Lpgear.com is weird.

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Isaac K., May 23, 2020.

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  1. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I ordered an Ortofon 2M Blue stylus from them almost 4 1/2 years ago, and went to order another one this week (didn’t realize how fast time flew!). I did a search on their site and it looked like all of Ortofon’s 2M products were readily available, all except for the 2M blue stylus. Where all of the others had an “order now” button, the Blue just said “Learn more” Okay, they’re out of stock at the moment. But then I went onto the second page of search items and I found “Pro-ject Essential Premium turntable 2M Blue Original Stylus” for sale. It’s an Ortofon 2M Blue. Also, “LP GEAR stylus for Fluance RT-85 turntable” which is, again, an Ortofon 2M Blue stylus. I don’t get it. Does lpgear.com cater specifically to idiots? Anyways, I just went ahead and ordered one of those even though I don’t own either of those specific turntables.
     
    Rad Dudeski and jesterthejedi like this.
  2. james

    james Summon The Queen

    Location:
    Annapolis
    I don’t know the answer, but being an idiot, I’m intrigued.
     
  3. Chilli

    Chilli Pretend Engineer.

    Location:
    UK
    I don't know the specific site but it just sounds like a poorly designed stock control system.

    I know another site which sells electronic parts which frequently has multiple versions of identical products (same stock codes) at different price points, only one of which is in stock. Just poor admin.

    It's their own loss as someone more casual would give up looking.
     
    jesterthejedi and MCM_Fan like this.
  4. krisjay

    krisjay Psychedelic Wave Rider

    Location:
    Maine
    Aren't all thee type of places just middle men? Don't they just do what basically is drop shippjng. Maybe I'm wrong?
     
  5. MCM_Fan

    MCM_Fan Senior Member

    Location:
    Oregon
    Their site and the sister site LP Tunes are absolutely the WORST organized ecommerce sites I have ever seen. As the OP discovered, they often have the exact same products listed under multiple names and SKUs. It makes searching their sites futile. You usually get either zero matches or 1000. If you do actually find what you're looking for, good luck figuring out if it's actually in stock.

    I recently placed an order for a JICO SAS stylus for my Shure V15 Type IV through the LP Tunes web site. When I found what I was looking for, and saw the Add to Cart button as active (not the dreaded Out of Stock), I excitedly placed my order. I received a conformation email that my order was being processed and my credit card was charged. Oh boy!!!! I was looking forward to receiving my new stylus. Two days later, I got an email from LP Tunes customer service telling me the stylus I ordered was out of stock, that they didn't know when it would be back in stock and asked if there is a different stylus I would be interested in buying. I asked about the SAS shown as in stock under two different product SKUs and was told those were also not in stock (having the exact same product listed under multiple SKUs is a horrible way to do inventory management). So, I asked for a refund. I will buy the stylus I want elsewhere.

    Guess what, I just went to their web and the stylus I was told was out of stock five days ago, is still shown as in stock. Its been five days and they haven't updated the stock status for this product. I wonder how long before they will, if ever. This is not the first time this has happened to me when attempting to order from LP Gear/LP Tunes. They sell some great products and LP Tunes is the Official North America Distributor for JICO products. On the few occasions I have actually received what I have ordered, I have been pleased with the products, however, their amateurish web site and terrible inventory control makes it unnecessarily challenging to try find what you want and figure out if it's in stock.
     
  6. MCM_Fan

    MCM_Fan Senior Member

    Location:
    Oregon
    Nailed it. This is exactly the problem. Terrible web site design fronting a horrible stock management system. Makes it difficult to find what you are looking for and impossible to tell if it's actually in stock when you place your order.
     
    jesterthejedi and patient_ot like this.
  7. MCM_Fan

    MCM_Fan Senior Member

    Location:
    Oregon
    No, they are the official distributor for JICO products and stock those products locally - well, the ones they actually have in stock. Which ones are in stock at any given time is a complete mystery. The only way to find out is to place and order, get your credit card charged, and wait to either receive your order, or an email telling you what you ordered is not in stock, would you like to buy something else instead?
     
  8. harby

    harby Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    A good check to see if the web portal is just a zombie shopping cart is to try to add and buy 100,000 of one item. I was able to add $100 million worth of respirator masks and checkout at one stupid site.
     
    VinylSoul likes this.
  9. tumbleweed

    tumbleweed Innocent Bystander

    What I am about to say is purely my own experience, with no guarantee of truth, caveat emptor.

    It's my belief - not saying it's true - that LPGear, LPTunes and Jico Canada are all basically a guy in a house in Las Vegas, with perhaps an assistant or two. Based on my experience - and seemingly quite a few others - it's a place to stay away from. Stick to people like turntableneedles.com, thevoiceofmusic.com, or stereoneedles.com - perhaps all three are also one man shows, but they sure have better reps than that guy.

    As always, just my opinion, YMMV.
     
  10. Ripblade

    Ripblade Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Six
    That there is a good enough reason to keep it listed as being in stock. Suspiciously close to bait and switch, but not proveable.
     
    jesterthejedi, bootbox and Chilli like this.
  11. Boltman92124

    Boltman92124 Go Padres!!

    Location:
    San Diego
    I've never had a problem with LP Gear. It's not a great website though as mentioned..but I'm used to it. I usually get what I order in a couple of days but they are fairly close to So Cal.
     
    macster likes this.
  12. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I didn’t have a problem ordering from them before. Let’s see how this time goes. They’ve already charged my credit card, so if they do try to pull a bait and switch they’ll have lost a customer.
     
  13. rebellovw

    rebellovw Forum Resident

    Location:
    hell
    Same exact thing happened to me - I ordered a JICO SAS for my V15IV - then found out the next day or so - out of stock - and I ordered the NEO SAS instead based on what they offered.
     
  14. ls35a

    ls35a Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eagle, Idaho
    An awful lot of people in the hi-fi business have no common sense and just aren't that bright.
     
  15. Phil Thien

    Phil Thien Forum Resident

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Well they're the official U.S. source for Jico stuff, which isn't half-bad as far as aftermarket styli go.
     
  16. tumbleweed

    tumbleweed Innocent Bystander

    No quarrel with Jico itself, for sure. Just the retailer they've allied themselves with.
     
  17. MCM_Fan

    MCM_Fan Senior Member

    Location:
    Oregon
    Based on this, and other experiences with LP Gear and LP Tunes, I honestly think it's more of a lack of competence that an attempt at malfeasance.
     
    Ripblade likes this.
  18. russ e-s

    russ e-s Forum Resident

    Strangely I ordered the boron SAS V15-V stylus a week ago and it arrived in three days...
     
    macster and Boltman92124 like this.
  19. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Today they emailed me saying that the 2M Blue is out of stock but they have something called the Ortofon 2M Blue 100 stylus that has the same specs at a cheaper price point. I guess it’s to celebrate Ortofon’s anniversary? I don’t know. We’ll see.
     
  20. Old thread but I actually just bought one of the 100 Anniversary 2M Blue styli from LPGear. Same stylus as the non-Anniversary model, maybe $50 less? What's not to like.

    That said, I pinged LPG a couple days ago to ask if a Jico SAS for a Shure M97xe is in stock. The "add to the cart" button was live but there is actually text on the lower part of the page saying Out of Stock. Two days...no reply. Ordering direct from Jico is $25 shipping, but at least I would be comfortable knowing I was getting fresh stock from the horses mouth, so to speak.

    I have been burned elsewhere ordering something that was said to be in stock, then find out a day later it is out of stock, yet my card was charged. I got my money back without too much fuss, but why have to deal with the hassle?
     
    jesterthejedi likes this.
  21. Benzion

    Benzion "Cogito, ergo sum" Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    I must be one, as well, as I've ordered from them on numerous occasions, and always got what I ordered.

    Searching their inventory is a bit confusing, as they will have the same product listed as fitting various cartridges in various searches, especially in the case of Shure, but they will never specifically point that out by saying "this stylus also fits the following models".
     
    Agitater likes this.
  22. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    All I can say is, I miss Needle Doctor and tend to use turntableneedles.com most of the time these days for that sort of thing. I think I ordered a stylus once from LP Gear. I don't recall a problem but you can't reach them on the phone either.
     
  23. dadbar

    dadbar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland OR
    I had a similar experience....but they charged my credit card and then told me the item was out of stock. My requests to have the credit card charge reversed fell on deaf ears and I had to go directly to my card provider for a refund. My advice- avoid....
     
    csgreene likes this.
  24. via_atx

    via_atx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX

    I just ordered the 100 Anniversary 2M Blue stylus from LPgear. The blue seems to be out of stock everywhere.... I hope they actually have these. They appeared to have both the regular and the 100 anniversary version of the Blue.

    How does yours sound? I just pulled my turntable out of storage (2 years!) and I was getting a lot of distortion. I put a new 2M Red on the cartridge and it sounded totally fine. Assuming the Blue was just worn out (bought it in 2015), so decided to snag another one. I've found that the blue really cuts down on inner groove distortion compared to the red.
     
  25. The jury is still out. I can’t say the Blue is doing anything wrong, but I am suffering from a bit of analysis paralysis. At the risk of providing TMI, I have been swapping back and forth between two tables (Technics 1500c and a Rega P2 from around 2003) several carts (2M Blue, AT 540 with a SH stylus, AT VM95ML, M97xe with Jico SAS/B) and two preamps (Mani and Cambridge 640p). As a bonus I have also being experimenting with alignments…Technics jig vs. Stevenson vs. Baerwald.

    Any of these combinations can sound really good with the right record, or conversely not so good with the wrong LP. The good news is that I am not getting any significant IGD with any combo I have tried.

    As an aside, LPGear did finally respond to my inquiry about the Jico….over 10 days later. It was already on the way from Japan by the time they responded.
     
    via_atx and C.Ludwig like this.
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