altarsofradness Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 see also: pigs now fly, hell froze over im going to shorten this as best i can, as it's a somewhat long story, but the point here is i think this may be the first time ive ever been screwed over and then unwittingly overly compensated by the screwer. on May 9th i order 2 Isis- Celestial color sets from a distro/record label. to spare my fellow unsuspecting vinyl fiends any sort of distress or aggravation, i'll use the name Shock Value Records, which happens to be the actual name of said distro/record label. oh well. i had never heard of Shock Value records, and i actually stumbled upon them via another messageboard. we'll call it Lambgoat. the guy running the distro was advertising the Celestial color sets as being in stock. i immediately jumped on this as i was having a hard time tracking them down, and Escape Artist was long sold out. so i ordered both color sets he had available. i should have known better when more than 2 people replied with negative comments concerning this guy's mailorder practices. fast forward one month. it's June 9th. no records in the mail. i head over to the Shock Value Records site to check the status of my order and it's still listed as pending. this makes no sense. i paid with paypal, my money was transferred instantly. why the month wait? so i email. i get no response. i email again a few days later. finally i get a response that went something like this: "sorry, my finger's been in a splint the last few days. i'll check on your order when i get home." fair enough. im not an unreasonable person. even though the finger splint excuse sounded suspiciously close to "the dog ate my homework", i was willing to give the dude the benefit of the doubt. again. so another week goes by and i dont get any sort of response from the guy. nothing. i email again. no response. i check the status of my order; still pending. the date is somewhere toward the end of June. this is when i start getting irritated. so one morning i wake up and head over to the Shock Value Records site (i should note at this point that these 2 records, totaling just under $35, were starting to completely consume my thoughts, and every day my concern and aggravation would slowly increase). before i even get a chance to log in and check my status, i am greeted with this headline at the top of the page: I AM ON TOUR WITH DIVIDER. ALL ORDERS PLACED WILL NOT BE SHIPPED UNTIL JULY 15. i told myself that he had to have shipped my records before going on tour. he's not that big of an asshole. after all, i paid for these records over a month ago. waiting until after july 15th would push this near the 3 month mark. he wouldnt do that, would he? well, he did. sure enough, my order was still listed as pending. i was livid, so i filed a claim with paypal. 2 weeks later i had my money back, as he didnt dispute the claim. and this is where the story ends, right? moral: dont order from this guy? no. out of nowhere last week, i get a shipment confirmation from Shock Value Records. my Isis records are finally shipping. this confused me. maybe he just made a mistake. no way he's shipping out these records i was refunded for. today, they were waiting for me in my mailbox. the guy who runs Shock Value Records either has a healthy conscience, or he's just a completely inept asshat. i'd like to not to think too far into it; it's more fun just not knowing. so the REAL moral of the story? order from Shock Value Records if you want to wait a really long time for free records. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgoodcore Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 asshat is my word of the day. that and the story is fantastic. was the splint excuse there because he couldn't use a mouse? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyle Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 Sorry for the headache, but thats great that it worked out for you in the end. Great story! Anyways, I don't get people who run distro shops for things like records. I mean, if you're gonna rip people off, why not just "sell" computers, cameras, and other high ticket items? Why be an asshat over a few bucks? In the long run, you'll make much more money by being honest, reliable, and legit than you do being shady. It just makes no sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenontheradio Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 hahaha asshat! absolutely brilliant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altarsofradness Posted August 2, 2007 Author Share Posted August 2, 2007 asshat is my word of the day. that and the story is fantastic. was the splint excuse there because he couldn't use a mouse? yes. his finger was in a splint. and that prevented the rest of his 9 fingers from maneuvering a mouse. i think this is the point when i realized i was going to get hosed in this deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robotnerd Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 he put out a record by my friends band. that's the end of my story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oakland Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 I had a similar deal with a label most of us probably buy from. it worked out great in the end. He just made a mistake I think, and that's probably what happened here. People are people. Cut them some slack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altarsofradness Posted August 2, 2007 Author Share Posted August 2, 2007 I had a similar deal with a label most of us probably buy from. it worked out great in the end. He just made a mistake I think, and that's probably what happened here. People are people. Cut them some slack. i considered the "people are people" approach for about a month, even when i found a handful of people on the internet who had bad experiences like mine with this distro. sorry, but this isnt rocket science. i send money, you send record. that's how it all works. ignoring my emails, lying about why you cant respond to my emails, going on tour and not sending my order (that has been paid for for over a month), and just generally exhibiting super shitty communication skills is not part of the equation. and really, is there anything worse than waiting for something in the mail? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hummingbeard Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 this is kinda like when i ordered a syg reset 7" from panic records. they charged me and i have yet to get anything from them. i emailed them 3 times and have gotten no response. im glad VC isn't like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanehennessey Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 how long ago did u order from Panic? i placed an order last week for reset as well but im in no rush yet... I preordered Ambitions- Neon Lights from Merch Now on may 15 and I have yet to receive it. Im not too sure what too do. Ive filed 3 complaints with no response Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hummingbeard Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 probably about a few months ago. i ordered one blue and a green since both were in stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benchwarmer Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 July 15 is my Birthday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 Something similar happened with me on eBay recently. Some random dude from Seattle was auctioning off a whole bunch of records, supposedly to raise money for a community center or something. One of them was a still sealed copy of Urge Overkill's "Exit The Dragon" 2xLP, an album which I love and didn't yet own on vinyl. Luckily, no one else cares about that band so I won it for 4-5 bucks. The guy billed me and I sent him something like 8-9 bucks for the record + shipping through PayPal. Then I waited and waited and waited. Three weeks later, I get an email from eBay telling me the guy is a scam artist and they have shut his account down; they also encouraged me to file a dispute with PayPal. Now, since it was less than $10, I didn't care all that much; I was just bummed that I wasn't going to get the record. Cut to about 10 days ago, when the record -- with a return address in Massachusetts -- shows up. It's not sealed, and the condition is a bit crappier than I expected, but still, it showed up. From whom? I don't know. But I was stoked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattisr1984 Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 how long ago did u order from Panic? i placed an order last week for reset as well but im in no rush yet...I preordered Ambitions- Neon Lights from Merch Now on may 15 and I have yet to receive it. Im not too sure what too do. Ive filed 3 complaints with no response im of the more recent opinion that merchnow is sketchy and/or just flat out stupid. i ordered an item from them which ended up being out of stock. they emailed me and asked to either replace the item, wait for the item to come back in stock, or cancel. i email back and tell them to cancel (most likely what they didnt want to hear) the order and refund my money. so i wait for a response. and i wait. and i wait a little longer.... finally i decide to call them. i explain the situation. they refund me my money through paypal but of course do it incorrectly so that when the money came back to me i actually LOST money to have them tell me an item that they advertisted was in stock was actually out of stock. irritating beyond belief. its not that i care about whatever the amount was but rather that it shouldnt of even happened in the first place if they had issued a refund as a opposed to just sending me money via paypal. so i email them back, explain to them they dont do paypal refunds correctly and that itd be nice to have have my full refund. no response. im thoroughly convinced i wouldnt have even got my first refund had i not called them as clearly it is far too tasking and difficult for them to answer an email. little do they know i could just as easily open a paypal claim and probably receive double my money back for their own stupidity... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altarsofradness Posted August 2, 2007 Author Share Posted August 2, 2007 rather than harsh everyone's mellow with my negi vibes, i'll say that Interpunk has absolutely stellar customer service and shipping speed. they're with you all the way, providing up to the minute order status, and even shipping estimates. this is how a good distro runs their ship. they might be a little more expensive than some places, but if i have the choice of buying my favorite band's new record there or at Distro X, i'll pay the extra dollar or two at Interpunk everytime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiefwahoo Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 It really is amazing how poorly some people run their labels. I can only imagine how busy they are but a simple, honest answer to an e-mail will appease the consumer the majority of the time. My recent incident: I ordered from an international label. They don't really have a webstore, you pretty much have to e-mail them with what you want, they work up the total, etc. So I do that with no problem and we establish that if I order that day (and I did), that they'd ship the records the next day. They were leaving for tour in a week and would be gone for a little while. Well, the records never show up. And I gave it a ton of time since it's international, even though I paid a ton for quick shipping. I try corresponding with the label numerous times and get no response. I allow plenty of time in case they're on tour still. Finally, I have to cover my ass and I get a refund via Paypal NOW I suddenly get a response. They insisted they mailed them, they swear they wouldn't try to rip me off, they're very sorry the records didn't show up, etc. And I do believe them but they never responded to me, what was I to do? A couple weeks later, the records show up. They were right, they shipped them. But the date was right on the package, they shipped them an entire month after the promised date. So I no longer feel nearly as bad for what happened. But I still wanted to make things right, so I e-mailed them and offered to pay them back the money. It's only fair, it all worked out in the end. In fact, I offered on three separate occasions. Apparently there was a language barrier because they continued to apologize and offering to send out more records. Very strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattisr1984 Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 rather than harsh everyone's mellow with my negi vibes, i'll say that Interpunk has absolutely stellar customer service and shipping speed. they're with you all the way, providing up to the minute order status, and even shipping estimates. this is how a good distro runs their ship. they might be a little more expensive than some places, but if i have the choice of buying my favorite band's new record there or at Distro X, i'll pay the extra dollar or two at Interpunk everytime. ill give them that much but every time i get a record stuffed in a priority mailer i cringe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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