Status update: talked with "Josh" who said they are assembling the DVDs today and they should be shipped out tomorrow.

Well, weeks have passed and I'm still waiting on CD Marksman to produce the copies. There have been a series of disappointments leading up to this huge delay:

a) Even though their website still claims that they make true non-burned ("replicated") DVDs at quanties as low as 100, they called me after a week to say that their website is incorrect, and that they only do that for quantities of 1000 or more. This was sad because that was the main reason I went with them over other companies.

b) Even though I sent them a full-size printed copy of the cover art, they still required me to approve a "proof" before they would send it to the printer. They sent email notifying me of this on December 8th, but my ISP's spam filter tagged it as spam, so I never saw it.

c) Finally, just before Christmas, I called up to find out what was up, and they said that they were just waiting for me to get back to them. They said they thought it was weird that my project "was up on the wall staring at us for two weeks in PENDING APPROVAL status" but never bothered to call. By this point I'd already switched over to Mozilla Thunderbird for my email client, and I was able to catch their email and approve the proofs.

d) On Monday after Christmas, I sent them email using the special "give me status on my order" email address they provide on their website. I got a quick response saying they'd get back to me in 24 hours.

e) Four days later, after not hearing from them, I called them again, and talked to a very embarassed guy who was apologetic and nice, but he gave me a story about the prints that I don't quite believe, even now. He says that for quantities less than 1000, they don't print in-house; they outsource it to a company in Illinois. And, "because of the big snow storms in the midwest", the printer has been unable to ship the cover art. He expected to get a tracking number that night, and said he will email it to me when he gets it.

f) Tonight is Sunday, January 2, and I haven't received any such email, so I'll have to call again tomorrow to find out where things stand.

I could have printed and burned 100 DVDs myself in this time.

If it's not obvious already - I can't say I recommend this company.