Hi all,

Just seeking feedback (positive or negative) from anybody who has ordered from www.bassguitarstrings.us, the sponsor of this forum, with particular regard to international orders & delivery time. Their prices seem quite reasonable, especially with the poor US dollar not doing too well lately :smug:

I never heard of them before. Just checked out the site real quickly. I think www.juststrings.com (http://www.juststrings.com) is cheaper, and their site is a lot easier (for me at least) to navigate. I've bought strings from them several times and I'm incredibly happy. I usually get the strings 2 or 3 days later, and if something is out of stock they send it like a week later. Extremely efficient, good prices and great variety of strings.

I ordered a Comfort Strapp from them last week and so far the customer service seems fines. Plenty of communication from them regarding the order. It's supposed to arrive this week. I'll let you know how it goes.

Dan

I just received a shipment of three sets of strings from them. I took about 10 days from the date of shipment (I live in the Netherlands, so there's your international order-experience :) ). The costumer service-guy will keep you informed during the process. Good experience.

Living in the US, I can vouch that not only are their prices good, but their customer service is great as well. Delivery times are spectacular, and I can't say a bad thing about them.

another A+ from me, as well!

friendly guys, from the US to Scotland I only had about 10'ish day wait, too! so it's all good!

strings were packed nicely in a small box filled with polyestyerine (sp) chips! :)

AND you get a nice pen too! :D

another A+ from me.

www.bassguitarstrings.us is the ONLY place I order strings from anymore. great service, great prices, and I think the buying process is easier than juststrings.com. Plus, if you email them, they'll try to get any string you would like, even if they don't normally carry it! That's great service - fast shipping too. Highly recommended!

I ordered two sets of strings - but they were delayed and opened in customs and a charge of £8 was added on - I had to go into the Post Office and pay it. :(

I used to always get my strings from www.sheetmusicplus.com and this never happened in about 4 or 5 years - but they have stopped selling them!! :(

So the strings were more expensive, took longer and had a customs
surcharge slapped on ....:hmm:

You should blame your government, not the retailer. It's not like the shop charged you customs. Evading customs is not legal.

You should blame your government, not the retailer. It's not like the shop charged you customs. Evading customs is not legal.

Well - in many years of buying all sorts of stuff from sheetmusicplus, I never got a customs charge - tuner, strings, books etc.
I have also bought strings from Thomastik Infeld, Zon, Pirastro etc etc, with no customs charges


First time I go to this retailer and it does - so how did all the others manage to avoid it? :hmm:

Anyway - I am just outlining my experience - the original poster asked for :

"feedback (positive or negative) from anybody who has ordered from www.bassguitarstrings.us, the sponsor of this forum, with particular regard to international orders & delivery time."

That is exactly what I gave!! :spit:

That is exactly what I gave!! :spit:

and then some, as always :D

The Ken Smiths are on sale at musiciansfriend.com ranging in prices up to $19 (US) for a 5-string bass.

"feedback (positive or negative) from anybody who has ordered from www.bassguitarstrings.us, the sponsor of this forum, with particular regard to international orders & delivery time."

That is exactly what I gave!! :spit:
Bruce, I'm sorry you were unhappy with your purchase. You can't imagine how frustrating is is for me to ship out an (international) order within 24 hours only to have a customer complain about a delay caused by his home country's customs. There's a reason why JustStrings.com doesn't do Airmail shipments. Unfortunately, I may have to reconsider my international shipping methods as well.

As for the stating the contents and value on the customs form, I am simply abiding by the laws of my country and yours. I hope you understand.

Tom

Well - in many years of buying all sorts of stuff from sheetmusicplus, I never got a customs charge - tuner, strings, books etc.
I have also bought strings from Thomastik Infeld, Zon, Pirastro etc etc, with no customs charges


First time I go to this retailer and it does - so how did all the others manage to avoid it? :hmm:




Well, the two times I've bought from www.sheetsmusicplus.com I got charged for customs by my local postoffice. The one time I have bought strings from www.bassguitarstings.us I didn't get charged (they where actually sent to the UK, to a friend of mine to avoid danish customs because I heard you never got charged :D )

For me www.bassguitarstrings.us were the fastest (under one week US > UK) and they were nice too :)

No shop in the US can do anything to avoid local taxes and customs. You've just been lucky... most times ;)

Unfortunately, I may have to reconsider my international shipping methods as well.

...In what way? Please don't skip international sales :eek:

strings were packed nicely in a small box filled with polyestyerine (sp) chips! :)


As Carl Anton says - it must just be a question of luck, whether your package gets stopped or not.

But ...I wondered about the fact that the strings were in a box, which was quite bulky, whereas sheetmusicplus just used to send flat(tish) packets with strings, which never got opened?

If I was a customs officer I think I would be more inclined (if there is any logic in this) to open a box rather than a flat packet ?

And what can happened to strings anyway? If they were that delicate, they wouldn't last long on the bass!! ;)

I'm not blaming anybody or complaining about bad service - just saying what happened to me and making suggestions.....?

I'm not that bothered personally now, as I probably have enough strings to keep me going for a few years and I'll be looking for cheap sources of DB strings more than BG!! ;)

PS - I got one of the quickest-ever international turnarounds/deliveries this morning - my new Cow T-shirt from our very own TalkBass!!! :D

Ordered from the US on 17th and here in Britain within a week - including a weekend!!

As Carl Anton says - it must just be a question of luck, whether your package gets stopped or not.

But ...I wondered about the fact that the strings were in a box, which was quite bulky, whereas sheetmusicplus just used to send flat(tish) packets with strings, which never got opened?
[...]
And what can happened to strings anyway? If they were that delicate, they wouldn't last long on the bass!! ;)
[...]

Ask forum member Asaf what happened when he received a strings order from me that shipped in a padded mailer. ;) I've been using boxes ever since. Again, I can't control what customs agents do or think; I can only play by the rules. And... I've discussed the customs issue with my local postmaster. It seems that there's a wide disparity in customs efficiency; my Australian customers get their orders faster than Canadian customers do. :hmm:

I appreciate your feedback, Bruce. Don't think that I dismiss it for a second.

Tom

See? This is exactly the kind of KILLER customer service i'm talking about. Thanks Tom! :D

well i must say that my experience with bassguitarstrings.us was great, the local costums are always the problem with these shipments - so i told tom to extra pad the strings and we solved that problem.

anyway, i must say that everybody should check their national rules of import - the value of the content is the main cause for extra charge from the local post office.

Hey Asaf - what happened with your strings in costums?

when i was released from the army i worked in a company - packing upgrade parts and software and shipping it worldwide.
so i had the knowledge how bad the costums people no matter which nationality, they always treat like crap to the import export merchandise.
when tom shipped my strings for the first time the package looked like someone tap danced over it - but the strings were ok, so i told tom and he packed it great the next time.

It seems that there's a wide disparity in customs efficiency; my Australian customers get their orders faster than Canadian customers do. :hmm:


Tell me about it! Still its the same for everyone shipping from the US.

Dan

If you have time to wait for them you can't beat Musicians "Fiend" for string prices. A twin pack of XL170's is 29.99! Their customer service pretty much sucks but to save 10 bucks it's worth it.

I ordered a 5 string set of TI Jazz flats from bassguitarstrings.us on the 19th and received them on the 23rd, yesterday (includes a weekend too). They were a very good price and I found the website easy to navigate. Also, I found a good price at musiciansfriend.com for D'Addario Chrome Flats, $29.00US for a 5 string set. I placed the order on Monday, yesterday, and received it today, Tuesday. Yes, sometimes I get things from musiciansfriend.com overnight if placed early enough the previous day. Anyway, the thread is about bassguitarstrings.us so I'll get back to them. It was a very pleasant experience doing business with them. However, this has been experience with domestic U.S. sales and I understand the question is regarding international deliveries. I can't really comment on the international, sorry. Well not in the music business anyway. I used to do quite a bit of business buying and selling internationally with other lines of products. Any given shipment can get snagged in customs once in awhile in any country. Likely not anybody's fault.

Great service and fairly fast delivery (better than "juststrings.com") to Canada. Would do business again!

Thanks for the replies everyone. To answer my own question, my first order to Australia from www.bassguitarstrings.com arrived in record time of around 6 days (including a day or two for some ordering hiccups which Tom quickly sorted out). Very efficient and personal service, thanks Tom!

All in all, it's a fantastic service particularly for Aussies, because they'll ship standard post (USD$10) where almost every other merchant in the US will only ship via FedEx or UPS (USD$35).

Australian customs appeared to ignore the box, so not even sales tax (GST) was payable! I guess chasing a few bucks isn't worth it for them, or I just got lucky.

I'm pretty stoked. 7 sets of D'Addario's for a total cost of under AU$27 a set, compared to $65+ in local stores.

Australian customs appeared to ignore the box, so not even sales tax (GST) was payable! I guess chasing a few bucks isn't worth it for them, or I just got lucky.
.

I think it's just a question of luck really - so there is so much online shopping now that they can't stop and open everything, but they must just check a random sample. I've ordered loads of stuff from the US and the packages have only been opened twice in about 4 or 5 years.

So it's just a question of whether it's your 'turn'!! :hmm:

I have ordered Strings from them three times with no problems,and I live in Ireland.Brilliant service.Great customer care as well.

I emailed them yesterday to see what their delivery time was on a set of 5 string TI Jazz Flats. Got an email reply within an hour I think, from Tom Appel. During that hour, I found a set in stock locally in Suwanee Georgia. Even though I told him I had already ordered them locally, I received a return reply from him with some nice tips on the use of the new strings. Simply based on these two emails, I will buy from him next time when I am not in such a hurry to get them in. His price was a few dollars lower than the price I paid locally.

Hi all,

Just seeking feedback (positive or negative) from anybody who has ordered from www.bassguitarstrings.us, the sponsor of this forum, with particular regard to international orders & delivery time. Their prices seem quite reasonable, especially with the poor US dollar not doing too well lately :smug:

Just a note for Australian customers. You should never get charged any custom charges or gst if your package comes through the post (USPS) and is under $1000 and under $250 if by courier (such as fedex) - these prices are from memory.

I've ordered from Tom a number of times, strings have always arrived in Australia within one week, with no custom charges at great prices - thanks Tom! :hyper:




I think it's just a question of luck really - so there is so much online shopping now that they can't stop and open everything, but they must just check a random sample. I've ordered loads of stuff from the US and the packages have only been opened twice in about 4 or 5 years.

So it's just a question of whether it's your 'turn'!! :hmm: