Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)

[heartswells]

Because VMP is limiting their swaps to get you to give them this loan. Swap options were already really thin for a lot of people who have been members for awhile. If you’re stuck in a year long membership, you are hit the worst with this because your monthly payment is worth even less than it was before in terms of money:records ratio. Paying the yearly cost is now only worth it if you want to keep a ROTM every month. A $23 credit gets you nothing in the store.

We can agree to disagree though. I think you’re looking at it from the perspective of “well now I can opt out of ROTMs and use credit on anything including preorders” while I’m looking at it like “my membership no longer gets me 1 record if I don’t like the ROTM”.

We're sorta on the same page in regards of knowing that if it doesn't sell it'll go to swaps (makes you wonder what the plan is with Shabaka, they clearly think it's more profitable to sell at current cost with inventory space expenses than the sell it at swap level).

I'll leave it here. I'm excited for the change, and I'm sorry that people feel shortchanged because they might not get their monthly record because the credit won't afford one, hopefully the case that more expensive records that aren't selling will appear available for you.

 

[Ethos99]

The way I'm reading this is that there are two groups of people who benefit:

1) International subscribers who can exchange a month for $30 plus dollars and get a record of their choice instead of an ROTM

2) Those locked into a longer term subscription who would rather have credit to put towards an exclusive rather than being forced into a ROTM.

Otherwise, the change is not ideal since it is clear from the language that the amount of exclusives in swaps will decrease and it seems as if manual swaps will no longer be a thing. I think some of this was born out of necessity with COVID-19 related delays, but this also helps with an infusion of cash now since swapping for credit is sort of like an interest-free micro loan.

If you buy any membership longer than month to month aren't you giving them a micro loan?

Is this different that buying any preorder at any store?

Is this a bad thing?

 

[heartswells]

I don't see how sending CS a message saying "could I swap to this other album that is in your store? I didn't see it in swaps." is abusing the system. The reason a lot of us started doing that is because it used to be strange to not see a record in swaps that was available in the store. They could say no if they don't want to. Construing an honest inquiry to a real person as abusing the system is a weird take.

Sorry, last one.

I mean if it isn't on the swap list then most people would assume it's because its not available to swap, not because of some glitch or irregularity (e.g. the complaints about Shabaka). I see this as VMP attempting to make a small number of customers happy, once they say yes to one person they can't really take it back, word gets spread about this method of swapping and soon as you know it hundreds of people are doing it, taking up customer support time and reducing the stock level of products that VMP probably thought they could eventually sell at full price.

 

[MikeH]

If you buy any membership longer than month to month aren't you giving them a micro loan?

Is this different that buying any preorder at any store?

Is this a bad thing?

Yes —good point, but the value of what you get for the money is seemingly going down. If you don’t like the ROTM, you used to be able to swap for anything and good swaps were available. Swapping for store credit means your monthly payment will not even get you 1 album anymore because the store prices are all more than what you pay for 1 month (at least for US customers).

 

[Jeff Lerner]

I'm on a monthly and my main (only) track is Classics. Can I swap my main for $29 in credit, and then add RHH for $23 and swap that for Albert King?

 

[Bluecloud777]

Nice! I hope they respond to you soon

I recently had a VMP package with a tracking saying "customs cleared" for more than two weeks until it finally showed up.
10 days later the tracking is still saying the same thing.
So I think you'll probably be fine!

Finally there's some new tracking for my May VMP packages. DHL has obviously moved them from Frankfurt am Main to an area near Magdeburg (which is in the east, not too far away from Berlin) while I live in the complete other direction of Germany, in the west. I'm glad they finally appear somewhere and hope I get them the next days without them ending up at some custom office. Thanks again for the good wishes.

 

[wynn72]

I'm on a monthly and my main (only) track is Classics. Can I swap my main for $29 in credit, and then add RHH for $23 and swap that for Albert King?

Credits don't get applied until the processing date (I think it said the 2nd?) so you would have to wait until then and hope Albert king hasn't sold out (or artificially sold out, as happens often with Classics).

Edit: Sorry, I misread. Yeah, In theory you can do that. But you have to mail in to @info for credits for Add-On tracks. Good luck getting a response in time for that one.

 

[MikeH]

I'm on a monthly and my main (only) track is Classics. Can I swap my main for $29 in credit, and then add RHH for $23 and swap that for Albert King?

That’s the million dollar question...will be interesting to see. It’s only worth it if there’s something ya want in the store but could make sense to do that if it’s allowed.

 

[Bluecloud777]

I'm on a monthly and my main (only) track is Classics. Can I swap my main for $29 in credit, and then add RHH for $23 and swap that for Albert King?

I assume it should be possible.

I think it might be useful to add RHH begore announcement. Or at least before swapping Classics for store credit.

 

[MikeH]

Credits don't get applied until the processing date (I think it said the 2nd?) so you would have to wait until then and hope Albert king hasn't sold out (or artificially sold out, as happens often with Classics).

It’s not a bad move if you plan on getting something in the store though anytime soon. Get King for $23 instead of $29 and use the $29 store credit on the 2nd for a store exclusive.

 

[Ethos99]

Yes —good point, but the value of what you get for the money is seemingly going down. If you don’t like the ROTM, you used to be able to swap for anything and good swaps were available. Swapping for store credit means your monthly payment will not even get you 1 album anymore because the store prices are all more than what you pay for 1 month (at least for US customers).

I agree with your assessment. I do think an announcement of no swap exclusives for one month may not be an indication that these are going away forever. Perhaps they are trying to figure out a way to stop the site crushing swap frenzy that has happened and pissed a lot of people off.

I don't know an effective way for them to do that. If you drop very limited swap exclusives and they expire before a person can check out they feel cheated. Just spit balling here but putting a time limit on the swap page which would lock in those swaps for say 2 minutes would be effective?

 

[Bluecloud777]

Edit: Sorry, I misread. Yeah, In theory you can do that. But you have to mail in to @info for credits for Add-On tracks. Good luck getting a response in time for that one.

As far as I understand, you can change one track into store credit without needing to email them.

 

[MikeH]

I agree with your assessment. I do think an announcement of no swap exclusives for one month may not be an indication that these are going away forever. Perhaps they are trying to figure out a way to stop the site crushing swap frenzy that has happened and pissed a lot of people off.

I don't know an effective way for them to do that. If you drop very limited swap exclusives and they expire before a person can check out they feel cheated. Just spit balling here but putting a time limit on the swap page which would lock in those swaps for say 2 minutes would be effective?

I think the real solution is to fix the site...aside from that, just allow swaps for anything in the store that’s not a preorder. Don’t make it a manual swap. Would save them a TON of CS emails. And do the throwback Thursday thing with any old stock of sold out stuff.

 

[wmeugene]

If you buy any membership longer than month to month aren't you giving them a micro loan?

Is this different that buying any preorder at any store?

Is this a bad thing?

To some extent, it isn't. That's why I am also irritated at how pre-orders seem to be earlier and earlier and some records take 6 months or more after pre-order. And yes, buying credits is analogous to buying gift certificates. It just reeks of trying to get more cash now versus actually providing a product.

I think many of us would prefer they put all in-stock records in swaps and fix their stupid website versus dangling the same amount of credits to skip a month.

 

[radiodead]

Is this “credit” thing supposed to be intended to be a Skip a Month? I don’t think VMPs intent is necessarily to devalue your dollar. I think they are saying you don’t have to unsubscribe, we’ll give you the credits and then next ROTM if you want it we will just use those credits instead of charging your credit card.

The only problem I see is that in the past it always seemed like Credits were always deducted first, and you didn’t have the option to save them.

I’m mainly bummed about not being able to swap off menu. I never EVER buy ROTMs outside of the three subs, unless there is a sale that puts their price point below $23 with tax.

 

[Ethos99]

Yes —good point, but the value of what you get for the money is seemingly going down. If you don’t like the ROTM, you used to be able to swap for anything and good swaps were available. Swapping for store credit means your monthly payment will not even get you 1 album anymore because the store prices are all more than what you pay for 1 month (at least for US customers).

If you're interested in a ROTM, they say those are all in swaps. So the inflated past ROTM prices don't matter. Then if you want an exclusive, most are priced under the $27 swap credit. If they are not, you are paying a little more for the exclusive, limited pressing.

In the end, it seems to me that the only people who are getting screwed are the ones that paid for a year and got the lower monthly cost. Those people however, are getting the credit for what they paid so they aren't technically losing their money. There would be no incentive to pay for a year if you intend to use swap credits because you will pay the higher price anyway when you go to spend your money.

 

[MikeH]

If you're interested in a ROTM, they say those are all in swaps. So the inflated past ROTM prices don't matter. Then if you want an exclusive, most are priced under the $27 swap credit. If they are not, you are paying a little more for the exclusive, limited pressing.

In the end, it seems to me that the only people who are getting screwed are the ones that paid for a year and got the lower monthly cost. Those people however, are getting the credit for what they paid so they aren't technically losing their money. There would be no incentive to pay for a year if you intend to use swap credits because you will pay the higher price anyway when you go to spend your money.

It seemed to me that lately most of the newer store exclusives were over $27. I could be wrong though and maybe thats just the ones I was interested in. I remember Nick Hakim and Shabaka were both pretty pricey but maybe just because they are 2xLPs.

I think, overall, people who have been members for awhile are also getting the raw end of the deal here. Whereas you used to be able to swap for, say Shabaka or Nick Hakim, with a $23 add-on, it seems that may not be the case anymore. Part of this might be because of COVID and plants being swamped that they are simply running out of items that are in stock and pre-order leads seem to be longer and longer lately. There's also just less stock I think because a lot of people seem to have not liked the ROTM choices lately so people are swapping more. I quit my membership last month because of a myriad of reasons, but the lack of swaptions was probably the biggest one. I wasn't liking the ROTMs and swaptions were so drastically limited because I either had the records, could buy them cheaper on discogs or they weren't available in swaps and after a week of waiting for an email, I was told by CS that they could not manually swap for any of the albums I wanted.

The other solution is to do what Secretly Society does and let you pause for a month if you don't like the current choices. I have a feeling though that VMP would royally screw this up.

 

[Kyuuji]

Finally there's some new tracking for my May VMP packages. DHL has obviously moved them from Frankfurt am Main to an area near Magdeburg (which is in the east, not too far away from Berlin) while I live in the complete other direction of Germany, in the west. I'm glad they finally appear somewhere and hope I get them the next days without them ending up at some custom office. Thanks again for the good wishes.

At least that's something! I hope now they're 'unstuck' they move to you quickly even if they seem a little dizzy right now lol. That order that was still saying as being in America arrived this morning so Elon Musk must have lent them his secret teleportation devices or something - either way, glad they're here. Sure yours will be too and make sure to pop them in the Fresh Grabs thread when they do!

 

[wmeugene]

It seemed to me that lately most of the newer store exclusives were over $27. I could be wrong though and maybe thats just the ones I was interested in. I remember Nick Hakim and Shabaka were both pretty pricey but maybe just because they are 2xLPs.

I think, overall, people who have been members for awhile are also getting the raw end of the deal here. Whereas you used to be able to swap for, say Shabaka or Nick Hakim, with a $23 add-on, it seems that may not be the case anymore. Part of this might be because of COVID and plants being swamped that they are simply running out of items that are in stock and pre-order leads seem to be longer and longer lately. There's also just less stock I think because a lot of people seem to have not liked the ROTM choices lately so people are swapping more. I quit my membership last month because of a myriad of reasons, but the lack of swaptions was probably the biggest one. I wasn't liking the ROTMs and swaptions were so drastically limited because I either had the records, could buy them cheaper on discogs or they weren't available in swaps and after a week of waiting for an email, I was told by CS that they could not manually swap for any of the albums I wanted.

The other solution is to do what Secretly Society does and let you pause for a month if you don't like the current choices. I have a feeling though that VMP would royally screw this up.

I would say at least half of the exclusives are in the $27 and up range, and we are starting to see a lot creep north of $35 (Shabaka, Fiona Apple, etc.) or The National at $60! Or Whitney Houston at $70!!!

It's not just one thing that is at issue, it's the confluence of a lot of things that make the service a lot more frustrating and less budget-friendly.

 

[Bluecloud777]

At least that's something! I hope now they're 'unstuck' they move to you quickly even if they seem a little dizzy right now lol. That order that was still saying as being in America arrived this morning so Elon Musk must have lent them his secret teleportation devices or something - either way, glad they're here. Sure yours will be too and make sure to pop them in the Fresh Grabs thread when they do!

Very glad your order arrived today thanks a lot for your good wishes, I'll post them when I get them.

So for tonight I'll probably be getting Albert King, White Stripes and El-P unless something unexpected should be popping up in swaps which according to VMP should be very unlikely, but you never know.