We found this little gem whilst surfing for DJ news & rumours, ( thats hard to find let me tell you !!! ). At DJ History they havea very extensive guide to record shops in the UK. Its looking quite full and might have a lot of potential. So if your in the market for records in the UK check it.

UK Record Store Guide

Pioneer Production Forums are reporting the HDJ 1000 Headphones all fuggered !!.

brooks writes:

So I’m playing, mixing and having a good time than it happens again. I place my HDJ1000’s on my head and they break right above the earcup the same place the last pair I had broke …

He goes on to explain that these headphones had only been in use for 3 months.

Further posts report much of the same:
djrox:

I hate to tell ya but Im having the same issues with the HDJ1000s. Im on pair #4, 1st pair broke 1 week post warranty expiration and second pair broke 1 week into use , 6 months later, same ish , broken plastic. I think I have purchased my last pair despite the great sound they provide.

pkaulf:

My brother’s HDJ1000s (second pair) have also cracked and broken in the same place.

Toxis:

I just had my 1000’s bust on me tonight exactly the same way

There are many more posts concerning the same issue. The rub is that Pioneer customer service allegedly takes up to 2 monthes to fix these issues. While it is true that if the allegations are true that Pioneer is at fault ( in my opinion ) why would you by the same product over and over expecting a different result ?

Bit of madness for all parties involved there in my opinion. At any rate I’d avoid them, any of you have a pair ? have you had problems ?

American Audio Center. , a online seller of DJ and ProAudio products is receiving a lot of bad press. The store offers great prices on proaudio products but fails to note why they can offer such a great deal. It became apparent though after a bit of research why. They undercut the competition by selling lower than the lowest authorized price of the dealers.

No big deal right ? Wrong !

If you buy a product from these guys you will not have a warranty from Pioneer or Numark. Probably others as well but we haven’t verified that. Numark went to the trouble of going on forums to warn about these guys. Pioneer put out a press release about them not being an authorized dealer.

American does point this out in their info page:

American Audio Center is not an authorized dealer for any of the name brands shown on this site. Any defective products can be sent back to American Audio Center for repairs or exchange. American Audio Center will take care of all warranty needs.

Unfortunately it is in extremely small type on the info page at the absolute bottom. We did not find it anywhere else on the site.

The check out process we went through presented with the following information about the terms of service the customer had to agree with. Many of them conflicting with the promise of American Audio Center taking care of the warranty. We added the highlights to emphasize the points we take issue with. The misspellings are theirs. “[…]” indicates we left out a section we thought didn’t pertain to the issues at hand.

By purchasing, making payments, and submitting an order for our products or services, you indicate your acceptance of an agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions set fort below.

[…]

Any merchandise sold as is cannot be returned for any reason.

All return items must be in original conditions including all boxes, packing, instructions and warranty cards.

No refunds or exchanges on special orders.

[…]

All products carry manufacture warranty only.

We will ship your defective item to the manufacturer for all warranty and non warranty repairs.

In case of a return for repair, customer shall cover the shipping cost going from their end to service center or warehouse destination, no excuses.

[…]

Absolutely no cash or credit card refund We do not give store warranty.

It says quite clearly here, They do not offer a store warranty and the items are only covered under the manufacturer warranty. However on the info page they identify themselves as unauthorized dealers and that means they can’t sell items with manufacturer warranties. I don’t know about you but I interpet this as, you get no warranty, and in my opinion it shows signs that they might be intentionally confusing the issue.

Should you get to the point where you send your item back, which reading all this I am not so sure you could do, you need to meet a long list of conditions. An original receipt must be provided, but seeing that its an internet purchase I am not sure what they want for that. Also you pay for shipping, possibily a restocking fee, and you never ever get any returns on your money.

These are definitely people to be avoided but the real lesson here is to make sure you read those policies when you buy online. Make sure the dealer is an authorized dealer and double check for bad reviews.