PledgeMusic Reviews 116

Crazy thievery going on! I added review sites to their discussion forum, complained about how they fraudulently charged my card, and they removed the entire discussion forum section! That should be a clear indication! These people are surely thieves!

PLEDGE MUSIC = "1 star /5; Bad, unacceptable experience; unreasonable and rude conduct"

Pretty much sums it up, really.

Oh dear...here we are again - yet another in a seemingly interminable list of online distance-selling concerns that suffer from lax regulatory controls and operate under the misapprehension that somehow the faceless, anonymous 'pledgers' who drive their business are not even worthy of so much as a courteous discourse.

To be fair, it's rather telling when an online vendor's website has no provision (or tab) that enables buyers to inform them that their items haven't arrived or have arrived in a damaged state - and it proves to be the case with Pledgemusic that this is indeed very much a 'tell'.

As we, the online consumer would nowadays generally never deign to presume availability or existence of a convenient contact number or email (sorry to belabour the blindingly obvious), it remains for any problems or questions to be put to Pledgemusic by way of their (very restrictive and linear) online contact form.

The fact that - in common with many other online companies - Pledge demonstrate a basic level of disdain for customers by operating in a (mostly) incommunicado fashion, would not necessarily mean that they offer a bad service overall - but unfortunately, in the following cases it does very much mean that.

CASE ONE: "Culture Club - Tribes [Deluxe Edition] @£21.99 GBP"

The above title was available for 'Pledgers' to pre-buy for almost 8 whole months before an advisory email was sent out (to all those who had paid) to the effect that the project had been cancelled.

Now this may not sound like a lot to ask, but as a paying customer, when I'm advised by any supplier that the goods I've already paid for aren't ever going to materialize, then as surely as night follows day, I'd be within my rights to expect my payment to be re-credited by default.....right?

Apparently not so; after another 3 long months I checked again and noticed that Pledgemusic STILL hadn't reimbursed my card payment for the cancelled item, so I sent them a message via their aforementioned webpage 'form' to ask where my refund had gotten to.

To my complete disbelief, the reply from Pledgemusic that (after 5 days) came my way actually stated - quite openly - that 'refunds would only be granted upon written request' and that I hadn't requested one.

???

Please correct me if I'm wrong to point this out here, but as far as I can see, Pledgemusic are NOT a UK registered charity, but in fact they are an online vendor who distributes goods under auspices of UK Business Law Distance Selling Covenants - which include provision of legal entitlement to reimbursement in event of non-supply or failure to abide by terms of transaction under non-compliance.

Far be it from me to claim that Pledgemusic are contravening any UK Business laws, but anybody requiring any reassurance on that particular score should probably visit TradingStandards.co.uk, being the venue where my petition was appropriately submitted.

In the end it took a total of 4 WHOLE MONTHS and 3 EMAILS (I had to send them a link to their original electronic payment invoice, since they subsequently claimed to have 'lost' all records) to obtain my money back.

CASE TWO: "PetShopBoys - Further Listening Deluxe Bundle @£44.99 GBP"

Did I already mention exactly what it is Pledgemusic employ in the name of 'customer service'?

Well, upon receiving the above deluxe cardpak items in a damaged state (due to them being tossed loosely into a flimsy mailer envelope, completely unprotected for transit), I was told firstly by one agent at Pledgemusic that they would sort out the problem, by replacing the damaged elements of my shipment, and so I emailed back to clarify the the extent of the damage, and so on.

Waiting patiently for a number of days, I was then iro an email from a completely different woman ('Rachael') whose communication tone left a lot to be desired inasmuch that she quite abruptly - and without any sort of explanation - reneged on the promise made by the previous responder to rectify the problem.

Rachael's excuse-laden response - aiming at complete deniability - claimed that Pledgemusic do not send out or package the goods themselves (it is outsourced), and as such are not at fault nor liable to offer reimbursement for damages incurred in transit.

After a terse email sent back by myself (pointing out that Pledgemusic are bound by terms of contract to supply NEW items in 'new' condition, and that liability for dispatch AND delivery rests wholly with them), I was eventually sent a pre-paid return authorization by email, stating that I should re-package the items as they were sent out (I did EXACTLY that, for the record) and expect a refund within 5 days of receipt.

20 days elapsed with - predictably, by now - no refund, so yet again I'm compelled to issue emails that threaten Pledgemusic with debt recovery action (ie. having my credit card payment reversed) before - FINALLY -
my refund is granted.

The upshot of all this is that I've now cancelled ALL of our existing 'pledges' (pre-orders) and objectively vowed to NEVER, EVER use this company again, as they are a completely UNrepenting disgrace, not to mention seemingly an utter shambles to boot.

Furthermore, I've subsequently talked with a number of music artists' management about their own lacking experiences dealing with Pledgemusic, and so I unreservedly would urge anyone considering releasing material in partnership with pledgemusic to give serious consideration before allowing such unprofessional and unscrupulous third -parties to sully their own good relations with fans in this manner.

OrangePop!&BirthdayCake

Pledgemusic.........Great idea, would be even better if their customer service team bothered to respond to the people making the music pledges. I have left three messages with them, wanting to cancel a pre-order pledge and to request a refund to my card. Sounds simple enough doesn't it?
What response have I had from them, nearly 5 days later????............Zilch..........Not a thing............Absolutamento Nada!!!
This is not the first time either!!! I have been signed up with them for 6 years and the one thing that hasn't improved is their customer service. I am having to leave a message here, just to get someone's attention and hopefully to get one of their CS team to talk to me. Next stop is Facebook and Twitter!!! I don't want to do this, but they really are not leaving me any choice. Useless and very disrespectful, afterall, we are paying for the service they are providing.

Since writing this review, I spoke to a very friendly and professional Customer Service lass called Rachel. She was brilliant!! Very apologetic about the situation, and understood why I was so unhappy with the service afforded to me!!! Hopefully this issue is now resolved, and has been a one-off situation..............can't say fairer than that. Just because of Rachel's help I am increasing my bad 1 star score to a 3 star one.

I have emailed them 3 times now, and none of them got a response. I ordered albums on May 24th, they were supposed to be here last week. NO SHOW

Not impressed, I had to open Paypal dispute

I ordered three pledges that arrived over a month late. Customer service was poor with some emails being ignored completely. None of the three items were as described. Would not recommend

Never delivered my items. A 100 dollar order. Staff stopped replying when I requested a refund. Don't use.

Ordered a DVD package from PledgeMusic. A month after it was supposedly dispatched I contacted them to say I had received nothing but no reply.

I noticed a few days later that there was a tracking reference, followed this reference to a site that said my packaged had been delivered to an address in Philadelphia. I live in the UK! After mentioning this on the associated forum, the link was removed.

Two weeks after raising the missing order and I have received no mail to acknowledge my problem or to suggest they are looking into it despite sending multiple messages. Two months after I was supposed to receive my order I have received nothing at all.

Disgusted by the complete lack of customer service or even customer acknowledgement. Next stop will be the small claims court.

Unless an item is ONLY available from PledgeMusic, I would suggest buying from any other reputable source.

Pledgemusic seems like a good idea but my experience has been very frustrating. I received half of my order 3 months ago and keep getting the run around via email when they find the time to email me. Customer service is extremely poor and basically nonexistent. I'll never use this company again.

First order placed was for while she sleeps and had absolutely no problems, arrived well packaged, nice clear autographs and arrived on album release day, all of this was due to the band and their team, so thankyou to them. So I had no need to contact pledge.

However I made a second order for a papa roach bundle, didn't have any updates on my order, and still haven't, i emailed 9 days ago to find out if my order has been despatched and have had no reply. A lot of other people who ordered from the same pledge have had the same problem. I wouldn't recommend them.

dont respond to emails had to open up dispute with paypal over non delivery of a kraftwerk blu ray if i had known i would have this hassle i would have placed order with amazon who are cheaper and dont charge for delivery

Still waiting on something I ordered 2 months ago and now customer service is not even responding to my requests for a refund. Don't back campaigns through this service. It's a joke.

I preordered string quartets by Jethro tull on March 9. It's release date was March 24. Today is March 31 and I still don't have it. Very unprofessional and unreliable. Luckily I have tickets to see him in Sept. Hopefully I'll get it by then!

Over 4 weeks to sort a refund

I ordered 2 CD from them in August and should have been delivered by end of September, when the artist officially released the album. It was 2 copies signed by the artist and I was really looking forward to receiving my purchase. But...I never received it. When I went to the customer service they said from their side the package was shipped long time ago. It was an untracked shipment. I suppose it was stolen somewhere in the delivery process (untracked shipment!!! happens all the time). So I insisted on the fact I received nothing. Everything has been discussed /and solved via email. They were kind enough to reship at no extra charge (I offered to pay for the tracked shipment) but they asked for nothing at all! And I finally received my 2 signed copies as wished! Thank you Pledge Music!