Bandbox: an uncompensated review of an interesting new club

Either way, I feel like they went from a company that bought a lot of goodwill to one I'll probably never buy from again after this bait and switch. It still seems like we're getting screwed and not getting what we were sold. Especially if I have to pay for shipping every month. I certainly wouldn't have bought subs as gifts for people if I knew this would happen.
 
Hemotep said:
Either way, I feel like they went from a company that bought a lot of goodwill to one I'll probably never buy from again after this bait and switch. It still seems like we're getting screwed and not getting what we were sold. Especially if I have to pay for shipping every month. I certainly wouldn't have bought subs as gifts for people if I knew this would happen.
Click to expand...
They didn't charge shipping on these, although that doesn't mean they won't in the future.

But yes, this could've been done much better. Not sure why just letting the subscriptions run their course wasn't the move if you're giving me that amount of credit anyway.
 
Matt M said:
They didn't charge shipping on these, although that doesn't mean they won't in the future.

But yes, this could've been done much better. Not sure why just letting the subscriptions run their course wasn't the move if you're giving me that amount of credit anyway.
Click to expand...
Logistically, it was probably a nightmare to allow the subs to continue and all end at different times.

Not a great move by them for subscribers but from their perspective, I can see why they are doing away with the subscriptions. They just can't get stuff pressed in a reasonable timeframe so a ROTM club makes zero sense if you can't ship out records monthly...
 
Matt M said:
They didn't charge shipping on these, although that doesn't mean they won't in the future.

But yes, this could've been done much better. Not sure why just letting the subscriptions run their course wasn't the move if you're giving me that amount of credit anyway.
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I thought. Just stop accepting new subs and let’s the rest of us ride it out. You’d be done by January without pushing us off.
 
Matt M said:
They didn't charge shipping on these, although that doesn't mean they won't in the future.

But yes, this could've been done much better. Not sure why just letting the subscriptions run their course wasn't the move if you're giving me that amount of credit anyway.
Click to expand...

hayema7 said:
This is exactly what I thought. Just stop accepting new subs and let’s the rest of us ride it out. You’d be done by January without pushing us off.
Click to expand...
What I understood them to be saying is that the subscription part is the problem, and that's what they want to get away from. So from their perspective, those of us with subscriptions end up getting the same thing we would have gotten with the subscription (in terms of the number of records), but without playing the game of being 'assigned' a record each month that you then have to swap if that's what you want to do. This way, we still get the equivalent of one record per month, but we order it outright instead of dealing with it through the hassle of the subscription process. At least that's what I think they're saying, and if so, what they're doing makes sense. They're not letting subscribers ride out their subscriptions because that system just isn't working for anyone. But hey, this is a glass-half-full interpretation. Guess we'll see how it actually plays out.
 
Russ I said:
What I understood them to be saying is that the subscription part is the problem, and that's what they want to get away from. So from their perspective, those of us with subscriptions end up getting the same thing we would have gotten with the subscription (in terms of the number of records), but without playing the game of being 'assigned' a record each month that you then have to swap if that's what you want to do. This way, we still get the equivalent of one record per month, but we order it outright instead of dealing with it through the hassle of the subscription process. At least that's what I think they're saying, and if so, what they're doing makes sense. They're not letting subscribers ride out their subscriptions because that system just isn't working for anyone. But hey, this is a glass-half-full interpretation. Guess we'll see how it actually plays out.
Click to expand...
That's my understanding as well, as per the note I just got from Pam:

"For all prepaid subscriptions, rather than offering a poor subscription platform, we are giving customers the equivalent months left into gift cards. You can use them whenever you want rather than just waiting for one album order each month. The amount should be the value of the full price album, perhaps they will add some extra to cover the shipping charge that is hardwired in the system.

We will continue to ship previous orders and will make many more new release announcements this year. We just could not continue to battle with the subscription service which was not working as promised. It created many issues for us and our customers."
 
Matt M said:
They didn't charge shipping on these, although that doesn't mean they won't in the future.

But yes, this could've been done much better. Not sure why just letting the subscriptions run their course wasn't the move if you're giving me that amount of credit anyway.
Click to expand...
I emailed to add the war on drugs. I know I want that so even if it's the only one they keep the free shipping on, I'll take it.
 
Hemotep said:
Either way, I feel like they went from a company that bought a lot of goodwill to one I'll probably never buy from again after this bait and switch. It still seems like we're getting screwed and not getting what we were sold. Especially if I have to pay for shipping every month. I certainly wouldn't have bought subs as gifts for people if I knew this would happen.
Click to expand...


I mean I really wouldn't call it bait and switch- B&S has intent from the start..

I do kind of get it. Of my entire sub, I've rcvd two of them (Jay Som and Sylvan Esso) and the rest are on preorder. Bandbox is in a state where a huge chunk of their catalogue is sold out, and a huge chunk is on preorder months down the line. So this month for me...I was in a place where I was just going to pick maybe an extra copy of something I already ordered, and like maybe in two months of something new comes up I'd have to email in and make them swap my old pick into something else.
I can see how doing that for multiple users would be a nightmare logistically - so just give everyone gift cards and don't make them "lock in" a ROTM...I get that now.

As long as they do something to account for the shipping and get us the test press at the end, I'm at peace with this.
 
TheThinWhiteDuke said:
I mean I really wouldn't call it bait and switch- B&S has intent from the start..

I do kind of get it. Of my entire sub, I've rcvd two of them (Jay Som and Sylvan Esso) and the rest are on preorder. Bandbox is in a state where a huge chunk of their catalogue is sold out, and a huge chunk is on preorder months down the line. So this month for me...I was in a place where I was just going to pick maybe an extra copy of something I already ordered, and like maybe in two months of something new comes up I'd have to email in and make them swap my old pick into something else.
I can see how doing that for multiple users would be a nightmare logistically - so just give everyone gift cards and don't make them "lock in" a ROTM...I get that now.

As long as they do something to account for the shipping and get us the test press at the end, I'm at peace with this.
Click to expand...
I thought they had a skip month option?
 
TheThinWhiteDuke said:
I mean their site has been so jank since the conversion I wouldn't trust it....but either way the gift cards create a path where you don't have to worry about skipping a month you just have credits when something cool drops
Click to expand...
Yeah, I guess if they would have just said pay the $120 or whatever and we'll give you 12 $40 credits I probably wouldn't have balked. Nice to not have to worry about picking something if it's slim pickings.
 
I was still on a month-to-month subscription but I was considering pausing for a little while because I am out of room on my record shelves. I guess they made the decision for me.

I never did get my test pressing though, I've been consistently subscribed every month since they started the rewards. Although I think everything I've ordered from then this year was a preorder that hasn't arrived yet so maybe they just haven't sent it yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top