šŸ“£ News Carpenters: "The Vinyl Collection"

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Far be it from me to intervene in this diatribe about Amazon, Universal and their policies, but sometimes my brain thinks things out in odd ways.

For someone who's supposed to destroy several albums and provide photographic proof, what's to stop that unscrupulous person from getting hold of a $2 used copy of say, A SONG FOR YOU, and construct the destruction picture so that it appears to be an album from the box set? This way, they could theoretically, for very little money, provide satisfactory destruction pictures for Universal or Amazon or whoever's asking for the destruction, and keep the recently-purchased set relatively intact, and then sell that set on eBay when their new set arrives.

My question for those who've been asked to destroy and photograph, do they need to see photographic evidence of a close-up of the label?
 
A closeup no, but the labels on the new set are different enough from the originals that itā€™s pretty clear which is which, plus the originals were nowhere near 180g pressings, being standard 120g - 140g releases.

Still, fraud concerns may be why at least some are told to destroy the bad ones and those will be replaced rather than the whole box.
 
Well Iā€™ve opened two replacements that they sent me yesterday and all albums in those are first rate, no small holes , damage or anything to either set. Now to send the damaged ones back to the USA
 
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After much internal debate, I decided to break my records and send proof to universal. I took one picture of all the broken records together and apparently it was acceptable. They responded with, "thank you. We will notify you when your replacement have been sent out."
Not sure how to add my picture here from my phone but if anyone is interested I can try to add it later when I'm at my computer.
 
I'm really happy to hear some of you are waiting for UMe to send you out these re pressings directly. I am anxious to hear your reviews once you get these, please keep us updated.
 
Well Iā€™ve opened two replacements that they sent me yesterday and all albums in those are first rate, no small holes , damage or anything to either set. Now to send the damaged ones back to the USA

That's great Wayne, looks like your new sets may be from the same batch mine came from.
Lets hope you can now enjoy the sets! Good luck with returning the others!
 
A closeup no, but the labels on the new set are different enough from the originals that itā€™s pretty clear which is which, plus the originals were nowhere near 180g pressings, being standard 120g - 140g releases.

I seriously doubt any Sales Representative would know the difference between the labels or vinyl quality of an original LP compared to a new 180g pressing... they would probably just process your refund.
 
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I'm really happy to hear some of you are waiting for UMe to send you out these re pressings directly. I am anxious to hear your reviews once you get these, please keep us updated.

According to the folks I've been directly in contact with at UMe, Amazon is their direct storage and supplier. This should clear up any confusion as to why they keep telling everyone to go through them. They have the contract.
 
Well Iā€™ve posted the two broken box sets back to Amazon $65 from the U.K. at my expense. They said they would refund me eventually but I donā€™t like the way they stipulated send back before xx/xx or we will charge you.
The box sets weigh 4.8kgs a box with packaging to USA - 11kgs not like sending a snail mail is it!.
 
Also Universal USA got back to me, a lot more helpful than the U.K. Universal hereā€™s what they said!.

We apologize for the condition of your box set. If you would like replacement LP(s), we are asking the same thing of all customers that contact us ā€“ First, please provide us with your proof of purchase. Then we will ask you to please physically destroy the defective unit(s) and provide us with photo of the destruction for each LP that you would like replaced. This can be done by either breaking the vinyl in half/pieces or simply scratching the surface with a pair of scissors within 15 days of this email. Please provide us with the title(s) of the album(s) that you would like replaced.

Upon receipt of the photos of destruction, your name will be added to our replacement list and replacement albums will be sent to the address you provide us when they are ready. You will need to provide your full mailing address and phone number.

Once we have the necessary information, we will process your reorder for your replacement LP(s). The re-manufactured product is almost ready. We will notify you once all requested information is received and it is ready to ship.

If you do not wish to have your LP(s) replaced and would rather be refunded for the defective set, you will need to return your box set to the store/website you purchased it from.

But interestingly they seem to be now saying individual albums will be replaced not the whole set, as has been mentioned before to others. So even if the LPs look ok they may have issues and wont be replaced?. It reads that those who sent in pictures of LPs may only get those albums replaced and not the full set!, which I find a little alarming. I havenā€™t played any of
my replacements as yet even though they look ok they may not be, and two weeks isnā€™t long enough to check through 24 albums.
 
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What's also interesting is that my emails from UMe never mentioned "how" to destroy the Lp's and your email goes into great detail about how to destroy them. I guess I was the test mule. If they had sent me the email you got, I just may have waited for the replacement set and used scissors as that seems to be the easiest method.

I guess too I was just so upset by this point and so many of them in my set were defective that I just wanted a complete refund which is what I obtained in the end. I was reading some of the reviews on Amazon and it makes me feel somewhat better that I was not the only one who got a defective set. It's also great news from this email that the replacements are almost ready.
 
Also Universal USA got back to me, a lot more helpful than the U.K. Universal hereā€™s what they said!.

We apologize for the condition of your box set. If you would like replacement LP(s), we are asking the same thing of all customers that contact us ā€“ First, please provide us with your proof of purchase. Then we will ask you to please physically destroy the defective unit(s) and provide us with photo of the destruction for each LP that you would like replaced. This can be done by either breaking the vinyl in half/pieces or simply scratching the surface with a pair of scissors within 15 days of this email. Please provide us with the title(s) of the album(s) that you would like replaced.

Upon receipt of the photos of destruction, your name will be added to our replacement list and replacement albums will be sent to the address you provide us when they are ready. You will need to provide your full mailing address and phone number.

Once we have the necessary information, we will process your reorder for your replacement LP(s). The re-manufactured product is almost ready. We will notify you once all requested information is received and it is ready to ship.

If you do not wish to have your LP(s) replaced and would rather be refunded for the defective set, you will need to return your box set to the store/website you purchased it from.

Wayne, that looks like the exact same email I received and posted here a few days ago. They must have an auto-reply for the Carpenters vinyl claims they receive.
zUUYNBGRYu6uvVZAcLHGwqM6OccmXO6T2X1e0LnWNIMi9iFV2tapkYuI_J39ZKKId5pvvPdlr0y7aeRlNgQDG5mXR3WLz54QYVNUR0moFqXzZDQUDOSJCZkXL3UlRn4HEQB1yz9TOfamnOlx3fwRNvayiQoY2FopyboVaCW49E5tGQtjGY5sCuEE2BB_-O1Dr4jIf9OIoyiwiwo_ZtQAMEK1EYeRZRwlQvIKt3WQXw1P1fAdIwO8hDALd7j1YHKFLL0OsFyYtf-aZy_imYOJKPCVy-aEcMd4cd9ap0GsxzO5i8buwxGamft3mBmfj2RhjjEd-cTxwVwrBqjkSpVjtTOUW6GfDT_DMLKM8FUlr8j83ylgvEiiC4MR-aYMv34V4M_gtQoQcddgBKssurHaqhqZ_3R4qbOdFtReofjO3SYQqVCOiL11_rJGNf1WJzHohGOTu1BopbhtuHuR6bh-1YQCILZH5JRB607nsXNcYeYr8OGqsml7s_HGjk0u0rGElSfKuQK-EwNfVYcZFp3nODNL7R2ZQRHlyhP25xvD2gu4gc-EPr_H4jZR_Aq6ceJt8Kl2D6LgBAO77uvYi2LwJnCU1UuOetIVYfrQhSA=w1632-h918-no

This is the picture they accepted of my destruction. It's sad to see isn't it?
 
But they seem to have taken a different approach now, in saying single LPs or
Multiple LPs and not the full box set is being replaced. What is interesting is I had something very similar with the widely reported David Bowie ā€œHeroesā€ LP error and that LP was sent out to me without outer sleeve in a cardboard cover. Now that is keeping costs down to a minimum!. Seems that Universal are now taking a similar approach?.
I bought one of these to keep sealed for my collection but there is lingering doubts in my
Mind when looking at the sealed box in what lies within it?.
Iā€™m full of a head cold here hence me being awake at this time of morning!.
 
Yes, itā€™s clear they now want a photo of each album destroyed and they will replace those rather than the entire set.

It makes me wonder what I will receive.
 
I have just emailed them saying about the two week time frame and how do they expect me to listen to 36 albums?. Also some LPs even though they appear fine to look at may well not be when being played.
A few of them that I listened to looked super but had pops , ticks and the like. Also do they consider the sharp edges to be an issue or not?. Most of mine are very sharp!, As in paper cut sharp?, is this a precursor to ask for a replacement?.
I guess this pressing error isnā€™t acceptable but they havenā€™t mentioned that as yet. Due to this sharpness a lot of the inner sleeves have been cut .

These box sets are really trying our patience I think
 
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But they seem to have taken a different approach now, in saying single LPs or Multiple LPs and not the full box set is being replaced.

given the individual re-releases are exactly the same as what`s in the box-set, it`s makes economic sense then, to just to replace what needs to be replaced and makes no sense to replace a complete 12 album box-set over a couple of dodgy albums. I can appreciate the annoyance of being more or less forced to listen to all 12 album`s as fast as possible, but I guess we`ve got to do what we`ve got to do to get it sorted.
I chose to go a different route and replaced my two bad albums, by buying them separately, because I just figured I`ve only paid Ā£120 (delivered) for my set, so even replacing two of the albums myself, still works out good value compared to opening prices AND I haven't had to wait weeks to get it sorted!
look at the bright side guys, at least the end is in sight and this will finally get resolved for everyone :)
 
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I have just emailed them saying about the two week time frame and how do they expect me to listen to 36 albums?. Also some LPs even though they appear fine to look at may well not be when being played.
A few of them that I listened to looked super but had pops , ticks and the like. Also do they consider the sharp edges to be an issue or not?. Most of mine are very sharp!, As in paper cut sharp?, is this a precursor to ask for a replacement?.
I guess this pressing error isnā€™t acceptable but they havenā€™t mentioned that as yet. Due to this sharpness a lot of the inner sleeves have been cut .

These box sets are really trying our patience I think

In all fairness...you knew about these defects well before you purchased all your sets but you chose to ignore the evidence so you should not be surprised or lack any patience in what your going through. If you had waited you would not be having any of these issues. The re-pressings are not that far away from being re-released. I remember some of my inner sleeves were also split due to the Lp's having such sharp edges.
 
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In all fairness...you knew about these defects well before you purchased all your sets but you chose to ignore the evidence so you should not be surprised or lack any patience in what your going through. If you had waited you would not be having any of these issues. The re-pressings are not that far away from being re-released. I remember some of my inner sleeves were also split due to the Lp's having such sharp edges.
You are saying that buyers knew about the faults, but then so did Universal and they should have taken appropriate steps to inform dealers, giving them the option of returning stock. However, some recipients have reported fault free sets, so a blanket recall was possibly not viable. I would assume therefore that anyone who was aware of problems, decided to take a punt in the hope that they too would receive a fault free set. Unfortunately, it has turned into a bit of a lottery, with some winners and losers, but to wag a finger at those who find themselves with a faulty set, does not really help the situation. At least UMe have taken appropriate action to replace the faulty product, but it is only human nature having spent out hard earned money in buying the set, to want the problem resolved as soon as possible and with the minimum of hassle.

I have now had an opportunity of sitting down and listening to all of the 12 discs with headphones instead of toe dipping and listening via speakers as I did before and here are my findings.

All 12 suffer from noisy crackles that are evident in all quite passages, some being worse than others, even though the records have been cleaned by a record cleaning machine, in fact, the few original albums I have and bought from a charity shop sound better. A couple of albums on certain notes give what can only be described as a distorted sound almost similar to an old record that has been played with a worn stylus. Three of the albums have a nasty pop/jump on one of the tracks on each of those albums. Away from the actual sound, the first four albums had spindle holes that were too small (I use the word "were") as I had to remedy that problem, otherwise I would not been able to clean or play them and two albums had excessive vinyl coming away at the edging.

So whereas my initial thought was that I would be replacing only 4 or 5 records, it looks like I will have to claim all 12, and as I said before, destroying the records seems weird when even though I know I will eventually get replacements, and until that happens, I feel I will have spent out $175 for a box of empty sleeves.
 
Basically I took a chance on these sets also, thinking I may well possibly get lucky and get a pristine set!. Well Iā€™ve never been lucky and never won a prize but I thought just maybe Iā€™ll get a pristine bargain.
I guess I will have to listen to them all next week, boy is that going to take up a lot of time. Enjoyable but demanding being forced to listen!.

Can anyone answer my question is the sharp edge deemed a fault worthy of requesting a replacement copy or not. I actually cut my finger glancing over the edge of ā€œticketā€ it was as sharp as a razor blade.

When I was a small child my sister and I played twister on my mums collection of 45 singles (thankfully artists that donā€™t count), if we had to do it on these we would be needing hospital visits. Amazing what comes back thinking about vinyl!.
 
I figured this would happen, Amazon stops selling the Vinyl Collection. 3rd party sellers grab hold of this info and suddenly remaining boxes sky rocket. There are currently 9 available and range between $381.92 up to $751.91
Don't be an uneducated buyer!!
 
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