On-line Stores & Sellers

Started by Expresso, July 02, 2007, 09:09:12 AM

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Mirror Image

Quote from: Traverso on February 19, 2022, 04:45:03 AM
I had placed an order with Presto, but I was still asked to pay the import duties.
After contact with Post.NL this turned out to be a mistake, the complaints are known and it will be refunded in the coming months.
Presto who I approached about this immediately refunded the import costs.

Presto have really impressed the hell out of me. I did have a few hiccups with them (out-of-stock items, some items running late), but any issue I've had, they have taken care of and were prompt with their responses.

Madiel

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 01, 2022, 08:20:23 AM
Presto have really impressed the hell out of me. I did have a few hiccups with them (out-of-stock items, some items running late), but any issue I've had, they have taken care of and were prompt with their responses.

Yes, for many reasons they're generally my first port of call. They were excellent in handling the changes to Australian tax law a few years back (when Amazon was complaining about how it was impossible to comply), let me do all my transactions in Australian dollars, and are responsive to queries.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Spotted Horses

Quote from: JBS on March 01, 2022, 08:00:19 AM
There seem to be signs of life at Arkivmusic including a new format, some limited new release offerings, and an announcement that a full reopening will be coming soon

Quote
You spoke, we listened. Our new site, currently under construction, will feature many improvements and enhancements. Our virtual reopening will occur in the very near future, and we want you to be right there with us when we launch!

Improvements and enhancements? The last thing I want to read. Their old site was unique (the drill-down search feature) and perfect. I guess too many people did what I usually did, find the recording with Arkiv's fantastic search feature, then ordered from someone on Amazon Marketplace. :(

If they bring the old site back, I promise I will buy something!
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Brahmsian

Quote from: Spotted Horses on March 02, 2022, 06:43:17 AM
Improvements and enhancements? The last thing I want to read. Their old site was unique (the drill-down search feature) and perfect. I guess too many people did what I usually did, find the recording with Arkiv's fantastic search feature, then ordered from someone on Amazon Marketplace. :(

If they bring the old site back, I promise I will buy something!

Yes, I really miss the old Arkiv Music site format.  :-X

Brian

ArkivMusic is inviting past customers by email to be beta testers and provide them feedback on their upcoming new website model.

JBS

Has anyone ordered from Arkivmusic recently? I was about to order 3 or 4 CDs from them, but aborted when the only shipping option they offered was UPS Ground for $70.xx. IOW, they want to charge more for shipping than the total of the CDs themselves. And the shipping charge didn't change if I trimmed down the number of CDs in the order...

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Karl Henning

Quote from: JBS on April 01, 2022, 12:45:55 PM
Has anyone ordered from Arkivmusic recently? I was about to order 3 or 4 CDs from them, but aborted when the only shipping option they offered was UPS Ground for $70.xx. IOW, they want to charge more for shipping than the total of the CDs themselves. And the shipping charge didn't change if I trimmed down the number of CDs in the order...

Not I.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Spotted Horses

Quote from: JBS on April 01, 2022, 12:45:55 PM
Has anyone ordered from Arkivmusic recently? I was about to order 3 or 4 CDs from them, but aborted when the only shipping option they offered was UPS Ground for $70.xx. IOW, they want to charge more for shipping than the total of the CDs themselves. And the shipping charge didn't change if I trimmed down the number of CDs in the order...

Huh? I visited today and it says the site is not up yet, except for a new release store.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: JBS on April 01, 2022, 12:45:55 PM
Has anyone ordered from Arkivmusic recently? I was about to order 3 or 4 CDs from them, but aborted when the only shipping option they offered was UPS Ground for $70.xx. IOW, they want to charge more for shipping than the total of the CDs themselves. And the shipping charge didn't change if I trimmed down the number of CDs in the order...
Wow!   ??? Were you ordering big boxed sets or individual CDs? I received an email from them about Ukrainian music and was tempted, but no idea what to buy as I don't know the music at all.  I see that they are sold out of a lot of the CDs now alas.  Well, glad that they are selling (particularly as $2 from each CD sold goes to help the Ukrainians).

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Brian

Quote from: Spotted Horses on April 01, 2022, 09:58:21 PM
Huh? I visited today and it says the site is not up yet, except for a new release store.
They emailed out "Weekend Specials" yesterday so they are trying to make do with a very limited store. The Ancerl Live box was on special so I looked...it was discounted from $99 to $95.

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on April 02, 2022, 04:17:02 AM
Wow!   ??? Were you ordering big boxed sets or individual CDs? I received an email from them about Ukrainian music and was tempted, but no idea what to buy as I don't know the music at all.  I see that they are sold out of a lot of the CDs now alas.  Well, glad that they are selling (particularly as $2 from each CD sold goes to help the Ukrainians).

PD

Quote from: Brian on April 02, 2022, 04:34:57 AM
They emailed out "Weekend Specials" yesterday so they are trying to make do with a very limited store. The Ancerl Live box was on special so I looked...it was discounted from $99 to $95.

Hmm, that's not much of a discount.  :(

Out of curiosity, I tried entering in an order to see what they would charge.  I clicked on 4 single CDs.  They didn't give me an option re shipping rather it came up with "ShipBlink-Fallback" or in the opposite order--I forget.  It was certainly way way way less than $70!

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

DavidW

Quote from: JBS on April 01, 2022, 12:45:55 PM
Has anyone ordered from Arkivmusic recently? I was about to order 3 or 4 CDs from them, but aborted when the only shipping option they offered was UPS Ground for $70.xx. IOW, they want to charge more for shipping than the total of the CDs themselves. And the shipping charge didn't change if I trimmed down the number of CDs in the order...

Last year I had to do a chargeback because they wouldn't ship me my order nor respond to emails or answer the phone.  I won't do business with them ever again.  I know that some want to support the little guy, but you can do that with the cd shops in the UK like Presto that tend to offer faster shipping and overall cheaper prices.

JBS

Quote from: DavidW on April 02, 2022, 07:04:10 AM
Last year I had to do a chargeback because they wouldn't ship me my order nor respond to emails or answer the phone.  I won't do business with them ever again.  I know that some want to support the little guy, but you can do that with the cd shops in the UK like Presto that tend to offer faster shipping and overall cheaper prices.

I've been very cautious with them ever since they started charging the credit card at time of order and not time of shipping. This would have my first order with them since they shut down their old website. (I intended to order some of the Naxos CDs in their Ukrainian special. But not if I have to pay $70 shipping.)

I've been using Presto, and their shipping times are especially good.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Spotted Horses

Looks like Archiv music is back up, but the drill-down search system that was the unique feature of the old site is gone. For those who didn't use it, you could select a composer, get a list of all compositions by that composer, then click one on one of the compositions to see a list of all releases containing that composition. For instance you could click Brahms, click String Quartet No 2, and see a comprehensive list of all CDs containing string quartet No 2. There is no way to reproduce that with a conventional search tool, since you can type Brahms String Quartet No 2, but it will match anything that contains Brahms, String, Quartet, and 2.

It was such a unique resource. Why would they scuttle it?
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 30, 2022, 08:41:30 AM
Looks like Archiv music is back up, but the drill-down search system that was the unique feature of the old site is gone. For those who didn't use it, you could select a composer, get a list of all compositions by that composer, then click one on one of the compositions to see a list of all releases containing that composition. For instance you could click Brahms, click String Quartet No 2, and see a comprehensive list of all CDs containing string quartet No 2. There is no way to reproduce that with a conventional search tool, since you can type Brahms String Quartet No 2, but it will match anything that contains Brahms, String, Quartet, and 2.

It was such a unique resource. Why would they scuttle it?
Sorry to hear about that.  Wonder if it was causing issues at their end...maybe in terms of slowing down their site too much or taking up too much memory space?  Sorry, I'm not the greatest at computers.

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Spotted Horses

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on August 30, 2022, 09:55:03 AM
Sorry to hear about that.  Wonder if it was causing issues at their end...maybe in terms of slowing down their site too much or taking up too much memory space?  Sorry, I'm not the greatest at computers.

PD

Could be something along those lines, although it seems like their first attempt at revising the site was botched and caused it to collapse.

Could be their old site was inefficient as you suggest, or maybe they had to spend too much time and money maintaining the database (i.e., having people actually tag the CD releases correctly, rather than the hodgepodge that comes from the record labels).
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

JBS

The drill down menu is there (click on the Shop line) but seems to lack a filter for genre or specific work. I just tried it now. So you can look for recordings of Brahms by the Amadeus Quartet but not for string quartets by Brahms. Also it seems to rather buggy or maybe memory heavy; it crashed my Chrome for Android browser twice in five minutes, so don't try it on a cell phone.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Spotted Horses

Quote from: JBS on August 30, 2022, 12:53:07 PM
The drill down menu is there (click on the Shop line) but seems to lack a filter for genre or specific work. I just tried it now. So you can look for recordings of Brahms by the Amadeus Quartet but not for string quartets by Brahms. Also it seems to rather buggy or maybe memory heavy; it crashed my Chrome for Android browser twice in five minutes, so don't try it on a cell phone.

Yes, I did notice that I can select Brahms, then an artist. But what I really valued was selecting Brahms, then a work of Brahms, revealing a list of CDs by all artists.

I also noticed that selecting Brahms, didn't give a complete list of artists. Selecting Brahms, I went to the conductor tab and looked for obvious ones. Karajan was not on the list. So their database seems to have big gaps.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

JBS

Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 30, 2022, 02:48:38 PM
Yes, I did notice that I can select Brahms, then an artist. But what I really valued was selecting Brahms, then a work of Brahms, revealing a list of CDs by all artists.

I also noticed that selecting Brahms, didn't give a complete list of artists. Selecting Brahms, I went to the conductor tab and looked for obvious ones. Karajan was not on the list. So their database seems to have big gaps.

It wonked out on me so quickly I stopped trying it pretty fast.
I suspect they only list recordings they stock or think they can order in at a profit, which may explain why some obvious ones like this are missing.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Madiel

Quote from: Spotted Horses on August 30, 2022, 08:41:30 AM
Looks like Archiv music is back up, but the drill-down search system that was the unique feature of the old site is gone. For those who didn't use it, you could select a composer, get a list of all compositions by that composer, then click one on one of the compositions to see a list of all releases containing that composition. For instance you could click Brahms, click String Quartet No 2, and see a comprehensive list of all CDs containing string quartet No 2. There is no way to reproduce that with a conventional search tool, since you can type Brahms String Quartet No 2, but it will match anything that contains Brahms, String, Quartet, and 2.

It was such a unique resource. Why would they scuttle it?

Yes, that's a shame. It was indeed one of the best things about the site.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!