Acoustic Sounds — Local services in Salina

I would like to address the 'negative' comments. Being fairly new to the audiophile world of high end records and after a few excellent purchase and enjoyment experiences, I took it upon myself to do a little investigating when I saw they had some negative feedback. I had just made a fairly large purchase and I asked if it was possible for a tour. What I found was AMAZING! I addressed with them, just about every complaint I saw here. This is what I learned:

Complaint 1. Having to wait for a product: Acoustic Sounds / Quality Records employs a LOT of people. No one is standing around with nothing to do. Even with the number of people working, working like a well oiled machine (quality is job 1), there are many times that the demand for their quality records far exceeds what is humanly possible. On the day I was there, they took in 3,500 orders on ONE PRODUCT! They have LOTS of products! That was just ONE. They can humanly process 1,300 to 1,500 orders a day. That's why some orders take awhile to get shipped. Understanding this is one of the few individual owned small businesses left, your patience will be rewarded with the highest quality product.

Complaint 2. Shipping issues: After having some orders damaged in freight, they engineered their own box design. Their boxes pretty much guarantee that unless a train runs over it, your purchase is going to arrive in perfect condition. It is the job of the shipper to email you tracking information and address any damaged packages. Make sure they have all your correct info and inspect your package when it arrives. Yes, the package is a little bigger than your purchase, but that little bit insures your purchase will be perfect on arrival.

Complaint 3. Poor customer service: I saw 8 people in 'Customer Service'. If you are in business, you will totally appreciate the family atmosphere where EVERYONE loves their job and the people they work with. I cannot fathom any of them not being courteous. I have received nothing less than 5 star service.

Complaint 4. "I got there and they were closed!": This is not a record shop. It is mail order and not open for 'walk in shoppers'. With the number of employees and the crazy world we seem to live in now, Mr. Kassem takes the safety of his family (employees) VERY serious. The doors remain locked at all times and scheduled visits / appointments are always welcome. While there, being fascinated by the whole process of making high end records, I tried not to interrupt folks that were so busy but I did make a lot of new friends and learned a lot about a fascinating, well operated, business!

Complaint 5. "International shipping": International shipping is all over the board. Some countries have additional fees, processes, etc.. All I can say, if the Timex isn't you and you want the Rolex, it costs a little more and any wait is worth it. Yes, Amazon can ship some things quickly, but they don't have access to everything.

I always prefer to buy from individually owned businesses and despise what BIg Box has done to all the Mom and Pops of the world. It's good to know there are still some going head to head with them and turning out the...

I am a new Acoustic Sounds customer, having found the site while looking for a turntable calibration LP. I'm pleased with their Ultimate Analogue Test LP for fine-tuning my turntable setup (...although, after 5 decades of eardrum exposure to Led Zeppelin, etc, at "volume 11", I'm not sure that optimizing my turntable’s intermodulation distortion will have any impact on my listening pleasure at this point!! ...lol :-)

While at the Acoustic Sounds site, I also discovered their Vinyl Vault and found some interesting vinyl to expand my 'LP music repertoire' in new and interesting directions. Thank you for that!

A final thought in response to the comments on the longer shipping times: I've watched some of the YouTube videos posted by the founder/owner, a guy who seems to have devoted his entire adult life to the audio and vinyl-pressing industry. Even if it takes a few extra days to receive my vinyl as compared to the super-mega-online retailers, I'd MUCH rather support a local midwest business built by someone with decades in the industry, who cares about his craft and clientele.

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Appalling service. Order arrived with two damaged items. Customer service took a week to acknowledge my email. A support ticket number was issued. Customer service team member Allie offered me a replacement of the two items would be sent with my next order. A support ticket number was issued. I placed a subsequent order. To help facilitate the promised replacement items, I added the support ticket number in the order notes. “Please refer support ticket ...” Subsequent order was finally shipped a week after payment was made. I actually had to send a follow up email requesting the order be sent. Order was sent without the promised replacement items. Of even greater concern is that the invoice accompanying the goods shows the notes “please refer to support ticket...” Unperturbed, I sent a number of polite follow up emails. None of the Acoustic Sounds team have responded to me. My second order arrived with another damaged item. I have sent another polite email requesting support which has again been ignored by Acoustic Sounds. Incredibly frustrating that a business would show such disregard...