Sandbag Watch - NIN and Sandbag part. Livenation picks up the pieces.

[Leprekon666]

I have a few extra Fragile Deviations 1 Vinyl that came damaged. If anyone’s interested let me know.

[ParaGun]

Wow, a very quick and positive response from Sandbag to my sleeve replacement request: 40 mins! Four days later, the replacement copy of the Fragile arrived from the UK store (as I requested), mint, pristine condition, finally. So I have to praise their service. Maybe they are starting to wake up finally. (silly to say that based solely on my experience of course)

[Leprekon666]

It amazes me how Amazon can ship me Before The Flood (packaged from manufacturer with the cardboard) nothing inside and my HTDA Welcome Oblivion (in there vinyl cardboard packaging) no bubble wrap and can come mint but sandbag puts bubble wrap and it comes damaged x3 lol. I swear they toss these around like frisbees.

[willgaspari]

Happy to report that my Vietnam vinyl arrived today, 11 days after purchase. No tracking info was emailed to me, and album was packed in a cardboard mailer with bubble wrap, but no damage upon first inspection. The shirt that I ordered with the record was shipped separately, with tracking info, and should arrive in the next couple of days.

[Greywolfe]

Sandbag just sent me a brand new copy of Fragile instead of a cardboard sleeve. In twice as much packaging this time, but still flatpacked with no bubble wrap. In about 99% condition this time.

[ziltoid]

Looks like I'm taking Sandbag to small claims court. I'm missing $90 worth of vinyl and they haven't responded to an email or a new help ticked from me in two weeks.

Good luck brother! I just escalated my claim with Paypal a day before the cut-off date and hopefully, I will be issued a refund.
I just escalated my claim with Paypal a day before the cut-off date and hopefully, I will be issued a refund.
So much clusterfuck going on now in my life right now and this is the last thing I need.
I just want a refund at this point, fuck everything else, fuck replacement jackets, fuck their no response bullshit, fuck hounding them to do something properly and getting canned responses (oh how I loathe those), fuck getting another shit packaged replacement vinyl, I just my money back since I never actually received what I paid for AND ESPECIALLY FUCK SANDBAG for wasting my fucking time. Fuck those guys!

[joel]

So my fragile DE was delivered on Aug 20, but I was on vacation and only just in the last week got to open it and look at it. It's not horrible condition but it's not clean like a new record should be. Do you guys think I missed the boat on making a claim for a replacement sleeve?

[Conan The Barbarian]

Received my Broken replacement sleeve. Unfortunately just the sleeve and not another record like some lucky folks have been getting.

[xfilian]

Received an extra copy of Fragile yesterday, completely out of the blue and around a month after the first one arrived.....

[imail724]

Received an extra copy of Fragile yesterday, completely out of the blue and around a month after the first one arrived.....

Willing to sell it to me? Been holding off buying from nin.com due to the high shipping costs in hopes they'd go to Amazon eventually.

[ziltoid]

Willing to sell it to me? Been holding off buying from nin.com due to the high shipping costs in hopes they'd go to Amazon eventually.

Unfortunately, we know for sure that any vinyls won't be officially sold on amazon.
Trent posted that it was out of the question in another thread. Don't remember which one at the moment, but when I do I'll reply with the link in this thread unless someone else does.
We don't know the details but it seems like there might have been an issue with amazon and Trent; I'm speculating that it's probably a logistics issue.

[imail724]

Unfortunately, we know for sure that any vinyls won't be officially sold on amazon.
Trent posted that it was out of the question in another thread. Don't remember which one at the moment, but when I do I'll reply with the link in this thread unless someone else does.
We don't know the details but it seems like there might have been an issue with amazon and Trent; I'm speculating that it's probably a logistics issue.

He posted in the "Good Merch Experiences" thread that Amazon is not an option at this time. Still hopeful that it will become an option further down the line, or at least they will be sold in stores.

[xfilian]

Willing to sell it to me? Been holding off buying from nin.com due to the high shipping costs in hopes they'd go to Amazon eventually.

I am going to hang onto it for the time being, just in case they realise their mistake. Highly unlikely I know, but stranger things have happened. I will give it a couple of weeks and will contact you again if I still have it.

Its perhaps worth mentioning that of all the deliveries I have had, not one has been in poor condition. Guess I must be lucky in that respect.

[TheBang]

just in case they realise their mistake.

Why start now?

[ninner123]

So after months of trying to resolve my missing vinyl and speaking with various people at Shitbag, I was connected with a guy called Alex (who knows if this person exists...) and he was the first person there to not only provide adequate answers to my questions but treated me as a valued customer. After speaking with him I had my outstanding items a few days later because he saw there was a error with my address and shipped my items personally.

I'll end this by stating that although the overall experience was a farce and that I understand the Firebrand takeover was most likely the root cause based on my personal experience there was a shining light.

[GentlemanLoser]

Really would love to get that Deviations replacement sleeve that I was told I would get back in, like June or July... Not to mention my Fragile and Broken replacement sleeves...

[afors]

Really would love to get that Deviations replacement sleeve that I was told I would get back in, like June or July... Not to mention my Fragile and Broken replacement sleeves...

Would really like to get a replacement copy of Ghosts for my warped and dinged copy, but 7 weeks and no tracking number yet despite being told I'd get one. Who knows...

[chuenthez]

I received (finally) everything I wanted. But I really don't blame them. Sure I had to contact them multiple times (for scratched sleeves, for NTAE physical component not sent), but I am quite sure it has to do with the mess of Firebrand transfer. I ordered The Vietnam War from the store and received it perfectly within less than one week. And I got everything ! I would continue to order with them, no problem.

[atomobile]

My 2017 nin.com vinyl shopping experience: I purchased the following vinyl records from nin.com in 2017: Broken, Downward Spiral, Fragile, Deviations, Not the Actual Events, Natural Born Killers, Prick (Color), and Lost Highway (Color). I won't go into any details of all the e-mails I had to sent, pictures I had to take, the responses I received that demonstrated they didn't even read my e-mail, etc. Many of these records had to be replaced because of terrible packaging. In the end, this is what I received:

-Broken (X3) (I'm awaiting my 3rd copy. The first two were damaged)
-Downward Spiral (X1) (My first copy was only slightly damaged and I didn't ask for a replacement)
-Fragile (X3) (I'm awaiting my 3rd copy. The first two were damaged)
-Deviations (X1 + X1 Cover) (My first copy was damaged and I received a replacement cover only)
-Not the Actual Events (X1) (My first copy was only slightly damaged and I didn't ask for a replacement)
-Natura Born Killers (X1) (My first copy was only slightly damaged and I didn't ask for a replacement)
-Prick (Color) (X2) (The first copy was damaged. I received a second copy which was only slightly damaged, so I didn't ask for a third)
-Lost Highway (Color) (X2) (The first copy was damaged. I received a second copy which was only slightly damaged, so I didn't ask for a third)

Before NIN switched to Sangbag, I received a beautifully packaged copy of Before the Flood. Perfect packaging box (box very sturdy and corners far away from record's corners). I was hoping the rest of my records would arrive in this same condition. Overall, this was a very disappointing year for buying NIN on vinyl. What made things worse was Sangbag not giving a fuck about appropriate packaging and Trent Reznor's Vinyl Statement about the great vinyl artwork! The statement is still there mocking us. Spend lots of money on vinyl because, even though the sound is shittier, it has better artwork than CD. Oh yeah, and we are going to ship them Media Mail and fuck up the condition of the artwork on your vinyl. Never in my life have I ever felt this ripped off. And I'm sad this happened with my favorite music act in the world. Buyer beware. Disappointed, Louis

[neorev]

@atomobile Honestly for being a paying supporter, I would not accept the slightest damage whatsoever. You're giving money for a brand new item, it should be pristine. Plain and simple. I'd be hassling the company until they do their job and ship me out a proper, brand new copy. If you can't deliver vinyl to a customer without damaging it, you should not be in business of handling vinyl whatsoever. Trent needs to sack Sandbag ASAP. I think he's getting off a bit too easy in this case and should be made aware of the clusterfuck he has put fans through by choosing such a inept company to handle his merch. Especially since he made the option of buying these records anywhere else impossible.

[afors]

@atomobile Honestly for being a paying supporter, I would not accept the slightest damage whatsoever. You're giving money for a brand new item, it should be pristine. Plain and simple. I'd be hassling the company until they do their job and ship me out a proper, brand new copy. If you can't deliver vinyl to a customer without damaging it, you should not be in business of handling vinyl whatsoever. Trent needs to sack Sandbag ASAP. I think he's getting off a bit too easy in this case and should be made aware of the clusterfuck he has put fans through by choosing such a inept company to handle his merch. Especially since he made the option of buying these records anywhere else impossible.

We have been more fortunate in UK/EU with the packaging. It's not the best I've encountered, but better impact protection than US shipped items, also faster delivery service. My older vinyl + Before the Flood which were all shipped from US were all damaged to an extent and Ghosts was warped and badly damaged. The US store packaging was extremely shoddy for corner impact protection (none). Shipped by "snail mail" and in transit for weeks (which didn't help). For me the problem is the unwillingness to learn from their packaging mistakes and change things. Alarm bells should have been sounding in their org. to ship things out better. This didn't happen (to this day) and that is a problem. If it were my organisation, I'd have recognised an issue and immediately changed packaging (not exactly a high cost endeavour), even just for the NIN stuff and if I really had to, add $1-2 extra to shipping costs on new orders to cover the 'enhanced' packaging. To bury your head in the sand, and refuse to acknowledge a problem and then just deal with 100's of tickets for damaged sleeves + vinyl is just ridiculous quite frankly, and leave no one with any confidence for buying future releases.

[Twiggy]

Looks like my Add Violence Physical Component got lost in the mail.
They are sending me a new one...

[Calvatron]

Looks like my Add Violence Physical Component got lost in the mail.
They are sending me a new one...

Mine too! Today will be say eight since they said one was being sent and five simce they closed my ticket. Hoping this actually arrives.

[atomobile]

We have been more fortunate in UK/EU with the packaging. It's not the best I've encountered, but better impact protection than US shipped items, also faster delivery service. My older vinyl + Before the Flood which were all shipped from US were all damaged to an extent and Ghosts was warped and badly damaged. The US store packaging was extremely shoddy for corner impact protection (none). Shipped by "snail mail" and in transit for weeks (which didn't help). For me the problem is the unwillingness to learn from their packaging mistakes and change things. Alarm bells should have been sounding in their org. to ship things out better. This didn't happen (to this day) and that is a problem. If it were my organisation, I'd have recognised an issue and immediately changed packaging (not exactly a high cost endeavour), even just for the NIN stuff and if I really had to, add $1-2 extra to shipping costs on new orders to cover the 'enhanced' packaging. To bury your head in the sand, and refuse to acknowledge a problem and then just deal with 100's of tickets for damaged sleeves + vinyl is just ridiculous quite frankly, and leave no one with any confidence for buying future releases.

I posted this before, but when I pressed them on shipping with better packaging, this was their response, and I quote directly from their e-mail: "Our packing methods have proven to be very successful in the past, however once the items are passed over the couriers then controlling the quality of your items becomes somewhat out of our control. We take great pride in delivering these bespoke items with the greatest amount of care possible..."

So, it doesn't seem like they are even considering better packaging.

[afors]

I posted this before, but when I pressed them on shipping with better packaging, this was their response, and I quote directly from their e-mail: "Our packing methods have proven to be very successful in the past, however once the items are passed over the couriers then controlling the quality of your items becomes somewhat out of our control. We take great pride in delivering these bespoke items with the greatest amount of care possible..."

So, it doesn't seem like they are even considering better packaging.

Now there's another canned response if ever I heard one! They may well feel that way but evidence on here suggests otherwise. Quite honestly I have bought lots of vinyl, and the US store packaged vinyl was by far the worst I have ever seen from any supplier - open corners and zero crush zones. The EU/UK store packaging had crush zones, but the card was softer than some other distributors so there was nearly always some packaging corner damage, fortunately the vinyl was more often than not ok, but more by luck than anything. I recently had a single vinyl LP ship from Amazon to me, and it had minimal layers of card, but it had a slight crush zone and much more rigid card than I'd previously seen anywhere, which turned out to be very robust, despite still having some package corner dings. There are simple packaging solutions out there for vinyl.

[camebackhaunted]

Has anyone else received an unexpected refund without any emails about it?

It was for $35.00 USD, so I assume it is because of "LOST HIGHWAY OST REISSUE Black or Color Vinyl Pressing 2XLP - Color , Unit price: $35.00 USD"
It's "Sold out" on the NIN store, so I can't order another one.
What the fuck?

I was planning to email them soon about not receiving it, but had not yet done so.

I also still haven't received the Add Violence Sticker pack - has anyone else?

-Lost Highway (Color) (X2) (The first copy was damaged. I received a second copy which was only slightly damaged, so I didn't ask for a third)

Wow, it really fucking sucks that they're fulfilling replacement orders before first orders.

[cahernandez]

Today I asked them to cancel my NTAE vinyl. I had sent them two emails to ask about my vinyl (order in December 2016) and they said they were going to ship in the next week, but to no avail. So, today I sent a third email to Sandbag, asking to cancel the order. It sucks but it had to be done. @teitan never use these guys again. I have never had such a terrible customer service experience before. I've bought merch from plenty of other bands before and all those experiences were fine!

[ZeroFiller]

Yep, got two separate refund emails with really no explanation whatsoever. It listed the items in my order, and I have no idea which two were refunded and why.

[camebackhaunted]

Thanks ZeroFiller, it's good to know I'm not the only one.

Sandbag have replied, the refund was intentional:

I do understand your frustration but unfortunately we have been informed that we will not be getting further stock in so we had to refund your order.

Wow.

I've sent Scumbag a follow up question asking why the fuck they took the order in the first place, and also why they prioritised replacements over unfulfilled orders.
I assume the answer is that they are such a pathetic excuse for a company that their order system can't even keep count of how many orders they're supposed to take, and that their stock inventory system couldn't count how many unfulfilled orders were remaining.

I would understand if this was an order they inherited from firebrand, but I placed this order in July, and the confirmation email came from Sandbag, and the paypal transaction says I paid Sandbag, so this is 100% THEIR FUCKUP.

edit: and due to the fact the USD is worth less now than in July, I essentially paid $3 for the privilege of waiting for them to send an order they should never have taken in the first place.

Also:

I did not personally issue the refund

Scumbag employees are so fucking stupid they don't understand that they represent a company, and think when I ask "why did you issue a refund", that the word "you" means that I'm asking them a "personal" question. WTF.

[Microwave Jellyfish]

I did not personally issue the refund

BAWHAHAHAHA! Hold me, sandbag just keeps giving. Legend.