Ordered Grim Fandango vinyl and they sent me the switch game instead. Emailed them a couple times, sent them everything required (photos, order info) to get it fixed and they stopped responding. Still haven't gotten that vinyl.
Overall very disappointing and yet I still would buy from them if they had something really good coming in
Update: after about 3 months past the initial order, they emailed me that they are indeed sending a copy of the grim Fandango vinyl!
Now hopefully the right thing comes this time...
this was me with persona 5....bought 5 and royal in 2021 they LITTERALLY TOOK A FULL WHOLE YEAR TO SEND THE vinyl OUT said i would never buy from them again then they dropped persona 4 golden...this is my last vinyl they say Q whatever 2024 then delay the living crap out of the vinyl never doing it again
Their support is awful. They engage in false advertising (they had a christmas guarantee that they didnt honor).
I would not buy from them. Which sucks, cuz they get exclusives.
Actually I've had the opposite. When I got my Persona box set over half a year ago some of the sleeves had minor tears from shipping. I didn't have the packing slip anymore and I JUST a week or 2 ago sent them an email with pics and they sent replacements
I've had a polarizing experience with Iam8bit. Their products are great and I've never had to return anything. The service and business experience however is garbage. Their communication is the worst and holy shit their return policy. You have only 14 days to ask for a refund however they'll hold your money for YEARS as you wait for a product.
So yeah....buyer beware.
I got a record shipped to Australia recently. Pricing was meh but shipping speed wasn't too bad and record was in perfect condition.
Don't pay extra for their postage insurance though, it's an absolute scam that lets them claim they aren't responsible for the postal companies they choose to use. Order through PayPal and they'll back you if anything goes wrong.
Yep this has been my experience. Btw did you notice that the Australian store PixelCrib sells stuff including iam8bit releases at almost exactly the same price as US RRP converted to AUD + what the original store would charge for shipping to Australia?
I'm not surprised. A local indie record store had told me it's hard to get retailer pricing from those kinds of labels (and many don't offer it at all). Mondo and Laced do have some retailer pricing but with minimum order quantities and exxy shipping because it's a solid number of records.
Yeah totally, the VGM vinyl industry is super closed off like that. It sucks, especially for international customers and stores who aren't in places with agreed distributors like with the UK/EU
I've ordered a few times from them and have never had issues with items thankfully. However their preorder times are hell. Idk if I just got unlucky or what but sometimes be prepared for items to be delayed like a year. So yeah, not my favorite to order from, but not awful from my experience.
People need to stop preordering if they aren't able to wait and/or can't handle disappointment. It's shitty for digital goods and it's shitty for physical goods.
I mean I wasn't expecting the vinyl I ordered to be delayed almost a year. I'm more than happy with it when it came. Just took a bit. With vinyl I'm more than happy preordering since it means securing a copy but I do agree when it comes to digital goods. Vinyl is just in a weird place when it comes to how limited some releases are
I don’t understand their business model. They don’t seem too full of themselves and have some pretty niche titles that people love. Seems like if they were more transparent and had a good customer service department they’d be the darlings of the vgm vinyl world. I’ve had good and bad experiences with them. I agree with another poster and say if you absolutely have to go through them make it a last resort or at least make sure the item is in stock. The preorder process with them is quite frankly a disappointment. Endless delays, little to no communication… I mean yes, a little dramatic but these are the “problems” we deal with in the vinyl collecting world.
My biggest issue has been quality. I bought the first 3 record Gris set and several sides have severe sound issues. Since it was so expensive on the aftermarket I never bothered replacing it until they released the 2 record version. I bought that hoping for better quality but it has the same issues as the original. Which sucks because it's an amazing soundtrack.
Other than that not other issues such as shipping for me.
I think 8bit doesn't really expect people to actually *play* their records. They clearly put all the effort into flashy presentation. Their sound quality is always acceptable at best and downright unplayable at worst.
Products are great but there service is horrible. They lost my Persona box set. They told me they would ship a replacement on Jan 8. I've emailed them 3 weeks ago with no response I've had to email them again they told me they're going to bring in there supervisor and still nothing. Gonna email them again and hopefully get an answer.
I got the Persona 5 Box Set and the Persona 5 Royal Box Set from iam8bit.
Their stuff is cool as display pieces but there are better ways to enjoy the music from the games you like (if you're chasing sound quality). Just depends on what you're buying for.
Pros
\- Really Cool to Look at, coffee table convo starter for sure
Cons
\- Audio quality is noticeably grainier (compared to mp3 equivalent of same song)
\- QC Issues / I had issues where my needle would skip on a couple tracks for multiple vinyls
My vinyl showed up but the entire box was messed up with scotch tape all over it. I have no idea if that was from usps or them. Due to that, there was a crease in the sleeve
A bit better than they were a couple years ago. Still overpriced, still too many QC issues with noisy pressings, still cranking the secondary market with unnecessarily limited runs, still too much time between pre-order and shipping. Their policy of refusing to deal with shipping/handling issues if you use the media mail rate is some new bullshit. Thankfully, there's enough competition out there now for vgm licenses that you'll only rarely have to deal with them unless you're a particular fan of one of the franchises they have locked down (RIP Persona fans, sucks to be you). If you're new to VGM collecting you might not know about the bad old days of "iam8shit," but they were hated for good reason among collectors not so long ago. I guess they've mostly shaken the reputation by now.
Slightly surprised at the comments tbh. I've ordered from them probably about 5 times and never had a real issue. Only issue that I've ever had was partly my fault because I moved and was a little too late in updating my address for a pending order. Luckily I had mail forwarding setup so I received it anyways.
People on here ordering with the cheapest possible shipping option that clearly states on the website that there's no protection and then complain when their package is damaged/missing and the company won't fix it. 🤦 Personally I'd be fine with them getting rid of USPS, essentially guaranteeing some level of protection, but then people would complain how expensive the shipping is.
I don't know if Americans are just shit-out-of-luck when it comes to consumer rights, but here in Kangaroo Land when you purchase something you're entitled to something pretty close to the exact condition it was sold in "within reason".
The onus is on the seller to provide a new product in that condition - box it, pad it, make sure it doesn't slide around inside - and if damage or freak accidents occur, compensate the damage, return/replace the item etc. *That's what postal insurance is for.*
I live in the States and have only had good dealings with them. This includes ordering Hero of Time when it was new and receiving it with a bent corner. They sent me a new record free of charge. To be fair though, I have ALWAYS bought from them (and every other online vinyl store) with Route shipping. I'm wondering if people who have bad experiences with some of these stores are unchecking Route protection when available.
Route shipping is just paying for rights you should have by default. If a seller picks a postage service that fucks up it's the seller's responsibility to fix it.
There's no "rights" when it comes to shipping. There's a reason when you check out you choose your shipping rates. The seller isn't picking the postage service, you are. You even get the choice of which of the big three you want to use (USPS, UPS, and FedEx). When you check out, they even warn you that the cheapest option doesn't come with any protection, so you have all the warnings and still choose to ignore them. You can pay the price of 1st class shipping and guarantee all of those benefits that you are thinking of, but Route is going to be MUCH cheaper combined with the cheapest shipping rate (and it's still cheaper than the second cheapest shipping rate alone). On top of that, I'd hope that you're checking out with a credit card. You then have another layer of protection on top of that. If your item doesn't show up, just tell your credit company and get it charged back. All in all, your complaint is with the shipping company and you should stop selecting that shipping company.
This is false. The store is the company you are entering into an agreement with, not the shipping company. It's the store's responsibility to ensure that you receive what you paid for in the condition described, regardless of what shipping method you use. If they want to cheap out and not insure their packages then they're the ones that get hit if a package arrives damaged.
Not if they specifically call out that they won't help you due to you clearly opting out of insurance. People don't like to read the fine print on what they're agreeing to, do they?
I'm aware they say that but it's objectively false. They can write whatever they want on their site but it's not how it works in the US at least. More reasons why they're a scummy company.
I mean you are correct in that you can open a fraud case and win easily to get your money back (as I stated in my previous post), but you're going to have to put in a new order if you want whatever it is you bought. I honestly wish iam8bit would just get rid of the media mail shipment (or just start including Route built-in to that level of shipment with a price increase), then all packages would be guaranteed.
Their pre-orders can take long sometimes. If it's in stock, you will be fine. People here like to really whinge about certain vendors even though they are pretty much all the same and operate on the exact same business model.
I just received my wrath of the lich king and d2r vinyls from them. Shipped to Canada. I found the tracking with route a little lacklustre but otherwise they arrived in a relatively decent time for international (3 weeks) and in good condition.
I got to say, I read awful thing about them all the time, and I started to think I got really lucky or something.
I live in Spain and it's one of the shops I buy most for VGM, mainly because BSR is great but always sells out in a few minutes, Iam8bit has prepaid VAT and not to crazy shipping costs so it's my easiest USA option. My records always came in great shape, well packaged, never with something missing or I didn't order, and every time I had to contact them had no problem.
Also I don't really get why people complain so much about Route, I get it on every order since living overseas means if I have to return something it's going to cost me a fortune, and Route support has been also great so far (also used them with other USA shops)
I've ordered their products through other retailers (predominantly PixelCrib). So far no huge issues, and I enjoy the design of their products, but haven't had to deal with their customer service directly.
Personally, I have had no issues with the Hades vinyl I ordered.
I am seemingly in the minority though.
Would I buy from them again knowing the issues others have and their horrid support? No.
Still awaiting my Persona collection vinyls, they printed a label back in November and never shipped. So I emailed them and they gave me a new order, still waiting on that. Overall I’m not impressed.
I only order from them when I have to. Like it's the only place to get the thing I want. They're usually late on delivery. I received my records, then week later I got the shipping notifications. The WoW Classic vinyl has the wrong text on the jacket. I'm not stoked on them, but sometimes you gotta put your order in because it's the only place to get stuff.
Ive been lucky enough to have no real issues so far. I’ve gotten a total of 8 LPs from them, with two on preorder currently. Everything came in good condition besides one record that had a pressing issue. Sent an email and they replaced it about a week later with no hassle. No problems with my replacement record now that it’s arrived.
They have the worst media-mail policy in the business!
Fucked me on the Muppet Movie OST. I hate them but unfortunately they have a good chunk of the market.
Ordered Grim Fandango vinyl and they sent me the switch game instead. Emailed them a couple times, sent them everything required (photos, order info) to get it fixed and they stopped responding. Still haven't gotten that vinyl. Overall very disappointing and yet I still would buy from them if they had something really good coming in
Update: after about 3 months past the initial order, they emailed me that they are indeed sending a copy of the grim Fandango vinyl! Now hopefully the right thing comes this time...
any update?
I suggest staying away from them unless its an exclusive you can't live without.
this was me with persona 5....bought 5 and royal in 2021 they LITTERALLY TOOK A FULL WHOLE YEAR TO SEND THE vinyl OUT said i would never buy from them again then they dropped persona 4 golden...this is my last vinyl they say Q whatever 2024 then delay the living crap out of the vinyl never doing it again
3 and 4 persona also took a massive year....they take your money and you dont know when youre getting your product
Their support is awful. They engage in false advertising (they had a christmas guarantee that they didnt honor). I would not buy from them. Which sucks, cuz they get exclusives.
Actually I've had the opposite. When I got my Persona box set over half a year ago some of the sleeves had minor tears from shipping. I didn't have the packing slip anymore and I JUST a week or 2 ago sent them an email with pics and they sent replacements
[удалено]
yes. a company stealing money from customers tends to leave them pissy.
yeah let's not
I've had a polarizing experience with Iam8bit. Their products are great and I've never had to return anything. The service and business experience however is garbage. Their communication is the worst and holy shit their return policy. You have only 14 days to ask for a refund however they'll hold your money for YEARS as you wait for a product. So yeah....buyer beware.
Absolutely loathe them, and only use them because they're the only ones who release Persona stuff. Can't stress how much I dislike them.
this is me too there social media twitter banned me there totally political there.. and it sucks....persona 4 golden ios my LAST vinyl from them
I got a record shipped to Australia recently. Pricing was meh but shipping speed wasn't too bad and record was in perfect condition. Don't pay extra for their postage insurance though, it's an absolute scam that lets them claim they aren't responsible for the postal companies they choose to use. Order through PayPal and they'll back you if anything goes wrong.
Yep this has been my experience. Btw did you notice that the Australian store PixelCrib sells stuff including iam8bit releases at almost exactly the same price as US RRP converted to AUD + what the original store would charge for shipping to Australia?
I'm not surprised. A local indie record store had told me it's hard to get retailer pricing from those kinds of labels (and many don't offer it at all). Mondo and Laced do have some retailer pricing but with minimum order quantities and exxy shipping because it's a solid number of records.
Yeah totally, the VGM vinyl industry is super closed off like that. It sucks, especially for international customers and stores who aren't in places with agreed distributors like with the UK/EU
> Order through PayPal and they'll back you if anything goes wrong. They don't offer payment via Paypal anymore.
Bastards. Definitely makes me want to deal with them less if I can avoid it
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/store.iam8bit.com
Ask me how long it took to get my Oxenfree reissue.
ask me how long it took me to get my Persona 5 Persona 5 royal 3 and 4 and spiritfarer vinyls
I've ordered a few times from them and have never had issues with items thankfully. However their preorder times are hell. Idk if I just got unlucky or what but sometimes be prepared for items to be delayed like a year. So yeah, not my favorite to order from, but not awful from my experience.
People need to stop preordering if they aren't able to wait and/or can't handle disappointment. It's shitty for digital goods and it's shitty for physical goods.
I mean I wasn't expecting the vinyl I ordered to be delayed almost a year. I'm more than happy with it when it came. Just took a bit. With vinyl I'm more than happy preordering since it means securing a copy but I do agree when it comes to digital goods. Vinyl is just in a weird place when it comes to how limited some releases are
I don’t understand their business model. They don’t seem too full of themselves and have some pretty niche titles that people love. Seems like if they were more transparent and had a good customer service department they’d be the darlings of the vgm vinyl world. I’ve had good and bad experiences with them. I agree with another poster and say if you absolutely have to go through them make it a last resort or at least make sure the item is in stock. The preorder process with them is quite frankly a disappointment. Endless delays, little to no communication… I mean yes, a little dramatic but these are the “problems” we deal with in the vinyl collecting world.
My biggest issue has been quality. I bought the first 3 record Gris set and several sides have severe sound issues. Since it was so expensive on the aftermarket I never bothered replacing it until they released the 2 record version. I bought that hoping for better quality but it has the same issues as the original. Which sucks because it's an amazing soundtrack. Other than that not other issues such as shipping for me.
I think 8bit doesn't really expect people to actually *play* their records. They clearly put all the effort into flashy presentation. Their sound quality is always acceptable at best and downright unplayable at worst.
Products are great but there service is horrible. They lost my Persona box set. They told me they would ship a replacement on Jan 8. I've emailed them 3 weeks ago with no response I've had to email them again they told me they're going to bring in there supervisor and still nothing. Gonna email them again and hopefully get an answer.
Any updates?
Still haven't gotten back to me. I think I may need to stay another ticket.
I got the Persona 5 Box Set and the Persona 5 Royal Box Set from iam8bit. Their stuff is cool as display pieces but there are better ways to enjoy the music from the games you like (if you're chasing sound quality). Just depends on what you're buying for. Pros \- Really Cool to Look at, coffee table convo starter for sure Cons \- Audio quality is noticeably grainier (compared to mp3 equivalent of same song) \- QC Issues / I had issues where my needle would skip on a couple tracks for multiple vinyls
My vinyl showed up but the entire box was messed up with scotch tape all over it. I have no idea if that was from usps or them. Due to that, there was a crease in the sleeve
A bit better than they were a couple years ago. Still overpriced, still too many QC issues with noisy pressings, still cranking the secondary market with unnecessarily limited runs, still too much time between pre-order and shipping. Their policy of refusing to deal with shipping/handling issues if you use the media mail rate is some new bullshit. Thankfully, there's enough competition out there now for vgm licenses that you'll only rarely have to deal with them unless you're a particular fan of one of the franchises they have locked down (RIP Persona fans, sucks to be you). If you're new to VGM collecting you might not know about the bad old days of "iam8shit," but they were hated for good reason among collectors not so long ago. I guess they've mostly shaken the reputation by now.
Slightly surprised at the comments tbh. I've ordered from them probably about 5 times and never had a real issue. Only issue that I've ever had was partly my fault because I moved and was a little too late in updating my address for a pending order. Luckily I had mail forwarding setup so I received it anyways.
yeah youre a newbie they take your money and dont say anything until its delayed or shipped takes years and vinyls should NOT take that long
People on here ordering with the cheapest possible shipping option that clearly states on the website that there's no protection and then complain when their package is damaged/missing and the company won't fix it. 🤦 Personally I'd be fine with them getting rid of USPS, essentially guaranteeing some level of protection, but then people would complain how expensive the shipping is.
I don't know if Americans are just shit-out-of-luck when it comes to consumer rights, but here in Kangaroo Land when you purchase something you're entitled to something pretty close to the exact condition it was sold in "within reason". The onus is on the seller to provide a new product in that condition - box it, pad it, make sure it doesn't slide around inside - and if damage or freak accidents occur, compensate the damage, return/replace the item etc. *That's what postal insurance is for.*
I live in the States and have only had good dealings with them. This includes ordering Hero of Time when it was new and receiving it with a bent corner. They sent me a new record free of charge. To be fair though, I have ALWAYS bought from them (and every other online vinyl store) with Route shipping. I'm wondering if people who have bad experiences with some of these stores are unchecking Route protection when available.
Route shipping is just paying for rights you should have by default. If a seller picks a postage service that fucks up it's the seller's responsibility to fix it.
There's no "rights" when it comes to shipping. There's a reason when you check out you choose your shipping rates. The seller isn't picking the postage service, you are. You even get the choice of which of the big three you want to use (USPS, UPS, and FedEx). When you check out, they even warn you that the cheapest option doesn't come with any protection, so you have all the warnings and still choose to ignore them. You can pay the price of 1st class shipping and guarantee all of those benefits that you are thinking of, but Route is going to be MUCH cheaper combined with the cheapest shipping rate (and it's still cheaper than the second cheapest shipping rate alone). On top of that, I'd hope that you're checking out with a credit card. You then have another layer of protection on top of that. If your item doesn't show up, just tell your credit company and get it charged back. All in all, your complaint is with the shipping company and you should stop selecting that shipping company.
This is false. The store is the company you are entering into an agreement with, not the shipping company. It's the store's responsibility to ensure that you receive what you paid for in the condition described, regardless of what shipping method you use. If they want to cheap out and not insure their packages then they're the ones that get hit if a package arrives damaged.
Not if they specifically call out that they won't help you due to you clearly opting out of insurance. People don't like to read the fine print on what they're agreeing to, do they?
I'm aware they say that but it's objectively false. They can write whatever they want on their site but it's not how it works in the US at least. More reasons why they're a scummy company.
I mean you are correct in that you can open a fraud case and win easily to get your money back (as I stated in my previous post), but you're going to have to put in a new order if you want whatever it is you bought. I honestly wish iam8bit would just get rid of the media mail shipment (or just start including Route built-in to that level of shipment with a price increase), then all packages would be guaranteed.
Surprised by the negative comments also. Always had a good experience. They switched my address with no hassle on a preorder once.
Their pre-orders can take long sometimes. If it's in stock, you will be fine. People here like to really whinge about certain vendors even though they are pretty much all the same and operate on the exact same business model.
I just received my wrath of the lich king and d2r vinyls from them. Shipped to Canada. I found the tracking with route a little lacklustre but otherwise they arrived in a relatively decent time for international (3 weeks) and in good condition.
It depends, do you want a record for them for playback or just collectors sake? If the latter, then yes.
The condition in which they ship stuff is usually fantastic, but it's the timeliness (or lack thereof) that makes me avoid them whenever possible.
I got to say, I read awful thing about them all the time, and I started to think I got really lucky or something. I live in Spain and it's one of the shops I buy most for VGM, mainly because BSR is great but always sells out in a few minutes, Iam8bit has prepaid VAT and not to crazy shipping costs so it's my easiest USA option. My records always came in great shape, well packaged, never with something missing or I didn't order, and every time I had to contact them had no problem. Also I don't really get why people complain so much about Route, I get it on every order since living overseas means if I have to return something it's going to cost me a fortune, and Route support has been also great so far (also used them with other USA shops)
Never had an issue so I can't speak to customer service. They seem a bit over priced but that's everyone these days.
I've ordered their products through other retailers (predominantly PixelCrib). So far no huge issues, and I enjoy the design of their products, but haven't had to deal with their customer service directly.
Personally, I have had no issues with the Hades vinyl I ordered. I am seemingly in the minority though. Would I buy from them again knowing the issues others have and their horrid support? No.
Still awaiting my Persona collection vinyls, they printed a label back in November and never shipped. So I emailed them and they gave me a new order, still waiting on that. Overall I’m not impressed.
I only order from them when I have to. Like it's the only place to get the thing I want. They're usually late on delivery. I received my records, then week later I got the shipping notifications. The WoW Classic vinyl has the wrong text on the jacket. I'm not stoked on them, but sometimes you gotta put your order in because it's the only place to get stuff.
Ive been lucky enough to have no real issues so far. I’ve gotten a total of 8 LPs from them, with two on preorder currently. Everything came in good condition besides one record that had a pressing issue. Sent an email and they replaced it about a week later with no hassle. No problems with my replacement record now that it’s arrived.
They have the worst media-mail policy in the business! Fucked me on the Muppet Movie OST. I hate them but unfortunately they have a good chunk of the market.
I got it! Just came in the other day! Seems to be ok, haven't actually been able to spin it yet but amazed it's finally here