I’ve been buying records from Juno most weeks for about five years and recommending them to everyone else but they are done now.
Best thing about them was always the utterly reliable next day delivery by Royal Mail but they’ve abandoned that for fictional ‘next day delivery’ by Evri, who in fact deliver when it suits them.
I’ve placed three orders since they changed and only one has been delivered as promised. I’ve emailed Juno twice about how useless Evri are but they’ve not bothered to reply either time, so I guess that’s them telling me to fuck off, and I will do.
I’ve always had a theory that there is an inverse relationship between how fancy and complicated their website looks and how efficient they are at actually getting the records you’ve paid for delivered to you. I might have to reassess that because Juno’s website is very 2008 but they have now chosen to be shit as well.
I remember you slagging off Norman in a similar thread a year or so ago. I know you don’t like their new posting/account system but I’ve had no issues with it and they still use Royal Mail and are friendly and timely with their dispatches.
I’m not sure that the overheads/economics of running an independent record shop means anyone can afford the postage model that you want.
I’m perfectly willing to pay extra for reliable postage if I’m offered the option, others can choose differently. For me the main criteria on choosing where to order from is whether it will be delivered reliably, others will have other priorities.
It’s also just dishonest to charge someone for ‘next day delivery’ via Evri when you know it’s nothing of the sort. Everyone knows Evri are shit and any business that chooses to use them is telling you exactly what they think about their customers.
I’m aware I’m ranting, and that this is very much a First World Problem, but I’m also cross about them not even answering two perfectly reasonable emails from me when I have spent literally thousands of pounds with them over the years.
If reliable Royal Mail delivery is your priority, I really would recommend Norman! My Big Thief LP delivered day of release this morning, left in my RM safe place by my postie while I was at work.
Royal Mail First Class is still a selectable option at checkout though? Albeit for a few pence more
Edit - appreciate that’s also not guaranteed next day but I’d take my chances over Evri. Ordered a handful of times over the last couple of weeks using this option and they all arrived next day
My strong suspicion is that they will deliver next day if there are enough parcels going to the area around where you live to make it financially attractive to them. If there are not you get a message in the morning saying ‘there was an issue accessing the delivery address today’ (ie it wasn’t worth our while to drive out to where you live).
I’ve said this before on here but I bought some records from 365 a few years ago and their free delivery was via Evri. Order went completely awol, ended up getting a refund as 365 had no more stock of them. About two months later I got a “we’ve got your parcel!” notification and then they turned up a few days later. I just assume they’d fallen down the side of a cabinet or been left on a shelf or something.
Oh also I’ve been getting a regular subscription box from a brewery for years, they made the switch to Evri maybe 18 months and switched back to DPD about 3 months ago. Pretty funny.
Thankfully I only had one bad experience when they misplaced an entire pallet of orders!!! How do you even manage that…