Who's absorbing the cost?


The other day I purchased a couple of albums from HMV.

Got them home and discovered that one album (with two discs) was damaged

The damagewas to both discs and looked identical, it was though they had been jammed into a thin slot and had pressure applied to actally bend them.

I returned them to the same HMV store only to be told that I could either
  • Get a gift certificate
  • Get an in store credit
  • Exchange for another album of equal or greater value
  • BUT Refunding my money was against corporate policy
So I contacted HMV and got the same reply.

They also said they had no option because the Record companies refuse to take back damaged goods

However, most other stores I deal with do offer refunds on damaged albums.

My point to HMV - even if I exchanged the album they would still be left with an album they could not sell and would have to write off. So they could actually give me a refund and glean a lot of customer goodwill, but instead chose to alienate me.

Sometimes corporations cannot see the wood for the bottom line.

So who does absorb the cost if not the record company 
  1. The distributor
  2. The retailer
  3. The store
  4. The customer, i.e. built into the price of each album
#4 you say? That's what I believe

Thanks in advance 😩
williewonka
Low- oil crisis stuff was pretty bad in the U.S., but most of them still played. I have an original SOS label pressing of Lynyrd Skynyrd "Pronounced" with paper flecks embedded into the vinyl from regrind, but it still plays nicely. Go figure. (I did discover that a ubiquitous MCA later pressing, with no discernible "secret" code actually sounded better than the Sounds of the South labelled one, but the SOS is cool, just for what it was). Al Kooper ’n s---. :)
I have experienced more defects in "so called" audiophile grade pressings, i.e. 150-180 gram vinyl, than I ever did in the regular thickness pressings, including...
- serious warps
- metal shards embedded in the grooves
- groove defects that cause skipping
- serious scratches due to improper handling

The only "defect" I had from the much lighter pressings from yester-year were...
- slight warps - not really worth returning
- and a couple of albums that were scratched and returned

My vinyl from the 70’s-80’s still play extremely well - bar a few clicks and pops

Guys - Isn’t this going in the wrong direction?

With newer technology we should be getting fewer errors not more.

Just Sayin :-(

Willie- the problem is, at least on the pressing side, it isn't newer technology. Most of the presses are old- many were resuscitated after years of being offline. Yes, folks like Chad have, in the process, added some computer assisted monitoring for temperature, but the equipment itself had already been through a long working life. Then add the following additional factors- how many people are around who know how to work on and maintain these presses? And further, how many of the folks today working in the plants have long experience pressing records? I'm sure there are a few, who are helping manage the operation, but there's something to be said for familiarity with the process learned over years of doing it. (I'm aware that there are some new presses coming on line- is it GZ?--but most audiophiles don't seem to like the GZ pressings or the ones that come from the old CBS plant in the Netherlands. Not because of pressing quality itself, but because a lot of the records they make are sourced from digital files due to the choice of the label/producer). 
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