Vinyl Me, Please appears to enter liquidation amid accusations of ignoring customers, unfulfilled orders

Vinyl Me, Please (VMP) appears to have entered liquidation as reports of the company ignoring customers and not fulfilling paid-for orders pile up. 

A new report by the Denver Post details several customers who’ve filed complaints against the Denver-based vinyl record subscription service for allegedly not sending out paid orders, ignoring inquires and requests for refunds. Users have noted a general silence from the company’s HQ as the business has gone through major changes such as layoffs, lawsuits and dropping its signature record-of-the-month club format, this year.

One Nashville-based subscriber Stewart Eastham told the Denver Post he has been after refunds on more than $1,000 in missing pre-orders and membership fees. “I’ve been a VMP member since 2014, so it’s been especially disheartening to see what they’ve become after supporting them for so long,” he said. “It seems VMP has stopped shipping records entirely and they’re still charging for memberships that promise new releases… There has been zero communication and no response from customer support for over a month now.”

Since the Denver Post story ran earlier this week, a Reddit user shared a notice, dated 9th April, from the agent of VMP’s apparent liquidation company Vinyl Liquidation, LLC advising filers of claims against the company to seek and submit a proof of claim in order to be possibly refunded.  Another Redditor shared a screenshot of an email from VMP acknowledging and apologising for “ongoing service hiccups” amidst a “restructuring process”, all while promoting its May record selection process and promising missing April orders will be sent alongside the new month’s orders. 

Another “standard promo” email recommending records to one Reddit user appears to have been signed off by a staff member of Vinyl Liquidation LLC. 

Scanning through Instagram comments from about a month ago brings up numerous instances of subscribers asking where their outstanding orders are, or trying to get a reply via another platform. One comment reads: “Do you answer your emails? I’ve been waiting over a year for an order and as of yesterday it was due. I emailed twice and no reply.” Another wrote: “So I see I’m not alone. I purchased something from their test pressings & dings & dents in February and have got no response in months.” 

Launched in 2012, VMP membership subscriptions started at $44 per month and it became known for its monthly record club. VMP’s pressing plant, once a sign of the company’s success in 2022, was the centre of a lawsuit that likely contributed to its current collapse. Then-CEO Cameron Schaefer and then-CFO Adam Block were fired after being accused of going “to great lengths to cover up their use of [more than $200,000 in] company funds to build a vinyl pressing plant in the River North Art District, including non-disclosure agreements and a codename for the project”, Business Den reported in October 2024. 

Vinyl Me, Please has been contacted by DJ Mag for comment. We will update this story as it develops.