Providing no links to a bunch of losers

As the title suggests, I will be providing no links in this post, because I'm going to be complaining about a group that would benefit the jazz community, and probably the entire world, by just going away. They deserve no customers, and I shall not provide them any.

Sometime back, I wrote about the inefficiences of the Jazz Heritage Society. Their antiquated ordering scheme, their profligate fee structure, their amateurish letters and forms. At the time I wrote about them, however, I continued to be a member, because I felt they were still a decent option for obtaining good jazz music CD's at a reasonable cost, provided one worked within their limited and restrictive system.

Well, not anymore. You are not going to believe this story, but I assure you, it is true.

I recently went to the JHS web-site to decline the monthly offer (which you have to do if you are a member, unless you want the stuff shipped to you automatically), and I happened across their $3 and $4 CD offer. They had a couple of titles in there that I'd been wanting to buy cheap for some time, and a couple more that I was willing to buy if they were cheap, and still more that, though marginal, would be worth a couple bucks. Now, the thing you have to keep in mind is that they charge a shipping and handling fee PER SHIPMENT, plus handling charge PER CD. If you think of the per CD handling charge being included in the price, then all you have to do is order a decent quantity of CD's to amortize the per shipment fee down to a manageable amount, thereby saving you money on brand new jazz CD's.

So, I ordered 13 CD's, one a three CD set, and I was going to get them all for about $80, or just a little over $5 a CD.

NOT!

One week after placing my order, I received seven individual letters telling me that "Unfortunately, this item is unavailable and we are cancelling your order". That's right. They generated one letter for each CD they couldn't deliver. Well, that's $2.64 wasted right there, mailing seven letters instead of one. No wonder they have to charge so much above the cost of CD's to make ends meet. Dumbasses.

Then the next day (here it comes), a box arrived containing (guess how many...) a, as in one, CD and an itemized list. Amazingly, all of the CDs I received letters for were listed as "backordered" (not "cancelled"), and the remaining five undelivered CD's were listed as no longer available. Huh! So in the end, I ordered thirteen CDs, received only one, which I paid $4.98 for (because it was the only one that was not part of the $3-4 offer), and guess what? I paid $5.94 for shipping and processing for the $4.98 CD. Damn near $11 for one CD, that you can get for less than a third of that if you shop around on e-bay or Amazon.

I was beside myself with anger. Livid. I started to think of all the names I could call those idiots at JHS. But, I composed myself and wrote a terse, vaguely polite, extremely demanding email - containing no swear words - to the JHS demanding all of my money back and demanding that they pay return shipping. I told them I'm going to report them to the attorney general of the state of Alabama for their borderline fraudulent bait and switch tactic, as well as to the Consumer Protection Agency (which, in fact, I will do). I'm still waiting for a reply to my email as I write this.

Whatever you do, stay the hell away from the Jazz Heritage Society. They are little more than a poorly operated, not so thinly disguised scam operation, and you can do better elsewhere to add to your music collection without also having to deal with their poorman's form of extortion. They are a bunch of simple-minded dumbasses, and you'll be no better a dumbass than I if you do business with them.