HMV now out of administration again

Zt5cocY.jpg

Image: Kieranclarkz

Had intended to go to HMV tomorrow to pickup up some Arrow sale titles but after reading Arrow have a sale soon I'll not be bothering.

No website and no app is grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory.

I spent more in 2018 on DVDs and Blu-rays in HMV (via online) than any other year.

Misguided idiots.

And I hope they actually pay Arrow this time for all that stock.
 
I did pop into their Livingston store today. Arrows where in 2 places but never seen anything and just couldn't be bothered anyway. Had already been to ASDA, Primark, Aldi, Lidl, B&M. Also had to dodge the plastic police car parking mongs -so had no energy. I have good energy surfing on the PC in the morning that's when I buy media.

However, the shop was looking very good with all the previously removed shelving put back and full to the brim.
 
Wow, all those crates of records. Somewhat like the 1970s/80s in there. Did they have any cassettes?
 
I went to Fopp in Covent Garden on Tuesday. Up until HMV's latest problems, I never knew this shop existed. I've shopped there about three times now, but I still don't like it. The shop is on 3 floors but is small and cramped and poorly laid out. DVD/Blu-ray takes up half of the ground floor and all of the basement. Never having ventured upstairs, I can only imagine that is where most of the musical paraphernalia is stocked.
The Arrow sale is poorly represented at this store. The shelves are half empty. Most of the Arrow Video library is missing, probably sold out with no new stock to replenish sold items. It's like they weren't prepared for it.
I can't believe this is the sole HMV survivor in central London. 10 Minutes walk away is the old site of the HMV flagship store on Oxford Street - an absolute mecca for any music and film enthusiast. And in the early days of, and before the internet, retail prices were all there was. You could always shop at Virgin and Tower Records - 10 minute walks in opposite directions from HMV. Anyway the flagship store didn't survive the first cull, which left the original store at Bond Street to fly the flag. Nowhere as good or as huge as the flagship store, but better than the Fopp store. It didn't survive the second buyout, which I was surprised at. Historical significance couldn't save it.
I'm not sure how much I'll shop at Fopp, as much as I want to support the high street, and with no online presence, I might end up taking the easy options such as Amazon, although with the threat of the high street diminishing, their prices are not as low as they used to be.
 
Should change the tread to "I Hope HMV fail Again" :rolleyes:,i for one am glad my HMV is still going,and are still buying from them.

As i said in my last post,on my last visit they had everything i wanted no problems,and yes i do like Vinyl,and are buying some,but they still a great selection of other media in as well.

:)
 
I visited the Taunton branch of HMV, ok it was a Thursday around midday but when I went in there were 2 other customers, they left and within the next 45 minutes of me browsing 1 other customer came in briefly. When I left ( empty handed) I couldn’t even see a member of Staff... I just can’t see how it’s going to survive.
 
I don't get the new strategy at all. They have decided to dedicate the most floor space to the least selling format. Pricing on the back of items, which, apparently is due to once a customer picks an item up chances are they will keep hold of it, which is bollocks! I keep telling the guys instore I just don't pick anything up any more. It does feel like they want it all to fail.

I love Fopp. But not so much the actual stores (but I do like the one in Edinburgh a lot). The staff are always helpful and their offers are always excellent.

I think the whole 'indie in chain's clothing' will go tits up and common sense will kick in. Hopefully they will also ditch the crappy lo-fi as well.

I love browsing instore. I always used to spend a lot. But they are making it virtually impossible to do so.
 
I don't get the new strategy at all. They have decided to dedicate the most floor space to the least selling format. Pricing on the back of items, which, apparently is due to once a customer picks an item up chances are they will keep hold of it, which is bollocks! I keep telling the guys instore I just don't pick anything up any more. It does feel like they want it all to fail.

I love Fopp. But not so much the actual stores (but I do like the one in Edinburgh a lot). The staff are always helpful and their offers are always excellent.

I think the whole 'indie in chain's clothing' will go tits up and common sense will kick in. Hopefully they will also ditch the crappy lo-fi as well.

I love browsing instore. I always used to spend a lot. But they are making it virtually impossible to do so.

Yes I'm pleased that the chain is still going and that they've even managed to reopen some of the closed stores but I do wonder about their strategy. Clearly they are attempting something different with the vinyl but I don't see them selling it. Thinking about it I don't see many people even looking at it. Maybe there some very keen vinyl buyers that go in at different times to me. The profit on vinyl is said to be far better than that on CD and DVD but they have to sell them first.

Bri
 
I'd be interested to know how many people on here actually believed when hmv came back that nearly 6 months later there would be no website. You know, before we knew much of Sunrise and their history of not having a website. Can anyone see a rational reason why they would not have one. Are they thinking it will make people go in store when there are so few left?

Let's face it - the HMV online store isn't coming back. And why are staff promising one? The millions they saved from not buying the Pure Card liability (when morally they should have done so like Hilco before them) could have be used building the website and though I, like many, lost money when they pulled that I would have been happy to see a new website borne from that.

The staff in my 'local' are always helpful and they get the brunt of complaints from customers when i'm in about the website which is unfair. Everytime I'm in store it's really quiet. Heck I've even heard staff moaning how quiet it is.

The new refit with the vinyl boxes is, I think, really good and the vinyl does look like little works of art.

But without a website how many people will even know about it? The magazine type web presence they now have isn't even promoting the store refits.

Would there be a reason for the management to actually want HMV to fail? Because it's almost as if they're doing everything possible to make it as difficult as possible to spend money there.
 
Last edited:
I don't understand why they haven't got a proper website running. It seems very daft to me not to have one. They didn't save any money by not honouring the pure points scheme. This is another company that bought HMV. They will still be down on their investment. Honouring the pure points would mean an even greater investment for them.

Bri
 
In my opinion they still have not learned anything from getting into trouble twice.
Walked in my local the other day and spoke with some of the staff that I used to be served by over the yrs and one guy said I ain't seen you in a while for your steelbooks etc.
I told him that I hardly shop with you since I lost all my points over £50 worth and now order most of my 4K discs from Zoom.
Also pointed out some of the titles are £5 over priced compared to everywhere else and I did not like the crafty way of putting your prices on the rear now instead of the front.
I left empty handed again and said sort your pure rewards out and you may start seeing me shopping with you again.
 
RoZ25am.jpg


As a customer who spent more at HMV online in 2018 than any other year in my 35 years buying from them I gave HMV/Sunrise the benefit of my very substantial doubt the last few months but I'm not sure why some people are still feeling all warm and fuzzy about HMV.

Let's just run through their tactics the last few years and recent re-invention:

Not paying their bills and leaving 100s of suppliers (including small distributors we support) struggling. 5 Blu-rays for £30? Easy when you have no intention of paying the bill. Obviously this was pre-Sunrise.

Not looking after their PureHMV customers (and 1000s of staff!) essentially stealing our money and throwing away any loyalty.

No website or online ordering after making lots of promises
(not sure why any company would need to promise such a basic thing, d'oh).

Sunrise Records (after all it's not HMV as they don't even own the name as far as we can tell) are the same in the UK as they are in Canada: a laughing stock. The only imports we'll find in their UK stores are crap Canadian business ideas.

The bizarre thing for me is the so-called owner was posting on social media initially saying they 'were listening to their customers'. Who me? Us? Total crap, they've never posted on this site or any other site in any capacity AFAIK and I can accuse them of lots of things but listening is not one of them.

Vinyl makes nice jackets and toilet flooring but it'll not save HMV.

HMV died years ago.
 
I'd be interested to know how many people on here actually believed when hmv came back that nearly 6 months later there would be no website. You know, before we knew much of Sunrise and their history of not having a website. Can anyone see a rational reason why they would not have one. Are they thinking it will make people go in store when there are so few left?

FOPP have never had an e-commerce website. They may be going with that :)
 
I don't understand why they haven't got a proper website running. It seems very daft to me not to have one. They didn't save any money by not honouring the pure points scheme. This is another company that bought HMV. They will still be down on their investment. Honouring the pure points would mean an even greater investment for them.

Bri

The guy I was speaking to instore said it was coming. They have just finished a feedback exercise with staff regarding the Pure Point scheme. Asking them what they would like to see.

He said he would like to see his 50 quid store credit :)

I think it'll come. Along with a 'proper' website. Assuming they don't go tits-up again in the meantime due to their foolish shenanigans.
 
I did actually look at the vinyl yesterday when I noticed they had a jazz selection. They had maybe 25 to 30 albums. Not a bad selection and they even had Out Of The Cool by Gil Evans. This is one of my all time favourite albums. I already have it on both vinyl and CD and I'm half considering paying an over the top amount for the oop SACD. As much as I love this album I can't see them selling it at £16. I seriously doubt if there's many people out there who would buy it.

Bri
 
The guy I was speaking to instore said it was coming. They have just finished a feedback exercise with staff regarding the Pure Point scheme. Asking them what they would like to see.

He said he would like to see his 50 quid store credit :)

I think it'll come. Along with a 'proper' website. Assuming they don't go tits-up again in the meantime due to their foolish shenanigans.

I can imagine they'll come up with a new pure points alike scheme but they won't necessarily honour the original one. I'd love to see them do it as I have £50's worth of points.

Bri
 
Tbh I never paid to much attention to purepoints. My perception of them was that I could only use them on selected items such as posters and t shirts through the website. Plus I'd have to spend hundreds to get like £2 ?
 
But if you're spending hundreds anyway...

I thought they were great. Especially the special offers like double points for BDs, 5,000 extra points for certain pre-orders. There were also exclusive instore discounted titles for Pure Members (ooer!), there were some great deals.

I had at least x3 50 quid vouchers and several x20 quid ones over the years. My last lot I cashed in in November, just before it all went wonky, and I got the William Castle Volume 1 set.

Pure Points were great.
 
I can imagine they'll come up with a new pure points alike scheme but they won't necessarily honour the original one. I'd love to see them do it as I have £50's worth of points.

Bri

They are still trotting out the old "Keep your receipts..." line for the new system. Fingers crossed.
 
Tbh I never paid to much attention to purepoints. My perception of them was that I could only use them on selected items such as posters and t shirts through the website. Plus I'd have to spend hundreds to get like £2 ?

No you could spend them on anything in store. I'm not sure how many times I got a £50 voucher but it'll have been at least 3 or 4 times so they were worth having.

Bri
 
Picked up Skyscraper 3D, Twin Peaks The Event Series and 8 Mile from my local, they also had Mission impossible 6 movie Blu-ray set for £17.

A84603C2-2FFD-4485-9714-C5EEE4CC17C8.jpeg
 
Well just asked again in my local HMV about the pure points system and was told point blank to keep an eye out for an email as they will be sending them out to all customers shortly so they can use the points they have and redeem them.
YES I asked twice and she confirmed they had notification and was told by the area manager that they would allow people to use what they earned but the scheme may not come back.
MAKE OFF IT WHAT YOU WILL ..... shit will hit the fan if I here nothing and was told bull shit.
 
If the points we earned are validated somehow then that's great -but we've heard nonsense before.

Pure HMV Loyalty Limited is in administration and it's had it's name changed to Pure H Loyalty Realisations Limited (don't mention the war HMV!) ready for liquidation. Have the new HMV bought our data? Why not keep us in the loop? If so then why not buy the name and website? I can't imagine that part of the group having all that much bad debt. In fact the value was the inbuilt loyalty of many thousands of customers and staff.

I'm very sceptical.

companieshouse.gov.uk


QZwfI2g.jpg


I wonder what Mike would've of done with it? Answers on a postcard:

AVF Image Competition
M2N Towers
London
W1

1st prize gets 1 copy of Black Panther, 2nd prize gets 2 copies of Black Panther and 3rd prize gets 10000 PureHMV points.
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom