tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post113500173480688160..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Amazon Marketplace - caveat emptorUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1139507334075100032006-02-09T17:48:00.000+00:002006-02-09T17:48:00.000+00:00I have bought from Amazon Marketplace and have had...I have bought from Amazon Marketplace and have had only positive experiences. I never buy from a seller who sells for the cheapest price, and only buy from UK based sellers. This way, I never had to pay import duty (on items over £18), which can actually wipe out any savings you made on your purchase. Also in my experience, UK seller are generally more reliable. As with everything "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR". If the seller has a very small profit margin, they also will have a bad customer service. My Brilliant Classics Complete Bach has cost me £160 from seller dvdrama and was delivered in less than 2 days - "BRILLIANT" (pun intended).andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17283446405313947445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1137591157135366062006-01-18T13:32:00.000+00:002006-01-18T13:32:00.000+00:00Surprise, surprise ...18 January 2006 EUK squeez...Surprise, surprise ...<BR/><BR/><I>18 January 2006 <BR/> <BR/><B>EUK squeezed by Tesco</B><BR/> <BR/>Woolworth's has warned that profits at wholesaler Entertainment UK will drop by about £10m in its next financial year after supermarket Tesco negotiated new terms with the supplier in order to continue with its current contract until the end of February 2007. It also warned that a cessation of the contract would lead to a further reduction in profits as well as "associated restructuring costs".</I><BR/><BR/>From <I>The Bookseller</I>Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1136982185662834832006-01-11T12:23:00.000+00:002006-01-11T12:23:00.000+00:00To keep the record straight I should record that t...To keep the record straight I should record that the refund from Entertainment UK for the 'second-hand' Bach set was prompt and trouble free.<BR/><BR/>But it should never have been sent out in the first place.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1135259384475086192005-12-22T13:49:00.000+00:002005-12-22T13:49:00.000+00:00Having a high Google PageRank has interesting side...Having a high Google PageRank has interesting side benefits.<BR/><BR/>Type a search for <A HREF="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=erotic%20music&hl=en&lr=&start=80&sa=N " REL="nofollow">erotic music</A> into Google and <I>An Overgrown Path</I> is the first site displayed!Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1135122870348935222005-12-20T23:54:00.000+00:002005-12-20T23:54:00.000+00:00In praise of independent CD stores, plus an intere...In praise of independent CD stores, plus an interesting Benjamin Britten anecdote ...<BR/><BR/>The following was sent to me direct, rather than as a comment to the post. But it is such a wonderful, and deserved, testimony for 'bricks and mortar' retailers in general, and <A HREF="http://www.preluderecords.co.uk/" REL="nofollow">Prelude Records</A> in Norwich in particular that I am posting it here:<BR/><BR/>Dear OgP<BR/><BR/>I didn't post this as a comment as it doesn't contribute anything to the debate, but might interest you as a Prelude Records customer. It's really just a bit of reminiscing, and I'm in the mood for that as I draw near to my (early) retirement from UEA Library where I've been since 1978, and have masqueraded as a music librarian - among other roles - since the mid 1990's. Before I took over as 'full' music librarian (ie printed material as well as recordings) I took on what was then a vinyl Record Library in 1985 (the colleague then looking after it had died in post, and I got given the job as someone with an evident interest in music and recordings, and junior and naive enough not to object to further tasks !). <BR/>See http://www.lib.uea.ac.uk/lib/libinf/otherlib/cdmusic/info.htm<BR/>It coincided, almost exactly with Andrew Cane starting his business in a very small shop off Pottergate. So small was the room that the office space (I think I remember this correctly) was a space below the shop floor, and Andrew would come up the connecting staircase, rising from behind the counter in a way that reminded me of those Dickensian and Wellsian scenes where shop assistants sleep in the space beneath the counter. Since then our library has shed vinyl (apart from a small archive), gone through the direful cassette years, and is now a CD collection of nearly 10,000 albums, and throughout the twenty years Prelude has remained our supplier for nearly all our classical recordings (in whichever format). I am not exaggerating when I say that in all that time they have made less than half-a-dozen mistakes in supplying us. In fact I can only recollect three instances : a wrong Bach cantata in a fiendishly complicated and large order of cantata recordings that required many of the same cantatas but in different performances, the duplicated supply of a spoken word recording, and ( I can't wholly remember the detail) the wrong performance of Mendelssohn (?) piece. Leaving aside vinyl and cassette, that's in the supply of probably over 3,000 CDs.<BR/><BR/>And it's extraordinary how Andrew has managed consistently to employ people who are not only enthusiastic musicians (most of them UEA music students), but also have a level of diplomacy and tact with customers that is remarkable. Very easy to make howlers in asking for classical music that can provoke instant mirth or some other form of putdown to the enquirer, and I've overheard some hilarious requests when in the shop.<BR/><BR/>Mentioning our first collection of vinyl, reminds me of a story that Paul Nurse (a UEA alumnus who won the Nobel Prize in 2001 for his research on cancer - see http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/2001/nurse-autobio.html ) told on BBC radio (I heard it but , frustratingly, can't remember if it was Desert Island Discs, Private Passions, or some other programme) about his encounter with Benjamin Britten in the queue to borrow vinyl LPs during the lunch-hour at the UEA Record Library (for many years we only opened 1-2). An interesting sidelight on BB and his professed disdain of listening to recordings. One for another time.<BR/><BR/>Think your posts are amazing; ideal to find posts on both classical music and cycling (and much else). Leading Sunday club runs for CC Breckland I don't have too much opportunity in the conversation to combine it with my enthusiasm for Janacek...<BR/><BR/>regards<BR/>Alex Noel-TodPliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1135096129695428152005-12-20T16:28:00.000+00:002005-12-20T16:28:00.000+00:00An interesting coda to the terrible experience wit...An interesting coda to the terrible experience with Entertainment UK and the Bach Chorale Setting set. I switched this order to the main Amazon site. <BR/><BR/>I normally avoid using Amazon as I have found their availability information disingenuously misleading in the recent past. But I know Hannsler/Brilliant are difficult and unattractive for 'bricks and mortar' stores to order, so I ordered from Amazon.uk as they showed stock. <BR/><BR/>The order immediately went into 'Awaiting despatch' meaning it had stock allocated against it. 24 hours later the status had been reduced to 'Open Order' with no free stock. I cancelled the order.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1135092457432695382005-12-20T15:27:00.000+00:002005-12-20T15:27:00.000+00:00We run a successful independent CD store in the UK...We run a successful independent CD store in the UK. As you may be aware, many of the online stores are setting up Channel Islands shipping operations in order to avoid VAT charges, thereby artificially reducing their prices. <BR/><BR/>Play.com (offices in Cambridge)<BR/>operates out of Jersey, as does Tesco Jersey, Woolworths online (Jersey based again) and others. Apparently the Treasury lost about £200million last year in DVDs/CDs sold without VAT applied, due to this tax-break.<BR/><BR/>There is a movement to get this unfair anomoly changed and I would be interested in your comments. Perhaps 2006 will bring a slightly more level playing field for shops like ourselves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1135044593820687912005-12-20T02:09:00.000+00:002005-12-20T02:09:00.000+00:00This means if a CD is shown as in stock by a Marke...<I>This means if a CD is shown as in stock by a Marketplace reseller this is no guarantee that they actually have it. Several times recently it has been clear that a supplier is sourcing the title from a wholesaler once they have my order, and my money.</I><BR/><BR/>That's happened to me a few times. When I get e-mail from the supplier telling me they can't actually supply the title they'd listed, I immediately tell them to cancel the order, then report them to Amazon for fraudulent listing. Dunno if Amazon ever takes any action against them, but at least I feel like I'm doing something.Keithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07413428735864060575noreply@blogger.com