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Insound Closing Its Doors After 16 Years


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No warning? Dude they said the site would be shutdown sometime in May. I think two additional months post-announcement is ample warning.

 

Yeah, no. While the announcement was made in May, no change was made to the website until very recently, and when the sale happened it was severely mishandled. At the end, I ordered 15 things for 145.65, and actually received 7 items (one pretty badly damaged) and the rest was just like 'Oops, no. Sorry.' That is terrible.

 

I get that these last minute grabs can be iffy, but Insound was a huge established site, not a one-man show. There's no way it should be like that.

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To expect itnot to be like that is unrealistic. There are a bunch of people ordering stuff that there are a couple of copies of and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a drastic cut in their staff from when they announced they were going out of business and when this sale started. It was a going out of business sale, when it ends it ends not sure why you'd think there would be a warning.

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I don't care about maybe's and things people think might have happened. Non-delivery of product purchased weeks beforehand due to 'site closure' is ridiculous. They didn't say anything about 'not having the items you ordered' or 'site malfunction' or 'too many fucking people ordering shit at the same time.' They didn't say any of that. They just said 'we're not delivering the rest of what you ordered from our big closure sale because we closed.' That makes no sense and I don't give them any sympathy.

 

As opposed to me wrongly being surprised that I got a fat refund from all the shit they don't send out, how about them being wrongly surprised that a bunch of people were waiting for them to do a giant liquidation sale on the remaining stock and all jumped on it at the same time? THAT shit is predictable.

 

My point is that they suck, that's all. I'm just venting about exactly how much they suck. Carry on.

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If they were going to shut down they should have said order by date x. If the order was in weeks ago yes they should have filled it regardless of site closing. Unless the product is truely out of stock it should be filled.

 

I'm guessing that's the case though.  It's not like they're going to be re-upping to fill orders.

 

I get that it's frustrating when you order something and it doesn't show up for whatever reason, but get over it and move on.  If you're ordering a bunch of shit from a site because they're going out of business and it's dirt cheap, you can't realistically expect to get everything.  Dozens of people are probably doing the same thing and apparently their web store interface and back end their using must not keep great track of inventory.  This isn't Amazon, this is a business that's trying to get rid of all the shit they have in a warehouse.  They don't owe you anything except your money back if they can't fulfil.  Not like they're trying to build a long term customer base.  People should be happy that they're not having to file PayPal disputes .  You rolled the dice and it didn't work out.

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Yeah, no. While the announcement was made in May, no change was made to the website until very recently, and when the sale happened it was severely mishandled. At the end, I ordered 15 things for 145.65, and actually received 7 items (one pretty badly damaged) and the rest was just like 'Oops, no. Sorry.' That is terrible.

 

I get that these last minute grabs can be iffy, but Insound was a huge established site, not a one-man show. There's no way it should be like that.

 

I don't care about maybe's and things people think might have happened. Non-delivery of product purchased weeks beforehand due to 'site closure' is ridiculous. They didn't say anything about 'not having the items you ordered' or 'site malfunction' or 'too many fucking people ordering shit at the same time.' They didn't say any of that. They just said 'we're not delivering the rest of what you ordered from our big closure sale because we closed.' That makes no sense and I don't give them any sympathy.

 

As opposed to me wrongly being surprised that I got a fat refund from all the shit they don't send out, how about them being wrongly surprised that a bunch of people were waiting for them to do a giant liquidation sale on the remaining stock and all jumped on it at the same time? THAT shit is predictable.

 

My point is that they suck, that's all. I'm just venting about exactly how much they suck. Carry on.

 

responding to both of these, and piggy-backing what alligator said- 

 

also consider payroll. consider how many people they can afford to compensate, and then put that in relation to an enormous "GET RID OF EVERYTHING FOR NEXT TO NOTHING!" sale.

especially if on the last day, the conversation was, "hey, we can't pay anyone anymore". at that point, the options are 1) get everyone's orders out for free or 2) issue refunds for all outstanding orders (for inventory that was likely to be lazily out of sort and inaccurate)

 

 

though i totally understand your frustration- because missing out on a couple items i ordered during a liquidation sale essentially lead to one of my infamous VC bouts. 

but you still ended up with 7 records for under a hundred bucks, right? records that you're probably thrilled to have now! if the rest of the lot that you missed out on was worth spending money on, then you'll get your hands on them eventually. or you'll find great deals on other great records! regardless, it's probably stuff you can just listen to on your iphone anyway, so who cares.

 

insound closed, and that's a bummer. you didn't get what you paid for, and that's a bummer too. but you still received a refund without hassle. if you're still bummed out, go spend like 36 minutes on a swing set, and remember that everything's gonna be alright.

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I'm guessing that's the case though. It's not like they're going to be re-upping to fill orders.

I get that it's frustrating when you order something and it doesn't show up for whatever reason, but get over it and move on. If you're ordering a bunch of shit from a site because they're going out of business and it's dirt cheap, you can't realistically expect to get everything. Dozens of people are probably doing the same thing and apparently their web store interface and back end their using must not keep great track of inventory. This isn't Amazon, this is a business that's trying to get rid of all the shit they have in a warehouse. They don't owe you anything except your money back if they can't fulfil. Not like they're trying to build a long term customer base. People should be happy that they're not having to file PayPal disputes . You rolled the dice and it didn't work out.

Believe me i totally get it. There can be arguements to both sides. Yes they should fill orders, yes any fire sale thing is a roll of the dice. I ordered like 3 things from them when the sale first started at 50% off and it showed up with no issue like 3 days later. Its a shame not everyone had that experience but also, its insound as many pointed out.

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Believe me i totally get it. There can be arguements to both sides. Yes they should fill orders, yes any fire sale thing is a roll of the dice. I ordered like 3 things from them when the sale first started at 50% off and it showed up with no issue like 3 days later. Its a shame not everyone had that experience but also, its insound as many pointed out.

 

I wasn't directly targetting you.  I just quoted you because you had a good point to make! :)

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Recycling an old thread and admittedly didn't read the previous pages. Anyway, I have wondered how and why Insound operates as they do, since they were formerly an actual (warehouse) store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. After that their address was on Broadway on Manhattan. Now they seem to be somewhere in the south. 

 

Anyway, today I got an email that is obviously them, but it's from Warner Music Experience [email protected]. Weird.  They do have good deals on stuff sometimes, but must just be a clearing house to unload shit that isn't going anywhere fast! 

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  • 2 months later...

Warning for international buyers. Do not buy from Insound.

 

I bought a bunch of records from them recently. 40% off and $9.99 international shipping. How could you say no? Total cost of order including shipping was $117.84. Calculated import charges (about £18.50) and UPS handling fee (guesstimated £15). Worth it.

 

UPS try and deliver it. £60.59 invoice. Items had been valued at $267! That was 1.5 times the cost of them before the 40% discount. No possible reasonable explanation for it. Shipping quoted as $0. Apparently, when compaines quote shipping as zero, the courier is required to assume that $0 is wrong and add a default amount into the calculation. UPS also said they charged me some sort of extra handing charge to do with transport from the airport to the depot... I was too pissed off to remember the details.

 

I refused to pay the charges and UPS kept the parcel while I tried to deal with Insound. No response to multiple emails that suggested multiple ways of dealing with it. After a few Facebook messages, I got an email that said customers are responsible for any import costs. After telling them that I was going to get my credit card company involved as the items were not as described and a post on their Facebook page saying how appaling their customer service was (they vett them first so it never made it to their page), I got an offer of a full refund (in 3 to 5 business days). Seven working days and two more emails later (the response to one of which was 'you have to wait 3-5 business days' when the 5 business days were up), I got my refund.

 

So it looks like I might be getting my records for another 30% ish off. Was it worth it? No. There's no excuse for valuing things wrong. It would be understandable (but still not acceptable) if they had set the value at the cost of the records before the discount, but they had managed to pull some even higher figure out of their arse. I had to waste a lot of my time trying to get them to rectify their incompetence.  The worst customer service I have come across. Hells Headbangers and King's Road EU have both dropped a place.

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