Hey, Folks1
So, you might have noticed that this missive is a little bit late this week.
Well, you would be right.
Poor Diamond. Last Friday they were hit by some sort of ransomware attack. Their website went down on Friday morning and, honestly, I didn’t think very much of it. It isn’t an altogether strange occurrence for the site to go down. This time, however, we got a weird error message that I had never seen before now. Frankly I shrugged it off and just kept doing my normal Friday stuff so that I could get out of the office.
Diamond didn’t get up and running on Friday. In fact, they put out a message saying that they were sending everyone home because of technical difficulties. Although there was plenty of online speculation, it wasn’t until Saturday that it was confirmed as a ransomware attack. It apparently hit all areas of operation from ordering to shipping to all manner of online files. Diamond managed to get at least part of the website up and running, but a good portion of their system is still not right. They have set up a third-party e-mail service to communicate with retailers as their e-mail system was compromised. We have been told that the problem is being dealt with and that the police have been notified. There doesn’t seem to be a real solid estimation of when the crisis will be successfully fixed although weeks seems to be a possibility. I can only imagine the panic that must have spread through Steve Geppi’s organization as Alliance Distribution (a game distributor) and Gerber (a comic supplies manufacturer) were also affected.
So how does this effect Monarch and, by extension, you? Well, I can assure you that the supply of D.C. and Marvel Comics is unimpeded. I’ve never been so glad that I have three different distributors for my main product line. That just leaves everything else. Diamond has sent assurances that next week’s books are being picked and packed as we speak, but without a clear idea of how their operations have been effected in regards to the shipping process we don’t know if arrival dates will be similarly hurt. Our shipment came in as usual this week, but I know other parts of the country had a more difficult time of it.
I can tell you that reorders have been put on hold until at least Saturday. I usually put in a big reorder every Sunday afternoon for a Wednesday delivery. This reorder includes all of the special orders I take through the Subscription Form as well as restocking of things like trade paperbacks and supplies. I did put in a reorder on Sunday and I did receive an order confirmation number. Unfortunately it hasn’t been processed yet so those orders likely won’t reach the store until Wednesday or Thursday next week.
That’s another unfortunate side effect of this little technical drama. Diamond’s UPS tracking number system is also down. This means that I have no way of knowing if there are packages coming or when to expect them. I had a few tense moments waiting for the shipment to show up.
Which brings us neatly to the Shipping List and Subscription Form. There is a two-stage process to constructing both lists and one important resource that I rely on is data files listing all of the new releases. The other important resource is my invoice. The data files are available on Monday and are then update don Wednesday to include everything coming out as opposed to just the main publishers. My invoice is available on Wednesday morning and is usually the first thing I look at once I get in the door. Because of the attack all of the data files that I normally rely on are completely gone. The page where I could access them no longer exists. My invoice for next week did not appear until early this morning. This explains why I couldn’t get started on the shipping list process until this morning. Since I don’t have access to a complete list of titles coming out both the ship list and sub form are somewhat hobbled.
So if you know of a small press title that is coming out this week and it isn’t on the sub form then please don’t hesitate to contact the store. I will check on the item and order it in for you if it still available. I am still exploring some possible work arounds for this problem if this situation continues for longer than this week or the next. In the meantime, check out the ship list/sub form and let me know if there are any problems with it…lol.
Special thanks to everyone who stopped by the store today and distracted me from this morass. Sometimes one tends to get too deep into the nuts and bolts and it is just nice to stand there at the counter and talk about, you know, comics as opposed to the delivery mechanism. I’m signing off for now as I want nothing more than to sink into bed and get some serious shut eye before returning to the fray tomorrow.
Have a great weekend!
Eddie