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Posted: |
Jun 19, 2020 - 5:28 AM
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By: |
Grecchus
(Member)
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Placed an order for 4x CDs last Sunday (14th June) and it arrived today. A Royal Mail tracking number was allocated, but I haven't been able to actually obtain tracking info from the RM site, even though a reference no. was allocated.
The 4 were:
The Cowboys, J.Williams
Dracula, J.Williams
Spartacus, A.North
Knight Rider, S.Phillips
They arrived in a cardbox box with some bubble wrap to stop the CDs sliding around. No breakages, all intact. The Spartacus and Dracula are in smart card sleeves, presumably because the booklets could not be contained within the jewel cases - which means they will need to be looked after that bit more to prevent fraying around the edges, etc. I couldn't really afford it but, in all honesty, I haven't made a soundtrack purchase since 2013/14, so it has been a while. If I wanted to buy the items from the usual channels, the expense would have been that much greater. I also elected for the £6.00 postage option. I can't complain, the package is now in my hands.
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Posted: |
Jun 19, 2020 - 7:25 AM
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By: |
Grecchus
(Member)
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* JW's Family Plot ... not one I've been bothered about but at the discounted price it seems silly not to give it a try.
I had that and Grusin's Heaven Can Wait in the basket, with the others. In fact, it was sitting there for so long I received an email from Varese saying something like, "what the heck are you waiting for . . . either buy or don't buy." I can't really blame them because you tie up their numbers when you dither online with an open basket.
I had the Boston Pops Cowboys theme, which I remembered, but that was the only reference to it I'd ever come by. On hearing the samples over at Varese, the hot OST incidental quality of the music had such positive vibe energy associated with it that I had to eventually make a decision - the maestro was at peak inventiveness and I think it shows in The Cowboys score. I'm guessing Varese will see a spike in sales but how long it lasts remains to be seen. For me, as I said, this has been a welcome detour to the enormous famine that has endured since 2008. The Spartacus CD has been a long, long, long time coming, but finally, it's here.
Edit: Royal Mail Track and Trace shows the package was signed for today, which is all correct and accounted for. I was expecting it to take at least a couple of weeks. Hats off to all the people making things move at this difficult time. The online Varese invoice shows the total, including GBP taxes accrued from all items purchased (in the form of V.A.T. @ 20% - to work this out do 5/6 X price of item is the actual COST PRICE. eg price of The Cowboys = £16.98. 5/6 X £16.98 = £14.15 = COST PRICE, therefore V.A.T. = £2.83) as a separate cost. This cost is not tagged onto the cost of the order, but is highlighted as an incidental cost that is already included in the cost of each item you want to buy (if you are in EU territory?) In other words, there are no hidden extras.
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Do you mean they have charged you additionally, Day?
Yes. On their email /order confirmation it says ' including the tax ' and total charge is £19.98+£2 ,£21.98.Now thinking about it I may have been the right amount but the receipt that they put in with the disc has the disc price plus p+p plus 3.33 listed as tax.Sk I'll have to see wait their reply is.
My advice note also shows the Tax added again to the total, although the tax is included in the original price but my card has not been charged twice for the tax. Seems to be an internal processing error, not affecting payment.
Received a reply to my second email. And it is, indeed, an error on the packing slip( not over charged).Also they reply to emails pretty sharpish too.
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Actually, MusicMad, I did not initially open the box from Varese because I have a policy of not touching anything from the outside until a couple of days go by. I decided to have a look and the 'Packing Slip' that came with the CDs does indeed show the totals that were included on the online presentation of the invoice but seems to have included the V.A.T. on top of everything else. Until I see a card statement I'm not sure what I've actually been charged. The RRP less V.A.T. should be the COST PRICE. The larger value shown on the packing slip is not what you see online. That's why I assumed the V.A.T. is automatically included in the online CD prices presented on the Varese website. In other words, the grand total seen online does not match with the grand total on the packing slip.
As I was told it is an error .
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Posted: |
Jun 19, 2020 - 9:31 PM
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By: |
Grecchus
(Member)
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I was just about to order Cocoon The Return along with the Running Man from the Intnl store when i noticed err.. Its full price! A glitch maybe? seems a bit odd.
Maybe Varese has carefully spreadsheeted their 'eastern' rollout to the finest tolerances and have bracketed everything. The entire catalog is not available for obvious reasons - they can't possibly ship everything over - everything transported across the pond has to incur carriage costs. The titles I've recently obtained are not necessarily ones I'd have gone for automatically, as Mitch spelled out in his case. But with the immediacy of what has been made available for local costs, that is the tradeoff. At least, for now. I purchased two each at the same price (The Cowboys and Spartacus) as Cocoon The Return. Even though these prices are on the high side for standard fare, the soundtrack market can't compete at the same rates. If you don't really want the title, wait and see. You weigh up if you really want it at a price that still undercuts what you would have paid for it direct from the US or at increased cost from the UK. A few years ago I bought a lot of FSM titles from Amazon UK at really good locked in prices. They have dried up. The stituation is fairly confusing, though, because even the remastered Bonds are fairly cheap, but a title like Lost Horizon has gone ballistic. I bought mine for about £15 - £17 just a few years ago, but see if you can get it for that price these days - prices in general are much more inflated and that must be part of the reason why Varese has transplanted a section of its inventory to this shore.
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Posted: |
Jun 19, 2020 - 11:39 PM
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By: |
davefg
(Member)
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I was just about to order Cocoon The Return along with the Running Man from the Intnl store when i noticed err.. Its full price! A glitch maybe? seems a bit odd.
Maybe Varese has carefully spreadsheeted their 'eastern' rollout to the finest tolerances and have bracketed everything. The entire catalog is not available for obvious reasons - they can't possibly ship everything over - everything transported across the pond has to incur carriage costs. The titles I've recently obtained are not necessarily ones I'd have gone for automatically, as Mitch spelled out in his case. But with the immediacy of what has been made available for local costs, that is the tradeoff. At least, for now. I purchased two each at the same price (The Cowboys and Spartacus) as Cocoon The Return. Even though these prices are on the high side for standard fare, the soundtrack market can't compete at the same rates. If you don't really want the title, wait and see. You weigh up if you really want it at a price that still undercuts what you would have paid for it direct from the US or at increased cost from the UK. A few years ago I bought a lot of FSM titles from Amazon UK at really good locked in prices. They have dried up. The stituation is fairly confusing, though, because even the remastered Bonds are fairly cheap, but a title like Lost Horizon has gone ballistic. I bought mine for about £15 - £17 just a few years ago, but see if you can get it for that price these days - prices in general are much more inflated and that must be part of the reason why Varese has transplanted a section of its inventory to this shore.
With respect your are missing the point. For some reason Cocoon: The Return is the only CD on sale in the VS U.S. store that is full price in the U.K. store.
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Posted: |
Jun 21, 2020 - 7:00 PM
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By: |
BryonDavis
(Member)
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I was just about to order Cocoon The Return along with the Running Man from the Intnl store when i noticed err.. Its full price! A glitch maybe? seems a bit odd.
Maybe Varese has carefully spreadsheeted their 'eastern' rollout to the finest tolerances and have bracketed everything. The entire catalog is not available for obvious reasons - they can't possibly ship everything over - everything transported across the pond has to incur carriage costs. The titles I've recently obtained are not necessarily ones I'd have gone for automatically, as Mitch spelled out in his case. But with the immediacy of what has been made available for local costs, that is the tradeoff. At least, for now. I purchased two each at the same price (The Cowboys and Spartacus) as Cocoon The Return. Even though these prices are on the high side for standard fare, the soundtrack market can't compete at the same rates. If you don't really want the title, wait and see. You weigh up if you really want it at a price that still undercuts what you would have paid for it direct from the US or at increased cost from the UK. A few years ago I bought a lot of FSM titles from Amazon UK at really good locked in prices. They have dried up. The stituation is fairly confusing, though, because even the remastered Bonds are fairly cheap, but a title like Lost Horizon has gone ballistic. I bought mine for about £15 - £17 just a few years ago, but see if you can get it for that price these days - prices in general are much more inflated and that must be part of the reason why Varese has transplanted a section of its inventory to this shore.
Part of it is smaller demand for physical product (boutique stores can't survive if they can't sell xxx quantities of product per month, take it from somebody who knows the ins and outs of how retail works). They have had plans to roll out a European friendly store for some time. The key was finding the right partners and people to oversee it.
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