Arrgh!! This is why I hate mail orders...

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DFMJoe

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My MR8 was supposed to be here today, and I was excited to see that a package had been delivered to my home. I hurredly open it up to see the studio mic I ordered, the preamp I ordered, the studio headphones I ordered, and the monitors I ordered. Hmmm.. something seems to be missing... but what could it be?

Turns out, the MR8 is NOT in the box, and is listed on the packing list.. as backordered. But, according to the fedex tracking... it has been shipped and delivered. Now, on the site I ordered it from.. it says that if an item is not in stock.. you will be notified by email 48hrs upon receipt of payment. I have gotten no mail, and the tracking number says its been shipped... so my question is.. where the heck is it.

My band has a show coming up, and we were supposed to record tomorrow.. so we could at least put together a 4 song demo to hand out at the show. But I guess we won't be now.... grrrr.. next time I will just pay the extra and buy it at the music store.
 
I had the same issue w/ MusiciansFriend. The MR-8 was perpetually out-of-stock. I went as far as ordering it, only to have my order cancelled 3-weeks after I placed the order.

I finally bit the bullet and got a VF80...which ended up being a very good decision. I'm extremely happy w/ the VF80.....

Right now, Musician's Friend states that the MR-8 will be in stock (it's been out of stock since January). We'll see what changes tomorrow brings....

-Jim
 
I too am sick of this mail order buisiness. I had a bad unit shipped. I returned it to Musicians Friend. Waiting till they receive it, they ship out a new one. 2 weeks lost. I DID catch on to the fact that Musicians Friend and Guitar Center are one and the same. Same prices. Just buy from GC. You can return immediatly if you have to.
 
Why'd they cancel?

> I went as far as ordering it, only to have my order
> cancelled 3-weeks after I placed the order.

I don't understand why they would do this. They do expect more in, right? If they cancel your order, doesn't that mean you have to "get back in line" to order it again? (Not that you would order from them again.)

Did they give any other explanation? Did they say "we're cancelling ALL orders for the MR8 and not accepting ANY new ones for now"? Or can you still place orders via their website? I'm not sure I would want to order anything from them now. (I ordered my MR8 somewhere else, but it's backordered there, too.)
 
acorec said:
I DID catch on to the fact that Musicians Friend and Guitar Center are one and the same. Same prices. Just buy from GC. You can return immediatly if you have to.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree. Plus, when shopping at guitar center you don't have to pay shipping (you do have to pay tax though) and you get instant gratification. you don't have to wait days for UPS ground to come through. ALSO, gc prices are negotiable. You can haggle with Guitar Center sales people to knock off a few bucks. They'll claim that they're not, but they are.
 
Here's the email I got from Musician's Friend:


----------------------------------
"Dear Musician


Thank you for your recent order. Unfortunately, the item(s), or Blem
item you ordered is no longer available.


FOSTEX MR8 "
-------------------------------------

I received this on March 19th

Don't get me wrong....I've ordered tons of stuff from Musician's friend...I don't want to give the impression that I am dissatisfied, but I was bummed out that my MR-8 order was cancelled in this fashion.....

In the end, It led me to get the VF80 so it worked itself out....

-sV
 
same thing here

I had also ordered the mr8 like a month ago from MF, I actually ordered the whole package deal that was in the recording 2003 catalog. They seem to have a big problem with items being in the catalog, yet they don't have them. I got the same email you got, which is why I then ordered it from music123, I had ordered a set of drums from them, since there shipping was cheaper.. and they said they had it too. I just got an email saying that it has been shipped out today, and they can't figure out why it was shipped seperate from the other items, or why it has a completely different tracking number than the one listed on my account. I put in the tracking number they gave me though and nothing came up.. maybe it just hasn't gone through yet. Needless to say our band will be demoless for this big show we have.. which really SUCKS!! I wanted the VF08 but I used my taxes to buy all this stuff.. and if I had bought that.. I wouldn't have a mic, preamp, headphones, or monitors. I thought those would be more important to my sound quality than a recorder with a hard drive... I have a pc so the mr8 was perfect.
 
Well if you ever get it, I'm sure you'll be happy with it. I have had mine since Christmas and I love it.
The only mail order outfit I've ever dealt with is zzounds, and I got excellent service.

bd
 
Mail Orders

I buy everything from a local music store. I would rather deal with a living person who can help me if I have questions, and any money thats saved (if any) by buying through the mail is NOT worth the aggravation that sometimes is part of the deal.
 
Re: Mail Orders

HWB said:
and any money thats saved (if any) by buying through the mail is NOT worth the aggravation that sometimes is part of the deal.
Click to expand...

Like I said,10 years and I've never had a problem.Only rock bottom prices on killer gear.The local music stores in my little town dont carry quality gear anyway so it's not like I have a choice of where to buy my gear.

I did think about buying a Yamaha Solid Top guitar in town 10 years ago but quickly changed my mind when the guy in town said the lowest he could go was about $300 more than what I culd get it from the big boys.Thats when I made my mind up for good to never buy anything other than picks and strings from these price guaging local losers.
 
mail order

I have a whole studio full of gear, all bought through MF. Only trouble, once the sent me the wrong speaker stands, they told me to keep them and sent me the correct one to boot. I made light stands out of the ones the gave me. Probably around 10,000 worth of gear and never a problem with mf. the problem is with fostex, everone is out of the mr8, supply and demand, dont be suprised to see a price hick on the unit since its so in demand. I got the last mr8 from scratch and dent three weeks ago. Only paid 259 works great.
 
I totally agree. It's a supply issue on Fostex's side. I've been buying other gear form MF for many, many years. When my MR-8 order was cancelled, I bought my VF80 from them :)

-sV
 
So has anyone called fostex to find out what the hold up is?
Do they realize they could potentially be losing customers to other companys ie korg, boss, tascam?
 
:D What Kramer said in the blue is CORRECT! Iv'e been doing business with AMS for 18 yrs for my studio. Before they take the order, they confirm they have/and quantity before they process the order. Musicians Friend is not very professional in business.
AMS also lets you know before processing order if its going to be backordered.


da MUTT
 
I forgot the best mail order story. I ordered a SG Custom from Musicians Friend last year. $2999.00. Too much, but I wanted it.
Two weeks later........no guitar. Called. They are due in this week.
Two weeks later........no guitar. Called. Back ordered till Aug!
This was in Feb/March.
I cancelled the order and found a real one on the net from a vintage guitar shop. It is in damn near mint condition. A 1971 model. It was $2199.00.

In this case, MF saved me from MYSELF.

A GOOD mail order story!
 
Buying Local VS Mail Order

If people like buying through the mail and are happy with the prices, service, etc., thats great. I guess I'm lucky to have a great music store in my area that handles everything anyone would want and offers very competitive prices. I've compared their prices to mail order gear and when shipping, etc. is added in I can do as good or better buying from my local music store. And the convenience of buying local and getting what I want when I want it is worth something as far as I'm concerned. Also, I get to support a local business so everyone wins.
 
I've bought everything in my home studio from MF. Our group has bought everything we use from MF. We have never had a problem. I ordered a sonic maximizer for the group, but it would not work with our amp. It took me 3 weeks to figure out it didn't work with the amp (we didn't have a booking and I didn't hook it up) and they took it back no questions asked.
I went to my local music store to get some Yamaha monitors. They gave me the price and told me they would have to order them and it would be 4 weeks before they would have them in. I checked with MF, ordered the monitors from them for $80 less per monitor including shipping and they were on my doorstep in 3 days. I'm sold on Musician's Friend.
However, I did check out american music and it looks pretty good.
 
I've never had problems with MF and back orders. When I ordered my recording equipment the only item that was backordered was the gig bag for the VF-80, which I got about 3 weeks later when they were in stock. A big part of the problem is that like many catalog services, unless you snail mail to them directly, online and telephone sales are outsourced to another company such as Aegis or 1-800-USA.

I personally have had worse experiences with local stores. The owner of one store tried to tell me that a used Yamaha 4-track analog cassette recorder/mixer for $400 was a better investment than a brand-new Fostex VF-80CDR for $300 more. Another store owner tried to convince me that I had to have a minimum of 16 tracks even though I'm only recording my wife and I on vocals with a couple of guitar tracks, a bass track and maybe a couple of percussion tracks. All they wanted was to make a quick sell rather than meet my needs.
 
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