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FAQs

Affirm Financing Policies

Yes, purchases made using Affirm are refundable minus a 6% restocking fee. If purchasing an instrument, please keep this in mind as you will be required to pay for return shipping and a 6% restocking fee if you have used Affirm.

You can read all about Affirm here: https://www.affirm.com/disclosures,

Affirm is like a credit card associated with our store. You will receive a line of credit with minimum monthly payments. When you use Affirm in the checkout process, you will see before you buy how much your monthly payments are and whether you will qualify for the loan on the product/s you are interested in purchasing.

You can read all about Affirm here: https://www.affirm.com/disclosures,

Returns and Refunds

All instruments (except those on consignment) come with a 14-day trial period. We do require that you purchase the instrument to try it. We do our best to match players with cellos, so please let us help you if you are shopping. Making sure you have the best match possible reduces the possibility of returns, which are always risky. When you receive your cello, please take your time to get to know it. If for some reason you are not totally thrilled with your new instrument, contact us to arrange a return. You will be required to pay for delivery shipping and return shipping. Return shipping may be considerable more than you paid to have it delivered. We subsidize the delivery costs. We do not subsidize the return costs. Please contact us if you are unsure what your return costs may be. We reserve the right to not send a cello out if we feel the customer is not serious about the sale and simply wants to try instruments.*


Cases are not returnable. If you are unsure whether your cello will fit into a particular case, please contact us for help. If we assist you, and it still doesn't fit, we will allow a return.

Bows can be trialed with previous arrangement. Please contact us if you want to trial bows.

All other products are eligible for return. Please contact us if you are not totally happy with your purchase and we will send you a return shipping label.

You can read our full return policy here.

*All returns will be subject to a 5% restocking fee. Products purchased using Affirm payments will be subject to a 6% restocking fee. Orders cancelled will be subject to a restocking fee in accordance with the bank fees we had to pay to process your payment.

No, sorry, but any cello that has a sales price is NOT eligible for use with your trade-in or your rental credit. If you need to use a trade-in or your rental credit, you will have to pay the original, full price.

Items with a discounted price are non-returnable and non-refundable, except cellos. If you have serious issues with your discounted item, please contact Linda directly to discuss. Cellos with a discounted price are still eligible for our standard 14-day trial.

No, we are sorry, but all case sales are final! We have done our best with inventory at hand to have accurate measurements of the interior of most cases. Please see the case item page for the measurements tab (below the photos). There is also an image on each case page that you can use to show you where and how to measure your cello to compare to the case measurements. If you are still unsure whether your cello will fit into the case you are interested, please Contact Us.

If you are shopping online, we are partnered with Affirm Financing.

If you visit our store in person, we are proud to be able to offer financing through Synchrony Financial.

The other payment methods that we accept are all major credit cards (including American Express) paypal, venmo, cash, local checks, money orders, automatic bank transfers, and wire transfers.

Please see our trade-in/trade-up policy here.

Shipping

 I charge you whatever UPS charges me. If you add the cello to your cart, you can see the shipping charges. If you have questions, or the shipping charge seems too high, or you are not in the U.S., please Contact Us.

Yes! We have many countries set up for International shipping. To find out if we already ship to your country, put the items you want in the cart and see if you get shipping options when you enter your address. If not, contact us, tell us where you are and ask if we can ship to you. For some products, such as cases and cellos, Linda can arrange special rates, but in many cases the shipping charges are fairly high, so you will have to decide if you want to pay them. 

Products shipped Internationally are not eligible for trial periods and all sales are final.

Set-Up and Repairs

I ship my cellos set-up and ready to play. I want you to be able to open the box and play. I require that my cellos be shipped in a hard case with some beginning cellos being the exception.

Possibly. Depending on where you live, what needs to be done, and whether you are willing to ship it. I typically work on cellos that can be hand delivered by their owners to my shop in Santa Barbara, CA. However, I may consider doing work on cellos shipped to me. We will have to discuss your specific cello to make a decision together.

It all depends on the particular instrument. Sometimes I may adjust or replace the bridge, change the tail piece, modify the fingerboard, adjust the sound post, or add wolf suppressor/s. I always hand-pick each string, often mixing brands to get an even, consistent sound across all the strings to bring out the best quality in each instrument. I often pick out new pegs or tailpiece that are more aesthetically pleasing and that compliment the look of the cello better than the stock pieces. Every aspect of the cello is analyzed by playing it, and we try out different things until we feel the cello is performing in an optimum manner.

Instrument Trials

I have a 14-day trial policy for cellos*. If you get the cello, and it just doesn't work for you for whatever reason, just send it back to me. (You will have to pay for shipping.) I will either refund your original payment, or if there is another cello that you want, apply the money to that. If it comes to this, we will be talking and will decide together the best course of action. More than anything, I want you to be completely satisfied with your cello. See my Returns Policy above for more info. When you receive your cello for trial, keep ALL of the packing materials, and look closely how it was packed. You will need to repack it the same as you received it. Shipping is expensive so check into that before you commit to a trial period. Your actual charges to ship back to me may be MORE than you paid originally from me. I often absorb excess shipping charges as part of my business expenses.

*International destinations, (including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico), cellos or bows with a discounted price, and cellos/bows on consignment are not eligible for the 14-day trial.

Consignment instrument and bow sales are final, meaning there is no trial period with them. Since I don't own the item and am selling it for someone else, I can't take the liability for it traveling out and back while you test it out. I may make some exceptions to this rule for people I know well and live close by.

We occasionally will take an outstanding or rare instrument in on consignment, but we are slowly reducing our consignment inventory because it is just not profitable for us.

We do allow bow trials out of the shop for bows over $1,000. Trialing bows will be at our discretion. Please contact us for details.