Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much exhausted fish, continuing my journey through the Bruckner symphonies as conducted by Eugen Jochum – currently playing is the fifth symphony and I’m really enjoying it, certainly more than I have on other occasions. But before I get to other items, may we just talk about Amazon for a moment? Yes, we can and we will, not necessarily in that order. I have been having endless problems with them over the past three weeks. One major problem was finally resolved a week ago, but then another problem cropped up. This all has to do with my being a third-party seller. The only reason I sell on Amazon is that some people prefer to buy from there because they have gift cards and stuff like that, so, for me, it’s really just a courtesy. We do sell pretty okay in terms of orders – nothing major and maybe on a good week we’ll make a couple hundred bucks. Most weeks it’s under a hundred. I do remember on Christmas season over a decade ago when we did nine hundred bucks in one week, but that was, sadly, a one-off. Anyway, the current issue has to do with them disactivating one of our titles – a two-CD set that we sell for the exact same price as the Kritzerland site and whatever other sites carry it. When I queried them about it they said it was flagged for pricing errors – I was either too low or too high. Utter balderdash. I own the album, I issued it on CD and it’s in print. I think that I know better than their bots what the price is. But they deactivated it and so the only new and sealed copies available have sellers charging over eighty bucks – that’s price gouging, folks, but apparently they have no problem with that. Anyway, over and over I wrote them and all I got in response was the same form e-mail. I responded to each form e-mail with facts and links to our site and Footlight Records, so they could see it was in print and what the price was. A week ago, I got an e-mail saying it was now being investigated by their internal team and they’d get back to me. They didn’t. Meantime, I kept writing and they kept sending me the same form e-mail. I kept asking for a telephonic call and they kept saying that on their contact us form you could request a call. Nope. Nowhere. An out and out lie. So, last night, I wrote a REALLY strong e-mail and this time said that if I didn’t get this listing activated that I would contact a class action lawyer and find as many disgruntled third-party sellers as I possibly could (and there are THOUSANDS) and that I was also writing corporate about no one helping me with an obviously easy to fix problem that was of their own making. This time, I got a response that wasn’t form – this time they asked me for screenshots of two sites that were selling the CD. And for the first time, there was a request phone call option. So, I took the screenshots, even though I’d sent them the links and all they had to do was click on them, and then I requested a phone call. Thirty minutes later, I got it. It was a very nice gal, she got the screenshots, she told me I was totally in the right, that she’d flagged the gougers, but that it still had to be handled by their internal team, but that she would do everything she could to get it straightened out. She told me she also sells on Amazon and has similar issues, but because she’s a team member, it’s easier for her to deal with it. A couple of hours later she wrote me and told me nothing had happened yet, but that she was on it, but couldn’t give me a time frame. I’ll keep responding, otherwise they shut down the email thread as “answered.” So, at this point, they’ve cost me money because the album sells now and then. It’s infuriating dealing with bots, form responses, and not being able to get proper responses, especially when one is in the right and they are in the wrong. At one point, I said if a class action lawsuit went to trial, they’d be laughed out of court for saying there was a pricing error and favoring the gougers, because their entire reasoning for saying there’s a pricing error is to “protect” their customers. That’s some protection, removing the new, sealed list-price copies and leaving the copies that are charging sixty percent above that price. Laughed out of court. Of course, they don’t care and that’s the real problem. I’m going to start moving some titles over to eBay and see how we do there. Hopefully, it will be resolved soon and the listing will be reactivated.
Otherwise, I watched and slept through some awful movie called Scarlett, about a young woman whose father works “for the government” with dangerous assignments, and for her whole life he’s trained her to be prepared for anything. It was directed, written, produced, photographed, and edited by someone without a single shred of talent in any of those departments. Strictly amateur all the way, direct to streaming and mostly to places where it’s free with ads. Acting was also subpar. Then I watched a motion picture entitle Bulworth, starring Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Jack Warden, Oliver Platt and other good actors. I’m not really sure if I saw it when it came out, but since it was 1998 and I was busy doing a lot of recordings, I doubt it. I probably saw it on DVD. I do remember finding it very odd but fun. I do think I’ve seen it one more time after that, but I’ve never written about it in the notes so who knows. Anyway, it showed up on Prime so I watched it. It’s fun watching it now for a variety of reasons, and I enjoyed it. Some of it is hilarious, but the rants are sadly all still relevant – it’s about a senator running for reelection and going down a very odd path. Beatty is really good in it, his direction is straightforward and simple, and there’s a very sparse but good score by Ennio Morricone. The acting is top-notch straight down the line, the writing is mostly very sharp, and if you like political black comedy you’d probably enjoy it.
Yesterday was what it was and what it was was yesterday. Once again, I could not fall asleep and did not do so until six in the morning. I was up at eleven after five hours of sleep – I need a good night’s sleep, that is for certain. Once up, and once past the annoying text I knew was coming, I mostly was on the phone all day. I began with PayPal because they’ve become so confusing in how they list what money comes in and goes out and the gal I spoke to said she gets thirty calls a day with the same complaint. They should go back to when it was simpler. Then it was eBay, to make sure they had everything they needed from me, now that they’re no longer owned and partnered with PayPal for payouts, but they had all my bank information so I can now list some CDs to see how they sell there.
Then I went to Gelson’s and got the ingredients for faux chicken stroganoff. I came home and made that over rice and it was really good. Then it was the long conversation with Amazon, and then I finally sat on my couch like so much fish and the rest you know. I did go to Ralph’s quickly and got a small salad for a snack.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven or thereabouts, I’ll do whatever needs doing, the lunch meeting has been moved to tomorrow, so I’ll just write, get food and eat, and check with the mail place to see if they have anything. Then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow will be a lunch meeting around two-thirty, otherwise it and Sunday will be ME days. Then lots to do next week.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, write, eat, see what’s what at the mail place, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in you CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player or streaming device? I’ll start – CD, the cast album of a musical I’ll be directing later this year. Blu-ray/streaming – many choices. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, not enjoying having to continually go up the Amazon due to their silly bots and algorithms, both of which are a blight on the Internet.