Free Chinese Textbooks! No catch!

[elina]

Luobot, when I saw your review yesterday, I was shocked and didn’t know what to say, the review is so quick and 沉甸甸的, I have not seen such a detailed one before. I intended to add applause here, which I didn’t do, as I think it’s 多余的/ redundant and can destroy the perfect of the review. Now I just have a small thought:

Is it necessary to change the tile of “NPCR / CME” into “New Practical Chinese Reader / Chinese Made Easier”? Since not every one is familiar with the abbreviative titles (No. 27 post here).

[roddy]

Looking good Luobot, many thanks. I will edit that title to make it easier to search for (if that doesn't make it too long).

Quick addition to this project - I have one or two review copies of an ebook on learning Chinese which is

targeted towards newbies / beginners... to help give them guidance on the strategies I (and my classmates at ICLP) found most useful for learning Chinese quickly.

Anyone fancy taking a look at it for us? It's an ebook, so instant delivery - although I don't actually have it yet.

[mirgcire]

I have one or two review copies of an ebook on learning Chinese

I will be happy to review one. I was just thinking about importance of learning strategies today, so the opportunity is timely for me.

[Shadowdh]

Hi Roddy, yeah I could review one for you, now I am back things have settle a bit I am cracking on with the books and study again... woo... hoo? I will be posting a prelim today or tomorrow of one of the books and then will get a more detailed review of one of the books sent in the next week... cheers

[atitarev]

Hi Elina/Roddy,

I am back from Queenstown, New Zealand. I checked my mail and still there's no mail from China. Not sure what went wrong but I haven't received my book. Should I wait a bit longer?

[elina]

Atitarev,

Your package was sent on May 27, and as mentioned on our site and in my email sent to you for order confirmation, the shipping time for Australia:

"By SAL of China Post: Usually you will receive the products in about 1.5-4 weeks."

As I said in my previous post, the shipping time is complicated, Chinese and foreign customs may 抽查一定比例的包裹 / randomly check some packages among the all. If the packages are left for checking, every package will queue up for manual examination, which maybe delays the shipping time for 1-2 weeks.

During several years’ running time of our website, none of the packages has been lost so far. But there were two packages returned to us: one person moved to a new place, and the other person went out for holidays, so nobody was at the receiving address when the package arrived.

For your case, I think:

1. your package is still on the way, please be patient, and wait for a little longer.

2. you said: “I am back from Queenstown, New Zealand”. When you left Australia, was somebody still at the receiving address? In some countries, people receiving international packages need to add their signature on the receipt, and the postmen do not just leave the packages in the mail boxes, they need “real” person to accept them. And usually, the post office delivers the package to the receiver’s door twice, and if failing to find somebody at the receiving address twice, they will return the package to the sender. Various countries have different postal policies, please initiatively ask your local post office, to avoid the possibility of delivery failure, when you left Australia.

If on June 25 (the end of the fourth week), you still cannot receive your package, let me know, we will check with the Chinese post office, and they will enquiry the Australian postal system. If your package is confirmed to be lost finally, our company will send a new package to you free of charge, through the fastest way: Express Mail Service. As I’m eager to see your review.

[atitarev]

Thank you, Elina. I will check with the post-office and wait longer if nothing has arrived. The usual way in Australia for normal parcels is to deliver a notice in the mail box and then the receiver comes in person to pick it up. Yes, somebody was here when I was away but we didn't get any notice. Of course, I will provide a review/reviews - the first impression and a more thorough one.

[IndhuRen]

Looking good Luobot, many thanks. I will edit that title to make it easier to search for (if that doesn't make it too long).

Quick addition to this project - I have one or two review copies of an ebook on learning Chinese which is

Quote:

targeted towards newbies / beginners... to help give them guidance on the strategies I (and my classmates at ICLP) found most useful for learning Chinese quickly.

Anyone fancy taking a look at it for us? It's an ebook, so instant delivery - although I don't actually have it yet.

Hi Sir, I am an advanced beginner learner. I would be grateful if you could give me access to your ebook. Thankyou in advance...

[Guest realmayo]

Just picked up my two books, which had arrived at the post office almost three weeks ago. Will post review in due course.

[atitarev]

I received "Graded Chinese Reader 1" yesterday. Thank you very much! Will write a review later.

[ipsi()]

Still waiting for mine - one more week to go before I start getting worried that they've gotten lost somehow.

[mrlase]

Are you guys still sending out free textbooks?

[elina]

Ipsi(),

Your package was sent on May 27, and as mentioned on our site and in my email sent to you for order confirmation, the shipping time for New Zealand:

"By surface mail of China Post (mostly by sea): Usually you will receive the products in about 5-8 weeks"

On July 22, we will contact you, if you still cannot receive the package, we will send it again according to my No. 87 post here .

Like I said, we have never experienced package’s loss before. In this free-book-activity, Atitarev is the first one who did not get the package within the quoted time period, and we have started the investigating procedure about his package through the Chinese post office to see what the problem is, and they will check the entire process, including every step of Chinese postal system, Chinese customs, Australian customs, and Australian postal system, which will need some time to finish. Although the investigating result is not coming out yet, we trust Atitarev, he is one of the earliest people I met on this forum, and have ever seen his posts with responsibility for years, in addition, in order to support this free-book-activity, we have sent his package again through FedEx Company free of charge. Ipsi(), we will do so for you, if you cannot receive the package on July 22. I think we would not do it to our normal customers who we don’t know much.

In this free-book-activity, it’s interesting that people communicate with us much more than our ordinary customers through this thread, through PM, through emails, so that we know in some places, even if the package arrives, the local post office does not inform the receiver, and the receiver needs to initiatively contact the post office to pick up the package. We ourselves don’t exactly know how our customers get their packages before, since most of them are just silent when they receive their parcels. Some of them write back to us saying something like “Today my package arrived, earlier than I expected and in good order, your service is excellent, I look forward to making more purchases in the future” etc. etc., but still no information on how they get hold of their parcels. Now we think we will begin to collect this kind of message from our customers, in order to give reference to others as well as improve our pre-purchase and after-sale service.

Just picked up my two books, which had arrived at the post office almost three weeks ago.

Would you please tell us if your local post office initiatively informed you the package arrived, or you needed to check with the UK carrier using the shipping tracking number, to see if your package arrived?

Are you guys still sending out free textbooks?

The first round of free-book-activity is finished, it’s not fixed if/when there’s a second one.

[Guest realmayo]

Elina,

When they tried to deliver it, no one was home so they left a standard note telling me to pick it up from the post office. This is what they've always done when I've been sent something which is either too big for the letterbox, or needs a signature.

It took me 3 weeks to get it because it took me 3 weeks to get around to going to the post office. If I'd have waited much longer, they'd have sent it back to you (3 weeks is the limit they said).

[elina]

Thanks for sharing.

[ipsi()]

Right, update on my books for everyone: The first shipment got lost. Buggered if I know how or where, but there we go.

Elina very kindly sent the books again via FedEx (at what was probably an exorbitant cost). But FedEx managed to delay that as well by mistaking NZ for NL and sending my books off to the Netherlands... No one noticed until it arrived in Paris. Can't really get much further away from New Zealand.

Thankfully they sent them back to New Zealand, and they arrived today, only 4 days after their original estimate, and about 9-10 weeks after Elina sent the first lot.

Not actually home right now, but when I do get home I'll check to make sure they haven't been damaged or anything. Definitely arrived though, called my little brother to make sure.

[gato]

Don't see too many reviews being posted. I think luobot, atitarev and xtenhome have posted reviews so far. Anyone else?

Maybe there should be separate book review section.

[atitarev]

I think luobot, atitarev and xtenhome have posted reviews so far.

Yes, I did.

Come on, guys!

[Guest realmayo]

agree it'd be good to have a separate review section.

but I don't see the point in writing a review until I've finished my two books and had a ponder...

[elina]

But FedEx managed to delay that as well by mistaking NZ for NL and sending my books off to the Netherlands... No one noticed until it arrived in Paris. Can't really get much further away from New Zealand.

We have just contacted with FedEx company, they admit they ever mistakenly sent the package to NL, and will give us some compensation on the postage.

Still waiting for the investigating result from China Post towards Atitarev’s and Ipsi()’s first packages, not like FedEx, China Post has not online tracing, they have to check every procedure and step person to person, inside and outside China.

Maybe there should be separate book review section.

I agree.