A small snippet of what’s to follow:
- “Your company’s utterly shameless behavior over the past several months has reached symphonic heights.”
- “Stop with the PR and fix your problems. And if you’re working on them…you damn sure do work slow!!!”
- “Really dreadful service and judging by the reviews on this page you are going to find yourself struggling to stay in business.”
- “They are fixing their problems. They are deleting comments!”
- “Can’t believe that they would completely wreck THOUSANDS of customers existing books without so much as a courtesy email.”
- “They’ve revamped their website in April and it has been a s****-show for the ages…”
- “Sign in problem fixed? No, Paul, I don’t think so. I must have changed password well over one hundred times…”
- “I’ve got books that are being listed as out of stock on various sites and ebooks being listed as unavailable.”
- “They have got a LOT of bad press…”
- “Your new website is hopeless…”
- “…you have time for webinars but not to call me back after 2 years of an attempt to contact someone?”
- “Nothing has been resolved. I still can access my files…”
- “When, if ever, will the sales & payment issue be resolved?”
I recently received the following email from a reader:
“I’m curious as to whether you’ve been following the recent Lulu.com saga. They’ve revamped their website in April and it has been a s****-show for the ages – lost data, missing sales, etc. Me thinks they’re in BIG trouble.”
I had not heard about this latest development so I did some poking around online. And, I was shocked!!
Here’s what I found:
COMPLAINTS FROM AUTHORS ON LULU’S OWN AUTHOR FORUM:
Lulu Sales Reporting Method
“I’m sure all of you remember the old days when we got our report it told us exactly where our books were sold. There was also a nice pie chart there I found very useful as it told what type of book was selling best where. It seems Lulu thought it best to remove all of this.”
Is this an error or is Lulu losing it completely?
“Tickets are still closed within seconds and must be opened again. Apparently (according to Lulu), support is still ‘facing an extremely high volume of support cases and is unable to send personal replies to everyone’.”
Lulu Support
“Sign in problem fixed? No, Paul, I don’t think so. I must have changed password well over one hundred times and still I’m asked to do so. Tired of having to go through this routine three times per day. Yes, I’ve submitted several tickets but no joy.”
and
“ALL of my books are still: Distribution review pending, one book which has been available on retail sites now says, “DRAFT” and two of my books that were updated in April are now showing the old covers. Heaven knows what the interior files are. TODAY IS DAY 30 (Que up Thirty Days in the Hole, Folks.) Oops. My Mistake. Today is DAY 32.”
and
“I have raised a number of support tickets with Lulu since the beginning of this month. I have not received a single human response to any one of them.”
and
“I would suspect they don’t have more than two or three warm bodies available to work the issue. If they had four that would still be one per minute just treading water. I could be way off-base here, but it sure explains why they might just throw their hands up in the air and crack open a cold one and turn off the phones. I would.”
“Here we are at the end of the day on Monday. Still no report. I’m hearing some did get theirs but it’s half of what they should be getting. As I have mentioned I’ve got books that are being listed as out of stock on various sites and ebooks being listed as unavailable.”
and
“Wouldn’t it be great if Lulu simply explained / confessed a few things and laid their cards on the table? They have got a LOT of bad press…”
and
“We were promised on the updated Facebook page revenue data would be up by Friday. People are leaving nasty messages. Still no new update on Facebook since Friday or answers.”
FROM THEIR OWN FACEBOOK PAGE
“Really dreadful service and judging by the reviews on this page you are going to find yourself struggling to stay in business.”
“Our phone lines are closed…”
Complaints from 2 authors:
“Seeing the problems other folks have had we’re planning on switching to a different service if you can’t come through for us immediately.”
This was posted four months after he placed his order:
Complaints from 3 authors:
Complaints from three more authors:
To see more complaints, go to their Facebook page and look for “comments” under each post. The accusation above about them deleting complaints is the second one I’ve seen today. And, that’s why I took screenshots of the ones above.
From the Better Business Bureau:
NOTE: The BBB does not publish names of individuals posting complaints but they do notify the company via email with additional information.
“The company has been unreachable for over a month. After spending a lot of money, I am completely disappointed they dropped me before the finish line.”
“Recently, I visited my account again to check progress and my project has totally disappeared. There is no record of my book, tax documents, or sales.” and “This is my work and I have lost total control of it as I do not know what sales or revenue are being taken.”
“The change was made over two months ago and attempts contact their customer service (or anyone in the company) are met with unchanging message. Using their on-line service generates a long and meaningless email, I have lost business.”
“In the last month or so, I have tried countless times to reach Lulu (by phone, email, etc.) to resolve issues on My Projects page on the Lulu website. Since the “platform change” implemented by Lulu, I have had several problems on my account pages. This has been going on for more than a month. “
“Cannot access my account with LuLu Publishing and have repeatedly filed complaints to support over past several months.”
There are many more complaints HERE.
From ConsumerAffairs.com:
“Recently, I had a problem which I reported using their online form (the only way to contact them now). The only reply I received was an automated impersonal reply. Several attempts to report the problem produced the same non-results.”
– James of Pughkeepsie
“I have used Lulu for a couple of years with only minor complaints. But I recently tried to contact their support department and got zero response. Over the past month I have sent 5 requests. No response has been forthcoming. My next step is to find a new publisher.”
– George of Santa Barbara
“I have read many reports about money going missing from peoples accounts on forums but I never believed it until it happened to me.”
– Roger of Blackpool
“I’ve had an awful experience working to get my book published by LULU publishing and never again. I had to wait over 2 months for a “review” process and I kept calling them, they were nowhere to be found.”
– F of Irvington
There are MANY more complaints HERE.
From TrustPilot.com:
“Your company’s utterly shameless behavior over the past several months has reached symphonic heights. Not a single instance of true empathy or responsiblity taken for the total chaos that you’ve wreaked upon your customer base — only total psychobabble. I will do everything in my power to let others know not to work with you.”
– Pete P.
“I’m an author on Lulu.com, and since the update, everything has been a dumpster fire.”
– M Carlson
“Big disaster. Lol, it was worst and worst and now I can’t even login, the page doesn’t work at all!”
– Ana
“The new upgrade however has left me unable to use their service at all. It is actually difficult to log in, it no longer accepts Word Documents and I am totally stumped by the new insistence on PDFs.”
– David R.
“Can’t believe that they would completely wreck THOUSANDS of customers existing books without so much as a courtesy email. It’s now several MONTHS since this happened and my book is still broken and I haven’t received any news from support about it.”
– Chris
Read more complaints HERE.
From RipOffReport.com:
“Lulu Press, Inc. Missing payments of known sales since Feb”
There are other (older) complaints on that site as well.
Needless to say, we recommend all authors avoid Lulu.
RELATED
- More Lulu Complaints – Thinking Of Using Lulu To Publish Your Book? You Might Want To Read These Authors’ Complaints First! By Angela Hoy
- Complaints About Lulu Are Spilling Onto Lulu’s Own Twitter Page
- LULU CONTINUES TO RECEIVE LOTS OF COMPLAINTS
- Has Lulu Gotten Too Big For Its Britches?
- Lulu Responds to Angela’s Article with Marketing Blurbage, Implies False Accusation about “Accuracy”
- UH OH – PART II! What are Employees of CreateSpace and Lulu Saying About Those Companies?
Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.
About The Author
Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).
Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.
WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.
BookLocker.com - According to attorney Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print, BookLocker is: "As close to perfection as you're going to find in the world of ebook and POD publishing. The ebook royalties are the highest I've ever seen, and the print royalties are better than average. BookLocker understands what new authors experience, and have put together a package that is the best in the business. You can't go wrong here. Plus, they're selective and won't publish any manuscript just because it's accompanied by a check. Also, the web site is well trafficked. If you can find a POD or epublisher with as much integrity and dedication to selling authors' books, but with lower POD publishing fees, please let me know."
Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.
PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!
Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.
Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)
See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.
ANGELA ON TWITTER https://twitter.com/AngelaHoy
BOOKLOCKER ON FACEBOOK - Provides links to free excerpts!
https://www.facebook.com/booklockerbooks
ANGELA ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/angela.hoy.750
ANGELA ON LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelahoy/
Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/
Read More Of Angela's Articles HERE
90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book's Daily Marketing Plan by Angela Hoy and Richard Hoy
Promoting your book online should be considered at least a part-time job. Highly successful authors spend more time promoting a book than they do writing it - a lot more.
We know what you're thinking. You're an author, not a marketer. Not to worry! We have more than a decade of successful online book selling experience under our belts and we're going to teach you how to promote your book effectively online...and almost all of our techniques are FREE!
Online book promotion is not only simple but, if you have a step-by-step, day-to-day marketing plan (this book!), it can also be a very artistic endeavor, which makes it fun for creative folks like you!
Yes, online book promoting can be EASY and FUN! Let us show you how, from Day 1 through Day 90...and beyond!
Make Sure Your Marketing is Targeted at the Right Audience
Worst experience ever. I paid $1999 and my manuscript sat for over TWO months in “Step 1 – Content Evaluation,” before some in house editor called me and told me that he “didn’t think my book was a good fit for Lulu Press” and basically told me to pound sand. WHAT??!!!
They wasted over TWO MONTHS of valuable time just to tell me they didn’t want to work with me. Who does that?
I ended up using Amazon KDP and getting the same job done in mere days (less than a week) while saving a lot of money. Lulu is an awful company. Run!
Don’t you think it is well past the time that everyone knew about Lulu?
It isn’t as if the first negative comments were posted today about Lulu’s relation problems.
Why are people still doing business with a company whose business and ethical reputation is questionable, at best?
If I would have been suckered into Lulu, I would have taken the first opportunity to cut my losses, jump ship, and start clean elsewhere. Life is too short to keep butting heads with something you are going to ultimately go no place with.
A significant measure of responsibility must be born by the authors entering Lulu recently — they simply didn’t do their due diligence. All I can say is it was a very dumb move.
I’ve been using Lulu since my first self-published book in 2009 and have several print and e-books available through them. Like everyone else, I was livid with the screwed-up issues I encountered after their “upgrade.”
Three things to add here:
1. I posted a question on Goodreads asking if others were having similar troubles (after trying to contact Lulu directly about my problems and not hearing anything).
2. At least two of us in the discussion thread have since had our issues resolved.
3. As I was digging around, I found a report of a hack that occurred against one of Lulu’s primary distributors about the time of the “upgrade.” I don’t know if there’s a causal relationship there, but the timing was at the very least coincidental.
As to wmba dams’s comment: Don’t assume current issues reflect past problems. I used Lulu for over ten years and never had a problem. Never. Not until this one (and what a doozie it’s been).
Ellen,
Which of their distributors was hacked?
Angela
Angela — Ingram’s CoreSource was allegedly [;-)] hacked earlier this year. I found an article about it on The Bookseller website. It was from April, and I saved a copy to my laptop. Seems a good thing I did as the article is no longer available on The Bookseller (here’s the link: https://www.thebookseller.com/ingram-shuts-down-data-breach-coresource).
If you’d like me to send an image I took of the article (I still have a copy of it on my laptop), let me know where to send it.
Thanks for all you do for authors!
Oh! I found the link another way. Try this one:
https://www.thebookseller.com/news/ingram-shuts-down-data-breach-coresource-1199951
Wow! I’m so glad we (BookLocker) refused to sign up for that service at Ingram!!
Angela
Sad, sad, sad. Thank our lucky stars that we have BookLocker.
caveat emptor lector & whatever
doesnt anybody ever check the reviews and reputation of anybody they are going to do business with before they sign on?
doesnt anybody ever get some basic knowledge of anything before they charge ahead to do it ?
how anybody even went to lulu at all speaks volume to how stupid people are