Shipping FAQ

Shipping Costs

We lose LOTS of money on shipping because we pay the actual shipping costs for most items on our site. Shipping prices are set individually for each item and can be found next to the price on the item's description page.

Guaranteed Lowest Prices and Shipping Costs

Another way of saying we don't make our money on shipping charges: we guarantee the lowest delivered price on every item we sell. Details

Shipping Times

We only ship on business days. Saturday, Sunday, and holidays are not business days. We do not offer Saturday delivery. Packages ship from New Jersey or Nevada. We cannot guarantee that any product will ship from a specific warehouse. The only way to guarantee that you will receive an item within a certain time frame is to choose expedited shipping. Delivery estimates for expedited shipping options are listed on the product page for the item in question. Ground shipping typically takes 3-5 business days from the date of shipment.

For APO/FPO customers, all orders ship via USPS. Ground shipping charges (as listed on the product page) apply. Expedited shipping is not available. Tracking for these orders is not available.

Shipping Destinations

We ship only within the 50 United States. We do not ship to P.O. boxes, Canada, Mexico, or to U.S. territories such as Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. We do ship to APOs and FPOs at our normal low ground shipping rates, though oversized items may be ineligible. We do ship to Alaska and Hawaii, but ground service is not available to those states.

We absolutely cannot change a shipping address on an order after it has shipped. If the order is returned because it couldn't be received at the listed shipping address, we can accept the return but no refund will be given on the shipping charges.

Immediate Shipment

Our most popular items ship the same business day your order is placed when you place a valid order before the shipping deadline.

Immediate shipment is available Monday through Friday. A valid order placed before 2pm EST will ship the same day. Orders placed after 2pm EST will ship the next business day.

There are some important details you'll want to read below about immediate shipment.

Why Do Our Customers Love Our Speedy Accurate Delivery?

Orders are sent securely from our website to our mainframe system for processing. Our mainframe coordinates a series of steps we take to verify your identity and authorize your credit card. For valid orders, a packing slip and label are printed directly from the mainframe for all items on your order that are ready to ship. For most orders, this is the first and only time any paper is involved in our highly efficient process. The mainframe keeps a record of any backordered items and automatically fills these orders immediately upon receipt of the item in our warehouse.

There are no worries that a store clerk will misplace your order, misprint your address on the shipping label, charge your credit card the wrong amount, or place your backorder in that "lost forever" status until you call to complain; our automated system makes sure you are treated right. We designed our system to near-perfection because we've had those same bad experiences you've had shopping with other music-instrument retailers.

When the warehouse receives an item from one of our vendors, this is recorded in our mainframe; likewise, each order that we receive from a customer is recorded in our mainframe. Because we record these inventory movements on every item in exact detail, the mainframe knows at all times exactly how many items we have in stock and conveys this information to our website. For good measure, we also routinely count the boxes in our warehouse and verify the accuracy of our already-accurate mainframe inventory counts (and we have a lot of inventory).

Once your box is packed, the contents (even the packing slip) are scanned and compared to the mainframe's record of your order; we do this to confirm the accuracy of the shipment. Then your package is sealed and ready for pickup by the optimal shipping carrier, as determined by the mainframe (typically Federal Express or UPS). It is only at this point that your credit card is actually charged for the purchase - and only for the items that ship. The carrier typically scans your package at pickup in our warehouse or at their local hub. However, sometimes they expedite your package to the next hub before scanning it. As your package is scanned along the delivery route, this information is transferred back so you can track your order at all times from our website.

With all this automation, are mistakes even possible? Sure, but they are extremely rare. And when we do make a mistake, we promise to apologize and set it right.

Which items ship immediately?

Items that ship immediately show on the website as "ships today" or "ships next day" depending on whether you are looking on a weekday or a weekend, and depending on whether you are looking before or after the cutoff time on a business day.

This display is based on availability information that updates from our warehouse to our website almost in realtime. We are highly confident of the status of each item whenever you view a page. However, we do not reserve inventory being viewed or even placed in shopping carts. So please be aware that we cannot guarantee this information until you have checked out. In particular, if you have been in the checkout area for more than about 10 minutes, we do recommend that you refresh the page to get the most current inventory prior to checking out.

What is a valid order?

A valid order is for a valid item at a valid price, placed with a credit card with complete and verifiable address and other information. Details.

Exceptions

If a product is in stock, is there any reason it will not ship immediately? It is very unusual, but here are some examples of reasons that might prevent us from shipping immediately:

• Warehouse, call center, or web operations lose power or telecom connectivity.
• Warehouse, call center, or web operations lose capability due to adverse weather (blizzard), safety threat, or other factors.

Does immediate shipment mean immediate delivery?

Once an order is shipped, our carriers (Federal Express and UPS) typically guarantee a service time for when the order will be delivered to you. Our carriers have a very good record of delivering at their promised service time. We will ship immediately, and on all items we will refund expedited shipping charges if the carrier's service levels for your chosen shipping method are not met.

What can I do if you don't feel we've lived up to our guarantees?

If you ever feel we have not lived up to any of our guarantees, we want to know about it - and we want a chance to do right if we agree. Contact Us.