Discogs experiences-postive and negative*

Gentlemen:

My brief stay of good fortune with Discogs has ground to a screeching halt.

An Atlantic stereo LP just arrived yesterday that was purported to have been an original 1950s green label release; sadly, it is actually a thin-vinyl 1970s reissue that I have no use for. Seller has not responded to my return request.

What is Discog's return policy, if any? Shall I go through PayPal with regard to a not-as-described request? I will no longer be settling for something that has been mis-represented and that which I do not want. Thank you for your suggestions.

 

You know (or should) that you can get your money back in the end from Paypal. That's your unbeatable backup. Your Discogs vendor may not live on the Internet, waiting for a message from you. Give her a couple of days to get back to you. You didn't buy a record from Discogs, you bought one from a vendor who advertised there. That vendor will have a return policy you can look up. Since you'll get all your money back in the end anyway, having been sold something not described correctly, settle down a bit and let the process work. It will.

 

Discogs and Ebay are my online stores for buying vinyl, though the latter one is the main.
Bought a limited pressing of Coldplay's 'Brothers & Sisters' single on Discogs bout a year ago and everything (paying, shipping etc.), worked well.
I should(!) use Discogs more because of the better priced records there... but I need money first.^^

 

Dealing with another stupid/amateur seller today:

he/she say: "Hey I just have paper mailers to send the record, I don't have any cardboard mailer, I can put fragile outside, but not problem if the record arrived damaged, I refund the money"

come on! I don't want the money back that I already pay, I want the record!

is not a easy to find record and simply he don't care about packing, if arrive destroyed he return the money and that is, what an *******!

I think I go to ask to my money back.

 

yes it's the average online random guessing game as to who knows what they are taking about about and who's 100% feedback is full of 'fakes' somehow.

Besides no photo of actual item a problem I have found is trying to work out how much the actual shipping to Australia is going to cost. Sometimes it already pops up in the 'Cart', other times it's a confusing coded ramble by the seller. I'm more likely to buy from the former.
(Not to mention having to work out the exchange rates when applicable).

 

It's expensive to ship overseas from the US, and an ounce or two here or there can be a US$10 difference. I'm not going to weigh every LP ahead of time to feed your pet cart. So I leave overseas shipping blank and expect you to ask, at which point I can give you an accurate response which will be as cheap for you as possible. Rule of thumb US to OZ for a single average LP is US$25.

 

I don't mind a rational explanation in the 'Details' but some people seem to get carried away with confusion.

Yeah O/S postage from the US has gone berserk so after converting to AU$ it becomes an investment in itself outweighing my common LP purchase so you have no danger of me actually being able to purchase anything from you, (or most other single retail sellers). A couple of the bulk sellers are too big to care and I'd be surprised if they make much money on a sale to us at all).

 

I've recently discovered it, mainly as it seemed like a handy service to catalogue my LPs, as I recently brought them out of storage along with my turntable.

I did make a purchase, though, and had a good experience. I'd often searched for a long out of print album a college roommate had that I liked a great deal way back when. I decided to check the marketplace and found it from a seller in NYC at a bargain price. A few days later I was playing it.

Hopefully the experience doesn't go downhill from here.

I also found out one of the CDs I worked on as a mastering engineer--and kept a copy--a few decades ago is worth a fair amount now.

 

Some sellers will do this because they don't feel it's worth their time and effort to make a sale of one CD or one LP. I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to cancel a sale on Discogs just because the person is only buying one item so this is their way around it.

 

I mostly use it for information, not so much buying..

 

As a storing information site it can't be beat. Regarding any buying sites per se, best to check out sellers feedback, at least find out a inkling of negativity if your unsure.

 

i just loaded my entire vinyl collection into discogs, and i'm working on my cds, cassettes, and 8 tracks (ya know, the dead formats!). i loaded my vinyl from a list so a lot of the entries are most likely wrong, but i correct them as i play them.

i have some records for sale and i've had some pretty rude emails lately from prospective "buyers", basically telling me that my prices are too high and i'll never sell my item. i respond with a polite "i don't care" and block them. one idiot wanted to trade me 3 "super rare" bowie singles for my sealed barnes and noble blackstar. he told me they were each worth 200 bucks....what a deal! i told him if they were worth so much he should sell them to raise the money to buy my record...that set him off. he sent a page long diatribe.

 

"I'm surprised; I thought it played lovely. Naturally you are welcome to return it."

When will I learn? Being here in the US, I recently purchased an original 55-plus-yr-old US pressing of a landmark US jazz LP from someone over in the UK via Discogs. Purported as "excellent," "plays great," and "my personal copy" when I emailed beforehand to convey that I was looking for something particularly clean, the record is in fact scuff-free but shows obvious groove wear from extensive playing, and even on my usually very forgiving mono setup, it sounds like crackling bacon with some sheets of sound in the background.

With the advent of buyer-friendly PayPal & eBay, I guess that the price of round-trip inter-continental shipping throws the proverbial monkey wrench into the works. Is conventional wisdom in this situation that one loses less money by trying to flip the first-press bluechip record on eBay for a few $$ under the original purchase price, of spend @$35 in both-way shipping to get my principal back?

 

Have you tried cleaning it? What stylus shapes have you tried on it? Microline? Your profile is empty, this isn't meant to be condescending towards your knowledge. Just checking.

 

Hello Josh--

Not a record-cleanliness issue, and this record sounds equally bad under both my elliptical- and conical-equipped styli. The "No problem--just send it back" thing chaps my a&#$$.

 

App pretty good I must say..now.
Forum staff v friendly.

 

What makes you think you will have to pay return shipping? If this transaction was within the US, you would get back your original purchase price and shipping, and if the seller wanted his item back he'd have to pay the postage. Haven't had it come up myself but it's worth talking to Paypal to see what your status is.

 

Hello Totale--

Therein lies the rub: this is an international transaction. If I had sensibly purchased this record from someone here in the US, I wouldn't care about who pays the $3 for media mail to send it back and undo the transaction. This guy charged me $19USD shipping from England, and if I pay another $17 good money after bad to return it, I'm ripping up @$35 on shipping to get my $80 back.

 

Again, what makes you think you are going to have to pay the international postage? Have you asked Paypal? I always use the phone with them, they always call back when they say they will. Point the telephone rep to the transaction and say "it is significantly not as described" and ask about returning it.

 

Retaliation feedback...?!?

I left the seller a politely-worded negative because his record listed as VG+ and stated as "excellent copy...looks & plays great" has obvious groove wear from being played to death and sounds like sandpaper. Then he leaves ME a negative saying that I made no effort to resolve & that I have no idea what VG+ means. What a sham! What's the point of having a feedback system? I did my part by paying the (premium) asking price, period.

I did the "request for appeal," or whatever it's called, but it looks like they only remove feedback if there's foul language involved. If this is the case then I am done with Discogs. What an absolute mockery to allow revenge feedback like this.

 

If you wanted a perfect copy why did you buy something with a VG+ listing? Never buy below NM.

 

Forum
Some -Helpful cleaning records tips !

 

I had an experience where I placed an order without reading the seller's terms. For some reason I assumed that he: 1) accepted Paypal, 2) provided a tracking number and 3) shipped to my location. Turns out he wouldn't do any of the three. I have to thank the seller since he didn't lose his nerve during our email exchanges, and, more importantly, didn't rate me negatively. I understand that once you hit the commit to buy button (or whatever it's called) you must pay and complete the transaction. This was one of my first discogs experiences and I just assumed that everything would go smoothly (as with amazon). How could anyone not like paypal with all its convenience? Well I learnt that not everyone likes paypal, in fact a lot of vendors dislike it given its fees and policies.

 

Ha--I'm thinking you're the gent from whom I purchased the record in question! I know what a VG+ record is, and it's not this record. A VG+ record is one that I play on my *very* forgiving mono system, and there are still some light pops & crackles that are steadily noticeable in between tracks, but the overall surface noise doesn't overpower the music. This record I'm talking about has obvious groove wear from very heavy play over the years; it sounds like a marginal old blues 78RPM does where the crackling surface noise is louder than the music.

Filler copy only/not really listenable.

I won't whine on about this, but it's pretty pathetic when the seller can leave me a negative feedback for no other reason than I left one very legitimately for his suspect grading system.

 

You like the eBay approach (only positive feedback for buyers) or the Amazon approach (no feedback at all for buyers) better?

(Unjustified) negative feedback is a problem for a seller but not really a problem for a buyer.

Joachim