Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Ordering & Shipping

1. Where will my items ship from?
2. What is drop-shipping? Do you drop-ship? Why?
3. How quickly will my items ship after ordering?
4. What is the delivery time of different shipping methods?
5. Why did this "Items Shipped" email arrive a day(s) after the shipping date?
6. I ordered my items expecting to have them by a certain date and they arrived late. What can I do about it?
7. Why did my items ship using a different method than I specified?
8. One or more of my items is backordered? What does that mean and what happens next?

Feedback, Comments, Contact Us

1. How can I provide feedback on the service I received, positive or negative?

Answers to FAQs

We ship from our own warehouse in Virginia and those of several suppliers and partners around the United States, primarily in Chicago, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Missouri. We generally ship items from the location where they can ship the earliest, so for example, if we are out of an item in our Virginia warehouse, but have more of the item due in two days, we will ship the item from another warehouse or supplier if they can ship it more quickly. Our aim is to get your items on their way to you as quickly as possible.

A drop-shipment is when one of our suppliers ships the item directly to our customer, instead of sending the item to our warehouse. We use a combination of shipments from our own warehouse and drop-shipments from our suppliers. The reasons we use drop-shipping to augment our own warehouse capabilities are many, but the primary reason is that it provides better selection, value and service to our customers. Our drop-shipments come directly from the publishers of the sheet music, music books, CDs and DVDs which we sell in our store. Our close partnering relationship with suppliers allows us to offer a much larger selection of items, including hard-to-find items, than we could otherwise, and to reduce our prices to customers through lower shipping and warehouse costs.

Items generally ship within 24 to 48 hours, not including Saturday and Sunday. Many items routinely ship the same day they are ordered. Items ordered with express shipping (overnight, 2nd-day, and often priority mail) will usually ship on the same or next day.

• USPS Media Mail (Budget Shipping) - We offer discounted prices and budget shipping to help you save more money. Budget shipping uses the US Postal Service's (USPS) Media Mail. Media Mail delivery time is 1-3 weeks (Monday - Saturday, excluding USPS holidays). Shipments to Alaska and Hawaii take longer. We receive delivery confirmation on media mail packages and limited tracking (entry and departure from postal terminals).
• USPS Priority Mail (Budget Express)- Priority Mail service offers 2-5 USPS business day (Monday - Saturday, excluding USPS holidays) service to most US domestic destinations. We receive delivery confirmation on priority mail packages and limited tracking (entry and departure from postal terminals).
• FedEx Ground - FedEx Ground delivers in 1�5 business days within the contiguous U.S.; 3�7 business days to and from Alaska and Hawaii. Delivery is by the end of the business day. Deliveries are made Monday-Friday only (not Saturday). FedEx Ground does not deliver to P.O. boxes. We receive full tracking and delivery confirmation.
• FedEx Home Delivery - We occasionally ship using FedEx Home delivery when it will solve a customer's need to receive an item using Saturday delivery. FedEx Home has the same characteristics as FedEx Ground except that deliveries are made Tuesday�Saturday, between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. We receive full tracking and delivery confirmation.
• FedEx 2nd Day - FedEx 2nd Day delivers in 2 business days to most areas, by 4:30 p.m. for businesses and by 7 p.m. to residences. Delivery is Monday-Friday only. We receive full tracking and delivery confirmation.
• FedEx Overnight Standard - Next-business-day delivery by 3 p.m. to most U.S. addresses; by 4:30 to rural areas. Delivery is Monday-Friday only.

Our systems for some locations are reconciled and updated overnight, so depending on the shipping warehouse location for your items, we may not get shipping confirmation until the next day. Our technology team is working on getting all of our systems to be more fully integrated and updated more quickly.

First of all, please let us know if this happens so we can see what we can do, both now and in the future. Secondly, on future orders, please use the "Special Instructions" window on the "Step 3 - Review and Submit Order" screen of the checkout process to let us know that you need something by a specific date. That way we can make adjustments to delivery method and get it to you on time.

Sometimes the size, weight or other circumstances of an order provide us with an opportunity to ship your order using a faster method without an additional charge to you. In those cases, we ship using the faster method, as our customers tell us they appreciate getting their items faster if it doesn't cost more. If you absolutely want your order shipped using a specific method, please tell us on future orders using the "Special Instructions" window on the "Step 3 - Review and Submit Order" screen of the checkout process.

When items are backordered, and we believe the back order time will be short (less than a week) we will show the item as backordered and ship it when it becomes available (extra shipping charges are at our expense, not yours.) If the back order time is expected to be lengthy, we will contact you to ask whether you would like to leave the back order in place (we will ship when it becomes available) or to cancel that part of the order.

We welcome your comments, feedback, suggestions and ideas for improvement. Being a sensitive group of musicians, we take your feedback to heart, and keep adjusting our website and processes to make everything work smoothly and make our customers really happy. If we've done that, please let us know - we can always use more testimonials. If we haven't done that, please let us know - we'll analyze what happened and you'll likely see a change in our processes, instructions or website to address issues and continue to improve. See our Contact Us page for ways to reach us.