I stayed away from the Villains pre order because of the cost. Deluxe vinyl after shipping and currency exchange worked out to $75, which is pretty outrageous for a 9 song LP. I walked into Sunrise today to buy it. They want $80 for it, before taxes.
I'm gonna try the indie stores in Toronto this weekend.
Contrary to the numerous horror stories I've read here, my experience with Sandbag has been, well, great. I received NTAE middle of August as expected, and the record was perfect. I received the Add Violence PC quickly (although USPS creased it, but that's okay, as I'd rather not pay more for shipping than the item itself when it comes the PCs.) I even received my NTAE PC fairly quickly (still delayed, but I'm not STILL waiting like some others.)
I ordered The Fragile on Tuesday morning, and it arrived today. The packaging was a slightly damaged—minor smashed corner, and the spine was creased vertically near the bottom. Those deficiencies seem to stem from the album packaging rather than the vendor packing method, which was extensive. The records are too heavy for such thin cardboard (especially with The Fragile, which has three heavy platters in there.)
All this said, I ordered both of these LPs recently, not back when they were announced. It's a shame that people who supported this initiative at the begging have been experiencing truly AWFUL customer service, and absurd waiting periods for their orders. These items are expensive, and the base that wants to buy is sophisticated and hungry for the material (which I think you're aware of, as so much of the material you've released has been excellent, and truly worth adding to a collection) and will commit hundreds and hundreds of dollars to experience the work.
It's tough to expect a third party fulfillment company to understand that, and it's not hard to imagine that's what you're grappling with.
Ordered a record from Banquet (in the UK) last week. It came quickly, well packaged, damage free (!) and with a handwritten note thanking me for my purchase, stating that's they hope I get lots of enjoyment from it, and making a personal recommendation based upon what I'd bought.
I'll be completely honest in saying other than small artist (re: small volume) stuff, I've only really ever bought merch online from you. And up until the EPs this year, I had never come across any problems as far as shipping/damage/communication.
I'm really sorry that you're having to deal with this shit.
I see people suggesting Matador/QOTSA, just wanted to point out that, within the UK at least, Matador use a combination of Sandbag & BSI Merch. My QOTSA order is showing a familiar pattern at the moment - I've been sent a tracking number that's been sitting at "with sender" for 4 days already. Yes, I got Sandbag dealing with my order. On the plus side, they sent me an email on Friday hoping I was enjoying the new music I'd ordered - the new music that hasn't been shipped & that doesn't have a download code with the order - nice of them.
Other than in the good old days of physical record stores, I have only ever bought vinyl recently from Amazon or small independent music distributors. The main one I've used recently is Cargo Records (UK) from whom I have bought just about the entire catalog of Brian Jonestown Massacre - I now have 16 of their albums on 180g vinyl all from various shipments and have had zero issues. Everything has arrived in pristine condition and in a timely manner. Part of the problem with the NIN releases is the vinyl outer sleeve construction itself, but the shipment packaging has clearly been inadequate. Plus some shipments have been too long in transit, which hasn't helped as courier companies have longer to inflict damage on them.
Thanks for taking time to care though and I love the new DE releases which are real works of art. Looking forward to the rest of them coming out. I should add that I got back into Vinyl only after your statement in December last year and it's been an excellent rediscovery process!
I live in Italy, and never had a problem buying merch from the US or UK.
I regularly buy music from bandcamp, and even when I bought physical items it all went as expected.
I bought a couple HEALTH t-shirts from their store and it was fine. THE HYV is the name of the merch company.
I should also say that both the physical components ordered from nin.com arrived pristine and I never paid shipping costs. My whole experience was flawless and awesome.
My copy of Deviations was badly packaged , replacement sleeve sent out was also slightly damaged, by this point, I have given up. O recently got a Dead Cross vinyl through from tmstor.es that was packaged properly and arrived in perfect condition. So I can recommend them too.
I also have had great experiences with tmstor.es for both digital and physical fulfillment. Too bad they're UK-based.
I've also had good experiences with Topspin Media for both digital and physical fulfillment. In fact, I just went back to some of my orders that are 3+ years old, and I can still download those songs. I see on their About page that they were acquired in 2014, and I haven't really had any orders with them since then, so I can't say if they've maintained their prior quality service or not. They do have both US and UK operations, so there's that.
I also think that a lot of us would like it if new music (vinyl, cds, and whatnot) were available at traditional brick and mortar record stores.
Merch Direct. Every time I've ever ordered anything from them (shirts, CDs, records), the packaging is secure and often arrives ahead of schedule. On top of regular orders, I've pre-ordered things that have arrived without issue, I've had to change addresses with them on the fly and literally every single time they've aced it, 100%. Their customer service is also lightning fast and never feels like a cut and paste job, and, the one time there was a delay, they reached out to inform fans of the issue before there was an issue. They've been around since 1999 and I have only had excellent experiences with them.
Thank you so much for looking into options; the whole fan community really appreciates this.
Here's hoping you find a solution that works.
Regarding this and other posts praising Sandbag, I'm sort of assuming that's not the answer @teitan is after either. "Consistency" being a keyword and all.
This is the biggest thing for me. If you want to sell exclusive bundles and deluxe packages on the official site, fine, but please let those of us who just want the standard record have some options. Not only would that be better for the consumer, but it would also lighten the load on the distributor, (hopefully) making it easier for them to send out their orders properly.
To add to my eariler post, there are things I will still order. I understand having to sell things like the Physical Components through the website (I still want a 3rd one, so I'll buy it through whomever I have to). But when it comes to the physical record I honestly would like to be able to walk into a record store, give them my cash, walk out with the record. I've honestly never-ever had a preorded album (record, or cd) show up on release day, period. With downloads being included via email, Im less concerned with that but in the cases where there is just a cd or download card included with the record, I'd like to be able to enjoy the music along with everybody else (on release day)
Very sweet of you to look out for his interests. My point stands, though. People ordering now seem to be having positive experiences with the current merch company—it's unlikely I'm the only one. Therefore, even though the changeover has caused unheard of problems for all the early purchasers, the current vendor seems to be doing the job right, and can be considered a positive merch experience.
My post was originally in defense of my earlier post, that possibly, likely, people are having positive experiences with Sandbag now. But it earned a face palm. So rather than continue NOT having a conversation, I just deleted it. My opinion fell outside the common one held here on this subject, and was dismissed. Clearly the whole of my point was not considered, and just the parts conflict with the general (though still finite) viewpoint were used. My bad. This is why I lurk.
Last edited by ROFLRICK; 08-26-2017 at 01:42 PM.
You had a positive experience and that's great. But don't discount the hundreds (thousands?) of us who are having or had issues with sandbag.(with a 50+ page thread documenting their failure in every conceivable way)
Sandbag is not doing a good job, period. It's so bad there are some of us (like me) who are refusing to buy anything of the nin storefront because we don't want to spend 3-4 hours a week for a month or 2 dealing with their abysmal shipping and customer service, some of us also aren't buying because of the terrible quality of the packaging itself as well.
I've had great experiences ordering vinyl from MondoTees.com
Packaging had been solid and fast.
Jesus. Read my original post:
All this said, I ordered both of these LPs recently, not back when they were announced. It's a shame that people who supported this initiative at the begging have been experiencing truly AWFUL customer service, and absurd waiting periods for their orders. These items are expensive, and the base that wants to buy is sophisticated and hungry for the material (which I think you're aware of, as so much of the material you've released has been excellent, and truly worth adding to a collection) and will commit hundreds and hundreds of dollars to experience the work.
I dismissed nothing. And no, not period. I've had a wonderful experience with Sandbag! Which is valid. Do you really think everyone who has purchased these records is here? Come on.
i order a lot of records online, and honestly, amazon is BY FAR my favorite. never once had a record damaged in shipment over hundreds of records. had one mixup, and two actual manfacturing errors (one was your gone girl OST) which amazon easily and quickly replaced.
i've had previous good experiences with sandbag. and with every distributor NIN has used in the past.