Very bad service (actually: no service at all)

[Guest]

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A text taken from the VivaceClassical site www.vivaceclassical.com/contact.

Mrs R ordered on May 17th last a set for my birthday, with some other CDs, nearly £200.00 immediately taken from our credit card account.
Following an email d.d. May 21st (Order partly shipped) some of the latter arrived two days later (value some £30.00).
Nothing happened until June 7th an email arrived "Unfortunately, our supplier is still not able to ship the ordered CD / DVD within a reasonable time."
As this box is well available, and on top of that at short notice, this is clearly non-sense.
They offered to refund (if requested), which we asked for, but ever since nothing at all.

No acknowledgement of my request for a refund, no acknowledgement of a later email, nothing.

This firm turned out to be part of ArkivMusik.
I seem to recall problems with them were mentioned on these boards in the past.

If you can, steer away from them - they claim to be the largest in Europe.
Well, with this service that won't last, I'm sure.

[Dave2002]

I hope you paid by credit card, so you can put pressure on them that way, and get your money back.

I used them, and found them good, but obviously an experience such as yours, if advertised, should give them a poor or bad reputation very quickly. If they've got any sense they'll deal with this ASAP.

[Vile Consort]

Even if you paid by debit card you can ask your bank to charge it back.

[Bryn]

Roehre, may I suggest you include link to this thread in your next communication with them? I have only ever had very good service from them, but perhaps I was just lucky. They even temporarily reduced the price of a box to its then terminated offer level when I advised them I had forgotten to include it in an order. However, having erred where you are concerned, they seem to need a swift kick where it hurts.

[Roehre]

Roehre, may I suggest you include link to this thread in your next communication with them? I have only ever had very good service from them, but perhaps I was just lucky. They even temporarily reduced the price of a box to its then terminated offer level when I advised them I had forgotten to include it in an order. However, having erred where you are concerned, they seem to need a swift kick where it hurts.

I did so, Bryn, but nevertheless thanks for the suggestion.

[BBMmk2]

Very sorry to hear this Roehre. Everybody, avoid this company like the plague!

[Dave2002]

Very sorry to hear this Roehre. Everybody, avoid this company like the plague!

That might be too strong an action, as some of us have had good service, and indeed some very good deals. However my first order with them was for hundreds of pounds. I will certainly think very carefully before placing any large orders with them again.

It'd be useful if we could find out what's going on with/within this company. Is it in financial trouble? I suppose it might be trying to raise funds to pay its suppliers, for example by stimulating orders by giving what seem like very good deals, and delaying payment to suppliers. In the short term, under some circumstances, this might work, but it can also simply push a company further into an unsustainable position, and eventually everything falls apart, and others get hurt. This happened to us, though not with CD suppliers.

It is also possible that the company is not in financial trouble, but has operational problems. If these persist then other problems leading to financial collapse will inevitably occur.

Thinking about this again, caution makes sense, and small orders would carry less risk. From the firm's point of view, if they are not, or not yet in deep trouble, they should fix issues like the one discussed in this thread ASAP, otherwise everyone will desert them and their business will collapse.

bbm's simple and blunt advice may be as good as any.

[BBMmk2]

My views on most things are usually like this. No flowery words with me! Yoiu get it what it says on the tin! :)

[Roehre]

I sent an email, including a link to this thread, a week ago, but sofar: no reaction whatsoever.
did receive their newsletter the other day however....

[Resurrection Man]

I sent an email, including a link to this thread, a week ago, but sofar: no reaction whatsoever.
did receive their newsletter the other day however....

Telephone them?

[Dave2002]

I sent an email, including a link to this thread, a week ago, but sofar: no reaction whatsoever.
did receive their newsletter the other day however....

You could try regular mail, or fax -

Email: customerservice@vivaceclassical.com
Fax Number: +31 517 852921
Mailing Address:

VivaceClassical.com
p/a Noord 27
8801 KT Franeker
The Netherlands

If it comes to it, you could send a letter with a receipt acknowledgement for around £10 - that's for 100gm or thereabouts, and of course you'd seek compensation for the extra costs as well as the cost of anything already taken from your accounts.

The not so good publicity they might get from all this can't be doing them any good, surely!

One other possibility ....

Is it possible that the company has tried to contact you, but their reply has somehow been swallowed up by an email filter, so they think they've dealt with the issue, but you haven't seen their reply? This has happened to me before now, though not usually with any very serious effect. They may have used a different source name on any email sent to you, which your filters or your ISP's filters may have put into Junk mail, or even deleted before getting anywhere near your email account. It's a nuisance when companies do this, but the fact that you have their email newsletter does not necessarily indicate that you are receiving all the email from them.

I don't suppose there's anything quite the same as the Small Claims Court for European purchases. If this was a UK supplier you could threaten action with the UK Small Claims Court. If you aren't going to end up with a loss you may have to take this up with your bank/credit/debit card company.

Good luck.

[Flosshilde]

I don't suppose there's anything quite the same as the Small Claims Court for European purchases. If this was a UK supplier you could threaten action with the UK Small Claims Court. If you aren't going to end up with a loss you may have to take this up with your bank/credit/debit card company.

Good luck.

The laws relating to provision of services should be much the same throughout the EU. Perhaps you could approach the local trading standards office, or its dutch equivalent.

[Resurrection Man]

Contact your credit card company and ask for a chargeback. Simple. You've paid for goods but they haven't been delivered. The company has ignored you. Chargeback.

[hedgehog]

You could try regular mail, or fax -

Email: customerservice@vivaceclassical.com
Fax Number: +31 517 852921
Mailing Address:

VivaceClassical.com
p/a Noord 27
8801 KT Franeker
The Netherlands

If it comes to it, you could send a letter with a receipt acknowledgement for around £10 - that's for 100gm or thereabouts, and of course you'd seek compensation for the extra costs as well as the cost of anything already taken from your accounts.

If you put that address into googlemaps it doesn't exist. Interestingly though the address with a telephone number that does exist is this company that also produces recordings.


Newton Classics B.V.
Noord Zuidzijde 27
8801 KT Franeker, Netherlands
tel: +31 517 852 920

[Roehre]

Vivace Classical has profoundly apologized today.

A sister firm went bust, creating an enormous chaos.
Vivace Classical is back on track now, I am happy to say.