1. When will I receive my order?
Orders are usually sent within in 1-2 business days and take anywhere from 2 days to 4 weeks (in extreme cases) to arrive depending on the destination. Average delivery time is two weeks. Orders for books which have not yet been published are shipped immediately once they are published.
We are aware there is a bug on our website and sometimes orders verification emails do not reach you. As long as you receive an email from paypal, your order has reached us and we will ship it within 1-2 working days as usual.
But just in case you want to double check, feel free to send us an email to [email protected] and we will happily answer confirming the order.
Very soon, we will have a new website with many more features and we hope you will enjoy using it.
Best wishes, Quality Chess
2. How is my order shipped?
It's shipped via regular mail (some larger orders via UPS or other couriers). If you want us to use a specific service, you are advised to contact [email protected], but extra charges might apply.
3. How much is shipping?
Shipping to EU countries and UK
Shipping to USA and the rest of Europe (non-EU)
Shipping to Australia and New Zealand
Shipping to the rest of the world (including Canada, South America etc.)
note: It is the customers responsibility to provide a full and correct address, e-mail and phone number. Any problems arising from these details being incorrect is not the responsibility of Quality Chess UK Ltd
4. When will I be charged for my order?
Please note, Your credit card is charged when we receive your order, not at
shipping.
5. Can I use your images and text on my website, or is it copyrighted?
Yes, you can use all images, text and pdf ebooks from our website on your website or blog.
6. Where are the free pdf downloads (ebooks) or torrent downloads of your books?
On our PDF page
Q: Are the international shipping rates the same for the Hardcover books?
Yes.
Q: I live in the US. Why can't I get the books at the same time as in Europe?
The answer has two parts.
Firstly, the books have to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make it to our main US distributor. It takes about a month at best. Then the books have to be sent to other wholesalers and distributors. It all takes time.
Secondly, we are trying to make our books available at the same time. We have partnered up with Chess4Less, Books from Europe, and USCF Chess Sales to get the books to the US with air freight, available to the public at publication (excluding hardback editions in the latter case). We are of course very happy to send books to our US customers directly, but we recommend getting them from these chess specialists!
Q: I have ordered a book on Amazon, but it has not been sent. Why is this?
Amazon and other websites demand that publishers work through specialized distribution companies. This takes more time and is less profitable for us because we have to use a middleman which forces us to ship the books only when it is most cost effective.
In general, some retailers arrange their system so that they will get books cheaply but slowly, while others pay more to get the books quickly. For example, some specialist chess shops in the US pay to have our books airmailed from Europe - highly expensive but it offers fast service for their customers.
Q: When will the hardcover books be available on Amazon?
They won't.
Q: Will the hardcover versions generally be published after the softcover version?
No, both versions will be released at the same time.
Q: Will your books be available as pgn or ChessBase e-books?
As long as it is easy to copy these forms of readers, it makes absolutely no sense. Why other companies choose to do this is a mystery.
Many of our books are available as Forward Chess ebooks.
Q: Why does Quality Chess struggle to give an exact publication schedule?
Because we don't sit on the books when the authors deliver the final text. Having checked three recent publications from a rival publisher, we found that although the forewords claim April and May 2010, the most recent game references were from August 2009. If we took nine months to get an opening book out, we too could easily predict the publication date. Instead we choose to get the books out in sometimes as little as five weeks from when we received the final manuscript, making it harder for us to anticipate the exact publication date.
Q: Why are books from Quality Chess more expensive than some other publishers' books?
There are a number of reasons:
Q: Have chess books been superseded by DVD's and Databases?
No.
A database with millions of games, many of them annotated, is a useful tool and a challenge to chess literature. Some authors have chosen to see it as an opportunity to copy&paste material, creating the so-called database dumps. At Quality Chess we see the databases as a starting point for our work, not an ideal. The chess author's responsibility is to apply experience, clarity, analytic skills and basic hard work to offer the reader something that cannot be matched by a computer program. We aim to do this, and think we succeed more often than not.
Also, we have a lot of time for the DVD's produced by ChessBase and others, but see their limitations too. A five hour video will only cover enough material to fill 10-15 pages in a book. So, although we admire this new development in the industry, they are not a replacement for books when it comes to true knowledge and depth.
Q: I have heard you are doing a new book on my favourite opening -- why will you not tell us more about it?
Because we don't want to disappoint anyone by saying something that turns out to be untrue.
Q:Where do you ship your websales from?
Our books are printed in Estonia and after they are printed, we ship them to our main warehouse in Poland. We also at times work with London Chess Centre in the UK and Chess4Less in the USA, to make sure that the books will be shipped fast and with minimal cost involved for the customers in these two countries. If you are in the UK or USA, but wish to receive your order specifically from Poland, please get in touch and we will arrange that for you, with an extra shipping charge.