why not to buy from musicians friend

[neverpurify]

I ordered a pair of Yamaha HS50M monitors with overnight shipping. 9 days later I sit here with one monitor and 2 plastic piece of shit clocks (the free gift, yippee )

 

[tarnationsauce2]

How did they treat you when you made your concerns known to them? (if you have already)
Hopefully they have another monitor in stock, and hopefully they'll foot the bill for overnight shipping as well.

 

[dontletmedrown]

Call them and they will make it good. I remember a while back I ordered a Neumann TLM103 and a bunch of small percussion instruments. Well the box shows up with no mic which of course is still on the invoice. Had to wait a few extra days, but they worked it all out.

 

[tarnationsauce2]

Call them and they will make it good. I remember a while back I ordered a Neumann TLM103 and a bunch of small percussion instruments. Well the box shows up with no mic which of course is still on the invoice. Had to wait a few extra days, but they worked it all out.

Eggz shaker: Check
Cowbell: Check
tambourine: Check
Neumann TLM103: _____

Doh!! I would have crapped myself!

 

[wishtheend]

I work for MF, and while I can't say every one of the thousands of orders that ship out daily go off without a hitch, we do everything we can to correct a a problem. For the most part people don't understand that with such a large retailer, it's a warehouse situation. The manufacture sends us products that sit on our shelves until ordered. With monitors, I have seen more often then not that the manufacture sells them in pairs, but ships them in seperate boxes. The problem with this is that our warehouse may not see that it requires 2 boxes since the order to be pulled lists quantity one of said item. It's something that we are trying to streamline (just wish manufactures would send pairs in one box like JBL does) but I guarantee if you ask for overnight on getting the 2nd one out, they will give it to you.

Just don't say because something screwed happen to NEVER buy from said company. Shit happens with all companies sooner or later, but you got to at least give them the chance to get it fixed for you.

If you seriously feel too much time has passed, simply ask for a supervisor. Don't take no for an answer. If someone says they aren't able to make something happen for you, ask who can you speak to that can make it happen. It's a call center where I work, and I can't say every person is just as helpful as the next,

 

[neverpurify]

The Yamahas are sold separately, not in pairs.

I did get the overnight charge taken off my bill however I would have much rather had the monitors in front of me. I know things happen when you are dealing with such a large retailer but that warehouse excuse is getting old.

I used to get great service from MF but lately it's sucking ass. The Radial direct box that I ordered a few months ago took 2 months to get to me on a 2-5 day shipping quote. In fact, I had already called and cancelled the order and had forgotten about it when all of a sudden it shows up one day 2 months later. Luckily for MF I still needed the box.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Sweetwater for the win.

 

[C_F_H_13]

Had a similar experience just this month.

First time buying from musicians friend. They had this deal for 10 boom stands for 100 bucks, so I couldn't resist.

So I buy the stands, and despite the free shipping, paid for 3 day ups or something like that. Week goes by, and I call. They say "oh sorry, UPS lost your package" I say "oh so you've sent out a replacement already?" they say "no we were waiting for you to call"......uhhhh what?

So then my "replacement" shows up. Only 7 stands (in 7 boxes I might add.....I managed to fit 4 of the stands in one of these shipping boxes....cost effective??? I think not). I call them and they say "show's here all 10 were picked up"....me "yeah no they weren't check the signatures, you should have 10".....they say "oh sorry...yeah only 7".......


Still waiting for my final 3 stands. Suffice to say I won't buy from them again.

 

[wishtheend]

Honestly, I've been there for 3 years now and granted this warehouse move the company decided to execute just fucked us in the ass. The management there didn't plan it out well enough and too much shit happened to the point where orders were coming in faster than normal, and faster then we could get out. The company is really working on repairing the damage it has done, trust me the corporate people are aware of all the shit that has gone down.

As for the "lost package" situation. There was no way MF could have seen that package was lost until someone checked on it. once it leaves our place, we have to assume it's delivered unless we hear back otherwise. There is no way a single company can ship out thousands of orders a day, and continually check the tracking numbers of all these orders to make sure it got there safe. If that was even possible, there would be no point for customer service reps to be answering calls.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to try and persuade people to shop with MF, it's just my job and I get paid either way. That being I hate the call center situation most of all. But for the most part this company has done well since I worked there. The last few months have literally been the absolute worse I have ever seen. I don't know if it's because stupid GuitarCenter corp just is trying to take over too much (if you didn't know GuitarCenter owns and runs the following sites: Musiciansfriend, Guitarcenter.com, Music123, Musician.com, etc). It's bullshit because when I was hired on at MF, we were fine just handling Musician's Friend shit. But they wanted to add GuitarCenter.com and now buying out Music123 - we have pretty much doubled our orders daily yet the call center is about staffed the same as before hand. Same thing with the warehouse. I just think management are people with business degrees making the calls and not people who actually have experience in working in the warehouse, or talking to these customers day after day after day.

I really should find a new job ...

 

[C_F_H_13]

Honestly, I've been there for 3 years now and granted this warehouse move the company decided to execute just fucked us in the ass. The management there didn't plan it out well enough and too much shit happened to the point where orders were coming in faster than normal, and faster then we could get out. The company is really working on repairing the damage it has done, trust me the corporate people are aware of all the shit that has gone down.

As for the "lost package" situation. There was no way MF could have seen that package was lost until someone checked on it. once it leaves our place, we have to assume it's delivered unless we hear back otherwise. There is no way a single company can ship out thousands of orders a day, and continually check the tracking numbers of all these orders to make sure it got there safe. If that was even possible, there would be no point for customer service reps to be answering calls.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to try and persuade people to shop with MF, it's just my job and I get paid either way. That being I hate the call center situation most of all. But for the most part this company has done well since I worked there. The last few months have literally been the absolute worse I have ever seen. I don't know if it's because stupid GuitarCenter corp just is trying to take over too much (if you didn't know GuitarCenter owns and runs the following sites: Musiciansfriend, Guitarcenter.com, Music123, Musician.com, etc). It's bullshit because when I was hired on at MF, we were fine just handling Musician's Friend shit. But they wanted to add GuitarCenter.com and now buying out Music123 - we have pretty much doubled our orders daily yet the call center is about staffed the same as before hand. Same thing with the warehouse. I just think management are people with business degrees making the calls and not people who actually have experience in working in the warehouse, or talking to these customers day after day after day.

I really should find a new job ...

Yeah it's a shame internal politics ruin what could be a good business.

 

[dontletmedrown]

Eggz shaker: Check
Cowbell: Check
tambourine: Check
Neumann TLM103: _____

Doh!! I would have crapped myself!

LoL. Yeah that's pretty much how it was. I was quite enraged at the time, but yeah it is kinda funny, I guess.

 

[JeffTD]

Seriously... Aside from MF's occaisonal retarded deals (anyone remember the free Aurelex pads for buying some Fender picks? What horeshit!), just buy from Sweetwater. I've never, ever had a problem with them.

 

[nwright]

^ I have. I used to live in Fort Wayne, IN (where Sweetwater is located), and my dealings with them have been the worst of any online retailer...Even worse trying to deal with them as a local business. Soooo many things have happened that I have vowed never to order from there again. I know more than a few salespeople (former and present employees) who have less than nice things to say about the place, the management and more specifically, the owner. While I do think some of the staff know thier stuff, unless you are king shit, or have somewhat large orders, I get the sense you amount to about zilch...I've experienced it first hand, on site. I'm sure the same rules apply to them as any other large retailer, but man, they were straight up crooks with me. Sales staff, service dept., etc.

 

[Rupturemetal]

Well at least you can count the hours till it arrives.LOL

 

[Metaltastic]

^ I have. I used to live in Fort Wayne, IN (where Sweetwater is located), and my dealings with them have been the worst of any online retailer...Even worse trying to deal with them as a local business. Soooo many things have happened that I have vowed never to order from there again. I know more than a few salespeople (former and present employees) who have less than nice things to say about the place, the management and more specifically, the owner. While I do think some of the staff know thier stuff, unless you are king shit, or have somewhat large orders, I get the sense you amount to about zilch...I've experienced it first hand, on site. I'm sure the same rules apply to them as any other large retailer, but man, they were straight up crooks with me. Sales staff, service dept., etc.

Whoa dude, you gotta share some anecdotes about that one. I just ordered a 4-space shallow Gator Rack, and my sales engineer (Brendan Murphy) both called and sent me a lengthy email repeatedly thanking me for my business, asking me to call if I have any questions, etc., so I've had nothing but good experiences (though whenever possible, I buy stuff on ebay cuz price concerns always win for me!)

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Ordered an mbox2 academic and it came in 3 days.

BTW MF doesn't have student discounts so...

FAIL.

 

[doc_backmask]

You know, I love MF. I've always had great customer service. I'm used to ordering from huge companies (I'm a chemist by employment) so I understand the issues associated with large wherehouses. I've had only two issues with MF. One was that they sent me the black version of a bass I ordered twice, instead of red, no biggy, but they ended up giving me a $100 USD gift code, which ended up buying a custom case, and free overnight shipping on the case and the correct bass. The second problem was that they shipped my monitors (and the free gifts) in separate shipments. The clock came in two days (broken ), the Mo-Pads came in four days, and the monitors came in six business days (damn weekends = 8 days), kinda a hassle, but whatever.

The Sweetwater rep was cool, though. I didn't buy, but mentioned that I was a friend of Shane's and his immediate reaction was to not sell me anything, but to get me a catalog to my house. Weird, but the guy was cool as hell. And he answered all my questions since I was considering the M-box2 academic and a few other interfaces.


Edit: Damn, that may be among my longest posts!

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

mentioned that I was a friend of Shane's and his immediate reaction was to not sell me anything.

What is shane some sort of asshole there or something?

 

[everybody's x]

I know they just moved their warehouse and things have been screwy since. The service has always been really fast here for me, the warehouse is about 15 miles from my house. I love digging through the warehouse myself, I rarely order anything from them I just go down there and buy broken shit that ends up at their warehouse for a discount (scratch and dents, floor demos, catalog returns,everything UPS fucks up which is a LOT of shit) good times.

Hey MF company man, does my MF card work at guitar center?

 

[Kazrog]

What is shane some sort of asshole there or something?

No, "it's" me, a loyal Sweetwater customer and I also play in BACKMASK with doc. I've also had goofy shit go on with Musician's Friend but they have always been cool about making it right.

As for the single speaker issue - take this as an opportunity to worship the majesty of mono audio.