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

Andy said:
I have to give a bit of praise to VMP customer service. I know they get a lot of hate on here, and it can't be easy. But they sometimes get it right & they are always trying their best.

I just got my copy of Eugene Mcdaniel's Outlaw, a record a put back in the racks over 20 years ago when I picked up the Headless Heroes repress (something I've regretted for a long time). I sat down after another shitty day of zoom calls, washed down some food with beer & wine then opened the latest delivery. Put the needle on the record, sounded great, it gets to the intro of silent majority (one of the best songs ever), and starts to pop, then gets stuck in locked a groove. Only 300 of these pressed & I must have ordered it months ago, I think there is no chance. I e-mail customer services, put on another record and before the first track has finished they have responded and processed a new order.
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I wonder if they are finally prioritizing certain "buckets" of CS requests. It seems to me that if you send them a note through zendesk and say there's an issue with playback, they get back to you pretty quickly. I sent them a nice note this AM saying that my Sampa had something melted into the wax and I understood that they likely do not have replacements but would like a refund if not. I got a response about 2 hours later saying they had refunded me and given me store credit and apologized saying they didn't have any copies left.
 
MikeH said:
I wonder if they are finally prioritizing certain "buckets" of CS requests. It seems to me that if you send them a note through zendesk and say there's an issue with playback, they get back to you pretty quickly. I sent them a nice note this AM saying that my Sampa had something melted into the wax and I understood that they likely do not have replacements but would like a refund if not. I got a response about 2 hours later saying they had refunded me and given me store credit and apologized saying they didn't have any copies left.
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Think you could be right, in the zen desk response I selected on option with 'playback / locked grooves', I also added a video. Still impressive, it was probably less than 3 minutes & I had an e-mail confirming a new order.
 
MikeH said:
I wonder if they are finally prioritizing certain "buckets" of CS requests. It seems to me that if you send them a note through zendesk and say there's an issue with playback, they get back to you pretty quickly. I sent them a nice note this AM saying that my Sampa had something melted into the wax and I understood that they likely do not have replacements but would like a refund if not. I got a response about 2 hours later saying they had refunded me and given me store credit and apologized saying they didn't have any copies left.
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I’d, personally, be furious with that outcome. If I didn’t have a working version of something I’d bought I’d expect 100% back as cash, not a credit note.
 
Joe Mac said:
Oh sorry, I clearly didn't read it properly lol.
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No you did read it properly haha. I have asked for a refund which they will give to me. It's happened before. They automatically go to store credit hoping that you'll accept that but I just ask for a refund instead and usually have it back in my original payment method within a day or two. They have been surprisingly good about that to me in the past...
 
mdmost said:
If anyone wants a cool Mmm Food variant but don't want to give VMP money, Turntable Lab got some more of the Rhymesayers versions.

www.turntablelab.com

MF Doom: MM..Food (Colored Vinyl) Vinyl 2LP

Buy MF Doom: MM..Food (Colored Vinyl) Vinyl 2LP at TurntableLab.com, a Better Music Store Experience since 1999.
www.turntablelab.com www.turntablelab.com
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Such an amazing album! A fun album to play on the turntable too! Can’t recommend it enough! 😍
 
MikeH said:
I wonder if they are finally prioritizing certain "buckets" of CS requests. It seems to me that if you send them a note through zendesk and say there's an issue with playback, they get back to you pretty quickly. I sent them a nice note this AM saying that my Sampa had something melted into the wax and I understood that they likely do not have replacements but would like a refund if not. I got a response about 2 hours later saying they had refunded me and given me store credit and apologized saying they didn't have any copies left.
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I think maybe they’ve worked out how to use Zendesk (or they’ve added CS staff). I had emails about sound issues on two records that I received a reply on quickly and asked whether I wanted a replacement or store credit. I responded and then heard nothing back. I followed up more recently and had an answer within hours, two new orders created (and both have since shipped) and they fixed up the BVSC 20% credit that hadn’t been applied. If the CS experience was always that good they’d be averaging a 4.5+ out of 5 in customer satisfaction.
 
Margo Guryan is delayed...

Annotation 2020-08-21 225831.jpg


And it was a bit odd getting an email about a delay. Second one ever from VMP I think....after getting the email yesterday about the Dead Anthology delay.
 
mudketeer said:
I think maybe they’ve worked out how to use Zendesk (or they’ve added CS staff). I had emails about sound issues on two records that I received a reply on quickly and asked whether I wanted a replacement or store credit. I responded and then heard nothing back. I followed up more recently and had an answer within hours, two new orders created (and both have since shipped) and they fixed up the BVSC 20% credit that hadn’t been applied. If the CS experience was always that good they’d be averaging a 4.5+ out of 5 in customer satisfaction.
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Meanwhile they haven't answered my email from early August, nor my Paypal disputes. Clearly, something is not working somewhere.
 
MikeH said:
Fair enough. I've wanted this album for awhile (lost out on an OG pressing on ebay not that long before this repress) so I didn't entirely buy this for the color/mockup. I haven't spun mine yet but glad to hear it sounds good!

I'm not entirely sure how they do these mockup images...does the pressing plant actually make one and take a pic of it? I'm guessing its not 'shopped...If so, I'm guessing that the pressing plant has the same disclaimer that VMP has now.
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I think they are shops. I think for this variant VMP chose Side A/Side B effect combined with color in color.

GZ has a disclaimer that for A/B "These types of records are generally made from solid colours. The effect is totally random on both sides of the record. We recommend choosing high contrasting colours for maximum effect."
Also, "Improper/wrong combinations where the final effect will be less visible/significant are black and red, red and orange, dark blue and black."

And for color in color "We recommend to use contrast colours, preferably a large vinyl biscuit of a light transparent colour and a small vinyl biscuit of a solid dark colour. It cannot be used reversely. In case both of the vinyl biscuits are solid the final effect is random, colours are penetrated and the final effect is rather A side / B side effect."
Also, "please note that the end effect completely depends on the colours that you choose and that we cannot guarantee that the smaller central colour will always be visible on both sides of the record."

Which I interpret to mean that expecting the Skull Session color to come out like the mock-up is very optimistic.

GZ offers a paid service for all colored vinyl that they will send you a sample for approval before they press the lot, but I doubt VMP elects to do that. I would imagine the implication if you don't choose to do that is you take what you get.
 
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dhodo said:
I think they are shops. I think for this variant VMP chose Side A/Side B effect combined with color in color.

GZ has a disclaimer that for A/B "These types of records are generally made from solid colours. The effect is totally random on both sides of the record. We recommend choosing high contrasting colours for maximum effect."
Also, "Improper/wrong combinations where the final effect will be less visible/significant are black and red, red and orange, dark blue and black."

And for color in color "We recommend to use contrast colours, preferably a large vinyl biscuit of a light transparent colour and a small vinyl biscuit of a solid dark colour. It cannot be used reversely. In case both of the vinyl biscuits are solid the final effect is random, colours are penetrated and the final effect is rather A side / B side effect."
Also, "please note that the end effect completely depends on the colours that you choose and that we cannot guarantee that the smaller central colour will always be visible on both sides of the record."

Which I interpret to mean that expecting the Skull Session color to come out like the mock-up is very optimistic.

GZ offers a paid service for all colored vinyl that they will send you a sample for approval before they press the lot, but I doubt VMP elects to do that. I would imagine the implication if you don't choose to do that is you take what you get.
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VMP gets mockups for their ROTMs because they have photo shoots for album announcement day. Seems weird they don’t do it for exclusives but they have said the exclusives go direct from GZ to their fulfillment center.
 
MikeH said:
VMP gets mockups for their ROTMs because they have photo shoots for album announcement day. Seems weird they don’t do it for exclusives but they have said the exclusives go direct from GZ to their fulfillment center.
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Don't they usually have them in the warehouse by announcement day, though, in order to be able to start shipping them that week? I think White Stripes was an exception to that, but that is understandable with their explanation. The lead time on getting a sample, okaying full production and then getting them seems like it has to be at least a month or more sometimes.
 
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dhodo said:
Don't they usually have them in the warehouse by announcement day, though, in order to be able to start shipping them that week? I think White Stripes was an exception to that, but that is understandable with their explanation. The lead time on getting a sample, okaying full production and then getting them seems like it has to be at least a month or more sometimes.
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True. And that’s likely why they don’t do it for exclusives since they are all preorders now and often are already a month or so behind other shops in sending out exclusives...
 
MikeH said:
True. And that’s likely why they don’t do it for exclusives since they are all preorders now and often are already a month or so behind other shops in sending out exclusives...
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Seems like with their crazy pre order lead times, they should be able to squeeze that sample in there, but I wouldn't be surprised if they either don't care, since the mock-up sells better than a real picture would, or they get one, approve it, and say eh, good enough.

Edit: Although, considering their business model with these exclusives seems to be: get money first, then order (or seems so based on those lead times), I'm not sure what they would do if they weren't happy with the sample. If the reason the sample is bad is that it was just an ill advised combination, like GZ warns against, the only solution would be to change the design, which would also anger the people who paid for the mock up.
 
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Got two decently sized boxes today.

Skull Sessions, Big Bill, Beths, When The Pawn, and Money Talks + Buena Vista.

My Skull Sessions I'd put middle of the road visually in terms of what's been shown so far. I'm not blown away, nor am I disappointed.

They really nailed the Buena Vista packaging. It looks and feels incredible. Can't wait to get it on the TT.
 
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