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

[MikeH]

Hey @Enoch thanks for sharing. I, for one, was curious what they had to say in your meeting. I have been one of the lucky few that hasn’t had as widespread issues with shipping, damages, etc. But I have let my subscription lapse after probably 3 or 4 years on and off just due to the overall direction the company has gone in and how they chose to treat many of their formerly loyal customers.

I figured the return policy would be changed eventually because there were people flipping “damaged” records on reddit fairly often as well as other places. I generally saw that as an unsustainable policy and that people would take advantage of it. So I’m not surprised that Lloyd mentioned that. But their CS response to many people asking for replacements even after showing bad warping or popping has been pretty atrocious as of late.

Anthology has been a bit of a shitshow but they are taking care of some of the issues from that (hopefully). I anticipate that it will be the last thing I buy from VMP for awhile. If Lloyd helps right the ship, then good for him and for the company. Unlike many here, I don’t want them to fail. But I also just don’t want to support the company in their current state when there are so many other great labels and services out there who care more about their customers. Deleting the old forum and their responses to that plus the way the Anthology page has been run have put a poor taste in my mouth and their continuous mistakes, pressing defects, preorders that don’t arrive for months (or not at all in some cases), knocking existing members from getting new AOTMs because they oversold, etc all make me happy that I chose to leave when I did.

If they ever get their shit together, maybe I will rejoin. For now, I’ll choose to support other labels and companies. But again, appreciate you updating us on the matter. Have a good one!

 

[MikeH]

On a completely different note, I am getting a replacement copy of Stars. Has anyone received a replacement yet, and did it have the same problem?

Got a shipping notice but no record yet. Should get here in a few days and I’ll let ya know if there are still issues! I believe someone already got their replacement and said the issue was still there.

 

[GritNGlitter]

BTW, to go back to my personal experience from the first paragraph: long story short, but the way that that story ends is with me communicating with them for a little while about said issues, offering them advice and insight, inquiring about a career opportunity with them, being turned down, and never hearing from Matt, Amy, or any higher-up at VMP ever again.

Yikes. Not a great look, VMP.

Thanks for sharing your experience. It does help provide greater context.

 

[Urbs_hott]

If people can't complain about VMP in the VMP thread, where can they? This is the right thread for it.

No one ever said this was a Pro- VMP thread.

 

[Renée]

Hey, is the Lil Kim any good? Or is there somewhere else I could get it cheaper?

 

[VMPKJ]

@goodoohuru you've missed the beginning of a beautiful new future where we all recommend each other amazing stuff from around the world rather than a bunch of yanks recommending us a very narrow window of American stuff by men...

Do you loath all Americans and all men, or just American men? I mean the company is based in the US and primarily sells to the US.... Not surprising they would cater to that somewhat, even if it's unintentional. You could just say you have different or more broad tastes without the shot.

 

[Joe Mac]

Do you loath all Americans and all men, or just American men? I mean the company is based in the US and primarily sells to the US.... Not surprising they would cater to that somewhat, even if it's unintentional. You could just say you have different or more broad tastes without the shot.

Neither. It’s just stark how unadventurous they are for a company that markets itself on being adventurous...

 

[pijo]

@goodoohuru - I can’t believe your ditching me. That’s so malamante of you

Who’s going to wake up with me and put the kettle on every Thursday morning, when the exclusives drop!

PIJOOOOO, Pijooooooooooo! *In Rosalia’s voice*.....Are you going to be my new waking-up buddy? @pijo

Haha welcome back!

But no, I am not your waking up buddy. For one, you may recall I'm simply no good at it. I'm getting old. Furthermore, I'm not making a big thing of it but I'm bailing out of vmp for now at least. The last two months have been swap months for me, and not easy to find swaps, more scrolling up and down and figuring ok that'll have to do. I went too hard on catching up on past releases so now there's nothing left for me in the swaps! And the whole anthology thing has been somewhat predictably exhausting. I'm spending plenty of money on records without VMP's help, and the treatment of the old forum was such a cold and disappointing chapter. The anthology brackets the before and after and is deeply symbolic of the whole shamozzle - so good, so bad.

I'm glad you're back, and as your forum friend/big bro, I'm going to say that I will be calling you out if I see inappropriate behaviour, excessive innuendo etc. Previously I tended to ignore or not engage and just enjoy the fantastic aspects of your personality, but I realise that there will be others who are more personally offended or hurt by this, and I want everyone to feel comfortable hanging out around here.

 

[Wes C. Attle]

On a completely different note, I am getting a replacement copy of Stars. Has anyone received a replacement yet, and did it have the same problem?

I received my replacement and it had the same popping plus a crushed corner and the back cover printing was off-centered

 

[Selaws]

Out of interest, has anyone emailed CS over the past couple of days and received a response?

I have mentioned it in a couple of threads now but I went to check the ROTM under my membership and for some reason it looks like the R&HH sub has been removed for me. Not sure why I have been 'Kicked Out' but I emailed VMP and still haven't heard back. I also messaged their Instagram account, gave my email upon their request, and was told it had been forwarded directly to CS as a priority. I want to have it all ironed out before swaps close

 

[goodoohuru]

Out of interest, has anyone emailed CS over the past couple of days and received a response?

I have mentioned it in a couple of threads now but I went to check the ROTM under my membership and for some reason it looks like the R&HH sub has been removed for me. Not sure why I have been 'Kicked Out' but I emailed VMP and still haven't heard back. I also messaged their Instagram account, gave my email upon their request, and was told it had been forwarded directly to CS as a priority. I want to have it all ironed out before swaps close

Did you select an RHH sub last month? The only thing I can ascertain is that if you didn't, they've only fulfilled orders for folk that had their RHH subs active from the previous month.

Same thing happened to me, but I cancelled my membership which ends on the 1st, so thought that might have been the reason my RHH sub disappeared.

 

[Selaws]

Did you select an RHH track last month? The only thing I can ascertain is that if you didn't, they've only fulfilled orders for folk that had their RHH tracks active from the previous month.

Same thing happened to me, but I cancelled my membership which ends on the 1st, so thought that might have been the reason.

I've had the R&HH sub attached to my membership since the beginning and haven't cancelled since it started. I only realised it had been taken off because I wanted to see what the swaps were for essentials and happened to notice R&HH was missing.

Strange one for sure and hopefully they can sort it. I want confirmation before the cut off point (which I believe is in 3 days time?) as I am cutting out essentials from my order and want to shift things around.

 

[goodoohuru]

I've had the R&HH sub attached to my membership since the beginning and haven't cancelled since it started. I only realised it had been taken off because I wanted to see what the swaps were for essentials and happened to notice R&HH was missing.

Strange one for sure and hopefully they can sort it. I want confirmation before the cut off point (which I believe is in 3 days time?) as I am cutting out essentials from my order and want to shift things around.

Good luck mate.

 

[Teeeee]

For those of you have completely left VMP and have for a while, may I ask why some of you feel the need to continue to comment on this thread? I get some of you are really mad at VMP and that is 100% fine, I get why you are and don't blame you at all for feeling that way. But I do wonder if it is healthy for you to follow this thread/comment here. Is it worth the time/mental energy to still monitor here and remind yourself of why you left? This is not directed at anyone in particular, I was thinking about this last night well after I was last on the forum. Just a thought, if you feel that it is good for you then by all means continue to view and comment.

The reason given today was the forum was created in a much different time in the company's history and is not where the company is today. I get that. He also mentioned that while over 90% of the forum was great, when it got bad it got really bad. He admitted they received great feedback from the forum. He said (and take this however you want) that they thought a space like that should be just about music and not a company.



You missed that this is a VMP thread on this forum and some people still care (to what degree is up to them). If you don't care that is great you don't have to. If you don't care may I ask why you are even in this thread and feel the need to comment on this? You have checked out, so check out. I know this is very direct, but this thread is set up for people to still follow and get info about VMP and I just gave info, that is the point.

So why do you care about responding to my post if you have no interest in VMP anymore. I don’t mean this rhetorically. I am genuinely curious.

@Enoch - I have stood up for your right to be in here and to say what you want and for people not to be rude and demeaning to you. The same thing goes for anyone else that wants to post in here. Your posts asking those of us that don't like VMP why we post in here is coming off as confrontational and a gate keeper. I'm not sure if that is your intention or not but I wanted to let you know that is how I am interpretting it.

Short answer why I'm in here: Because I want to be. And I honestly don't think I need to even explain that.

Longer answer: Because I want to be. I find it fascinating how far VMP has fallen. It is like a case study to me. How much lower can they go? How many more ways can they insult their customers? They truly are blazing new trails in customer dissatisfaction and I am here to witness it. I'm not even angry at VMP. I'm amused.

For the people that just want to come in this thread for VMP info and don't want to wade through all the other stuff, ok, sure, I get that. But how is this thread any different from any other thread that goes off the rails? And also, the anger towards anyone that takes usoff the rails is misplaced. This forum is not the official VMP forum. This forum has zero obligation to advertise, problem solve, trouble shoot, etc for VMP. It is extremely gracious that this forum does have any information at all about VMP products. If people want to be angry about not having correct info or easily findable info on VMP products, be angry at VMP. They had a fricking forum that they shut down that had the information. They had a closed thread that was just for exclusives that had no extraneous stuff in it. VMP shut it down. Direct that anger at VMP, not at this forum that is, IMO, far too good to be diminished by mentions of VMP at all.

2 cents and all.

 

[ohcalebbeck]

Just a thought for @mcherry and @gouis and @Enoch and @everyoneelseinthisthread

First off I wanna thank @Enoch and @chrb98 for sharing their thoughts/experiences with vmp for those who care, it is super cool of you.

I know I am not a super active poster around here but I do a lot of lurking as I did in the other place. Would it maybe be a better idea to keep this kind of stuff in the RIP vmp forum thread? Obviously these are conversations that should happen and that people have a right to have.
However I feel like whenever VMP comes up threads get derailed with negativity and arguing.

If I remember correctly this thread was made for those people who want keep tabs on what vmp releases, meaning those people who follow it haven't sworn off vmp entirely and probably want a positive environment to discuss new releases and announcements. I think the disputes come from people who want to use these threads for different purposes.

EDIT: Not trying to be pushy or a gatekeeper or anything, but I think we all want a place to discuss music with as little negativity as possible. People who dont like vmp want to be able to vent without being told their wrong and people who are still invested in vmp don't like being told their wrong either. I think it would be an easy solution and would reduce confrontations like this.

 

[gouis]

Just a thought for @mcherry and @gouis and @Enoch and @everyoneelseinthisthread

First off I wanna thank @Enoch and @chrb98 for sharing their thoughts/experiences with vmp for those who care, it is super cool of you.

I know I am not a super active poster around here but I do a lot of lurking as I did in the other place. Would it maybe be a better idea to keep this kind of stuff in the RIP vmp forum thread? Obviously these are conversations that should happen and that people have a right to have.
However I feel like whenever VMP comes up threads get derailed with negativity and arguing.

If I remember correctly this thread was made for those people who want keep tabs on what vmp releases, meaning those people who follow it haven't sworn off vmp entirely and probably want a positive environment to discuss new releases and announcements. I think the disputes come from people who want to use these threads for different purposes.

EDIT: Not trying to be pushy or a gatekeeper or anything, but I think we all want a place to discuss music with as little negativity as possible. People who dont like vmp want to be able to vent without being told their wrong and people who are still invested in vmp don't like being told their wrong either. I think it would be an easy solution and would reduce confrontations like this.

This is a good idea, however we like things to be as open and non-controlling as possible. Telling people where they’re allowed to post usually does not go well.

But yes any discussions about the old place should probably go in the RIP thread. If y’all also want to use that to hash out issues with VMP as a whole go to town. It would be nice if this thread could be used as a place to discuss the music in the store.

 

[Nee Lewman]

You can swap for Joel Ross? I'm definitely going to do that!
Did you just email and ask to do it?

I mean I guess it’s insensitive but I do find humor in how ridiculous people are. Rick & Morty fans sending McDonalds death threats over a sauce, people threatening Wendy’s over spicy nuggets, some idiot sending VMP threats over records. I realize real mental illness exists, but hell, I have to take a step back and laugh at how stupid all of that is.

I mean there is a reason it only got one reaction dude. A statement like the one I quoted here gets to the heart of the matter and doesn’t come off as just bad.

 

[ohcalebbeck]

This is a good idea, however we like things to be as open and non-controlling as possible. Telling people where they’re allowed to post usually does not go well.

But yes any discussions about the old place should probably go in the RIP thread. If y’all also want to use that to hash out issues with VMP as a whole go to town. It would be nice if this thread could be used as a place to discuss the music in the store.

Yeah that is a good point, I don't wanna tell anyone what they can/can't say in a particular place. I just hate to see @Enoch get semi-targeted, I really think he had the right intentions. We are all adults so we should be able to keep it civil. I think its important to not only think about what you say but also how the people reading it will perceive it.

 

[supahypeag]

I completely agree with @ohcalebbeck but would like to take the opportunity to thank all of those who are not current fans or subscribers of VMP for providing context or other information/cheaper sources about new stuff in the store. For example, I was very happy to save 13 bucks on the Sonny Rollins, and I would not have done that without the info from members of this forum and participants in this thread. I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t expect or want this thread to be pure VMP sunshine, but all comments on the store releases - positive and negative, pro and anti VMP - are helpful and I welcome all of them. That’s just my opinion though.

 

[gouis]

Yeah that is a good point, I don't wanna tell anyone what they can/can't say in a particular place. I just hate to see @Enoch get semi-targeted, I really think he had the right intentions. We are all adults so we should be able to keep it civil. I think its important to not only think about what you say but also how the people reading it will perceive it.

Yes but TBF that would likely also happen in the other thread if people want to argue about VMP. However what it would do by moving the discussion there is to let this thread actually serve what it is meant to do.