Musician's Advocate: What a joke!

  • Thread starter Thread starter chessrock
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Musicians Advocate Still Suck

its a long time since the start of this thread.
I bought off ebay... variax payed straight away...2 weeks and no reply and after they did still very rude said I was "wasting their time"....THEY STILL SUCK BIGTIME STAY AWAY I have never had such a bad exepience VERY RUDE AND POOR CUSOMER SERVICE
 
I too probably wouldn't order from this site. But as a computer programmer, I can say that there's nothing more important than your front end. I've been in places where I literally had to hold my finger in the hole in the dam. On call x2, all astranged hours of kicking the system into submission. All while working on the proper solution with my one free hand when I wasn't spending my day pumping the water back into the dam.

I also tend to shop at odd hours. And am not likely to call to get a price. Unless there's some special reason I would want to. Like you're local, have free shipping, take eChecks, or have a good reputation. I've already called enough places to get an outrageous price, bad attitude, and they still wanted to charge me shipping for it all. Even worse if they don't even have an 800 number and otherwise keep you on the line on your dime for some unnecessary red tape.

As a computer programmer, if your site is junk, I'm not likely to do business with you. If you don't care what pair of PJ's you put on, how can I trust you to care if you send me the right product, or even a product that works.
 
Based on the prices I've seen from musiciansadvocate of items sold, they have to be selling B-stock merchandise. They advertise at MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) pricing which is what dealers HAVE to do, but they can sell it for whatever they want. The problem is, the prices they are selling for is way below what dealers pay. It doesn't matter if you buy 10,000 units, the prices are the same after 6+ usually. Simple rule of business is you can't sell for less than you buy, and stay in business.

They are required by the manufacturer to advertise merchandise is B-stock. These guys suck!!
 
Well, it just goes to show that people would probably buy gear from an extremist terrorist group if they could save $5 on a $1,000 item.

The the record, I bought one item from MA WAY back when they were pretty new on eBay.....a Rode NTK. My experience was that upon close inspection, the mic appeared to not be quite new. However, it was in excellent shape, looked like a return maybe, nothing to get too riled up about because the price was absolutely the best around at the time. Still, the principle of the matter - "brand new", "don't buy from the Mega Stores when you can buy brand new from us", "we are authorized dealers, others are not", made me contact him to inquire about the newness of the mic. He wasn't the biggest asshole yet, I guess, but was not happy either, saying he'd accept a return but I'd have to pay shipping back. It wasn't worth that; it was worth keeping and the mic was perfect and worked fine for quite a few years before I sold it.

To me, MA's reactions are about the equivalent of an eBay terrorist seller as they try to hold people captive until they get what they want - no negative feedback even though they apparently dick people around (although I think eBay has changed their policy to prevent sellers from leaving retaliatory feedback).

Check out their rating on Amazon, where they can't leave feedback for buyers. Their rating is only 81% positive, much more realistic than on eBay. Now, on eBay, would you buy from a seller who has an 81% positive rating over thousands of transactions? I doubt it.

In all, their gear is probably fairly priced for what it is - B-stock, returns, etc. Probably most people get what they are supposed to or get their issue resolved......eventually. The question is what are your principles? Is it worth it to have to take a chance that if you have an issue you will probably be dealing with someone who treats their customers so disrespectfully?

While I have no problems dealing with assholes, and am confident I would always come out on top every time, it's not where I choose to spend my energy.

Personally, I'd rather spend a few dollars more and deal with respectful and respectable sellers.
 
I felt compelled to add to this post...even so many years after it started!

I don't know why I chose to buy off Musician's Advocate (MA)
- all the signs seem to be there now that they should be avoided. Some bad mentions in forums, and very unprofessional replies to bad feedback. It seems to me now that they'd probably get more bad feedback but for dragging transactions out.

I ordered a brand new set of AKG K271 MKII headphones from MA. They were way cheaper than I could get them for in Australia, but only a little cheaper than other US sellers. They didn't despatch them for a week or two, but they got to Australia very quickly. What I received was a pair of AKG K271 Studio (previous model) in previously opened and damaged retail packaging (note...shipping box was pristinge and still sealed when I received it). They were DOA, with sound coming from only one driver and the trim on the earcups knocked off. The accessories usually shipped with K271 MKII headphones was nowhere to be seen (extra earpads and cable - likely due to these not being K271 MKII headphones)! Strangely, the retail packaging had two squares cut out with a box-cutter or the like - not sure what that was about.

I immediately contacte MA, whoc advised that they'd look after me, no expense. 3 weeks passed and I contacted them again to advise that PayPal's 45 day limit for claims was approaching. They said "go ahead and raise a claim". After this point, MA refused to do anything further, asserting that it was all up to PayPal.

PayPal in the end deemed that the item did not meet the guidelines for 'not as described' (covers defectived items and - well - items not as described). Now...there are 4 points in PayPal's policy that I think they should have applied, roughly corresponding to the following:

MA sent me K271 Studio headphones, NOT K271 MKII as described

The headphones were DOA

The item received was incomplete - i.e. did not include specified accessories

The packaging indicated that the item was not 'brand new'.

So...not much can be done from Australia to put pressure on a US seller...but I have had a whinge to the ACCC about PayPal not backing up their Buyer Protection program. The only answer I received from PayPal after several e-mails was that my item did not meet guidelines for 'not as described' and they reserve the right to do anything they please thank you very much.

By the time all this was done (some months) I could no longer leave negative feedback. Guess I'll just have to rant on forums.

I won't go into details on fineprint in the sale listing - but suffice to say I went through it top to bottom, and no reasonable person would have expected anything other than a brand spanking new from the factory pair of AKG K271MKII headphones. Full stop.

I should mention that I have repaired the headphones myself - glued back on the trim, and fixed a faulty switch (the cause of no sound in one earcup). The K271 truly is a lovely headphone for tracking and a even little mixing.

Oh...and MA also seems to imply that they are authorised dealers of all this stuff - something I seriously doubt (although AKG are yet to reply to me on the matter - very disappointing AKG)!

I suspect that most people get lucky with MA, but when things go wrong don't expect them to honour their promises!
 
This is a very unprofessional response to a potential customers complaint. It should have been in the form of an apology! Then a brief explanation of why the potential customer experienced the Imagined or real difficulty in communicating with you and then a proffesional response to his or her needs. Although it fits perfectly in to todays no rules internet mentality where rudeness rules, exchanging insults with a potential customer will only damage your reputation and turn people off. What's happening to society?
 
Ridiculous

Wow. This is truly ludicrous. But there's people like that everywhere, here in Oz i had a very, very similar experience with a store, and later found out that many, many people also had, but they managed to keep it under wraps on ebay. Guys like this are not as rare as one would imagine, or hope. What a fool.
 
D@mo said:
Strangely, the retail packaging had two squares cut out with a box-cutter or the like - not sure what that was about.
Click to expand...

Was that the UPC/Serial Number they cut off the box?
 
Cut-out on box

Not sure what it was since it isn't there anymore ;o) ...but yeah, I presume it was either serial numbers or barcodes or something. Really not what you'd expect from an 'authorised dealer'!
 
Musician's Advocate PLEASE!!!! The Worst COPY CAT COMPANY IN THE WORLD

Let's say it takes someone of weak caliber to select a name close to something that is already successful. But both Musician's SO-CALLED-FRIEND Is for suckers who need something to believe in,And that some Mother ship somewhere actually give a shit about musicians.

But back to The copy cat"Musician's advocate" WEAK WEAK WEAK.....
This is the best he could come up with!!! Something to ride on the coat-tails of something else.
And yes,Like the man said,The service sucks,They are ball droppers and spoiled sports.
I needed a part for a gig,Ordered it,paid in plenty of time and my musician's avocate box arrived and what was supposed to be 2 was one.
I left a neg on ebay because they fucked me for my gig,and the pussy owner asked my if I was going to the stupid namm show and offered to meet me under a flag pole!!!
SOME BUSINESS MODEL FOR THE MODERN AGE. HEY M.A.WHY DON'T YOU GO SELL FISHING LURES OR BOTTLE CORKS? YOU ARE CLEARLY IN THE WRONG BUSINESS!!!!
 
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