Play.com merged with another company called Rakuten and became shit. Haven't bought from them in ages. Probably never will again. Sad.

I also found the site CD and LP recently (http://www.cdandlp.com/en/). They're a marketplace for independent sellers. I've seen some rarer stuff listed on there that other sites just don't have or want to charge the earth for. 

The actual record shop is a dying breed. Aside from HMV's in the nearby Chelmsford and Colchester town centre's (both of which aren't great but have actually been better in the last couple of years than they had been both in terms of selection and prices), we have a small shop in Sudbury which is only a short drive from the town I live in. They don't have much in the metal line though, just a few big names and maybe some newer releases if you're lucky. 

I did find a nice shop in Clacton last year which had a decent metal section. I picked up a couple of albums there. 

I've had a few bad experiences with Amazon/ebay sellers too. I ordered an album from a 'Rock&PopCDVD' on Amazon on November 23rd, an Xmas present for my Dad. It didn't arrived until December 24th. The estimated delivery was December 2nd. For some reason they shipped the album from the US to Germany first (and also didn't ship it until December 1st), where it was relabeled and eventually reached us. By that time I had got it refunded (by Amazon, as I couldn't get a satisfactory response from the seller) and bought the album again from that little shop I mentioned in my last post. 

Had to repay for it just after Xmas due to it now being marked as delivered on the tracking (which stopped being updated on December 9th until December 23rd). Fortunately my Dad was able to swap the second copy I'd bought for something else. 

tl'dr, avoid Rock&PopCDVD. 

On rare occasion I'll order from Discogs if all else fails, as they will often have the cheapest prices for obscure stuff or albums that for whatever reason aren't cheap.

Unfortunately even the best used music stores in the world don't always have what you want when you want em so i have spent a lot of money on ImportCDs.com as well as Discogs, Music Stack and last resort Amazon or Ebay. Often some things are only available on small sites or from the artists themselves.

Thanks for that, I'll check it out.

If you're online buying do not use the Wow HD website. They are useless and IMO fraudulent. 

I have three CDs on order with them which were paid for by PayPal (in other words they were paid instantly). Wow HD have sent nothing off and take over a week to reply to a message, at which point they said they weren't getting the items in after all (yet still list them for sale) and had left my paid for order pending anyway. They said they'd cancel the order but did not refund the money - their exact words were not to worry, as because the order was not dispatched my credit card would not have been charged. As I paid by PayPal I obviously was charged already, a little fact that Wow HD doesn't seem to care about.

I now have to wait to the 26th to get my money back from PayPal due to their ridiculously long window for sellers to defend themselves against a buyer's claim. 

Do not use them!

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/wowhd.co.uk/56cb3cae0000ff00093e0f01

That's a good idea.

It'd be an on-going project of course and would be heavily reliant on people actually sharing their experiences, good and bad. I do think it would be a nice thing to have though as I've often not ordered something just because I didn't know the reputation of the site in question. Trustpilot only goes so far...I mean sites I've never had a problem with sometimes only have a yellow (average) reputation such as Amazon and Dodax either due to lack of reviews or just being rated down based on customer ignorance (one Amazon review I just saw gave them 1 star complaining about now being allowed to leave negative feedback, which isn't true, but their copy/paste job shows that they tried to leave negative feedback on the item review page which is a totally different system). I've taken the plunge on a couple of unknown's recently and not been let down whereas a company I thought would be fine have shafted me.

So yeah, I think such a list could be helpful so long as multiple members contribute to it. 

Too much stuff bought from them in the last few months has never reached my door, including my recent order of Matthias Steele's Haunting Tales of a Warrior's Past CD, which I order from them three weeks ago and has still not arrived, and they apparently sent a second copy out ten days ago as well. Neither copy has made it here. I also order the Aquilus album from them and the first copy of that didn't get here either. The second (at least I presume it was the second) did, but still I don't think I'm ordering with them anymore with a delivery success rate of just 25%. My previous order of Scanner's Hypertrace also had to be replaced because it didn't arrive. 

This may be a problem more with the delivery service, but other sites stuff doesn't disappear en route as often as this. 

The sad thing is when I was first discovering music there were shops everywhere. Colchester, which is about a 20 minute drive from me, had HMV, Virgin Megastone (which became Zavvi for a short time), and MVC, all of which were major shops. There were smaller shops as well including one called It's Electric, which I really wish was still there as I wasn't into my music enough to appreciate it at the time as they used to have all kinds of stuff you never saw elsewhere, including I think, demo's from bands that major chains wouldn't touch with a bargepole. 

All gone now except HMV. 

Not good, can't say I blame you. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the first copy just turning up late because they are very slow on delivery - 3 weeks is quite normal. To their credit I've ordered 23 albums from them this year and all have turned up. I do get sick of their slow turn around time though.

On the opposite end of the scale I ordered an album from Heavy Ritual Records Monday morning last week and it arrived the next day!

I need to find a new place to shop for CD's. Amazon are okay, especially for the 3rd party sellers, but their own prices seem to be steadily rising and their free delivery threshold is up to £20 minimum spend now. 

I don't know how it is for everyone else in the UK, but it always seems to be the case that whenever I have several packages in the post at any one time at least one of them never gets here. 

In 2016 alone, I have had five packages now that haven't turned up. 

Currently also waiting on a delivery for a label called Glorious North Productions, who I've purchased a job lot of albums from. That isn't late, yet, though it is supposed to be here by tomorrow. 

It is a good site for vinyl and I always get a quick delivery but it's quite specialised so I can't get everything i want there.

I usually use the 3rd party sellers on Amazon too as you're right, their prices are getting silly.

You have been unlucky. Over the year's I've had 1 or 2 packages not arrive but I don't think any have gone missing this year that I've ordered which is a couple a week on average.

I pass a Goodwill Store on my way to work so I stop in there every week or two for a bit of CD scrounging - I don't find a lot of metal there (tho I have scored some Testament, Flotsam and Jetsam, and Candlemass disc there over the years!) but I do find quite a bit of 70s/80s classic rock stuff (Boston, Zeppelin, Ted Nugent, Yes, etc.).

The last metal distro I ordered from was Hells' Headbangers.

And there's nothing like picking up great finds at a thrift store, I've found some great stuff there. Including Slayer's Haunting the Chapel EP.

Amazon don't guarantee it for release date if you don't select One Day Delivery and you also have to be careful that it actually says One Day and not 'Expedited' because that means you absolutely won't get something on release date/next day (regardless of pre-order). 

I've got Prime right now, which I got more for Amazon Video than the free one day delivery deal, but I have made use of that on a few things. I got caught out once by not seeing the difference between One Day Delivery and Expedited delivery, on something I needed quickly too, though.

I've posted my issues with ordering the Panopticon Kentucky reissue with them somewhere on this forum already which has been their biggest screw-up with anything I bought since taking Prime for a year. They didn't promise One Day Delivery on that but they did promise that I'd have it by June 5th. Their date, June 2nd was actually an incorrect release date so I wasn't too bothered when, as expected, June 4th rolled around and it wasn't dispatched, but they they didn't ship it on or around the real release date either. I cancelled after contacting them and they outright told me they couldn't get it.

It's now in stock and has been for at least a week or more, though they've since greatly inflated their price into what I deem the unacceptable area for a new, single disc CD album. 

I've re-ordered it elsewhere (paying less than Amazon originally charged but more than Amazon sellers are now listing it for) but I still don't have it. I'll have been waiting two weeks tomorrow. 

It's often worth hanging on with Amazon until the release date before ordering as the other sellers often beat them on price, even paying for delivery by quite a bit. With vinyl I only tend to pre-order at Amazon if it's no more than £15 as I wouldn't expect it to be going much cheaper than that anyway.

The Decapitated album turned up today which is only a day after release date and much better than their original estimate of Tuesday so I'm happy. 

My priorities when ordering music are...

1. Price - Amazon rarely the cheapest these days.

2. Packaging - Amazon usually good on that.

3. Delivery speed - Amazon getting slower and slower.

So Amazon need to get a grip if they want to me to keep buying music from them.

Yeah the average new metal album price has really crept towards the £15 mark fast in the last couple of years and that's just for CDs. I often find it's cheaper to pay for the postage on a seller's price.

Being on Prime I've mostly been OK, but there have been a few items that they couldn't deliver on Prime speed for me.

I think this is because more and more people are going onto Prime though: they are contractually obligated to provide those orders fast, so anyone who is still holding out on Prime is getting later and later stuff. I wish I could say I believe that is all it is though: I'm willing to bet that a part of it is their way of trying to push you to Prime by delaying your order. The trouble here is most sellers seem to be in the US or Europe now which means you'll still probably get something direct from Amazon first.

I'm a Prime customer mostly for the Prime Video feature because it's not that much more to buy the full yearly Prime subscription that includes the free and fast delivery than it is to just have the videos for a monthly fee. 

The only trouble with Prime video is that it's not, yet, a patch on Netflix, especially in terms of adding new content. I follow a few of their original/exclusive shows such as Vikings, The Grand Tour and Lucifer and I've watched a few films. They've recently added Arrival which is still a fairly recent film that I intend to check out soon.

I would add a 4th point about Amazon:

4. Their selection of titles

I find that Amazon often doesn't actually keep the titles I want to buy, or if they do list them they have a release date set after the official release date for the UK (which also stops sellers from listing that title) and often don't get any stock for titles they offer up for pre-order until well after the event. This is what happened to me with the Panopticon Kentucky reissue. Before than it was the last Mare Cognitum album, which I pre-ordered the day they made it available (had been checking every day). 

I'm currently wanting to get a pre-order in for the new Anubis Gate, which is out in under two weeks, yet still isn't available to pre-order from Amazon. 

I have Netflix and don't feel the need to have Prime as well and what you've said only confirms my thoughts about it.

Netflix is definitely better than Prime for video. When the time comes to renew whether we do or not really depends on how much everyone else in the house is watching on Prime, because I haven't touched their video section since I finished catching up with Vikings. 

Well despite a slow dispatch Dodax came through on a quick delivery this time. Maybe I'll be doing more shopping with them again in the future.

They have their own website as well as on Amazon which is usually a bit cheaper still. I order most of mine through this but it doesn't seem to make a difference to delivery time.

I purchased a CD yesterday, direct from them (not a fulfilled by Amazon listing), in New condition.

It arrived just now and is very clearly a used CD. No shrink wrap and the case is quite heavily scuffed, which is usually a sign of handling over a long period of time in my experience. I'm testing the disc now, and so long as its fine I'll keep for the low price it cost, but needless to say I'm pretty disgusted by this. I've had this kind of crap from 3rd parties before (more often with books) but never Amazon themselves. 

Dodax came through on everything I ordered from them recently, though they did display a habit of not fulfilling orders in order, so I got stuff ordered over the course of two three days over the space of nine days, with the first CD I ordered coming in last. I presume this may be something to do with having (I presume) multiple warehouses.

It was only 2 weeks ago they sent me the wrong drumsticks.

In all my years shopping online I've had a few things lost in the post (usually from 3rd party sellers), a couple of instances where the seller turned out to be a conning bastard, but only one time did I actually receive an outright incorrect delivery. That was years back from HMV, before they nearly went bust even. Can't remember what I was meant to receive now except that it was my Dad's birthday present. They sent me some compilation of Dance music instead. 

They take forever to deliver but have always been good on price but I'm not ordering anything else until I see some proof that they're fullfilling orders.

If you paid through PayPal on their website you can open a dispute there to get your money back. 

Hopefully they're back as their prices are much better than Amazon usually.

Does anyone know any killer sites that specialize in metal only?

Nice to hear, though still waiting for dispatch after three days here so far. 

Only stuff like Nuclear Blast who are expensive. If you find any please let me know.

And still waiting...

Finally dispatched late this afternoon after 12 days. 

I don't know how Dodax is these days and I no longer trust MusicMagpie, but I have to say that World of Books have proved pretty reliable for movies I've bought. A few randomly selected band checks with them though doesn't show up much of a stock for metal CDs. I'd probably search ebay first of all these days if looking for a particular release. Or Discogs. 

I've never had any problems with MusicMagpie myself, always found them reliable and accurate with their description of 2nd hand stuff.

Ebay, I still usually find more expensive than Amazon. It's only occasionally I buy music there. Some sellers seem to ask ridiculous prices.

Their quality control process must be virtually non-existent though given the amount of times I have received discs from them that are so scratched to hell you'd think the previous owner had been a cat. 

While some discs will still play like that, I never accept them, not from companies or personal sellers on ebay (unless disclosed, but then I only buy if described as minor scratches with an assurance of being in working order) And I've had several discs from them, both CD and DVD, that did not play properly. 

I know they get most of their stock from people selling it to them and some people must knowingly sell them discs that do not work, but the final straw for me was their CS department. I just got the impression that their representatives couldn't be arsed to actually deal with a situation I had with them and just keep feeding me canned responses. And their final solutions to issues left something to be desired. Their go-to response is to completely cancel your order and blame it on a glitch in their system. No effort at all to actually fulfil it. 

I must admit I have sometimes given a company another chance out of necessity to get a certain item, but I'm still reeling at MusicMagpie and their dumb excuses. I swore in February that they'd lost me as a customer for life and true to my word I haven't purchased a thing from them ever since. 

A company I trust even less though is WowHD. They proved incompetent at best and fraudulent at worst when I used them. Never again. Full details of this one here:  https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/56c8bf620000ff00093d7d7d" rel="nofollow - https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/56c8bf620000ff00093d7d7d

Dodax doesn't seem as cheap as it used to be. I think it might be down to the weak pound. I need a UK seller cheaper than Amazon who I'm getting pissed off with.

I wouldn't even look at them. Avoids any possible temptation that way. I don't know if you read my linked review of the company on my earlier post but it basically amounted to having to get my money back through PayPal when they showed no sign of ever intending to fulfil my order and had in fact cancelled it but decided they'd keep my £30+ I'd paid them. I'm honestly shocked they haven't been shut down by now. 

I won't go into full details right now (but you can bet a scathing Trust Pilot review will be inbound). The short of it is I bought a collector's edition blu-ray from them, received it incomplete (no idea what they're selling, obviously) and sent it back (at cost to me, which legally they have to reimburse). That was almost three weeks ago and they still have not seen fit to give my money back. I have a PayPal dispute open with them which they have a few more days to reply to, but so far don't seem inclined. My only conclusion is that they intend to keep (read: steal) my money. 

Can't see shipping in from Europe getting any better with a No Deal Brexit on the horizon.