The Hindu : Front Page : A case of delayed delivery for some

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 22, 2007
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A case of delayed delivery for some

Susan Muthalaly

Online retailers blame embargo for late delivery of copies of Harry Potter book

— Photo: N. Sridharan

THE EARLY BIRDS: Harry Potter fans stand in a queue at a bookshop in Adyar, Chennai at 6 a.m. on Saturday to get their copy of the latest book by J.K. Rowling.

CHENNAI: Several Harry Potter fans who decided to take advantage of the attractive discounts available online for the highly awaited Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows did not receive their copies till late on July 21, despite ass urance from online companies.

Representatives from Bangalore-based Indiaplaza.com, which offered ‘150 per cent’ discount on the book, said an embargo on the sale of the book till 6.05 a.m. prevented them from dispatching the copies from the warehouses. V.N.Venkitakrishnan, business head, Landmarkonthenet.com, said the e-commerce industry suffered due to this. “We planned ahead with the courier companies to make sure we could hand over the consignments at 2.30 a.m,” he said. He admitted knowledge of the embargo beforehand. “But in the e-commerce industry, shipments are delivered between noon and 7 p.m.; we would not be breaking the embargo in any way.”

Penguin India CEO Thomas Abraham said every distributor of …Deathly Hallows signed the embargo. “It is extremely sloppy planning to commit to customers without considering when the stocks can be collected,” he said .

Mr. Abraham added that only two online retailers based in the south put pressure on them to break the embargo.

In Delhi, 20,000 copies were delivered without a hitch, whereas one of the retailers in the south was handling only 900 copies, he said.

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