I love the magazine and I buy a copy every month, usually at Meijer’s. The LHS’s never order enough. Sure I pay more this way than if I subscribed. On the other hand, after years of receiving tattered, shredded, soiled and rain soaked expensive magazines I’ve decided I’d rather pay more for a still legible product. I once watched our mail carrier walking toward the house in the rain. She was garbed completely in rain proof clothing…except for her left hand, which gripping our stack of mail, was fully extended into a pouring down rain.
They stopped putting mine int he clear plastic a long time ago, and I really hated that. In plastic, there NEVER was any damage. Plus there was no sticky label mucking up the nice cover photo. My mail is delivered curbside, to a mailbox, so I never had any weather damage. Only problem is if there is too much junk mail and the carrier attempts to jam it all in the box, had some mior tears that way.
I dont have problems with my delivery. Maybe you could talk to your mail carrier about keeping your stuff dry while giving them a $10 tip for the New Year. You might be surprised at the response you’ll get.
And if that doesn’t work, go to the post office and ask to speak to a manager. I have had such problems for some time, finally culminating with a package being forceably bent to fit in our mailbox. (The sender’s comment was that the mail-carrier must have been a gorilla to even bend it, much less the intelligence to consider DOING such). The manager agreed that it was unreasonable, and had a talk with the carrier. It happened again the next day, so back I went to the P.O. Manager agreed again… even acted somewhat embarrassed.
Carrier came up to our door to apologize the next day, he had been on vacation for a couple of weeks, and apparently the replacement had a bunch of complaints.
I don’t get mine in a plastic bag anymore either. It usually comes with a tear or two and/or a big crease. The address label usually comes off the cover pretty easily but there has always been damage of some sort since they stopped with the bags. The bags didn’t always guarentee good condition either but it was much less frequently.
I have been on subsciption since 1981, and in that time I have had 3 or 4 magazines damaged and 1 that did not show at all. I called the toll free phone number at Model Railroader and each was replaced pronto! They have always been real nice when I call to re-new or just ask a question. In that time I have lived in 3 different houses and have had many different mail carriers. I now have a roadside mailbox and the mail carrier just puts his arm out into my box. You cannot hold MR resposable for your mail problems, you need to work it out with the USPS.
Mine arrive safe and sound. Of course the mail carrier comes in a rural mail truck, and walsk about 5 feet to the mailbox, so little chance of any damage, and there never has been any. I think you have a local problem.
Not a problem for me. I have rural delivery and my mail goes right from the car window into the mail box. I live almost an hour from my LHS so this is much more convenient.
They may have done away with the plastic bags because of problems with mail sorting machines. A friend of mine is retired from the U.S. Postal Service, where he was one of the technicians who installed, adjusted, and repaired sorting machines in Phoenix, Arizona. He says they had all manner of problems with plastic bags getting caught in the machines and causing their contents to get mangled.
One day, I received a small plastic bag containing a few shredded remnants of a magazine cover, together with a note from the postal service that it had gotten caught in a mail sorting machine in Phoenix. They sent me the pieces that could be recovered, together with a badly mangled address label, and suggested that I contact the publisher and request a replacement copy.
If I recall correctly they did away with the plastic bag when they switched to a new mailing method. My understanding is that MRRer now uses a presort method where the magazines are not sent all the way in the mail, but drop shipped in bulk to the local sort office in each area for each Zip code. In that way they are only in the mail system for the final delivery to your address. Since they switched to this method I have had just one magazine arrive torn. An e-mail to the “damaged mag” address on the web site got me a replacment in no time.
I too like to buy my MR at the LHS, it supports the shop and at the same time gives me a chance to snoop around the new equipment, and visit with the owner. I can understand that accounting would find it much easier to control circulation, on the other hand maybe the repport might be just as important. I have never had a subscription, but I have bought the magazine faithfully since I got out of the Army in 1969. I also appreciate this forum, you guys are great, (although sometimes I think you would argue about the color of an orange) I do miss some of the extras, such as sound and videos. Thanks for listening.
I have subscribed to MR for 20+ years and can only recall having gotten mangled copy, which was replaced. Recently, they have been coming in plastic bags again, too. No complaints.
Not since I started renting a box at the local branch post office, back when I was a newly-married Air Force two-striper.
Since then I’ve had apartments with mail boxes the size of shirt pockets, a rural mail box 250 yards down a dirt road from the house, and, finally, those ganged things on a post that can be stolen intact by anyone with a pickup truck and a chain. They all had one thing in common - nothing more important than pizza coupons were ever delivered to any of them. In the meantime all of my ‘real’ mail has never had to venture into the weather and was delivered to my box in pristine condition.
To my way of thinking, it’s worth $75 a year to keep my bank and credit card statements secure from identity thieves. Getting undamaged magazines and catalogs is just a bonus. [2c]
The MR mailing situation has had its ups and downs in my case. I have rural delivery, with a box out at the street. When MR came in plastic bags I never had a single one damaged over many years. When they switched over to the newer bulks shipping with the mags loose, the mags initially took an extra week to arrive! The first three of the issues under the new system were so severely damaged they had to be replaced. However, it’s gotten better with time and the arrival schedule has returned to normal. Likewise, I’ve had only a further few with minor damage - largely when there happens to be a lot of mail being delivered.
My only problem has been convincing the post office that they need to impress upon the carriers the importance of actually getting the mailbox door shut when the weather is… well, typical for Oregon.