Tis the season as they say and I have gotten into the holiday spirit by consuming, the Western capitalist way. One corporation I bought some stuff from, several CD’s of classical music to be more precise, recently is Arkiv Music.
This is not the first time I bought items from Arkiv. When Arkiv was owned by Steinway I bought a famous classic disc of chamber music by Dvorak performed by the Suk Trio. The transaction went well. I had a coupon which I used, a coupon which defrayed the transit charge.Generally speaking it was this postal charge and the fact that Amazon, which defrayed postal charges if you purchased more than $25 dollars in goods (now $35 dollars with corporate inflation), was competitive in prices and gave you free shipping under the right conditions, that kept me from making more purchases from Arkiv even though I despise Amazon (though I like some Amazon marketplace sellers).
I remained on Arkiv’s list, however. Recently I got a free shipping coupon from Arkiv via email. So I decided to dip my toes in the Arkiv pool again, create an account, and purchase several items, all Naxos discs, CD’s that were on sale at Arkiv. I unfortunately, assumed—never assume anything anymore dear reader—that all of these items were made in Germany, the place Naxos, who now owns Arkiv, makes many if not most of their discs and which, I assumed, now made all of their CD’s as I had not seen an American made Naxos release in months. I was wrong. The Gliere and Taneyev I ordered were, as I found out in short order, made in the USofA.
As a general rule I don’t buy American made discs if I can avoid it. I prefer to buy European made discs including from corporations that produce CD’s and DVD/Blu ray's for both European and North American markets like Naxos apparently does once again. I prefer to buy CD’s from places that respect the right of their workers and have laws in place that respect their workers unlike much of the US including stone age Tennessee, the home of Naxos USA.
So, I wrote Arkiv customer service a few hours after my purchase to cancel the Gliere and Taneyev. The Gliere was mercifully cancelled after my initial message to them. The Taneyev, however, remains on order despite my contacting Arkiv customer service now three times about this now unwanted disc telling them to cancel the bloody thing.
Needless to say, I am annoyed. I have told Arkiv customer service twice now that if this item is sent I will demand a prepaid postal label so I can return it. If they do not do this, something they should if this is sent to me despite my cancelling it thrice, given their incompetence. I also notified them that if the disc is sent I will ask that my account be closed and deleted and told them that if I receive a thrice cancelled disc I would not be purchasing anything from Arkiv in the future despite the wonderful Presto Classics like sales they have on labels like Bis and Brilliant on occasion.
I am sick and tired of corporate bureaucratic incompetence. Unfortunately, there is no escaping them—bureaucracies—or it—bureaucratic incompetence—as my many missives on private bureaucratic incompetence on this site well show. And so it goes. And so it will always go.
Postscript: After I contacted Arkiv customer service I finally managed to cancel not only the item Arkiv cancelled several days ago but the other once I asked them to cancel several days ago. Huzzah.
Then I made a mistake, I ordered a few more items that were on sale. Why do I say I made a mistake? Because Arkiv/Naxos says if you buy $150 dollars or more shipping is free. Well that may be true but it isn’t true if your discounts take you below the $150 dollar mark.
So I said up yours to Arkiv. I asked them to cancel both orders and to delete my account. I don’t like complications and Arkiv is too complicated for me. So good riddance Arkiv Music.
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