A few weeks ago I found a very good site on Bandcamp – a musician, who had played on quite a few recordings that I liked.
On his page, he has a number of albums that don’t seem to be available and a few that surprised me; one a Columbia Records release. I thought OK he’s licensed them so went ahead and bought 3 albums paying the equivalent in Euro of about £20.
Downloaded the albums and sat back thinking this is going to be great, can’t wait. Then, snaps, crackles and pops all over the place of the highest order.
This guy had only gone and copied the albums he has in his collection and put them out on bandcamp without any provisos.
Now normally, I would just swallow £20 and put the files in the recyle bin. But no! there is a time when a man has to stand up for himself.
I sent him an email and asked for a refund. Yes, he would give me a refund. In his reply I got:
“I know the ………Album is the worst for scratch noise”. “The …….Album is also full of audible scratch noise”.
“I will take the scratch files off my Website. The ones you bought are not often downloaded”
“I’ll have a think about that but I live in ……. and the transfer of minimal currency abroad is a large expense”.
I have chased him up and been assured a refund is on its way but with a comment “In future please check the tracks on a website”.
Well I did give one of the albums a quick preview and the bits I listened to in the Bankcamp environment sounded OK but on my main system it sounded horrible.
We’ll see if the refund turns up. I suppose Caveat Emptor as Bandcamp themselves say “….and it’s our policy not to refund digital purchases once they’ve been downloaded, as outlined in our terms of use”
Not sure if you are allowed but can you post the artists name on here, just in case someone else falls into the same trap?
Reminds me a little of Audio Fidelity. I was one of their early subscribers and at one point kept getting scratched cd’s. Thought I ain’t having this so dropped them a line and in the reply was the line “to get an unflawed cd would be a miracle.”
I’m all for World in Action exposes - I’ll see how I get on with the refund. But it’s not all about the refund it’s the bare-faced cheek of what is essentially a bootleg operation.
Basically Richard what it boils down to is that Andy if so he wishes, though I detect he is not keen on the idea, posts the name of the artist he dealt with in his thread so no other forum members may run into the same issue possibly with the same artist.
I believe he has complained to the artist but cannot say if he has complained to Bandcamp.
I was picking up on @ewemon’s suggestion that the OP name the offending seller, as to whether it would be acceptable to fo thst, or whether you would prefer nit.