I've had 3 missing issues from about the last 8 (the latest being the Iggy issue) for my subscription here in Singapore. Likewise the replacements have always been forthcoming but it is frustrating having to wait.

I do feel the delivery can be better - it generally takes two weeks when they arrive "as normal" yet Amazon can get me a package of CD / DVD's within a week via Royal Mail (last being shipped from Amazon on Sat, arrived following Friday).

I was wondering whether it is to do with the clear plastic cover it seems to come in these days - too much temptation for the many hands it passes through on the way overseas (although the Kate Bush issue arrived okay so that maybe not the case.....)

Could it be that Iggy was too much for the authorities at Customs? Was it not in Singapore that Cliff Richard was forcibly made to have a haircut?

I'm a UK subscriber and I'm taking this off at a tangent. I suspect this doesn't have anything to do with editorial staff - unless the distributors gave you the choice - but the polythene bag that Word comes in seems to have gone down in quality. I mention this because the last two editions have arrived with the bag ripped and damage to the cover. Nothing too heinous there, and I could read read the full magazine without problem, but it could be much worse. I could even end up losing the CD. However I do like a pristine copy, and these last two haven't been.

My copy arrives every month here in Tokyo although in the last six months it has been later than previously (and some months can take about three weeks to get here). This week's Private Eye arrived today even though it was printed after Word was apparently sent out and Amazon UK parcels take about a week so the problem is probably with the company Word use. Whilst the delivery is slow, I do not think it has never arrived at all and I have subscribed since the first issue. Jerry Perkins is always helpful in sorting out missing/late issues.

When I lived in France magazines regularly didn't appear, and also other post, to the point where I went to the Embassy and complained about it. It turned out they were doing an undercover operation about it as apparently international post pilfering is notoriously bad, at both borders, as it is almost impossible to discover where the problem is.

I have had similar problems with non deliveries and though it had something to do with the clear cover offering up too much temptation for some of our less honest citizens It's good news about the brown envelope then.