It's all about who you deal with if you ask me. If you have an honest to god ukulele lover who's not out to cheat you, you've got nothing to worry about. When I bought my KoAloha from Kent at
AlohaU, I only saw a few pictures of it and heard him play it on the telephone. Furthermore, he sent me some clips of it via email. He has a 7 day return policy I think. But I loved the ukulele when I first set eyes on it and played it; IT'S A KOALOHA!
Of course there's no way to really get the feeling until you get it into your hands, but most ukulele dealers aren't usually out to push the sale, just slightly persuade. So you don't have to worry about them shipping you a crappy uke. But tastes are hard to convey through any form of media, so I the dealer can be blamed for that.:smileybounce:
Although its ideal to play an ukulele before you buy it, it's often not practical. Living in GA, there are only two main dealers.
UkeRepublic, and
AlohaU that are relevant to me. I am aware of some ukulele dealers in FL, but I haven't found anything down there that I want; not yet anyways. MGM sells a bunch of different ukuleles and if I were to say "hey MGM, let me try them out before I play them." he'd might agree to that for a few ukes, but no more if you don't buy anything." Think about it. The costs associated with "trying out" before buying ukuleles would be astronomical. Each ukulele would have to be insured with guaranteed delivery confirmation, therefore rising the cost of the ukulele itself. In the end, if you try the ukulele, and you don't like it, you've gone and wasted probably $50+ on shipping already. That fifty+ dollars eats into your cash that you could have invested into a keeper ukulele. Why doesn't the dealer pay for the shipping and handling? Why should they? They can just as easily make a sale to people who are willing to buy it without trying it out.
Those who don't try stuff out rely on reviews. That's why consumer reports was created. You can't buy every single 60in. television to test out to see which one you like best. You eat up the companies inventory. By not considering other peoples' reviews, you are implying that your opinion is above theirs and carries a higher standard. This might prove to be rather offensive to those who genuinely love their ukuleles and are not trying to get a kick back or something. No offense intended.
So.. now that's I've ranted a good bit..
.. anyone up for an ukulele leasing company? We could charge crazy high interest rates!