I would send it back if they are not perfect. I came across this record straightner for $2500, I do not know if it works fine/worth it.
www.musicdirect.com/product/71806

I have had fairly good results using 2 pieces of plate glass and my oven. It required some experimentation to get it down right. The oven in my electric stove is set to the warm setting. In my oven it is about 170 degrees F. An LP placed between two 12" squares of plate glass sitting for about 30 minutes was the longest time I've ever needed. This was for a particularly bad pinch warp. The warp would throw my tonearm off the record. For most other warps I heat the oven to temperature. Put the glass and vinyl sandwich in and turn the oven off. Ten to fifteen minutes later I open the door so my "sandwich" can cool off. The times will vary with different ovens. I would urge caution. Do some experimenting with stuff you can afford to lose before trying this on important vinyl.

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I'm a newbie here and have been purchasing most of my vinyl new online. I've run into the problem of a couple of lps being slightly warped. Not horribly warped, just along the perimeter that it is occasionally audible. Is this to be expected of vinyl in general? or is it grounds to send it back to the retailer and request a replacement? Is there any easy way to flatten vinyl?

Welcome to the frustrations of vinyl. If it is at all audible, I send it back. If it isn't, it depends on what mood I'm in. I wouldn't try to flatten new vinyl, but that's just me.

I wouldn't pay $2,500 for a record flattener either. That is just ridiculous. I could probably buy 10 copies of every warped record I get trying to get a straight one and not spend $2,500 for the rest of my life. And that's even assuming it could straighten out all the warps, which is doubtful. I imagine it is pretty good a big slight warps across the entire record, but I just don't see how it could straighten the most audible "bumps" that you can get sometimes without screwing up the grooves and creating some "wow."