First purchase on SpinCDs (UK online retailer) = bad experience

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Music Geek, Feb 21, 2015.

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  1. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph Thread Starter

    Location:
    Italy
    Tired of being completely dependent on Amazon I am trying different retailers. I ordered the new Van Der Graaf Generator 2 CD set from SpinCDs on 2nd February. The item was reported as "ships in 24 hours" and my card was charged that day.

    10 days later my order was still showing as "processing" so I contacted them. They came back saying "sorry out of stock, we will get more in the next couple of days". (On their website it still says "ships in 24 hours" though).

    Another 5 days passed, order still "processing" so I contacted them again asking for a refund. They came back saying "sorry for the delay, shipping today" and changed the order status to "shipped". This was Wednesday, it is now Saturday and the parcel has not arrived yet, which makes me think they haven't really shipped anything, my feeling reinforced by the fact that the item has been out of stock on Amazon UK for the last two weeks so probably they will not send anything until a new batch is sent to all retailers.

    As you can guess this is probably my first and last purchase from them.
     
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  2. dnuggett

    dnuggett Forum Resident

    Location:
    DFW Texas
    Sounds very shady. Did you get a tracking number? That'd be the way to know it shipped.
     
  3. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
    They do seem to have recently problems with (on time) deliveries. The last parcel got lost(?) in transit, but I got replacement after a month and a half. And now I am entering the fifth week waiting for another one, so another replacement(?) will be soon dispatched I guess.

    It is kind of sad that they are ruining their excellent years long reputation by such unnecessary negligence. :( Their new releases service is spot-on when it comes to rock music and I have been frequently pasting links with their announcements.

    I will be informing here about the new developments as I am looking forward to the feedback on my last missing shipment.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2015
    mckendrick likes this.
  4. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph Thread Starter

    Location:
    Italy
    Maybe they have a cash problem so it's "charge customer now ship items much later"?.... Maybe your lost parcels were never sent?
     
  5. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph Thread Starter

    Location:
    Italy
    One week after their supposed shipping date I haven't received anything yet. Given that this is a shipment within England and things never get lost the only explanation is that they claim to ship even when they do not have stock but actually they do not.

    Now I guess they will make me wait weeks before they accept that the parcel is "lost" and possibly send it for real when they get more stock.

    In a word: SCAMMERS.
     
  6. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
    Yesterday I asked them to provide me a (scan of the) shipping confirmation of my lost parcel. I am waiting for the response.
     
  7. jrice

    jrice Senior Member

    Location:
    Halifax, NS Canada
    My last attempt to purchase from Spin went very badly also. Ordered an "in stock" item, their credit card company charged my card and the wait began. This was a $100+ item by the way. After a month I questioned the delay and was told that their distributor had let them down but a second source was delivering one to them and they would have it by the end of the week. Waited another 3 weeks and asked again. The second distibutor had disappointed them and a third was on its way and they would have it by "next week". Gave them another 3 weeks and asked again - they now stopped talking to me. So I went to their site and went through the process to cancel my order and eventually got a refund. It's back to Amazon for me!
     
  8. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
  9. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph Thread Starter

    Location:
    Italy
    I sent them another email today asking them to let me know what is going on with my order or I will contact my card provider to dispute the charge.
     
  10. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
    I have given them a couple of hours more to respond to my mails before I do the same, but most probably I am only wasting my time. Here is what I found on Internet on their recent steep decline of reliability:
    http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=158538
     
  11. harmonica98

    harmonica98 Senior Member

    Location:
    London, UK
    Disappointing to hear this - I have had good experiences in the past but admittedly have not ordered anything recently. I would really rather not give my business to Amazon.
     
  12. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
    Breaking news: facing the alternative of either presenting a proof of the shipment or issuing an immediate refund, SpindCds chose the latter with the following message:
    Given the circumstances and the apparent inability to show a shipment confirmation there is very little hope for the parcel to suddenly materialize. However I have urged them to sign in here, apologize for the recent slump of service quality and promise a significant improvement to repair the badly tarnished reputation.

    I still cannot understand what has happened to the once excellent and reliable mail order service.
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2015
  13. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph Thread Starter

    Location:
    Italy
    After my threat of contacting my card provider I got the following reply:

    Many apologies for the poor service xxxxx, i think the package may have gone missing in the postal system. Unfortunately we do not have this item in stock at the moment so i have processed a refund for you. Sorry again for the inconvenience.
    Cheers Steve@Spin


    Clearly they lie about shipping things.
     
    mckendrick likes this.
  14. Graham

    Graham Senior Member

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    I made my first (pre)order with SpinCDs about four weeks ago, for the 3-LP deluxe Physical Graffiti. Money was taken straight away (despite being three weeks before release) and I got a shipping email on Sunday. It's now Friday and still nothing in the post.

    Like some above, I was trying to find an alternative to Amazon, and the price was decent at £30. Doubt I'll use them again now, even if the item does arrive early next week.

    Poor.
     
    mckendrick likes this.
  15. Graham

    Graham Senior Member

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    A week later and still no delivery.

    Emailed SpinCDs on Monday, eight days after receiving notification of shipping by email, and received this reply on Tuesday:

    Really sorry for the delay. A combination of late arrival of stock, and 50% of our workforce off with flu (great timing) have caused delays with shipping. We are giving the Led Zep orders priority so should be with you in the next 2-3 days, apologies again for any inconvenience.

    So shipping email was a lie and it's now three days later and nothing's shown up. I'm not in a rush, but this is a pretty poor performance.
     
    mckendrick likes this.
  16. kyodo_dom

    kyodo_dom Forum Resident

    I have used them intermittently for five years or more and never had a major problem (other than slow delivery, but I was rarely in a hurry) until a few hiccups last year. One thing I didn't like was the way they would suck the money off your credit card as soon as you placed an advance order for an item that was not going to be available for several months (as was the case with me last year). But my latest order (placed 26 January) is likely to be my last as the item (a book readily available in a bunch of other places) still hasn't shown up even though it was listed as being in stock on the day of ordering (turned out it wasn't) and was supposedly eventually shipped over a fortnight ago. Neither of my (polite) email inquiries asking whether it really has been shipped has been answered. Queries used to be dealt with much more promptly, but things definitely seem to have been going downhill in the past 12-15 months. A shame, as it's always nice to support the little guy, and I kept thinking, "oh, next time will surely be okay "...guess I was wrong 'bout that.
     
  17. Music Geek

    Music Geek Confusion will be my epitaph Thread Starter

    Location:
    Italy
    Luckily their refund has appeared on my credit card statement so it is the end of the story for me. There is really hardly any way to buy music products online in the UK outside the Amazon empire now. Wha a sad state of affairs.
     
    mckendrick likes this.
  18. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    Haven't used them in a while, but never had any problems, good to know their service isn't very good at the moment as I was considering ordering something from them, like others on this thread I wish there was a reliable and competitive alternative to Amazon.
     
    mckendrick likes this.
  19. jay.dee

    jay.dee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Barcelona, Spain
    I got my refund too. Until they get their act together and it gets confirmed by positive feedback from clients I am not going to use their service either. My last ordering attempt was preceded by double-checking emails to confirm that the selected items ARE IN STOCK, so there was really no excuse for them to fail delivering them.

    BTW, SpinCDs are aware of this thread, so I believe they are following it.
     
    mckendrick likes this.
  20. kyodo_dom

    kyodo_dom Forum Resident

    Yeah, it seems odd that in the UK there isn't at least one alternative to Amazon. A colleague of mine rates Rough Trade's on-line retail arm, though I haven't used RT myself so can't vouch personally. In the UK, I have never had any problems with Burning Shed or Honest Jon's, though I realise both of those are a little on the specialist side. You probably know about it, but Universal's online discount retailer (greatofferstore.com) has some decent deals.
     
  21. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    I do miss HMV and Sainsbury's Entertainment, both often undercut Amazon, I find RT expensive, Honest Jon's is fine although I keep meanig to get up there, at least to buy some of their own releases cheaper, never used Burning Shed, I have used Juno without any problems. Universal's thing seems fine, but they don't have much for me, I did get an email about a UK version of Pop Market, since then I've not received any Pop Market emails so I don't know if that's active. I'm sure we've all noticed Amazon getting more expensive as the competition disappears.:sigh:
     
  22. kyodo_dom

    kyodo_dom Forum Resident

    RE: #16

    Just to wrap this up - I finally got a reply from SpinCDs support (at the third attempt) and they agreed to send a replacement book, which arrived within four days (19 March).
     
  23. Fletcher MH

    Fletcher MH Forum Resident

    Here also a bad experience, ordered in march 3 picture discs (over 40 pounds) and still waiting. No reply on emails. So be warned..
     
    mckendrick likes this.
  24. gazatthebop

    gazatthebop Forum Resident

    Location:
    manchester
    A whole bunch of people are still waiting for their RSD purchases from Spin dating back to February, when the orders were placed.

    I recommend The Rock Box in Camberley Surrey for mail order
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2015
  25. Thomas Casagranda

    Thomas Casagranda Forum Resident

    I've ordered the new remasters of Van Morrison's Too Late to Stop Now, and the companion 3CD, 1 DVD sets from Spin. They debited my account on 29th May 2016, and the albums were due out on 10th June 2016. They haven't arrived, and the phone at Spin is continually, and constantly, engaged.

    I'm wondering if they are having cashflow / solvency issues, and that they are going down the chute. I'm going to have to reclaim the money from my debit card if Mr Brooks and his employees don't pick up the phone. For a long time, they were a great company to deal with, but now they've become disappointing. Emails are not responded to, and the website doesn't appear updated with new items.
     
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