Elusive Disc: Great Customer Service (1 Viewer)

[Evan S]

Recently I placed an order at Elusive Disc after receiving a coupon e-mail from them. I ordered Miles Davis "Kind of Blue", which I have been meaning to get for a while and the forthcoming Aerosmith Greatest Hits double disc, due out August 20th. The Miles is available now and in stock, the Aerosmith obviously isn't.
Thinking that I would get the Miles in a separate shipment and immediately, a week went by and no disc. No shipping e-mail, nothing.
So, I e-mailed the company at [email protected]. I asked if I was going to get the Miles immediately or with the Aerosmith shipment in three weeks. Here was the reply...
"Evan, in this case we were going to hold for the Aerosmith. If you had a larger number of in stock discs we would have shipped ahead. Is this ok with you?"
Of course, this was OK with me. I can enjoy some of the other discs I have bought recently...but what struck me was WHO answered the e-mail. Why it was none other than Bob Bantz, the PRESIDENT of Elusive Disc. Anytime the top guy checks in to answer your e-mail, you know you have a company concerned with the individual. Man, that's a great feeling. Great job Bob and all at Elusive!

 

[Michael_T]

Ok - first let me say that I love Elusive Disc and that on the whole I think they are a great company - but I have another take on their overall customer service to consider.

Let me also say I probably placed over 15 orders with them so far - and have had problems with only one - it is with the order that I had a problem where I was not so happy.

My last order with Elusive Disc was for Jorma Kaukonen's "Blue Country Heart" on SACD and Led Zeppelin "Presence" on Classic Records 180g vinyl. Well the order comes quickly as usual, but the Led Zeppelin has a nasty scratch. I call up to get a replacement. I was told I had to send the item back at my cost BEFORE they could replace the item. They gave me an RMA number. The return cost me $4.30 via Priority Mail insured. Elusive Disc is nice enough though, since they know you are paying for postage to return an item to them, to allow you to add to the re-shipment of your defective item without incurring additional shipping charges. So I added 3 additional items to the order all of which would be shipped back to me without any shipping charges to me.

Ok - here is where my troubles start. I was told that upon receipt of the LP that I sent back to them, I would get a call telling me that my order was ready to go out so that I could add any additional items to my order. Well no call, so I call them. I am put on hold an told that my LP was indeed sent back to them and that my replacement order was due to go right out. I asked why I didn't get a call and they said it was because they were extra busy and hadn't gotten around to it. Fine - as long as my order was going to be shipped out I was ok. I was told that I would receive an e-mail with the UPS tracking number - which is normal for Elusive Disc. 2 days go by and no e-mail. I call again and this time guess who answers the call, the president of the company Bob (just like Evan who got his e-mail answered by him). I suspect that overall Elusive Disc is a small concern and the President of the company works just like the few employee's he must have.

I voice my concerns to him that I was told my order was shipped out and I hadn't received an e-mail yet. He checked - and confirmed that my order hadn't shipped - but couldn't tell me why (since it was a Saturday and all his other employees were off - he was merely there taking orders since they are open on Saturday). I explained the situation and his answer to me was that because of the Classic Records sale going on they were very busy and probably couldn't get to my order since they had so many orders to fill. I explained back that when I originally called the person I talked to told me specifically that my order was going to be shipped that day - which it did not. Bob then went on to tell me that returns are only really processed no more than once a week - and that was probably why my order didn't go out when I was told. I came back to him and said, well I was told my order would go out, and that I had already paid for my disc and that there should be no reason why my order, of which I added an additional 3 items to (which amounted to an additional $69 to Elusive Discs bottom line) shouldn't be handled the same or better as any new order which generally ships within 24 hours. He then started giving me some tale about how returns actually cost them money and time - since they now have to ship, at their cost, the Classic LP back to Classic to get credit, and that unfortunately nothing is perfect in the world of vinyl; and the fact that they were going to ship my order back to me via UPS instead of Media Mail (which is how they usually ship back returns) was a bonus to me. I stated, I am not really concerned about their issues, I was told I was going to have my order shipped on the day I was originally told and it did not ship - that is the main problem. If the original person told me I would have to wait then it would be a different story - but I was not and they did not ship when I expected.

Bob and I went back and forth (albiet in a friendly manner the entire time) - but I was hesitant to hang up until I got a definitive answer. Bob acknowledged, finally, that my issue was definitely a customer service issue (this was after 20 minutes on the phone with him - discussing my order, LPs, SACD, etc) and he would have to look into it on Monday since their warehouse was closed on Saturday. I kept pressing the point that I was not happy since I had to return the LP at my cost and that my return is handled as a more of a nuisance than a real concern - and definitely not handled like a new order which would have already been shipped out. He finally acquiesced, acknowledged that my order probably should have shipped when I was told, but couldn't answer since the salesman who took my order and said it would ship wasn't in. He then, somewhat grudeingly, told me that my next order would be marked to have free shipping and asked if that would make me happy. I said I didn't really want it to come to that, I merely wanted the Zeppelin LP, along with the 3 additional items to ship out (as I already paid for the Zeppelin but because of an unfortunate scratch I now had to wait even longer to receive a good copy). Anyway I told him that free shipping on my next order would be fine - and that if I didn't get a shipping notice on the following Monday I would call back and expect that they ship my order UPS overnight.

Suffice to say my order shipped on Monday - regular UPS - and I didn't receive it until Friday of that week. So I was content but not happy with the situation overall. It shouldn't be that returns take a back seat to normal orders - they should be handled with preferential treatment in my opinion, but what can you do?

Overall I am satisfied with Elusive Disc, just their return policy - and the fact that I feel even Bob, who is the president of the company, seemed to make excuses for not handling my return with the utmost care, shows that if you have a problem with an item from Elusive Disc the process of getting you a new and perfect copy isn't as important to them as getting you your items when you initially order from them.

Granted, they satisfied me in the end by giving me free shipping on my next order which I have yet to place. But that was only after 20 minutes on the phone. It was as if they weren't going to back down unless I was insistent.

Well, that's my story. Keep ordering from Elusive Disc, though, since overall they are a great company - just hope that you do not receive any defective items since then their overall service drops from the same standard set for normal orders.

Rant over.

 

[KeithH]

Michael said:

I suspect that overall Elusive Disc is a small concern and the President of the company works just like the few employee's he must have.

That was my first thought when I read Evan's post. The title of "President" can be misleading in a small organization. We certainly aren't talking about Jeff Bezos at Amazon.

Speaking of Jeff Bezos, I recently received an e-mail from Amazon with a return e-mail address of Mr. Bezos. It announced free shipping on orders $99 or more (they have since lowered the offer to orders of $49 or more). I wonder if Mr. Bezos actually sent the e-mail out to Amazon customers. I doubt it.