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

Saw that apology email. Makes me think the ship is sinking fast if they’re resorting to finally acknowledging what they’ve been trying so hard for months to minimize and ignore. Maybe allow people to post comments on your IG posts again and I’ll believe that you’re making communication a priority with your little task force.

Mather said:
I wonder if anyone has me on ignore.

It's intriguing.

Now it's the only thing I want to know in the entire universe.
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That would be a fun little stat next to everyone’s avatar - just the number of people who have them on ignore haha.

Indymisanthrope said:
I can’t knock a spouse for wanting to believe the best in her partner and support the mission that puts bread on their table, as well as feeling some protective instincts against what must feel, from her POV, like the barbarians at the gate. The only reason any of us saw this message is because we sought it out. She’s a non-actor in this drama, and although it’s certainly eye roll-worthy in some respects from where we sit, I don’t personally feel like it’s totally in bounds for our forum to put her on blast.
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I’m not sure “marriage immunity” applies when she’s actively posting things publicly and directing them at a wider audience. It’s not like anyone is commenting on her relationship or any kind of personal attack on her. This isn’t a Baron Trump situation - she’s an adult who chose to get involved in the conversation. Wouldn’t it be condescending for us to think that being a wife or a mom means you’re too fragile or blindly irrational for people to respond critically to your public statements?

HiFi Guy said:
I attended a conference once whose premise was teaching a couple of key concepts.

The average consumer only tells a few people about their experiences with a product or service.

When someone feels they have had a great experience or are ecstatic with their purchase whether it be quality/value/price they may become a “brand ambassador” and tell anyone that will listen.

On the other side of the coin, an extremely dissatisfying experience may create “brand assassins”. They too will communicate their negative experience, which today with social media is very easy.

My take on all of this? VMP has created a posse of assassins, and they continue to supply them with ammunition.
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I work for a very large company and we all had training on something similar called “net promoter score” with customers who were “promoters” vs. “detractors.” I was excited about this push since I actually had meetings regularly with external clients and heard a lot of their frustrations with our business. But leadership got real cute with how they interpreted “customer” and decided that our only real customer was the finance dept, because they gave us funding to hire employees, and all of our clients signed contracts with the larger business, not with our team specifically. It’s some real bs.
 
Orders update: I’m back in DC. All of my packages were waiting at the post office for me! All but two of my VMP records were there, along with my Camaron de la Isla and single lock orders! Single lock also sent me a free tote bag! Thanks everyone for the good wishes!!! - I almost hugged the postal worker when she wheeled over the cart with everything in it lol.

vmp cancelled and refunded my “time for peace is now”, which feels appropriate, along with the King Britt presents Sister Gertrude Morgan.
 
So I've been a lurker for awhile (ever since lots of issues in November 19) and I cancelled in December due to those issues.

But from what I remember, Matt mailed some customers personal copies from a random drug store in Denver. He's also the guy who gave attention to emails within minutes (instead of months) last week. And if his wife's IG is to be believed, he spent a lot of time during the holidays working (as did his staff) trying to make things better.

Did he fully succeed? No. But does he deserved to be punched? Also no.

Overall, he (and the company) have never seemed unwilling to help. They just seem very very short-handed and misguided.

If I was that company, I would hire a Omsbudsman/Customer Relations person who can work deliberately, intentionally, and PROACTIVELY to turn assassins into ambassadors. ( h/t @HiFi Guy).

In my mind, that individual's contact information would be all over their website, their socials, and their emails. Additionally, they could actually be paid to do the reddit things that Storf and Pauly were doing ad-hoc. Beyond that, there are probably a dozen other ways to engage positively with this passionate community.

I remember someone posting that VMP has a chief experience officer, but I'm not sure what that individual does. However, if that role included proactive direct customer interaction, it might go a long way to retaining customers like me.
 
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DashMash said:
is there a TLDR of all this?
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FW4rdD5.gif
 
Wes C. Attle said:
I had to translate the question to “How embarrassed would you be if you recommended our service to a friend and they signed up and we continued to have a bunch of issues and they never got their records or they arrived damaged and we never responded to their replacement requests until it was too late, eventually resulting in the end of your friendship?”
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Good way of looking at it, but just make sure to reverse the scale, because that would be 10. 10 embarrassed.

Then again, does it ask who you would be recommending it to? Because a VMP reccomendation could be a real doozy of a prank.
 
High Rant District said:
Is 'Assassin' something I can graduate to from 'Member' or 'Well-Known Member'? How many points do I need?

Based on conversations I had with him during my first year as a subscriber with VMP way back when, I'd say that Matt Fiedler is a good human being. He gives a shit. I have no doubt he spent the holidays on his laptop trying to address issues while at home. Running a small business is no joke, especially when you've never done it before, and especially when you scale it up quickly. You learn (or don't) as you go. If he started another venture, I'd check it out. I like the guy.

I place almost all the blame on the guy that was hired to be COO - Lloyd Starr. He's in charge of operations. All the stuff that went rapidly downhill over the last two months is operations. The guy has prior experience in e-commerce and transitioning companies to different e-commerce platforms. This is all on him, IMO.

As far as being an internet tough guy: please stop. Be cool.
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"More time" will bother me forever
 
Ericj32 said:
Wouldn’t it be condescending for us to think that being a wife or a mom means you’re too fragile or blindly irrational for people to respond critically to your public statements?
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I agree with almost everything that you posted, except that my comments about her being a mother were more about her being a person that just recently had and is taking care of a brand new baby, not just being a mother, in general.
 
gafacaode said:
Just received the email asking if I would recommend Very Meaty Pizza to a friend. On a scale of 0-10.
Guess they are trying to assess the effectiveness of their "apology" email.
I gave them a big fat ZERO BTW
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I got this email too. I gave them a 2 with the following feedback:
(I'd say zero, but if Classics is Aretha Now, I'd be hyped for that despite all the recent BS.)

Pros:
- Classics are high quality reissues of albums that are often hard to come by.

Cons:
- Shipping has gone from bad to abysmal.
- Customer Service has gone from best in the business to condescending, automated responses that don't resolve the problem.
- Clear lack of respect for their customers (Ex. Owner's response to dissolving the forum, Owner's wife whining on Instagram, recent CS responses, Employee interactions on Reddit.)
- Lack of Quality Control
- Poor communication
- Lack of community (No more forums, no more Spins)
- New website is hard to navigate / not intuitive
- Many exclusives are not Members only.
 
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recordzzzzz said:
So I've been a lurker for awhile (ever since lots of issues in November 19) and I cancelled in December due to those issues.

But from what I remember, Matt mailed some customers personal copies from a random drug store in Denver. He's also the guy who gave attention to emails within minutes (instead of months) last week. And if his wife's IG is to be believed, he spent a lot of time during the holidays working (as did his staff) trying to make things better.

Did he fully succeed? No. But does he deserved to be punched? Also no.

Overall, he (and the company) have never seemed unwilling to help. They just seem very very short-handed and misguided.

If I was that company, I would hire a Omsbudsman/Customer Relations person who can work deliberately, intentionally, and PROACTIVELY to turn assassins into ambassadors. ( h/t @HiFi Guy).

In my mind, that individual's contact information would be all over their website, their socials, and their emails. Additionally, they could actually be paid to do the reddit things that Storf and Pauly were doing ad-hoc. Beyond that, there are probably a dozen other ways to engage positively with this passionate community.

I remember someone posting that VMP has a chief experience officer, but I'm not sure what that individual does. However, if that role included proactive direct customer interaction, it might go a long way to retaining customers like me.
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A lot of sense in this post.Glad you have moved from lurking to coming aboard. I remember doing the same myself and I can assure you that this place is very welcoming and rewarding. Great to Have another new member
 
Indymisanthrope said:
It would be, yes, but I don’t think that argument was made. More about whether the beef with her husband’s company extends to her* just because she shouted into the void and one of us happened to see it (and not by accident, but because they went and found it).

But it’s clear that many people have a different comfort level with this. Mine stands at “not going to be convinced that this is a good thing.” I think that a rule of thumb *for me* is that if we even have to discuss whether criticizing the CEO’s family member’s post is okay, then it would be better to err on the side of leaving her alone. But not everyone agrees with that take, and as long as the mods feel like it hasn’t crossed any lines, I’m okay with not continuing to try to make anybody else see it like I do.

*Edit: @Dead C I know your motivation was more nuanced than that and that I’m restating it incompletely. What you initially meant by posting it here and what I was initially responding to are different things. Just want to be clear that I’m not trying to mis-characterize the reasoning you already provided.
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Honestly it’s made me uncomfortable and I’m not sure I can fully articulate why. Maybe none of what’s been said has crossed a line, a public post is a public post, I’m just wary.
 
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