Has anyone had consistently good experiences (or ANY good experiences) with ANY merch company? Perhaps you could reply with suggestions and details. Amazon is currently not the answer - who else?
Asking for a friend...
Flaccid Member
Has anyone had consistently good experiences (or ANY good experiences) with ANY merch company? Perhaps you could reply with suggestions and details. Amazon is currently not the answer - who else?
Asking for a friend...
Stubby Member
I ordered a shirt from the Foo Fighters shop and everything went pretty smooth. Granted, it was just a shirt but it shipped quickly and the tracking worked really well. That being said, it looks like they are with Live Nation Mechandise which feels fucking gross in and of itself, but I was happy with my experience.
I'm really happy to see all of the activity from the new music to the reissues. Thanks so much for your continued dedication for your fans. Honestly, what I'd really like to see is these releases in record stores. I still buy albums once a week from local shops. There's nothing like digging through stacks to find something you love, even if it means you pay a few bucks extra. Any chance of the re-issues making it into shops?
she/her/hers
over the last few years, i have ordered merch through multiple different merchtable stores (for various bands/labels) and never had a single issue. they seem to know their shit.Originally Posted by teitan
Active Member
This. Never had an issue with any order from merchtable.
Throbbing Member
I've been in Pearl Jam's fan club (Ten Club) since 1994. They've consistently delivered good product and packaging for as long as I can remember. Shirts, jackets, backpacks, stickers, CDs, digital downloads, vinyl, special edition triple 150gram vinyl releases to members only, posters (delivered in strong cardboard tubes), books, etc. Every live show is available as a digital download or CD for purchase. Currently, they are using nugs.net, along with a lot of other artists http://nugs.net/browse/artists . They've also teamed with many artists who do their show posters - Ames Brothers, Brad Klausen, Emek (who has done a couple NIN show posters), to name a few. Some sell apparel and other merchandise and generally there are no issues with them either.
The only issue I've had with Pearl Jam, is that sometimes, the shipping can be a little expensive. They are based out of Seattle, and I've read that Canadian and overseas shipping gets up there.
Administrator
Pearl Jam's shop is excellent. Quick fulfillment, great packaging, and they are on top of it in regards to communication. That being said, I can't see who they use as their site only credits Monkeywrench which is their in-house record label, but it might be the place to start to find out.
*EDIT* Or what @kevinbeetle just said.
God is an American
I've bought tons of Gary Numan stuff from his store hosted by https://tmstor.es/ and had generally good experiences.
Also, for what it's worth, Sandbag didn't fuck up my NIN physical components or vinyl orders (they just shipped Deviations 1 without proper packing material).
Last edited by botley; 08-25-2017 at 11:18 AM.
Je suis Batman
I have had similar success with Townsend Music for Numan, Underworld, and Prodigy digital and physical product. I'm unsure what their US footprint looks like, however (they are U.K. based).
Flaccid Member
My copy of Deviations was badly packaged , replacement sleeve sent out was also slightly damaged, by this point, I have given up. O recently got a Dead Cross vinyl through from tmstor.es that was packaged properly and arrived in perfect condition. So I can recommend them too.
Active Member
Most recently pre-ordered Villains from Queens Of The Stone Age/Matador and it arrived perfectly a day early.
Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk
Throbbing Member
(answer to OP: I had only positive experiences with boomkat so far)
Last edited by arsenic; 08-25-2017 at 12:26 PM.
Flaccid Member
Bravadousa has been good to me. They handled the deluxe Marilyn Manson Pale Emperor merchandise. Correct sizes, merchandise was bagged then boxed. LP was handled with care. No mashed corners/splits/warped/etc.
Dave Matthews Band has been good through the years.
Active Member
Will everything be available on Amazon or other stores eventually?
pretty FART machine
Sandbag was excellent when handling my Radiohead deluxe album orders. While I'm still waiting for my NTAE & TF vinyl to ship, the AV physical bundle was delivered last week without any issues.
LiveNation has been very good with my U2 fan club orders, and quick to remedy issues with damaged deliveries or anomalies with renewal gifts.
Object Merch was pretty reliable back in the day, but I'm sure that ship has sailed.
Hairy Member
I've used Kings Road Merch for a fair amount of vinyl shipments and pre-orders over the years, always with good experiences and perfect vinyl upon arrival.
Hairy Member
I think having a US based company for the US store, and a UK based company for the UK store would be helpful. Trying to contact a UK support desk during their business hours, while living on the West coast of the US is difficult.
Just an observation, since I've found that currently, the only way to get a timely response (if any response) is to email while they're at work. Their end of shift seems to be about 9am Pacific time. Just trying to give constructive feedback. I'm not real familiar with merchandise vendors.
Hairy Member
The ones that come to mind are Kings Road, Hello Merch, and Bandcamp for vinyl and merch from different artists over the years and had no issues. Some have been likely in-house I think like Dais records or getting some stuff from Wax Trax! where cd's and vinyl were shipped to me in the same package with no problems.
So cold it can sting.
Thanks for letting us know you still care.
Stubby Member
Honestly, I've only had problems with Firebag and Sandbrand. I have yet to physically receive my QOTSA Villains pre-order, but Ive been pretty impressed by Matador so far. Live in Canada, tracking says itll arrive next week, emailed this morning to see if I could get emailed a dl code, sent me one before lunch. A lot of people in the states had thier LPs earlier this week, before release date today.
Edit: Only reason I preordered was to get in on the Verified Fan ticket presale. Otherwise I would have walked into Sunrise an bought it today
Hairy Member
I stayed away from the Villains pre order because of the cost. Deluxe vinyl after shipping and currency exchange worked out to $75, which is pretty outrageous for a 9 song LP. I walked into Sunrise today to buy it. They want $80 for it, before taxes.
I'm gonna try the indie stores in Toronto this weekend.
Hairy Member
Contrary to the numerous horror stories I've read here, my experience with Sandbag has been, well, great. I received NTAE middle of August as expected, and the record was perfect. I received the Add Violence PC quickly (although USPS creased it, but that's okay, as I'd rather not pay more for shipping than the item itself when it comes the PCs.) I even received my NTAE PC fairly quickly (still delayed, but I'm not STILL waiting like some others.)
I ordered The Fragile on Tuesday morning, and it arrived today. The packaging was a slightly damaged—minor smashed corner, and the spine was creased vertically near the bottom. Those deficiencies seem to stem from the album packaging rather than the vendor packing method, which was extensive. The records are too heavy for such thin cardboard (especially with The Fragile, which has three heavy platters in there.)
All this said, I ordered both of these LPs recently, not back when they were announced. It's a shame that people who supported this initiative at the begging have been experiencing truly AWFUL customer service, and absurd waiting periods for their orders. These items are expensive, and the base that wants to buy is sophisticated and hungry for the material (which I think you're aware of, as so much of the material you've released has been excellent, and truly worth adding to a collection) and will commit hundreds and hundreds of dollars to experience the work.
It's tough to expect a third party fulfillment company to understand that, and it's not hard to imagine that's what you're grappling with.
Throbbing Member
Regarding this and other posts praising Sandbag, I'm sort of assuming that's not the answer @teitan is after either. "Consistency" being a keyword and all.
Hairy Member
Very sweet of you to look out for his interests. My point stands, though. People ordering now seem to be having positive experiences with the current merch company—it's unlikely I'm the only one. Therefore, even though the changeover has caused unheard of problems for all the early purchasers, the current vendor seems to be doing the job right, and can be considered a positive merch experience.
Unintelligible Whispering
Sandbag really does seem to be the exception here rather than the rule. There's a bunch of reports around about them fucking over Frank Ocean's fans earlier this year. Googling around and going back a few years, it seems Daft Punk and Arcade Fire fans have been getting screwed over by them too. They've never been reliable.
I'm seeing mixed feedback for BravadoUSA as well when I look around.
Conversely, most folks here and elsewhere seem to have nothing but good things to say about Matador records (Home of Sonic Youth and QOTSA wooo) and this isn't the first place I've seen gushing over the guys Pearl Jam work with.
Captain Rustleboots
Deleted my comment, didn't see who posted this and didn't realize this was supposed to be a constructive round table. Sorry for being a cunt.
Merchnow has always been absolutely top notch every time i've ordered something from a band through them.
Active Member
Just noticed my Villains deluxe vinyl from Matador did have some damage to the sleeve. Emailed them and received a response within minutes saying they would ship me a replacement next week.
Bent Member
I don't have any particular companies to recommend. Though Matador did just deliver me the QOTSA album, in perfect shape and a day before release date. I couldn't be happier with that experience.
I think part of the reason for the mint record, though, is that the materials themselves are very high quality. I *really* wish your albums didn't use such thin material for sleeves. Corners are far-too-easily smooshed in shipping, seams split because the weight of the records is too much for the flimsy material to bear (just from them shifting during shipping), and corners tear during even careful extraction of the records from the sleeves. That QOTSA album is going to stand up to years and years of handling. Yours aren't even making it safely to our doorsteps, unfortunately.
Throbbing Member
I don't know if it counts, but Mondo (http://mondotees.com) has consistently solid packaging of the vinyl albums they sell. But I think they do it themselves and aren't available for contracted work.
But maybe it's worth checking with them just in case.
They're also very good with shipping their posters; haven't ordered anything else/know anyone else that has received other products from them.
Flaccid Member
I agree with this wholeheartedly. Mondo do a stunning job with their posters and vinyl protection during delivery, and also, it goes under the customs radar too for the UK which is great, knowing you don't have to pay extra taxes.
Stubby Member
Also I haven't got anything from them in a couple years but I used to order stuff all the time (and was a member of the "vault" for years) and had consitantly good experiences with Jack White's Third Man Records. Not sure if they do any order fulfilment or are strictly just record label though.
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