Sudoku Pro magazine

Beyond Sudoku is a Puzzler publication, appearing every other month in WHS only or by subscription.

Of course it's not a patch on Sudoku Pro or Sudoku Xtra!

Agree about Beyond Sudoku not being a patch on yours Gareth! Not by a country mile in fact.

I have subscribed to it for a few years as it was one of the best before I discovered the original "Pro". Have cancelled sub to it now as I am very bored with it - the puzzles have barely changed at all over the years despite the many far more interesting variants now widely available. I still like the Mosaics tho so am ever hopeful these may be included in Pro or Xtra one day. I enjoy the occasional one in the community section tho so am grateful for that.

Went to pick up the latest copy of Sudoku Pro at the stationers in town today only to find that the shop was in the middle of a closing down sale with no magazines to be had, Grrr! So I have just had to come back home and take out a subscription, although it won't start until next month.

Sorry to hear that! I just delivered all of the content for issue 55, so now to completing Sudoku Xtra 10!

Hi, I have taken out a subscription for Sudoku Pro on 7th September and was eamiled that one had been dispatched that day but as of noy...the 26th no magazine has arrived. I am beginning to think I've been ripped off ( again !!!) after accolade went bust last year. I am very disappointed and a little angry...

Hi Cathy, did you order online or by telephone? I subscribed online on 28th August and was e-mailed that my first magazine would be mailed out on or around 24th September (so hopefully any day now!) It just seems strange that your subscription was taken out later than mine, yet you were promised an earlier magazine! Here's hoping that both our magazines arrive in the next day or two.

If you haven't received a magazine you've bought, you should call or email the publishers. They are a long-running company with a range of other magazines, and while I can't personally guarantee it I really don't think they're going anywhere any time soon - I've seen their offices and they have loads of stuff going back many, many years. You can for example email them at customer.services@myhobbystore.com. And if you still don't get any joy I will contact them on your behalf for you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2010 10:25PM by gareth.

I just checked and 24th September is the listed publication date for issue 55, so you should receive it this week I imagine.

Hope your magazine has arrived now Cathy - mine arrived in the post yesterday. It was interesting to read about the 'new look' next issue. Sixteen extra puzzle pages sounds an awful lot extra (no complaints mind!!). Is that a one off for the launch of the new look magazine or are you going to have to come up with all those extra puzzles each month Gareth?

Hi Christine, no arrival yet...Hopefully tomorrow. Enjoy yours.

The new mag design adds loads more pages permanently - in fact I now know it is 20 more pages (not 16) because the cover is now additional rather than part of the main page count.

It's a permanent change, to try and attract a more general readership in too, without losing what makes it special - the mag is now full of Sudoku variants (25 of them, in fact, including many never seen in print outside Sudoku Xtra), with each page having a regular Sudoku and a "Pro" Sudoku or puzzle. There's even a Samurai Star Killer Sudoku in the first new issue! (Issue 56).

I'm STILL waiting for it to be delivered...I've emailed them twice asking if there is a problem with the subscription ( they emailed me at the beginning on 7th Sept thanking me for signing up for a yearly subscription) but they just ignore me.

Sounds rubbish Cathy - I have sent an email and will follow up when I get a reply. Sorry you've had poor service - that must be very annoying and I can only apologise on their behalf.

Hi Gareth, thanks for getting involved. I took out the subscription for 1 year on 6th Sept and got an email form them on the 7th as a receipt. Whenm I log in to see my account it just says the order has been dispatched on 7th Sept and order now closed. I don't quite understand...
I have been so looking forward to getting my hands on a 16x16 puzzle. I've been onto Amazon to put your recent book of them on my wish list for Christmas.

Thanks again.

Hi Cathy,

I've been told the subscription service is now contracted out so they can't help directly - you need to email subscriptions@myhobbystore.com which will redirect to the external company. If after doing that you still don't have any joy then I will follow up even more directly with myhobbystore.

Hope this helps!

Hi Gareth, Thanks for the suggestion but I've done this three times already, sending emails enquiring about this to myhobbystore but they continue to ignore me. I can't imagine they will do anything for me if I send another. (I sent the last one yesterday evening).

I don't know what do do now.

Hi Cathy,

Oh, really? Okay, well I've compiled your five postings on this together in chronological order and sent it on to myhobbystore, so I will see what they say now.

Can you email me your email confirmation you received, just so I can quote them the right info if they get back in touch? Mail me at gareth@sudokuxtra.com.

Hello Cathy

I had the same problem when I first subscribed and waited ages despite getting an email saying it had been despatched - when it clearly hadn't! However just when i thought it would never arrive it DID! Since then they have been arriving regularly with no problem. The publishers obviously have a problem with new subscribers.

Be patient and enjoy Xtra in the meantime! Sue

Still no mag or even an email from myhobbystore in spite of Gareth's intervention. Will I ever see a 16x16 sudoku again?

What a pain Cathy. If it weren't for copyright regulations etc I would send you all my 16 x 16s because I hate them and the 25 x 25s! They are the only puzzles in Sudoku Pro and Xtra that I don't have a go at so I have some beautiful blank pages in my magazines just waiting to be filled in. (I love everything else Gareth - wouldn't want to cause offence!!). I do hope you get your subscription sorted eventually.

I've emailed them yet again - sorry the subscription company they've switched to have let you down. Have you tried phoning the customer services number, 0844 412 2262? Harder for them to ignore you then!

They told me they'd contacted the CEO of the subs company previously.

Hi Gareth,

I've emailed again but no response so I've finally come home early from work to phone the number you suggested and got the run around(which I sort of expected). After being transferred to another department who had absolutely no idea whatsoever how to help I had to phone back the original chap who suggested I now contact Nicola Theakston (but you already had) and she appears to be doing nothing about it.
When I mentioned how I was thinking of this whole sorry situation as fraud he helpfully offered that maybe I could get a refund on my subscription. I now await this with much regret and disappointment as all I ever wanted was 16x16 puzzle to solve.

I've written to the CEO of myHobbyStore asking him to look into your case, and he's now asked the subscription handling company to sort it out and contact you.

Can I also ask people to send any personal queries about Sudoku Pro by email or direct to myHobbyStore? This forum is for Sudoku Xtra, not Sudoku Pro (which is an entirely separate entity and not run by me at all).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2010 07:33PM by gareth.

Hi
anyone know of any stockists of Suduko Pro in the TW16 area (or close)

Quote
Carolyn
Hi
anyone know of any stockists of Suduko Pro in the TW16 area (or close)

LONDIS SUPERMARKET, 122 VICARAGE ROAD, SUNBURY ON THAMES, MIDDLESEX, TW16 7QX

There are also some in TW1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 and TW19 but I don't know which are near to you.

Thank you - I'm on my way there .......

I too am reluctant to get another subscription to Sudoku Pro although I used to really enjoy it. I had paid for 2 subscriptions - 1 for myself and one for my daughter - and then they went bust! I think it would have been a good will gesture for the new owners to have offered a reduced subscription to those who lost money with a previous one!
Viv

It seems this magazine has been rather ill-fated as I received a letter in the post telling me that it is now to be discontinued. What a shame Gareth. In all honesty I never enjoyed it as much as Sudoku Xtra but at least the variety puzzles did used to put me on between issues of Xtra.

Its beginning to look as though there is no popular market for many of the newer puzzle types - I've not had much luck with subscriptions - first of al BBC Mindgames, then Sudoku Pro and now Total Sudoku and Pro. Yet there are thousands (slight exaggeration) of different sudoku magazines on the shelf. Wouldn't you think that there would be more of us who had really enjoyed sudoku, eventually got bored with the same puzzle time and time again and moved on to the variants? Seems not. The letter stated the reason for the magazine being discontinued as "unforeseen circumstances" which I translate as not enough subscribers. Ah well, I shall swap my subscription to Logical Challenge for the remaining few months and give those a try. I am sorry to hear the news though Gareth if it has come as a disappointment to you.

Excited to see that Sudoku Pro is back - printing pdfs doesn't feel quite the same as buying a magazine somehow. But I searched all the independent newsagents in Inverness and I couldn't find it - anything near IV postcode? Also heading down to Edinburgh (EH) and Lake District (LA) for a few days so hoping I'll spot it somewhere there.

Thanks for your super puzzles Gareth!

Amanda

Hi Amanda,
Unfortunately Sudoku Pro only returned for 10 issues and then was replaced with Arrow words by My Hobby Store, so you won't find it in any shops any more. The problem was that for whatever reason they couldn't get it back into WH Smiths - they said there were already too many similar titles, or so I was told. Of course there are actually no similar titles and they'd stocked it for years, so go figure. I think they just see all logical puzzles as the same.

Sudoku Xtra, however, includes everything that was in Sudoku Pro plus a whole load more, and has more puzzles of more types in each magazine. It's available for download as a PDF from this site, and every time it's downloaded it provides a bit of cash to fund the writing of the next issue. You can also order pre-printed copies from Lulu or Amazon (see links here) but these do cost more to cover the printing costs, and Lulu have quite expensive postage. That said, if you sign up on the Lulu site you can get occasional discount coupons.