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What happened to Dunwoody Press?

  Tags: Bookshop
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
23 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3  Next >>
alang
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Canada
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 Message 1 of 23
05 January 2015 at 11:42pm | IP Logged 

I just went on their website to see what is in store for 2015 and there is no site up at all.
There were two emails sent to orders and contact, both came back as delivery notification
failure. I called the phone number, but all it does is ring, with nobody answering.

I am wondering if anyone else experienced this and if there is any information, as I was
interested in purchasing some of their products.
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daristani
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United States
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Studies: Uzbek

 
 Message 2 of 23
06 January 2015 at 1:36am | IP Logged 
I noted about a month ago that, on their website, there was a notification asking people to contact them if they hadn't received orders, which I thought at first just meant they were having some shipping problems. But the entire website has been down for a couple of weeks now, and I've started to wonder whether they might be going out of business.

I've ordered a fair number of things from them over the years, and I always found their website a pain to order from; I usually had to send in my orders and payment information by e-mail. So while I'd like to be hopeful that they're just reworking their website, and will be back before too long, I'm starting to conclude that they may be finished. (If so, I would assume that they would probably sell off their existing inventory, and thus that the books might eventually show up on the market somewhere.)   
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Chung
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 Message 3 of 23
06 January 2015 at 1:46am | IP Logged 
I don't want to be known as a vulture or scavenger but I'd have no compunction picking up the Turkmen books and CDs or the reference manual of BCMS/SC at fire-sale prices if indeed Dunwoody is checking out.
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alang
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 Message 4 of 23
06 January 2015 at 2:03am | IP Logged 

It is unfortunate if that is the case, since they had resources for rare languages.
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Juаn
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Colombia
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 Message 5 of 23
06 January 2015 at 3:35am | IP Logged 
If true, this is the saddest news I have heard in a very long time. The materials Dunwoody Press publishes are simply irreplaceable. It would be an immeasurable tragedy if they were no longer to be available.

Let's hope they are simply renovating their website.
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Jeffers
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United Kingdom
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 Message 6 of 23
06 January 2015 at 2:28pm | IP Logged 
That is really disappointing news, but actually comes as no surprise to me. I tried to order the Hindi Newspaper Reader last summer, and had nothing but trouble. I couldn't actually order from the website, and the person I finally got speaking to asked me to email her my credit card details.

They never sold their items directly through Amazon, which was a big mistake. They might have survived this if their own website worked well, but they just couldn't get it going. If they have gone under, it's because they just didn't bother to adapt to the 21st century.

Another example of how slow they have been to adapt is the fact that the Hindi Newspaper Reader was only available with cassettes until around 2010. Charming but useless?
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alang
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Canada
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 Message 7 of 23
07 January 2015 at 5:09pm | IP Logged 
I contacted someone who emailed Dunwoody Press and he was
able to get a reply from a person who worked there. It was a short response, that the company
still cannot process any orders until further notice. It did not look very good. Hopefully
Dunwoody Press will be back up, as their materials are like what Juan wrote, "irreplaceable"

It is hard enough to find high quality resources for popular languages. Imagine scarce great
material for rare languages, is going to be more difficult. I did find their readers with
native speakers excellent.

Edited by alang on 07 January 2015 at 6:23pm

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Chung
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 Message 8 of 23
07 January 2015 at 5:52pm | IP Logged 
Ultimately it'd be a shame, but I admit that its high prices and somewhat sneaky trick of selling textbooks and associated workbooks separately made me hold back. That Turkmen course has been tempting me for a while but $200 plus shipping... Really? Seeing others' experience with the semi-functional online ordering system is also a little unsettling. Sending my credit card information via e-mail is a non-starter for me.


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