Beware of GoHastings-- Very Dishonest

Just a word of warning: Avoid dealing with GoHastings. I recently ordered some cd's under a "buy-one-get-one-free" sale. They didn't send two of the cd's, but they refused to provide a refund, saying that the cd's they didn't send were "free," so no refund was due. I tried to explain to their customer service that buying two cd's at buy-one-get-one-free was exactly the same as buying each of them at 1/2 price, so I was entitled to a refund of half of the pre-sale price, or at least a substitute "free" cd. They pretended not to understand.


Un-freakin'-believable.

 

Gohastings has good prices and great sales.

But as you note, if something goes sideways, it can go REALLY sideways.

 

I made my first purchase on eBay to GoHastings on December 28th. Today, January 4th, one week later I first received shipping notice. About 10 minutes later I received a request to Cancel Transaction which I took no action on. Another 15 minutes and I get notice of a refund being issued. I'm sure that the Cancellation Request and Refund actions are purely coincidental to the fact immediately after receiving the shipping notice I contacted GoHasting via eBay to inquire why it took 7 days to ship.

 

I don't deal with Hastings anymore to many cd's I've gotten from them are to beat up. Never had a issue with refunds but it does get old having to keep sending them back.

 

Interesting. I just bought something from them yesterday. We'll see how this goes.

I haven't had a problem with them before, but I haven't bought from them in four years.

 

It's a large operation like Half Price Books et al. They ship from multiple locations and have bricks & mortar stores. I've had mixed experiences with them but still occasionally purchase things from them on ebay.

If they failed to honor a promotion on their own website then you'd def want to kick it up the chain to a supervisor or something.

As an occasional seller I don't appreciate these corporations participating in the race to the bottom on pricing.

 

That's gotta be one of the craziest things I've ever heard from a retailer. Was there a reason they didn't send the complete order or was this just a complete bait and switch?

My one and only experience with them was an LP purchase. They sent me an LP (new and sealed) just wrapped in brown paper, no box, and of course it has a couple of big creases in the cover. I just said the heck with it and kept it because the actual LP was perfect. It turned me off them though, I won't be ordering from them again.

 

In some respects, they remind me of Best Buy - They're a big operation and sell a lot more than just music so they may have problems handling the 'small stuff' which can irritate most any customer and will absolutely infuriate the particular music buffs among us.

Like many 'round here, I tend to avoid Hastings but they had a warehouse sale on eBay a few weeks back and blew out some good titles at 'can't pass 'em up' prices and before I could stop myself, I had bought a boatload of vinyl. I know better but its their policy (at least on eBay) to charge shipping on each item and they don't offer 'combined' shipping. Over the next 3 weeks, I received 30+ individual packages from several addresses. Luckily, the vast majority of the records arrived in a timely manner, well-packed in proper boxes and as described. Not unexpectantly, a couple showed up wrapped in repurposed cardboard boxes but arrived safe nonetheless. Unfortunately, several albums looked as if they had been pulled from the store bins complete with price stickers, anti-theft devices, packaging scuffs, bent corners and one was all but unsealed (as in 90% open sleeve). Not quite as described but still new and unplayed so I wasn't overly concerned.

All but 3 of the orders arrived within a week or so but 2 Talking Heads' albums and the Beatles 'Live at the BBC' took another 2 weeks to finally show up and I'd all but given up on them. Maybe there are a couple of LPs I would consider sending back but it'd be a return for a refund, not replacement and at 50-70% off retail, its not worth the trouble/hassle to me, especially given Hasting's track record. All in all, a fairly good experience but I went in knowing that dealing with Hastings isn't anything near the same as say, Elusivedisc, MusicDirect or Soundstage, etc. but music on the cheap is one of my temptation tripwires. What'cha gonna do?...

 

Hang on a second - if they failed to send two of your CDs, and you ordered them under the buy-one-get-one-free deal, then do I assume correctly that you ordered at least 4 CDs? If so, then the remaining 2 CDs they did send you should still be BOGO, yes?

 

Of course, what you are saying makes perfect sense. But that's not the way GoHastings saw it.

 

Most of these big sellers are OK if you are looking for common CDs and/or aren't particular about pressings, etc.

 

I made my first Go Hastings order during the Christmas season and while the results were less than stellar, the return procedure so far has been pretty normal and straightforward. I certainly have seen nothing of the dishonesty in the thread title.

I ordered the 2 LP version of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers outstanding 2013 release, Hypnotic Eye, plus the reissue of The Pink Panther soundtrack on pink vinyl. Arriving relatively quickly and in fine packaging, both were wrong. It was the single LP version of the Petty (which I half expected given the price was too cheap - no free lunch here) and the Henry Mancini soundtrack was defective with noisy vinyl. I called Go Hastings and after being on hold for about 5 minutes, got a person who efficiently took my info and offered me a full refund including shipping charges. The paperwork, including a prepaid Media Mail mailing label, arrived overnight. I'll get it out today.

They gave the typical "allow 2-3 weeks for processing" caveat but if I don't get my money back, you'll be the first to know.

 

i've dealt with them, albeit not very many times, i never really had a problem that i can recall, but i don't think they have a very good quality control department. they are very big and when it comes to used i just don't believe that they know exactly what they have.

 

Four commas, in, one, sentence is, very impressive.

 

Update:

I bought a used 7-CD box set. It arrived in a large padded envelope. The mini-LP discs were being held in by Hastings' own "Used" label tape, which broke. As such, three of the discs got loose in the envelope, although they were still secure in their sleeves. In addition to the tape, the box, also, had two price labels affixed directly to the box itself. Fortunately, I was able to remove the tape and the labels without any damage to the box.

So, I got what I wanted, but the shipping and handling was less than ideal. Nevertheless, all's well that ends well.

 

Agree 100%. They can be great for really inexpensive used CDs, particularly when they have a BOGO or similar sale running. And their shipping charges are inexpensive.

But I don't think I'd ever order vinyl or even a halfway valuable CD from them. Their stuff routinely arrives in rough shape, and the discs themselves sometimes are damaged. IME they've been great about refunding the price of damaged discs and haven't required me to ship them back, but still, they're really only a source if you're content to buy what will likely end up being a cheap play copy (not that there's anything wrong with a cheap play copy...)

I also don't even think about ordering from them if I'm looking for a particular pressing, unless the album in question has only a couple of pressings and they are easily distinguished from each other. GoHastings' descriptions are minimal, and unless the track lists, record labels, and/or release dates are clearly different, it's going to be difficult to tell if you're ordering the one you really want.