Joy Division plusminus-Deluxe Boxset Buyers will get the missing items

...when you phone them can you ask them to send mine, I've got nothing whatsoever as yet in any condition, deluxe or not.

Am I the only one?

On NYE I asked my friend who's high up in the music bit at HMV head office who his contact at Rhino/Warners was. He replied straight off (before I had a chance to tell him what it was to do with) that they were "a bit rubbish now". How so few words can sum up this whole thing...

Hmm, I received the deluxe items but the orange "thing" is plain, no etching... no further comment...

Interesting reply from warner customer services, doesn't quite add up... What about the 2 different sets of art pieces, those with the etching and those without, and that customers who actually received the complete deluxe set have been sent an additional art piece... I make that more than 500!

Hello Gary,

thanks for your message.

There are only 500 art pieces, it is a limited edition.

If you are not satisfied with your deluxed box, we can only offer you to return your complete box for a refund.

We apologize sincerely for any inconvenience caused!

Kind regards

Warner Music Artist Customer Service Team

ftr i got the etched one

hibster wrote: ftr i got the etched one

Who are you showings your etchings to?

absolutely everyone of course

I received the deluxe contents today. The package was sent to a fictional non-existant address for some reason.

...well after numerous phone calls to Rhino I finally managed to speak to a human being about the audio problems on the CDs.

The person I spoke to didn't want to talk to me about it - but finally admitted the Project Manager was Gary Lancaster. I asked for an email address but they refused saying they don't give out email addresses.

So I fired up Google and searched a few likely permutations of email addresses. I got lucky - the email address we need is :-

Gary.Lancaster@warnermusic.com

....I have now emailed Gary about the problems with the CDs (Incubation especially) and to his credit he responded pretty quickly. Gary has said he will pass my comments onto Steve Morris - I have basically asked for the discs to be corrected (as previously with New Order remasters). I will let you know when I get a response.

...hmmm interesting response from Mr Lancaster :-

"Also I must add... the CDRS really are CDRS. I have listened and I can hear what you are saying; however I fear that maybe it is just a bad transfer on the CDRS as they are not proper glass pressed masters, they were simply review/teaser copies for press. Having listened to the mp3's which you can redeem, the tracks seem fine there and it's all from the same source...

We'll await their response but ultimately I'm not sure what there is to be done really... maybe I could burn you a CDR of the + / - promo CD tracks? It wouldn't be branded like the others mind....

gary"

...I have responded via email as follows:-

Hi Gary,

Yes I did wonder whether the problem was to do the discs rather than the mastering.

However, the fact remains that the set was £75 and advertised as coming with CDs not CDRs. If you are going to release an expensive boxset you need to provide proper glass masters. I don't think your argument would stand up in a legal case of whether the product was fit for purpose.

I was shocked actually that the discs were CDRs and stamped "Not for Resale". I'm sure this is not what most people expected.

Can you look into the possibility of a proper glass master reissue with branding on the disc labels please.

Thanks,

Adam

...ok bad news I'm afraid Gary is now saying there is no way we will get a proper CD replacement. Gary's argument is that the discs were advertised as "promotional" so therefore we should have expected them to be CDRs (and presumably expected dodgy sonics as well).

Gary has offered to burn a new CDR on a generic blank disc for anyone that wants it. However, I declined as I am only interested in a pukka product with proper labels etc. Overall I am not impressed with Rhino again. However, at least Gary has now apologized to me and does seem to have been concerned about the standard of this product. Gary's latest response:-

"The New Order releases were A&R'd, compiled and put together by Warner Bros. (who own London Records) in conjunction with New Order; marketed by Rhino UK. I worked at Rhino then however was not involved with those releases, it did however make me acutely aware that this needed to be right, which is why it's so irritating that these two issues (one of which being delivery) have happened. Devastating, in fact.

All in all, very irritating as contrary to what you may believe, we really did spend a lot of time working on this project, indeed, having Saville do the artwork, Jon Savage do the compiling and Stephen + Manager do the mastering, we thought we'd cracked it. But there we go.

Apologies that this product is sub-standard..... i'm not sure what else to say on the matter other than sorry!

Happy new year! "

Yes I agree Douglas - Heart & Soul was the last decent product done by Warners. In fact I spend a lot of my time looking for old 1980s mastered CDs on eBay these days. In the last month I have scored original no barcode versions of the 1st 4 OMD albums - it's ridiculous how much better these sound than the latest remasters.

I knew it was a pretty forlorn hope to get new glass masters out of them. However, I thought I'd play the "you did new versions of the New Order discs" ploy - but to no avail sadly.

Apparently it was Gary's idea to chuck these CDs into the Deluxe package. Gary has told me they were not originally going to be included but he knew obsessives like us love bonus material so he pushed to include them.

...some news to cheer up all you unhappy customers out there:-

• a Deluxe boxset recently sold on eBay for £184 !

Right, all received now. They're all laid out on my desk.

Not sure what to do next. I've still not got a record player. Is anyone planning to do anything with the art?

Thanks to the poster above who identified Gary Lancaster as a point of contact. Gary has been really helpful in sorting out my issues with the "upgrading" process. In fact he's gone way beyond the call of duty, and managed to restore my faith in this project.

If someone like him was tasked with looking after the JD/NO legacy I'm confident it would be managed with the sensitivity and care it deserves...

Neil

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140499100907

....so, anyone else still moaning about owning this box set?

I'm still very happy I passed on that......same old/ same old..............I could care less about what the resale value is, all I care about is the music.

Until the band stop hoarding their archive and tape collections, and release some of it, I will keep passing on these cash grabs.........

johnny james wrote: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140499100907

....so, anyone else still moaning about owning this box set?

HOLY CRAP!

And that's swearing.

Pablo Bastardo wrote:

johnny james wrote: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140499100907

....so, anyone else still moaning about owning this box set?

HOLY CRAP!

And that's swearing.

860 quid, people have gone nuts already!

That's nothing - somebody mailed me last week and offered to pay $700 for a white-label by A Guy Called Gerald (okay, it is limited, but I have two copies)! :p

johnny james wrote: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140499100907 ....so, anyone else still moaning about owning this box set?

They're probably all really pleased with their investment and the return that they can probably expect from it.

Rock and roll.

maybe even the Standard boxset may be rare someday...

I've not got any yet..Rhino UK website has sold out all the Standard ones but there's lots in shops ,even in Oz here, but at steep prices.... ....so I'm waiting :p hopefully I can get at discount like those JD LP memory boxset...which I bought for about US$80 brand new sealed 3 years after its release.