Omnidisc BEWARE!!!!!!!

[radiantbrian]

that sucks, although it's nothing particularly unusual to expect when doing any kind of record manufacturing (edit, i just read your post closer and realized they messed up in many ways, now i'm concerned.) in fact, i remember even reading in fine print that you pay all shipping costs regardless of fault or whatever.

i've had a good experience so far (it's in the process) but maybe it'll be different for replication orders? (crosses fingers) FYI: anyone interested, they don't do 300 replication orders anymore, a major advantage they had over other pressing houses.

[joel hamilton]

That sucks.

I am sorry about your experience.
(the following is not directed at you)

That being said:

I think everyone that asks where the "cheapest" studio is, or the "cheapest" duplication...

Everyone wants a deal, and then I see people posting on all the messageboards, like " my 39 dollar condenser mic has a shitty shockmount!" or "the cd place that costs less than anyone fucked up my order!"

I am amazed at the amazement.

If you got a car for 500 dollars, and then said "my fucked up rusty aries K loat a race to a Ferrari!!! it wont even start this morning!"

Everyone would say " duh, it is a piece of poop, which is why it was 500 dollars."

This Quality/price war shit is hurting us all. We want so badly to believe that the place, or product is of good quality, and rather than go with the one we KNOW is good quality, we buy the disposable one for 1/2 the price anyway...

Whatever. Sorry. I just hate bearing this kind of news to EVERYONE I record that wants to know where to get CD's duplicated.

/rant

[Lostboy]

it is clear that we take risks in buying a cheaper product. i would submit, however, that the original poster did not get what he paid for, even if he paid less than he would've other places.

the response by omnidisc is what's most troubling in this situation. this kind of problem happens often, from what i gather (and a similar thing has happened to me). when i told the company that printed my discs about their error, however, they responded very positively, refunding me a large portion of what i had originally paid them. it was clear that they wanted to work out a solution that would be satisfactory to me, and even though they messed up a little, i will use their services again because of their positive reaction.

i think it's important to share stories like these. a lot of us can't afford higher-priced runs, but that shouldn't mean that we get ripped off in what we can afford. if a company advertises a product at a certain price, it should deliver. and if that company messes up, it should correct the problem. thank you to the original poster for sharing.

[Flight Feathers]

joel, you make an excellent point. and it's not just the musicans, it's the american mindset that needs a serious readjustment. people in this country complain about losing jobs to overseas, but in the same day line up to buy $40 foreign made dvd players from walmart. you can't have it both ways, and you always get what you pay for. it's very simple. i believe in free enterprise and the global economy, but i aslo belive that spending a little more on quality will result in a much better return on investment. i don't mind skimping on things like toilet paper and garbage bags, and even breakfast cereals, but when it's time to buy a mic, i save up for the good stuff. and when a $40 oktava breaks, you won't hear me complain about it because i probably got my moenys worth out of it. ok, sorry to get all political and stuff.

i'm sorry to hear about your disc's though. i also believe customer service is a companies best marketing tool, and thanks to you, i won't be using omnidisc. i can't believe how poorly the've handled your order. that sucks.


ayan

[aurelialuz]

it's just totally lost on me how a green on one monitor could turn out pink on another. that's some serious color correction discrepancy.

alex

[XXGABEXX]

that's some serious color correction discrepancy.

You're nicer than I am Alex. I call it "making up some bullshit as a meager attempt to cover one's ass".

[junokane]

I've got an uncle who has made a career out of telling businesses (AT+T, IBM, the Army, all kinds of corporations, big and small) what to do and how to survive (he's a business speaker/consultant). His second book was just published, called "Becoming a Category of One" (by Joe Calloway). I'm not the kind to read business books, but he is my uncle and a pretty cool-ass guy. So I read it.

Good book, I recommend it to anybody who wants to separate from whatever pack you run in and stand out amongst a crowd. Like bands, publicists, 'zine writers/editors, engineers, studio owners, musicians, anybody who is in the business of self-promotion for any reason. You could even apply some of this knowledge to trying to get a date.

It's a plug for my uncle, I know, but I really wanted to speak to the gist of his argument, which is this, no matter what your "business" is: in the marketplace, with computers and email and everything, the playing field is leveling in many ways. Consumers are hip enough to check out prices on the web and go for the cheapest. You can't get by on just offering low prices anymore. The way to stand out is, briefly, to understand the customer, anticipate needs of the customer, and then treat each and every customer the way you'd like to be treated, plus 25%.

What it comes down to is customer service. Always. You get that down, and you can charge more money, because people will become loyal and begin to depend on your level of service once they get used to it.

Omnidisc f-ed up big-time on simple customer service.

The other big thing uncle Joe stresses is that once you lose a customer, they are gone for good. And he urges us as consumers to flee poor service and flock to good. So the fact that Omnidisc is now the thread topic of a messageboard PACKED with people who are potential customers, and in a negative way, well, that's what they get for their screw-up.

It's up to we consumers, however, to hold up our end and refrain from routinely returning to businesses we don't like, for whatever reason. Sooner or later Omnidisc (or whoever) will get the picture, where it hurts.

[kcrusher]

While short run discs are not going to have crisp printing like you get with higher runs that is no excuse for that line about monitor calibration, which is total BS - like someone else mentioned, that would be some SERIOUS miscalibration and something you would definitely notice as your monitor would not show any colors properly ever.

CD's going out without music on them or missing altogether is total rot.

Thanks for the heads up on these guys - they are to be avoided, for sure.

For future reference, when doing short runs I always create a PDF with calibration colors on them, just so they have no excuse. I have used several short run companies and never had any problems.

[kcrusher]

Check these guys out for short runs:

http://www.elsproductions.com/

[toothpastefordinner]

The reason I have recommended omnidisc to people in the past is because we've pressed six different CDs, with different packages, different artwork, et cetera, and ended up with a very high-quality product for a low price.

The runs we had made were anywhere from 50 to 1000 cds and all of them arrived in top-notch quality in a reasonable time frame, and the people at Omnidisc always treated me nicely. Which is a far cry from the way I've been treated at local disc places. One in cincinnati was almost twice the price of Omnidisc, and fucked up my CD nine ways to sunday. But other people praised the place. What's to say I didn't catch the cock-eatingest customer rep in the Cincy place on the day her husband left her, and the guys in the CD plant sneezed on one out of a thousand masters, and that master was mine?

I dunno. I just feel bad when companies get badmouthed publicly, and then fifty others chime in to say, "Yeah! Fuck em! Fuck omnidisc!" Especially since the folks at Omnidisc have been communicative and friendly to me, calling me to let me know how my order's going even, no matter what I had done or how much money I spent.

I do sympathize with you w/r/t the CD though... I got overcharged, treated like shit, and insulted because the "graphics department" (one fat lady on a mac that was made in 1942) at the Cincy place couldn't get my file to open. Then they fed-exed it to the wrong address and I had to stand out in the street waiting for the truck to show up because they refused to call in a re-delivery address. (Stuff has been stolen right off my frickin' doorstep before, due to fedex leaving it there.)

If the car industry worked like CD manufacturing plants do, your car would cost $43,000 (more if you want shrinkwrap, barcode, or top label), it would take a month and a half to order, when it came in it would be pink instead of green, and they would leave it in your neighbor's driveway.


drew
www.toothpastefordinner.com

[heylow]

Just to chime in.....

My disc was done with Omnidisc.....

I think it came out great.....they were quite friendly and the end product is as pro as any. We used a graphics art guy...a friend of ours here, to get all the colors and all that tech junk right. He gave us a print out of what the colors should be and Omnidisc's end result matches FLAWLESSLY.

The one and only beef I have with Omni is that you had better not make any plans regarding timely release of the product cuz they are SAAAA-Loooow. I suppose the same could be said for lots of places though.

Still sad to hear that they won't budge at all on the mistake. Hmmmm. Could it be that somehow the CDR side of their biz is screwed?



heylow

[loosegravel]

I just did a run at omni and it turned out a little shitty on the cover too. They sent me the proofs but I'm sure that it looked like it did pre-CKMY split. Then I got the CD's and the cover was soooo much darker then planned. I think a better way for them to do proofs, in addition to the tottally useless pdf file of the artwork you just sent them, a beta copy of the CD, full in package, so you can look at a physical picture and say, "what the fuck is with my off white? it looks like a donkey's cock."

[ryan_c]

I think that threads like this are important. And I'll second that customer service is what will make or break a business.

Some horror stories:

Our label sent out a cd to Erika Records for replication. There weren't any problems at all, and we got it back in a little over a week. They called us to keep us informed about it, everything was gravy.

Based on that, another band I was in sent out a 10" to be pressed by Erika. We sent it in probably April, we wanted it back by August for our last show. Even taking summer tour season into account, that is still more than enough time to have records back.

Needless to say that we were pretty pissed when our last show came and went sans records. We called them quite a few times, and they kept giving us the runaround. We didn't even get the tests until the middle of September. To add insult to injury, there were obscenely long gaps (like 15 seconds) between every song on the record. When we called to tell them that we wanted them to make new plates they tried to tell us the problem was with our DAT. Which was bullshit, as I was there when it was made and I'm one hundred percent sure that there were 2 second gaps between each track (which were all labeled with the track start and stop times). As if that wasn't bad enough, they also decided that they were going to EQ all of this crazy-ass low end into it, which turned it into mud. So after we got our tests four months after we should have (and missed our last opportunity to play off the record), they fucked it up and told us that we'd have to pay to have it replated. We were totally fucked. So we got shitty-sounding records with 15-second gaps between songs about six months after we needed them, which was still about two months after we should have gotten them. As such, I'll never use them again, even though our first experience there was a good one. We totally slipped through the cracks, which I understand happens despite everyone's good intentions, but the fact that they basically said "Too bad. Fuck you," is why I'll never go back.

I have a friend who was trying to put out a cd, and first the place lost the artwork, then they fucked up the artwork, then they got everything right except when the cds showed up they were all blank. This process took probably 8 months. They finally admitted that they weren't going to be able to do the job, but I think my friend is still fighting them to get all of his money back.