Vinyl Me Please Essentials

RHANDMJ said:
Remember, at that point, the subscriber has received THREE copies of the record, not had to send one back, and in far, far too many cases has flipped two copies on Discogs. At some point, VMP can, and should, say 'let's move on'.
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My end of the bargain is to pay them. Their end of the bargain is to give me a defect free record. If they fail to do that, they need to return my money. Plain and simple. Ok bargain was the wrong word. At these prices there are no bargains to be had.
 
Urbs_hott said:
My end of the bargain is to pay them. Their end of the bargain is to give me a defect free record. If they fail to do that, they need to return my money. Plain and simple. Ok bargain was the wrong word. At these prices there are no bargains to be had.
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If you are so angry at VMP, why keep buying? As you say, if they are not delivering to your expectation, why let it continue? I end relationships with any vendor who I feel doesn't make me feel good about spending my money.

I really only stick with VMP for Classics. Pressed at either RTI or QRP for the most part, superb mastering, never had any defect. Occasionally I might add an essential that is AAA and pressed at RTI or QRP, might even once or twice a year a GZ pressed. Colored vinyl is the WORST quality vinyl, and costs more, so I tend to avoid that.
 
Urbs_hott said:
Hold on, they won’t replace it AND they won’t refund you?
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Yes I wrote back to make sure I understood their email and that's what they said.
Rip_City said:
Assuming this is universal, then if this doesn't motivate current members having monthly frustrations to leave...
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I have to agree.
RHANDMJ said:
Remember, at that point, the subscriber has received THREE copies of the record, not had to send one back, and in far, far too many cases has flipped two copies on Discogs. At some point, VMP can, and should, say 'let's move on'.
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This is a legitimate point, but how to we separate the flippers from the legitimate customers who received defective records?
Keep in mind that the "no return policy" is a VMP policy. If they want to start asking for returns (and offer to pay the cost of return shipping), that's okay with me. In fact, it might be a good idea.
 
RHANDMJ said:
If you are so angry at VMP, why keep buying? As you say, if they are not delivering to your expectation, why let it continue? I end relationships with any vendor who I feel doesn't make me feel good about spending my money.

I really only stick with VMP for Classics. Pressed at either RTI or QRP for the most part, superb mastering, never had any defect. Occasionally I might add an essential that is AAA and pressed at RTI or QRP, might even once or twice a year a GZ pressed. Colored vinyl is the WORST quality vinyl, and costs more, so I tend to avoid that.
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You may have quoted the wrong person. There was no anger expressed in my post.
 
Chris V said:
Yes I wrote back to make sure I understood their email and that's what they said.

I have to agree.

This is a legitimate point, but how to we separate the flippers from the legitimate customers who received defective records?
Keep in mind that the "no return policy" is a VMP policy. If they want to start asking for returns (and offer to pay the cost of return shipping), that's okay with me. In fact, it might be a good idea.
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I’d offer to send them back all their shitty records. I don’t want or need duplicate defective copies taking up space on my shelves. I am sure some get flipped but I usually just give them away as a PIF or to friends or family. It’s their dumb policy not to accept returns. If you paid with PayPal, you should file a dispute. You should send a reply first telling them them that you will be filing a dispute and cancelling your membership if they can’t get you a refund.
 
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Chris V said:
Yes I wrote back to make sure I understood their email and that's what they said.

I have to agree.

This is a legitimate point, but how to we separate the flippers from the legitimate customers who received defective records?
Keep in mind that the "no return policy" is a VMP policy. If they want to start asking for returns (and offer to pay the cost of return shipping), that's okay with me. In fact, it might be a good idea.
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The standard in the industry is you send defects back on your dime, they replace or refund on theirs. Music Direct, Elusive Disc, Acoustic Sounds, everybody else has this policy. It would be more fair if they refunded your shipping where there is a legitimate defect, but that is very hard to determine or enforce and would just end up causing more grief. Customers who want to return for a bent corner, or because the vinyl isn't as shiny as they like, that kind of stuff. The sller can't separate out the real defects from the whiners or cosmetically obsessives.

That policy clears out the flippers that have for some time been taking advantage of VMP's lax replacement policy. To be honest, even sending 2 replacement copies is pretty lax, without the customer having to return the supposed defects.

But - I thoroughly agree that the ideal solution is the customer sends it back, VMP send a replacement. I would say, send back once, VMP sends a replacement, send it back twice, VMP refunds you and invites you to their Reddit board. Music Matters has a policy where they will replace once, next time they will send you the CD. Apparently that worked quite well.

With the imperfect nature of modern vinyl, it makes no sense to keep sending copy after copy indefinitely so a customer can weed through the pressing run for the optimal copy.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
I’d offered to send them back all their shitty defective records. I don’t want or need them in my shelves. I am sure some get flipped but I usually just give them away as a PIF or to friends or family. It’s their dumb policy not to accept returns. If you paid with PayPal, you should file a dispute. You should send a reply first telling them them that you will be filing a dispute and cancelling your membership if they can’t get you a refund.
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I agree with everything you wrote. I am happy to send back the defective records if they want them, but "Sorry you are stuck with a few shitty copies of that record and we don't want them back" is unacceptable.

VMP offered me $25 store credit for Wu-Tang (the cost of 1 month of my 1-year subscription at the old rate). I told them I can't buy anything in their store for $25 so they need to refund it to my credit card. If they don't do that, I will make it clear to them I intend to file a dispute with my credit card and then do it.

When the music is good, I enjoy VMP, but this is way too much work...
 
Chris V said:
Wow, I emailed in for a second Wu-Tang replacement due to the scratching defect and heard about this new VMP policy. :mad: After two replacements, VMP says they are done. They will not allow additional replacements and they will not give a refund at that point, even if the defects persist. I sent a pretty angry email back...

I have to admit that I agree with everyone in here asking "why do we put up with this?" Good question, very good question...
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I’d raise a PayPal case or do a CC chargeback. Fuck em.
 
I think the VMP model is a good one. It's a waste sending defected records back and forth across the world. The defects should be evidenced before issuing a replacement, minimising risk of flippers. The volume of defects impacts the bottom line and should be a stick to improve quality in manufacturing. the onus on improving quality should be with the manufacturer not the consumer, accounting for a normal level of vinyl defects should be accommodated by the model.

The existing model of getting consumers to pay for returns isn't a good one. I get a defect from a record store, either the record store or myself pays for it in some way. It's unlikely the manufacturer even finds out about it.

The challenge here is the general challenges of getting records pressed. If GZ haven't cleaned the stampers properly through production,. how long will it take to get a new run done. Will they really care as they can't meet production demands anyway. VMP should just issue one replacement, then a credit, if that doesn't work. Only where a defect is evidenced.

I'm lucky my first copy of Wu And didn't have an issue, I got a replacement for PE, but haven't listened to it yet. These issues with GZ should be a negotiation between VMP & GZ. VMP should issue credits if they can't replace the item with a defect free record.
 
Chris V said:
Wow, I emailed in for a second Wu-Tang replacement due to the scratching defect and heard about this new VMP policy. :mad: After two replacements, VMP says they are done. They will not allow additional replacements and they will not give a refund at that point, even if the defects persist. I sent a pretty angry email back...

I have to admit that I agree with everyone in here asking "why do we put up with this?" Good question, very good question...
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This is the response I had when the 2nd massively dish warped copy of Jazz Is Dead 3 turned up. It's just a crazy stance to have in my opinion as it's essentially them stating that they know you paid a premium price for a premium product but after 2 attempts to fulfil on their side, they are giving up but keeping your money.

RHANDMJ said:
Remember, at that point, the subscriber has received THREE copies of the record, not had to send one back, and in far, far too many cases has flipped two copies on Discogs. At some point, VMP can, and should, say 'let's move on'.
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I have to disagree with this I'm afraid, what the subscriber has received is three UNUSABLE/DEFECTIVE copies of a record. In some cases they are not a playable state at all, especially with some of the mega dish warps that I have seen. It's not the subscriber's fault that VMP is not able to provide on their side of the agreement within the transaction.

If I popped to the shops for a chocolate bar and opened it up to find it was mouldy, then was given another to find that mouldy, then given another to find that was mouldy, the shopkeeper couldn't just respond with "well now you have three, I'm not giving you anymore or refunding you". What you are left with is 3 chocolate bars that you cannot eat, in the same way that you could be left with 3 LP's that you cant listen to.
 
Selaws said:
This is the response I had when the 2nd massively dish warped copy of Jazz Is Dead 3 turned up. It's just a crazy stance to have in my opinion as it's essentially them stating that they know you paid a premium price for a premium product but after 2 attempts to fulfil on their side, they are giving up but keeping your money.


I have to disagree with this I'm afraid, what the subscriber has received is three UNUSABLE/DEFECTIVE copies of a record. In some cases they are not a playable state at all, especially with some of the mega dish warps that I have seen. It's not the subscriber's fault that VMP is not able to provide on their side of the agreement within the transaction.

If I popped to the shops for a chocolate bar and opened it up to find it was mouldy, then was given another to find that mouldy, then given another to find that was mouldy, the shopkeeper couldn't just respond with "well now you have three, I'm not giving you anymore or refunding you". What you are left with is 3 chocolate bars that you cannot eat, in the same way that you could be left with 3 LP's that you cant listen to.
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Agree, if they can't supply the goods, issue a refund.
 
Andy said:
Agree, if they can't supply the goods, issue a refund.
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The issue is that VMP pushes store credit on people instead of offering a refund. More people need to demand an actual refund. Getting store credit still benefits VMP because then you have to buy more of their product. Even with store credit, they are likely still coming out on top money-wise.

My last VMP issue was VMP Stankonia. I've only gotten Classics since then with no issue. My first Stankonia copy had some bad non-fill on one disc. They sent me another one and it had bad non-fill again in a different spot. When I emailed about it again, they just responded with "sorry about that--we have issued store credit to your account" and I demanded a refund instead. It took a bunch of back and forth but then eventually did it.

to use a similar analogy to @Selaws, if you go to a restaurant and there's hair in your food, would you want a refund? or would you want a gift card to the restaurant?
 
VMP QC drama again?

I have had issues yeah (vinyl with crackles, warps that range from minor to huge, and even one or two that skipped, my RTI pressing of destroyer had this issue with all 3 and I can't just be unlucky, I guess they gave up on refund after that).

I mostly just join because I like getting a shipment, I am not great at finding things to buy, and sometimes they have a great album that isn't on vinyl in any better way like HHNF or confessions.

Do I have to feel bad about it with all this toxicity the club gives
 
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