I thought this was funny. Enjoy!

In addition to amusing confirmation emails, CDBaby really does have excellent customer service. They actually went and found me a copy of an exceptionally obscure artist (CDs pressed in the 10s sort of obscurity) that wasn't in their catalogue when I asked - that sort of service I do not expect from an Internet company.

Hey, you sent a solid gold award to AIG...

this seems to be copied from a t-shirt site I ordered from once... can't remember the name or what I ordered. I had a good laugh.

Out of all the vendors I've purchased things online from, Waterfield Designs probably offered the most personalized online buying experience.

@Swizzler121: Perhaps it's the other way around. I ordered from CD Baby years ago and I received the same confirmation.

@Jesse: Haha.. I was about to say that SFBags was the most personalized experience I had and then remembered that they're the same place.

Truly a great company and it makes me feel kind of guilty every time I use my Timbuk2 bag.

@Travishamockery: Ah, but what you didn't know was that the gold was FOOL'S GOLD!!!

CDBaby is fabulous. They often throw in CDs of artists they think you'll like in addition to the one you ordered, they're super friendly and they seem to genuinely love helping people find new music.

Really? I find this really obnoxious.

CD Baby is awesome. I have purchased several albums through them, and each and every time their customer service has been outstanding.

I received a pretty similar letter from Iron Brew coffee with my latest order. I was so amused by it that I scanned and saved it.

The way sales of actual CD's are now days this is probably not a unexpected reaction

www.ryanhollowayphotography.com

I love CDBaby. I bought an album and some movies through them. They were the only ones that had both Andy Warhol's "Blood for Dracula" and "Flesh for Frankenstein" at reasonable prices to replace my tapes. Except I got a bunch of promotional emails with weird movie picks after I bought those. Imagine that!

They used to have a cute little baby face inside a CD on their site, but they stopped using it. :(

Has anyone else ever ordered anything from despair.com ? THAT's a confirmation message I'm keeping forever. Even the shipping boxes are awesome.

My backpack sent me a postcard from Jansport when it was in for repair, talking about how fun it was and how much it missed me, and then signed off saying that it was almost time for the zipper races. I love this kind of company.

@kmw2: I must echo this! I've always had great service (from real live people) at CDBaby.

I've had really good experiences with CD-Baby, both as a musician selling and also buying things from them. Their service to both sides of the equation is superior. They're honest and fair - which is uncommon in the music (and retail) biz.

To boot, their web site does a good job of "finding" music based upon what you say you're interested in. I recommend them highly.

@Clobberella: Could you post it please?

Because of this post, I just placed an order for 5 or 6 CD's. Let's see how good they are (the company and the CD's; they're all bands of whom I've never heard before).

@el-brazo-onofre: That is freaking AWESOME and adorable all at once. Any way to post it? I'd love to see it.

@Jesse: i adore my waterfield vertigo bag. it's taken so much abuse and it looks brand new. the folks there are great and always reply personally when i have a question or feedback.

i first got that email confirmation from CDbaby back in 2002 or so.

@Coles_Law: It's a bit too lengthy for the comments, but here's a snippet:

"I'd like to personally welcome you to our growing body of
Dissatisfied Customers(tm), but to do so might evidence
some actual concern for service and protocol. This might
then lead to customer satisfaction, which would defeat
the purpose altogether. That is why you have received
this generic, form-generated email, written by some
nameless lackey in our marketing department."

This makes me feel very warm and fuzzy and happy inside.

I'm the Jeff referred to in the post, and I really just love them, their notes and their customer service. I also buy from another online retailer, Kool Kat. Last week, I ordered a cd and they accidentally overcharged me by a couple of bucks. When the CD arrived in the mail, I opened it up, and there were two dollar bills inside the case.

Can you sue them for false advertising if it doesn't arrive in a gold box?

@queenlizzie: I'm sure it feels the same way about you.

I actually have to put in a plug for them as an artist - I found them 10 years ago, back when I thought my profession would be "rock star" and used my miniscule life savings to put out an album.

They've developed a great system that gets you digital distribution all over the place for a totally reasonable cut of the profits. Even though I haven't toured in 10 years and haven't played a gig in 6, I still get the odd check from people randomly checking out my music online. I can only imagine how great a tool they are for people who are still out there putting effort into promoting their music.

You mean everyone gets this?? I thought *I* was their Customer of the Year!! Though I wondered how they got my picture...

@el-brazo-onofre: Haha, that's crazy. I used to buy Jansport backpacks back when I needed them (school and such). I guess I know where to go if I ever need one again.

I actually sell my music through CD baby. It was an inexpensive and painless process. Within a few days, my CD was available for purchase through their site, my song samples were online on my artist's page, and my music was distributed to just about every download site. All I do is wait for the checks for my CD sales and digital downloads. I've also been happy purchasing from them. Just a great company all around.

@loudguitars:

I agree wholeheartly with loudguitars, as an independent artist CDBaby is da bomb. They have helped me to market and sell not only CD's but digital downloads thru over 40 different companies like Itunes, Amazon and even WalMart.
My last CD ain't that great but a check comes in the mail most every month from CD for digital and hard sales....and hey...turn down that loud guitar! :-)

@queenlizzie: At least they are trying.

@W10002: At least, it is now that they have it.

@ZoeSchizzel:
I love getting the email with details about who purchased our album. Its a great way to send a personal message to a (hopefully) soon to be fan.

You know, there might be a profitable business model here. Great customer service, don't screw over the content providers, a sense of fun, excellent selection and being a f**king person, as it were. It's gotten so I am ordering cable online and waiting a week rather than go to Best Buy.

As awesome as this is someone will probably sue them just because it's not true. I hate our legal system...

@queenlizzie: Agreed. Sounds incredibly sarcastic to me. Hey, extra-special customer, we gently cradled your precious CD as we delivered it to your doorstep. Good enough service for you? Huh? Huh?

But, if their actual customers like it, then good for them. Clearly they know more about their clientele than I do.

@AbsurdHero: The same way the Missouri woman's pic ended up in the Czech Republic? :D

They've been using that text since 2002, which was the first time I ordered a CD from them...

i've ordered from CDbaby several times. My only complaint is that they charge sales tax even though they're in a different state. (Though they charge less than the correct amount for my state, so, yeah, no clue what's up with that.)

@queenlizzie: I kept expecting to see the punchline at the very bottom: "NOT!!!"

Last time I ordered from CD Baby there was a comment box for Special Requests - I asked for a card that said I was awesome, and I totally got one. It was fantastic. Love for CD Baby!

@loudguitars: My boyfriend's solo project is equally obscure (and he sounds equally hard-working; so many dedicated artists languishing in obscurity, but that's neither here nor there). He uses CDBaby to distribute his EP and his upcoming LP too. He's always had positive things to say about the company.

Last year I ordered a DVD from DVDBaby, which I'm guessing is an associated company. Here's what I got from them:

Hi *******,

Hooray!  I am pleased to announce that your order has been processed and is now complete.

The following 1 DVD shipped today:
1 copy of Welcome to Macintosh

Please rest assured that we've taken great care in the shipping of your DVD.

We hold true to an ancient DVD shipping tradition passed down for over 5000 years. This very intensive practice is only achieved after years of training, meditation, purity of mind, and deep breathing exercises.

After a rigorous 17 step process of verifying the authenticity of your DVD, we donned silk gloves and placed it into a sacred box made of magic and lined with Unicorn fur, tied the box with a strand of Gypsy hair, and wrapped the whole thing in a snazzy looking faux gold leaf paper, with elm leaf inlay from Costco. Unfortunately, by the time it gets to you, all of that fancy stuff will likely have been picked clean by the greedy postal service employees. Please don't be surprised to see just a plain cardboard box.

We hope you enjoy your film and that you'll visit Film Baby again soon to browse all the great independently created entertainment!

Jamie Chvotkin, President
Film Baby

-----
And when the DVD didn't show up in a reasonable length of time, I sent this:
_____

Jamie;

Hello. While I can appreciate all the care and thought that went in to the creation, wrapping, and shipping of the DVD I ordered, I do have to ask one question: Where is it? It's almost three weeks since your message below, and I still have not received my copy of "Welcome To Macintosh". I can understand the greedy Postal Service employees snagging all that unicorn fur and magic and stuff, but can we see if one of them appropriated the movie as well? Is there some way we can track my copy, see where it went astray?

______

After a few tries at tracking it down, Mr. Chvotkin packaged another copy by hand and had it sent to me. Exemplary service.