OT: CD Jewel cases... Be careful who you buy them from.

[John Esak]

<rant>
Just had one of those experiences you want to warn others about. I purchase
thousands of CD Jewel cases a year.  This past project, I needed about 1,600
or 2,000 and was going to buy them from my usual supplier when for no reason
I can think of I clicked on some Spam email I get constantly from
cdrom2go.com.  I think the company is more like "usdigfitalmedia".  After
determining that their unassembled cases were a little too expensive for my
tastes, I ordered a ordered 1,600 I think.  I always get more than the exact
number I'll need for the particular run.  Well, long story short, they are
crap... Real, pacific rim, garbage.  Normally, it is a light touch to remove
the lid of a CD jewel case, and then another small click to separate the
tray from the back piece. You gently hold the edges and put your knuckle in
the middle of the back and the tray essentially falls out.  All good so far.
Nope, no joy here.  With 5 different workers disassembling them as carefully
as possible, about one in every 10 was breaking CRACK!!! Useless.  One of
the little flanges on the lid just cracks right off the main lid body and it
is now a broken lid.  I told them to be as intensely careful as they could
be... And meanwhile called the vendor.  A week goes by... Every 10th lid or
so still breaking. I call the vendor again, describe the problem to a tape
recorder again.  What will we do, send them back, have you send us some
replacements for all the ones that are being damaged simply by disassembling
them?  I'm thinking I'll do whatever is most  convenient for the vendor and
quickest for me....   Still, no call. Finally, I call today at 9:30 Eastern
time... I'm in PA... They say I'm calling outside of working hours... So
call back.  Pretty odd, but I call back a couple hours later and am told
that this is handled by a "Jackie".  She will call me back.  And amazingly
enough she does.  When I describe the situation.  She tells me there is
nothing wrong with the cases.  Immediately I'm hearing there is going to be
a problem.  She then tells me I just have to disassemble them very
carefully.  I tell her that we have been doing this for decades... Since
they first came out.  Never, has this been a problem.  Could it be these are
sub standard cases and that is why they are so inexpensive.  She says, oh
no, there's nothing wrong with them.  All right, so I say how do we return
them. She says well you just ship them.  Do you mean I have to return this
defective product at *my* expense???  She says, I don't think they are
defective.  At that point I told her thank you very much I would be buying
elsewhere from now on.  Why I didn't just go to my regular vendor in this
case, I don't know.  But all else aside.  Be very careful about what you buy
and *whether* you buy from cdrom2go.com (i.e., US Digital Media), out of
Phoenix, Arizona.  They are the kind of company that is ruining America.
They don't care that they are peddling sub standard crap, and they don't
have the ethics to simply label it as sub standard.... Instead, they'd
rather unload it on you and then tell you it's your problem, not theirs.
The lady sounded as if she was going to be reasonable, but when it came down
to standing by what they sell, that was a little too far for her to go. I
don't see how people like that can work for these sleazy companies. I always
wonder how that type feels when a company screws them?  The precise thing
she did today is why America can not be proud of its manufacturing anymore.
Either this crap was manufactured here and that would be really troubling
because I can *feel* the sub par quality of the material uses.... It rolls
and bends in your hand. It is so patently flimsy, it could define the term.
I randomly picked 10 other CD's off the wall and several from my other
vendors.... Not one of  them was even close to this junk. It was all sturdy
and noticeably so. Anyone and everyone blindfolded could tell the difference
between the tops... Every time, without fail.  I wasn't complaining about a
small difference in quality.  The stuff US Digital Media and cdrom2go is
selling is garbage pure and simple.  Caveat emptor to the nth degree on this
place.

If there isn't a real end-user driven consumer reports site on the net...
One where anyone who is taken for a ride by one of these cheap companies can
submit a product with detailed reasons for why it should be avoided... The
name of the vendor, etc.  I would love to start one.  It sure would have
been nice to know this vendor screws people.  Strange thing is I have
ordered hardware from them before and other media it looks like, CD-ROM
blanks among other things.  Happily, I've never had to return anything on
the few other orders I placed with them, but that stuff was all name
brand... I could rely on that instead of US Digital Media... This stuff is
made overseas somewhere, and very much a commodity... Cheapest price gets
the sale... Too often these days that means you get the cheapest quality
also.  Too bad.  Makes me laugh to think that John Glenn or one of the
astronauts once said he hated being up there in a capsule every piece of
which was built by the lowest bidder!  Good thing nothing from US Digital
Media or cdrom2go was part of the Space shots... None of them would have
made it back. (Or, they would have paid for their own return shipping. :-))

</rant>
Okay rant off, just be careful with this one.  I may have even recommended
them to everyone in the past because I see I bought a Primera Bravo II
printer from them some time ago.  Again, thank goodness I can rely on the
reputation of that company for that product.  Great as a matter of fact.

Take care,

John Esak

P.S. - Oh yeah, one last funny thing. When the lady (Jackie) was telling me
all the reasons that I as the buyer had done something wrong, and the
product was just perfect.... She actually said to me... "Well sir, that's
why we don't recommend disassembling the complete jewel cases... You should
have bought the pre-eisassembled ones."  She kind of stopped dead when I
asked her exactly how I was supposed to get the label into the jewel cases I
had bought if I wasn't supposed to disassemble them???"  People are funny
aren't they?  It's a mazing how far they will streth just so they don't have
to be honest with you and admit what they are selling is pure crap.