RonG617

Not sure if anyone has ever used this site before, but I have had some horrible experiences with them. I had a bunch of dvds I wanted to trade in and I liked the fact that if you purchase something and trade in $30 or more you get free postage both ways. The trade in prices weren't great, but with the free postage for some items I was picking up, I figured it was okay. I sent off my stuff after receiving my new items and everything was checked in pretty quickly, but I received notice that several items were scratched and would be thrown away unless I gave them $4 each to get them mailed back. I thought it was strange since all of my stuff is always mint. But I hadn't checked each disc before I sent it, so I just let it go. I did notice that the items that were supposedly scratched and thrown away seemed to go up for sale on their site within the week. Maybe it was a coincidence. It started to really bother me though. I had a few dvds I wanted to get rid of and I would have just given them away, so I placed another order with Spun and when I received the return label, I checked each dvd very carefully to make sure there were not any scratches of any kind. I then took out the outer artwork and put my initials on the back of them. I sent them in (7 dvds) and I got notice that 2 were scratched and not accepted and they would dispose of them if I did not pay to have them returned. I told them to dispose of them if they were unsell able. Within a week I noticed that one of the thrown out items which was not for sale in used condition on their site was suddenly available used. I had a friend of mine order the dvd and when he received it 10 days later we checked inside the cover and found my initials. Too make a long story short, Spun seems to reject a few items each shipment. If you want them back, they make money charging you high shipping to get them back. If you let it go, they end up selling them still. I will never do business with them again.

Cardsfan111

Sounds like you've uncovered their sinister plot. I hadn't used them before but your story is convincing enough for me to avoid them.

inri222

That is some foul shit. I have done business with them twice in the last 7 years. Once they said a CD I sent them was scratched and it was not. They probably had the wrong price on it because once they sent it back to me the buy price all of a sudden dropped on the website.

RonG617

I'm sticking to Secondspin. Always been fair to me.

Cheato

I had them reject a DS game for "damaged artwork." The manual was in absolute perfect condition, and the insert on the case has *slight* water damage near (not on) the UPC. Since I submitted it as part of a trade, and it meant getting free shipping, after they subtracted its $7 value from the order, it was enough to drop my total trade-in value just below the $30 threshold, so they charged me another $11 for the shipping of my original order, and it wound up costing me $18. I was a little angry, but figured I couldn't prove anything unless I got it back. So, I submitted another order during a free shipping sale, and requested my DS game back. It came back, in the same condition I remember it being, along with my new order, and 2 of the PS2 games in the order I received had damaged inserts AND missing manuals. I contacted them about that, and they told me there's no guarantee about receiving manuals. So F*** them. They toss out my trade-in when it suited them best to do so, and they're willing to dump their crap on me. You'd expect that a company that is such sticklers about the quality of their trade-ins would then provide that same quality of product to their customers, right?

It made me believe there was somebody whose job it is to go through small trade-in piles to find ANY justification to get out of paying for that free shipping on the initial order. They probably figure since your order was relatively small, you probably wouldn't be placing another order within the 30-day window to get your stuff back (without paying even MORE for the right to get your own stuff back), so they can "dispose" of it.

I am still trying to decide how low I want to go in order to make them pay for this.

They somehow share the same inventory system as SecondSpin (like, you can search their website using SecondSpin urls that you can just change from "secondspin" to "spun." However, they do NOT share the same prices or inventory (like Wherehouse, SS, and FYE do--although the prices can vary, it's usually only slightly between those stores). Spun does seem to be somehow related to SonyStyle, since recently SonyStyle had an unadvertised sale on PS2/3 games, and their prices *exactly* matched (by that I mean 100% of the on-sale items' prices matched to the penny) the same items' prices at Spun.

RonG617

I contacted the BBB on them, don't know if anything will come of it.

RonG617

Update--I paid the small balance I owed because of the "rejected dvds" after getting threats of collections with fines and interest. Which is probably a lot of bs, but I figured I could possibly get the money back through the BBB. Spun responded to my complaint through the BBB with a picture of one of my dvds sent in. It looked like someone took sandpaper to the bottom of it. I mean it wasn't even subtle. I would never own, let alone try to trade in a dvd that looked like that. I'm just glad that they ruined one of the dvds and can't turn around and sell it now. Also they locked me out of my account so I can't look up order numbers for the BBB. Shady company.

Numanoid

Contact your local news and see if they might be interested in doing a sting. They always seem to love that kind of thing.

DGibFen

Do you still have the e-mails they sent you? Those would have the order numbers in them.

dadaluholla

I have placed a lot of orders with them with no problems, but sometimes they will reject due to "scratching", I usually fire off an angry letter and they have their warehouse manager reinspect the items...and a few days later they are now magically acceptable. I like using them when I sometimes find cheap used items, but they are definitely a pain.

RonG617

Found some of the old emails that hadn't been trashed yet. Sent all the info I had to the BBB. It is really aggravating that they locked me out of my account.

Spun

As a representative of Spun.com, I would like to address RonG617's comments. Additionally, should anyone else like to discuss their own shopping experiences with Spun, I invite you to contact our Customer Service Department directly for resolution.

In 2006 we made a change in our acceptance policy due to customer input. Instead of giving customer's $0.00 for all scratched items, we
decided to give 25% of full sell value for lightly scratched items. The response was very positive as most people thought "Where else can you get cash for scratched items?".

Our Acceptance Standards and Policies are provided throughout our site and in email correspondence. Additionally, our Policies can be found in our Terms of Service. Before each order is placed, the customer is asked to review and acknowledge these terms. Our records show that RonG617 acknowledged our Terms 03/22/2009 12:18PM.

All order confirmations, email correspondence, and our site, state that Free First Class Shipping is offered on all orders in which $30 or more of merchandise is being sold. If the end result of your sell items is lower than $30, First Class shipping costs will apply. We realized that RonG617 intended to sell over $30, so we removed the shipping costs as a complimentary action ($3.97).

We are always more than happy to return scratched or rejected items for free with your next Used order, or for a $4.00 fee to cover the shipping. Since RonG617 disputed the rejection, we offered to remove the return shipping cost as well ($4.00). However there was still an amount owed on the order. RonG617 informed us they would be contacting the BBB rather than settle the amount owed. Since then (8-26-09), RonG617 stated that they would pay the remaining amount owed.

We have already removed a shipping cost of $3.97 and have returned the scratched items at our cost (an additional $4.00) Additionally, we have chosen to ignore the remainder due of $2.57(credit already received for the scratched items). Additionally, we closed the account per customers request.

We have provided pictures of the damaged items to RonG617 since the actual damage has been questioned.

Spun.com has been in business for over 10 years and we take great pride in the services we provide. We have hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers. If you are questioning doing business with Spun.com please come and take a look at our site, view the help section, and check out the testimonials from many of our satisfied customers. We are one of the few places on the Internet where you can still get personal customer service.

RonG617

I have never received the items back. You can keep the one you put the sandpaper to for the picture to the BBB.

RonG617

Why was I locked out of my account?

Cheato

Are you saying you didn't request that?

RonG617

No I didn't. I was enjoying having a wealth of info to submit to the BBB.

Living Dead

Sounds like this company is definitely one to avoid at all costs. I'll be letting all my collector friends know to stay far away.

Thanks OP.

ericmylad

How do you explain this?

I then took out the outer artwork and put my initials on the back of them. I sent them in (7 dvds) and I got notice that 2 were scratched and not accepted and they would dispose of them if I did not pay to have them returned. I told them to dispose of them if they were unsell able. Within a week I noticed that one of the thrown out items which was not for sale in used condition on their site was suddenly available used. I had a friend of mine order the dvd and when he received it 10 days later we checked inside the cover and found my initials.

DGibFen

Well, add my name to the list of people that won't be ordering from Spun anymore. I placed an order for the Beatles box set a week ago - when it was still available to order from their website - and now I'm getting a "backordered" message. I asked them Wednesday why the status had not changed to "shipped" when it was "in progress", and they gave me a cut-and-paste "here's what our policy says" routine. I plan on asking them for all of my credit back.

Now I have to figure out where in the heck I'm going to find one of these sets.

GreenMonkey

I'd recommend wherehouse.com / secondspin instead. We traded in tons of items over the years and have been treated fairly almost all of the time.

Once in a while they'd say something was scratched that wasn't when we shipped it, but they normally shipped them back to us free of charge (even though the site TOS says they don't have too) and we'd swear it wasn't the one we sent it. But out of a couple of hundred discs over the years that was maybe 2-3 times.

Ordering wise, once in a while we received an item we ordered with the wrong CD, or heavily scratched, or something (funny because they do reject discs you send in too scratched).

In any event the CS was always good about sending out a new title and not even making us return the wrong/damaged item.

Norm de Plume

I bought CDs from Spun once, twice, or thrice a few years ago. I have never sold Spun anything, so I can't comment on whether it's a ripoff. I remember finding the quality control overall not as good as that of SecondSpin, so I haven't gone back (plus, nothing I want is ever in stock).

Even if I buy a CD used, at the prices places like Spun and SecondSpin are now charging (usually $5, $6, $7, and up), I expect the merchandise to be in mint or near-mint condition. No scratches or scuffs on the CD, and an undamaged booklet and back cover. I don't care about the plastic cases; those can be replaced at very little cost.
These companies should not accept dirty, scratched crap from knuckle-dragging, beflipflopped slobs and then resell it to people like me, who take care of their things.

Having made the quality distinction between Spun and SecondSpin, I must say that my last order from SecondSpin, last summer, was a great disappointment, and I haven't ordered a used CD from anyone since. The order consisted of, among other things, several CDs of The Samples, almost all of which were scuffed fairly badly (though all were playable). To boot, almost all of the albums were digipaks (The Samples being environmentalists), and the covers looked like they had been trampled on by a herd of buffalos.
Merchants: Don't accept used digipaks unless the packaging is clean and lacking dog-ears, tears, and excessively loose folds. Consumers: Be wary of buying used digipaks.

Bottom line: These used-CD companies need to tighten up on the quality control. I will not pay good money for someone's ripped-up throwaways. "Used" shouldn't be equated with "abused". Then I'd rather spend a few extra bucks and get the item new.

pilot

spun.com, wherehouse.com, secondspin.com are all owned by the same parent company, TWEC (Trans World Entertainment), who also own FYE and Suncoast.

In theory, if Spun is going to screw you, wherehouse and secondspin could also do the same thing.

Cheato

Are you sure that's true?

Wherehouse, SecondSpin, and FYE all share the same inventory for used products. And their prices are approximately the same: a few items differ by a few dollars here or there, SS puts more things on sale that the others, and FYE actually prices most things $1 less (maybe things below about $20).

However, Spun has a completely separate inventory, with completely different prices. I think they might have some kind of connection to SonyStyle because SonyStyle had a sale a while back, and all their prices *exactly* matched Spun's on PS2 and PS3 games. Maybe they are getting their product from the same source.

RonG617

That's funny! I'm still waiting for the dvds they claim they mailed back.

pilot

Yes it's true. Spun's inventory might be seperate, but it's the same company. If you look up all three domains (spun.com, wherehouse.com, secondspin.com), they're all registered to

Wherehoue and SecondSpin ship from Carson, CA. Spun is probably different. Does stuff from them ship from IL?