My experience with the Flute Center of New York (and Chicago) has been just phenomenal! Since I live in Chicago, I first stopped by the Chicago store and chatted with the flute technician on site (can't remember her name unfortunately). I wanted to know if there was any point in fixing the student flute I'd been playing on for decades but that was sounding worse and worse (couldn't get out any notes past a low G). I wasn't sure if my problem was my fault (bad technique) or the flute. She took a look at it and concluded it was not worth repairing, since it would be cheaper to buy a new one. Although she wasn't a sales person (no one else was manning the store at that time), she was very helpful in letting me try out a bunch of flutes in my price range and giving me advice. Turned out, the problem wasn't me, it was my ancient flute! I ended up taking home a Trevor James Chanson on trial that day at no cost to me. A few days later I called the Flute Center with some questions and my call ended up at the New York branch, where I spoke with Caity. She offered to send me 4 more flutes to try out for free (free shipping and everything!). I loved all of them (each of them sounded infinitely better than my poor old Gemeinhardt), to the extent that I wondered if I might like flutes in a higher price range even better. It just so happened that I was going to be in NYC briefly, so I arranged to stop by the NYC store in person during my stay. Caity wasn't there that day, but Alex helped me, and was super helpful as well. I spent a delightful couple of hours trying out different flutes in a higher price range ($4500-$6000), picked out my favorites, and Alex mailed me a new batch of flutes to try back in Chicago afterwards. They didn't even ask me to send back the first batch first! Eventually I went with the Yamaha 677h, which I adore. Playing such a lovely-sounding flute has made me fall in love with the instrument all over again and inspired me to practice 10x more than I ever have before.
I am floored by the amazing customer service I got from everyone I encountered at both Flute Centers. It seems that everyone who works there is an experienced flutist, so their advice has been extremely helpful. But even more amazing is how generous they were in allowing me to try so many flutes at once and for a considerably longer period than the supposed 1-week trial. I could not ask for a better experience. I highly, highly recommend this business to anyone interested in buying anything flute-related. I will be a loyal customer for life!