The Vinyl Straw!

As someone who grew up with vinyl and started collecting it from an early age, it's not hard to understand why I have a sentimental attachment to this clunky, warm and cost-ineffective format. I appreciate the speed, convenience and cultural democracy that digital distribution brings, but I could never be an MP3 (or let's stretch it a bit further) or CDR collector. However, something happened over the past few weeks that made me feel that vinyl has been dealt another unexpected blow that will make even its staunchest supporters balk. No, this is not yet another post about a distro going bust or a great underground store closing or even a rant about one of my favourite labels shutting down (it's not about Perlon going digital either  - I think we may have to wait a while for that). This is a post about how the poor postal service can push vinyl lovers to the point of desperation. Last month, I ordered some records from Juno, something I do a few times a month, wallet permitting. My experience of Juno is that they provide a fast, efficient service and that their goods always arrive speedily. This time however, was different. I made my order on Friday, January 19th, but I still haven't received the package, 19 days later. I was in contact with Juno last week and as always, they emailed me straight back to tell me that a) I should really have received the package by now and that b) if the package doesn't arrive by February 19th, they will provide me with replacement records. Luckily, I'm a patient person and I'm not in a mad rush to get these records, but I'd love to hear from a representative of the Irish or English postal service as to how come it has taken 19 days for a package to be sent from London to Dublin and there is still no sign of it? If I had had the time, energy and inclination, I could have walked to Juno's office, picked up the package and be back at home listening to the records by now. Everyone knows that sales of vinyl have decreased in recent years, and we are all aware that the advent of digital distribution and CD/Serato DJing has forced 'real life' outlets to close, thereby making the remaining online outlets the place where vinyl lovers shop. However, for a shopper who has less patience and wants the music faster, the prospect of a three-week wait for a parcel of vinyl mave prove to be too long. It's almost farcicial to think that a faceless, blundering state service may deter more people from supporting this noble art form. Love the format, hate the problems it sometimes faces getting from seller to collector.

Comments

[clom]

Very annoying.

Another problem is the fact that "In Stock" at online stores sometimes doesn't quite mean that. I tried getting the Mike Huckaby "My life with the wave" 12" from both Juno & Phonica after developing a bit of an obsession with it after hearing it on tom/pipecock's Tape mix a few weeks ago.

Both said "In Stock"- both orders came partially fulfilled.

I'm certain the copy is sitting in someone's set-aside pile in one or both shops. Gah!

My phonica order also arrived looking like it had been dragged through a hedge!

[Jason Brunton]

The postal service in the UK is pretty decent...unless anything goes wrong in which case you are completely screwed. The only things that can go wrong are

A: Your parcel goes missing- all undelivered mail is supposed to go to a massive warehouse in Northern Ireland where the Post Office try to arrange it so it can be returned to the sender- if this isn't done in 90 days they either destroy the goods or sell them on at auction. Nice.

B: It get's mashed by the postman- this usually happens if they've got temporary staff on who ram the mailers in their postbag and don't mind the "Fragile" stickers! You can try for compensation but it's an incredibly time consuming and frustrating business so we rarely bother these days.

Having said that, considering how many parcels we send out a day we get very few complaints indeed.

If you;re looking for the Mike Huckaby 12, we've still got it in stock (shameless plug!)

http://www.rubadub.co.uk/?newSearch=true&node_id=1.3&keyword=hucka&artist=&label=&genreChoice=all&title=&catalogue=&x=0&y=0#

cheers

Jason

Rubadub

[clom]

thanks jason,

i'm based in edinburgh so i might head through in person!

goes to show, support your local!

[sam]

Thats funny, i'm from New Zealand where three weeks is pretty standard for vinyl even at the best of times.
I ordered a couple of records from australia a while back and they arrived two days later which is just about unheard of but besides that juno takes two to three weeks.

the other argument for Australasia is we have no real distribution for vinyl because it all comes from europe, event the NZ artists records come from europe a lot of the time, being able to download tunes is simply much easier for New Zealand than buying vinyl. Particulally because by the time we get them the tune is out of date. I.E I ordered "perspex sex" by free form five when it came out (the remix) and recieved it two years later... thanks real groovy.

I love vinyl too, but its dead.