musicians friend...... idiots!

[toobalicious]

ha, what a joke. ive said it a few times over the years, but keep crawling back to their bargain prices.

called about this:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Crate-BT410E-Bass-Cab?sku=601144

it is OBVIOUS to even an idiot that the prodyuct description is incorrect. a 4x10 cab with 25watt power rating? oh yea.... distortion channel? chromatic tuner? not for this CABINET, but for a combo. so i call customer dis-service. the rep was an OG of sorts--- rude and disinterested. i asked about the power handling--- he said 25 watts. i pointed out the obvious discrepancy, and asked him if he still thought it was 25 watts. he said "$hit, it wouldnt surprise me--- it must mean per speaker, so 100 watts." first of all, he cursed on the phone. no biggie, really, as i talk like i was raised by sailors. but cmon! cant you just ask someone? i mean, i am sorry he hates his job. maybe he should look into another line of work, like gang banger or fry guy.

i have had repeated bad experiences with them. for example, my m-audio soundcard didnt come with the software. no worries, but at the time, i wanted to try ableton to see if i wanted to buy it (i did anyway). this was OVER TWO YEARS ago. ill bet i called about that software upwards of 15 times. still havent received it, an apology, a refund or coupon, or even a "piss off".

DONE with musicians friend FOREVER!

love,
a

 

[Lt. Bob]

bought probably $15,000 worth of stuff from them over the last 15 years ..... never had a problem at all. The one time I received something broken in transit, they took care of it with no problem. It's not the place to call if you don't already know what you want but I don't trust anyones' knowledge in any local stores either.

 

[Fusioninspace]

I've never had any problems with them either over the years. But I don't believe I've ever actually talked to anybody there either.

There are no shortage of idiots in the world. You might just send them an email about the experience. It can't hurt.

Same thing with the 2 GC in St Louis. Some sales people are dirtbags and others are really outstanding, knowledgable and helpful. Most are somewhere in between, but almost all are always friendly.

 

[Carny1122]

You know what? I'm not going to say that they aren't rude, but you can benefit from that, sometimes....for example, my story....

I ordered one Behringer rack tuner for $60 about a year ago from them. I wait 4 days, and this HUGE box comes from them...so I'm like, ah, alright, I'll crack it open. Well, to my surprise, they had not sent me 1 tuner, but 5. I checked the receipt, and I had still only paid the $67.50 or whatever it was for the tuner and shipping.

So I called musicians' friend to explain that instead of sending me a box with one tuner, they had sent me the box that they had recieved directly from Behringer with 5 tuners it, and that I, being a nice guy, wanted to ship the other 4 back. Plain and simple, right?

I got a sales rep on the line, and he (dully) asked how he could help me. I explained the problem, and before I could even say, "and I'm willing to ship them back," he yelled through the phone, "WELL DO YOU THINK THAT I CAN F**KIN' CONTROL WHAT YOU GET?! F**K OFF!" and the phone hung up.

So my 4 guitar-playing buddies got a free tuner =)

And that's a true story, too. No joke. So if you get a bad sales rep, hey, that might be in your favor.

 

[Creamyapples1]

I had a similar experience, except the CSR I got was cool as hell. I ordered the godlyke power supply and a few extra extentions and about a dozen sets of elixir strings. When I got the box it had twenty some sets of strings and two extra of each godlyke extention and just the one power supply. Way more than I had ordered. The packing slip only listed my original order. I called them up, figuring they'd see it and bill me eventually. The guy told me that it just showed my original order in his system and as far as he was concerend that's all I received "if you know what I mean"(CSR). So I was like, hey, appreciate your time, have a good one and went on with my life. I figure I've put a few of their kids through college anyway. They probably owed me that in one way or another.

I will say though that going through the BS to send something back to them is a pain. I ordered two sets of amp corners one time and got two single humbucker strat pickguards instead. The guy told me I'd be better off selling them on ebay for a little less than list price and reorder the amp corners and pocket the difference.

 

[Oancient1]

In my case the trouble with MF started when they merged with Music 123, and consolidated operations and warehouses. The last time it took me three "talk to your supervisor" escalations to get to a level where someone seemed to care an was able to verify that my order had been shipped and give me a tracking number. (The website didn't show it as shipped until two days after I received it.) I have a feeling that lots of phone support people got laid off during the consolidation, and the ones that are still there are not very happy.

For those that want an alternative:

http://www.americanmusical.com/

Shipping to the east from the above is a day or two longer because it goes from Vegas via California, instead of direct from Kansas.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

bought probably $15,000 worth of stuff from them over the last 15 years ..... never had a problem at all. The one time I received something broken in transit, they took care of it with no problem. It's not the place to call if you don't already know what you want but I don't trust anyones' knowledge in any local stores either.

I'm kind of in this boat, too. I've definitely never spent that much there (if only because they don't sell Mesa ), but I've been an occasional customer for years and have probably spent a couple grand over the period. I've only had one order go wrong on me, a M-Audio Firewire 410 that never arrived, and when I called to find out what happened, they told me "Ok, just give us a couple days to look into it, to do due dilligence, and then we'll ship you out a new one." I called back a few days later to see how it was going, expecting to get strung around a bit, and was told, "Oh, yeah, we shipped you a new one yesterday, here's your tracking number. Let us know if you don't have it by the end of the week."

I'm kind of of the school where customer service is how you handle yourself when things go wrong, and I was actually somewhat impressed with the way they handled themselves.

 

[dgatwood]

I've had mixed experiences with them. I once ordered a ton of mic cables and they were back-ordered. After two or three weeks, I asked what was going on, and the date had continued to slip, so I asked them if they could ship me a different cable for the same price. No way. So I cancelled the order and bought a spool of cable from Markertek and made them myself. I checked the website after I finished making the sables, and it would have been another two weeks or so after that....

Similar stories seem to happen with alarming regularity. I don't believe I've placed a single order that didn't have at least one product back-ordered by more than two weeks... or at least not a single order in the last three or four years. They weren't always that bad....

On the good side, there was a recent scratch-and-dent guitar stand. Ordered the normal version, then noticed the scratch-and-dent version was in stock and the normal version was back-ordered by two weeks. Called them and changed it. Next day, I called because the order still showed the non-scratch-and-dent. They checked the stock and said it wasn't in stock. I got them to agree that if they weren't able to ship the scratch-and-dent, they'd ship the regular one at that price. Got it, found that one of the hooks that held the guitar was basically shattered, sent it back, and got them to agree to send me a working one at that price.

On the bad side, instead of sending that replacement stand to me at work, they sent it to me at home and it sat on my porch for the better part of a week while I was out of town.... I should add that I think this was the second time an order was incorrectly shipped to my house, despite me confirming the shipping address over the phone in both cases.... At this point, I'm 100% certain that there's some very fundamental UI flaw in the software their CSRs have to use....

And then, there was the order that they sent to someone else at my work. I got this phone call from somebody I'd never heard of and he said he had a package for me that got misdelivered. The package was addressed to him, but inside the box was a packing slip with my name on it. Fortunately, since this person worked for the same company, he was able to easily look me up and bring it to me, but.... Yikes!

I could probably tell you more entertaining stories of MF, but I've repressed them.

 

[Zarathustra]

I suppose if it really is a Musician's friend, the site is like that one friend who can get you to the hospital in 5 minutes when your wife's having a baby, but stops for burritos along the way.

Or who you asked to film your wedding, and kept zooming over to your hot sister.

 

[WhiteStrat]

...like that one friend who can get you to the hospital in 5 minutes when your wife's having a baby, but stops for burritos along the way.

Hey--I know that guy! (Serisouly, what an illustrious way to paraphrase this discussion!)

 

[Rokket]

I ordered a Gallien Kreuger amp from them that never arrived. When I called to find out what the problem was, I was told that it had been returned to them with a note on it that I didn't want it. My card was credited, so I dropped the matter and went out and bought the damn thing from a local store.

I look on their site a lot, and I even point people to links to things they are asking about in the newbie forum. But I won't order anything from them anymore because I don't live in the states anymore. I don't trust overseas shipping.

 

[guitar zero]

I've bought many things from them, and never had a problem. I've even had to return items and that went smoothly. I'm thinking the people in shipping must be doing drugs, 'cause I had the same experience as Carny. I ordered a shubb guitar capo. They sent me a package of SIX capos, and the invoice, you guessed it, charged me for one. Hey, now everyone in the family has a new capo.

 

[KingDiamond]

This is why I usually shop with sweetwater, they don't have morons.

 

[toobalicious]

This is why I usually shop with sweetwater, they don't have morons.

agreed--- sweetwater is so much better in so many ways.

BUT

they dont have the cheap stuff like MF. i hate it, but i do sometimes have to cheap out. of course, i *could* get a *real* job, but what fun would that be?

then again, sometimes the cheap comes out expensive, and i have a feeling the crate cab wouldve been no exception. and frankly, visa loves opportunity.

besides, sweetwater sends laffy taffy and tootsie rolls.

a

 

[WhiteStrat]

...laffy taffy and tootsie rolls.

Mmmmm...I love laffy taffy...

 

[cellardweller]

Geez, does anyone remember the fiasco when they were moving warehouses?

What a fucking mess that was!
I had stuff on backorder for months from that....

 

[Lt. Bob]

Geez, does anyone remember the fiasco when they were moving warehouses?

What a fucking mess that was!
I had stuff on backorder for months from that....

That was AWESOME!! Did you complain?
I did and got a certificate for 20% off my next order up to $5000 plus free shipping.
So I got a list together of everything I was gonna buy in the next couple of years and bought like $4000 worth of stuff and got it for 20% cheaper than their already pretty low prices.
Best thing ever happened.

 

[Supercreep]

Sweetwater also gives you candy.


Why go with MF when you can have candy?

 

[Danny B]

I agree, I have never had a problem with Musicians Friend. Their Customer Service people have always treated me OK. If you really want good customer service with a follow up after the sale, try SweetWater. I ordered from them a few weeks ago and this guy called me three times in one week about my order, plus called me after I received it to make sure everything was alright, now that's customer service!!!!

My worst experience, Guitar Center. The place is DIRTY, peoples hand prints all over the guitars, dust on all the amps, sales help could care less whether your there or not. Ask the sales people a question and they just try to make up answers. They have no clue. And to think, didn't Musicians Friend just buy Guitar Center??

 

[greenascanbe]

sweetwater

I ordered a presonus headphone amp (around $100.00s) from Sweetwater. Not only did I get candy but a week after I got it a customer service rep called me and asked me how I liked it and how the transaction was. I ordered a Audio-Technica 4040 from them two months later, same thing. I kept thinking if they do that for $100 - $300 orders, imagine what they do when someone buys a complete studio?

I like ZZounds.com or Americal Music Supply because of their payment options, so MF isn't even in the rotation expect to price things before I go out to the stores. At Guitar Center they pride themselves that they own Musican's Friend, even though GC has their own site.