Where to Buy Audiophile Recordings with a Smile

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.

Some of these companies on the internet are particularly difficult to break the outside customer service barrier and go up the chain to someone who has a more profound role and interest in protecting customer relations.I see a certain bit of irony here,if this was a bra my wife bought six months ago,wore once and didn't find it comfortable,she would have no problem returning it to almost any retailer on the web.Guys,get your wife on the phone with these guys if you have a problem returning something. Unleash the hounds....!

You should have ordered a new one and then returned the lemon.They would have never known the difference!

Jc: I'm generally in Czarivey's pew on this one, particularly for classic rock records from the 60's and 70's. The original pressings often sound far more lively than the remasters; yes, you have to deal with 'condition,' but as you obviously know, buying new vinyl is no guarantee of pressing quality (leaving aside sonics).
I bought approximately 1,000 records in 2013, most of them used. Happy to provide sources, but often, the issue isn't the dealer, but knowing what pressing to buy. I highly recommend that you dig in to places like the Steve Hoffman forum, which is an enormous resource for rock records of this vintage; you'll see multiple threads with comparisons of various pressings, not all of which are expensive. (In fact, there was a thread comparing sonics of the remaster of Brother in Arms (the two record version) to various earlier pressings.
If I'm buying new pressings, I usually try to buy directly from the source, e.g. if it is Analog Productions, from Acoustic Sounds; from MoFi, directly from MoFi or Music Direct (which now owns MoFi), Music Matters for the Blue Note reissues, etc.
FWIW, I've had very few bad experiences buying used records over the years. New- mixed bag on quality. One of the benefits of 'used' is that many sellers will play grade (visual grading is pretty useless) ; a sealed record, old or new, is a riskier proposition.
Also don't know if you own a good record cleaning machine, but I consider that to be essential, whether the records are new or used. Along with a stock of high quality inner sleeves, to replace the paper or plastic sleeves that often come with new reissues (MoFi, Acoustic Sounds, etc. tend to use high quality inner sleeves; some of the 'standard issue' remasters from major labels, less so).