Soundtrack Customer Service

by Lukas Kendall

Here's a letter to share with everyone:

From: "Sean Zikman" <seanzik@total.net>

I am a loyal subscriber and a fan of the indutsry for many years.

I work on the Internet every day and appreciate all of Lukas' dedication to the soundtrack world. This is why I must share this with you. I cannot believe how unprofessional one of the advertisers/Internet links/distributors is, and I would encourage many others not to purchase from this individual. Finally, I would just like to say that I am both confident and certain that other distributors would be happy to have occassional business such as mine in large volume. As we say in the world of MBA's, every client is important, and bad PR can lead to disaster.

In this situation, I was ready to purchase, but instead of answering my question about the titles (which would havetaken the same amount of time) he decided to forsake my business and to patronize me. Too bad, but I felt that others should know!

Here is the note that the distributor, who represents Disques Cinemusique, sent me:

Some people seldom ask questions and buy faithfully from me. Some others like you ask many, many questions and seldom buy. I checked my files: you bought me 4 CDs in 4 years.

So please don't bother me anymore and buy from your regular sources. Don't feel offended, I am sure you are a nice guy. I just don't have anymore time to loose [sic] with you. I must make my living with this biz you (should) know.

Clement [Fontaine]

Wow! I'm printing this today for two reasons:

1) To ask for reader response on their favorite and least favorite mail orders dealers, as a "consumer watchdog" type of service. Send to consumer@filmscoremonthly.com.

2) To explain some of the realities of running a soundtrack mail order business, which is what we do with our magazine subscriptions and exclusive CDs.

I'm amused to see the above because Clement has basically been a grouch to me on several occasions, and I'm sure I'll have a nasty e-mail from him by the time you're finished reading this. I'll pass on the word when I get it!

I'd also like to offer my apology and explanation if I've provided people with terse e-mail replies in the past. It is sooooo hard when dealing with mail order to provide nice, well-rounded answers to questions. Here at FSM we have to make magazines... we can't be a full-time "order status" machine. Basically, for every product we offer, we try to put as much information as we can on the site so that there aren't any unanswered questions. For each CD, for example, we've loaded graphics, sound files, track lists, etc.

We would love to be able to offer phone service for orders but we simply cannot. At the FSM office every day, it's just me and Jeff Bond, and we've got lots of work to do.

I thought I had more to say on this matter... evidently not. Good! Less work for me. The point is, please realize that I get upwards of 30-40 e-mails a day, and so if I reply with some monosyllabic e-mail to a nice letter you've composed, it's nothing personal.

In lieu of this, we really are trying to provide all the info you would ever want to know in our magazine and on this web site. Your suggestions to that end would be welcome, and we've created our message board as a place where you can just chat with fellow film music buffs.

Take care,

LK