Emusic refunds feedback
I posted this on emu, but in case anybody here has stopped reading those forums, this might be helpful...
I've had three instances where I had to request refunds from emu. Thought it might be helpful for others who haven't yet had to (but fear they eventually will).
Two of the refunds were in the same category of individual songs not downloading. For whatever reason, quite often the first track of a particular download session always cuts off. In the past, I'd simply redownload the song, usually by disabling the emu downloader, and re-adding it to my itunes library. It almost always worked the second time, once or twice I think I had to take a third stab at it. But whatever. Having to now email customer service (CS) and explain the problem adds an irritating wrinkle to the process. It's also inexcusable, IMO. Mp3 downloads aren't some side-project of emu; it's their main thing. They should have a downloader that doesn't so consistently fail. But aside from that...
My first unsuccessful download forced me to write three emails to CS explaining the situation. The first response I got from them (and I'm ignoring the automated we-got-your-email response message) told me that there was nothing wrong with the track. I responded by letting them know that I didn't care what color the DL button was, I just wanted a refund so I could try to download the song again. Then there was some confusion from CS where they thought they gave me a credit, though they hadn't, but eventually after my third email where I actually provided a little chart showing my activity for the month and why it meant they had yet to give me the credit, it was then that my credit showed up. My second instance of the failed track download only required the initial email and my credit showed up (I think) the same day I reported it. I am going to assume that the second instance more accurately reflects how they'll go about handling this type of problem. If the refund process is sufficiently streamlined (as in my second instance), then there shouldn't be much to grumble about (other than the crappy downloader problem, etc etc etc).
My third instance of asking for a refund was on a UMG (Label = ECM) album that had noticeably poor sound. That refund came to me in something like three business days and only required the initial email. No complaints from me (other than the encoding problem, etc etc etc).
Small Picture, I'm left feeling like emu CS is doing an adequate job dealing with these new problems.
Big Picture, I'm left feeling sufficiently irritated with emu that I'm having to deal with their fixes of existing fixes to problems that might never get fixed themselves. Work-arounds are meant to be temporary; when they become modus operandi, it can get tiresome.
Anyways, thought that might be helpful.
I've had three instances where I had to request refunds from emu. Thought it might be helpful for others who haven't yet had to (but fear they eventually will).
Two of the refunds were in the same category of individual songs not downloading. For whatever reason, quite often the first track of a particular download session always cuts off. In the past, I'd simply redownload the song, usually by disabling the emu downloader, and re-adding it to my itunes library. It almost always worked the second time, once or twice I think I had to take a third stab at it. But whatever. Having to now email customer service (CS) and explain the problem adds an irritating wrinkle to the process. It's also inexcusable, IMO. Mp3 downloads aren't some side-project of emu; it's their main thing. They should have a downloader that doesn't so consistently fail. But aside from that...
My first unsuccessful download forced me to write three emails to CS explaining the situation. The first response I got from them (and I'm ignoring the automated we-got-your-email response message) told me that there was nothing wrong with the track. I responded by letting them know that I didn't care what color the DL button was, I just wanted a refund so I could try to download the song again. Then there was some confusion from CS where they thought they gave me a credit, though they hadn't, but eventually after my third email where I actually provided a little chart showing my activity for the month and why it meant they had yet to give me the credit, it was then that my credit showed up. My second instance of the failed track download only required the initial email and my credit showed up (I think) the same day I reported it. I am going to assume that the second instance more accurately reflects how they'll go about handling this type of problem. If the refund process is sufficiently streamlined (as in my second instance), then there shouldn't be much to grumble about (other than the crappy downloader problem, etc etc etc).
My third instance of asking for a refund was on a UMG (Label = ECM) album that had noticeably poor sound. That refund came to me in something like three business days and only required the initial email. No complaints from me (other than the encoding problem, etc etc etc).
Small Picture, I'm left feeling like emu CS is doing an adequate job dealing with these new problems.
Big Picture, I'm left feeling sufficiently irritated with emu that I'm having to deal with their fixes of existing fixes to problems that might never get fixed themselves. Work-arounds are meant to be temporary; when they become modus operandi, it can get tiresome.
Anyways, thought that might be helpful.
Comments
In re-reading my initial post, I feel like I may have left an unintentionally optimistic tone to it. The fact is I dread each time I download an album knowing how fat the odds are that I'll have to start up another string of emails.