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So is your beef with the publisher or the store?

If you feel strongly that they are misleading and ripping people off to make a buck, I recommend a lawsuit. Perhaps even a class action if you can round up other victims.

Alfred Publishing is not responsible for this mistake.

The source where you purchased the item (sheetmusicplus.com) did not adequately describe the product.

If you Google search using the ISBN you will see other sources describing the "diskette", "3.5" diskette" "1.44M, 3.5 Disk, DOS".

It is your choice to handle this with a dramatic toss to the trash can.

With a simple phone call or email you most likely would have your MIDI material.

You are simply being unreasonable. It might just be for the cost and time of one single telephone call that this issue could be sorted out. It is clear you don't want to give anyone the opportunity of fixing this, you'd rather just rant angrily about it on a public forum. How immature. Go away until you have something more constructive to say.

FFS this isn't even a problem, its not even a storm in a tea cup. But your reaction is this?

I'll tell you this for free. Piano and any musical instrument requires dedication and immense amounts of time and effort. There will be big setbacks, failures and frustrations.

I know, I've had many. Along with the highs.

If you can't cope with such a miniscule issue, then perhaps maybe piano isn't for you.

The fundamental problem is that neither Albert nor Sheet Music Plus care enough about their customers to clearly define what they are selling. Getting my money back doesn't solve the problem - deceptive marketing practices.

I am happy to spend productive time learning the piano. I will NOT spend non-productive time hassling with companies that use deceptive marketing practices.

I'm moving on. I ordered the Faber and Faber Adult Learning adventures.

Dan.

It is reasonable to expose deceptive or shoddy marketing practices. I suggest that you follow your own advice - go away until you have something constructive to say.

Dan.

Alfred is partly responsible. That said, I changed the title in my original post to focus on Sheet Music Plus.

In any case, searching for an ISBN is NOT reasonable when both the publisher and the retailer provide the exact same misleading information. No where on either site do they explain that "MIDI Disk" means "Floppy Disk".

Given that a floppy disk is an antique media that is not usable on virtually all current computers, IMO their lack of clarity is a marketing technique to get rid of old, unusable inventory.

Most people will either not use the media, or go through the hassle and expense of loading it. A few will go through the hassle of returning it. Almost no one will call them out for this. I.e. they keep getting away with this stunt.

I choose to call them out and express my displeasure. You can choose other options.

Dan.

Dan, even an HD (High Density, not Definition! ) Floppy holds no more than 2.2 or so MBs, so that could fit in an e-mail without breaking anyone's sweat. If you call them, they will probably send you a mail with the contents of the Floppy Disk.

Rafa.

"...I'm moving on. I ordered the Faber and Faber Adult Learning adventures. ..."

Well, Faber is ok. Maybe better than the Alfred All-In-One anyway.

The music store I buy from--- and usually order through--- gladly takes care of any problems that may happen with the merchandise. I can only think of one: a (pretty stout) collection of a composer's works had a number of pages in the center which didn't print properly. I overlooked the problem in the store, but I returned it and they reordered, and that was that.

I have less experience with http://sheetmusicplus.com , but I believe they're reputable and will accept returns. Anyway, I hope you have better luck with the Faber. They have some very nice collections for somewhat more advanced students, so you have some good stuff to look forward to.

Rafa,

You are 100% correct. From a business perspective, it's completely nuts to send a floppy disk to someone. They could reduce the price by at least 1/3 and increase profit. So why don't they do it?

Regards,

Dan.

Really, this rant has gone far enough. Man up to it, Dan. Send back the unfit product. Or just suck it up.

Else, let's re-title this thread "Warning about Dan Clark".

I have "sucked it up" and threw out the defective products. They are not worth my time. As I wrote above, I've moved on to Faber and Faber.

If you choose to buy from the companies mentioned above, that's your choice.

And if you choose to rant about such frivolous points, I will ignore you. That's also my choice.

There was and is no need to huff on about trivia. No thank you for your "warning" about any of the vendors involved.

Perhaps they are not all about making a buck at the expense of the customer? Or maybe the fact that the book was published 17 years ago and no publisher is going to recall a perfectly fine book over something like this (and thus raising prices for everyone).

Now you call it a defective product? Stop being a drama queen.

Read my posts. It has nothing to do with the book. It's the Midi disk!

If you're going to slam someone else, get the facts straight!

Floppy Discs and Midi connectivity are beyond me but some while back when I purchased my Alfred's Books 1&2 I also purchased the CDs, of course now the tunes are all to be heard on the Alfred's threads on this forum, and via You Tube, the CDs are no longer necessary.

Alfred Music Publishing continues to produce General MIDI products in floppy disk format for those who have the older technology keyboards that have the MIDI floppy disk ports as standard equipment. There is no attempt to deceive or cheat anyone -- customers are still purchasing these disks. On these older keyboards, there are built-in MIDI functions and no computer is needed to use the GM floppy disks. Since that time, Yamaha and Roland, among others, marketed outboard General MIDI disk players that could be used independently with any piano or keyboard. You are correct that current computers and keyboards are not usually equipped to play these, so Alfred now offers several of its piano methods in GM format by way of download at www.alfred-music.com. Eventually we hope to have all our MIDI products available on this website. The files can then be purchased and downloaded to your home computer, after which you can load the MIDI files onto a thumb drive and plug this into your digital keyboard via the USB slot (provided the keyboard has General MIDI capability). Anytime there is a problem such as this one, please email us at keyboard@alfred.com, or give our Customer Service team a call at (818) 892-2452. We will find solutions! Thanks for the discussion.

I don't believe that fraud is involved. Complacency seems the more likely issue. It is 2013, I haven't owned a floppy since 2003. A decade seems to me to be plenty of time to get them ALL online don't ya think? It seems to be the same issue in all publishing companies.

Newspapers could have owned news on the web had they started embracing online distribution and adapting their business model accordingly back in 1995!

Post removed.

Off-topic: I do find it funny that my Microsoft Word 2010 still has a floppy disk image as the icon for "Save". My 9-year-old asked me what it is and why they use that symbol to represent "Save". I had to tell her about the good old days.