A "preorder" allows you to place a reservation for an item prior to its scheduled release date.
Preorders are considered bought by you and are therefore set aside before they go up for sale to the general public to avoid fast-selling, or out-of-stock unavailability.
How do I know if an item is available for preorder?
Check the Coming Soon "Available for Preorder" section or an item's product page. Any item that is available for preorder will have a "Preorder this item" button. You will need a Dusty Groove account to place a preorder.
If an item is not available for preorder, you always have the option to add the item to your Watch List and be notified when it is available for purchase.
How do I preorder?
Click the "Preorder this item" button, login to your Dusty Groove account, add a credit card and shipping address and click "Preorder now". It's that simple!
An online account, credit card, and shipping address are required to place a preorder.
Please make sure your credit card does not expire before your item is expected to arrive at Dusty Groove. You can update your credit card and shipping address anytime in your account's Preorders section.
After placing your preorder, you will receive an email confirmation and can see your preorder status on your account's Preorders section.
Where can I review my preorder(s)?
You can check the status of all of your preordered items on your account's Preorders section along with their expected release dates as well as your preorder credit card and shipping address information.
When will I be charged?
Your credit card will be charged when your preorder item is ready to ship.
NOTE: Your preorder reservation will be canceled if your credit card is declined.
Though we do not charge your credit card at the time of ordering, we will impose penalties to anyone abusing the system and not following through with the preorder process. We appreciate that customers only use this service for it's intended purpose of intentional buying so that we can offer better fulfillment to them.
What happens if the price of a preorder changes between the time I place my preorder and when it ships?
You will always receive the lower price.
How much does preorder shipping cost?
A box of CDs only: flat rate of $3 per box.
A box of LPs or anything other than CDs: flat rate of $4 per box.
We only ship you one flat-rate box each week.
There is no cost to pickup your preorder at our Chicago store.
When will my preorder ship?
We ship your items as soon as possible, up to one flat-rate box shipped per street-date release week, optimized for Friday release dates. The rate is the same, no matter how many preorder items are in the box.
For items with an exact release date, you won't receive the item before the official release date due to availability restrictions established by labels and distributors. You may receive some items after the release date if we get them late.
Any items received after we send you a flat-rate box will be shipped the next available street-date release week.
Will I be reminded before my preorder ships?
No, but you can keep track of and make changes in your account's Preorders section.
Once your preordered item is ready to ship, we will use your current credit card and shipping address to charge and ship automatically.
When your preorder ships you will receive an order confirmation email with tracking information.
How does preorder combined shipping work?
Customers with regular weekly preorders will usually have one flat-rate box shipped Thursday, in an attempt to accumulate the most street-dated items into one package.
Even though your titles may have release dates, any inventory receiving procedure cannot guarantee physical product availability ahead of street date so we do not hold up flat-rate boxes for items that may or may not arrive later in the week.
For example: you may have preorders with release dates for this Tuesday, this Friday, and next Friday, and we shipped you a flat-rate box last Thursday. If our inventory is received as scheduled we will ship you this Tuesday and this Friday's releases on Thursday, and next Friday's release on next Thursday (your next available flat-rate box). While this slows down the delivery of your item received Tuesday, in most cases it enables us to send this Friday's release and next Friday's release to you much sooner. Week over week this works out to your advantage.
The status "preparing for shipment to you" generally indicates we have your preordered items ready and are briefly waiting to accumulate more items, or are waiting for the next available shipping opportunity to send them to you.
In some cases you may have preorders with release dates for this Tuesday and this Friday and no recent preorder packages. When this happens, this Tuesday's release will be sent on Tuesday and this Friday's release will be sent this Thursday, if we receive them from the distributor by that time.
Unfortunately we cannot hold shipment in an attempt to combine all scheduled releases on Friday because any delay in our inventory receiving compounds the delay shipping any other preordered releases to you.
How do I know when my preorder is due to arrive?
Preorder release dates are based on the most recent information we receive from labels and distributors, and may be subject to change due to delays in manufacturing or shipping.
We do our best to keep preorder release dates accurate based on the most current information. If the scheduled release date of your preorder item changes, we adjust that date and your preorder remains open until your item is ready for shipment.
In the rare circumstance that an item is canceled by the label or never released at all, we will notify you by email.
Can I pickup my preorder at the Chicago store?
Yes, by selecting "Pickup order" in your account's Preorders section.
Pickup orders still abide by street-date rules and will not be handed over before a street date release.
Please check your pickup email confirmation for more information.
Can I have my preorder shipped with my regular order?
Unfortunately no, at this time all preorders must be ordered, charged, and shipped separately from regular orders.
Can I ship my preorder to an international address?
At this time we cannot ship preorders to international addresses. We apologize for this inconvenience and will continue to work towards making this service available to our international customers in the future.
An item is available for sale on the website. Is there a problem with my preorder?
No, if your preorder status is "preparing for shipment to you" then we have reserved your preorder item(s) and are processing your order for shipment.
In rare circumstances, some of the titles you have preordered may have recently appeared in stock on our website. Nevertheless your items are still on the way and your order has not been canceled.
If we have sent you a flat-rate box of preorder items this week, then those preorder items we received after that shipment will be carried over and shipped ASAP in your next weekly package.
Is my preorder guaranteed?
While our buyers will do their absolute best to deliver your preorders, sometimes the availability of an item is beyond our control due to factors such as canceled releases, allotments of over-ordered titles, lost shipments, etc.
Please know that if we can, we will fulfill your preorder, but in rare cases we will not be able to guarantee an item.
Can I cancel my preorder?
You may cancel your reservation up until the item has been received from the supplier.
To cancel a preorder, go to your account's Preorders section and click the
cancel option [] to the right of your preordered item.
If there is no cancel option, your preorder item has arrived from the supplier and it is being prepared for shipment to you at which time it can no longer be canceled.
If you have any upcoming preorders, you must select a new shipping address or cancel any unfulfilled preorder reservations before deleting your existing preorder shipping address.
If you have any upcoming preorders, you must select a new credit card or cancel any unfulfilled preorder reservations before deleting your existing preorder credit card.