ComplaintsforMascot Books, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  06/01/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I published a book with Mascot. They send me royalties. For the last statement, the distributor returned 40 of my books to Mascot. Mascot wants me to pay back the royalties I never received. They do not answer the phone. They hung up on me when I finally got through.

  Business response

  06/07/2023

  Response to Complaint ID ********; *************************
  
  We are disappointed to learn of ****************** concerns. We strive to be as communicative with our clients as possible and to keep each fully apprised of his or her account financials and book sales. We feel we have met these benchmarks in our work with ****************** and are pleased to offer additional details and clarification on this situation.
  
  Since her book originally went on sale in 2020, ****************** has received royalty statements from our team on a quarterly basis. These statements include details about purchase orders, direct-to-consumer sales, royalties owed, unpaid royalties, and book returns. For context, retailers and distributors, including ****** and ****** & *****, purchase and return inventory at their discretion and can do so at any time. This is standard within the publishing industry, and all orders and returns are reflected on the soonest possible royalty statement.
  
  ****************** was paid royalties in accordance with four of her last five royalty statements. However, in the time between her February and May 2023 statements, a retailer elected to return unsold inventory of her book. As a result, this retailer must receive a refund for its original purchase. Unfortunately, ****************** had been paid the royalties from this sale already, which must now be paid back. This information is clearly stated in her May 2023 royalty statement and outlined as an obligation in the contractual agreement ****************** signed with us.
  
  It is worth mentioning that our team has remained professional and transparent in all of our communication throughout our engagement with ******************. Unfortunately, we have not received the same professionalism in return. A member of our team spoke with ****************** last week via phone to explain the royalty statement in better detail and answer questions; however, that call was disconnected abruptly. Given ********************** unprofessioal demeanor during that conversation, our team believed she had ended the phone call. We recognize that ****************** interpreted this event differently and apologize this incident occurred.
   
  Though we have provided ****************** with ample information regarding her royalties and the retail and distribution process, we accept that she is not satisfied with the results thus far and are disappointed this is the case. As a gesture of good faith, we are happy to waive the balance owed on her latest royalty statement. We will reach out directly to ****************** via email to confirm this offer and to conclude this matter.

• Initial Complaint

  12/11/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I signed the contract with Mascot Books, Inc. (******* Publishing Group) for the coffee table book on July 12, 2022, and paid $9,089.92 for the first of the three installments. For the next three months, there were many delays with poor service from the company. The layouts and photo settings were horrible. I then reported to the Acquisitions Director of Mascot Books, Inc. in early October. He informed the Director of Production to keep the layout editing going. For the next two months, I was disappointed with the disorganization and lack of creativity. There was not even any written documentation and the editor(s) did not follow my explicit instructions. Then I was told by the Director of Production that the editor would add the written documentation after I approve the photo layout. This is nonsense as that was an excuse on their part as I am very organized and very clear with my instructions. After some serious deliberations with my family, I decided to terminate the contract after reporting my profound disappointment to the Acquisitions Director on December 5, 2022. Surprisingly, he did not respond to my email notification of the termination. I want my refund of $7,923.26 for the Publishing Service, Warehouse Set-up and Title Registration, and Marketing. The contract said I would not get a refund if I terminate it but the company did not meet their end of the contract expectations and I am very unhappy with their poor service. I ask that they apologize and send me a refund.

  Business response

  12/27/2022

  From: ******************* <***********************************************************************************;
  Date: ***, Dec 23, 2022 at 12:47 PM
  Subject: Fwd: You have a new message from the BBB of Metro Washington DC & Eastern Pennsylvania complaint #********.
  To: <[email protected]>
  Cc: *********************** *********************************************************************************************** ************************* <********************************************************************************************;
  
  Dear ******,
  
  We are in receipt of this complaint and submitting our reply here.
  
  We were disappointed to receive the complaint outlining the author's frustration with the production services rendered. We strive to provide excellent author services throughout each step of the process and work in partnership with our authors to bring their vision to life. Over the past twenty years, we have helped thousands of authors produce beautiful, high quality books that stand the test of time. We make it a priority to work hand-in-hand with the author to provide effective and appropriate solutions that allow us to navigate any potential challenges that arise during the publishing process, with the continued goal of satisfying and exceeding authors' expectations.
  
  In this case, we feel we both kept the author apprised of the scope of work as it unfolded as well as provided review touchpoints of work we had completed along the way. We have completed a significant amount of project management and graphic design work for the author's book project. While this project wasn't without challenges, the Mascot team delivered over 500 laid out pages for the author's review, and as recently as this month the author expressed written interest in seeing this project to the finish line. 
  
  We were sorry to see the author have a change of heart with respect to productively moving forward. Nonetheless, we provided the author options with respect to the next steps of our work together.
  
  Our director of acquisitions did respond to the author's wish to terminate her working relationship with us, and has communicated with the author in the time since to solidify a path forward. While we don't agree with the author's assessment of the quality and scope of services rendered throughout the process and provided the author with appropriate solutions with respect to next steps, we settled on a final solution that satisfies the author with respect to their requests. We hope the agreed-upon settlement demonstrates to the author that we are committed to fulfilling our client-focused obligations on all fronts. Despite the circumstances surrounding this project, we wish the author well with respect to their future publishing journey. 
  

  
  

  Customer response

  12/27/2022

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I have corrected the Director of Acquisition that the project was incompleted without the written documentation in the book.  He was going to send a little over half of the refund, I corrected and told him to send most of the refund.  He approved.
  
  Regards,
  
  ************************

  PS:  Please put my name as Anonymous.   Thank you

• Initial Complaint

  05/06/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I have signed the contract with Mascot to publish my book and the amount on the contract is 4,625. The invoice I have received was for 5,300 - which I have paid in full. Now they are requesting further increase of $500 stating paper price increase in the industry. I have received no explanation as to why the original increase appeared on the invoice and at present they are ignoring my phone calls and emails. I would like to receive the full refund since I have lost confidence in their willingness to abide by the contract signed…I am also willing to consider Mascot following through and completing their part of the agreement.

  Business response

  05/19/2022

  Response to Complaint ID ********; *********************
  
  We are in receipt of this complaint and submitting our reply here.
  
  We are disappointed to receive the letter outlining *******'s frustration and concerns. We strive to provide excellent author services and to keep each of our authors apprised of our work, industry considerations, and the hybrid publishing process as a whole. We feel we fulfilled those goals in our work here, but we accept that ************ is not satisfied at this time.
  We have previously provided her with options for a path forward for her book and work with our company.
  
  The publishing industry is facing an unprecedented, highly publicized paper shortage, along with supply chain issues related to shipping and logistics. These industry-wide issues have unfortunately impacted the pricing we are able to offer our authors at this time. As a result of those industry factors, we previously offered ************ the solutions she requested in her original message directly, including canceling her contract and refunding the majority of her deposit. We have finalized the path forward with ************ already and hope this demonstrates our commitment to her publishing journey.

  Customer response

  05/28/2022

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.  I have received the refund for which I am grateful but I do find it disappointing that Mascot books were not abiding by the contract signed between us and have sought the increase of payment due to paper price increase. At my suggestion to print less books and proceed with the publishing they have simply refused.
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩