Amazon has stopped telling customer they are buying CDRs

New here, but have been reading the forums for awhile. Just wanted to let people know, who still buy CDs on Amazon, that Amazon has apparently stopped labelling discs as "CDR burned on demand" as they used to, so many people will now have no idea if they are getting a real, factory pressed silver CD, or a crummy, glitch-prone, virtually worthless burn on demand CDR. I find this practice extremely shady. CDRs don't have the protective layer that factory pressed CDs have, and usually don't last long, with glitches developing in weeks or months.

For example, the entire New Albion catalog on Amazon are CDRs, as the label went out of business years ago, but licensed Amazon to burn CDRs on demand. Dark Waters by Ingram Marshall, for example, should show, "CDR burned on demand by Amazon" or something similar in the description. Now it says nothing about it being a CDR. Or David Crosby, Graham Nash - Whistling Down the Wire. That is a CDR too, but it doesn't say so anywhere on the Amazon product page.

I tried calling customer service to complain, but it was a completely futile effort. The person on the phone had no idea what I was talking about, and could hardly speak English. After about half an hour, I just gave up trying.

Anyway, after some experimenting with putting different CDs in my cart, with ones I know had to be CDRs, and ones I thought were factory pressed CDs, it seems there is a way to tell, but only after you've gone a few steps through the ordering process. After you choose which address to send your order to, you come to the Choose Your Shipping Options page. On this page, it will list all of the items you're ordering, and for the CDRs which are burned on demand, it will state "Sold By: Amazon Digital Services, Inc" underneath the product. This lets you know it will be a CDR burned by Amazon Digital Services. Underneath the real, factory pressed silver CDs, it will state "Sold by: Amazon.com Services, Inc" or a different fulfillment co. or third party seller if that's the case.

Just wanted to let Amazon CD buyers know about this, as I've seen numerous complaints about this on the forum in the past. I suggest anyone unhappy with Amazon's deceptive practices let them know!

 

Excellent public service announcement, thank you!

 

I should add that that method for determining CDR or not is for CDRs which are burned on demand by Amazon. If the record company itself is known for selling CDRs on its own website, such as Smithsonian Folkways, then the only method to determine if it's a CDR would be to check the company's website or Discogs. For example, Dariush Dolat-Shahi ‎– Electronic Music, Tar And Sehtar, on Smithsonian Folkways, is listed as a CD on Amazon and as "Sold by: Amazon.com Services, Inc" but it's a CDR, as Discogs shows. And what a price for a CDR too, $19.98 on Amazon. What a joke.

 

You can always check Deepdiscount's website for which CDs are manufactured on demand or not. Deepdiscount is just another webfront owned by Alliance (ImportCDs and many others). Their listings mirror Amazon's 100%, as Alliance is one of Amazon's biggest media suppliers. The nice thing about Deepdiscount is that the UPC code is publicly listed on each item's page, which can they be plugged into Amazon's search engine.