Dutton Vocalion Surround SACD Orders Sent by Royal Mail & Ascendia

[steelydave]

As I posted up-thread, Royal Mail international economy shipping can take up to six weeks. Given that the postal service there is effectively closed between Christmas and New Year, you've still got a week or two before it's even technically 'late' at all. I'm not sure it helps anyone to throw around words like 'botched' either.

If your shipment has indeed gone missing I'm sure they'll make things good as they have with GOS and others.

 

[4-earredwonder]

As I posted up-thread, Royal Mail international economy shipping can take up to six weeks. Given that the postal service there is effectively closed between Christmas and New Year, you've still got a week or two before it's even technically 'late' at all. I'm not sure it helps anyone to throw around words like 'botched' either.

If your shipment has indeed gone missing I'm sure they'll make things good as they have with GOS and others.

Thanks for the info, Dave and I did change 'botched' to delayed. In any event, you KNOW I'm a fan of D~V's output and emphasized that sentiment in my complimentary email to them.

 

[Mark Anderson]

I placed my order on January 7, 2017 with no tracking and received my order on February 13, 2017 in the southwestern USA.

 

[GOS]

I just received my latest order including my DV Epoch classical titles (haven't had time yet to listen. However,strapped to my order was somebody else's. I will forward that other order. In case it's someone on here, it's Eckl in zip 60013 and will soon be on it's way. I sent the follow email to Simon:
Hi Simon,
Just wanted to let you know I just received my latest order quickly and in good condition. However, my order was received strapped to another order, with only my name and address showing. I will forward the other order to it's owner. I read about this happening on the www.quadriphonicquad website, and I just wanted to let you know this is still happening. I think maybe US customs is doing this?

How were they strapped together? With a simple rubber band, or something that couldn't "break"?

 

[surroundophile]

How were they strapped together? With a simple rubber band, or something that couldn't "break"?

It was like a plastic strap. I had to cut it with scissors.

I just got this response form DV:
"Dear ......,

We are not binding orders together here, it must be USPS at their centres. That’s such a shame as customers then blame us for any delays.


Kind regards

Simon

 

[surroundophile]

Just got another response from Simon at DV. He asked me to post this:

"Dear ........,

Finally, I got some time to read on your forum. There were a lot of concerns of SACD fans, which I can answer here and you can paste this (of course, if you don’t mind).

- We used Royal Mail from a very beginning in 1994 and up to the last year they’ve been reliable shipper

- Last Christmas a lot of mail got seriously delayed, even if we shipped orders within less than 24 hours

- All orders have been sent by Air Mail, we are not using surface at all. There was a problem with Royal Mail sorting offices due to short staff and increased volume, and as many of you experienced with USPS strapping packets together and delivering them into the top address only.

- Few of you have been in touch with us to find out what’s going on and I answered all questions as soon as I could

- We are changing shipper now so we do hope that everything what will go out from us would be delivered way quicker at your end

- Our new SACD classical discs have been selling on Pre-order basis and we’ve been shipping them the same day when delivery arrived to our door, the last title came on the 31st of January

- We are going to continue releasing SACD material so all of your feedback was and will be very appreciated.

Kind regards

Simon

Vocalion Ltd/Dutton Epoch Retail & Export Team"

 

[stormchaser]

Just got another response from Simon at DV. He asked me to post this:

"Dear ........,

Finally, I got some time to read on your forum. There were a lot of concerns of SACD fans, which I can answer here and you can paste this (of course, if you don’t mind).

- We used Royal Mail from a very beginning in 1994 and up to the last year they’ve been reliable shipper

- Last Christmas a lot of mail got seriously delayed, even if we shipped orders within less than 24 hours

- All orders have been sent by Air Mail, we are not using surface at all. There was a problem with Royal Mail sorting offices due to short staff and increased volume, and as many of you experienced with USPS strapping packets together and delivering them into the top address only.

- Few of you have been in touch with us to find out what’s going on and I answered all questions as soon as I could

- We are changing shipper now so we do hope that everything what will go out from us would be delivered way quicker at your end

- Our new SACD classical discs have been selling on Pre-order basis and we’ve been shipping them the same day when delivery arrived to our door, the last title came on the 31st of January

- We are going to continue releasing SACD material so all of your feedback was and will be very appreciated.

Kind regards

Simon

Vocalion Ltd/Dutton Epoch Retail & Export Team"

I have found Simon and Vocalion folks to be very responsive and helpful to my questions/concerns, fyi.

 

[Ninecats]

Yes Simon has been very helpful to me as well.

 

[bming]

Not that is any help to my US quad fans, but this quadfan from South Australia get his Dutton Vocalion deliveries consistently within 4 weeks. It is fantastic to hear these recordings the way they should have been heard back in the day.

 

[bmoura]

Not that is any help to my US quad fans, but this quadfan from South Australia get his Dutton Vocalion deliveries consistently within 4 weeks. It is fantastic to hear these recordings the way they should have been heard back in the day.

4 weeks seems to be the standard time between the UK and US in my experience for these orders.
Interested in the new shipper (not Royal Mail?) Dutton/Vocalion is trying. Will see how that compares on my next order with them.

 

[haikubass]

Just when I was getting a bit nervous, my quaddy dozen ordered on January 5 appeared at my doorstep. And yay, no cracked trays this time!
Well, this is my 4th order from D/V and there's only a couple of titles from their MC catalogue that I'm still missing...

 

[steelydave]

I mentioned it in the Dutton classical thread, but I wanted to post it here as well - I had two orders go missing in the last while, and the shipping time for replacements seems to have improved drastically. As reported elsewhere Dutton are using a new shipper and it really seems to have helped - one of my orders arrived in under three weeks, and the other only took 10 days.

 

[bmoura]

I used the ship with tracking option (11 UK pounds, $14 US) that uses shipment via Ascendia for the Ray Davies and Paul Mauriat SACDs. Received them in 13 days.
Worth considering.

 

[4-earredwonder]

I used the ship with tracking option (11 UK pounds, $14 US) that uses shipment via Ascendia for the Ray Davies and Paul Mauriat SACDs. Received them in 13 days.
Worth considering.

Ditto. The fastest I've ever received an order from D~V [for four QUAD SACDs]. I did have one cracked case but it was easily rectified as I have a stash of replacement RBCD cases on hand.

 

[bmoura]

It has now been two weeks since I placed the order and still no communication whatsoever.

I ordered this group of 4 Surround Sound SACDs with the Tracking Option.
They were sent out via Ascendia/Swiss Post.

According to the tracking info to date, they have gone from the UK to Ascendia/Swiss Post in Switzerland where they were mailed to me via 1st Class Air Mail International.
Based on past Vocalion orders, I'm expecting them to arrive 3 weeks after the order was placed. On that schedule, they are still on track.

 

[Quadzilla]

I ordered this group of 4 Surround Sound SACDs with the Tracking Option.
They were sent out via Ascendia/Swiss Post.

According to the tracking info to date, they have gone from the UK to Ascendia/Swiss Post in Switzerland where they were mailed to me via 1st Class Air Mail International.
Based on past Vocalion orders, I'm expecting them to arrive 3 weeks after the order was placed. On that schedule, they are still on track.

At this point I would just be happy with an "your order has shipped" message.

 

[sperezmore]

At this point I would just be happy with an "your order has shipped" message.

Me too,

It has been 2 weeks for me since I ordered. So far, no email, nada, nothing that said "your order has shipped".

Waiting, waiting....waiting.....

Regards,

 

[Quadzilla]

Me too,

It has been 2 weeks for me since I ordered also, no email, nada, nothing that said "your order has shipped".

Waiting, waiting....waiting.....

Regards,

If someone had the wherewithal to create an e-commerce site for them, they could have enabled a button that would send a boilerplate "Your order has shipped. Thank you for your business." message to the buyer's e-mail address. I have dealt with a number of Internet sellers, and they ALL send shipping notices.

 

[4-earredwonder]

If someone had the wherewithal to create an e-commerce site for them, they could have enabled a button that would send a boilerplate "Your order has shipped. Thank you for your business." message to the buyer's e-mail address. I have dealt with a number of Internet sellers, and they ALL send shipping notices.

Gentlemen, while I concur that shipping notifications would be helpful, Mr. Dutton, IMO, is working as fast as he can to master these very LOW, LOW priced QUAD SACDs [with four more due next month] and I'm sure, in time, he will have e~mail shipment info available but in the meantime think of it this way: MoFi announced the 2 SACD STEREO only edition of Billy Joel's Greatest Hits two or three years ago and its finally available at $45US. So, Music Direct [or, whoever the vendor] will send you an email announcing shipment. Fine and dandy.

If D~V released B. Joel's Greatest Hits TWO~FER, it would probably list at $14US and would probably be multichannel.

Let's NOT be picayune. The Man [Mr. Dutton] is working as fast as he can and, IMO, is doing an astounding job.

When I placed my order with D~V, I printed out a receipt and did not pay extra for expedited shipping. When it arrives....it arrives! Patience is a virtue. I'm sure if your shipments are delayed, then you can email HIM with your order number and he will do his best to rectify it.

 

[Perp]

I ordered the Pure Prairie League SACD at the beginning of last week via Amazon US and Dutton Vocalion was the seller. In a matter of hours, I received a shipping notice. I thought about ordering directly via the DV Website but ended up using Amazon for a couple bucks more.