What the f@#^ do I have to do to get service?

[richiebee]

Does anyone else out there have difficulty in getting gear? I just can't seem to get anyone to sell me a microphone. I've been looking for an ElectroVoice RE20 for weeks. Impossible to find locally, and my local supplier wants $150 more than most US stores are advertising (the other local store doesn't seem to respond). I don't mind supporting local industry, but not to that level! So, I figured I'd try further afield. Can't seem to find another Canadian store who can help. My usual go-to store in Ontario don't seem to want to reply. MusiciansFriend doesn't seem to want to reply either. Do they not realize that giving good customer service is what gets customers coming back?

$400 now could be $1000's very soon. Whatever happened to customer service?

[richiebee]

So, I tried live help with MusiciansFriend... their system wasn't actually able to help give me a price for what I needed (quirk of the system - being out of stock and me being in Canada places restrictions on international ordering), but the person I spoke to was helpful himself, and gave me the confidence to place an order as soon as they get some more in stock.

[richiebee]

So, on Monday I ordered my microphone from Musicians Friend. Almost immediately, my order showed as "being packaged", or something like that. I know that if you ask for delivery to an address other than on your credit card (which I was), they hold your order for verification, so I went on hold with their live chat for half an hour to ask how I can make sure it goes smoothly. They told me I needed to add the delivery address to those registered with my bank. Well, here in Canada, they don't do that. Your address, is your address. Anyway, Wednesday I get a phone call from my bank asking me to confirm the purchase, which I did. Friday, Musicians Friend change the status of the order to "backordered". If I check the stock, its back ordered to 3rd February. Why do music stores suck so much?

[DT Chris]

I hear you. I'm at the point where I can't STAND to go into a music store anymore. Where's the vibe? Do they even give a crap about what I want? Where's the quality gear?, etc.

[On the Loose]

For the music reseller's it's all about them and how much of your money they can get. The best we can do is realise this and make sure that we're not sucked into being like them.

[.tom]

that's wut happens when the corporations are your only alternative. the profits are so high for corporations, they couldn't care if you return or not. they continue to swallow each other up so, they're also betting you'll have even less choice beyond their shitty service.

i shop with independents and give money to corporations as little as possible. if i were looking for an re20, i'd probly go ebay.. i'd also look around the boutique sellers.

i just purchased a $3k drum kit from a local mom/pop drum shop. coulda got it 4 $150 less at a corpo store but i am commited to fuking corporations anytime i can. 5% more = service, vibe, good times with peeps i can feel good about giving money to for my goods...

[richiebee]

The saga continues... since it was backordered to 4 FEb, I got one of my friends who was attending NAMM to get me one. He called me on Sunday to let me know he'd got it. I phoned Musicians Friend first thing Monday, to cancel my order. They said they didn't know if they could stop shipment... I flipped! It said backordered on the order, the agent I spoke with on Saturday told me it was backordered. They told me it was never out of stock - they had two, and one was being prepared for shipment. Sure enough, yesterday afternoon (two working days later) they shipped it anyway.

I've already got my tracking number and I'm refusing to accept the shipment at the Canadian border. They'd better be pretty quick to refund my money!

They really suck. Sorry Brandon, I'm guessing you won't get your commission.

I ended up getting it for even less than Musicians Friend were selling for too...

Friend at NAMM - $420 all inclusive
Musicians Friend - $400 + $30 shipping + $52 HST = $482
Local Music Store - $515+ $66.95 HST = $581.95

Anyway, I started playing with it last night. First thing, wow, it looks like a bomb and its really heavy! Love the sound I get from my trumpet for the first time. Good on my spoken voice too, though I think it'll be a little longer before I'm ready to unleash that one!

[.tom]

ya, that's a great mic. it can work well for sax and reeds, horns of course, piano, bass cab, kik drum and spoken/male voice.. congratulations on a great purchase:~)

[thesilentdrummer]

Here's what you should do:


First Make a list of our wants. Save the money you need for that. Go on vacation in the US. Someplace interesting, but near civilization. Then, while there, go to guitar center and buy all the stuff you need. It is probably Cheaper, faster, and you get a vacation out of it.




I dunno. I guess you are screwed. Maybe there is room for a "musician's friend" of canada??

[brandondrury]

Whatever happened to customer service?

You can't automate customer service.

It's always a toss up. I'm with Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. It gets complicated by fucking retards who are cognitively useless and people who at least half a brain who are corrupt.

I find that I'm best off taking the Buddhist approach. The best way to not get screwed is to not give a shit. Of course, how many times do you really not give a shit?

It said backordered on the order, the agent I spoke with on Saturday told me it was backordered. They told me it was never out of stock - they had two, and one was being prepared for shipment.

This is the part that really pisses me off. Musiciansfriend does a billion dollars in sales every 5 seconds. Their system for inventory should be robo-badass. The modern trend is to trade off customer service in exchange for extreme efficiency and lower cost. That can't seem to get that right either!

A similar thing happened to me a while ago. I ordered Kontakt 2 directly from Native Instruments. The next day Komplete 3 went on sale for $600 (which included Kontakt 2) so I immediately jumped on that. Even though my shipment didn't go out until the next day, Native Instruments said there was nothing they could do about stopping the shipment. Uh...yeah there is. You call down to the warehouse and have some dude pull my order out of the "mail this" box and put it in the "don't mail this" box.

Of course, I'm a dumbass and never returned it and ended up giving it away for Christmas this year.

Brandon