Where to Buy Audiophile Recordings with a Smile

Irvington Music in Oregon is a good choice, I have had great experiences with them, accurate ratings, quick response, easy to deal with. Irvmusic.com

Part of the reason is that record distributors or labels no longer accept returns or credit the small margin record store. I believe in the past decades, dealers were given up to 20% return privileges.

Now if the dealer takes a return, defective or not, they eat the price of that record. I can understand their position of holding to their return policy.

It's just not smart business not to give you a credit or a refund. What were they thinking? They saved a nickel and lost a dollar. I've had good luck with Acoustic Sounds. Best of Luck

For whatever reason, I'd never purchased the first King Crimson LP.
I finally did at the 2013 T.H.E. show in 'Vegas.
I didn't play it for over 8 months as my Music Hall 7 turntable had a broken cartridge wire and I couldn't get anyone to fix it (including the maker).
I finally played it on my new VPI and it sounded like someone sneezed on it and let it dry. A total mess.
Goes to show you, play new stuff ASAP.

Thank you for the responses and new supplier suggestions. To those who feel that after 4 months to return a record is unacceptable I understand to a point, but as one who has spent a good part of his 45+ years in the business world, it's always a good idea to give a little in order to profit a lot. The company in question chose not to do so. (Happy to share the company name if you email me directly but it's not any that were mentioned). Additionally it's not like I'm a chronic offender of a return policy.

Not only did they choose not to do work with me they didn't make the effort to really explain their position to someone who had so quickly spent a significant amount of money on vinyl and cds. Maybe the explanation wouldn't have changed anything but it would have shown an attempt on their part to possibly work with me or fully explain their dilemma in taking the record back for a credit or exchange. I'm not a "fly by night" buyer of music but a serious buyer of music with a collection that started in the late 1950's.

When I say sonically a mess it was the pressing on side one of Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits that had issues with hums and occasionally a repeated low frequency sound that I found very annoying. The sides 2 through 4 were fine.

What should have been done is to bump the concern from the customer service contact person to ownership/upper management to determine a solution. If I had been in control of the situation I wouldn't have wanted to lose the long term business of such a buyer.

Thank you again for the suggestions on other retailers and since leaving this supplier I've already spent a couple of hundred dollars on lps and cds.