jon_chaisson | Not-so-Open Letter to Rasputin Music

Dear Sirs;

On October 22, my wife and I visited your San Francisco store to sell some of our cds and hopefully shop for some new titles. We have come to this store in the past, as it is easy to get to from our apartment, but unfortunately it has come to the point where we have decided we can no longer visit your store.

Unfortunately, there are many problems with your San Francisco store that have irritated us to no end.

First and foremost, the employees of this store are not so much rude as they seem to be "elitist." The most important problem both my wife and I have encountered is the horrendous choice of music to play in-store. I understand that, given that this is an indie music store, there is a tendency to "play what one wants to play" instead of something popular or currently in heavy rotation. I've worked in record store retail myself, so I know this well. However, more often than not this store is playing music that is either distasteful (extremely offensive rap) or unlistenable (screaming metal), both at top volume and especially not to everyone's tastes. In playing this kind of stuff incessantly, you are driving more customers away than you are attracting them. Indie or not, that's not the best idea retailwise. Both of us have seen people driven out of this store for this very reason.

Secondly, I hate to say that more often than not, your employees do not go out of their way to help the customer, as much as they just seem to go about their usual duties of restocking or running the register and not really paying much attention to the customer themselves, unless they happen to be on the way to one of their other duties. Again, I understand this is an indie store and there is a tendency to 'be oneself' rather than play the role of chipper clerk, but the fact remains that customer service is important, and you are poorly lacking in this department.

Thirdly, although I do understand that the layout of the store necessitates using the elevator from the second floor to the fifth, this has constantly been a problem with navigation. Just today we were unable to ride the elevator for reasons unknown to us (the lift operator told us twice that we could not get on just yet), and when we finally could, the lift operator glanced at us and said nothing, without asking if we still wanted to ride, only catching the door at the last moment when he realized we did. Again, this was a customer service problem, and one that desperately needs to be addressed.

Fourthly, although I do understand that there is limited space in your store, I have to complain that you are constantly low or out of many titles that should be in stock. Again, I've been in this situation, having worked in record store retail, but the fact that the store is constantly low or out of many newer titles is yet another problem that should be addressed. The most important part of a record store is what it has in stock, and if one constantly has to order a title, or worse, go elsewhere, then that is to the detriment of your store.

Overall, as much as I do enjoy going to new and used record stores, I find I can no longer shop at your store, as the frustration I feel when I am there outweighs that enjoyment by a longshot.

Signed,
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This letter was submitted via the comments to the Rasputin site. I hate to boycott stores, but this is definitely not the first time this place pissed us off. I'm not asking anyone else in the area to boycott them, but at least this will give them a heads-up.

(x-posted in