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Best/Worst Customer Service from a Distro/Label?


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With the exception of maybe the Bossk record, you sound like the worst type of customer there could be. You emailed over split inner sleeves?! Honestly, that CoL/JC collar was packaged great from IndieMerch...

lol no dude. Split inners happen, it's lame but that's not why I was emailing them.

I emailed them because of the shitty packaging job they did, to make them aware, so that nobody else would have to deal with this.

I wasn't asking for a free record, I was just saying "Uhh, guys... maybe next time you should give a shit?"

I wish I took a picture. They literally used 2 small tufts of wadded up paper in this mailer that could fit 3 records in it. That, and 2 pieces of cardboard. You could shake the record around inside!

EDIT: Okay, reading back on my original post, I see how you guys would think my issue was solely with it coming with split seams.

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I don't think I've ever hit up a label for a replacement for a record. Even if they have had scratches on them, as long as it plays properly. Dust sleeve splits happen, even gatefold splits happen. Shipping from the plant to the label then to the customer. They can come from all over the world, and considering how cheap we get them shipped, it's not a huge deal; things happen. In all honestly, you really do contact a lot of labels about trivial things. Maybe instead of worrying about seem splits on a gatefold or a dust sleeve, you should be more concerned with saving up for a better system to spin your records on. A third replacement, man? Cmon. Did you try wet cleaning it at least? Maybe the scratch is superficial. I have a scratch across one of my Tertia records and it doesn't effect play, so I didn't think anything of it. Maybe try to be a little more understanding in the future. You either have the worst luck ever, or you have insane OCD / are an asshole. Just lighten up a little.

Just some friendly advice. Cause if I ran a label, I would break the 2nd returned Bossk LP you sent back, and cut my wrists with it.

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lol no dude. Split inners happen, it's lame but that's not why I was emailing them.

I emailed them because of the shitty packaging job they did, to make them aware, so that nobody else would have to deal with this.

I wasn't asking for a free record, I was just saying "Uhh, guys... maybe next time you should give a shit?"

I wish I took a picture. They literally used 2 small tufts of wadded up paper in this mailer that could fit 3 records in it. That, and 2 pieces of cardboard. You could shake the record around inside!

EDIT: Okay, reading back on my original post, I see how you guys would think my issue was solely with it coming with split seams.

I ordered the same record from the same place and mine was packed the same way - you are just being dramatic. Yes, the pieces of packing paper were small, but they served to fill the gap in which other records could've fit in the box. It was just fine.

This is the perfect example of why the cost of records continues to climb. Apparently labels need to factor in a certain amount of loss because someone is going to panic about seam splits and require a refund or replacement.

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I don't think I've ever hit up a label for a replacement for a record. Even if they have had scratches on them, as long as it plays properly. Dust sleeve splits happen, even gatefold splits happen. Shipping from the plant to the label then to the customer. They can come from all over the world, and considering how cheap we get them shipped, it's not a huge deal; things happen. In all honestly, you really do contact a lot of labels about trivial things. Maybe instead of worrying about seem splits on a gatefold or a dust sleeve, you should be more concerned with saving up for a better system to spin your records on. A third replacement, man? Cmon. Did you try wet cleaning it at least? Maybe the scratch is superficial. I have a scratch across one of my Tertia records and it doesn't effect play, so I didn't think anything of it. Maybe try to be a little more understanding in the future. You either have the worst luck ever, or you have insane OCD / are an asshole. Just lighten up a little.

Just some friendly advice. Cause if I ran a label, I would break the 2nd returned Bossk LP you sent back, and cut my wrists with it.

I only ever bring it up to the label if the record is scratched and makes the loud ticking THWWKKK noises.

I don't think it's unreasonable to assume you'll receive a clean-playing record. As long as the record plays fine, I don't give a shit. I also have many records that are scratched where the play isn't affected. Sure, I'd like it if they weren't scratched, but they play fine so it's whatever.

The Bossk record keeps coming super scratched with these little tiny metal shaving sort of pieces in the jacket, which leads me to believe it's a plant fuck up.

I told him not to send me a 3rd one, but he's doing it anyway. I offered to pay for it, and he said nope.

I ordered the same record from the same place and mine was packed the same way - you are just being dramatic. Yes, the pieces of packing paper were small, but they served to fill the gap in which other records could've fit in the box. It was just fine.

This is the perfect example of why the cost of records continues to climb. Apparently labels need to factor in a certain amount of loss because someone is going to panic about seam splits and require a refund or replacement.

It feels like you're putting words in my mouth about the seamsplits. My issue was with the packaging; they cut the shrinkwrap, and removed 1 record, and not the other. That one record ended up being warped; it has a moderate hump in it, presumably from the tufts of paper being off-set to one side of the mailer, and being placed under other packages. It plays fine, so it's not an issue sound-wise, although I'm not happy about it. I simply wanted to let them know of my dissatisfaction with how they packaged it, because it simply didn't make sense to me, and seemed like they were cutting corners and didn't really care.

Maybe I am being dramatic, but if I'm paying $45 for a new record, from a band as big as Cult of Luna, I'm expecting a minimum level of care taken in the shipping process. I feel I did not receive that. So I let them know what I thought. I could give a shit about the replacement record, that absolutely was not my end-game or expectation by any means. I just wanted my voice to be heard so that maybe they'll at least use some damn bubble wrap next time, if they're using such a big mailer for just one record.

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I ordered the same record from the same place and mine was packed the same way - you are just being dramatic. Yes, the pieces of packing paper were small, but they served to fill the gap in which other records could've fit in the box. It was just fine.

This is the perfect example of why the cost of records continues to climb. Apparently labels need to factor in a certain amount of loss because someone is going to panic about seam splits and require a refund or replacement.

This. Thank you. I wonder how many people that are complaining about trivial shit aren't realizing what they're doing in turn to the standard price.

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In ten years of buying records online I've had to ask for a replacement twice. Both times the record was completely unplayable. I still felt shitty asking for a replacement.

My Alexisonfire box set got a huge bent corner. The records and their respective gates were fine, so I didn't even think twice of asking for a spare box. And that was already after dealing with KRM's infinite delays. I've gotten refunds from Discogs sells who are dumb, sending me records on envelopes, but never asked for a refund or replacement from a label. I've had good luck / aren't a dick about minor imperfections. And good on you.

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Thrill Jockey is really jerking me around right now. I ordered the pink variant of the new Body album (which is now sold out through them) and the new Matmos. When I placed the order, I slipped up and forgot to include my apartment number. Honest mistake, and I emailed them three minutes later to let them know the correction. At the time I didn't have a phone number for them, and they don't have one listed on their site.

 

Of course they shipped it out without the apartment number. To make matters worse, I get a reply to my email THE DAY AFTER they shipped it confirming the correct address. My local USPS branch didn't even try to deliver it, they just marked it Undeliverable and sent it back. USPS tracking says it apparently left the distribution center April 6 and is in transit to the return destination. I've called USPS multiple times (including both local post offices) to try and get it resolved or tracked down. They say it could take up to 30 days. 

 

Tonight I called Thrill Jockey and spoke with Chris. I was hoping they'd offer an "exchange". I didn't expect my shipping cost back, and I offered to  pay for the new shipping, even though I did my due diligence. In an earlier email with them they even suggested a refund, but tonight they wouldn't budge. I got a "sorry, you should have got it insured". Finally I agreed to wait one more week, and Chris is supposedly going to contact USPS and email me back. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, but I already called my bank and they said this situation is eligible for a fraud claim. I love Thrill Jockey as a label and I'd hate to have to go that route, but they dropped the ball and seem like they don't want to work with me on this at all. On top of that, I could tell Chris was fighting to not give me an attitude, even though I remained calm. 

 

This sucks and I needed to rant. I just wanna listen to my records. Anyone else have similar experiences with them?

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1 hour ago, SeanPuffy said:

Thrill Jockey is really jerking me around right now. I ordered the pink variant of the new Body album (which is now sold out through them) and the new Matmos. When I placed the order, I slipped up and forgot to include my apartment number. Honest mistake, and I emailed them three minutes later to let them know the correction. At the time I didn't have a phone number for them, and they don't have one listed on their site.

 

Of course they shipped it out without the apartment number. To make matters worse, I get a reply to my email THE DAY AFTER they shipped it confirming the correct address. My local USPS branch didn't even try to deliver it, they just marked it Undeliverable and sent it back. USPS tracking says it apparently left the distribution center April 6 and is in transit to the return destination. I've called USPS multiple times (including both local post offices) to try and get it resolved or tracked down. They say it could take up to 30 days. 

 

Tonight I called Thrill Jockey and spoke with Chris. I was hoping they'd offer an "exchange". I didn't expect my shipping cost back, and I offered to  pay for the new shipping, even though I did my due diligence. In an earlier email with them they even suggested a refund, but tonight they wouldn't budge. I got a "sorry, you should have got it insured". Finally I agreed to wait one more week, and Chris is supposedly going to contact USPS and email me back. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, but I already called my bank and they said this situation is eligible for a fraud claim. I love Thrill Jockey as a label and I'd hate to have to go that route, but they dropped the ball and seem like they don't want to work with me on this at all. On top of that, I could tell Chris was fighting to not give me an attitude, even though I remained calm. 

 

This sucks and I needed to rant. I just wanna listen to my records. Anyone else have similar experiences with them?

Speaking of Thrill Jockey, I emailed them to cancel an order and have yet to hear back from them. Odds are I'm going to receive it anyway. At this point I might as well just sell the record to someone at cost on here rather than try to deal with people who don't respond to emails. I feel your pain, bud. : /

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On 4/30/2016 at 10:33 PM, Gumbo72203 said:

lol no dude. Split inners happen, it's lame but that's not why I was emailing them.

I emailed them because of the shitty packaging job they did, to make them aware, so that nobody else would have to deal with this.

I wasn't asking for a free record, I was just saying "Uhh, guys... maybe next time you should give a shit?"

I wish I took a picture. They literally used 2 small tufts of wadded up paper in this mailer that could fit 3 records in it. That, and 2 pieces of cardboard. You could shake the record around inside!

EDIT: Okay, reading back on my original post, I see how you guys would think my issue was solely with it coming with split seams.

How dare you ask that a label do anything right, be like dave grohl and get butt pumped.

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Wanna share some love for New Damage Records

I was pretty cagey about ordering from them at first cause its a relatively small looking distro, but they have this awesome looking variant of The Flatliners Dead Language they are offering outside of the US, I had to jump on it.

They have super cheap international post which is untracked, which Im sweet with when its only 1 cheap LP anyway.

Waited something like 10 weeks for the thing to show up and it didnt.

Emailed them just to say (not bitch or anything) and they didnt hesitate to send me another one, and upgrade my post so I can track it, all for free

Thats customer service people, thats how you do it.

Look em up - New Damage Records - love ya Nicole

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Not a label or distro but I had a pack of 100 MoFi inner sleeves in my cart at Turntable Lab and I abandoned my cart (I found a 100 pack for cheaper at Bullmoose).  

Two days later, I got a "come back, we saved your abandoned shopping cart, here's a coupon code" email from Turntable Lab...

So I entered the coupon code to see what the discount was...

ogcdfKu.jpg

 

A '2% off' coupon...

 

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16 minutes ago, rds said:

Not a label or distro but I had a pack of 100 MoFi inner sleeves in my cart at Turntable Lab and I abandoned my cart (I found a 100 pack for cheaper at Bullmoose).  

Two days later, I got a "come back, we saved your abandoned shopping cart, here's a coupon code" email from Turntable Lab...

So I entered the coupon code to see what the discount was...

ogcdfKu.jpg

 

A '2% off' coupon...

 

hahaha thats awesome, their marketing guy is a genius!

I left some LPs in my cart at ImportCDs this week and they came back with $5 off $25 order,

Turntable Lab should take note

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2013-04-04 at 9:25 PM, dobyblue said:

I got pretty crappy service from Razor & Tie recently. They issued Brad's "Welcome to Discovery Park" recently and I was wondering about the source information. I sent an e-mail and was sent the following reply at 4:19PM (Nov.08.2012)

 

 

A little disappointed I replied:

 

 

Then I got another response:

 

 

 

So I replied:

 

 

 

Then I get the following two brusque responses:

 

 

AND

 

 

I thought I had outlined why it was confusing? Anyway, I sent a final response:

 

 

 

Some people are pretty full of themselves. Sadly the vinyl ended up being terrible, a real different story from the job Razor and Tie did for the Emerson, Lake and Palmer reissues. It sounds like 128 Kbps .mp3 quality, nowhere near as good as the CD.

Good thing I found this board.

 

I was just about to order this album but decided to have a look here as it was surprisingly cheap. Won't order it now.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A month or so ago I got a copy of Cult Of Luna's Vertikal I+II 3LP set from Indie Recordings in Norway. First copy arrived with a hole all the way through the sleeve - no proper packaging to protect the record inside at all. Sent them an email which took them a week to reply, another week later and they'd agreed to replace the sleeve. Not so bad, I guess?

Replacement sleeve arrived today, packed so tightly into the mailer that the spine is folded in half. It almost looks worse than the first one that came. *sigh*

Anyone got suggestions for how I can flatten the spine out at all?

And to even out the negativity, I also got the new Pg Lost represses in from Pelagic Records. I asked them to unpack the vinyl from the sleeves and they did, which can be a bit of a rarity, and everything arrived in perfect condition in one of the sturdiest mailers I've seen. Awesome work for them!

Edited by Mattallurgist
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The guys at Groenland Records aren't really good at running a webstore it seems.

I ordered a pink copy of the Boy - We Were Here LP on May 12, got no update for a while, emailed them twice and got no response. So I opened a paypal dispute today and received this email:

 

Quote

Hello, 

thank you so much for your order. 
Unfortunately, we had problems with our distributor. They mixed something up and 
the in the end the pink vinyl isn’t available at the moment. 
We are really sorry for that.

Do you want a refund or another vinyl record from our shop?

Thankfully I paid with paypal, otherwise they might just keep on ignoring me. Funny thing is, the record is still up in their store, you'd think they'd remove the listing.

Edited by slinch
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  • 3 weeks later...

Paper and Plastick are killing me right now. Earlier this week I received an email about the Medictation record they were releasing. Preorders went up for this album in January, and it has been delay after delay after delay. In the email, the label announced that they were no longer handling the release of the vinyl, that the band themselves were now overseeing it. Refunds would be available if you email P+P and request one. 

 

On the P+P site, there is a generic contact form for anyone to use to reach them and get a response. I requested my refund for that title, as well as the We Are the Union EP that was announced in April 2015 and never was released. Never got a response from the label. So I found Vinnie's email address, sent him the same message for the refund. I have not gotten a reply from him either. 

 

This is is by far the worst experience I have ever had dealing with customer service. I will never order from Paper and Plastick records again.

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  • jhulud changed the title to Best/Worst Customer Service from a Distro/Label?

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