December issue of BCM

[HighTechRedneck]

The December issue mailed out Wednesday for all Standard Class U.S. delivery subscriptions.  The First Class U.S. and International addresses will go out Saturday.  The online eidtion and email copies will be going up/out this weekend.

Sean & Louise's bus Odyssey is the covergirl/centerfold on this issue.   They will be doing a presentation on it at Bussin' 10 in Arcadia along with a guided tour.

It also includes the conclusion of Jim Shepherd's excellent article on engine swaps/repowers plus an article from Sean on how to repair cracked windshields.

[ruthi]

Hi Mike, we got our issues today. Thanks. Still no online access, but, no hurry.

[Busted Knuckle]

Cool! I finally got November's on Wednesday!
  BK 

[James77MCI8]

Where is mine.Paid for a year 1St of November and still don't have a December issue. Do they answer the phones?

[belfert]

Where is mine.Paid for a year 1St of November and still don't have a December issue. Do they answer the phones?

Be patient.  The magazine was only mailed 5 days ago.  Bulk mail can take up to 2 weeks.  Some got their issue right away because they live very close to the mailing point.

The phone number for Bus Conversions magazine is on the front page of www.busconversions.com.

[bubbaqgal]

Where is mine.Paid for a year 1St of November and still don't have a December issue. Do they answer the phones?

Mike stated that December was mailed out on 11-25.  I think it takes more than 5 days to arrive, especially with the holiday.  Patience is a virtue!

[tpboj]

Still patiently waiting for November

Have already read online but would like to have hard copy.

[James77MCI8]

Worked for one of the largest bulk mailers in the world. Release dates are calculated so that the mailing will arrive basically at the same time no matter what the locale. Start west and move east.

[John316]

Come on, guys. Do you really think that Mike is holding onto your personal copies . Give them a break. Seems to me, that the Post Office will deliver them when they want too... And besides this is the holiday season. If you thought things were slow before, they aren't anything compared to what they will be during this season.

So in the mean time, sit back and be grateful that they picked up a dying magazine (that the owner had left pretty much in shambles) and they have converted it (pun intended) into a AWESOME magazine.

No complaints here, I am just glad that it is going again!

God bless,

John

[HighTechRedneck]

James,  I'm sorry that we didn't provide an explanation of timing in the subscription order process.  I will see what we can do to remedy that for future subscribers.  Ordering on Nov. 1st, you just missed the mailing of the November issue and had three and a half weeks to go before the December issue mailed.

We typically mail out during the last week of the month prior to the issue month.  The December issue mailed on Nov. 25 via USPS Standard Class.  Obviously the Thanksgiving shut down and the Christmas mail glut will effect delivery timing.  As John eluded to, I am very concerned about the impact the Christmas mail slowdown will have on delivery of Standard Class mail. 

Ruthi's reference to having received their December issue is because they also ordered several recent back issues and I included their December issue with that mailing.  Since they are so close by, they got it within a couple days. 

We are working on getting a Periodical's Class permit that will likely not be in effect until January.  Which means it will first effect the February issue.  Until then we have no choice but to mail by Standard Class.

Unfortunately Standard Class is the slowest handled mail with absolutely no time line guarantee from the USPS.  They initially told us most pieces deliver within 2-3 weeks.  And in fairness, I would agree, it seems that "most" do.  Unfortunately there are some that seem to consistently take 4 or even 5 weeks.   And oddly enough geography isn't the only factor involved in the timing of delivery.  BK is about 5 hours from here and it generally takes 4 weeks for him to get his.

That is why we are getting a Periodical Class permit.  That will greatly expedite delivery.  For destinations served by a postal distribution center within 750 miles of Chattanooga, TN  they will actually be put directly in with 1st Class Mail.  For others outside of 750 miles, they are still handled separately, but with a much higher priority than Standard Class.

Regarding your question about answering the phone, I do personally answer the 863-303-4008 as much as possible.  Today I took 15 calls.  A couple of them were pretty long and other calls beeped.  I don't rush people off the phone and I enjoy discussing buses and share any information I can with them.  I also take care of postal and banking errands as well as well as handle my personal errands and tasks (today was especially challenging in the latter regard). So I rely on voice mail to catch the calls I miss for any of the above reasons and return the calls as soon as I can.

You are correct about the way large mailers work by staging them across the country.  The even bigger ones print their publications at several different locations around the country and mail regionally to shorten the time lines.  When they combine that method with a Periodicals Class permit, they achieve 1st Class mail handling to most addresses.

But, we are not a large publisher mailing several hundred thousand or millions of copies per month.  We are a relatively small niche magazine run exclusively by three bus nuts, two of whom have day jobs.  We print at a single printing company and mail from one location in one bulk mailing per month.  There is no office staff waiting to handle calls.  It is a publication truly produced and managed by bus nuts for bus nuts.

We have recovered quite a few subscribers that dropped off before and we have picked up some new ones.  But we are still small potatoes in the publishing world.  When the economy cycles back (when ever that may be) and the baby boomers retire, we expect to get a lot of new bus nuts on board.  But even then, compared to the scale of mainstream publishers, we will always be small because of the size of the bus conversions niche.

[Ericbsc]

At risk of hanging I am waiting on sept oct and nov after my 3 yr reop. Sure it will get to the country one day !!!LOL

[HighTechRedneck]

Eric, that doesn't sound like a postal delay.  Give me a call or an email with subscription details and I'll figure it out and get you the missing issues.

Mike

863-303-4008
web@busconversions.com

[bryanhes]

Mike,

When is the Mag to be available online?

Thanks,
Bryan

[HighTechRedneck]

Bryan, it will be going online Wednesday.  We've got to correct a couple photo captions.

[James77MCI8]

Still no BCM. Spare me the reasons. This helping me deveope patience.