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Yes, you're over-reacting. Your post sounds spiteful, and your threat of bad publicity sounds more like revenge than warning your fellow consumers. The way I

by zosi 16y ago

Yes, you're over-reacting. Your post sounds spiteful, and your threat of bad publicity sounds more like revenge than warning your fellow consumers. The way I see it, it would've been nice of them to give you a free MEAP copy, but it was well within their rights to refuse. Similarly, it's well within your rights to write a nasty blog post about how Manning is a bunch of meanies, but it'd be nice if you let it go, admitted that you made a mistake and got on with your life. It doesn't seem to me like there's anything to be gained by taking the low road here, even if you feel that it would be fair. I have a story that starts similarly to yours, but ends very differently. I discovered "The Joy of Clojure" from a post here on HN, and after some consideration, I decided to pre-order. I was familiar with Amazon, but not with Manning, so I checked them out a little. I read their page about MEAPs and preview releases and really liked what I saw, so I pre-ordered the e-book copy from them directly, got my MEAP copy immediately and started reading. Since then, I've purchased/pre-ordered a half dozen other titles from them (frequently on steep discount thanks to their daily deals and newsletter sales) and they've become my go-to publisher for tech e-books when O'Reilly doesn't have what I'm looking for. I can't help but feel that my life would be ever-so-slightly poorer if I had had a bad experience with them right off the bat and decided to avoid them in the future. Regardless of which path you decide to take, I hope that you enjoy reading the book. As someone who's fairly new to Clojure and functional programming, I've found it to be a great way to get deeper into the language as well as expand my horizons by exploring concepts like laziness and immutability that I don't see often enough as a Python programmer. Happy reading!

deleted 16y ago
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d0m 16y ago
Even with what happened to me, I can't help but be happy for you if it makes your live slightly-better ;) I don't totally agree with the "nice from them to give it, nice from me to not post". I don't want to start philosophical debate about what is "right" or not, but in my sense, being "nice" is the right thing. As someone who truly try to be nice to everyone, it pisses me off when some people aren't like that with me and, in these situations, I feel like it's right for me to point them out. And, in all honestly, it's not really that much about money or about the book, but more about the way it happened. I first sent an email basically saying "Sorry, I made a mistake. I really want to read that book and didn't know about the manning vs amazon ordered thing. I'd be happy to blog about you being awesome if you can give me the pdf :D" And, then, for them to reply: "Sorry, but that is the advantage of buying from manning only. If you need further assistance, blabha". So, no explication, whatsoever, about a way to fix the solution. No: "Yeah, I understand it sucks. You know what you could do? Just cancel your order from amazon and order it at manning and I'd be pleased to send you the .pdf as soon as possible!". I then sent them out an email saying that I was really unhappy about the situation and that they had lost me as a customer. They then replied saying: "We can't give you the pdf because we have no way to make sure you really bought the book. Even if you give us the amazon copy, you could order, give us the message from amazon, cancel and get a free pdf". Well, you know what, I could get the free pdf illegaly without even contacting amazon or manning or anyone! It'd be way more simpler for me to download it in 30secs instead of ordering, sending proof, canceling. no? So, finally, you say it would have been nice for me to not post about that story. Why would it have been nice? If someone is harsh with you, is "Saying nothing and letting him/her being an ass with you" nice? Nice for who? Why would I be nice to them? So, yeah, when I'll read the book, I'm sure it will be a good read and I'll be happy to blog about it. (still linking to amazon, of course ;)

by zosi 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

d0m 16y ago

Even with what happened to me, I can't help but be happy for you if it makes your live slightly-better ;) I don't totally agree with the "nice from them to give it, nice from me to not post". I don't want to start philosophical debate about what is "right" or not, but in my sense, being "nice" is the right thing. As someone who truly try to be nice to everyone, it pisses me off when some people aren't like that with me and, in these situations, I feel like it's right for me to point them out. And, in all honestly, it's not really that much about money or about the book, but more about the way it happened. I first sent an email basically saying "Sorry, I made a mistake. I really want to read that book and didn't know about the manning vs amazon ordered thing. I'd be happy to blog about you being awesome if you can give me the pdf :D" And, then, for them to reply: "Sorry, but that is the advantage of buying from manning only. If you need further assistance, blabha". So, no explication, whatsoever, about a way to fix the solution. No: "Yeah, I understand it sucks. You know what you could do? Just cancel your order from amazon and order it at manning and I'd be pleased to send you the .pdf as soon as possible!". I then sent them out an email saying that I was really unhappy about the situation and that they had lost me as a customer. They then replied saying: "We can't give you the pdf because we have no way to make sure you really bought the book. Even if you give us the amazon copy, you could order, give us the message from amazon, cancel and get a free pdf". Well, you know what, I could get the free pdf illegaly without even contacting amazon or manning or anyone! It'd be way more simpler for me to download it in 30secs instead of ordering, sending proof, canceling. no? So, finally, you say it would have been nice for me to not post about that story. Why would it have been nice? If someone is harsh with you, is "Saying nothing and letting him/her being an ass with you" nice? Nice for who? Why would I be nice to them? So, yeah, when I'll read the book, I'm sure it will be a good read and I'll be happy to blog about it. (still linking to amazon, of course ;)