emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map
| Message 17 of 28 28 December 2012 at 3:31pm | IP Logged |
Sonny_T wrote:
And finally, is the this Schoenhof a safe and legit place to buy stuff? I've just never heard of it before that's why I have to ask. |
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Schoenhof's runs a really excellent bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts (just down the street from Harvard University). The service at the bookstore is absolutely first-rate, in my personal experience. The staff seem to be mostly polyglots, and they once stayed open 20 minutes late so I could buy more books. :-) Every time I walk in there looking for one or two books, I walk out at least $150 poorer with a heavy bag of books. Their selection is absolutely amazing by US standards, and they're really friendly.
Schoenhof's also runs an online operation. I've never ordered from them before, but I remember that somebody here on HTLAL had problems with Schoenhof's shopping cart software, which was having issues one particular weekend. My impression is that Schoenhof's is a very respectable brick-and-mortar business that sometimes has trouble with technology. So it's not impossible that you might need to email them or phone them if you accidentally click "Buy" twice, or something like that.
I think I'm going to see if they have a copy of L'Espagnol, which is an updated version of French With Ease for French speakers. Not that I intend to learn it anytime soon. And maybe look to see if any interesting French books are on sale.
EDIT: Got the last copy of L'Espagnol for US$11.48 plus $7 shipping. Yay!
Edited by emk on 28 December 2012 at 4:01pm
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Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5348 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish*
| Message 18 of 28 28 December 2012 at 4:04pm | IP Logged |
Their physical store must be amazing. Their online one is a nightmare if you're not an American. I tried writing to them and this is what I received:
Quote:
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.
Delivery to the following recipients has been delayed.
weborders@schoenho fs.com |
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So not even plain email works with them.
Their prices at the moment however are so amazing and I have such a weakness for Assimil courses, knowing I can not have them is torture. Maybe if I use a proxy server?
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emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map
| Message 19 of 28 28 December 2012 at 4:33pm | IP Logged |
Juаn wrote:
Their physical store must be amazing. Their online one is a nightmare if you're not an American. |
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Here's an offer to you and other HTLAL regulars: If you have trouble with the Schoenhof's online store this week, and you're either unable or uncomfortable calling them on the phone, then you're welcome to send me a PM with your email, your order number and all the other details. I'll set aside 30 minutes next week to call them up with any HTLAL problems.
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Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5398 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 20 of 28 29 December 2012 at 10:19pm | IP Logged |
I have ordered from Schoenhofs many times before. If your product is in stock, they are generally quick and not much different from other online stores.
However, if your item is out of stock, it can take 6-8 weeks before it gets to you. If you find something on sale that you want for "the future" then it's not a big deal, but their customer service is awful, too. They don't tell you it's on back order, they don't answer emails. If you call, you can (sometimes) get an answer, depending on the person you talk to. Your stuff will eventually show up, though.
Their prices (at least for Assimil courses) are much better than almost anywhere that I've found in the US. (I think the Spanish, French, and Italian courses with audio are available on Amazon for about $30, though.)
That's all coming from my perspective of an American in the US.
It's worth noting that the sale they are running right now is for IN-STOCK stuff only.
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Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5348 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish*
| Message 21 of 28 30 December 2012 at 1:07am | IP Logged |
After several days of waiting for a response this is what I finally received:
Quote:
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
Unable to deliver message to the following recipients, due to being unable to connect successfully to the destination mail server.
weborders@schoenho fs.com |
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So there it is, neither their site nor their email work for me. I also contacted them via their web form, but I hardly need to report I never heard back from them.
Like we say here, lo barato sale caro.
Oh well, they did not have the courses I wanted the most, Perfectionnement Arabe or L'Hébreu, both with CDs. Oh but the Persian one was enticing...
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7208 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 22 of 28 14 January 2013 at 11:58pm | IP Logged |
My package containing Assimil Business French came today. I'm very happy. It includes the 4 CDs. The book itself is bigger and heavier than most Assimil books. It's more like 5" x 7", than the usual 4" x 6". The best part is that with shipping, it cost less than $37.
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Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5398 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 23 of 28 15 January 2013 at 12:28am | IP Logged |
Luke - I've seen a copy of that book, and it looks like a really great resource. Schoenhof's definitely has a few drawbacks, but (as long as you can afford to be patient) you can get some really great deals, especially when they have sales. Good luck getting all the way through it. :)
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daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7147 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek
| Message 24 of 28 15 January 2013 at 1:14am | IP Logged |
I ordered three Assimil books in their sale; two of the three were correct, while the third was the wrong volume of a two-volume series. So while the prices, especially during the sale, were excellent, their service still strikes me as sub-par, and consistent with some of the experiences cited above.
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