Audiobus: Use your music apps together.

What is Audiobus?Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.

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Excelvan BM-800: The Full Story

I know there have been a bunch of threads on these cheap-o mics, but I thought my story deserved it's own.

Someone posted here about a deal on Amazon for these mics - there was a promo code and you could get the mic, a cable, a windscreen and a shock mount for less than $5. So I ordered it - even if the mic sucks, the cable and the rest are worth the price of admission.

The order got shipped out, and I got the tracking info. I live in California.

The mic was delivered to Louisiana. WTF?

Ok, so I emailed the seller on a Friday morning. By Monday afternoon I'd heard nothing from them, so I submitted to Amazon for a refund. No problem - it wasn't anything I needed, just an impulse buy.

On Tuesday the seller gets back to me and tells me that they shipped another mic to me. Excellent!

On Wednesday, Amazon processes my refund. O.......K........ I'll just roll with it. FREE MIC!

I don't say anything to the seller, and I just go about watching the tracking. It's set to be delivered this past Wednesday.

Wednesday comes and goes. Tracking shows out for delivery, but nothing arrived.

Thursday comes and goes. Tracking shows out for delivery and is dated for the day before. We get a delivery of something else, and when I ask the driver he of course can't tell me anything about this package.

A box finally arrived about an hour ago. Now I'm completely confused:

The box itself was wrapped in a plastic shipping bag. When I tore the bag open, the box inside was shredded and clearly had been opened. However, when I opened the box I got a surprise. The box contained:

1 mic
1 shock mount
XLR to mini cable
1 windscreen

It also contained:

1 boom arm
1 additional standard mic clip
1 XLR to XLR mic cable wired into the boom arm
1 phantom power unit
1 pop filter
1 power supply for phantom power

So - did they send me the deluxe version or something? You guys were all saying this thing didn't come with Phantom Power, and nothing on Amazon talks about the boom arm or anything. How did I win the prize?

So yeah. my purchase of a mic for $4.60 tuned out to give me a free mic, 2 cables, a boom arm, a shock mount, a phantom power box with power supply, a windscreen and both a windscreen and pop filter.

Merry Christmas to me! I'm so confused.......

Comments

  • Yes. You got the version with those components which someone posted was on sales for $20 or so. I ordered through Amazon and it shipped without issue and I got the Mic, Cable, Shock Mount and Windscreen.

    I believe they sold out the $4.60 models to avoid hundreds of returns when the Mic would not work on iPhones and iPads (because of the Phantom Power requirement). They spotted a huge loss if they pushed the product out and everyone demanded refunds so they sold them cheap to us. Your's (being an opened box) was also intended to limit their losses on returns. At their prices $20-40 for their products... they just cannot afford less than 90% accepted products or have a no return policy.

    There may be more to the story... if you get any clues add them here.

  • edited July 2018

    I'm certainly not complaining, just finding the whole thing very entertaining.

    I do feel slightly guilty about it all - the intent was not to get a whole bunch of free stuff necessarily. But there's not much of a loss on their end if they were going to end up with a whole $4.60 out of it.

  • Come on Dude, pay the seller his 4.60. What goes around...

  • edited July 2018

    @vpich said:
    Come on Dude, pay the seller his 4.60. What goes around...

    I've taken more than my share of $4.60 damage, and I imagine most have, from ordering products over the years..this has nothing to do with karma, especially considering he had every right to request that first refund.

    And even his second order was incorrect, but that's the shipper's fault.

    Edit: The hassle of trying to balance the karma and pay the company now would throw the Tao off, so gotta be careful

  • I've had numerous times where I was overcharged, I lost out, etc. and had no recourse. I'd be more concerned if it were more than $5. I consider it all part of the ebb and flow of money in and out of my life and in the universe. Sometimes you get taken, other times you get $200 for passing GO.

    The intention was certainly not to brag about getting over on the seller, more to remark on the bizarre-ness of the situation and how it unfolded.

  • Good story. Thanks for sharing it.

  • Yeah @Daveypoo wasn't gloating or necessarily happy he got more than he bargained for... eventually. It was a make good by the seller and it's usually insisted upon via Amazon's customer service ethos.

    I used to do a lot of reviews for Amazon before they changed their policy on reviews for discounts/comps. An electronics seller usually from China, Thailand, etc (but I got several from the States too) would offer to send you their products for free or reduced price if you agreed to write a review.

    Of course they all would say to be honest, if it was a negative experience say so, etc. But most reviewers likely felt writing a bad review meant no more freebies or discounts so the reviews weren't that credible.

    I had several packages sent to me that never showed even with tracking info & many showed up all dinged up broken or just plain funky & used. If it was a free item for a review no big deal, but if it was some discounted item that was $20 and the "for review" discount brought it to $14 it sucked to lose it or have it arrive damaged.

    Now I know I do go on sometimes, and Daveypoo's situation is different, but my point remains that it was quite common to get damaged packages or lost packages (especially in these days of brazen a-holes like porch pirates).

    Amazon & to their credit, the sellers, more times than not would try to make good even if the money was returned to my account. I think it's what happened with your experience Davey...enjoy the stuff with a clear conscience.

  • edited July 2018

    @vpich said:
    Come on Dude, pay the seller his 4.60. What goes around...

    Good call. The seller must be on a very tight margin here. Especially sending out a pimped version of the product at base price.

  • Send them out a Behringer synth – they’ll copy it and within a year we’ll be flooded with cheap clones of it.

  • sending the payment would drag the accounting department even into more trouble than it already is with this particular order. o:)
    Imho it's clear that this was an advertizing campaign anyway.

  • Like I said in another thread, we used it on kick drum all week in conjunction with a sennheiser mic and it added a lot. But more importantly, it has given the opportunity to watch that ridiculous promo video as a group about 20 times!

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