What happened to synphonic(Greg Walkers website)?

[Rael]

But do you guys still receive his emails with updates? He used to send them once a month but then he slowed down. The last one I got was from two years ago.

He still sends them out, but very randomly and not everyone gets them. When I emailed him about an order a couple months ago, he forwarded me an updated list. I just checked my email and it's still there. If you want to PM me your email address, I'll forward you the update he sent me in early April.

[Progatron]

Without meaning to sound overtly critical or naive, why can't he just do these things, you know, properly? Why not make sure everyone gets his e-mails instead of people on forums having to forward them? Why not get with the times and have a proper website that doesn't look and operate like an internet antique from 1995? I've been hearing for about five years now that he's 'working on an updated website'.

I finally gave up last year. I was ready to place my annual 'birthday gift to myself' order, which I usually budget around the $400 mark. I waited ages for a response as to what titles were in stock, and then when he finally got back to me and I said okay, send away, what do I owe you - I never heard from him again. So I placed the order with a different vendor, and will do again this year. I'm not chasing after someone to give them my business, and I'm not resorting to compiling my order from individual Discogs entries at a higher price. I spend thousands a year on CDs as it is, and there needs to be caution or I will end up divorced.

BTW I was a customer of his for many years, like a lot of people here. But in the last two years or so, it's just become too much of a hassle. Some people don't mind calling and finding out what he has in stock. But I do.

[Camelogue]

I sent Greg my email from a yahoo account but when he received it, it had a hotmail extension. Seems quite odd. We spoke on the phone and I completed my order.

It would be nice to have a streamlined website. My only complaint is that titles are listed that are not in stock. It would be nice to have them listed as out of stock but still listed.

I understand the complaints but there are not that many vendors out there for CD's anymore. We are a dying breed of customers.

[moecurlythanu]

Does he do a day job too?

[Trane]

Greg's a great guy and he always sends me my order before payment. But I've been a customer for nearly 30 years so he probably trusts his old customers. It's just too bad he can't get somebody to update his website. It looks very 1999.

He has indicated in the past that he is working on a new website that will be more modern and user friendly in the sense of searching and locating potential purchases. I, for one, am looking forward to it. He is still updating his current site on a regular basis, that's why the main page has the "Ongoing Updates" message.

I haven't seen a latest arrival update on his site in almost two years. I'm not even getting his e-mails.
I'm glad to see that he still gets a fair bit of business, but my guess is that it's much less than 10 years ago.

I'd welcome a new version of his site, cos I still want tobe a patron of his. Sooooo cool to that he sends the parcels before getting the payments. Murtual trusts is the way to go with regulars.

I always wish he had a "regular" commercial type web site with shopping cart & checkout instead of the emailing & seeing what he has in stock business.

yup to all of that, though TBH, the shopping cart is something that usually has me backing down.

But do you guys still receive his emails with updates? He used to send them once a month but then he slowed down. The last one I got was from two years ago.

nothing from nothing. And the last time I received one was the last time he updated his new arrival section. I thought he kept the site opened just to get rid of his stock, but I'm happy reading your different experiences and knowing he's more active than passive.

It was a couple months that I'd considered doing a big order (that usually means 15 or 20 albums), so I guess this thread will be a kick in the butt to actually do it.

He still sends them out, but very randomly and not everyone gets them. When I emailed him about an order a couple months ago, he forwarded me an updated list. I just checked my email and it's still there. If you want to PM me your email address, I'll forward you the update he sent me in early April.

I'd need all of them since 2018 or sumthin'. Is that possible?

Without meaning to sound overtly critical or naive, why can't he just do these things, you know, properly? Why not make sure everyone gets his e-mails instead of people on forums having to forward them? Why not get with the times and have a proper website that doesn't look and operate like an internet antique from 1995? I've been hearing for about five years now that he's 'working on an updated website'.

You have to see if it's really worthy (time & money investments) with sales down as they are. Not sure he's able to live from that still nowadays. As others have said, he's diversified and even then, I'm not sure that he makes a good living, unless he's dealing with vinyls. But his sir-te indicates that he's still mostly CD (which is fine by me)

Does he do a day job too?

yup, can't really imagine Syn-Phonic being his only source of income with physical sales down as they are.

[SunRunner2]

^^^^

Good to see that you're not giving up on him, despite the website related issues.

I wrote an E-mail message to alert him of the input being offered in this thread and he thanked me for the information. I believe that he definitely wants to correct any specific service issues with all customers of Syn-Phonic and I am hoping he will send a message to his mailing list to clarify any concerns. I don't think that he is a member here at PE but perhaps he could contact the Administrators and let them know he is still in business and post a message through them (unless that is against policy).

Here is what I did to secure my order within the last week and it worked perfectly:

Friday Afternoon - May 22 - Called Greg's phone number and received a voice mail message. I then sent him an E-mail message through my E-mail contact list (not by clicking on his Spry net icon within the site itself). I ordered 5 CD's in the E-mail message denoting their cost and shipping fees.
Friday Night - May 22 - Greg responded to my E-mail order saying he had all 5 CD's and would mail them on a Priority - 3 day shipping basis.
Tuesday Afternoon - May 26 - Received all 5 CD's in my mailbox, here in SW Florida.

I always attempt to contact him by phone first and run the order by him in case alternatives are required. Based on my most recent orders, his stock remains solid with only hard to find, or OOP's occasionally not available.

I suggest that this process be followed to see if the same expedient service can be obtained by the customers who have posted above.

[Progatron]

Here's what I did when I placed my most recent order with a different vendor:

Clicked 'add to cart', then 'checkout', then 'pay'.

[moecurlythanu]

Unless he closed his account, Greg is a member here.

[SunRunner2]

Unless he closed his account, Greg is a member here.

Thanks, moecurlythanu, for clarifying that he is indeed a member.

[SunRunner2]

Here's what I did when I placed my most recent order with a different vendor:

Clicked 'add to cart', then 'checkout', then 'pay'.

Sounds like one of those new fangled, ancy-fancy, gizmo oriented services like Amazon.

My suggestions (above) for successful ordering from Syn-Phonic were provided for those customers who still wish to do business with Greg Walker. It was an attempt to help people like me who continue to find value in his product.

[Progatron]

Sounds like one of those new fangled, ancy-fancy, gizmo oriented services like Amazon.

No, actually, it was one of several of Greg's long time contemporaries, who I do still order from because I do not have take all the extra steps you've illustrated above. Nor do I have to try to give them my business. It rubbed me the wrong way one too many times having to chase him down with reminder e-mails just to find out if I could even order what I wanted.

[SunRunner2]

No, actually, it was one of several of Greg's long time contemporaries, who I do still order from because I do not have take all the extra steps you've illustrated above. Nor do I have to try to give them my business. It rubbed me the wrong way one too many times having to chase him down with reminder e-mails just to find out if I could even order what I wanted.

I guess that shows that our mileage on Syn-phonic services does vary, considerably. I have never had to "try" or "chase him down" with reminders and I almost always get the CD's I am looking for, with few OOP or OOS exceptions in the many years that I have been doing business with Syn-Phonic. He also provides brief but informative descriptions of the albums in his catalogue and in the mailed updates he used to send.

He indicated to me a few months ago that he has been working on a new, shopping cart/checkout/pay facility similar to the one you described above. It is my suspicion that it is taking longer than he thought due to having other "irons in the fire", as discussed above. Until that is ready, I will continue to stick with his services as I currently have the time and patience to fill out a list here at home, E-mail him and wait 3 days for the order to be received. (hate to admit it, but I kind of like going through that process since it is how I have ordered imports and other prog music since the mid-seventies, when it was the product of Paradox, ITC and Eurock).

Some things are more enjoyable to me when you do them the old fashioned way. Again, the geezer in me manifests itself.

[jefftiger]

Some things are more enjoyable to me when you do them the old fashioned way. Again, the geezer in me manifests itself.

This brings back memories of mail-order vendors in the pre-WWW days. I used to order prog CDs from Ranjit Padmanabhan in California in those days. Years later, I ran into him on LinkedIn.

[Trane]

Until that is ready, I will continue to stick with his services as I currently have the time and patience to fill out a list here at home, E-mail him and wait 3 days for the order to be received. (hate to admit it, but I kind of like going through that process since it is how I have ordered imports and other prog music since the mid-seventies, when it was the product of Paradox, ITC and Eurock).

My last order with him dates from 2019, and everything went fine, so I have no problems continuing that way, until things gets easier

[Progatron]

I guess that shows that our mileage on Syn-phonic services does vary, considerably. I have never had to "try" or "chase him down" with reminders

And that's why you continue, which is great, and I do not, which should also be fine. I'm only explaining why I finally gave up after 25 years or more of ordering from him. For me, it was a noticeable decline in service and I had enough of it. I am not nostalgic for days gone by when it comes to this process.

[Camelogue]

Got my CD's in two days.

I do like that Greg has the CD's by country.

I will continue to be a customer.

[Flightwave]

He’s a great guy, I always get great service when ordering from him.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Good to see him going for an updated site. Would love to see a cart feature there, mostly because half the stuff I want is from bands/for albums that I can't pronounce correctly. And even though I still order occasionally, when I stopped getting the occasionally updates from him, I did fear he was slowing down. But ill be with him however that progresses.

His greatest feature is definitely sending orders out immediately. The longest I've ever waited was three days and it has to ship from nearly across the country. There are places much closer to me that usually take nearly a week. I don't know how he does it, but god bless him for it.

[ggiant]

Please use his store in discogs. He didn't stop the service ever till now.
https://www.discogs.com/user/progwalker

[dropforge]

Just placed a fresh order with Walker, Utah Ranger. This is going to have some really cool shit (like that Tim Blake box), so color me excited.

[SunRunner2]

Just placed a fresh order with Walker, Utah Ranger. This is going to have some really cool shit (like that Tim Blake box), so color me excited.

Tim Blake Box Set? I didn't know of that one until now, but I will definitely look into it. Loved Crystal Machine so hoping for more of that side of Tim. Thanks.

[Mascodagama]

Please use his store in discogs. He didn't stop the service ever till now.
https://www.discogs.com/user/progwalker

It's been a while since I ordered from Greg, as transatlantic shipping costs mean I don't really buy much from the US any more. But from recollection it used to be the case that he had a lot of stock that was not listed on Discogs.

[mon40]

Wow I hope he can get that going. I mean I just stood up web site to sell CD/DVDs/Tees and it took me the three day weekend and $250.

If anyone is interested in some crossover prog. I have some arena/unreal city/Unitopia/Southern Empire/Phideaux on the site. More to come as my favorite bands make me their North American Distributor.

https://essentials.progrock.com

[Progatron]

^^ Wow, I'm going to need that Unruh/Phideaux live album!

[Trane]

Three days any no reply from Greg to my early request to order.

Mind you, I did it from my private e-mail (which he knows as well) and there was the w-e, but I'll have to do it from my prof e-mail, I guess