What is it with Discogs sellers? Post your horror stories here...

Yeah I doubt he'll come through on that front without you returning it. You could use PayPal's return shipping refund service to cover some of the cost, but with rates going up like they have, it might leave you out quite a bit still. IIRC PP covers up to $30. The cost of return shipping is a big reason as to why I focus on US or Canadian sellers now. If something goes wrong, I can return and have PP cover the full cost. Anywhere else, forget it. I'm out of pocket.

I hate these scenarios as really, the sender made an obvious error and most likely, a deliberate one IMO (allegedly) and therefore they really should be on the hook for sorting out this mess and on eBay they would be. This isn't a grading grey area issue is it?

I suppose you could try calling PayPal and explaining that the cost to return is prohibitive and the item is significantly not as described. They might be nice and give you a courtesy refund. Not many of those available so choose wisely : )

 

I placed an order for 3 CD's (John Lee Hooker, Earl Hooker & Lurrie Bell) back on January 29th with a discogs seller in Geece. They had a 99.4% feedback on 159 items so I felt safe.

On Feb. 3rd I sent them a message asking when they thought they would ship out. Finally they ship them on Feb. 6th, 8 days after the order was placed. They stated they would ship them with tracking so on Feb. 7th I ask of they have the tracking # since they didn't put it on discogs. They reply with...

"I do but the post office mixes up the receipts all the time and it says nothing on them to help me see what receipt is for what parcel. It’s always busy and kinda unorganised here in Greece since covid. If it gets lost there should be way to investigate with the receipts i have."​

Now I'm skeptical so I reply that after waiting a week for them to ship and now them not providing tracking that it was a little frustrating of an experience as a customer. They give a reply of...

"I understand and i am even more frustrated…I am not a business it’s just me trying to give my collection a new home…I cannot pack and ship faster than i do and i also can’t control my local post office which makes it even more difficult for me to work this so i unfortunately I decided to close my shop because it’s hard to keep up with demand…I understand the inconvenience and I assure you i will be here to make sure you receive your order or get reimbursed"​

I understand being overwhelmed, but they are being friendly so I wait over 3 weeks and still no tracking # and it hasn't arrived so on Feb. 26 I ask if they can get me the tracking # because it hasn't arrived yet. No reply. I follow up again on March 2nd and get a reply of ...

"Hey there! We will take the receipts of the day this was shipped and try to figure out which one belongs to you with the people at the post office…Just letting you know most of my orders are being delayed these days"​

No replies in the week since March 2nd. Today I did the seller isn't responding thing on Discogs and messaged him again asking for the tracking #. I guess I'll open up a paypal claim if they haven't gotten back with me in a day or two.



I get that there are covid delays, but I don't understand the lack of tracking and how he can't get which package was mine sorted out with the post office in over a month.

 

@WarEagleRK just remember there's no need to panic because of Paypal's 180 day window to file your claim. If it comes to that it will be the sellers problem and not yours to produce that tracking # otherwise it's an automatic refund for you if they can't. He sounds like he's an unorganized seller and why I learned to write the details on the postal receipts so I know exactly what I've sent to the buyers name on the front of the receipt.

 

I'm not in a panic, just annoyed by the lack of response and the " the post office mixes up the receipts all the time and it says nothing on them to help me see what receipt is for what parcel" response from over a month ago and in the month in between they never bothered looking into getting me that tracking number. I don't like the "If I ignore it, it'll go away" customer service.

Update: after I reported him for non response after saying he'd go to the post office and get it sorted out, I get the following response...

" I have many customers that paid good money and i also have great reviews which means i am not trying to scam anyone or steal from you. I understand your frustration but I have no news yet and it’s too soon to know if it’s lost. Unfortunately parcels for the U.S. can sometimes take a very long time to arrive. I am currently waiting for a response from the people that are helping me with this. I am not trying to avoid helping you if the order is lost but I want to make sure it is before i proceed with any other solution. I will text you as soon as I have news."
​

I never said they were trying to scam or steal from me. I just asked if they had gotten the tracking # sorted out. The vague "I'm currently waiting for a response from the people that are helping me" being the only response after over a month of waiting on a tracking # and over a week after he said he would go to the post office and sort it out is annoying.

 

It's a real gear grinder you're currently go through my friend and there's never any excuse worthy of lazy customer service IMO.

 

I've mostly very positive dealings on Discog . I am mainly interested in high-quality vinyl the Album Cover is usually not something I will fuss about. I always check the feedback on anyone new that I deal with and the few times I received over graded stuff I had no problem returning it. Maybe from what I read here, I was just lucky

 

I purchased a Classic Records 200g LP on Discogs and the seller sent me a generic dime-a-dozen pressing instead. He told me to return it but that I have to pay for the shipping. How is that acceptable? Why would I pay for his mistake? What is my recourse?

 

Shipping costs indeed have been crippling up, plus now all orders, including overseas, are a subject to Florida sales tax (well, it is my state, I have no problem paying tax, but still..) Most of the sellers when made a mistake giving you refunds, but I only deal with sellers 99.4% rating or better.
Overseas buying I limit to Germany (usually well graded, not high shipping cost and easy to communicate), Japan (mostly great sellers, but shipping costs are high) and UK (they have tons of stuff I want, but shipping costs now increased a lot, and they often tend to overgrade the record). Other countries I am a little worried about (but I got great transactions with guys in Belgium and Slovakia, several years ago.)
Wrong pressings are pretty rare, and usually differences (or full amount) are refunded. I never had to send anything back overseas, ever, and I had perhaps 100 transactions in last 3 years. One dude from Germany gave me trouble with one record, but at the end we settled with mutual satisfaction.

 

Go to PayPal and print out a return shipping label. I believe most transactions can be returned through PP without the seller's help. They pick up the cost most of the time. I am pretty sure you can.

 

That's the kind of crap that ought to get a seller banned from Discogs. If you screw up and send the wrong item, it is your responsibilty to pay the return postage, I don't care what online site is used. The only other option is to tell the buyer to keep the incorrect item shipped and send the correct item as agreed.

Buyers are not responsible for a seller's stupid mistakes.

 

Yeah, it’s all quite bewildering to me.

 

None. But you can register for PayPal's return shipping refund program. Return the record and get, IIRC, up to $30 covered. It should cover you in full if you are sending within the US or Canada (as I know those rates).

 

This wasn't on Discogs, but the only major issue that I ever had with an online site was when I bought a DVD set from an ebay seller. When they arrived, they were obviously DVDRs, not manufactured DVDs. I requested a refund and first he tried to claim that was the only way that they were available, which was false, because a friend had a set. Then he didn't want to refund my shipping or pay the return postage. I held my ground and knew I could report him to ebay, PayPal or report fraud to my credit card issuer. I got my full refund including the postage both ways without any further discussion.

 

This happened to me many years ago, the seller thought Classic Records was because it was a classic album! The photo on Ebay looked like a new-ish record sleeve so I took it on his word that having Classic Records in the title meant what it did. This was also before reissues became very ubiquitous (ie major labels hadn't jumped in).

 

Tell them you plan to report to Discogs AND Paypal. It's not your fault. If it's modern it probably had a barcode. I highly doubt the seller was confused to which pressing it really was. Even if they were confused, it's not the correct item.

 

I've made several purchases from different sellers on Discogs and have been satisfied. Occasionally the sleeve will be not quite as described but all the vinyl has been as listed. I've only bought from sellers with 98% or better ratings.

 

Discogs won't do anything and will just tell them to deal with the seller/PayPal. PayPal will tell the buyer to return the item for a refund at the buyers cost. So either way, it's going back. But, the OP can get the return shipping costs refunded by PayPal through their return shipping program. That really is, their only option if they want a refund.

There's an outside chance that if they call PayPal and get a sympathetic person on the phone, they might get refunded without having to return the item but it's unlikely.

 

It bites. And, no, it's not acceptable.

But PayPal won't require the seller to pay return costs. For that, you need to buy on eBay.

If you have to pay to return. leave negative feedback:

"Seller sent me item different from listing, refused to pay return shipping."

 

eBay is FAR more buyer-friendly than Discogs. On eBay, you are always 100% covered for BS. eBay will require the seller to pay return shipping.

 

I was always surprised by buyer posts in the official forum, or the unofficial Facebook group, who just assumed that Discogs was like eBay or Amazon.

I consider Discogs to be a fancy classified site rather than a more "sophisticated" marketplace like eBay.

 

Yeah, Discogs is useful but is run by clowns who pull money out of the platform as quickly as possible while reinvesting as little as possible.

 

Sorry for bringing a tiny bit of Oxygene into an idle thread, but....

....I find it telling with this seller obsession over "still in shrink" because I don't remember records were ever in shrink, when I bought them. No Sir.

The record shop had all empty covers on their shelves. You picked the one you wanted and the sales person found the record and its factory sleeve from their hidden stock.
And then you would go buy an inner sleeve of better quality and an plastic outer sleeve as well.

I remember vividly standing in front of one of those shelves thinking to myself, how wrong it was having the covers placed there, all getting worn at the edges.
I also remember finding album covers at the record shop worn to such extend (not much, but still), that I thought it must be impossible to distinguish between a new album or a second hand one in good condition....nowadays that would be graded VG+ or EX-.
A bit worn at the bottom corners and at the bottom edge. Sometimes also the top from being flipped back and forth by customers. In reality it's just cheap massproduced thin-thin cardboard with printed graphics, glued together in a matter of microseconds. Hardly to be taken as an original Rembrandt.

So, there seems to be this misconception from these easy money seekers, that shrinkwrapped is equivalent to NOS.

Have I ever seen shrinkwrapped records in a shop ? Don't think so. Well perhaps later on during the 90's maybe.

And sorry for the lack of profile avatar. I've been a member for 12-13 years, but haven't been inclined or felt obliged to speak up before....or haven't had anything relevant or coherent to say.

Cheers folks.

 

Interesting, if I understand you correctly. As a kid starting to buy records in the 80's in the U.S., I can't think of any instance of a store doing that, unless it was a used record store. Everything I bought new back then was shrink-wrapped. Not to suggest that something sitting in its shrink wrap for 20-30 years should be considered perfect or mint, and so on, of course. I guess in your shops, the owners figured the vinyl itself was safer kept away from customers in their "hidden stock"? Maybe makes sense but it sounds like the result was that the album jackets took more of a beating. This may have been different in other countries but I assume the record labels were sometimes relying on the shrink wrap (stickers, etc.) to help sell the product, sometimes identifying the album artist if the actual art didn't, or including details of what hit songs were on it, etc.

 

It was the same up here North of you since the late 60's.

 

VG+ is VG or VG-.