Richer Sounds - Holborn Arvostelua 

Very efficient transaction

Rang the Holborn Branch for a possible trade-in on my existing Bluetooth speaker to reduce clutter, upgrading to the Ruark MR1 Mk 3. They offered quite a generous deal, so I visited them the next day.

Whilst the Holborn shop is very small and busy, with a queue forming at opening time, I was served promptly by a very friendly and cheerful shop assistant. He tested my device, which must be in perfect working order and then honoured the trade-in value. No fuss or bother and stress free.

I opted for free delivery, but the package arrived much earlier than expected; the very next morning. The product was in its factory sealed box, brand new and of exceptional quality. It works very well with my desktop PC and Blu-ray player. I have placed the Ruark speakers on my 40 year old metal speaker stands, left over from my old hi-fi and they are very impressive. The Ruark MR1 Mk 3 rewards its users with a very open, detailed and immersive sound stage.

Such quality of customer service and trade-in offers to buy top quality goods are increasingly rare. I would definitely buy from this Branch of Richer Sounds again.

TV
Had what I wanted and was in Stock, delivered very quickly. Customer service was very good.

In store advice was thorough and helpful meaning I was able to make a well informed choice about the product I wanted and never felt pushed into anything. Great service!

I'm a 40+ year professional musician and studio engineer among other things. After maybe a 15-year gap in using portable audio devices I thought I would venture back into the world of high-end mini digital audio players. I reached out to Richer Sounds in Holborn, described my needs and preferences in great detail and they made a couple of recommendations on a FIIO M23 digital audio player and set of Sennheiser open back headphones.

Turns out my needs we're not really listened to because both were completely and utterly unsuitable and sounded pretty much horrid.

There is a serious problem with modern commerce in these high techs and very high-priced audio gadget shops where they're now have a policy that practically nothing can be tested or tried in the store prior to purchase because they have a policy that says items cannot be unwrapped. Which is patently ridiculous. How can you test or try anything particularly an audio device that requires listening to without unwrapping the thing?

These devices can be pretty expensive, the set I bought was about £1,000. But they can go as high as £3,700.
The fact that you are forced to fork out such large quantities of money but are not allowed to open and unwrap an item merely to test it because doing so many damage a piece of plastic wrapping that doesn't even cost a penny is quite mind blowing.
Instead, you are forced to purchase it merely to test it. And they don't even allow you to do that in the shop, you have to buy it and take it all the way home, in my case that was a 30-mile round trip that had to be done twice wasting two entire days of my life. When they simply could have unwrapped it themselves in the store and allow me to test it when I then could have made a decision in 30 seconds, because either way involves unwrapping the item making this no 'unwrapping policy' completely ridiculous.
It does nothing except create massive inconvenience and a huge time wasting only for the customer who then has to do the same long journey back to the store to return it and then wait for their refund because they were simply sold a product rather than guided into buying something that would actually be suitable for them.
Richer Sounds has this exact same policy.
With a store markup profit or between 30% and 50% you think they would take the time to marry customers up with the right devices.
But it's clear this is not a motivation for these stores, the motivation to sell as much stuff as quickly as possible and be done with it. Because as you all know 'time is money'. Which is why they don't seek to waste any of theirs, only yours.
Maybe this is why they are called ‘RICHER SOUNDS’, because they are plainly getting pretty rich from doing this.
Naturally I followed up my experience with the store with multiple emails describing all of these issues.
And naturally and as expected I've been completely ignored.
Will I be trusting or shopping at Richer Sounds again?
I think you know the answer to that.

EDIT:/

I am now forced edit my review after receiving a disingenuous response from Richer sounds below.

Here they mention I was welcomE to 'try the items at home'. That's my very point manager Tom. again completely ignores., they make you purchase the items and drag them 30 miles away to where you live before you can try them out, when they could have easily been tested in the shop and saved to all that time and expense traveling across London.

He also states that the items were not in their store which is why they could not be tested, while failing to mention that they are actually in their warehouse and could easily have been shipped to their store to be tested. When I asked if they would do this they said no, the customer has to purchase everything before it can even be sent to the shop from their own warehouse. Mysteriously all of this is left out of his response below. Indicating the same lack of sincerity or care but simply damage limitation exercise. Oh, 98% customer reviews is no reflection of quality of service. Statistics show only between 5 and 10% of customers bother to leave trust pilot reviews at all.. so now this 98% means nothing.

We were not quite sure what to buy to replace an existing CDPlayer and Steve was really helpful and knowledgeable and found something which was not too expensive and fitted the small space. It works well but without his help we may well have bought a completely wrong piece of equipment. It arrived on time

Excellent service, knowledge of products which really helped wit our decision making as we are not tech savvy. great staff could not be more helpful

Very helpful service, focused on finding out what I wanted and showing me the actual turntables that would deliver.

no Order was placed as it was unnecessary due to bad guidance from Richer Sounds due to a very costly & terrible referral by yourselves due to my Sonos not working & AV Solutions put forward ( who happen to be TV Specialists only )who completely destroyed my Sonos App & Contents , were completely useless & completely over charged me. Not Happy in any way.

Really helpful staff in store. Knowledge about the product I was looking to purchase.

I tend to usually buy from Richer Sounds. The main reason is because they seem to stock very well reviewed equipment, at competitive prices.
Secondly, they offer an unusually impressive extended warranty.
Lastly, I find that the staff are really very good, (I mostly buy from the Holborn branch as it's my nearest, but when I have bought from other branches, the staff have also impressed me.)
So, as an example: I recently had a post-purchase issue for equipment I bought at the Holborn branch. Steve (the branch manager) sorted it instantly, without any fuss, and at no cost to me. It's really quite rare to find such good customer service. I wish other retailers were more like this. 

The staff really friendly and helpful, prices reasonable

Fantastic service! Thank you so much 😃

Great radio, nice functionality, the partner app a bonus. Nice to go into a shop where they know their business

Excellent service and rapid delivery of my order. Really positive atmosphere and the avoidance of the use of techno babble - refreshing!

A positive experience in purchasing hi-f equipment from Richer Sounds In Holborn, London