Interesting iTMS bug -- songs from the wrong album mixed in
Last night, I bought some music from iTMS, including the album "Parts of the Process" by Morcheeba. I use the shopping cart mode of iTunes, not one-click, and bought this album buy clicking the "Add Album" button -- I did not try to purchase anything on this album a song at a time.
"Parts of the Process" has 18 tracks, and when I bought the contents of my shopping cart, I definitely got 18 tracks by Morcheeba. The problem was, only 14 of those tracks were from the right album, with four tracks from a different Morcheeba album making up the difference.
I've purchased at least a dozen albums from iTMS so far, and I've never seen a problem like this. It's probably just an error in the set up of some database.
I wrote to iTMS customer service last night and I'm curious to see how Apple handles this complaint. I've had good experiences with iTMS so far, so it will be interesting to see how Apple deals with things going wrong.
I'm hoping that first, they'll make sure the set-up for this album is fixed so that I don't have to worry about twice receiving the wrong music. Then I'd like to see them do something either like credit my account $3.96 so that I can buy the four missing tracks individually, or find some other way to deliver the missing music to me for free.
One more thing -- filling in the customer service form on Apple's web site is a bit confusing. The form asks for a "Web Order Number", but the e-mail receipts from iTMS have an "Invoice Number" and a "Sales Number", both different, both apparently unique to each individual sale, and neither cleary the number corresponding to a "Web Order Number".
I ended having to file my complaint twice, once using each number, just to make sure the complaint would be handled correctly.
When you submit a report you have to select from a pop-up menu what type of problem you're reporting. Of course, like so many other such web forms I've seen before, the very range of choices denies the possibility of the vendor having made a mistake that needs to be corrected. I just had to choose the closest ill-matched category and let my words spell out the real issue.
"Parts of the Process" has 18 tracks, and when I bought the contents of my shopping cart, I definitely got 18 tracks by Morcheeba. The problem was, only 14 of those tracks were from the right album, with four tracks from a different Morcheeba album making up the difference.
I've purchased at least a dozen albums from iTMS so far, and I've never seen a problem like this. It's probably just an error in the set up of some database.
I wrote to iTMS customer service last night and I'm curious to see how Apple handles this complaint. I've had good experiences with iTMS so far, so it will be interesting to see how Apple deals with things going wrong.
I'm hoping that first, they'll make sure the set-up for this album is fixed so that I don't have to worry about twice receiving the wrong music. Then I'd like to see them do something either like credit my account $3.96 so that I can buy the four missing tracks individually, or find some other way to deliver the missing music to me for free.
One more thing -- filling in the customer service form on Apple's web site is a bit confusing. The form asks for a "Web Order Number", but the e-mail receipts from iTMS have an "Invoice Number" and a "Sales Number", both different, both apparently unique to each individual sale, and neither cleary the number corresponding to a "Web Order Number".
I ended having to file my complaint twice, once using each number, just to make sure the complaint would be handled correctly.
When you submit a report you have to select from a pop-up menu what type of problem you're reporting. Of course, like so many other such web forms I've seen before, the very range of choices denies the possibility of the vendor having made a mistake that needs to be corrected. I just had to choose the closest ill-matched category and let my words spell out the real issue.
Comments
Originally posted by shetline
Last night, I bought some music from iTMS, including the album "Parts of the Process" by Morcheeba. I use the shopping cart mode of iTunes, not one-click, and bought this album buy clicking the "Add Album" button -- I did not try to purchase anything on this album a song at a time.
"Parts of the Process" has 18 tracks, and when I bought the contents of my shopping cart, I definitely got 18 tracks by Morcheeba. The problem was, only 14 of those tracks were from the right album, with four tracks from a different Morcheeba album making up the difference.
Actually, Part of the Process is a best of album. On compilations, the iTunes store will often label them according to the original albums they were on, rather than the compilation. My guess is that is what you are seeing--the right tracks, just labled from the original album. You could check the track list at Amazon to see if this is the case.
I think they must do this in order to save server space by not saving multiple copies of the same files on the hard drives.
Originally posted by D.J. Adequate
Actually, Part of the Process is a best of album. On compilations, the iTunes store will often label them according to the original albums they were on, rather than the compilation. My guess is that is what you are seeing--the right tracks, just labled from the original album. You could check the track list at Amazon to see if this is the case.
I think they must do this in order to save server space by not saving multiple copies of the same files on the hard drives.
You've hit the nail on the head. Thanks!
All I'd noticed was missing track numbers, and the wrong album name on a few songs. It hadn't occurred to me to check the song names.
Still, if Apple wants to save storage space, this isn't they way to do it. It makes for a confusing mess if you're intending to play the album back in the intended order, or burn as a CD with the proper track ordering.
I'm going to edit the song info and put it all back together as being from the same album with the right track numbers.
Originally posted by shetline
You've hit the nail on the head. Thanks!
All I'd noticed was missing track numbers, and the wrong album name on a few songs. It hadn't occurred to me to check the song names.
Still, if Apple wants to save storage space, this isn't they way to do it. It makes for a confusing mess if you're intending to play the album back in the intended order, or burn as a CD with the proper track ordering.
I'm going to edit the song info and put it all back together as being from the same album with the right track numbers.
No problem. I just happen to love Morcheeba, and also to have been bit by this oddness on the iTunes store. Even stranger, I've had at least one track from an album identified as being from a movie soundtrack it appeared on.
You think they could at least be consistent in identifying tracks by their primary album.
Since I later found out, after submitting my initial complaint, that I really had received all of the music I'd purchased (just delivered in a somewhat confusing way, using the album title and track numbers from a different album for four songs common between two albums), I told them that the refund wasn't necessary.
I'd like most of all for the iTunes Music Store to have worked perfectly without any confusing song labeling in the first place... but glitches are to be expected, especially in a new service like this, and not only did this turn out to be a minor problem, but Apple has also shown that they're putting quality into their customer service as well as into the technical product.
Originally posted by shetline
I'd like most of all for the iTunes Music Store to have worked perfectly without any confusing song labeling in the first place... but glitches are to be expected, especially in a new service like this, and not only did this turn out to be a minor problem, but Apple has also shown that they're putting quality into their customer service as well as into the technical product.
Wow, you get several bonus points for the honesty of turning down the refund. Not many people would do that, even if it was their error.
Considering the bulk of files Apple had to move around to get the iTunes store up and running, it's amazing there aren't worse problems. I recently signed up for eMusic--a really good subscription service for indie lables--and while I'm generally happy I have hit a bunch of mis-compressed songs. Lot's more than on the Apple service. So I'm willing to be patient.