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

spilledleche said:
I'm guessing due to covid, everything in the fulfillment center is zoned out and you have pickers only filling orders from their specific zone. Without knowing the layout of the warehouse, there's a great chance in a huge fulfillment center like they use that their product may not be all together right now. Especially product that may be delayed from the pressing plants.

VMP sucks but knowing warehousing, it's also very easy for me to envision about a hundred different ways that order fulfillment can be messed up right now.
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This is a great answer!
 
It's not just VMP that is a shipping shitshow.

I ordered an album on August 3 from another retailer that was due August 10. On August 13, it was saying it was processed in Jersey City, NJ. I got an update today that it is in Michigan.

I live in Connecticut.

In April I ordered a 7" from a private seller. It took 35 days to reach me.

Even if VMP were on top of their game, it's anyone's guess as to when/if stuff will arrive.
 
MadLucas said:
It's not just VMP that is a shipping shitshow.

I ordered an album on August 3 from another retailer that was due August 10. On August 13, it was saying it was processed in Jersey City, NJ. I got an update today that it is in Michigan.

I live in Connecticut.

In April I ordered a 7" from a private seller. It took 35 days to reach me.

Even if VMP were on top of their game, it's anyone's guess as to when/if stuff will arrive.
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I ordered a copy of Kiss Land by The Weeknd in May and it shipped on June 5. Granted, it was coming from Canada so I assumed it would take a bit to reach me. It finally arrived on my doorstep... last week.
 
MadLucas said:
It's not just VMP that is a shipping shitshow.

I ordered an album on August 3 from another retailer that was due August 10. On August 13, it was saying it was processed in Jersey City, NJ. I got an update today that it is in Michigan.

I live in Connecticut.

In April I ordered a 7" from a private seller. It took 35 days to reach me.

Even if VMP were on top of their game, it's anyone's guess as to when/if stuff will arrive.
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There’s a difference between something being shipped and then taking awhile to get to you (happening to all retailers) and simply not sending items or packing them all in separate boxes which has been happening prior to COVID with VMP. I had a bandcamp box from Moses Sumney take 32 days to arrive after being shipped. But I had tracking and the package was accepted before the album was technically released.
 
no shipment is understandable -- there's a plague on, etc etc -- no emails? no amount of covid is keeping anyone from the reply button. Hell, they could set an autoresponder and half the people wouldn't even notice. No response except that terribly passive-aggressive "if you email again you get sent to the back of the line" is complete BS.
 
yukbon said:
no shipment is understandable -- there's a plague on, etc etc -- no emails? no amount of covid is keeping anyone from the reply button. Hell, they could set an autoresponder and half the people wouldn't even notice. No response except that terribly passive-aggressive "if you email again you get sent to the back of the line" is complete BS.
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The back of the line thing is NOT how Zendesk works. Maybe it’s a setting somewhere that they have chosen to turn on, but I work with Zendesk everyday and when people send a follow up to an initial email they do not get bumped to the back of the line. There is a date column for when the request was received and a date column for when the last change happened, whether that was the cs agent replying or it was the customer sending a follow up. If they are choosing to work chronologically through the change date column they are some fools. But we know they aren’t working through any of it any sort of consistent manner. Which leaves that messaging as some bullshit that they spew to stop people from sending in multiple tickets, to ease the load on cs (hah) and reinforce the braindead idea that they are properly staffed.
 
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Urbs_hott said:
Which leaves that messaging as some bullshit they they spew to stop people from sending in multiple tickets, to ease the load on cs
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This is 100% why they do it. They say don’t email again so that they can clear their queues and maybe get caught up for the first time in the last 4 years. Every time Pauly says they are almost caught up on CS emails, I just laugh and think poor Pauly if he actually believes that.
 
Only 9 copies left of The Budos Band's "Long in the Tooth"! 👀🚨⏳

The lead single from this album 'Long in the Tooth' is a slice of coolness! It's a funky, edgy, semi-gritty, nostalgic, sharp cut that's honestly just irresistible! Sounds like it was made to spin on the turntable too! The spacey organ, guitar-like keys in the intro of the track, with those crisp drums sounds is such a nice start. Then you get those loud, medieval, vintage, moody horns, and afterwards comes the guitar. And oh my, when the the church-organs come in, it's perfection! I never pre-order albums now from the strength of a lead single, but had to do it with this one! This is one of the most promising lead single I've heard in years! Plus, I know this Budos Band album will be a joy to spin on the turntable! 👌

Also, I cannot wait to see what the store drops are going to be soon! I really liked the Kellee Patterson 'Maiden Voyage' drop last week! Hoping we get something as sweet as that album with this weeks' store exclusives! 🤞🙇‍♂️
 
2e7en said:
also, its one thing for the shipping to be late and come across issues on the way to me because the USPS is currently fucked up but its a whole different thing to just not ship anything at all!
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I ordered Bill Evans - In England directly from Resonance Records back on the 2nd May. The package arrived on the 19th June with 2 copies of the 2nd disk, so they said they would send a replacement. Still havent got it because USPS is refusing to send anything overseas. Resonance have been really great about it, checking every few weeks and letting me know (when I contact them). The problem is that they said the Fedex option is $77 compared to USPS price of $25.
 
Ive said this a few times now but VMP are an utter shitshow of a mess.

How they think a reply of "good news your order has been released, you should get shipping details soon" fulfills there customer service obligations is beyond me. I've actually had that message 3 times in the last 4 weeks. Guess what no change on progress. Approaching 2 months and I have no orders and no tracking emails just money spent and everything stuck on pending. I really shouldn't have gone back to them !
Id email for a refund but I expect that would be approved 3 weeks later with a "good news your refund will be "released" at some point in the future. Then I get my records the next day :rolleyes:
 
Has anyone gotten shipping updates on the Courtney Marie Andrews or Mojo Buford albums? Both orders were placed in April and still no shipping info. Getting radio silence from CS for past 5 days.
 
djdavedk said:
Discogs and eBay purchases are slow but they ship on time.

It’s the 19th and no shipment? That’s garbage service at a premium price.
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This right here.

I live in the U.S. I ordered a record from Germany. The seller contacted me (in German, which I had to use Google to translate), shipped the item, and I recieved that item from across an ocean.....all in the time-span it took Vinyl Me, Please to NOT get me any shipping info for records they knew I was obligated to receive based on a multi-month membership.
 
I would like to pile on here for all individual shipments - I now have 5 DHL tracking numbers being tracked for 5 albums....not a huge deal and I get the possible reasons, but it is just odd/funny. Also, two of my orders are Fiona Apple's "When The Pawn..." and "Idler Wheel..." - finally!! I think I can now drop my add on and go with only one track at least.
 
MadLucas said:
It's not just VMP that is a shipping shitshow.

I ordered an album on August 3 from another retailer that was due August 10. On August 13, it was saying it was processed in Jersey City, NJ. I got an update today that it is in Michigan.

I live in Connecticut.

In April I ordered a 7" from a private seller. It took 35 days to reach me.

Even if VMP were on top of their game, it's anyone's guess as to when/if stuff will arrive.
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But that's totally different. That's on USPS.
 
spilledleche said:
I'm guessing due to covid, everything in the fulfillment center is zoned out and you have pickers only filling orders from their specific zone. Without knowing the layout of the warehouse, there's a great chance in a huge fulfillment center like they use that their product may not be all together right now. Especially product that may be delayed from the pressing plants.

VMP sucks but knowing warehousing, it's also very easy for me to envision about a hundred different ways that order fulfillment can be messed up right now.
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RHANDMJ said:
I received three individual boxes from Amazon same day last week, same order. There is social distancing in fulfillment centres now, reduced staff to allow for that, uses of temporary warehouses because the usual ones can't hold the same number of employees. In many locations, CS staff may still be working from home, with the attendant issues in getting resolution from higher -ups that can create. Many companies are dealing with this as they try to strike a balance between good CS - which during a pandemic often means losing a bunch of money getting product to customers - and being financially viable.

European pressing plants were closed for several months. RTI was closed, and did not reopen at full capacity. There is already a shortage of lacquers made worse by Covid closures and costs have risen.

Yet, I have received a monthly box from VMP with some pretty amazing stuff throughout.

I dont dismiss that VMP has had issues but they are far from all coming from mismanagement. Most seem to be lingering from a botched system conversion, and unfortunately Covid likely made fixing that harder and longer.
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The thing is, if this were true (and I'm not necessarily disputing that it is), it would probably be in VMP's interest to explain that to their customers to let them know why they're receiving separate mailers for each record that they order. They could even use this to justify the significant price increase that was just announced.

Or they could say that they're raising their prices to hire additional customer service staff to ensure more timely responses to customer concerns.

Instead, they say that they're raising prices to get rid of customers and to maintain their high quality standards, like color variants that don't match the mock-ups and lazy reissues that they charge a premium for and "classics" that no one is asking for.

That's where the mismanagement comes in.
 
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