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How difficult can it be?

8th Oct 2012
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I qualified in 1981 and probably bought my first professional tax book that year, when I made the decision to carry on to what was then ATII. Over the years loose leaf books gave way to CD-Roms, then to online library services. We even have webinars and CPD courses streamed to our desks via the Internet.

And yet why have the tax and legal publishers failed miserably over this time to make ANY improvement whatsoever in their customer service or account handling?

With each move to a new firm I have always found some hapless tax manager or partner struggling to get the book suppliers to sort out their account or take the correct direct debit. Now I do have a couple of very nice account managers who visit me every year, and make all the right noises. But I know as soon as they leave the office we'll be left in the hands of a faceless team of account handlers who only ever have part of the picture at any time.

And 'helping' both of them is a totally separate team of telesales people who regularly supply books to staff who aren't authorised to order them, under new account numbers that throw our purchase ledger accounting out, and often duplicate orders placed via the 'official' channel through our account manager.

Just last month we had a review of one of our suppliers and discovered that we have two subscription accounts, with different expiry dates, for related products. The smooth-talking and very willing sales person assured us these could be rationalised. First attempt, the combined account omitted our key audit publications. Second attempt, the price was wrong - it had been increased despite promises to keep it unchanged for two years. Third, the direct debit schedule came through for the wrong amount, and was set to start a month late. The latest is a new schedule which now has to recover the arrears due to the DD missing the September payment altogether!

And now I have a transfer pricing book on my desk that no-one will own up to ordering. OK, I can just send it back, but that's not the point. Customer service has been a priority for most of us for some years, and rightly so - how come these publishers haven't got the message yet?

Come on Big 4 firms, you hold the key here - these publishers will bend over backwards (and then some) to keep you happy.Get your accounts depts to put some pressure on the publishers to get their act together, for the sake of the rest of us. We're stuck with a monopoly/duopoly situation (thanks ICAEW for selling off your publishing arm!) so the rest of us don't stand a chance of influencing them.

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Red Leader
By Red Leader
11th Oct 2012 11:31

Amazon?

How about just ordering the books through Amazon? I realise that I have a much smaller requirement than the Practitioner, but even I got fed up with my order being apparently a major mind-boggling event for the publisher. Amazon now supply my annual tax book very efficiently and promptly.

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By wilcoskip
11th Oct 2012 11:41

Amazon, definitely

After trying for half an hour (really) to set up an account and place an order on the website, I gave up and ordered my book through Amazon.  Problem over.

Just goes to show, people who produce tax books aren't necessarily able to figure out the complex business of selling them.

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