I ordered No Line on the Horizon as a "Digital Album" from the official store on U2.com, which is run by Fanfire (now Live Nation). The order was placed on July 25.

As it was a digital download, I expected a link or instructions after my purchase but the only thing I got was a email receipt. On the "Order Status" page at the site it stated "No shipping info available". On July 27 I contacted customer support through the form linked from the page, and got a reply the day after where I was told my order "hadn't gone through" but that they were letting their "experts" look at it and get back to me in 24-48 hours. I heard nothing, and contacted them again August 1. No response. Not after using the web form, not after replying to their email.

August 11 I used their form to cancel my order. After six days I got a reply - and I was told my order had "shipped out as of 07/29/2009" and would be delivered by DHL. Shipped! My digitial download? I don't think so. Ofcourse I answered and asked if they really were and how they were shipping my digital download, and ofcourse I got no response. At this time I gave up on them, but continued to fill in the order status form now and then just for the sake of it.

Surprisingly I eventually got a reply stating ordinary shipping info, 3-5 weeks, time to clear customs and so on. No answers to the questions I had asked. No mention that my "order" was for a digital download. So I replied and asked them to skip the copy and paste info and instead answer me why it was shipped. And guess what? Nothing!


After ironically filling the form again, now refering to the first reply I got, with the experts doing their hard work for almost two months. I got a reply which was basically identical to the last one I got. Ordniary shipping info that made no mention of the nature of a "digital album".

Don't by from this company. Your order may not be delivered, and no one reads your emails. If anyone actually reacts to them, they just mechanically reply with their standard template.

Ironically I did this to support the great decision to release a digital album as lossless FLAC-files. I would have got faster delivery, better customer service and more peace of mind if I had chosen to download it illegaly.