De Agostini - 'The Beatles Vinyl Collection' mail order set via subscription

Seems the best place to buy any of these offerings from this Co is from the shops.

 

Ok, so I bought the complete run of Beatles albums in this partwork from the local shops but it was only at Christmas time that I was able to splash out on a nice new turntable and actually start listening to them. They do sound lovely but...

Apart from the obvious problem with AHDN I have found them riddled with problems. So far, I've listened to the 13 studio albums, Red, Blue and "1" and this is the list of problems:

MMT - pops and crackles Side 1 and bad scratch across several tracks on Side 2
YS - very crackly Side 2
White - Click through tracks 3 & 4 on Side 1
Red - visible sort of scuff marks across all four sides (is this the dreaded non-fill I have heard about?). Side 3 is unlistenable to with a sort of buzzing distortion sound at times.
Blue - same sort of problem on one side
"1" - terrible interference kind of noise at start of Side 4

That's six albums out of the sixteen I've played which, in my opinion, are faulty enough to need replacing. I must stress that I'm not uber fussy and some of the other records have the odd pop of brief clicking that I can live with.

My question is, is there anyone out there who was a non-subscriber and who bought these in the shops who has had any joy with getting these replaced from De Agostini? Do I have any chance at all? I presume they'll send me AHDN but what about these others? I have a fear that there will be more by the time I work my way through the Anthologies etc.

 

Snowmageddon!!!

 

I have had great service from their customer service department regarding replacing AHDN. Try it!

 

Anyone who has had experience of replacing shop-bought issues via their customer care other than AHDN?

 

Yes - I think others should answer if possible to this question as well (to be as fair to the company as possible as I'm sure I've read at lest one other got replacements fine) BUT...

....they have been dragging their heels like crazy over replacing my copy of Help. I've emailed twice to 'remind' them but they keep saying it's out of stock. Really? Would this apply to the other countries it's been released in as well? Without repeating the rest of what I've said in the past, they still tell me they're also sending me a copy of Abbey Road, when that's also back in stock. But I already have two, including another they sent in error and I've told them twice to send me no more copies of that issue but they still say they are going to send me it again.

(Note: I did get my AHDN replacement ok, without too much of a wait but got a 2nd 'faulty' one first, like others did.)

 

I've had no problem with replacement records and I've just received a new USB charger, a week after asking via email.

 

I decided against subscribing and bought all my copies in various WH Smiths branches across London.
I thought the quality of the records was generally very good but my copy of Revolver was very disappointing, numerous scuffs and crackles on both sides. It was the only copy of Revolver I personally saw on sale in London (and Brighton) during the two weeks it was out.
I suppose I should have bought it back to the shop for a refund or replacement but my better half bought me a sealed 2014 mono version for my birthday shortly after and my disappointment faded.
I don't think I'll try my luck with the infamous Deagostini customer services for any replacements, even if they do them for non subscribers. I enjoyed collecting them but for over nine months I couldn't walk past a WH Smith without going in to see if they stock them!

 

What is the selection like in Head in Belfast and what happened to the Head stock in Dublin? I was looking forward to a liquidation sale....on cd as well as vinyl(s).

 

Head in Belfast used to be excellent but, last time I was in at Christmas, the stock was seriously diminished. Perhaps one of our Belfast correspondents (Culabula, maybe?) might be in a better position to give a view.

I was only in Head in Dublin once. Prices were far too rich for my blood.

 

When Head opened near me I bought Deep Purple Live in California? triple vinyl LP for 13euro and a Guns and Roses Spaghetti for 16 euro......and then the prices kept going up and up. Their stock kept increasing, maybe they moved it around where they thought it could sell. I don't know where their buyer was sourcing from as I saw Italian and US imports. And now I chase deleted cds for the day when they too become collectables. I picked up a Free promo CD of Songs of Yesterday FREECD1 which I saw going for around 100 euro in France & Germany. . . .Once my vinyl is sold off one piece at a time (to get maximum value) then it's the CDs....

 

Don't cd's just stop working without any warning no matter how well they are looked after. Paying over the top for them is an odd thing to do. Cheer's Dean.

 

In response to Smackswell, Head has closed entirely in Belfast. Very sad and the staff were only informed hours before the end.

As regards to my query about getting replacements as a non-subscriber, I sent a very polite email to De Agostini on the 10th April detailing exactly what was wrong with all eleven of the issues that really bad faults with the vinyl. I heard nothing back from De Agostini but did get an email from the quality assessment team asking me to rate the service I had received from one of their staff whom they named. As this person had never sent me anything it would be very difficult to rate their service! Checked all my trash and junk folders and nothing. I sent them another email on the 16th pointing this out and nothing back again.

Great service.

 

“A Hard Day’s Night” in Italy and Japan – DeAgostini Beatles Japanese Vinyl Collection Magazine/Album

 

Regarding the Anthology LP sets from this series: do they use the same masters as the original CD's and vinyl from the 90's or do they use the remastered versions that were used for the iTunes releases a few years ago?

 

Thank God my subscription is now complete. After some teething problems after the first few months pretty much smooth sailing since.

Not all of the records are perfect, but no problems that make we want to call DeAgostini again. This is the first time I've had all the Beatles albums, and the only Beatles vinyl I have. As a non-audiophile, non-collector, I'm happy with the sound on these.

Just out of interest, are there any subscribers that more or less had a perfect run pressing-quality wise?

 

Delayed response (way delayed lol):

I misunderstood and was thinking they were also correcting the original problem with the opening chord found on the 2012 lp and 2009 cd reissue editions.

 

How were the "Revolver" LP's overall ?
Thanks for any info on your experience with this title..

 

Yes, with a couple of exceptions. However, was easy to trade for a new copy at Tesco.
Disappointment that the Red and Blue were not all analogue, though.

 

Decent. Better than the CD. I'm spinning it right now, again.

 

Me. I don’t recall having problems with a single one, except their own "own goals" such as 'A Hard Day's Night'.

 

Ok... appreciate it.

 

How was the "Rubber Soul" LP ?
any problems with that one, as some of the others..
In U.S. and they are nowhere..
Thanks for info!

 

Never mind, not necessary anymore... too late.

 

Nice. They must have repressed AHDN as I got mine out of sequence and it doesn't have the problem with the opening chord that I've read about.