Annually + CD - Published on April 14th, 2023

[gigemaz]

I finally had some movement on mine. It has now processed through the ISC facility in New York. Hopefully it will be arriving within the week!

Hope everyone that has been waiting will get theirs soon!

5/25 - update - mine is out for delivery so hope to be reading it this afternoon! Hope the same for others.

[Danimal]

I went to my local post office and spoke with my favorite postman, Rich, last Saturday. He said that in the past five years US customs has taken to randomly locking down entire shipments of incoming overseas mail, then systematically going through it and the process usually takes a month. Could explain why some of us in the US haven’t received our shipments. Have any of you in the US who were waiting received your Annually/Lost CD yet?

[gx2066]

Received mine today. Shipped April 17.

[Danimal]

Received mine in Michigan today. I swear I checked Tuesday and there was no tracking history after Jersey, but today there's tracking history from Sunday, May 21 forward. Either the postman I spoke with was correct, that customs sometimes holds entire containers for a month, or tracked mail from the UK is sent via the slowest transatlantic surface ship to sail in the past 500 years. My tracking shows the parcel left Jersey April 19 and arrived in New York May 21. That's 32 days crossing the Atlantic or stuck in customs. Note for future orders: tracked mail from the official store is not worth the extra cost.

[Meebabi]

Received mine in Michigan today. I swear I checked Tuesday and there was no tracking history after Jersey, but today there's tracking history from Sunday, May 21 forward. Either the postman I spoke with was correct, that customs sometimes holds entire containers for a month, or tracked mail from the UK is sent via the slowest transatlantic surface ship to sail in the past 500 years. My tracking shows the parcel left Jersey April 19 and arrived in New York May 21. That's 32 days crossing the Atlantic or stuck in customs. Note for future orders: tracked mail from the official store is not worth the extra cost.

I completely agree with you regarding the extra cost to have an order tracked. I have made a few orders from the store, tracked and not tracked. It made zero difference. Definitely not worth the extra cost.

[oakey]

Also Mid May had passed, so I reminded the Store to get back re the double VAT and custom fees…

[DopeFiend]

Received this:

Ingram Support (Pet Shop Boys European Store)

May 30, 2023, 7:11 AM EDT

Hi ____

Thanks for your patience.

Unfortunately your order 0000060595SF_EU has been carrier returned to us.

Unfortunately, due to a technical issue, we're unable to resend this order or provide you with a replacement for your order.

If the item is still available online you're welcome to place a new order. We are currently working to resolve the issue, but unable to confirm when this is likely to be fixed. I understand that this may cause you some disappointment and I apologise to you for this, as we appreciate this isn't the best shopping experience.

I didn't do anything wrong. I ordered it shortly after announcement, used my home address instead of any PO box.
No clue why they failed to fulfill the order.

They act like it's a polite and apologetic email, but completely disregard the fact Annually 2023 is a limited edition publication. "If the item is still available online" they should know that it isn't available, and even if they didn't, it takes 2 seconds to find out. They're disregarding the fact I'm missing out on a collector's item.

[Danimal]

The PSB online store is horrid. They should just partner with Amazon to sell their merchandise and fulfill their orders, it would work much, much better.

[oakey]

Also Mid May had passed, so I reminded the Store to get back re the double VAT and custom fees…

Today received an email that hey are happy to refund, asking for my PayPal account address and the invoice and proof of payment (the latter two I had already sent)
Let's wait and see...

I agree that this store (and most other artist stores) are a mess and unprofessional, with very expensive prices, high shipping cost and poor (or absent) tracking options, adding to the VAT and custom fees issues. I get that artists want a bigger share of the profit and want to sell directly to customers, but there's a reason the amazons of this world are doing so well (at least for us as customers) in comparison. Brexit is also to blame of course for all this red tape, but that's something the UK peeps voted for themselves (not all of them, I know) and that's out of our (as in EU's) hands.

It is what it is. But I will not buy from the store again; I like the Lost CD but it's all getting too expensive. Even regular items are way too expensive, i.e. the Smash 6LP (black vinyl, so not the limited edition) is €161.66 incl P&P versus €119.92 via Amazon (France). So a 35% difference, whereas one would expect the absence of a retail layer would make it possible to offer these items at a lower price than in other stores. Guess which one I have ordered... Amazon will also deliver within 3 days after the release for sure.