop to try to get through with more windows. Needless to say I am not a happy camper at this point. I am ordering this for another member here and I take these kinds of responsibilities very seriously.

Now it's 0840, I have two comps up and hitting the order button only to get nothing or the page loading forever, at some point while trying to add it to my cart the one order page I had gotten to load has gone bye bye on me. Time to check back with TDT again. I have now gotten on my desktop and have been able to sign in to TDT so that is good. Look through the post and see Idlewarnings' post about a work around or the infamous "hack-a-cart". I decide to wait a bit to go hunt down what he is talking about since the word is that S&S are "working" on the issue. Another 10 minutes of waiting for the pages to load and I am at my whits end. Thankfully my hair is up in a bun or I would have already pulled out half of it, and while my husband is all for me helping people get the book, I know he wouldn't be too happy with a bald wife in the process.

So I go looking for how to do the "hack-a-cart". Figure it out pretty easily (those many hours of FB gaming have finally paid off ), get the book in my cart but wait to go to check out due to wanting to confirm this is going to be ok with S&S. So I go back through the the 11/22 thread and find the post with a phone number in it and call. I get a CSR and ask if this is gonna be ok, they say yes, but I want to speak to a supervisor just to be sure, so she sends me up the food chain to a supervisor and I confirm with her it will be a valid order. "wooh"

I then go through the ordering process with the account I had already set up, get to the last confirm order page and when I hit the button it times out. It's now 0950, not only does my head hurt my shoulders are aching from being all hunched up for an hour trying to get this thing ordered, I am so tired I can hardly see straight and it seem the "hack-a-cart" isn't gonna work for me either...

Take deep breaths, hit the view cart at the top of the page and go through the order process again... hit the last confirm order button and... *hallelujah" it's goes through. If I hadn't been so tired I would have done the Snoopy Happy Dance naked on my desk!! As it was I go to my email and find the confirmation email waiting for me then shoot off a PM to Mr. Rabbit Trick letting him know I got one. It's now 0958.

Needless to say this was not the "few minutes" to order the book I had expected when I got started, but it will definitely be remembered.

[elscorcho526]

A good friend of mine just received the 11/22/63 S/L in the mail. After urging him for the better part of the afternoon to open the book (he was concerned it would diminish the value), he did so...only to discover that it WASN'T signed!!! After all this controversy...this is a stunning development. He's on the phone, as i type, attempting to get in touch with S&S. Crossing my fingers mine will be at home waiting for me after work. Unbelievable.

[Bev Vincent]

Have him make sure some pages aren't stuck together. The signature page, as I understand it, is tipped in -- the signature isn't on the title page.

[DYBBUKIM]

The Mod at StephenKing.com has posted that Scribner will be contacting winners of the lottery by phone tomorrow, and posted a toll-free questions line: 877-409-1028

Looks like the craziness is beginning again.

[Robert Fulman]

Someday, they will invent a technology that will allow them to send out a quick mass-communication to all of the winners and losers at once. Until then, we're stuck with the phone.

[elscorcho526]

In his exact (informal) words, "Book opens, white page, fire page, title, then thank you wife page. Fire page should be signed." All this confirmed by S&S rep. His book IS NOT signed After getting the runaround for 30 minutes or so, a manager agreed to exchange the book. I find this mind boggling. Sorry to create any further anxiety...just thought everyone should know.

[George at C-Springs]

The Mod at StephenKing.com has posted that Scribner will be contacting winners of the lottery by phone tomorrow, and posted a toll-free questions line: 877-409-1028

They're really going to call 700+ people? For what reason? Don't they know folks use e-mail nowadays? Oh wait ... that requires IT knowledge ... never mind.

[redsoxfan565]

They don't have any phone numbers.

[DYBBUKIM]

I am fairly sure that I gave no phone number with my lottery entry? How could they call if they did not request a phone number? Does anyone remember for sure? I tried to call their toll-free number, got a message that they were dealing with other customers that asked me to leave a message with my phone number for a call back. At that point, I just hung up. After spending almost 5 hours already on this from the first day of this (I only checked the forums after), I am very frustrated. I even jumped today when my blackberry chimed I had a new emai from the Collector. Feel like laughing and screaming, a little. These Scribner gnomes who are making these decisions need to be sent back to school.

[DYBBUKIM]

Just got my official email notification. "Unfortunately, you were not selected to have the opportunity to purchase a copy of this edition." Ok, that settles it for me for now. Good luck to everyone else.

[onlylivingboyinny]

Hey everyone. Long time lurker on the site, but never felt my contributions were worth public display. My buddy elscorcho526 mentioned above about my unfortunate incident involving the S/L 11/22/63 from Simon & Schuster. I eagerly stalked by mailbox today and when I received my Kindle Fire & Simon & S package I was ecstatic. After weighing my decisions, I opted to open the King book to discover (upon THOROUGH inspection of the entire book) that it is NOT signed. Simon & Sch. are promising a return phone call to authorize and exchange but I must admit I am EXTREMELY disheartened by this entire experience. Best of luck to our lottery entrants and I hope everyone here has more luck than me.

[iowabob]

My wife just received the following message:

Thank you for entering the random drawing for the Stephen King 11/22/63 signed limited edition. Unfortunately, you were not selected to have the opportunity to purchase a copy of this edition.

If you wish to purchase any of the other 11/22/63 editions available, visit: http://112263book.com/buy.

Please do not reply to this email.

Thank You,

Simon & Schuster/Scribner

[BigCoffinHunter]

Just got the same e-mail, although there is a helpful link to purchase other editions of the book. You know, in case you went through the trouble of entering the lottery but didn't realize that there was an unsigned edition...

[Merlin1958]

Confirmed with CSR at S&S, mt copy will ship tomorrow and should be here by Friday!!!!! You can stop sweating now, Alan_G!!!!


LOL

[BigCoffinHunter]

In his exact (informal) words, "Book opens, white page, fire page, title, then thank you wife page. Fire page should be signed." All this confirmed by S&S rep. His book IS NOT signed After getting the runaround for 30 minutes or so, a manager agreed to exchange the book. I find this mind boggling. Sorry to create any further anxiety...just thought everyone should know.

That is precisely why I never leave a S/L in the shrinkwrap. Although I have never had one come unsigned, I did have one come unnumbered once. It is always better to check and be sure than to try to keep the value of your book higher only to later find that there is an issue with it that makes it worth much less.

[DYBBUKIM]

Did they just send only the losing emails? Did anyone get a positive email yet?

[BigCoffinHunter]

Confirmed with CSR at S&S, mt copy will ship tomorrow and should be here by Friday!!!!! You can stop sweating now, Alan_G!!!!


LOL

Good that you checked then since it looks like yours was lost in the system given that it hadn't shipped yet.

[BigCoffinHunter]

Maybe they're calling the winners to do the orders over the phone and avoid a scenario where a non-winner uses a winner's order link to figure out how to hack the system and place an order to which they aren't entitled...

[Merlin1958]

Just got these,

Hi Bill,

Thanks for contacting us. There was an unfortunate delay in the shipment of your
order, but I have just spoken with our warehouse and confirmed that it is marked
for shipment tomorrow. We have upgraded your shipment method to UPS 2nd day. I'm
very sorry for any inconvenience.

If you have any other questions, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Stephen
SimonandSchuster.com

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 7:12 PM
To: Customer Service, SimonandSchuster.com
Subject: RE: Online Store (From SimonandSchuster.com)

Mr./Ms.

Thank you so much for addressing this, much appreciated. Due to the problem I
utilized a friend's email to complete the following order.

Order No.


Status shows the order as "OK", but a lot of folks I know got shipping email's
today. Is my order going through process? Will I ultimately receive the book?

Thanks for your help,

And much to my chagrin!!!!


Thank you for entering the random drawing for the Stephen King 11/22/63 signed limited edition. Unfortunately, you were not selected to have the opportunity to purchase a copy of this edition.

If you wish to purchase any of the other 11/22/63 editions available, visit: http://112263book.com/buy.

Please do not reply to this email.

Thank You,

Simon & Schuster/Scribner

[LostAlivE]

So we are suppose to wait until tomorrow for the phone to ring when they didn't even ask for a phone number?
How are they going to call us?
I really want one of those books but this just keeps getting stranger and stranger.

[WeDealInLead]

I had a friend enter for me and he didn't win either. Bogus