Dora Magazine & CD Rom

[Whizzz]

Bought this today for DS (nearly 5) & it was a bit disappointing. The CD only had 3 activities on - a game move left & right to catch bananas, on screen colouring & a musical chicken (copy the sequence). It also had an episode of Dora on - but the magazine just had the same story.

I was expecting more really - DS seems already bored of the CD. Anyone else have any views ?

Did you get all the stars to do the secret adventure?

Ds1 quite liked doing the colouring and the banana game - but he's only done it twice. He's not had loads of practice on the computer so I think he was enjoying learning control of the mouse and clicking etc. He's 4.5

It's not something you could do each day - there's not enough on it. Mind you, isn't there a quiz part and a part where you can learn spanish words? I've not looked at those parts yet.

Not sure I'd pay £4.99 for it.

Yes but the secret 'adventure' doesn't do anything as far as i can see

Oh yes, we did all the stars swiper but not worked out what the secret adventure bit is all about.

The spanish bit is only learning hello, goodbye, big, small, red and chicken !

I assume that as you buy the mags you get the pictures that fill up the numbered squares - bit of a con as far as I can see

Oh, mine (4.5 and 2.9) can already do hello, goodbye, big and small from the programmes!

we cant get the star for the singing chickens. I get up to about 15 in a row then it crashes!!

Yup same here ! he's picked up quite a few words from the telly

My dd's 4 and I wouldn't have touched this with a bargepole, apart from the fact that my sister works for a magazine distributor and has been getting them for me free. We're up to about issue 9 now, and I have to tell you - it doesn't get any better as the weeks go on! Each CD has just a couple of basic activities, and the magazine is pretty poor too.

I really bought it for ds2 who is 2.9 and addicted to Dora. It doesn't matter to him if the magazine is crap - it's got pics of Dora in it!

Glad it wasn't just me that didn't think it was very good !

So I bought my daughter Issue 1 of Dora Little Cooks at Tescos and she loved it - we had great fun making the banana muffins and eating them. Feeling excited about this new magazine I thought I would subscribe so my daughter could be sure she got the issues before they were out in the shops and so she would get the array of free gifts promised.

On February 9th Eaglemoss confirmed my subscription of £9.98 every 28 days. About 2 weeks later Issue 1 turned up - the issue we already had but we had asked to start at Issue 1 so we would have 2 Dora plates and more muffin cases. The free Tidy Box however didn't arrive. 

Since then we have walked past issue 2 and issue 3 in Tesco. My very bright 4 year old has asked why heres haven't come through the post and can we buy them at Tesco. Her friends have all made their new recipes, got their new free mixing bowl etc. But my daughter hasn't because we made the mistake of subscribing thinking this would get us a better deal! 

So today I called eaglemoss to be told the tidy box comes with your second shipment. I explained on the email infront of me it says "Tidy Box with first shipment". What did they say? "Well it should say second shipment".

So I say, well I'm still waiting for issue 2 and 3 which are out in the shops. They say - "we ask you to wait up to 21 days for those".
I say, "21 days from setting up the subscription was March 1st". 
They say, 'we've dispatched them but we ask you to allow 21 days. We're playing catch up as we had so many orders.".
I explain very nicely that while an adult might be happy to wait 21 days for something they already paid for, which is already available in the shops because they have a backlog, they cannot expect a 4 year old to apply logic.
They ask me to allow 21 days!

And so we go round in circles.

I am very, very unhappy about this. I subscribe to several magazines and always get them before they are in the shops so why should my 4 year old have to wait 21 days after everyone else has their issue of Dora Little Cooks? The customer service I got is zero. So before I cancel my subscription I thought I'd get views on here.

I wondered if anyone else was having this problem and how other parents feel about this? It's like they think they can get away with it because a 4 year old can't complain but this mummy can!

Seeing my comments on another mums forum, Eaglemoss's PR company said they wanted to speak to me. There's me imagining they might offer my daughter some form of compensation for all their delays and the distress caused. I finally got to speak to someone today after leaving numerous messages to discover that although the publishers promised me faithfully that issues 2 & 3 were dispatched on the 20th Feb and were on their way to me this was in fact a lie. Issue 3 is out of stock so no issues beyond issue 1 have been sent to me. But if that isn't bad enough they have admitted they have taken payment from my account not just for the missing issues 2 and 3 but also for issues 4 & 5! I am absolutely furious and urge all mums to boycott this magazine. They are taking money, not providing the magazine, lying to customers that it has been dispatched and don't even seem to be particularly apologetic. My 4 year old is absolutely devastated. I have cancelled my subscription and asked for a full refund but I won't be holding my breath! Shame on you Eaglemoss publishing.

Sorry not sure why lots of numbers have appeared in my message!!!

I've had issues with this magazine too. My parents subscribed for dd's birthday, starting from issue 2. We received issues 2 and 3 a few weeks ago, we've had nothing since, and none of the free subscriber gifts. I phoned them 2 weeks ago and I was meant to get the gifts with the next issue but I've got no idea when that issue will actually be coming out.