Of those vendors, IME - haven't ordered anything for a minute - the one that has the best customer service is Elusive. A few years ago I had a package of records turn up damaged and they took care of things in quick order and even inspected the records before shipping out my replacement copies. They also reshipped an order that got lost and when the lost package finally showed up one random day, they gave me a week to decide what to do with it and provided a return label at their expense. AS is probably the most squirrelly unless you are talking the replacement UHQRS where people hack them up with a knife or razor to get their replacement. One guy in a record shop told me he loved their selection but stopped shopping there when they sent him a bunch record he had to return at his own expense (after provided pics) and they sat on it for 3 weeks. He calls them up and they say "oh, we're going to look at that". Great, now you have the guy's money and he has no money or record. My own experience is that they are slow to answer emails and often confuse your order with someone else's. They try but have work to do in the customer service department at the very least. I never liked buying vinyl from MD but I will say they tried to help me when I ran into issues with their products. They replaced a bad batch of inners that were cut all wrong no questions asked and even shipped them priority to me.
In most EU countries that threshold is gone. It used to be >22 euros of value over here for customs handling costs to be applied (16 euros typically, unless they marked it as suspicious and needed to do closer inspection or no value was printed on the label). >150 euros of value for VAT and import taxes. It varied from country to country. But it's just a matter of luck nowadays, sometimes you've gotta pay it, sometimes not... I think it depends on whether they have sufficient capacity to process all of the goods... it's kinda random lol
Last week I got a vinyl album from Amazon.de without any kind of packaging. They just put the address sticker on the shrink-wrap and sent it like a letter! I have a tracking app by our national postal service here in Austria, and the day it should be delivered there was something like: delivery delayed, packaging damaged, checking content. I didn't know by then that there was no packaging except the album cover. When I went to the post office the next day to get my parcel it looked miserabel. All corners bent and smashed and the shrinkwrap was repaired with a tape of the postal service. The guy at the postoffice said: this is a record isn't it? This should not be sent like that. We decided that I refuse to take it and they send it back to Amazon. This is the second time this happened, but the first time was years ago and the album was not damaged.
Amazon direct purchases (sold by amazon.com) should be just fine. Sht can go wrong when buying from the 3rd party shiiisters who sell on Amazon. Try to stay away from the latter and stick with the former, if possible.
Just ordered Dropout Boogie by the Black Keys at jpc.de as a test. Apparently they do free shipping this weekend. I'm curious to see how their service/shipping is. Thanks for the tip. Decent website, just - as almost any webshop - basically no real option to browse by recordlabel. A search filter to check all of the higher-end labels first would be a nice feature. I've learned that the quality of the record is perhaps one of the biggest factors when it comes to the sound quality... despite my humble system, records can sound very, very impressive when they're well cleaned, pressed and mastered. Even when running just an entry level cartridge.
I’d need them to meet me halfway on the return process, given how common defects are. I’m OK paying a buck or two more for a record to support a smaller business, but I have little tolerance for having to jump through hoops to get what I paid for. When I have ordered from dedicated music retailers (no local shops here), and I’ve needed to return something, it’s been a much less convenient process than Amazon offers. I haven’t had anybody refuse to take care of me, it’s just been more annoying and taken longer. Returns are necessary often enough that this makes a difference to me, unfortunately.
I buy a lot of new vinyl from Amazon. Almost every one is in an lp mailer inside a large box with bubble packs. The recent Tool issue was in a box then inside a 24x20x14 box with enough padding that could have been dropped from a third story window.
I haven't had an issue with Amazon in years, the last time they shipped an LP improperly was around 2005 for me, and they've become my vinyl source of choice. Today every LP I get from that is inside a sturdy cardboard mailer, which is itself shipped inside a larger Amazon box. They have an incredibly generous return policy, allowing you to return copies multiple times if your copy was noisy or pressed off-center, and they've refunded me my money if more than one was pressed off-center indicating QC issues. More than one boutique local record shop only does exchanges, so I made them continually exchange the album until they finally gave up and offered me store credit after the eighth attempt. Further you can return Amazon product at your local Kohl's or at UPS with no box, you just hand them the record; vendors like Music Direct used to make you ship the album back at your expense, but now they'll send you a call tag but you still have to box it back up and send it out. With Amazon the entire process is more or less hassle-free.
At least one local independent record store has a big label they put on all LPs - "No returns or exchanges, all LP sales final." Who wants to take that kind of risk?
Just say no to Amazon and their "warehouse" with returned vinyl. Isn't that obvious? Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct both have great customer service and most likely superior versions of the LP your looking for. Even Discogs has been fine for me. All sellers have been great and when I got a crap condition LP, I was offered a discount or a refund. They rely on their customer feedback ratings (which you can read ahead of time). And of course, support your local music shop if they are still there!!
Amazon Warehouse I'll let you know how it works out. I ordered the, Wayne Shorter - The All Seeing Eye as a used record, (obviously a return). It's the Tone Poet and total cost was, $24.27. Here's the description. "Missing shrink-wrap, activation codes for bonus online content may be missing or expired. Small mark on disk. Small cosmetic damage on item case. Item may come repackaged." It will be interesting to see what constitutes, "small mark on disk." and "cosmetic damage." If the mark doesn't skip and there's a bent corner or two, I'll be fine with it. It should arrive Thursday.
The nearest Walmart is 18 miles away. Gas is $4.30 a gallon. So that would be $26.99 + 1.88 tax, + $6.50 gas = $35.37. That's $11.10 more at the Walmart.
That is fine for those of you in the US - but to get records from Acoustic Sounds etc is very expensive to do when you are overseas and the shipping costs more than the LP many times. So that is not always an option, then if you need to return it and you are overseas, there is more headache. I have had great success with Discogs for albums I cannot get elsewhere but again the shipping is hideous to Australia - so Amazon becomes a more $ saving option for many & the return policy is great. I tend to only return things that really are major issues though, minor warps, split seams etc I can overlook if the wax is good. I find setting realistic expectations is good. Of late though I am buying HQ Audiophile records from Audiophile shops here & having them sent to me - but again at a premium - twice the price of the LP from Acoustic Sounds without the shipping. But such is life, we have to made decisions on our budget and circumstances & I think most of us try to support the locals too if we can.
Were taxes handled by Amazon or did you have to deal with customs separately? Over here it’s paid after it’s cleared by the customs, payments are handled by the postal service (you have click a link on the parcel tracking page to get redirected to a payment environment).
It still doesn't work. $26.99 + 5.99 shipping + $2.25 tax = $35.23. That's nearly $11 more from Wal Mart even if I order it online. Of course if I get the record, clean it, put it on the turntable and that mark turns out to be a deep scratch that's not a good outcome. But if it is merely a slight scuff that doesn't affect sound I've saved more than $10 or about 35%. Worse case, I send it back and get a refund. Then I wait until the album is back in stock new at Amazon, get it for $26.99 + tax but with free shipping. That's the only reason I bought from the warehouse anyway. I had the new record in my Amazon cart for several days but when I went to purchase it had sold out. So I went back and found the warehouse offer and put it in my cart.
That's exactly the reason why I asked about Amazon Warehouse in my initial post I wouldn't use Warehouse if I can get a record new directly from stock for just a few spare bucks more.
Here's my 5 cents... Having no Amazon in the country where I currently reside I have ordered Lps from, it's pretty long but maybe it will be a help to European collectors and my American brethren will see how many hoops you sometimes have to jump through Amazon.de Amazon.fr Amazon.nl Amazon.co.uk Amazon.es Amazon.it Amazon.com (yeah I know...) I have no LCS, the closest one is about a 45 minute drive, and I used to make the trip every two weeks, but his inventory was poor, no audiophile labels, no real interest in different pressings, basically a CD store that is also selling vinyl, under the banner that every vinyl LP is the same, equipment doesn't really matter etc... so I stopped going there. Found another LCS which is a little over an hour away, much better inventory, much more love for the hobby but he has a no-returns policy, if you get a dud then you are out of luck he will not take it back as "he can't return it either". I now only use him for RSD releases. I know mainly buy at record fairs, Discogs and online, using not only the different Amazon "stores" from 7 different countries but also jpc.de, hhv.de and dodax.de, all from Germany (even though Dodax ships from Switzerland). My experiences with all the Amazon stores have been mixed, but mainly positive. The stories here are mainly negative, just because those are the ones you tend to remember, but as I buy about 200-300 albums a year I'm bound to get unlucky sometimes. When I'm in the US I sign up for the month's free trial of Amazon Prime with Amazon.com and order a ton of records which I then take back with me in my suitcases and carry-on. I have mostly positive experiences, but have also had the worst experience, where I received a record from Amazon.com without any packaging at all. Just a bunch of stickers on the cover itself. As I had a prime account it was handled quickly and without incident, alas it was their final copy and they refunded me and told me to keep the record, but it was so badly thrashed I couldn't even give it away. I have ordered some albums from Amazon.com and had them shipped to me in Belgium, on both occasions the tax + duty was already calculated by Amazon and I paid those along with the shipping and price for the albums. On one occasion the albums were delivered within 10 days without any extra cost, on the other occasion customs wanted me to pay an additional $50 (which was almost as much as I had already paid Amazon in advance) and wouldn't accept the paperwork where it stated that tax + duty had been pre-paid. I refused the package and it was eventually sent back to Amazon and I got refunded. Now I'm not so eager to to repeat it Amazon.de has been less successful, Ordered the Dylan 35th anniversary concert vinyl box and it arrived just like that. Box in original shrink wrap with the Amazon label stuck on. Of course all 4 corners of the box were crumpled. Never even bothered to open it, called customer support and they were very apologetic and told me to send it back for a full refund. They sent me a link with two documents, one was a return address label and the other one was a slip I was supposed to.... put in a box along with the item. I was feeling kinda flippant and called them again, asking for instructions, I was supposed to put the slip and the Dylan box back in a box and return it to them ? What box ? It came without a box ! I was told they would ring me back, which they did. Explained the whole thing again, got a lot of apologies etc, and told them I had no box to return everything and wasn't about to go out and buy a box. I must come across rather petty right now, but I thought it was disgraceful they would just send something fragile and not cheap without any kind of box or protection. In the end they told me to just stick the new label over the old label and send the item back without a box. From Amazon.de I also got one of the Black Sabbath Super Deluxe boxes which had clearly been played, inserts were gone...etc. They had no idea how it happened, told me to send it back and I got a replacement. Three weeks ago I ordered about 7-8 albums from Amazon.de again and saw in the tracking they were using a courier I had never ever heard of "Colis Privé BeLux.". Courier came with the package when I wasn't home and I got a tracking notification that the package had been "put inside the mailslot". Now I don't think it's possible to slide a big box with 8 albums into a letter slot, so I was expecting a notice slip instead. When I got home there was nothing, no package, no slip. I went to 4 or 5 neighbors, some I had never spoken too, but none had gotten a package. Called up Amazon.de who told me to get in touch with the courier first. Got in touch with the courier (which was almost as hard to reach as Paypal) and they agreed with me that the package couldn't have been slid inside a mailslot and would investigate. After three days I called them back and they just said "we have no idea what happened to your package, the driver doesn't remember, take it up with Amazon". In the end Amazon refunded me, but the package is still missing, I'm now loathe to use Amazon.de again as they seem to use that totally inept courier more and more. Amazon.fr has been a breeze, but the last year they have been using less and less boxes and more and more paper bags with the album just put loosely in the bag and arrive really banged up. After getting three of those in a row I took the advice of a friend and had everything sent "gift". And waddayaknow ... everything started arriving again in record mailers put inside an oversized box with some padding. But last month I got a Neil Young album (sent as Gift) in a paper bag again, the gatefold was completely thrashed and ironically, the little slip that comes along with the gift saying something like "Enjoy this gift from..." was torn and crumpled. So I got on the phone again and asked if they would like to receive a "gift" this way. They offered me 50% in store credit and told me I could keep the album, I declined and had to send it back before I got a new one (which I did, in perfect condition). Last three orders have all come in boxes again. Amazon.nl has been a joy, solid packing, very fast shipping and step by step mail updates where the package is at the moment. Amazon.es and Amazon.it I don't often use, but once in a blue moon they have items in stock the other Amazons don't have or have long sold out. Both don't offer free shipping but it's only 5 bucks. All packages have arrived pretty banged up, probably due to the many borders they have to cross and handing it over from one courier to another, but only the outer boxes are torn and crumpled, they always use padding an inner record mailers, so no complaints so for. Amazon.co.uk Used them for almost 15 years without any problem at all, but due to Brexit I had to stop using them and now haven't ordered from them in 2 years. Shame really. I use JPC.de for Mobile Fidelity, Impex, Speakers Corner and Analogue Production pressings, trouble is that they don't have a lot in stock but do give an date when the items will come back in stock. They also charge you for the full amount once you place the order. So most of the time they have your money for months on end without you having the record, and a lot of the times the dates tend to change and you wait three more months until finally they just change the date to "undetermined" and refund your money after nearly one year. Another issue with this is that you can fail to get a certain album, because you see it with another retailer but don't buy it as you have already paid for it at JPC and are expecting it soon. And then of course they cancel your order and the other retailer is sold out.
I've only used Amazon Warehouse for records that were out of stock and were designated as "Very Good" or "Good as new" and never had any issues, some were still sealed even, but it's a gamble.
