Complaint Review: Kings Road Merch

I purchased a vinyl album from the band Bad Suns (Kings Road Merch manages their online store). The album arrived with a torn up and bent album jacket/cover.

I wrote customer service and told them the problem and requested a replacement. They made me send photos to prove my claim that it arrived damaged (like I'm lying, really?). Then they asked me to return the item, which I had to do at my own expense!

When I requested a refund for my shipping expense they told me, quote: "Since the album was not defective and you are exchanging for a cosmetic reason we do not issue shipping refunds."

I explained that vinyl collectors (anyone really) wants their album covers/jackets not to be torn and bent up and that since they weren't willing to cover my shipping costs I would then just prefer a refund. I no longer wanted to deal with such a lousy company.

They responded say: "Your return has been processed. Please allow 3-5 business days for the refund to appear back on your card." When I checked my credit card statement it turned out they didn't even refund the amount I originally paid THEM to ship me the album!

So now I'm out BOTH the shipping fees they charged me to send me the album with the torn and bent up cover AND the shipping fees I paid to return the damaged item back to them! How does that make sense to anyone??

In my opinion, any band that uses Kings Road Merch to handle their online store seriously risks *** off their fans. A Google search for "Kings Road Merch complaints" shows a lot of other people have received the same horrible customer service.

I will never buy from any band using Kings Road Merch in the future.