Does anyone still shop at HMV?

I'm not sure if it was already mentioned upthread, but I have my suspicions that a lot of the Blue Cross stock had it's prices put up when going into the offer.

but I have my suspicions that a lot of the Blue Cross stock had it's prices put up when going into the offer.

yup .. i also think thats the case ...

I am 100% with Lex on the cooking thing. Sandwiches are some seriously next-level shit. They've always gone wrong on me. I can ping a mean microwave, and that's about the end of it. (Luckily, I have an in-house domestic outsourcing arrangment which works very well. I can also pack a mean dishwasher.)

All shops have now been vacated and an agreement has been handed to Limerick from the receiver Deloitte stating all money due will be paid to staff next week.

What more can be said about the heroes who left their families and sat in our shops

Thank you all so much for the outpouring of support and love , and this is just the beginning not the end .

HMV Staff Ireland

Alice wanted the TSwift cd, it's now back in stock, £13

hmm. doubtless it's cheaper in Sainsburys

it was £7 in hmv before all of this shit happened

that was a worthwhile post that i just made

More please

What more can be said about the heroes who left their families and sat in our shops

if only they'd bought something they might've stopped open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxVbIC2lvls

What more can be said about the heroes who left their families and sat in our shops

what happens if someone rescues a baby from a burning building in limerick this weekend

It seems the record companies may save HMV after all.

http://www.nme.com/news/hmv/68267

Mystic Peston.

hopefully they save grafton st cos i'm moderately fond of this guy that works there

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7qt9iebp6q3blty/59797_436016953124604_936647205_n.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7qt9iebp6q3blty/59797_436016953124604_936647205_n.jpg

HMV will accept vouchers from tomorrow, administrators say.

Righto, ta.

Magic, shall try and get my Fopp vouchers spent before it all goes wrong again.

ehhh, how can HMV accept vouchers if their shops are all closed?

They're not closed in the UK though. HMV Ireland seems to be doing its own thing.

Accepting butter vouchers

I tried to return the Beatles vinyl box which I received as a Christmas present to Fopp on Saturday to no avail. A few of the albums are mispressed and therefore faulty. I'd discussed it with the guys I know in the shop the week before and they'd told me just to bring it in and it wouldn't be a problem. Needless to say, due to the circumstances in between, it was a problem and there was nothing they could do; no refunds, no replacements and no exchanges. It wasn't bought with a credit card but I've tried to go through the bank and request a visa chargeback. I had to send off the receipt and a covering letter which I've done today but to be honest I'm not hopeful. I'm not sure if this new approach of accepting gift vouchers from tomorrow marks a change of rules on refunds and exchanges but I doubt it.

Anyway, gripe aside I really felt for the guys who work there. Most are decent blokes who are passionate about their music and many have floated about various largely now non existent record shops before. Aside of their jobs and the shop they'll be a real loss in terms of knowledge and enthusiasm if Fopp goes under.

probably better off contacting the manufacturer (EMI) in that case.

Yeah. Either way I'm sure I'm in for a shitstorm of letter writing. Bah!

I sent a blondie album back to chrysalis recs back in 1979, they sent me a replacement and a 'next time take it back to the shop' letter.

In the circumstances and with such an expensive product, I think that you might have a decent chance with EMI directly in this instance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21141209

One of Hilco's other businesses is an auction house that liquidates assets, typically industrial ones.

Right, off to 'test' the vouchers..

.. vouchers work.

I had a wee walk around Fopp at lunchtime. Blue crossing seems very selective if it's supposed to be raising a pile of cash. I spotted the How I Met Your Mother S1-7 box with a blue cross on it, reducing the £105 asking price by 25%, for something that's £50 on Amazon.

Krakow - I would go down the route of contact EMI but for all my research I can't find a way of contacting them about it. Seems that people in the US have had luck getting replacements from EMI directly but in Europe people have had to deal with the item seller.

Pretty pissed to hear that Fopp not only accepting gift vouchers now but also honouring the '£5 off any £35 spend' vouchers they were handing out before Xmas yet I'm sitting with a faulty item that they are refusing to exchange.

Blue crossing seems very selective

Yes, bit of a waste of time if you ask me

There's a 'customer assistance' form on here..

https://shop.abbeyroad.com/help.html

They may help with finding out who to contact on the 'manufacturer' front.

.. it's under "Any other questions"

Thanks Mark. I'll give that a try. Read over on the Steve Hoffman forums that no one has had any response from EMI Europe about faulty pressing issues. Worth a try though!

Serious rarebit action for Lex and Mike - http://sickmouthy.com/2013/01/27/ham-hock-and-onion-rarebit/

Hmmm, that's certainly one way HMV could turn around their business.

The domino effect from HMV appears to be in action.

Went up West on Saturday to try and get some albums (didn’t go out the weekend before due to snow etc.). HMV didn’t have any new releases in at all; only stuff like ASAP Rocky and Villagers which they had clearly ordered before it all caved in, plus lots of unattractively set out Blue Cross/£3-priced stuff. Matthew E White? Hacker Farm? Not even a browser marker (let alone for things like the new Adam Ant).

And why the hell HMV feel the need to sell Ribena and Mars bars is beyond me. You were supposed to be a music shop; sell music and then you wouldn’t be in the shit.

Sister Ray had one copy of Hacker Farm left and zero of Matthew E White because typically they didn’t order enough copies in. I expect this will now be the norm.

Phonica and Sounds of the Universe - useless for practical purposes unless you’re an ultra-specialist.

Fopp at Cambridge Circus was the same story as HMV; nothing new in at all. Desperately trying to offload existing stock.

I could have gone up to Rough Trade and probably found Matthew E White there but it was getting dark, it was cold, both Rough Trades are far away from the centre of town with Saturday traffic and I didn’t consider it worth risking a heart attack to get the CD.

To think that record shopping in the West End (and elsewhere) used to be one of my core pleasures, indeed one of the reasons I moved to London in the first place. Now it’s just a pain and I’ll probably end up sitting at home and relying on Brer Amazon.

Don't use Amazon, please. Places like Norman Records (http://www.normanrecords.com/) and Action Records (http://www.actionrecords.co.uk/) and The Drift (http://thedriftrecordshop.net/) and Rise (http://www.rise-music.co.uk/) all trade online and aren't evil behemoths.

is amazon cheaper tho?

Oh, I finally made my first trip to Sister Ray last week, nearly 5 years after moving to London: rude staff.

Marcello, I share your frustration. I wanted to buy the Matthew E White CD last week, and there wasn't a single place in town that would have stocked it. We have one excellent small independent (The Music Exchange) that's run as a social enterprise, with a full range of new release vinyl, but they don't stock CDs unless they're by local artists. That isn't enough. And so, after forty years of hitting the shops almost every week, it finally comes to an end. Ugh.

sounds like in a better world, matthew e white could have been rolling in ten pound notes this morning

instead he lives in a shed and eats dog biscuits from a dirty bucket. j'accuse, hmv

Bought another 'full price' disc (no blue cross on it) today in Newport HMV and they still took the 25% discount off at the till. They seem to have new stock for major releases - "Rumours" reissue etc - but little else that's new and not mainstream. Also a load of books for 50p each. As someone else said previously, why are HMV selling Haribo sweets? I'd like to know how many Mars bars and bags of sweets they actually sell.

Don't use Amazon, please. Places like Norman Records (http://www.normanrecords.com/) and Action Records (http://www.actionrecords.co.uk/) and The Drift (http://thedriftrecordshop.net/) and Rise (http://www.rise-music.co.uk/) all trade online and aren't evil behemoths.

― i would never inflict the process of making a sandwich on myself (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 28 January 2013 09:36 (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM.

is amazon cheaper tho?

― Blue Collar Retail Assistant (Dwight Yorke), Monday, 28 January 2013 09:42 (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also, sadly, OTM.

:-(

It's not easy for me, given my location, to get to an indie record shop that'll stock what I'm looking for. Amazon is evil and must be destroyed and I hate myself for shopping there, like with Tesco. But as with that horrible place, sometimes I just end up going there because... well it's so much cheaper and easier and sometimes it seems to be the only place I seem to be able to source what I want.

That said, I'll make a conscious effort in future to check out Mouthy's links first.

Can Amazon be justified if you only buy from the Marketplace? Or am I just kidding myself?