First and so far only purchase from tower.com  
 
Item shipped very next day and arrived shortly after. Arrived in perfect condition. The DVD television series I order was about $20 less than any other site I looked at.  
 
Planning another purchase shortly.

When I placed the order on 12/14, the arrival date was on time for Christmas on website, but when I got the shipping confirmation email the following week, it said it would be here in 8- 15 business days upon shipment. Most of it arrived on 12-24 but some items had NO plastic wrap on them at all and appear to have been used. I emailed them twice and left two phone messages and NOBODY has responded. We're still waiting for one more item. I will NEVER order from them again.

This review was modified by its author, aimhigh, on 1/2/08 7:47 PM.

I ordered Porcupine Tree's "Lightbulb Sun" from Tower.com back in May. The website misleadingly said "item available" rather than "backorder". Tower has since overhauled the way items are listed on their website to "in stock", "ships within 2-4 weeks", or "not available". Lightbulb Sun is a difficult-to-find release and I was willing to wait for a backordered CD (they are re-releasing it later this year).  
 
On May 29 I received a shipment confirmation and my credit card was billed. I waited 21 days for the item to deliver before I followed up with Tower.com. Through the web form, I was twice sent a form letter (On June 20 and July 7) that said my item was on backorder. Furthermore, my login was deleted and I could not find a record of my order through their automated system.  
 
On July 11, established phone contact with Tower.com and was told that their system was overhauled on May 29 and that I was erroneously sent a shipment confirmation and that my login information was deleted. The phone rep was able to look up my order and saw that it was still on backorder. It is now August 11 and I have not received any contact from Tower and my order has still not arrived. Lightbulb Sun is now listed as "Not Available" on Tower.com.  
 
Tower.com will take orders that they cannot fulfill in a timely manner. It has been way past the 2-4 week deadline and I will be following up this order this Monday to see if my order has been canceled (I have not received a credit). If you're looking for customer service through the web form, forget it. You'll just receive a form-letter reply that doesn't answer your question. Phone support was satisfactory and I received a follow-up e-mail. If you want a back-ordered item, I would not recommend Tower based on my experience and I will never order anything from Tower again.  
 
Update: I just got off the phone with them and they told me the item was unavailable and canceled the order. Why they didn't tell me it changed status is beyond me and I don't know why I gave them the benefit of the doubt with this order. Now I have to see if the refund goes through smoothly...

This review was modified by its author, TX297, on 8/21/07 4:47 PM.

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS. The old TowerRecords.com that used to provide excellent service is as dead as the brick-and-mortar retail store chain that closed last year. The Tower.com domain was recently purchased by Caiman.com, which I believe willfully enagages in deceptive business practices. They advertise as having items "in stock", bill your credit card, and then provide excuses when the item can't be shipped. This happened to me twice. The first time I had ordered a CD with Caiman through Half.com. When the disk did not arrive I contacted them repeatedly by email and was given a number of excuses regarding the delays in processing the order. By the time I realized they weren’t going to be able to deliver, I had gone past the deadline for disputing the charge. Based on that experience, I would not have ordered from them again. However, I recently placed an order from Tower.com, not knowing that Caiman.com had bought the domain. I ordered an "In Stock" item from the website, and when the item did not show up I was told variously that "the item is on back order and will ship next week", "the item will ship tomorrow", and "the item had not yet been obtained from their distributors and could take several more weeks". After that last excuse I cancelled that portion of the order, and immediately received an email saying that the refund would be completed in 72 hours. After nearly two weeks the credit had not been posted to my credit card. When I called Tower.com they told me the refund would take 6 to 8 weeks to process. Since waiting that long would effectively cause me to forfeit the chance to dispute the charge, I have contacted my credit card company to alert them of the disputed charge. At this point I am awaiting resolution. Based on my experiences and other posted online comments, I urge others to avoid Caiman.com and Tower.com at all costs.

Ordered two games form them Call of duty 3 for Playstation 3 and Excite Truck for WII. Got both for good price and good shipping.No problems.

I have ordered from Tower Records for quite a few years now and it is 1 of only 5 online music retailers I use. I have never had a problem with ordering and I have received my orders promptly.

This is the worst company I have EVER dealt with-On OR offline.  
 
Not only did the CD I purchase arrive cracked, but I purchased the "MySpace Records Volume 1" that comes with additional MySpace photos... NEVER GOT THEM.  
 
For every 5 angry emails I send I get one half assed answer. The last stated someone has to manually set them up... What the heck was the 'activation' link I clicked? A joke?  
 
I'll tell you what the joke is... this company.

Over the past few months I have placed 13 orders online with US CD & LP sellers. Orders placed with both Acoustic Sounds Inc & CD Connection were all dispatched in their entirety, whilst of the 8 orders placed with Tower Records, only one, the first, was sent in one shipment.  
All the rest required 2 or even 3 shipments to complete, whilst the currently outstanding order, if completed, will require 4. The initial shipment of this order, vis. 3 CDs, was lost in the mail, the first and only time this has ever happened to me in well over 200 transactions between myself in Melbourne Australia, and sellers all over the world.  
Even the replacement shipment, which I received today, was for only 2 Cds; they couldn`t even send it complete!  
Despite good communications and friendly staff, at the end of the day, it`s service that counts, and Tower Records` service is terrible. I certainly won`t be buying any more CDs from them. Ever.  

This company is not reputable. Priced a collection at a great price and failed to deliver. Sent a note that it is no longer available, yet still posted on this site. I don't recommend anyone dealing with this shady business.

Tower has really good prices and they dont gouge you on shipping costs either. Their selection is great for cds, I have been able to find stuff there that I can't find elsewhere online. Definitely shopping here from now on instead of amazon