? for those who order from Soundstage Direct

It just becomes the ol’ pyramid scheme new business is used to pay existing debt and eventually the cards collapse.

Amazon has a ton to do with all this smaller outfits can’t keep up no matter what area of business. Use to be just brick and mortar now it’s smaller online outfits.

Dude dug himself a big giant hole and couldn’t get out....not making excuses for the guy it’s just the reality of the situation.

Second I read of trouble I canceled my order and filed a Paypal claim. Money was refunded. Sounds like this snowballed quickly and he’s under a pile of debt.

 

Yup. It’s really hard to know when to get out once the snowball starts. You think things will turn around and you’ll get caught up, and that works if you have a high margin business. Vinyl is anything but. It sucks up capital like crazy and if you even have a 10% off sale you are really putting yourself at risk unless you do tremendous volume. Those frequent 25% off sales was an obvious sign it was over if you know much about business. There isn’t even 25% in some of that stuff. We’re lucky there are actually choices for us to buy from as I see no reason why anyone woukd want to be in the business.

 

Hard to say. I think he was simply trying to keep it afloat as long as long as he could, but I’m speculating...you could be just as right. Most of us got our stuff until fairly recently, so I think his only mistake was hanging in there too long, but one would be right to say the minute you can’t use the money you just received to fill that exact order, it’s over and once you cross that line you have turned into a thief...I guess that’s where you are coming from and I can’t argue with that. Tough to admit your business failed. I had to bail on my retail record store in 1987 and I should have got out a year sooner.

 

Seth no longer works at Sound Stage Direct. He gave me someone named James who would get back to me concerning my over $750 in orders not received. James sent me an e-mail last week that said they were reorganizing. Well it's been another week and no response from James or anyone else at SSD. I've contacted PayPal to attempt to get my money back. Also, Media Mail has a tracking number - I ship records and books via Media Mail almost every day and every package I ship has a tracking number.
My advice to anyone is do not place an order with SSD until they start to communicate with their customers.

 

Yes, Media Mail absolutely has tracking info. We ship all the time that way. This is a total guess, but I woud bet one of the largest creditors have taken control and Seth was compelled to leave. None of this means SSD will live on, and I’m sure we’ve all noticed the email solicitations have ceased. No one should expect that whoever has taken it over will ship previous orders, and they may not even be legally obligated to do so. I can’t imagine the new owners using the same name going forward. Which would make it even less likely elements will ship because at that point there is no business name to protect.

I do wish Seth well...my intuition after getting to know him just a bit is that this was in no way intentional. Stepping aside was the right thing to do.

 

The same excuse Seth has been giving in the last 1-2 years.

 

Why they can't take 5 minutes and post something on the SSD website explaining what's up is beyond me. "Hi Customers, sorry we have sucked fat ass lately but we are under new management and will be back soon and aren't going to steal all your money"

Bam, took all of 10 seconds.

 

And if they actually worded it that way people would probably even give them another chance!

 

I'm still getting reminders that I've left something in my cart. Just got another one yesterday...

 

After my past dealings with SSD, including paying up front for preorders and then canceling due to long delays, I came to the conclusion that they had next to no stock on hand, either lps or equipment, (other than the few trade-ins and demos) and it was time to distance myself from dealing with them. I even passed on at least 4 different 25% off sales because of the uneasy feeling I had. I'm glad I did...

 

If it “sounds” too good to be true, chances are it is not true!

I ordered from them maybe three times over the years: the first time was excellent, the second awful and the third was fine after a short back order - I just preferred to pay a little more elsewhere and ALWAYS get reliable service from Acoustic Sounds or Elusive Disc.

 

Amazon is killing these little guys. I doubt this is gonna be the last casualty.
You can bank on it...Vinyl is a relatively small market and Amazon has taken a sizable bite!

Again not making excuses for Seth’s behavior.

 

I figured the same about three years ago. They never shipped anything fast, and stuff everyone else had would take them at least two weeks to ship. So, I think their business model was just buy what is presold and then order using other people’s money. Kinda smart, but the problem with that is you have all this money in the bank, but almost none of it is actually your’s. Now, decide you want to get into the hardware business. We all know that can’t be cheap. And there in lies the downward spiral of robbing peter to pay paul. Will get you everytime! Yes I’m assuming, but all the evidence suggests I’m not far off. Or, as someone else upthread suggested, a classic pyramid scheme. I hate calling it that because as some of us have said, I don’t think he went into it with those kinds of thoughts. He was one of the most enthusiastic business guys I ever spoke to! As others have said, it was always a pleasure to talk to him.

 

In this case, I don’t think that had single thing to do with it. Had he sold more he would have just dug a deeper hole. No doubt they are effecting other industries though. This was about money and business management, not sales. He was good at that and he sold a lot of hardware (that’s where the money is, not vinyl) that Amazon doesn’t have.

 

Correct, and once they moved from having the actual vinyl in stock to third party fulfillment (at least 2 companies, I believe) that's when the problems began. Vinyl was the loss leader for the marketing presence. Money is in the equipment. But disappointment on a record can kill any future business on equipment. The Spin Doctor's vinyl was a vanity project money suck that dug the hole deeper.

 

Not in this case. No money in new vinyl. It's a loss leader.

 

Amazon sells Project Rega Ortfon Audio Technica etc.... and plenty of other products. Don’t underestimate the hit his volume took with Amazon pushing vinyl. Sure the margins are small but every hit hurts the bottom line. Add in equipment sales Amazon pilfered it takes it’s toll on business...

 

Sure, it's all Amazon's fault the guy lied and ripped a bunch of people off. Whatever.

 

Interesting what you said about buying hardware if your vinyl purchases were unsatisfactory. I was not going to buy my high end table from them last year for that exact reason. But they had a ‘b’ stock and so I rolled the dice. I got a call the next day telling me no dice, they didn’t have one, but the ‘ol smoothy talked me into a Prime and I couldn’t be happier he did. So, all and all my experience was good, but I had some frustrations getting replacement faulty parts including a bad motor. First six weeks wasn’t fun.

 

I suppose that’s possible with the lower to mid line tables. And I have no doubt it’s effected the indusrty in general. It really doesn’t make much sense buying vinyl elsewhere when returns are so darn easy, with all the defective new vinyl. I just think SSD issues were management driven, not sales.

 

Amazon’s impact on small business is a reality....

Mid line tables carts speakers amps cables media etc all adds up and all available on Amazon.

He wasn’t keeping the doors open solely on VPI and other high end gear.

 

Probably because the lawyers are in charge doing a bit of CYA

 

The website is still up. Are they still taking orders?

 

I forgot to add above....

I do agree there is an element of mismanagement in play.

Bad sign when you have to charge for product not in house/stock ahead of time.

When I hire a contractor for home projects and he needs cash up front he’s out of the running for the job immediately. It’s never a good sign for a business and it’s stability.

 

Apparently not -- in one of the other threads about SSD, someone got to the last screen to place the order and got an error message.