Rough Trade Sale coming May 21 ...

First cancellation just came...

 

Ah, okay. It's not just me. They cancelled all of mine.

Just puzzled that they couldn't figure out what was or wasn't in stock in the first seven days of the order? Assuming they must do fulfillment from somewhere else, that would explain the huge disconnect.

 

Nothing cancelled and nothing shipped. The wait continues.

 

i got a shipping notification today for the one record i bought. *surely* i can't be the only person who sprung for a heavily-discounted deluxe reissue of the first album by c86 also-rans 14 Iced Bears?!!

 

Wow, that was long gone by the time I started going through the sale, but I would have if I had seen it!

 

This dawned on me too. The only other thing I thought was that it was literally all in one location and is being done by hand, therefore requiring a manual delete by the person picking the orders.

Neither one makes much sense to me. If you have your inventory online, it stands to reason that if someone buys it online, you reduce that same online inventory by one until you get to zero, then delete it or post a “Notify Me” or whatever else. Honestly does not seem that difficult but they seem to have picked the worst possible system, whatever it is.

 

I'm pretty sure that Rough Trade has its own stock and its own warehouse. When they moved the retail location (from Brooklyn to Mid-Town New York City), they said they were going to maintain the mail order operations in Brooklyn, but at a smaller location in the suburb there of Greenpoint.

I remember shopping at the Brooklyn retail location and seeing the clerks pulling mail orders right from the retail bins along side me.

I remember hearing that you could pick up mail orders from their Greenpoint warehouse or from their New York City retail store - I have no first-hand experience.

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As an aside, here is my updated personal experience with my Rough Trade orders. I ordered a slew of stuff. Remember I started the night before most people did, and there were titles there that sold out and never re-appeared.

There are at least 4,000 orders implied between my first order and my last order, and the sale has continued for several days since. I don't know how big the staff is, but I'll guess it's fairly small. How many orders can they pull and ship out in a workday? 200? 300? That implies 2 - 3 weeks to fill all the orders, and I'm sure the cancellations and answering questions slows them down further.

Finally, I don't see any actual shipping confirmation on anything yet.

17868xx 15 items ordered
0 cancelled, 14 shipped, leaves 1
17868xx 12 items ordered
0 cancelled, 11 shipped, leaves 1
17872xx 15 items ordered
1 cancelled, 11 shipped, leaves 3
17872xy 14 items ordered
1 cancelled, 11 shipped, leaves 2
17876xx 9 items ordered
0 cancelled, 7 shipped, leaves 2
17901xx 13 items ordered
1 cancelled, 0 shipped, leaves 12
17901xx 7 items ordered
1 cancelled, 0 shipped, leaves 6
17909xx 7 items ordered
0 cancelled, 0 shipped, leaves 7

Totals:

4 cancelled, 54 items 'shipped', 34 remaining

 

Update:

24 received, 4 cancelled, 30 items 'shipped', 34 remaining

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They clearly are having problems in fulfillment there. I have had no emails of any kind since Monday. However, three packages have arrived in California (11, 13 and 1), as they had previously alerted. All were well packed and arrived quickly and safely. All the items had Rough Trade Store price stickers on them, so I don't think they are doing orders from wholesalers or anything.

It's all damned frustrating, I understand that. Still, when the records arrive and I see the prices I paid, it gives me a little warm feeling inside.

 

did you actually receive shipping notices?

nothing for me other than a continued trickle of cancellations.

 

I got a shipping notice for 6 of the 12 items in my first order on January 5th: all 3 CDs and 3 LPs. I got cancellation emails for 3 LPs but the other 3 are in limbo (presumed cancelled).

 

I got my first shipping notice today, but it is only for one LP that I ordered. But hey… progress!

 

I put together a rather modest order. One LP cancelled (Prefab Sprout's "A Life Of Surprises"...it was kind of pricey anyways even on sale). One CD arrived already. Shipping notice received 1/10.2022 for an order with a couple LPs and one CD but it has yet to hit the post office. One final LP from the order remains unshipped.

Having triggered free shipping, it is certainly odd that they would send three separate packages.

 

Over a week later, I'm still waiting for some sort of acknowledgement that I even placed an order.

 

Same here…

 

I made my single, 3-item order on January 6. One item was canceled on January 10.

Since then, silence.

 

Always had hassles with them even with RSD items........threw in the towel and gave up on future purchases.

 

Same here, single, 4-item order on January 6. One item was canceled on January 11. Radio silence since then.

 

Well, the Brooklyn store is closed today for “inventory” so I’m hoping that helps with all of these issues…

 

I half-expected to learn the entire warehouse crew up-and-quit last week.

But, I'm not sure what your post means. Is there a message from Rough Trade online somewhere today? The Brooklyn retail store has been closed for a year now. Are they referring to their warehouse / shipping post in Greenpoint, Brooklyn?

 

More of the same for me—Jan 6, ordered 4 lps, no emails whatsoever. Also, there's no 'Contact us' on the website.

 

Contact us—you can do a live chat or you can call the store, so you need to do it during NYC business hours.

 

Ah, OK. Then, I emphatically agree that this inventory closure is related to their sale / shipping problems. The store is small and wouldn't take long to inventory (unless they have a large backstock, of course.) It may also be they need to pull those personnel over to Brooklyn to pack and ship.

 

Well I just got a shipping notice for one of the 2 things I didn’t get a cancellation notice for. No word about the second though. But, progress is progress.

 

I ordered two LPs on January 4th; one was cancelled. I emailed their customer support on Saturday and was told "Our warehouse is experiencing severe delays in their fulfillment procedures, resulting in a significant backlog of unfulfilled orders."

 

Yeah, I think we all knew that without them telling us… oh well. It is what it is.