UGH- people packing LPs poorly

Where else can i gripe about this but here to my fellow geeks.

I just dropped $55 on a Classic Records pressing of My Generation LP.

I’m soooo lucky it arrived in one piece. It’s stuck in an LP mailer with no protection. The LP was taking out of the cover (which is good) but there was nothing between it and the brutal USPS except that one measly wall of the cardboard mailer. I still left positive feedback but sent him a message.

He returns the message with ‘Ive been selling vinyl for 10 years and only had one record damaged and it had padding’.

Is it just me? I’ve been buying vinyl online regularly for like 8 years, and I’ve had records snapped, cracked, bent, you name it multiple times.....all with records with no cardboard stiffeners.

 

I had one wrapped in cellophane once. It was broke in about ten pieces. Glad it wasn't anything too special. I've seen both good and bad and everything in between.

 

I used to keep a collection of photos of poorly packed records that came to me with damage. Most originated from the UK, but there seem to be plenty of "optimistic" sellers from all over the world. I fail to be able to see how people can be so foolish as to expect that the fragile and expensive item they are about to send halfway around the world won't need some sturdy packaging. Mail gets dropped (hopefully not into a pond), or other heavy packages might ride on top, duh. More than once I've witnessed a mail carrier attempt to fold a record box, trying to force it into a mailbox. Ya gotta pack tough...

Do they really believe a flimsy envelope is going to do the job?

One of my favorites:

 

Blah, blah, blah. Every time I reported damage to a seller, that's the response I got. It must be standard in the industry...

 

OP, stop giving positive feedback, and in your feedback refer to the lack of secure pkging so that others who want to buy from this seller -- and, as I do, check all negative feedback before ever placing an order -- will read about the pisspoor pkging.

 

Most of the vinyl I buy online is from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Deep Discount/import CDs. I'd guess that at least half of these are shipped in a plain & rather non-descript cardboard mailer of some sort. All have arrived pretty much flawless. The other 50% accounts for multi-title purchases which usually get the benefit of a regular cardboard box. Call me lucky, I guess.

 

You know what they say... excuses are like Sphincter's, everybody has one.

 

Seems like many sellers been doing it so long and know how and aren't interested in hearing it.

 

When a professional online seller like Elusive Disc drops the ball, I'm not only angry, and frustrated, but surprised how an up-until-this-time, was a reputable seller.
Happened months ago, my purchase of the Grundman-Hendrix Smash Hits arrived broken into two pieces. The mailer was as flimsy as could be, with no padding whatsoever. Luckily I caught my mailman, and sent it back immediately. I did get a full refund, once they received it, but I'll never buy vinyl from them again.
.

 

My luck ran out.

I ordered an album off of eBay last Saturday, a pre-owned triple LP (180G reissue) live release by a rather obscure band I adore. Described as like new, the price was smoking, less than half of what the new copies go for. The picture of the jacket revealed a pretty much pristine product aside from some sticker residue near the barcode and what looked like a piece of scotch tape keeping the records from sliding out.

This arrived yesterday and I was dismayed to see it was shipped in a plain thin plastic bubble-wrap mailer!?!? My wife soon came into the music room asking if I saw the album that had arrived earlier and even she questioned the shipping method (wasn't the record broken?).

Records are not broken but the cover has two corners that are severely bent/creased where the vinyl ends. Poor shipping has substantially lowered the grading of what was previously a fine looking product.

Then there is my other beef. The item is described as like new but there is the issue of the tape to keep the records from falling out of the sleeve. Either the seller bought this crate-diving and never inspected the vinyl or he put the tape on himself. Either way, shame on him for failure to properly grade the vinyl because there are scratches on sides 1 & 2 which would lower the grading substantially.

This shouldn't be the seller's first rodeo as he moves a decent amount of vinyl as part of his varied inventory. While he doesn't use a true record grading system, like new should be like new.

I don't buy a lot of pre-owned vinyl on eBay. While this will make me more cautious, it won't stop me from doing so in the future.

So what have I done? I thought I'd be gracious and send him a message rather than open an immediate case through eBay. The response was an offer for a return or a 5% refund if I keep it.

5%???

Unsure if there is a percentage of refund that would spur me to keep the item but I can say that 5% ain't it, especially because roughly 40% of the total price paid would be eaten up by the original & return shipping.

 

This is the **third** time now that a seller has misconstrued my request to remove the lp from the jacket as a request to remove it from the inner sleeve, too. So the record is floating around unprotected.
I'm starting to feel like this guy: