As a pre-cursor (aka TL;DR) to this story, we’d like to announce that the Post Modern CDs are now officially only $5, for sale through our Shoppe at He Of The House. View the release page through the link below.
As some might have noticed, way back in May of 2011 (to think… it’s almost been a full year since we reinstated Haute Magie), we released a little collection of songs by Wisconsin-based electronic and classical composer William Bowers. This album, entitled “Post Modern“, was released in a run of 100 copies in a black Digipak with artwork by myself. Upon putting in the order after searching far and wide for a company which would suit our needs budget and quality wise, we waited expectantly and excitedly to be able to put out word that Haute Magie was back in action.
What we found was nothing short of the worst experience I have had dealing with a plant since, and most likely ever will. Welcome to the cesspool of customer service and quality control that is Furnace MFG.
After submitting my original request for a quote, to which I expected nothing more than a simple near-automated message with “X amount of CDs with X packaging will be $X”, I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with a personalised message from Furnace’s main salesperson John, with whom I have no personal qualms to this day. John was upbeat, positive, and extremely helpful. Customer service and support are two extremely important factors for us in everything that we do and all companies we come into contact with, so after being bombarded with these one line, impersonal ‘quotes’ from plants, it was a refreshing change of pace.
Unfortunately, this is where the positive notes on this sad, pathetic excuse for a company end. Now, before going any further, I would like to point out that we have not worked with Furnace in regards to their vinyl pressing or vinyl jacket printing, and they seem to be hailed for this. We actually even approached them for the possibility of doing cassettes (which they had to quote through a third party – they do outsource EVERYTHING, so this is no large surprise), and they responded with a price of almost $1,000 for a run of 100 tapes in Norelco cases with a single panel j-card. Yep. Therefore, this really only reflects their CD pressing and Digipak printing, but if they approach anything else with the callousness of this simple process, I can’t imagine ever even considering Furnace competent enough to handle anything else.
Moving on… after being courted by their wonderful salesperson (having worked in sales for quite some time, I can honestly say that he was good at what he did, and cordial enough to remain in good standings in my opinion – on the other hand, I also understand that the job of a lot of salesteams is to mislead the potential customer with promises of grandeur and other sparkly bullshit, so…), I was shuffled off to our Account Manager, Kelly.
Kelly, while being polite enough and getting quotes for a handful of custom projects we enquired about, was nothing if not aloof. This was concreted when, after paying for our order, we didn’t hear from Kelly or anyone else for an entire week and a half. Ali, another account representative, was brought into the mix a few days earlier, and in what seemed to be partnership with Kelly, refused to answer some of the more important questions in play, one of which lead to a feature we had requested for the CD being left out entirely. Alan in the proofing department was ever so gracious enough to ‘waive’ the re-proofing fee twice, which was especially considerate, seeing as how it was their team which kept somehow leaving out crucial portions of our design in the CD face and packaging layout.
For an order which was supposed to ship on the 25th of May and arrive on or before the release date of the 30th, it was just wonderful to receive notice that the CDs had finally shipped – on the 1st of June. We did not receive them until June 6th.
Now, all of this can be forgiven, and when all is said and done, we understand that in this situation, we’re simply a very small label pressing a very small run of a very small artist on a very under-appreciated format. However, that is absolutely no excuse for the basis of this post. That being the quality.
Almost every single copy of the album in all four of the cartons was completely scuffed, waterdamaged, marked up, and generally ‘dirty’-looking. I know that production lines can cause these sorts of things, but honestly, it’s a bit disturbing that I had to search through all four cartons just to find the most unmarked copy. We paid a decent amount of money for a CD, and honestly do not believe that the majority of the pressing should look like it was left in a soggy New England basement for 10 years.
Despite our initial disappointment and anger, we were able to find enough copies to sell / send off that weren’t damaged. Admittedly, we weren’t expecting to sell the CD like crazy, considering our newly reinvented state, and the obscurity of the music. Thus, it wasn’t until we received a notification from Manish, Furnace’s COO, asking for feedback, that I truly delved into my frustrations.
I submitted my feedback report, leaving no stone in this field of burnt grass unturned, and received a response from Manish a few days later. After being spoonfed a whopping portion of outright lies about their ‘proposed’ and ‘estimated’ turnaround times (my favourite being that their stated turnaround times are ‘what the customer would like’, not reality – …what?!), my concerns regarding the quality were met with… wait for it…
Specifically for your issue with the marks and scuffs on the Digipaks – I’m very sorry about this and can only imagine it was caused because they were not shrinkwrapped.
Seriously? I would hope I wouldn’t even have to describe why this is ridiculous and idiotic.
I can’t imagine that Shrinkwrap would have prevented the inside of the plastic CD well, underneath the actual CD itself, to be scuffed or marked. I also cannot imagine that these types of scuffs and marks would have been prevented by Shrinkwrap. Usually only a dirty production belt or something else during the actual printing process can cause this amount and severity of scuff marks. The CDs rubbing up against each other during shipping wouldn’t have done so. The main reason we didn’t opt for Shrinkwrap is due to us wanting to inspect the CDs before shipping them out. It’s a damn good thing, too. In addition to the scuffs, there were also a few copies which were bent, cracked, or made with such weak cardstock that I ripped one in half with no effort whatsoever.
What were we offered for this wreck? No refund possible, of course. We were offered free shrinkwrapping for 100 units of our next CD order. Way to add insult to injury.
Already well past the 1,000 word count mark at this point, I should probably (shrink)wrap this up. The main reason of this post was to vent the frustrations present during this situation, but we’d also, as mentioned above, like to announce that we’re officially selling the remaining copies of the CD at cost, with free shipping. Pick up a copy now for $5 from our main site. Obviously, the copy you receive will not be pristine, but it’s a piece of Haute Magie history, and a damn good little album for those who enjoy minimalistic electronic ambient soundscapes and rhythms. Perhaps your damaged copy will even become a $120 collector’s item on eBay in 30 years! Who knows…
For anyone shopping around for a CD plant, unless you are in the market for the lowest quality, lackluster customer service which kicks in just after you’ve paid for your order, and apathetic handling of the aftermath, look no further than any company other than Furnace MFG. As said, we can’t speak for their vinyl-pressing, but even that is severely overpriced, and nothing could be worth what we’ve experienced thus far.