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

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
 
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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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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gouis said:
I’m the one it happened to and I’ve gotten over it. Life’s too short to let stuff like that bother you forever. It’s not like he killed my dog or something.
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He did it to all of us. I'm not sitting around thinking about it all day, but the idea that this dude cares so much about the community and it's 100% on some outside force is a joke to me.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
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.
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I just don't believe that everyone views pointing out her critique of us as an attack on her
 
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.
 
Dead C said:
I just don't believe that everyone views pointing out her critique of us as an attack on her
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I know. We’ve hit that weird point in the discussion where explaining our own views feels to the other person like we’re trying to further the argument, and I’m really not. I get and respect where you’re coming from.
 
Ericj32 said:
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.
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My company is obsessed with NPS. I'm sure that's exactly what this survey was for. Though it's interesting if this is the first one they've sent out.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
I know. We’ve hit that weird point in the discussion where explaining our own views feels to the other person like we’re trying to further the argument, and I’m really not. I get and respect where you’re coming from.
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I hear you. I feel the same way.

Plus, we all read and interpret everything differently, obviously. Part of my fear is anything I've posted reading to anyone else like I'm endorsing or encouraging legitimate attacks toward her, which is why I just keep trying to clarify that, I guess. I'm not even one to email Matt directly, but we are also all invested in this at different levels. They don't owe me $1,000 worth of merchandise. If they did, I might feel differently.

My main pushback, overall, is on any attempts to gaslight the customers or paint VMP as the true victims and displace blame elsewhere. I feel like they've done that enough for themselves from the beginning. VMP created these situations and has shown very little compassion, while continuously asking for it. It is what it is at this point. You stay or you don't. You work to get compensation or you don't.

As for VMP, If they are feeling the stress, that's a good thing. When you erase a forum, freeze and delete social media comments, ghost on reddit, and refuse to respond to customers who are dealing with outstanding issues -- many of which are creating problems in real time like delayed holiday gifts and overcharges -- that creates understandable frustration, if not rage. While I do believe that the new IG and email apology is the right move, I also view it as something they were forced into that they would have continued avoiding if they could have. I credit that to members pushing back and demanding that accountability, whether through exposing these issues on an increasingly more visible level, or other means. That's why I also view people throwing sentiments toward them like "I've had no problems. You have nothing to apologize for!! Customer for life!!!" as not only extremely counterproductive, but really shitty for those finally feeling some sort of hope their issues will get resolved. Let them take the hit and responsibility and feel it. Being allowed to continue sheltering themselves from the responsibility and accountability is bad for everyone on all sides.

Things like this are also a bad look

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Dead C said:
I hear you. I feel the same way.

Plus, we all read and interpret everything differently, obviously. Part of my fear is anything I've posted reading to anyone else like I'm endorsing or encouraging legitimate attacks toward her, which is why I just keep trying to clarify that, I guess. I'm not even one to email Matt directly, but we are also all invested in this at different levels. They don't owe me $1,000 worth of merchandise. If they did, I might feel differently.

My main pushback, overall, is on any attempts to gaslight the customers or paint VMP as the true victims and displace blame elsewhere. I feel like they've done that enough for themselves from the beginning. VMP created these situations and has shown very little compassion, while continuously asking for it. It is what it is at this point. You stay or you don't. You work to get compensation or you don't.

As for VMP, If they are feeling the stress, that's a good thing. When you erase a forum, freeze and delete social media comments, ghost on reddit, and refuse to respond to customers who are dealing with outstanding issues -- many of which are creating problems in real time like delayed holiday gifts and overcharges -- that creates understandable frustration, if not rage. While I do believe that the new IG and email apology is the right move, I also view it as something they were forced into that they would have continued avoiding if they could have. I credit that to members pushing back and demanding that accountability, whether through exposing these issues on an increasingly more visible level, or other means. That's why I also view people throwing sentiments toward them like "I've had no problems. You have nothing to apologize for!! Customer for life!!!" as not only extremely counterproductive, but really shitty for those finally feeling some sort of hope their issues will get resolved. Let them take the hit and responsibility and feel it. Being allowed to continue sheltering themselves from the responsibility and accountability is bad for everyone on all sides.

Things like this are also a bad look

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That is the definition of tone deaf. I wish there was a puke emoji or grimace emoji to give this post. Jesus.
 
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