Topic: On-line Stores & Sellers

[kishnevi]

BTW, Amazon (meaning Amazon USA itself) has once again proved that it's the least efficient of the Amazons I've dealt with.  I ordered some CDs from Amazon MP at the exact same time I ordered some others from Amazon itself.  Amazon was so slow in shipping that I actually received one of the CDs from the MP vendors the day that Amazon shipped what I had ordered directly from them, and it took a week for the Amazon shipment  to reach me.    And, unexpectedly, it showed up in my mail box even though it had been shipped with a tracking number on UPS.

[Mirror Image]

BTW, Amazon (meaning Amazon USA itself) has once again proved that it's the least efficient of the Amazons I've dealt with.  I ordered some CDs from Amazon MP at the exact same time I ordered some others from Amazon itself.  Amazon was so slow in shipping that I actually received one of the CDs from the MP vendors the day that Amazon shipped what I had ordered directly from them, and it took a week for the Amazon shipment  to reach me.    And, unexpectedly, it showed up in my mail box even though it had been shipped with a tracking number on UPS.

Seldom do I buy directly from Amazon. They're generally slow if you have an order where you can get free shipping. Right now, they have Weinberg's complete set of Violin Sonatas (the one which GMG's own Jens wrote the liner notes) for sale for a great price. I may jump on it.

[Brian]

I have Amazon Prime. Nyah ha ha haha 

[Mirror Image]

I have Amazon Prime. Nyah ha ha haha 

Yeah and you pay for it, too. Nyah ha ha haha

[Brian]

Yeah and you pay for it, too. Nyah ha ha haha

Six month free trial as an educator followed by half-price for several years. Nyah ha ha haha 

[Mirror Image]

Six month free trial as an educator followed by half-price for several years. Nyah ha ha haha 

Damn, you lucky bastard.

[George]

Lately I have had a bad run with amazon third party sellers. Poorly packaged product, two orders of "new" product that turned out to be sealed used product, poorly graded used product that sellers rudely dismissed....the list goes on. If I only bought new product, I'd begin buying exclusively from amazon direct. However, I collect CDs and almost always the ones I want are only available used, as they are OOP.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

Six month free trial as an educator followed by half-price for several years. Nyah ha ha haha 

You win!

[Mirror Image]

Lately I have had a bad run with amazon third party sellers. Poorly packaged product, two orders of "new" product that turned out to be sealed used product, poorly graded used product that sellers rudely dismissed....the list goes on. If I only bought new product, I'd begin buying exclusively from amazon direct. However, I collect CDs and almost always the ones I want are only available used, as they are OOP.

You have to be very careful of whom you buy from on Amazon MP, George. Not all sellers are created equal.

[Gurn Blanston]

Lately I have had a bad run with amazon third party sellers. Poorly packaged product, two orders of "new" product that turned out to be sealed used product, poorly graded used product that sellers rudely dismissed....the list goes on. If I only bought new product, I'd begin buying exclusively from amazon direct. However, I collect CDs and almost always the ones I want are only available used, as they are OOP.

I have had to tighten up my buying habits there lately too. I try now to stick to sellers I know when that is possible, and to look through the feedback on sellers I don't know already. Never a guarantee, of course. I have found it useful to take advantage of Amazon's capability of letting me look at feedback that I have given to others since Day 1 (for me, back in 2001). No surprise, I often forget that I gave that guy 1 star for being an asshole, but it's all right there.   

Other than that, I never get my hopes up until the disk is in my hand, and then after it has been ripped to flac. It is hard to believe some of the shit that gets sold as 'Used - Like New'. That disk wasn't like new when it was new!! 

[George]

My experience with Marvelio is consistent with the hypothesis that they operate out of Europe, and send any US orders to be trans-shipped from Pennsylvania.  (That would be reason enough not to supply you with the tracking number.) The amount of time it took for me to receive the item is about what it would take to be sent from Europe in a timely fashion.  It's been a while since I've bought anything from them, because 1) their facade of selling from the US leaves me with a bad taste and 2)while they may sometimes be cheap compared to US Amazon MP vendors, they're not much different in price for the items I'm interested in, when compared to other European Amazon MP vendors like Zoverstocks.  So  I figure that if I'm going to wait the extra time for a package to get here from Europe, I may as well stick to one who makes no bones about being in Europe.

All good points!

I have an order from marvelio that has been veeeery slooow. Price was cheap, but I am guessing that by the time it gets to me, it will have significantly depreciated. 

[George]

Recently, I bought the Rubinstein Complete Album Collection from ImportCds (direct, not from amazon.) When it arrived, a number of the corners were dented in, a number of deep scratches in the outer box and some black marks on about 6 of the CD cases inside. I sent Importcds an email, asking if it was a used copy that had been resealed. I didn't hear back, so I called them. (949) 225-1170.

I was on hold for over 20 minutes. Before placing me on hold, I was told that a refund would take about three weeks after they got the package back from me. Then I was transferred to the voice mail of the "only manager for ImportCDs." I was also told that there was no way to get confirmation that the replacement will have all of the CDs, nor is there a way to confirm that the box and its contents will not be damaged when they arrive.

After 20 minutes of waiting, I decided to try and call back. I call and get the message that I am being transferred to the operator and then there is absolutely no sound. I call back and press zero and get the same - no sound at all! Call back again, get the same.

I am pissed.

Given that all the music seems to be here, I am starting to think that my original idea to live with the blemishes on the box (and the black marks on a few of the cases inside) is the right way to go here. Absolutely no way to know that the replacement will be any better.

Any advice guys? 

[George]

Almost about every big box I have has some level of shipment damage (mostly dented corners).  That includes the MLP big boxes, the complete Brahms from Brilliant, the Complete Liszt from Brilliant, the Karajan 60's box.  I have learned not to be such a perfectionist, but the damage to your set seems worse than average.  I have the impression importcds does a better than average packing job, but nothing can foil the postal service or UPS in their mission to inflict damage.

Thanks for the quick reply, Scarpia.

The box that my order came in was unscathed, so the damage happened prior to shipment. And the black marks on the CD cases that were under the plastic particularly had to be there before it left their warehouse.

When I called them, they told me they have 90 copies of this set! So its not like they sent me their last copy and this was all they had!

I just think returning this and waiting 3 weeks to re-order - knowing that the next one may be as bad or worse - would be a dumb move. If I am upset now, I will be in a rage if the replacement comes and it's as bad or worse. 

[George]

The dents in the corners can occur even if the outer box is unscathed, since the product can rattle around inside the shipping box even with reasonable packing materials, given what USP of the USPS does to them.  The black marks inside sound like they must have been the fault of the manufacturer, I agree.

Usually I put up with damage because usually I've found a cheap copy somewhere and console myself with the steep discount I got.

I just got a call from a manager at ImportCDs. He offered to refund me $50 for the damage. Of course, I jumped on it! (I paid $92 for the set, so a $50 refund is way more than reasonable.)

[The new erato]

Sounds like they were well aware of the faults of the set and were hoping to get rid of it at whatever price,

[Brian]

I hope all the CDs play just fine, George. Try the stuff in banged-up sleeves first? That sounds like a bum copy shipped to them from Sony, or something, and pretty infuriating. Mine had no problems, but like Scarpia, my Brilliant complete Brahms was in pretty cruddy shape, and is now even worse because it's made out of cardboard.

Also it's crazy to think that they probably had 200 of those things sitting on a pallet somewhere. That's a lot of hot pink. My parents visited this weekend and said "What's that pink thing?"

[stingo]

I had ordered (on Oct 7th) 3 Bartok series discs from mdt, and received two, the third (Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta etc) being placed on backorder. The instructions said not to re-order as it would be shipped when the disc became available. Not having heard anything since I sent an email (Nov 4th) to inquire if there was a status update, and received the following...

Thank you for your e-mail.

Sorry they are still waiting to receive more stock, as soon as they receive it they will send it to us and we will ship it to you, unfortunately they do not give timescales on when they expect to receive the stock.

However, I subsequently got an order dispatch email from them a few hours later. I can only imagine that the stock was there, they just needed a reminder to send me one. Not complaining - just thought it amusing.

[The new erato]

However, I subsequently got an order dispatch email from them a few hours later. I can only imagine that the stock was there, they just needed a reminder to send me one. Not complaining - just thought it amusing.

I have bought literally a thousand discs from mdt over the years and have never experienced them needing a reminder to send me my discs, >99,9 % of the discs have arrived without any prompting from me, and in a handful of cases I have received a mail saying it was out of print with the supplier. Never have an order gone AWOL, they have a highly professional organisation. I find it far more likely that the disc actually was delayed from the supplier, was under processing in their store (thus you would have gotten it anyway within a day or three) and that your mail simply made them speed up the processing a little.

[Manos]

...
Any advice guys?

If they will take it back for a refund, I'd go that route. You may not find it as cheaply priced elsewhere, but you also may not find a vendor who ships dented boxed sets as consistently as ImportCDs. I accepted the first two as you're considering, then noticed that boxes from other vendors arrive in far better shape. Some of the damage appears to occur before they enter the shipping box. To their credit, they accepted my last two box returns for a full refund. I trust ImportCDs for single or double discs, but not boxed sets.

[Obradovic]

A recording of Rossini's L'assedio di Calais is being retailed in Amazon for $3,769.00-for truth's sake please check this http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000002S3J/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new. Could anyone explain me what's the meaning of a price tag such as this? Who's insane enough to sell/ buy on those figures? Please note that the above instance isn't the only preposterous one, I've seen many more similar and higher-priced, particularly regarding long deleted items