rima.com reliability

[hoto]

hi there,

i am thinking of getting some taiyo yuden cdrs and some ritek g04s from rima.com

has anyone dealt with them before? good transactions? bad ones?

i live in canada so is that a factor?

thanks

[tito13kfm]

rima is golden.. A1 customer service, don't know about the canada issue though, give them a call, they actually answer their phones. 877-777-rima I think.

[disturbed1]

I order 1-2 times a week from Rima. Never had a single issue. They do ship to Canada, not sure of the charge though.

[freestyler]

Great company. I order from them maybe once every 2 months when I need media. Top notch service and they answer support questions promptly and intelligently.

[hoto]

thanks for the responses!

[lordsmurf]

The last RITEKG04 discs I bought from RIMA.com were total shit. Got 100 of them, used them for minor projects. High coaster rate and mid-range burn issues (light burn, dye drifting).

The OPTODISC I got from them had dye melting issues at 4x speed burns.

RIMA.com no longer carries the "GRADE A RITEK" certification. So I may jump back to MERITLINE for RITEKG04 buying. Just FYI.

Switched to pure MXL branded and TDK branded for a while, no problems that way. Don't have patience for bad discs these days, rather just shell out more money for better quality.

[Vejita-sama]

I've only bought cases from rima, placed three orders and everything worked fine. I actually get all my media from allmediaoutlet.com which I love but some people have had problems with.

Bottomline thou is if you buy from any of the big companies you're pretty safe. Everyone of them as screwed up some order, but 99.9% of the time they are on top of things.

[hoto]

would their shiny silver top G03s be affected? or are they still relioable?

does anyone know if they ahev the ridata code printed on the hub?

[sammie]

I always use Ritek G04s if I have a choice. First 2 batches of 50 didn't work at all. Next 2 only burn at 2x. They were ok on price, but charged a huge shipping fee. Plus, they wouldn't pay for the return shipping on the original disks that wouldn't work. I won't use them again.

[Lobe]

rima has been EXCELLENT! great and prompt customer service. People seem to be getting bad Riteks all over lately... I think I'll hold off for awhile on those, Although the last batch of 100 from rima (in november) all burned perfectly for me.
For TY they are the best place I know of.

[bluerazor]

I buy all my TY CDR's from rima and they are golden. 500+ burns and no coasters yet. I highly recommend.

[Rookie64]

I just got a Ritek hundred pack from rima - no problems here


Only thing with rima, for me, is it takes a week for delivery via ground (though there are other delivery options to choose from)


All my orders from Mertline came within two days using the same delivery option.
I've never had any problems with Mertline, but decided to play it safe after reading some stuff about them here.

[adam]

RIMA.com no longer carries the "GRADE A RITEK" certification.

What are you basing this statement on? The Riteks I received from Rima last week are identical to the other ~600 that I have bought from them over the last year. There is nothing wrong with Rima's Riteks supply. Every company ships a bad batch or two now and then, its unavoidable. You just got unlucky, or maybe your problems weren't even related to the media...who knows.

Every media distributor has occasional problems, but if you read around on this forum I think its definitely clear that Rima has by far gotten the most praise from its customers. Honestly, this is the first thread I've even seen where they had any dissatisfied customers. I can't count how many orders I have placed with Rima, or how many people I have referred to them. So far not one complaint. Rima is top notch.

[sammie]

Agreed Adam, but I've gotten 4 bad batches (2 shipments) of Riteks from Rima. I've never received a single bad one from anyone else. Plus, they wouldn't pay the shipping on the return, I think a must on defective items from a mailorder company.

I tried Rima because a lot of people here reported good service from them. My expereices were rather negative. It's fair to report that.

[quantum_red]

I've returned a fair number of things over the years from many different online stores. I've never received or expected to receive payment for shipping from me to them.

There is a point of logic here. Rima doesn't manufacture disks. You get the same thing from them as anywhere else that sells G04's. Notice how they're shrink wrapped by the manufacturer? You can blame the disks, but it's illogical to blame the retailer.

I bought a Canon printer from Newegg 10 months ago. Now it needs service. Should I blame Newegg because my printer broke down? Some people would. You can't teach common sense.

[adam]

sammie: Absolutely its fair to report that. Like I said, every great company has given bad service to at least a few people, its just the nature of business. And its comments like yours that keep great businesses dedicated to providing better service, and prevents bad companies from attracting undeserved business. Overall I think Rima has a great reputation though.

My post was mainly directed at Lordsmurf. If he has some inside information I'd certainly like to hear it since it will affect my business with Rima since Riteks are the only media I buy from them. But if its just speculation based on personal failures with their media, well that is incredibly irresponsible. People make important and often expensive decisions based on some of the things said in these forums.

[lordsmurf]

@ADAM

Look at MERITLINE.COM and then read what is says about RITEK GRADE CERTS ... the "GRADE A" cert used to be held at RIMA.COM on their pages ... but no more. It disappeared at some point in the past.

WHen I first ordered from them last year, it was a clear "GRADE A" RITEK SUPPLIER, but now it's just another place selling RITEK, no such distinctions are made on their site. Not anymore at least.

RITEK clearly makes a few grade levels of discs. However, the identifiers are always changing for them. It's getting harder to know which are good, and which are bad.

I've got about 15 bad ones from a 100-pack sitting on the floor. I plan to send them in for a refund. That's too much waste. I'm back to TDK and MXL until RITEK cleans up their act. They may burn slower, but I prefer reliability over speed.

[syoung]

Ive bought 200 GO4 from Supermediastore and so far havnt had a coaster or bad burn yet. Getting my 3rd 100 next week. Everyone of them has worked fine. I guess buying your media right now is like shooting craps. Just keep buying until you "crap" out. I do know that Supermediastore still carries the ritek grade a certified seal.

[adam]

Just as I thought. This is pure speculation, and it doesn't even make sense.

Online retailers are not required to denote the grade of the media, most probably don't. I don't recall Rima EVER categorizing their media by grade, and even if they did so what? They can change the marketing name of any product they want, that doesn't change the product itself. Just because Meritline calls their Ritek media grade A, that doesn't mean its any different from the media that Rima sells. I'm guessing the disks are probably identical. Like I said, I have always bought 4x Ridata Ritek from Rima. I just received an order less than a week ago and the disks are no different than any other I ever received. If you have a speculation that Rima has lowered the quality of their media, than you should confirm this through research before saying so. Simply throwing this statement out there based on what is written on the websites of competing media retailers is extremely irresponsible and I am only bothering to say any of this because I know its not true. I've e-mailed Rima.com and asked them about this, and I'll post back when they respond.

[adam]

Well how's that for service, I already got a response

Here's my e-mail:

I have noticed that many other online media retailers specify a grade for their media, ie: grade "A" vs. grade "B". I don't see any listing of media grade at Rima, and I would just like be sure that the 4x Ritek DVD-R that I buy from Rima are not in some way substandard to a Grade "A" 4x Ritek DVD-R sold elsewhere.

Is there a particular reason that Rima does not list the media grade, and has Rima ever listed the media grade?

And here is the response:

We have received several comments regarding grades of Ritek DVD-Rs. We do not offer varying grades of Ritek product. We are a retail store, and we simply purchase products from Ritek that are to be sold at the retail level. We are not given choices of grades, nor have we ever been given choices of grades when we make our wholesale purchases.

This is like going to any retail store that sells a branded product. Establishments that sell HP Printers, or Toyota cars don't have an A grade or B grade tier of their new products - it is simply the retail offering of the manufacturer's product. This is the same situation we face with the Ritek offering of products.

We hope this will help to clear up our position in relation to grades of DVD-R from Ritek.

Thanks - Rima Sales

So, my memory was not mistaken. Rima has never, ever listed any kind of media grade for the disks they sell. So regardless of what you think it implies that they choose not to list their media as Grade "A", the point is that nothing has changed. Rima has not somehow lost their "A" certification. Furthermore, I strongly believe that all this grading, at least at the retail level, is simply a marketing strategy. Meritline can call their Ritek media grade A or super duper or whatever else they want, it doesn't make it necessarily any better than any other Ritek retailer.

[quantum_red]

I think I'll start selling Riteks and I'll call them double extra grade AAA ultra plus plus quality. Then I'll rake in the money from all those who don't know they're all the same.

Then I'll sell Princo's and call them super-duper high grade Princo. As Adam said, you can call it pretty much whatever you want. Meritline is selling the same thing with marketing fluff and some fall for it. Look at their "free shipping" offers. Most of the time, you'll get a lower overall price from Rima after adding in shipping, but some are suckered by the idea of "free shipping".

[lordsmurf]

Just as I thought. This is pure speculation, and it doesn't even make sense.

I'm not following you. There used to be a small "Certified Grade A Ritek media" in their little description. Now there is not. How does that not make sense?

It is speculation on my part that they have switched from Grade A to something lower, but I think it's valid given the conditions of the information upon which the speculation is made. Why else would they have suddenly removed that descriptor tag? I used to be on their inkjet and branded media. It is not on the shiny or matte silvers, nor found on the inkjet ones any more.

How can this not make sense?

There ARE definite grades of media. RITEK does theirs GRADE A, B, C and maybe even D. It's about % of passing random quality tests.

If you don't want to believe it, or do more research on your own, go right ahead. In the meantime, I'm giving you the answers.

Meritline seems to have removed their grading information. A shame.

I researched grade certs many months ago when writing the media portion of my website.

[adam]

Of course there are different grades of media at the MANUFACTURER level. That's simply called quality control. If media falls below a certain level it is outsourced and sold under subsidiary retail names or is not sold at all. This happens in almost every industry. But at the RETAIL level Ritek is Ritek plain and simple. And Arita is Arita plain and simple, even though that Arita dvd+r was previously a grade B disk manufactured in a Ritek plant. There is no such thing as grade B Ritek, because if it reaches that level it is sold under a different name.

If you are buying Ritek disks from the manufacturer then they are technically ALL grade "A" because those are the only disks that they sell under the Ritek name. Listing Ritek's as Grade A is simply redundant and obviously only done as a marketing strategy. Ritek is Ritek, you are simply buying into the marketing ploy.

If Meritline and Rima buy their Ritek from the same manufacturing plant then they literally are receiving the same product, despite the fact that Meriline calls theirs grade "A" and Rima doesn't.

What the hell does it matter what Rima removed from their description? Meritline removed their info regarding media grading, should we assume that this has some deeper meaning too?

Please, in the future just don't make bald faced assumptions, because you can see that there is already one guy in this forum who is now scared to buy Rima's 4x media for no good reason.

[FulciLives]

This is why I pretty much buy nothing else but the FUJI DVD-R discs that say MADE IN JAPAN because they are Taiyo-Yuden discs and of extremely good quality.

Sure they cost me nearly $2.70 each with tax (I buy them at BEST BUY) but who cares. I want good shit that works well.

This whole DVD media thing is a total mess ... I don't understand why it is so hard to produce good quality DVD blanks but apparently it is.

The whole situation is a total disaster!

And RITEK sure doesn't help by first getting a GREAT reputation with their G04 discs only to apparently "drop the ball" since I've heard way too many negative comments about them and their damn "grade" playing games.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lordsmurf]

Adam, you're being a stubborn ass. That's fine, buy what you want, believe what you want. Your coasters, not mine.

[adam]

Very thorough rebuttal there. Very nice of you to sidestep the issue entirely and simply resort to name calling also, but I guess that's what happens in a thread about media.

No they are not MY coasters. I know better than to listen to one poster in an internet forum. The issue is that others may not be able to separate facts from misinformation. I have spoken to representatives from Ritek and now from Rima.com. If I'm stubborn for believing the manufacturers and retail distributors of the products I buy, rather than the assumptions made because of some logo which may or may not have appeared on some website, then that's fine with me, but that doesn't help anyone else in this forum. BTW you can search cached versions of Rima's website here, http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.rima.com
Nowhere do I see anything about media grading or Ritek grade A certification. If you find it let me know.

So I am asking you again, confirm your assumptions before posting them on this board...especially if you are going to just come right out and say something like, "company X lost their Y certifaction," which directly implies a bad thing when it is in fact entirely inaccurate and immaterial anyway.

[lordsmurf]

You've already made up your mind. No point in further discussion.

I have better use for my time than re-explaining something that has been covered on this forum before by myself and others. Use the "search" function.

When reading up what I've said in the past on this, keep in mind that RIMA.com and other media resellers online can often be considered OEM resellers, not retail. Keeping that in mind, and reading my past remarks oin this subject, you should be able to connect the dots.

My references on this topic are media company inquiries, online OEM reseller inquiries, OEM inquiries and help from other users who were concurrently researching the topic at the time.

[adam]

I knew from the beginning that what you said was untrue. All I ever intended was to ensure that everyone else realized that as well. Now hoto knows that Rima's Riteks are not defective. I think that's pretty valuable information considering that he had apparantly given up on them by following your advice. And after all, wasn't that the point of this thread, for him to get advice on the quality of this media? So now everyone can make up their own mind, and proceed to ignore you.

[FulciLives]

So now everyone can make up their own mind, and proceed to ignore you.

I think this is known as passive aggressive syndrome.

Can't we all just get along?



- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[adam]

Getting along has nothing to do with it. I have nothing against Lordsmurf. I would have called anyone on that statement because its simply not true, and now the poster of this thread is about to act on bad advice.

I contacted Rima and posted their response. Really, it speaks for itself but I will also post Ritek's response as soon as they answer my e-mail. Call me crazy but I'm a stickler for accountability. I don't think its sensible or responsible to make, what amount to libelous statements, without at least stating the basis for those statements.