Grateful Dead

Sydney - My copy, delivered free of extra charges, was diverted from the Exeter depot today. So they can do it! If I was you I'd be hassling them. Mine was stuck in the system until yesterday when I sent them another email quoting Dr Rhino's email. That seems to have done the trick for me.

Up here in East Yorkshire l have had 3 visits from Ups asking for the fees to be paid and it has now gone on hold in their warehouse contacted them by email and got reply saying sender had not paid the import fees
Dr rhino several times has told me to refuse to pay them and his last email was to request a replacement if not delivered by end of next week
So still not resolved!!
What a fiasco

Charly,
I've just spent nearly an hour on the phone to UPS, apparently the email from Dr Rhino just refers to US delivery, they have still only paid for depot to US port of exit. You have to ask UPS billing to revert the UK delivery bill to Rhino for anything further to move, I've been promised delivery tomorrow with nil to pay....I wait with baited breath.

& if any of you are waiting for the Woodstock set as well, have a careful check because it looks like they've screwed up the invoicing for that too.
Can't get any reply from anyone at Rhino or Dead.net about it, but UPS US say mine has been returned to sender.

I'm not sure contacting UPS makes any difference. I only made one phone call to them about two weeks ago-a call that didn't really go anywhere. They told me conclusively that it wouldn't be delivered until they got paid. Apart form the odd email to Dr Rhino, I didn't do anything much after that-and then hey presto-it arrived to "paid" written on it.
So my understanding is that until Dr Rhino contacts UPS, and pays up on behalf of Deadnet, then nothing will be delivered.
That's my take on it, anyway. It doesn't make sense why some are being delivered free of charge and some are not, though.

Finally got a mail from UPS this morning after numerous fruitless phone calls to Customer Service. The relevant part of the mail is as follows:

"I have checked our tracking record and it shows that an amount of 81,88 EUR is still due on your package. I recommend that you contact the shipper, WEA D2C DISTRIBUTION so that they could liaise with their local UPS."

Naturally I will forward the mail to Dr. Rhino, but I suspect his efforts to sort this out started with contacting the local UPS. Last monday, I received a mail from Dr. Rhino which included the following:

"I am very sorry to hear that UPS is still attempting to charge you a delivery fee.
I am unable to access any further information on your UPS shipment.
If UPS continues to attempt delivery & require a fee for delivery, please refuse the shipment."

Curious to know what the next moves will be.

I have spent so much (wasted) time calling UPS Customer Service. So much that I received a bill today from my internet phone provider for 20.46 EUR, all of which went on calling UPS Customer Service.

Thanks Billn
Will do as you suggest
Seems stupid asking DRRhino to send a replacement in two weeks time when there is already my original package stuck in a warehouse in Leeds!

Hot Off the Press from a wet & rainy North Yorkshire. After nothing since my initial refusal to pay the fee last Friday, UPS have just delivered my copy of DP31 at the 2nd attempt - no fee requested. Relief for me & I thought some of you might be interested. Hopefully everyone will get a similar result before too long.

... any onelse a fan of ‘ go to nuassau May 15th May 16th 1980
Another Primo release and audio mix / mastering! I love it! Have a grateful day everyone, god bless 🙏❤️😎
Have

Thanks for the prompt IVANKRAL,
just spent 20mins on their website, and I am none the wiser, apparently, they don't know where it is, despite the website showing it scanned this morning in Exeter.
I am loathed to order the new Boxset or anything else at the moment, there is just too much grief involved.
Apologies to everyone here who has got the Pick and are hopefully enjoying it, I don't mean to put a negative light on this release, I am normally a positive person. Back to all my great Grateful Dead releases before DaP31.

Good to hear from you LMG. Always loved this 1980 release. The sound quality is really good, much better fidelity than the RT May 80 Cornell/Penn State release.
Would love to see more 80 released!

Sydney, if it is any consolation my tracking yesterday said it had been scanned and was in transit (no delivery date.) The UPS guy turned up unexpectedly mid afternoon. Hang on in there, I am sure you will get it. I'm still waiting for my replacement copy of DaP30 which apparently went missing all those months ago.

I get the creeps

Mo' money, hippie! MO'!!!

On leave this week: today in Lowestoft is wet, but it wasn't this morning when we took the grandchildren to the beach to 'run off some steam' as they say. I should say the steam was the grandchildren's, not ours!

On our return, what should be laying on the doormat but my DaP31, which like others have reported looks like it's been around the world four times, and now has a simple white sticker over the 'charge sticker' on which somebody has written "PAID B 1280337", whatever the last bit means. It was delivered at 11.43am, so an e-mail subsequently received stated, but with no previous indication from either UPS or Dr Rhino that my case had been resolved. ...And I say my case because as I've intimated before, I think this is how they are all being resolved, rather than on a wholesale basis. If it was being resolved on a wholesale basis, I would have received my package at the same time as DAVEROCK, who sounds as though he lives not much more than a mile away from me, and who presumably has had the same UPS van and driver on his case.

In the end, I sent both parties - UPS and Dr Rhino - my latest e-mails from the other, so that UPS had an e-mail from Dr Rhino regarding their efforts to pay the 'bill', and Dr Rhino had a UPS tracking number to use when contacting the latter.

So for others less fortunate thus far, I don't think you can be passive in this situation and think it's going to work out. At the very least, you are going to have to give Dr Rhino a tracking number relating to your package so he can contact UPS accordingly to pay the bill, and contact UPS separately to explain what's going on. I'm going to send an e-mail of thanks to Yarilie B at UPS, who has responded to each of my increasingly frustrated e-mails, not always with the answer I wanted, but at least with a desire to resolve the issue. I guess with millions of packages in their system the problems of a few hundred non-US Dead subscribers is small fry, but it got sorted in the end. For Dr Rhino, I also give thanks, but on the basis that it looks as though the problem started at that end, I worry about future deliveries, including the big Woodstock thing in respect of which I've still heard nothing following the e-mail saying the release date had been delayed to 09.08. Others have clearly received their copies - so other forums suggest - but as I say, I've heard not a thing since 29.07.

I should add that aside from the DaP31 jiffybag being careworn, the enclosed CD digipack and booklet had been similarly buffeted about a bit. Numbered edition for those who are interested (14949 of 20000). I'm playing it as I type this, and it sounds o.k. to me, although I always think Brent's 'rinky dink' electric piano thing - whatever it was - dates the sound, and I've never liked it. Better when he's playing the B3!

I really think that now is the time to consider a download option for Dave’s Picks. How difficult could it be? Add some snazzy features, some printable labels and cover art and a PDF of the booklet and you’d get a product not far removed from a CD package. Sure, I’d much rather have the CD, but if it means I could avoid the hassle we’ve all had this side of the pond, I’m in! It’d also solve the perennial problem of the picks being sold out for those unable to buy a subscription.

Very good question Frank Parry, how difficult could it be?

How difficult could it be to produce a triple cd in a digipack case, place it in secure, fully protective packaging and mail it, so that purchasers located on other continents could receive it reasonably promptly without having to pay a highly inflated charge for a service, namely delivery, that they’ve already paid for? Not very, I would have thought.

Having been collected by UPS last Friday, as of this afternoon my Dave’s Picks 31 subscription is once again sitting at my UPS collection point, no more than 150 yards up the road, waiting for collection, provided that I pay the required fee to release it. I feel I’ve been pretty patient for nearly three weeks now, but the reality is that this is a complete shambles that seems to be being dealt with in an equally shambolic fashion.

I’ve lost count of what I’ve spent at Dead.net over the last 20+ years, but it must run into several thousand pounds. Yet right now It feels as though they’re more interested in getting the next £150 out of me than they are in supplying what I paid for last December.

How difficult could it be? Seemingly more difficult than anyone could reasonably imagine!

UPS have just sent me an update on my DP31 parcel.

‘The package was abandoned by both the receiver and sender. It will be disposed of or sent to UPS lost and found.’

At least it’s carbon imprint will not get any worse with yet another Atlantic crossing. However my new parcel will have to fly once more.
Rhino the environmental friendly company !

So sorry Days Between and Smyler - let’s hope you get some progress real soon. I likewise must have spent a thousand or more with all the Dicks and Dave’s Picks, Road Trips, most of the boxes and much else besides, but am worried about the way things are going. I’ll wait to see what happens with DP32 and the new box set before committing for next year.

50 years ago, Grateful Dead play Woodstock
39 years ago, Grateful Dead play Mississippi River Festival
People were groovy, it rained bunches, there was mud.

So after much grumping I finally spoke to someone at UPS billing, rather than customer service, and they finally accepted the Rhino email acknowledging payment. UPS say the only way they can resolve it is by individuals contacting billing & asking them to revert the invoice to Rhino, they will then flag the package as invoice paid & deliver it.
So I was meant to get delivery yesterday, except they sent it to the pick up point, not my address & the electronic system still shows it as invoice outstanding, so the pick up point guy refused to take delivery. It is now back at the UPS depot & after a further 2 phone calls I'm told its going to my home address on Monday...

Kafka couldn't have done it better.

Now that's a word we all need to bring back.
I love this word, groovy.

Everything's groovy, baby.

HappY Friday DeadFreaks
Sixtus

DaP31 arrived today while I was at work and the UPS delivery man asked my wife for an £80 delivery charge (an increase of £7 in a couple of weeks). She told UPS man that she wasn't paying, and the delivery man went back to the van with my Pick and made a phone call, 5 minutes later he returned to the front door with my pick and said it's yours if you sign for it, the costs have been covered. Hopefully, everyone else on this board and who have been waiting has got theirs today, or very soon.
Looking forward to listening to this after my weekend work commitments. Speaking of musical mud anniversaries, there is outdoor weekend music show Beautiful Days a few miles up the road from me, it has been raining here all day I imagine there will be several mudslides (of the fun type) I remember the mudslides on the Woodstock movie with lots of clanking of pots and pans.
PS, for the anoraks out there my number was 15305.

Sad to hear things are still not sorted for everybody. My DP31 arrived on Tuesday, while I was on a short MTB break in the Peak District. But it only arrived after I e-mailed some senior UPS staff to get things moving, as I was finding finding the rather unhelpful UK/Irl UPS attitude stressing me out. I have now loaded it onto my phone so I can listen on the move.

My fears for this one were completely unfounded. Despite various messages on other forums suggesting a postal '**ck up' not dissimilar to what happened with DaP31, the 'Russian Faberge Egg' arrived safely yesterday in my absence. After peeling away two outer layers of packaging, there was a lovely, branded inner cardboard box containing an even lovelier box set itself. So, if you're a UK buyer, this message is simply to suggest that things may a bit easier with this one... .
....and whilst you're waiting, listen to the whole thing on the WXPN, played in real time. Country Joe and the Fish are due 'on stage' at about 11.30pm BST, followed by Ten Years After, The Band, Johnny Winter, etc. And between sets, while we're waiting for the stage guys to set up for the next set, fifty years ago, much 'groovy' - if I can use that word - other music from 1969. As I type, Pharoah Sanders, "The Creator has a Masterplan": must get this LP out again!

Very happy yours has arrived, gives me a little faith, as after 4 e-mails & a phone call to customer support at Dead net, I'm at this point:
IMPORTANT UPDATE REGARDING YOUR ORDER
We do not currently have an exact estimate as to when your order will ship.
Until you receive your shipping confirmation email, we will not have any further updates on the status of your order.
If you decide that you would prefer to cancel your order, please let us know and we will put in a request with our warehouse to do so.
We have not forgotten about you or your order, however, we have been advised that inventory is still being checked in to our new warehouse.
Nevertheless, we have been advised that orders are in fact shipping out and that your order will be shipped as soon as possible.
We do understand how frustrating this is for you and we greatly appreciate your patience thus far.
If you would rather wait for your order to ship, you will receive a shipping confirmation email as soon as your order is processed.
We again apologize for the delay and inconvenience.
Thank you for your continued patience.

And still waiting for DaP31

What a long strange trip my battered package has been on but at the fifth visit to my front door and without so much as a waft of a payment card machine my DP31 has finally been pushed through my letter box!
Hope everyone else gets sorted too as I had given up despite multiple emails to both sender and UPS
The music is playing now and is well worth the wait.
Just hope they get it right for the next batch.

Thanks to BillN for the advice to speak to UPS's billing department instead of customer services, which was proving to be pretty useless.

This worked immediately when I got through to the right department - and once that department had then reverted the invoice payment responsibility to Rhino, it explained the situation to the tracking department, then put me through to the tracking department, which was very responsive and actually made the effort to telephone me back several times with each development in unlocking delivery. So after two weeks of extreme frustration, Dave's Picks 31 has finally made it through to me with no more demands for £73.92.

I initially phoned 0345 1610016 (the contact number on the UK billing webpage). This wasn't the right billing number, but the person there immediately knew about the problem with these DP31 shipments, and put me through to the right number, from where resolution was achieved.

in my mailbox. UPS informed me two weeks ago that the package was returned to Rhino - according to tracking info, it never even made it out of the States. I've sent a couple emails to Rhino since then, but no response. Apparently Rhino has my package, so it's totally their responsibility at this point. And I'm in Canada - never had to pay import taxes or anything on a previous Dave's. This is getting absurd.

I'm an American in China. I'm relatively new to the Dead scene (only past 2 years or so), last year I wanted to show my support for the Dead's legacy and bought the Dave's Picks Subscription.

It's been an absolute nightmare.

#29 never showed up. At all. I've had 10 email exchanges and multiple calls with dead.net and the WMG people. They always say it's on the way.

#30 oddly showed up without incident 7 days after I got the email that said it was shipped

#31..... on top of the UPS issues everyone is facing (and try explaining this whole subscription thing 99.99 vs 24.99 to Chinese Customs bureaucrats)... right after #30 showed up I tried changing my address MULTIPLE times through the appropriate channels. All to no avail. As of right now, my #31 disc is sitting at a UPS collection point in the city I've newly moved to ... but they say they can only ship it onward to the one I was at previously (mind you I've been trying to change this shipping address since at least April or May).

For an organization that's been around as long as they have - I am astounded at the lack of professionalism displayed by dead.net

It's hard not to see your points, ChinaMatt. Ouch.. and missing #29, double ouch. Ultimately these things end up with Dr. Rhino.. email him or PM MaryE here. One way or another.. you have to get your hands on #29. Don't give up.

... I havebrand new copy’s of Daves Picks #’s 2627,28,29,30,31 ifanyone is lookingfoe or in need, please just let me know, I hope I can help anyone in need. 🙏❤️💀

That is a huge bummer. This is really my first major problem with them - apart from some stupid UPS delays for PNW - so I can't complain too much. Since you're newer, and if you aren't already familiar, you may want to check out nugs.net. You can download older releases - which would help with the hassle of mailing and customs. Doesn't help with Dave's releases, but could at least find a few key Dick's that you may be missing out on.

Mine finally flopped through my door yesterday too. A long strange trip!

I received a reply to my mail to UPS. This mail, the second I have received, reiterated what the first had said, namely that the sender has to contact their local UPS. I imagine this is the first thing Rhino did but I don't know for sure. Meanwhile the UPS tracking site still shows a freight charge of €81.88 to pay. It says that my packet is still at the local UPS Access Point and will be there until August 19. That is rather contradictory as the 19th is now part of history. Two more days of insction and I can mail Rhino and ask them to send me a replacement, to be shipped by DHL.

Hi Simonrob,
same here for me in the northern part of Germany.
I will wait till next Friday and then contact Dr. Rhino for
a replacement.
Gar-see-ya
JJ

I have had so many problems with Rhino in the last few weeks from my credit card compromised, Dave’s Picks Vol. 31 subscription not shipping(still don’t have it in the USA), to signature required for a T-shirt order. I was starting to think that all the problems, not just mine, were due to a computer hack. You never know.

, believe thenext Pick in the series will be another year not yet represented in the Daves Picks collection! 🙏❤️😎

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for the welcoming support. I always knew the community here would be kind to new comers.

I'm at the point where I've gotten the address changed (had to call UPS in the USA). Now, I just need to deal with the Customs bill issue.

Marye - I'll PM you shortly.

Thanks Everyone!
China-Matt
P.S. Any Heads in China that want to get together, please PM me!

Lets hope its 1967 or 1968 then !

I almost posted the exact same thing!

... it’s not 1967, I would love for it to be from 1967 and 1968 as well , more Pigpen please! 🙏❤️🤠

...a non- circulating performance & source ! 😏
If I remember correctly Dave hinted at it in one of his many sea side chats. 😉
Also no filler material for 32

Must be 1966 !

Alvarhanso-great minds think alike, as they say!

I am completely confused. Which is ok..

Simonrob, try talking direct to UPS billing rather than email/customer services, seems to have worked for a few of us...

I have talked to both UPS customer service and billing. Customer service were hopeless, but billing did seem to know exactly what I was talking about. I have also had an exchange of mails wherein it was obvious that they did know what I was talking about and who the sender was. Their claim was that Warners/Rhino should contact their local UPS office and sort it out. I passed these mails on to Rhino, but all to no avail. I have heard nothing back from Rhino recently and the UPS website doesn't appear to have changed in the last 12 days. Today (23rd) is the day when I can mail Rhino and ask them to send me a replacement, which I will do as soon as I get home from work.

To date I’ve had no UPs demands or attempted delivery’s and only an e.mail from dead net to say that my copy was on the way . They might as well hang on to it and double it up with no 32 🙀🤯 . As I’m not buying the giants box I was going to treat myself to the July 78 box but at this rate I’ll get it in time for it’s 50th anniversary .

Surely time for a European delivery depot .

The upside down photo reminds me of Passenger- “upside out , inside down!”...

Am still waiting in the southwest for Dave’s 31, and I’ve subscribed since the 1st year.
If that’s any consolation for others who are waiting or getting some kind of CD tariffs n Europe. I hear in a couple weeks now for delivery of 31.
May there be order , efficiency , and serenity at the mysterious warehouse somewhere in Illinois .