A Grounding in Numbers : toujours pas arrivé...

J'ai passé ma commande début février, le disque sortait normalement le 14, et aujourd'hui (soit une semaine plus tard), je reçois ce mail du site marchand :

Thank you to everyone for your patience regarding this matter.

We've been waiting until we could find out as much information as we could from Cherry Red / Esoteric before writing.

Unfortunately, the label has had serious problems with the limited edition vinyl version of A Grounding In Numbers, and due to a mix-up with its distributor has found that it cannot properly fulfil its UK orders of the album.

We continually kept the label informed of our sales figures and were given assurances that we would get the number of copies we required, so we're deeply disappointed by the situation that has arisen.

We have suggested alternatives such as a small re-press (in order for Esoteric to accommodate the total existing demand and rectify its distributor's error), and been in constant contact regarding locating existing copies for our customers.

Cherry Red has told us that it will try and obtain more copies from various foreign distributors and send them on to us, but it seems unlikely that we'll be able to fulfil all the orders we had for this album.

We're currently waiting on more information regarding how many copies will be sent to us.

In the meantime, Dave Timperley from Cherry Red has also kindly offered an apology to our customers (see below).

We apologise unreservedly for this and share everyone's frustration and annoyance with the ongoing situation.

As soon as we have more information, we will write again.

---------

A STATEMENT FROM CHERRY RED: THE PARENT COMPANY OF ESOTERIC

To Whom It May Concern…

RE: VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: A GROUNDING IN NUMBERS ~ VINYL

I believe that Robert Burns best sums up the situation:

“The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men gang aft agley,

An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!”

The ‘best-laid schemes’ in this specific instance refer of course to the limited pressing of the VDGG vinyl and this statement will hopefully go some way to clarify the current situation.  Despite our best efforts to monitor the pre-sell figures and ensure that all stores and distributors received their original allocation, it alas did not run as smoothly as planned. A critical chain of events (mostly unforeseen) ultimately led to a shortfall in available vinyl stock and this has evidently impacted on many discerning fans of the band.

Your support for our esteemed repertoire is greatly appreciated and it seems superfluous to state that Burning Shed are in no way culpable for this shortfall and are naturally working towards a solution in conjunction with us all at Cherry Red (Esoteric).

We hope to announce some positive news shortly.

Thank you for your patience concerning this matter.

Dave Timperley – Cherry Red Sales Manager

Bande de blaireaux...

J'espère au moins que je ne vais pas être obligé de l'acheter en CD...


edit : je viens d'aller faire un tour sur les différents eBay, des fois que... 
Il y a un certain nombre d'exemplaires qui ont l'air d'y trainer (surtout en Angleterre et en Allemagne), à des tarifs bien plus élevés, bien évidemment... Je ne sais pas si ces vendeurs-là ont vraiment les disques sous la main ou s'ils vont être incapables d'honorer leurs commandes eux aussi... Y'en a un qui prétend en avoir vendu 12 et en avoir encore plus de 10 en stock...
Par contre, d'après les descriptions (et ce qu'on voit sur la photo ci-dessous), il a l'air d'être vendu scellé, ce qui veut dire que je risque de le garder en l'état  pour la collec et de devoir me débrouiller autrement pour l'écouter... enfin, si je finis par le recevoir...