Bad Experience with MusiciansFriend.com

[miker]

Just had an ugly experience with MusiciansFriend.com that couldn't be resolved over the phone, so I thought I'd share the incident here.

I've ordered from MF several times over the years and have never had a problem up until now. I had ordered the excellent "Behringer Bass V-AMP" and paid an extra $40 to have it shipped overnight. Ended up waiting all day long for the UPS delivery guy until 4:00pm, but that's a whole other rant.

Ok, so I open up the carton and see the V-Amp - but it looks like the box had already been opened before. Hmmm... all the manuals, power cables, etc. - it's all been previously opened! So this is obviously an "open-box item" that they just charged me full price for... ok, whatever - as long as it works, right?

Nope! Totally DOA (dead on arrival)! I plug it in and the unit dosn't power on. It's just dead. Grrr... So I call MF, explain the situation, tell them that they had shipped me a non-working item that had obviously already been returned to them once before. I ask them how I can exchange it?

Long story short, I spoke to both a regular customer service rep and a supervisor. I asked them to ship me out another unit ASAP and I would return the other one back to them, hand it over to the UPS guy or whatever. They won't do that - they tell me I have to send it back to them first, and THEN they'll credit back my credit card, and THEN I'll have to place another order. I explained I didn't have time for all this, which is why I had the thing shipped overnight to begin with (I needed it for the weekend).

Ok that sucks, but I understand they don't wanna get ripped off (even though they just did it to me). The supervisor went on to say how they just pull the things out of the warehouse, they can't guarantee against factory defects. I reminded him that this was NOT a normal "defect", but an open-box item that they had sold to me at full price!! I told him this item should have never have even been placed back in the warehouse and sent out to me or anyone else!

I wasn't getting anywhere with them, so I asked if they could at least refund the $40 overnight shipping fee. Nope! They said they'd refund $30 of it (75%). Unreal... I agree with the guy, if it had been a factory defect that would suck, but those things happen. But MF knowingly sent me an open-box item that had probably been returned earlier because it didn't work - and they just packed it up and sent it to me!

So... I'm really pissed off right now, lol.
It's just really bad business. MF was at fault for sending out an open-box item without notifying me or testing it before putting it back on the shelf. Not cool at all. Up to this, I have liked dealing with MF, but next time, I will buy from a local shop if possible.

[Left Headphone]

That sucks... I use to buy alot stuff from them... I mostly use zzounds.com or audiomidi.com for gear now. Hope things go better for you in the future....Peace

[intel]

similar situation happened to me a few years back. they had a special "scratch n dent" electric violin on sale for $200 that I ordered. after UPS bumfucked the delivery (took 12 days to get across five states), I finally receive the package. with much glee and gusto, I tore into the box and pulled out my brand new electric violin.

I thought... that's odd. there's no bow in the box. followed by: huh. this thing doesn't have pickups.. or even a bridge for that matter. wait a minute. since when do violins have 8 strings? I'll be buggered, this is a mandolin.

so I call up MF and explain to the kind, though dimwitted, customer service representative that I ordered an electric violin and that they sent me an acoustic mandolin. not even close. the representative then explained to me that I, too, would have to send the item back, wait for my credit card to be refunded and then they would recharge me and send out the item I ordered. I explained that the item I ordered was a one-of-a-kind special and that I needed to be assured that they weren't going to sell it to someone else in the meantime. they couldn't guarantee that. so I explain that I needed the violin the weekend PRIOR to receiving it (see UPS) and that I didn't feel it was fair that I should be getting screwed because they shipped me the wrong item. again they were terribly sorry but the only thing they could do would be to charge my credit card AGAIN, and send the violin out. I tell them that is not an option. I then proceed to tell them that I no longer want the electric violin, and that I'm sending the mandolin back. at this point I'm informed that, regardless of what happened, I would be charged a 15% restocking fee for the returned mandolin AND I would have to pay for the return shipping.

at that point I lost my temper.

to this day I will go out of my way to order from anyone except Musicians Friend, which is a shame because I used to deal with them exclusively. but they f**ked me out of my hard-earned dollars and that is something I cannot abide.

[Jaeson Merrill]

i had an initially bad, but in the end, a great experience with them..

I ordered a behringer truth set from them, refurbished...

It ws like 169 bucks or something, the B2301s.

They came in, and there was an issue with them, one of the volume knobs would make the amp on one speaker cut out. I called em to take it back, and the guy said "that was the last refurb, youll need to buy a new one now" and then i got that from another rep there. Then i sent an email stating that i paid for a refurb item, that is supposed to be in perfect working condition, this clearly isnt. I feel either you should fix it for free, or replace it with a new one.

later someone emailed me back with a UPS label to send it back, then they sent new ones. the whole process took a long time, but a great value

[aaroncavanaugh2]

I also had a bad experience with musicians friend and wrote this report on a message board previously.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They have poor business tactics. I recently placed an order with them and I thought the amount was what was stated on the last page of the ordering process. Only to find out that they sent me an email later adding tax with a different (higher amount) to pay. I order things very often on the internet and this is the first time this has ever happened to me.

Also in the same order I bought orion platinum. I thought I would be getting the latest version since nowhere on the webpage was stated the version number. I called customer service and the representative told me it was listed on the PDF specs link. (unfortunately my computer was having trouble downloading that page for some reason.) After I got off the phone the link came up. Nowhere on this page is the version of the software listed.

Please do not support Musicians Friend. They have shotty business tactics and cannot be trusted.

Thanks

Aaron.

[aaroncavanaugh2]

I like http://www.activemusician.com/

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I hate to add my voice to the chorus, but I've had 2 bad experiences with MF (out of 4 orders total), which is why I no longer deal with them. I received a dead Behringer mixer that arrived without knobs on two of the channels! Took 2 days to get it straightened out. Then I ordered a controller keyboard (figured since I had 2 good experiences and only 1 bad one, the bad one was a glitch, right?) - they shipped me the wrong one! THAT took about 3 days to straighten out.

My last purchases have been with audiomidi and music123, both of whom performed flawlessly.

[miker]

Hmm, maybe their quality control has gone downhill recently. Like I said, I've been ordering from them for years and never had a problem up until now.

I couldn't find the Bass V-Amp in any of the local stores which is why I decided to go mail order with MF in the first place.

But damn, you'd think they would test out a returned product before they put it back in the warehouse and tried to sell it off to another person, right?? Hey, I'm a reasonable guy, I understand mistakes can happen... but they just refused to admit any fault or even apoligize for their screw-up!

If they had just said "We're sorry we screwed up and that really sucks. This is our return policy, but to make it up to you we'll give you a coupon for 10% off your next order" or something. Naaahhh... now I have to go run around on Monday morning and find a Fed-Ex station to ship this off back to them.

Thanks for the suggestions guys - next time I do mail order, I'll try one of those other sites!

[Jaeson Merrill]

www.music123.com

www.sweetwater.com

[Paul Vicory]

Better off with eBay, IMHO, IF you can find reputable sellers selling exactly what you want. I've had pretty good success buying most of the more expensive hardware music/computer items for my studio rig at incredible prices. Whenever there has been a problem (only twice, one defective and one wrong item), it was dealt with quickly and with minimal effort.

The positive/negative feedback aspect of eBay really does empower you, particularly as a buyer; it's a leverage that you simply don't have when dealing with online retailers, with some exceptions.

Some businesses (like Sounds Online) have a pretty strong presence on various music forums, like KvR, Northern Sounds, etc. If you think you are being treated badly, you can post your negative experience online - and it's amazing how quickly it will get rectified.

Finally, with most retailers (Sam Ash, Guitar Center), I've found you can pretty count on NOT getting any after-the-sale support on the product you just paid full retail for, so what do really lose by going with something like eBay. Maybe Sweetwater is an exception, so I've heard, but you pay for it with generally higher prices.

[Jaeson Merrill]

sweetwaters prices are pretty much similar for most things i thought..

[hitman8081]

i love guitar center i had a problem when i bought my bx5s and it was a smashed in tweeter on one speaker.and that was only my second purchase from them ! i love guitar center and i realy love the people who work there there so incredibly cool.and i just exchanged the bx5s for another.but like i said that was only my secong purchase.so for people who shop online at musicians friend 6 times a month and cant just return or exchange an item at the store for another i can see why youd hate musicians friend.my only complaint with them is they keep sending me catalogs with the same repetitive shit every month yamaha motif,korg triton, and the software stays the same for months on end

[DevonB]

sweetwaters prices are pretty much similar for most things i thought..

Now, yes, 5 years ago, no. I've placed many orders with them in the past 10 years spending multi thousands of dollars. Overall, they've been very good, and their staff is VERY knowledgeable.

Devon

[DevonB]

my only complaint with them is they keep sending me catalogs with the same repetitive shit every month yamaha motif,korg triton, and the software stays the same for months on end

Ummm, if you can show me the catalog with Korgs and Yamahas and Rolands that have TONS of new stuff every month, please point me to it? Sorry, had to give you a ribbing on that one.

Of course they do that. It's a reminder to you that, hey, didn't I want to buy that Product X last time I saw that? I got money now, let's order! If it didn't work for them, they'd send out less catalogs.

Devon

[meeks]

These stories are mild compared to the Sam Ash league of intelligence and snake venom sellers.