Album Circle

Seems to be just a more expensive version pf their record of the month Club from the UK ( apparently even the same album for july). The reason why never joined is that the same records exclusive was always on general sale, too and often on preorder for months before, so there was no incentive to join the club
 
I sent them my rant by email.

Open box that appears to have never been sealed properly, record not autographed and appears to the regular rough trade pressing.

I told them they appeared to ship the wrong item in my box.

Yup, gave this club a try. Done.
 
I sent them my rant by email.

Open box that appears to have never been sealed properly, record not autographed and appears to the regular rough trade pressing.

I told them they appeared to ship the wrong item in my box.

Yup, gave this club a try. Done.

I emailed for a refund and got a shipping label already. It's going back to them next week
 
I’m honestly not mad about the whole thing. I got mine today and genuinely like the album, the volvelle looks nice, and I even don’t mind the bag…it’s just disappointing how they felt they needed to mislead and shuffle off blame. I’d honestly have stayed if they fessed up to their error on the adverts and communicated with the artist to sign the sleeve or even the front of the dang bag (which was folded into quarters in the box for no apparent reason) and put any effort to the info on the Volvelle.

I cancelled due to the communication failures and laziness more than anything else. They at least introduced me to this band who I really dig a lot now.
 
I’m honestly not mad about the whole thing. I got mine today and genuinely like the album, the volvelle looks nice, and I even don’t mind the bag…it’s just disappointing how they felt they needed to mislead and shuffle off blame. I’d honestly have stayed if they fessed up to their error on the adverts and communicated with the artist to sign the sleeve or even the front of the dang bag (which was folded into quarters in the box for no apparent reason) and put any effort to the info on the Volvelle.

I cancelled due to the communication failures and laziness more than anything else. They at least introduced me to this band who I really dig a lot now.
I like the band too, and this sucks for them. What upsets me is the shady wording, the attempt to hide it on the site, and the significant upcharge for what were just wikipedia qr codes.
 
haha this was def. a pretty big letdown, just as far as the presentation goes especially for sure.. My signed paper pag was already tearing a bit due to the extra folding that wasn't even necessary. Then I get out the Volvelle which looked pretty cheap and uninspired but not the biggest deal so I try out the codes anyways to see what's going on.... A few codes later and i'm reading an article about a Mother of two that married a tree? umm ok..... A couple more qr codes later and im directed to a Ted talk on youtube? 🙄

Then to find out it was also the exclusive for the UK AOTM (looks to be the exact same color pressing as well?). This was pretty clearly just a quick and lazy money grab with none of the love and effort they expressed in the advert that got me to sign up.

The music itself seems ok.. Not something I would have ever bought myself but it was a somewhat decent listen I guess.

Ill be sending mine back as well.. If somehow I become a bigger fan of this band i'll just buy it for half the price without the national enquirer esque qr codes and ripped paper bag.
 
The latest thing people are complaining about is the autographed bags weren't exclusives either. That's how the record came autographed from other sources as well.

To me that says Album Circles claim that that was the artist decision was probably valid. This is also the issue I'm least concerned about.

When signing up it sounded like you would get something that's exclusive to Album Circle. That's not the case. I'm even more bothered by the fact that they blame us for making that assumption. "It's a rough trade service, you should have known you were getting a rough trade exclusive."
 
So what about the zoom chat. Did that happen, yet or is that just with the band and the five people that kept their record
 
So what about the zoom chat. Did that happen, yet or is that just with the band and the five people that kept their record

It hasn't happened yet. All they have said so far is stay tuned for further information about it. The plan was always to have it announced everyone got their record in the mail and knew what it was.

I'd imagine the audience will be about the same size as there are band members when it does take place.
 
So can someone recap how they messed up

So far stuff about not getting shipping notes and not really getting exclusives
 
So can someone recap how they messed up

So far stuff about not getting shipping notes and not really getting exclusives

The initial advertising read like you were getting something exclusive and that Album Circle would be unlike any record club that has come before.

However, they quickly back tracked and changed the copy on their website from "Exclusive" to "Rough Trade Exclusive" after virtually everyone called them out on it when the record arrived. They then intern blam us saying we should have been obvious to us that it was a rough trade exclusive as Album Circle is a Rough Trade Service. No we're sorry, just this is what it is. If you don't like it you can cancel and request a refund.

Essentially Album Circle is the same thing as Rough Trades UK Album of the month club. Except with a 40% markup for QR codes, and Q&A zoom session and an autograph.

There is no exclusivity, other than maybe the Q&A session.

Everyone who signed up thought they were signing up for something else. Rough Trade is being called out for Bait & Switch and false advertising.
 
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