Freak Emporium

**jahshabby** · 06-12-2007, 02:27 PM

So I placed an order two weeks ago for about £80 or so. Got in there fairly early and everything. Made sure I ordered the Food LP - on Hugh's 'work in progress' recommendation.

Then nothing.

Sent an email, left a message, sent another email, left another message.

Still nothing. No contact at all.

Now, no money's gone out of my account or anything, but the order's obviously gone moobs up and the records are no longer listed.

Now the phone number's no longer recognised.

Anyone else had the same thing? Or have I just been unlucky.

It's not the end of the world, I know, but I can't help feeling slightly gutted. Them's was my Christmas pressie to myself.

**Willy-Fogg** · 06-12-2007, 02:41 PM

I am similarly frustrated with this shop. I ordered three records, two I don't have and want and the Mighty Baby LP, which I do have but thought I'd get for a mate as it was cheap and didn't add much to the P&P. A couple of days later I get an email saying that the Mighty Baby has been shipped and they've sold out of the other two. Great. It would have been nice if they could have checked. I would have actually added a couple of other LPs that they did have in stock instead.

I've ordered from them in the past and it's always been beautiful. Their recent joke of a 50-60% sale and this order have both hacked me right off though.

Equally I've had no response to my recent email yet I have received mailings about the continuing 'sale' and something about a new LP.

Amateurish.

WF

**Brother Logic** · 06-12-2007, 02:46 PM

This happened to me once - apparently they got an "empty order" or something and I had to reorder. This happened after I tried to amend an existing order. I emailed them after it never showed up and got a reply pretty swiftly.

**alanmck** · 06-12-2007, 02:49 PM

hugh? any insight?

**Si Cheeba** · 06-12-2007, 03:00 PM

bought a bunch of stuff in one go - a few months back. I got one of the Lps (out of about 10 or so) pretty quickly - but then the rest of the order was held up because of waiting for just one piece on order seemingly (even though I requested to despatch all "in-stock" items).

They did come through in the end (quite a few weeks later...) but it all seemed a bit arse about face in the mail order department - which is quite a problem for an online vendor.

I got replies to emails in the end but the delivery responsibilty and ordering system seemed to be out of the hands of the person replying - which was pretty pointless!

**BlackRegent** · 06-12-2007, 03:06 PM

Subject to an address mix up in the early days of my purchasing, I have had nothing but satisfactory experiences, including some bulk fire sale buys.

I did put the New Tweedy Brothers reissue on pre-order which has never appeared (despite the slated release date expiring) but I assumed this was a problem with its production. Maybe not

**emperor tomato ketchup** · 06-12-2007, 03:27 PM

I ordered some stuff, was told they only had half and got a box with invoice for said hafl but short a few discs. No reply to email inquiry - though its only been 3 days so time for them to recover.

**dj bongoboy** · 06-12-2007, 04:02 PM

I bought a load of stuff from them last week(?) after finding out about the sale and everything arrived OK the other day.

Not really had problems with them in the past, other than the fact that they sometimes inform me of incoming releases which they never actually seem to get in stock (Ananda Shankar's "2001" being a recent example).

Robbie

**vinylism** · 06-12-2007, 04:14 PM

my first experience of them was through their recent sale too - no hiccups, although only had a 1 in 3 hit rate as most items were sold, apparently. even though everything was listed as 'in stock' (even after i received the order, weirdly).

still, of what i received, they were good!

**purple_pill67** · 06-12-2007, 10:02 PM

heres what there site says this eve

A MESSAGE FROM THE FREAK EMPORIUM

Owing to the UK Governments continued policy of allowing large mail order retailers to avoid Value Added Tax (VAT) - and significantly reduce their prices by locating to the Channel Islands - The Freak Emporium has become one of the many mainland UK independent retailers and mail order operations that, despite protests to a blindly indifferent HM Revenue and Customs, has had to continue charging VAT and become uncompetitive. Such an uncontrolled and unfair advantage at a time when traditional music formats are already struggling against other forms of entertainment has made it impossible to remain profitable and stay in business. It is with great sadness therefore that we announce the closure of The Freak Emporium.

For sixteen years The Freak Emporium was at the cutting edge of record collecting. We were offering full-on classic Psychedelia, Punk Rock, Kraut Rock, Soul, Tropicalia, Private Pressings, Neo-Psych, Garage Punk, Easy Listening, Exotica, Acid Folk and more, long before these genres were being used to promote cars and mobile phones. Staffed entirely by enthusiasts The Emporium was always a crazy whirl of enterprise and devotion to the nether regions of popular music. If you couldn't find an album anywhere else it was likely that we had it. If you wanted vinyl, then we loved vinyl. If you wanted to speak to someone and just talk music then we'd be happy to oblige. If nobody else was mad enough to sell a particular record, then we would. Quite simply we were in love with the music.

Part of a network of similar retailers The Emporium was inspired by the legendary Funhouse Records of Margate Kent, who in the 1980s single-handedly discovered most of the classic, rare albums of the psychedelic, garage, folk rock and progressive genres. In 1995 the Freak Emporium became one of the earliest specialist music retailers on the internet. Around the same time the Delerium Records label grew as a logical extension of The Freak Emporium, yet even with the success of the label's biggest band Porcupine Tree (who in their early years relied heavily on The Emporium's large and international network of contacts) the Delerium label was only one small part of a huge and diverse range of music espoused by The Freak Emporium. At its peak the site was a highly sophisticated treasure trove listing 30,000 products from all over the world classified by over 120 genres of music regularly updating subscribers with new release information. Even if you didn't buy from us The Freak Emporium was an invaluable information resource for collectors of obscure music.

We have made many friends along the way and had a wild and crazy time but eventually the pressures of corporate business and the stupidity of the British Government has led to the untimely demise of the business.

We would like to thank all of our many customers who have stuck with us over the years. We hope that you are still enjoying your purchases and that you continue to be able to find the music that you love. We are sorry that we have been unable to continue providing you with the service you require and we hope that you find it elsewhere.

Best wishes

The Freak Emporium Crew

R.I.P. THE FREAK EMPORIUM 1991 - 2007

**Sie-Fly** · 06-12-2007, 10:05 PM

FUCKING TRULY DEVASTATINGS NEWS...but didn't someone say they were just revamping the site

**purple_pill67** · 06-12-2007, 10:08 PM

yeah! hadnt bought off them (or anyone for that matter) for a while cos ive been skint (booties only for me

)but its a real shame.
i found there postage costs seemed abit steep.....

**dj bongoboy** · 06-12-2007, 10:47 PM

I feel really rather saddened by that news...

Robbie

**Willy-Fogg** · 06-12-2007, 11:20 PM

Well, I take back all that I said earlier now that I realise that they've obviously had slightly bigger concerns than my order.

Apologies

WF

**antwhiplash2** · 07-12-2007, 09:36 AM

sad news indeed.
Ant.

**jahshabby** · 07-12-2007, 11:37 AM

Well don't I feel a cock!

Very sad news. I wish everyone involved all the best with any future ventures.

Still wish I had my records though...

**jakartajive** · 07-12-2007, 03:05 PM

Had been sworn to secrecy on this one by Richard, I'm afraid, or would've spilled the beans on it earlier. It's a real shame, and there'll be no revamp. FE is gone for good, kids, which is awful, really. Though I do know they'd been getting fed up with it the last few years and Richard's really involved in this court case at the moment, so there you go.

You do still need that FOOD LP in your life, though, Mr. Shabby!!

**jakartajive** · 10-11-2011, 11:03 PM

Some of you may know - or have had contact over the years with - Richard Allen, he of Freakbeat and Freak Emporium fame.

Well, this week - after several years of full-on legal battling - he helped bring about a change in the law making it easier for small companies to hold their own against far bigger fish.

Big up Brother Richard.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15657461

**Xann** · 11-11-2011, 12:37 AM

Had a few dealings with Richard in the early 90s

His boundless enthusiasm for the bands on his roster had to be seen to be appreciated.

Lovely guy, pleased for him.

**Hayes** · 11-11-2011, 07:29 AM

An impressive achievement, respect is due!

**jahshabby** · 11-11-2011, 10:32 AM

Good lad!

**MPFlapp** · 11-11-2011, 11:36 AM

Fantastic site the Freak Emporium was...

Always like to see the wee guys remain in Business... in this case if not for themselves for someone else

**Filthy Rich** · 13-12-2011, 10:25 AM

Gets a mention in Private Eye this week

There was one piece of good news in the Chancellor's autumn statement when George Osbourne belatedly cracked down on laws that allowed big players like Tesco, Amazon and Play.com to avoid paying VAT.
Under the scam, detailed in Eye 1267, big retailers import low-value goods like cds from the Channel Islands (sometimes having sent them there from the mainland in the first place) in order to dodge the tax. The ruse has put hundreds of smaller companies out of business and cost the tax payer hundreds of millions of pounds.
But hats off to tireless campaigner Richard Allen who lost his own VAT-paying mail-order business to the scam. After five years of banging his head against a brick wall marked HM Revenue and Customs, which refused to even look at his complaint that the practice was "abusive" and therefore unlawful under European law, Allen eventually got the European Commission to declare exactly this and the government to shut the scheme down. Thanks to his persistence UK taxpayers will be £100m a year better off.