If you’re a member on a longer sub (and for some reason don’t ask for a refund) I think the move might be to swap for credit and then keep rolling it over on one month subs or use it to buy the store exclusives. It’s basically a free/cheap crate membership
Eh I don’t think it’s all that fishy. They knew the change was coming. They weren’t gonna announce that 3 months in advance. They likely realized that with the delays and financial issues that all this stuff was untenable to keep monthly ROTMs going on 3 tracks.
Dude. If it had been planned well (I’m not necessarily saying they forgot), they would have announced the plan instead of a record. It would have made more sense to announce it when there was a full slate instead of causing another big uproar and then classics being 3 MONTHS off from being available for the plan and the first one issued.
But the issue is that there IS no full slate right now. Which is why they are not doing ROTMs anymore haha. Supposedly they will try to announce 2-3 true exclusives each month as preorders and hope to make it eventually so they are in stock to order instead of preorder.
Wouldn't be shocked if some titles got pulled from them for not paying the labels or they were worried they wouldn't sell and stopped production. The titles were licensed already for Jan/Feb/March. The hints were in the mag and titles were confirmed by staff on discord.
I missed this nugget in the FAQs, "if you wish to cancel your membership and get a pro-rated refund (either for store credit or back to your original payment method)"
I believe you only have until some time in early February to do this. I don't think they will refund cash if you use store/member credit of course.
Given the change in terms of the subscription, they pretty much have to offer a refund since this is not what you signed up for or what they promised when you paid them. They give a date so they can say that silence as of that date in February implies consent with the changes. I think it is a no-brainer for everyone to seek a refund at this point.
I would think the swap for credit is a liability. Look at all of these folks with hundreds in unusable credits (nothing worth buying) sitting around bitching now. If VMP folds, there's going to be legal fights for that credit to be refunded i.e. debt. If VMP is stuck unable to fulfill existing orders due to a lack of cash flow, but they owe people either product or cash back, that's a problem. Credits are money paid up front i.e. loaned to VMP without fulfillment if unused.Also my reading was that the company doesn’t wanna do away with swap for credit either. It didn’t even seem like those convos had come up. Swap for credit is a goldmine for them. They get money and don’t have to ship anything out
I figured this forum would last longer than VMP, but to watch VMP crash and burn like they have has been the surprise. They never ran an efficient business but man they truly turned out to be inept as they continued to grow. I'm shocked how many people here still give them a single solitary dollar knowing what we've all known for well over a year now. I'll spin Ready to Die when they make the announcement that they are shutting down officially since that title is fitting.
I wouldn’t sit on hundreds in credit (which is why I said if you have a year long sub get your money back), but I don’t think one month’s credit is a liability. All depends on your situation IMO. They have had enough stuff for me the past few months to use credit on. I’m in a bit of different situation given mine were referral credits. I also like most of the jazz stuff they put out so can usually find something to pick up over time.
Also if VMP folds, customers aren’t gonna get shit back. Members can sue all they want but they are at the very long line list of creditors if they go under. See: bandbox. Banks, investors, pressing plants, labels, artists will all be ahead of customers who lost a few hundred bucks. For bandbox, the artists and pressing plants never got paid. Customers didn’t get a cent back and never will (aside from those who were able to do chargebacks)
I just pulled my VMP exclusive of Dan Deacan’s Spiderman Of The Rings off the self yesterday for the first time in an while and it reminded me what VMP could do when things were rolling. Great jacket with lots of sharp details the albums sounds great too. It’s such a a nice package and one they you could pick up as a swaption for under $30. They have always had random issues of varying degrees but when they do an album right they really did fill a nice hole in the industry.
