CD orders lost in the mail

[John L]

Early in the year, I made a rather expensive purchase from a company in England (which I will leave unnamned for now). This is a legitimate (not bootleg) label that obtains copyrights for their issues (all of which are 1960s and beyond, not public domain).

Yesterday, I indicated to them that my order had not arrived. I got only a very short answer. "We sent out your order on January 7. Sorry if something happened to it in the mail."

So they have over $200 of my money, I have nothing, and they claim no liability. What can I do?

[Hardbopjazz]

Did you play by credit card? If it was, I would contact your credit card company and ask for their help. This happened to me once. I bought a bounch of CD's from Aebersold records but never got them. After they refused to provide me with the UPS tracking number, I sent all the emails and information to my credit card company. I got all my money back.

[John L]

Thanks. Yes, I paid by credit card and money was transferred almost instantaneously. I made the order over e-mail, and there was no specification that it would go UPS or something like that. Maybe my boneheaded mistake?

[J.A.W.]

Did they send it by surface or airmail? Surface could take up to two months.

[Claude]

None of my overseas orders (more than 50 in the last 5 years) has ever been lost, but 3 shippings took unusually long (6-8 weeks). So I suggest that you wait a bit longer before concluding that it has been lost.

[Clunky]

None of my overseas orders (more than 50 in the last 5 years) has ever been lost, but 3 shippings took unusually long (6-8 weeks). So I suggest that you wait a bit longer before concluding that it has been lost.

agreed, I've had an "airmail" order take 10 weeks from the USA to UK

[J.A.W.]

None of my overseas orders (more than 50 in the last 5 years) has ever been lost, but 3 shippings took unusually long (6-8 weeks). So I suggest that you wait a bit longer before concluding that it has been lost.

agreed, I've had an "airmail" order take 10 weeks from the USA to UK

This has also happened to me a few times the last four months. The Dutch Postal Service told me the packages had been sent by surface mail instead of airmail (I paid for airmail).

[Claude]

A package of CDs I sent to a board member in Brazil took almost 3 months.

[Ron S]

Thanks. Yes, I paid by credit card and money was transferred almost instantaneously. I made the order over e-mail, and there was no specification that it would go UPS or something like that. Maybe my boneheaded mistake?

You still may be able to get relief from your credit card company. I would at least contact customer service and find out. Most charges are processed fairly quickly, so that alone should not be a hindrance to challenging a charge. Most credit card companies are pretty good about removing charges (and perhaps seeking relief directly from merchants) when customers order and pay for things and never receive them.

[AllenLowe]

based on their obnoxious response I would try to reverse the charges ASAP - let them wait for your money, IF you receive the CDs - if they sent it surface and you paid for air, even more reason to do this -

[John Tapscott]

I will admit that if that was all the response you received, you should not be pleased. Most vendors will send another order immediately if you call after a reasonable period, say a month, and tell them your order has not arrived. Very occasionally orders get lost in the mail - it's part of the cost of doing business. OTOH, "lost in the mail" is a relative term. In all my years of ordering recordings, I could only recall one time (there may have been another time) when something I ordered was truly "lost", ie. never arrived. In the case I mentioned I phoned the company and they had another CD in the mail immediately. No questions asked. Overseas orders can take anywhere from 4 days to 4 months. You never know. I know it's frustrating, but I would advise waiting until the end of February before taking any action.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

A package of CDs I sent to a board member in Brazil took almost 3 months.

Same here.

[Claude]

I will admit that if that was all the response you received, you should not be pleased. Most vendors will send another order immediately if you call after a reasonable period, say a month, and tell them your order has not arrived.

I agree. When I ordered the second Organissimo album from CD Baby, the CD hadn't arrived after 6 weeks (usually it takes 1-2 weeks). I emailed them and they send a new shipping immediately, which arrived after one week. Two weeks later the first order arrived too. I sent it back at my charges, because of the excellent service.

Generally US companies have a higher level of customer support than european firms.

[John L]

Thanks for all of your responses, people.

Ironically, I am glad to hear that international shipping often takes a while. I won't give up yet.

It was apparently sent by air, not surface mail.

[AllenLowe]

can you tell us the name of company? I don't think it'll do any harm - or maybe the name of the CDs -

Edited February 10, 2006 by AllenLowe

[Ron S]

Thanks for all of your responses, people.

Ironically, I am glad to hear that international shipping often takes a while. I won't give up yet.

It was apparently sent by air, not surface mail.

But don't give up on the credit card company route, either. In fact, you may want to go ahead and make a call to them now just to document the situation, but tell them that you want to hold off on challenging the charge until you've given delivery some more time (just make sure that the person to whom you speak notes the situation on your account). That way, if you do call them back later, they can't say that you waited too long to bring it to their attention. You really have nothing to lose by doing that.

[Pete B]

I had an incident in which a shipment did not arrive from Paris Jazz Corner. The very week I traced it with them it was returned to them as undeliverable. The problem? - they had put my zip code before my city and state, and some lazy and/or incompetent postal employee marked it undeliverable and returned it to them. It took almost 3 months to make its way from Paris to our shores and back again.

They reshipped it and it arrived in two weeks.

[J.A.W.]

(...) The problem? - they had put my zip code before my city and state (...)

In many Continental European countries the postal/zip code comes before the city, so I guess it's an understandable mistake, or, if they used a computerized system, it might have been unavoidable.

[Ron S]

(...) The problem? - they had put my zip code before my city and state (...)

In many Continental European countries the postal/zip code comes before the city, so I guess it's an understandable mistake, or, if they used a computerized system, it might have been unavoidable.

That's why with my recent online Zweitausendeins orders, I put my city and state in the first, smaller space designated for postal code, and put my zip code in the second, larger space designated for "place" (and did a similar reversal on the address line). Seems to have worked.

[JohnS]

Persevere it with the label, after all their loss is nowhere near the money you paid, they should replace without question. If not we'll name and shame them. There is always the local trading standards office as another avenue of approach.

I've had very little trouble, a package from Fresh Sounds didn't arrive but they replaced it very quickly. I've had one or two delays, nothing like three months though. Chasing sometimes gets some curt replies in my experience.

Edited February 11, 2006 by JohnS

[AllenLowe]

if you won't give us the label, than spell it backwards -

[marcoliv]

A package of CDs I sent to a board member in Brazil took almost 3 months.

Same here.

whom might be this member

now seriously. packages from USA/Europe are now taking up to 10 days to arrive

MCO

[LAL]

I live in Asia, and since early 2005, at least half a dozen packages have not arrived. A couple ordered through cdconnection.com were promptly replaced with no questions asked. However, the remaining missing packages via sognajd.moc (read backwards) remain missing. My various e-mails to them were never answered and all I could/can do is just take the loss. I'll try getting the bank to reverse some of the card charges.

[Chuck Nessa]

A while back I posted an "inventory reduction" Okka sale. I had a fairly large order from one of our members and sent the package. I received a message the package did not arrive. I prepared a new shipment and the customer offered to pay half. I accepted. I "almost" broke even on the deal and the customer payed more than intended. Did I do wrong? This has been bugging me for a long time. If insurance is not requested, who's to blame? I'd welcome a post from the customer explaining his feelings.

FWIW, I've had around 5 claims of "non-delivery" in the past 10 years. I must also add a couple of these were later confirmed as "delivered".

[Aggie87]

Last year I made a trade with Gokhan (ghnrtg), who lives in France. His package to me arrived quickly, but somehow my package went on the SLOW boat, and took well over a month to arrive (I asked for air mail, but apparently it was shipped via surface or something instead).

After a couple of weeks, we both figured it was lost forever, but agreed it wasn't my fault, though I felt bad. I ended up buying him a disc from Leo or Emanem as a result. However, not too long after, my package finally arrived, so he in return he bought me a Wadada Leo Smith disc from Leo.