To whom it may concern, I am filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau based on my recent experience with the online music retailer Vinylmeplease (VMP). As a collector of vinyl and an ardent supporter of physical music retailers, I was initially excited to join this mail-order music club that seemed to garner positive reviews from fellow record collectors. Unfortunately, my membership so far has not been just a disappointment, but one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever had with an online retailer. Below is a summary of this experience. Towards the end of June of this year I was intrigued by an upcoming release in the VMP catalog. Their storefront can initially be confusing; some items require a monthly membership to purchase while others do not. This particular item, a pressing of ******** *******'s I ******** did require membership to purchase. But the monthly membership, which delivers to its subscribers one of several exclusive albums per month, also had some selections I was interested in, so I took the plunge. The cost of the membership for 3 months was 89.19 with tax. I also pre-ordered the "a-la cart" title that initially drew me in for 29.73. Both of these transactions posted on my Visa Card on June 27. My selection of the month, which I "swapped" for Free Yourself by Experience Unlimited, was processed a few days later. VMP stated that records in this billing cycle would "ship out in early July". When mid-July rolled around there was still no sign of the item, and the status of my order read as "pending" (the item was listed as "in-stock"). I contacted VMPs customer service via email to see why the item was clearly delayed. (They do not list a phone number anywhere on their site, stating somewhere that because they are a "small company" they cannot maintain a call center, which seems very odd to me.) Days went by with no response. Soon thereafter, I embarked on a week-long trip to Montana, in which I had sporadic access to internet and email. When I returned I noticed I had missed a response that had been sent on July 24 (over a week after I had emailed about the delay) from ******, whom I assume is one of VMPs customer service reps. She apologized for the delay and stated that it was due to "a glitch in the system", but she assured me that "the tech team was working hard to fix this" and that I would likely receive a shipping confirmation "by next week". By then, it was already "next week", and there was still no sign of movement on the order. I emailed her again, by this point very frustrated. She responded, this time with a response that seemed more generic than before, and assured me that the problem was being addressed and that I would "receive a reply shortly". That was the last time I have heard from anyone at the company. Several messages that I sent afterward remain unanswered. Today it is August 6, over a month after I initially placed my order. There is still no sign of VMP dealing with the issue or even explaining the true cause of the delay. Worst of all, to date, I still have not received the products that I paid for, and VMP seems to not want to take accountability for this transgression in any way. This is simply inexcusable. This has been an incredibly frustrating experience, one that has taken up way too much of my time. It is disheartening to pay a substantial amount of money for a premium service and product and have the terms not be honored by its proprietors. I am fully aware that we are in the midst of a pandemic, and that this has been extremely disruptive to just about every sector of retail. I know one needs to be patient, and I am willing to do that, especially as a supporter of vendors of physical music. But it is still every company's responsibility to hold themselves accountable when the terms of their services cannot be upheld or executed in a timely manner. It is also a company's responsibility to communicate such delays and setbacks to its customers in a clear and timely manner. I have since noticed that a few others have recently logged similar complaints with the BBB as well. I have also noticed many people have posted similar experiences on social media. One customer suggested that VMP's lack of order fulfillment was "a scam". I do not think VMP is a scam, but I suspect that it is a company that has been severely impacted by the aforementioned pandemic to the point where it has fallen critically behind in its day to day operations and cannot keep up. Again, I am willing to exercise patience with a company in such a situation, but not if it does not communicate with me and provide me with concrete evidentiary assurance that the items for which I paid will be mailed to me. It is my hope that this message will motivate the company to be more proactive and effective in dealing with what is clearly a major service issue and finally provide its customers with the items they have ordered and paid for. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read this message, and I encourage you to let me know if you have any other questions.