Tool: Fear Inoculum CD Orders Canceled, Fulfillment Issues Persist
Tool fans were up in arms last week when the band announced an “expanded book edition” of Fear Inoculum, including a 56-page booklet and a few other goodies packaged with a CD of the album. The reason? Nothing to do with the contents of the newly packaged release itself, which is surely sweet, but because fans who ordered a repressing of the deluxe edition CD over two months earlier still hadn’t received their orders, and the band’s online support regarding the matter had been shoddy and vague at best, nonexistent at worse.
Following the expanded book edition announcement, hundreds of fans took to the band’s social networks to express their frustration (to put it mildly). Those who sent emails to the store’s customer support team began receiving emails indicating they’d receive their orders “early next week.” Progress.
Well, it’s now beyond “early next week,” and fans still haven’t received their CDs, with two customers who ordered the deluxe repress back in September telling MetalSucks by email they’ve yet to arrive. What’s more, several customers have reported that they’ve received emails indicating their orders have been canceled, despite those customers having taken no action to do so.
One MetalSucks reader, Alex H., told us the same thing happened to him and provided us with a screen shot of his order that had been canceled “at your request.” He assures us he took no such action:
Another MetalSucks reader, Aaron H., decided to follow up with customer support yesterday after the band’s promised arrival date of “early next week” came and went. Their response? The same exact automated response fans have been receiving since last week, word for word, promising the CD will finally arrive… you guessed it, “early next week:”
Another reader, Caleb M., reports that he did finally receive the CD he ordered in September last week. A victory, to be sure, but a short-lived one: an order for a 2017 Tool poster (existing stock) he placed almost three weeks ago hasn’t arrived yet.
Let us be clear: the members of Tool certainly aren’t at fault here. And whatever blame we place on the fulfillment company handling these orders certainly can’t be chocked up to malicious intent; they’re clearly overwhelmed.
Having said that, regardless of any manufacturing and/or fulfillment issues Tool may have been facing as a result of an overwhelming influx of orders for the deluxe edition CD in September, 1) Their communication regarding this issue has been piss poor on all fronts, and 2) it was incredibly tone deaf of the band to announce the latest “expanded book edition” while so many two-month old orders remained unfulfilled. And that’s giving them the benefit of the doubt; how could they not have expected demand for this thing would be through the roof? The entire process was bungled, start to finish, and no one is taking responsibility.
MetalSucks reached out to a representative for Tool to comment on this story, and received the following response: “Nearly all of the orders have shipped out, and those that haven’t (a small # of international packages) will be out this week. We’ve had confirmation that some people have already received their shipments with the bulk in carrier’s hands, meaning within a week, the bulk of purchasers should have the CD.”
Please email us at [email protected] if you continue to have issues with fulfillment from Tool.
In the meantime, the band’s live shows don’t seem to have suffered one bit — rave reviews of their currently in-progress tour have been coming in from everywhere. Remaining dates below:
November 22 Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall [TICKETS]
November 24 Raleigh, NC PNC Arena [TICKETS]
November 25 Washington, DC Capital One Arena [TICKETS]
January 10 San Diego, CA Viejas Arena [TICKETS]
January 12 San Diego, CA Viejas Arena [TICKETS]
January 15 Fresno, CA Save Mart Center [TICKETS]
January 17 Las Vegas, NV T-Mobile Arena [TICKETS]
January 18 Glendale, AZ Gila River Arena [TICKETS]
January 21 Austin, TX Frank Erwin Center [TICKETS]
January 22 Dallas, TX American Airlines Arena [TICKETS]
January 28 Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena [TICKETS]
January 29 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena [TICKETS]
January 31 Memphis, TN FedEx Forum [TICKETS]
February 1 New Orleans, LA Smoothie King Center [TICKETS]
