šŸ“£ News Carpenters Royal Philharmonic Purchasing, Ordering, Shipping Thread

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Well, it looks like I won't be listening to this anytime soon. I swear I have the worse luck. It's literally flashback to the Universal Box set fiasco. I opened my RPO white LP and opened the shrink wrap to find that the outside LP cover on the top right corner has a large crease/bend, it's a bit hard to see from the outside because it's white but the inside is dark gray and it's so noticeable. I said I could deal with that so I open the LP's to find the same issues I had with the box set.

Both Lp inner labels near the holes are ripped and also contain plastic junk jammed in the hole that I cannot get on my turntable spindle.
It get's worse, LP #2 (black label) has a jagged chunk of plastic ripped on the edge of the LP. It is clearly a defect. It's quite large.

I have sent pics and an email to UMe requesting a replacement. I guess I should have it by what 2020?
I swear this is really upsetting to me.
So sorry. Let us know when you hear something. I havenā€™t yet.
 
Mine arrived today. Cover - flawless. Vinyl very good. The "hole" had little extra material that was easily removable. The labels perfect.

It contains Richard's latest tweaks.

A couple of skips on record #1 side 2, that got better with cleaning. I got the white vinyl, and there were some grey and red color flaws on record #2 but it had no impact on the sound. Record # 2 was flawless, no skips or pops.

I no longer have the expensive sound system of my youth, but the sound overall was very good. Karen's vocal on Yesterday Once More really stood out for some reason. The best track of all, sound wise, was Rainy Days and Mondays.

The CD did not contain the latest tweaks; in fact it had the piano intro for YOM. Slightly disappointed, but the vinyl is what I was most excited about.

Ended up with two lithographs. One with Richard's autograph. Very happy with the quality of paper; the photo almost has a water color look to it.

Very happy!
 
When I had got my delivery notice, I decided to stay away from all the vinyl threads so when mine arrived I could experience it my own way with no surprises beforehand. Oh well it doesn't much matter now. Thanks no1kandrfan for posting your review, I am happy to hear that it contains the latest tweaks. I'm sure I will enjoy this once my replacement does come but I know that won't be for a long while.

I got the standard UMe response that there receiving a higher than normal number of inquires and they will respond when they can. There is no way my Ortofon cartridge is touching this junk they sent me. I can even feel some plastic bumps on LP 1 just rubbing my hand across it. Either I have the worst luck or someone at their pressing plants hates the Carpenters.

The litho I was a bit disappointed, I agree that it almost looks like a watercolor print but it's also very dark and the colors are very muted. I was expecting it to be a bit nicer looking. I have the same print but from the 35th anniv series and it's much nicer looking. The photo they used on the UMe Carpenters Store is not what you will receive.
 
Mine is due this coming Thursday. If it comes in the shape like Rick's did, I will do one of two things; immediately box it up and send it back demanding a refund or buy a shotgun and have my wife fling it into the air for skeet practice. I am never buying any similar product coming out of the Carpenter's camp again.
 
Here was the email I received.

__________________________________________

Thanks for reaching out! We're so sorry this occurred.

If the damage to your vinyl is visible, such as scratches or warping, could you please send us a photo or two of the damage? In your response, could you also include which action you would like to be taken to rectify this? We can either have the damaged product reshipped if stock permits or we can refund you for the damaged items.

If the damage to your vinyl is not visible, we ask that you please double check that your turntable is set up correctly by playing another record and letting us know if the same issue occurs. If the same issue occurs for both records, then it is likely an issue with your equipment rather than the vinyl itself.

Upon your response, we will look into this for you!
 
Mine arrived today. Cover - flawless. Vinyl very good. I got the white vinyl, and there were some grey and red color flaws on record #2 but it had no impact on the sound.

I didnā€™t mention but both my LPā€™s are a different color white. LP 1 is a real bright white color while LP 2 is more yellow or darker cream color and I noticed some black swirling on LP 2.

Iā€™m sure none of this should affect play just interesting because wouldnā€™t this suggest they were pressed on different machines or times?
 
Wow! I received mine a couple of days ago but had not planned on opening it yet, if ever. But now I think I will to make sure it's okay. I am not thrilled at all with the response you received "Song4uman". For the cost of this collection, they should be in mint condition with not issues on the label or the vinyl itself. I am glad to hear about the slight tweaks to the arrangements and etc.
 
Received mine today. Glad to report, no major damage. The #2 disk plastic in the liner did stick to the LP upon removal, but does not seem like a big deal. The lithograph is frame worthy, which is what I plan to do. I can't believe it actually got here!
 
Here was my response to the email. Weā€™ll see what happens.


ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”

Thanks for your quick response.

It isnā€™t my equipment. I listened to all four sides of the black vinyl (damage is on side 2) and all four sides of the white vinyl. While the white vinyl does have a skip and the label is a little torn on the center hole, I can deal with that. There is no visible damageā€¦I even checked it under a light. So I had listened to 6 sides after I noticed the damage. I just went down and listened again to parts of side 2 and the sound is there.

The scratchy sound happens at the same place on the vinyl. It is around the A&M logo and straight out to the edge at the same place. Every song has it sometimes and some songs have it quite a bit. If it as a ā€œpopā€ or crackle once in a while, I could deal with that (although with brand new vinyl it shouldnā€™t be that way). Please believe me, I was hoping it would be perfect. I had major problems with the Carpenters Box Set a couple of years ago and would rather not have to go through that again.

I clicked on the link about damaged merchandise, but it said the page doesnā€™t exist.

I really would like to see about a replacement for the black vinylā€¦.even if only album 1. I was really excited about the albums when I pre-ordered them last fall.

Please advise what happens next.
 
Are all UMG vinyls like this or just Carpenters?

It is frustrating to me when I buy vintage vinyl.....sometimes at goodwill for a $1 and it sounds perfectly clean.

Recently got a Boz Skaggs from 1977 and Manilow 2 am Paradise Cafe form 1984 and there is not one pop or crackle.
 
I hope all the guys and gals that are receiving the RPO album on vinyl get the glory of the updates to the digital files.
It will be worth your wait, because everything sounds heavenly! Good luck everyone!
 
The label tearing is part of the pressing process--it is unavoidable, as I mentioned in the box set fiasco thread. Having checked numerous 180g and 200g pressings here, most of them had it. It doesn't affect play, so I don't care either way.

Records are made from vinyl pellets, so variations in color are also to be expected, depending on the batch/lot of pellets making up the vinyl. As long as the vinyl is quiet, it doesn't matter what color it is. :)

Buying LPs is truly a crapshoot these days, it seems.
Only when UMG has a hand in it. :sigh: There are a couple of low-quality pressing plants out there, but most new vinyl I've purchased in the past couple of years has been flawless. QRP, RTI, etc. are doing excellent work. I just avoid UMG vinyl from past bad experiences--if the mastering isn't bad, then the records end up being defective somehow.
 
I hope all the guys and gals that are receiving the RPO album on vinyl get the glory of the updates to the digital files.
It will be worth your wait, because everything sounds heavenly! Good luck everyone!
I don't see a digital download card/voucher. Is it suppose to come with one?
 
Received mine today. Glad to report, no major damage. The #2 disk plastic in the liner did stick to the LP upon removal, but does not seem like a big deal. The lithograph is frame worthy, which is what I plan to do. I can't believe it actually got here!
My plastic inner sleeve did the same thing.
 
I don't see a digital download card/voucher. Is it suppose to come with one?

Sorry, I was just trying to say I hope the vinyl sounds as great as the updates made on the digital downloads. (Like I-tunes.)
I hope the vinyl has the latest updates, because they sound so good. I don't know if it comes with a download voucher. Don't recall seeing anything about that. Anyone?
 
The label tearing is part of the pressing process--it is unavoidable, as I mentioned in the box set fiasco thread. Having checked numerous 180g and 200g pressings here, most of them had it. It doesn't affect play, so I don't care either way.

Records are made from vinyl pellets, so variations in color are also to be expected, depending on the batch/lot of pellets making up the vinyl. As long as the vinyl is quiet, it doesn't matter what color it is. :)


Only when UMG has a hand in it. :sigh: There are a couple of low-quality pressing plants out there, but most new vinyl I've purchased in the past couple of years has been flawless. QRP, RTI, etc. are doing excellent work. I just avoid UMG vinyl from past bad experiences--if the mastering isn't bad, then the records end up being defective somehow.

I don't recall any of these problems being ever-present back in the vinyl heyday though. I've got numerous coloured vinyl discs from the 1980s/1990s and all of them are uniformly the colour they're supposed to be with no discoloured areas.

Label tearing you would see very occasionally but nothing like as often as you do now. I don't much care about it either, but I don't think it's an inevitable side-effect of the production process. Hardly ever was there a pressing issue that impaired playback or resulted in pops and crackles on a mint unplayed record. I'm very wary of buying new vinyl pressings as I've seen (and heard) so many bad ones. The pressings may be a lot heavier now but the quality of them when new is far far lower.

There has to be something wrong with the process that's being used now for so many problems to be happening on so many releases (or potentially non-existent quality control), which is to my mind inexcusable given that vinyl's now being marketed as a 'premium' format with an inflated price tag to match.

I hope for the sake of those who've been waiting nearly a year for it that the problems with the RPO vinyl aren't widespread. The box set fiasco was enough to put me off new Carpenters vinyl for life, although actually it was Universal charging many times the price for these defective new pressings that you'd pay to buy a near-mint secondhand copy of the original albums that would invariably sound better anyway.
 
I look at it this way for $60.00 I expect some kind of quality, I fully understand some pops and crackles as it's going to happen with vinyl but what I got was a hot mess. The sad part is I want the vinyl and I'm dealing with UMe who is allowing this junk to go out...thank goodness they sent this crap one to someone who is kind, patient and a devoted Carpenters fan. :rolleyes:
 
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