Post by jakeroux October 7, 2008 (11 of 78)
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Speaking of which (OOP titles on Caimen) - I was excited to see Kraftwerk's Minimum/Maximum listed on Amazon via Caimen a couple of months ago for about $50. I ordered, was immediately charged, waited, inquired, and finally canceled a couple of days ago and received a refund. I see now where they have re-listed it, again for about $50. Apparently, this non-existent item is now back in their computerized inventory, just waiting to be sold to the next person. Buyer beware indeed.
They have now joined DVD4Music on my list of sellers who I don't trust when listing rare or OOP titles.
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Post by tssfulk October 10, 2008 (12 of 78)
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rammiepie said:
One vendor I would be VERY wary of is DVD4Music in England. Their SACD lists include long out of print items and after placing a hefty order, they shipped me one (1) title but charged my credit card for the entire shipment (which I NEVER received), After numeous e-mails and promises that since the items were rare they would take some time to ship, I finally had to settle the issue with my credit card company (after 4 exasperating months).
Whew! I almost ordered a rare SACD from them (Alison Krauss + Union Station Live). They had it listed for 29 pounds. Then I found it at an Amazon seller (CD24 in Germany) for 19 pounds. I hope they are more reputable (as well as being cheaper).
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Post by Cherubino October 12, 2008 (13 of 78)
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Tower.com is a horror. I ordered three RCA Living Stereo SACD's. When they arrived, although they had plastic wrapping on them, they were drenched. The booklets and CD were so wet that they looked like someone left them in a bucket of water for a couple of days before shipping them to me. The package in which they arrived was completely dry, inside and out, with no sign of ever being wet, so they must have been sent to me in that condition. I did eventually get a refund, but I'll never order anything from Tower.com regardless of price.
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Post by Trojka October 13, 2008 (14 of 78)
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I'm with Fugue...excellent experiences with Caiman so far. Recently I discovered amazon.de (the german version) though, which is in some cases a better choice for me (being dutch). Great prices for hard to get SACD's, and super fast shipping.
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Post by Kutyatest October 13, 2008 (15 of 78)
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jakeroux said:
Speaking of which (OOP titles on Caimen) - I was excited to see Kraftwerk's Minimum/Maximum listed on Amazon via Caimen a couple of months ago for about $50. I ordered, was immediately charged, waited, inquired, and finally canceled a couple of days ago and received a refund. I see now where they have re-listed it, again for about $50. Apparently, this non-existent item is now back in their computerized inventory, just waiting to be sold to the next person. Buyer beware indeed.
They have now joined DVD4Music on my list of sellers who I don't trust when listing rare or OOP titles.
Interesting to read your comments.
I ordered once using Caimen from the Amazon Marketplace, which was about 6 years ago. My experiences match yours similarly, and communication was poor.
It is good to hear that some people have had good experiences with Caimen, but if they are advertising something on the Amazon Marketplace, the sort of thing we've found is totally unacceptable. I am fairly regular (albeit small-scale) Amazon Marketplace seller. As part of the agreement with Amazon, all sellers are required to actually possess the items they are advertising, accurately describe them, and despatch latest 2 working days from receipt of an order. I have always done this, and so I am suspicious when a seller adds the words "In stock - ready for immediate despatch!" This may seem odd, but that is exactly what the goods should be, anyway!
Unfortunately, a lot of buyers will not bother to give a rating, but I'm also very hesitant about ordering from an Amazon Marketplace seller that has a rating lower than 96%. One thing I would add to that though, is that I look at how active the seller is (how many sales), and a lot of the comments that have been made. I have come across some very silly comments, such as "didn't like the music, wasn't what I expected" - as if the ratings system was some form of opportunity for product review!
As far as DVD4Music are concerned, there have been a fair number of negative posts on AVForums also. They appear to charge non-UK customers immediately (for some strange reason), and domestic upon despatch of goods (which is fairer in my opinion). I've only ordered from them once, which was for a hard to find DVD-A. Needless to say, a month went by without receipt of goods, and then I contacted them. I never had a problem with reply to my e-mails, and at least I hadn't been charged, but I was told that stock was due very soon. In total, I think a few months went by, until I eventually cancelled my order.
I too would hesitate about using them again.
On a positive note, I recently bought The Soong Sisters (Kitaro) SACD from Music Excel in Hong Kong, using eBay. I would recommend this seller, as communication was absolutley perfect - pre-sale, despatch notification, and post-sale. The seller has quite a number of SACDs, and I can provide a link if anyone's interested.
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Post by V.A. November 17, 2008 (16 of 78)
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Kutyatest said:
As far as DVD4Music are concerned, there have been a fair number of negative posts on AVForums also. They appear to charge non-UK customers immediately (for some strange reason), and domestic upon despatch of goods (which is fairer in my opinion). I've only ordered from them once, which was for a hard to find DVD-A. Needless to say, a month went by without receipt of goods, and then I contacted them. I never had a problem with reply to my e-mails, and at least I hadn't been charged, but I was told that stock was due very soon. In total, I think a few months went by, until I eventually cancelled my order.
I too would hesitate about using them again.
On a positive note, I recently bought The Soong Sisters (Kitaro) SACD from Music Excel in Hong Kong, using eBay. I would recommend this seller, as communication was absolutley perfect - pre-sale, despatch notification, and post-sale. The seller has quite a number of SACDs, and I can provide a link if anyone's interested.
Well I'm the latest victim of DVD4Music's crooked operation. I wasn't aware of their practice of charging US customers credit card immediately following placement of an order, eventhough the items ordered were NOT IN STOCK. Three weeks later I cancelled my order because they couldn't fill it so they refunded my money, except I lost $8.00 for some reason, could be lost in currency, don't know and don't care.
I'm really annoyed at this company, First of all they would not answer my emails at all, not until I decided to send an email to their advertising department. They returned my email saying that their emails went to my spam mail. I check my spam email everyday and nothing had shown up so they are pretty much liers as well. Stay away from them. They are crooks.
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I'm done with them. Nine months ago I ordered three SACDs: Groove Armada's Lovebox, Texas' Careful what you wish for and Vanessa Mae's The Violin Player. I gathered from the site DVD4Music had these in stock. I paid by PayPal.
When after a month I still had not received anything I sent them an email. They replied some of these items took longer to obtain but they expected to get them the next week, so I was patient. After a few more months and (unanswered) emails later I called them. They explained to me that they had none of these in stock, and simply tried to obtain them ("from 25 different suppliers"). I made it clear that I had no faith they would be able to obtain them, at least not at or under the prices advertised, and that I wanted to cancel my order. That was fine.
Despite my confirming this by email and several more email requests for a refund, still no money. Finally I managed to get hold of them again by phone. They apologised for not having refunded yet. Unfortunately they had stopped doing business with PayPal so that way of refund was not an option. They sent me cash instead. It did arrive a few days after my phone call.
They money I got was EUR 70, which even at current rates is less than the GBP 58.85 I paid for the 3 titles plus P&P. If (sensibly) avoiding sending coins by regular mail, sending me EUR 75 was the least they could have done. I will not even mention that at the time I paid this amount, it equated to more than EUR 83.
Anyway, I'm not going to bother with this anymore.
My suggestion to anyone: do not order here unless you're prepared to wait (and part with your money) for eternity.
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Post by aoqd22 November 18, 2008 (18 of 78)
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Although Amazon is not directly involved in any Marketplace transactions they do have a vested interest in making sure things go fairly smoothly. I have had one or two problems with Amazon sellers and in each case I reported it to Amazon and they helped sorted it out fairly quickly. The one that really annoyed me was when the seller refunded me because they could not supply the disc after all and kept the postage they had charged me. It took a few weeks but I got it back! I left suitable negative feedback so others (and the seller) would know just how I felt!
Amazon UK has an FAQ section on its website that covers problems with Marketplace sellers it says if the seller does not reply to your emails within 3 days of your first attempt then email them to let them know. It also says if the seller refuses a refund you may be eligible for protection under their 'A-to-Z Safe Buying Guarantee'. More info via the link below I am sure Amazon websites in other countries will have a similar FAQ section:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=13000831
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Post by TerraEpon November 18, 2008 (19 of 78)
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V.A. said:
Well I'm the latest victim of DVD4Music's crooked operation. I wasn't aware of their practice of charging US customers credit card immediately following placement of an order,
Uh...if you're ordering through Amazon, then it's Amazon who's doing that. They may be not a good seller, but putting extra blame like that isn't in the least fair.
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Post by Kutyatest November 18, 2008 (20 of 78)
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The Seventh Taylor said:
I'm done with them. Nine months ago I ordered three SACDs: Groove Armada's Lovebox, Texas' Careful what you wish for and Vanessa Mae's The Violin Player. I gathered from the site DVD4Music had these in stock. I paid by PayPal.
When after a month I still had not received anything I sent them an email. They replied some of these items took longer to obtain but they expected to get them the next week, so I was patient. After a few more months and (unanswered) emails later I called them. They explained to me that they had none of these in stock, and simply tried to obtain them ("from 25 different suppliers"). I made it clear that I had no faith they would be able to obtain them, at least not at or under the prices advertised, and that I wanted to cancel my order. That was fine.
Despite my confirming this by email and several more email requests for a refund, still no money. Finally I managed to get hold of them again by phone. They apologised for not having refunded yet. Unfortunately they had stopped doing business with PayPal so that way of refund was not an option. They sent me cash instead. It did arrive a few days after my phone call.
They money I got was EUR 70, which even at current rates is less than the GBP 58.85 I paid for the 3 titles plus P&P. If (sensibly) avoiding sending coins by regular mail, sending me EUR 75 was the least they could have done. I will not even mention that at the time I paid this amount, it equated to more than EUR 83.
Anyway, I'm not going to bother with this anymore.
My suggestion to anyone: do not order here unless you're prepared to wait (and part with your money) for eternity.
I'm sorry to hear that you've had problems with DVD4Music, as I would happily have given my thoughts earlier. I have only ever placed one order with them, and doubt very much that I would place another.
Luckily, my credit card wasn't charged at the time of placing my order, so at least I didn't have the bother of chasing a refund. After waiting many months for a DVD-A, I just cancelled my order.
There has been quite a thread on AVForums regarding this supplier, and it seems that they charge some people in advance, and others upon despatch. The name of the person running this business seems to be Simon Fuller.
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