Musician's Friend
reviews and complaints

These creeps charged me a special shipping for this amp and when I returned it - they sent it back to Them' with cheap UPS shipping and beat me out of the $75 they charged me on my refund. Buyers Beware

I feel if they charge you $250 for a product and it's a piece of *** they should refund you the entire amount that you paid. Especially if you run your mouth with "Free Shipping" for items over $100- or "items over $100 ship free"..

It's a bogus line - supplied by a Bogus company.. I learned my leason here.

I Have recently purchased 7 items from musiciansfriend.com. After waiting a week, nothing arrived. I emailed support and they said it was a package deal (which it wasn't - each item was seperate) and it had to be shipped together. I emailed them back telling them that all items were seperate, and they shipped the ones they had in stock, claiming it was a computer error. They then said the other items would be shipped in two weeks. Three weeks after, I emailed requesting and update. They said it will be another month. I read their policy and it claimed late shipping will equal in a 20% discount on my next order. Since I had two items that were late, I requested the discount on future orders. They denied. The whole process was nothing but the worst customer service I ever had. Not only did they lie to me about their policies, they treated me terribly. Every time I would get an email saying the items were out of stock, I checked their website, and it showed the items in stock. Their amazon account showed it in stock also. I have read many complaints about musiciansfriend.com during this incident. I believe they are not using proper business techniques and they should be investigated.

I recently purchased a Spider III 15 watt AMP under the label 'scratch and dent'. When I received the AMP there was little in the way of cosmetic defects. However the main volume adjuster was fixated on the level 2 volume and useless. The 'scratch and dent' was guaranteed to work but 'look' less appealing in order for a cheaper price. The packaging process required the use of another box (on top of the original shipping box) with the responsibility of any damages on the shipper (you). I was not impressed and will not be back again.

On Nov 30, 2009 I purchased a number of items from them. Less than a week after I received the items, I decided to return the guitar and case because I simply did not like the feel of it. They gave me a return number and I shipped the items back at my expense. On Dec 17, 2009 they received the items as evidenced by UPS tracking. I paid for these items using cash in my PayPal account so I expected an immediate refund back to my account for $599.98. After waiting several days, no refund. That's then the trouble began.

I've been in contact with their customer service department almost daily. Talk about lies, they first told me the money was refunded. It wasn't. So after I filed complaints with the BBB, Complaints.com and the US Department of Justice, they suddenly changed their story and said there was some kind of problem getting the refund to go back to my PayPal account. I lodged a complaint with PayPal which froze their account. Then they told me the reason my refund would not go through was because of the complaint I lodged with PayPal. I released the complaint, still no refund.

Now, nearly 3 weeks since they received the merchandise back they're back to their original lie saying the refund has been issued. It hasn't. I even offered to accept merchandise or the guitar and case back because they kept claiming that there was some sort of technical difficulty.

I've written letters to Robert Eastman as well as the CEO of Guitar Center. Those letters should reach their destination any day now.

After doing some research I've found a ton of complaints against this company. As others have pointed out here on pissedconsumer.com, this company lies constantly and patronizes its customers to keep them at bay. Well, they chose the wrong person to mess with when they pulled that with me because I will pursue this relentlessly until I get my money back.

I just paid what was a lot of money (to me, anyway) for a tambourine to be sent to my daughter for Valentine's Day. I ordered it from Musician's Friend on February 9. I paid extra for expedited shipping. I AM SO ANGRY!

Musician's Friend:
1. Sent the package via USPS parcel post (the cheapest, slowest service possible) rather than FED EX Second Day Air.
2. Sent it to the WRONG PERSON (using my name rather than my daughter's) (And will the mail room at my daughter's dorm figure that out? Fat Chance!)
3. Gave me an invalid tracking number, apparently just making one up.
4. When I asked about the invalid tracking number, said that USPS sometimes just "recycles" tracking numbers. That is a LIE!
5. Said that maybe they will give me a refund IF I SEND THE PACKAGE BACK. But I don't have the package! (Given the switching of names, the fact that my daughter and I have different last names, and the vagaries of a college mail room, I'm willing to bet that I'll NEVER have it. Nor will my daughter!)
6. Certainly the opportunity for the once-in-a-lifetime little Valentine's Day surprise is over forever.
7. This is my daughter's picture. Shouldn't she have had a tambourine for Valentine's Day?

Be careful when using Musician's Friend. Find an honest, reliable company.

I ordered a Used Natural Gloss Washburn Guitar w/ a hard shell case from Musicians Friend. I excitedly opened my package the day it came. To my dismay the wrong guitar was in the case. So I called and told them what had happened and they said they would e-mail me some return labels. A day passes no labels e-mailed. So I thought just sending an email to their customer service should clear it up quick. I email asking them to please email me the return labels so that I could send the wrong guitar back. They sent me an email back saying they couldn't send me the new guitar until they received the old one. That had nothing to do with my question. So I have to call them back and they finally email the labels two days later. I send the old guitar back and wait for the email saying they are going to send a new one. That never happens so I email them to check the status of my return. They email me back saying that the black washburn was back-ordered and wouldn't be ready to ship for another month. Which would be fine except that wasn't even the guitar that I wanted. So now here I am now waiting for my refund so that a damn month later I can finally get my guitar.

I recently purchased a Spider III 15 watt AMP under the label 'scratch and dent'. When I received the AMP there was little in the way of cosmetic defects. However the main volume adjuster was fixated on the level 2 volume and useless. The 'scratch and dent' was guaranteed to work but 'look' less appealing in order for a cheaper price. The packaging process required the use of another box (on top of the original shipping box) with the responsibility of any damages on the shipper (you). I was not impressed and will not be back again.

Happy ending - I called Line 6 and they're completely replacing the AMP with a brand new one (shipping and accountability on them!)

I made an order >$300USD online and paid with Paypal. I was emailed that it did not process. I called the store and was told to reorder. In the meantime one of the sale items was no longer available. I decided to pay directly with my AMEX this time and received my order promptly. However, that very day, almost a week later, it also processed through Paypal at the original amount. I contacted them and was told to proceed through Paypal. I'd never had to do this and my complaint didn't seem to fit into their resolution categories. I chose the most appropriate but Paypal notified me that my choice of merchandise not received was invalid. So I went with the other and heard from Musician's Friend that they had sent me the refund but it would take several days to show up on my Paypal account. In the meantime my resolution time expired and then I found out I had only been refunded $9 - the difference between the original and 2nd order when the sale item was no longer available. Paypal wouldn't help me, Amex said they couldn't help me and Musician's Friend continued to ignore my emails, cut me off when I phoned and tried to get through to accounting etc. After more than a year of this I couldn't imagine what else I could do. It wouldn't be so upsetting if I had a response from someone in the accounting department or actually received the merchandise twice. Of course even if they did cough up the $, the USD has taken a major dive so I'd still be out >40% of what it cost me in Canadian not to mention the primetime phone calls. I was very disheartened and I went with a website that actually has a fair reputation, not to mention Paypal, so I can only imagine how it feels to be totally conned. But few of us, consumers, can afford $500 losses.

Musicians Friend has terrible customer service. I ordered a Toca conga set that was on sale from $500 down to $350 on the 17th of April. They shipped out some Mackie speaker instead. I had to send it back, and I had to wait until it got there until they sent out the correct product. I end up only getting one of the two congas. I call in and the guy wants me to SEND IT BACK AGAIN to exchange it on account of missing parts. After I tell him how long its been taking, he finally agrees to submit a report to the missing parts department.

A week and a half later, I still don't hear from them, so I have to call in myself and talk to a supervisor. He tells me that they're discontinued. It took them that long just to figure out that they're discontinued. Its also amazing that they would ship half the order when they don't even have the other half and not do anything about it. They probably wouldn't have even done anything at all if I hadn't called in and told them I only got one conga.

The supervisor finally offers to replace the conga set with another one thats around $500. They tell me they'll ship it by 2nd day air as soon as I ship mine out and it shows up in the tracking information. I ship it on Friday and call in Saturday morning. They tell me there's a glitch in the system and to call back Sunday. How convenient. I call in Sunday, the guy tells me it'll get here Thursday because of Memorial Day. Today, Thursday, I get my order. Two lousy stands. Like I can really play on two stands. I call in, they tell the congas are still being packed and there's nothing they can do about it because blah blah blah they have a lot of orders blah blah blah. I finally talk to a supervisor who tells me he'll try to get it shipped out today so that it gets here on Saturday, but its a long shot and I'll probably get it on Monday. A month and a half, all I have are two lousy stands, and I have to wait yet another weekend. I'll bet 20 bucks something else will go wrong.

I'll never buy from Musicians Friend again. If you do buy from them, you can only hope that they get the order right the first time. You do not want to have to go through customer service. A root canal without any anesthetic is more pleasant.

Around the twelve of Dec 2007, my daughter ordered a bass guitar as a gift for me, under the assumption that the advertisement about being delivered before Christmas was true. The item got here a week later after Christmas, and was damaged. I proceed to returned it on the second of January 2008, after getting their authorization and a shipping label.

As of today, January 18, 2008 (it was delivered to them on the 8th according with the UPS tracking document) I have not received the exchange item. We have called twice and there is always some excuse, I have Emailed them and no response at all. I have been a customer of this company for a while, never had a problem before, but it seems that recently no one cares about the people that keeps their business going.

I am not asking for a refund, just for the item to be shipped accordingly, I even authorized the payment of the difference, since I chosen a more expensive one, out of my credit card which they have the number registered. I will appreciate your assistance in contacting these people and help them to see the light, this is not good for their or my business.

I ordered a Gibson RB-250 Mastertone banjo from Musician's Friend on the web (www.musiciansfriend.com ) several months ago. The item was backordered for some time, and I don't blame Musician's Friend for that. However, when the item was shipped it went to the wrong address. After they cancelled then reissued my order, presumably due to the backorder problems, they failed to transfer the correct shipping address to the reissued order. When I initially received this reissue confirmation, I tried emailing them from the Contact page on their website to let them know that the shipping address was wrong. That was months ago and I have yet to get a response.

The instrument is supposed to be delivered to the wrong address sometime this week, and since I won't be in town this week there's not much chance I'll get it. When I got the shipping notice I tried emailing them again, got no response, so I called. While the lady I talked to was very sympathetic and apologetic for this problem, there was nothing she could do to help. Hopefully UPS won't just leave it on the doorstep, if they do, it'll be gone by the time I get back.

I'm screwed and won't use this company again, and hopefully someone else will see this before they decide to purchase anything from these incompetent and non-responsive people.