Infos regarding Scratch&Dent at AMS

[sineas]

I'm about to purchase some slave amps at AMS and it so happens that they have it in regular retail and scratch & dent option. Buying the S&D item would save me $80 each per amp.

Question:
1. Has anyone bought S&D items thru AMS or any eRetailers thereof?
2. Are these S&D items new? used? returns? fell off the truck? or came across a temper-problemed warehouse man?
3. Are they worth the extra dough saved?

AMS Scratch & Dent item states:

Other companies might "beat around the bush". Not AMS! We tell it like it is. Dent & Scratch items are just that- and our customers simply love it! We are confident you will too. This is outstanding gear with only minor cosmetic blemishes and is 100% inspected and tested. Through the years, countless AMS customers have purchased these types of items and are simply delighted by the money they save. And fear not- many of our customers have trouble finding any scratches at all! To assure your satisfaction, every item includes the Full Manufacturer's Warranty and the AMS 45-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Special offers, promotions and rebates may not apply.

Thanx...

[ishouldbeking]

Originally Posted by sineas

I'm about to purchase some slave amps at AMS and it so happens that they have it in regular retail and scratch & dent option. Buying the S&D item would save me $80 each per amp.

Question:
1. Has anyone bought S&D items thru AMS or any eRetailers thereof?
2. Are these S&D items new? used? returns? fell off the truck? or came across a temper-problemed warehouse man?
3. Are they worth the extra dough saved?

AMS Scratch & Dent item states:


Thanx...

I've heard plenty of good stories from people who bought musiciansfriend scratch and dent or refurbished gear and never saw any real damage. Haven't tried it yet myself.

[steamthief]

I bought a cab as a scratch and dent item from Musicians Friend. Except for a couple fuzzy pieces of lint stuck to the carpet, the cab was flawless.

[ErnieD]

they usually offer the full as new warranty on these items, so your covered. Ive only ordered one S&D item from AMS. I went thru the whole order process and went to checkout everything seemed done. Well 2 days later I check on my acct and the item now showed backordered, after showing in stock the whole time I placed my order. How can a S&D item be on backorder? I know it was prolly just the one item that was at S&D sale price but I wanted it at the discounted price. When I called them they said it prolly got sold as I ordered or just before. The bad thing is it then shows up as a pending charge on my bank acct. Well I decided I did not want the new item at regular price and had to call them back to get the pending charge off. They said it would not have been charged to me but they place a pending charge so when the new item comes in they can ask if I still want it, then charge my acct. Well the worst thing is they could not say when the new item would arrive from the manufacturer, could be weeks, months, they just dont know. I told them they should not proceed with placing a pending charge to peoples accts when they have no idea when a item will be in stock. All Im saying is, better to call them to see if the item(s) you want are presently in stock then order by phone so you wont get crossed up ordering online like I did, twice with AMS.

Now I bought a new GB cab locally at a great price and when I called AMS to order the same cab, of course it was out of stock, but they did agree to match the same price I got it for locally. So it came a few weeks later, good price, free ship but again I did this by phone to be sure I got what I wanted. Online ordering may be convenient but lines seemed to get crossed when ordering that way.

[BassmanPaul]

I bought an S&D ART Tube Channel 259 from them. I could find nothing wrong with the thing. I have never had any problem with the company.

Paul

[sineas]

Thanx guys... I always do call merchants before finalizing any orders online. And yes... it is a PITA when cancelling an order that you have made online. The holding of funds from merchants from an already canceled order takes 3-5 days to release hold and bank takes another 2-3 days to release that merchant fund hold.

Anyway... I'm going S&D if there's an option available too.... thanx

[Blues Bass 2]

I bought my RBI preamp from AMS scatch and dent about 5 or 6 years ago.I got it for $100 off the list price and it came with all the manuals and paperwork and didn't have a scratch on it.I'm guessing it was a return but I don't really know.My experiance with them was very good.

[Crockettnj]

here's a little tidbit

Retail stores have agreements with (some) vendors that prohibits them from selling an item below a certain "minimum" price. This is fairly common.

Sometimes this price isnt very realistic, or it is just a little higher than what the market will bear for high volume sales.

So, what to do?

Call the item used or damaged or scratched or dented and - viola- suddenly it isnt "new" anymore, it isnt under the same restrictions fo minimum pricing, and you could offer it at a discount.

What has this done? It moved some merchandise, the store still profits though the margin is no doubt not as high as the vendor "mandated". And now you have a warm fuzzy for that store and would do buis there again.

Happens all the time.


So it is not surprising that the S/D items you hear about work fine... they ARE fine!

[stretchcat]

I bought an Eden CXC110 amp from them that was a scratch and dent item. It had a bent grill which was pretty easy to bend back into shape. Unfortunately, it also had a blown speaker driver and sounded awful. I called them up and within a couple of days I had return labels so all I had to do was give it to the UPS guy at work. They were very reasonable to deal with and offered me a full refund without hesitation.

The rest of the story.....

Since I got such a great deal on the amp, I decided to have it fixed under warranty locally. This turned out to be a nightmare due to the local warranty repair guys and US Music Corp (long story). Ultimately, Lane Baldwin and David Nordschow got involved and got everything settled for me. The Eden turned out to be a great amp.

Back on topic - I wouldn't hesitate to shop with AMS again. Good luck to you.

[SoComSurfing]

I can't speak for AMS, but I've bought quite a bit of gear from Sweetwater from their Demo sales, and have NEVER had a problem. It's all looked and functioned excellently. My only hesitance w/ MF and AMS is that they don't tell you why it's SND, where as Sweetwater will tell you why it's not considered "new", be it a return, store demo, sales demo, missing literature, etc.

[srxplayer]

I bought a scratch & dent Roctron S112 guitar cabinet from Musicians Friend about a year ago. It was $29.00 cheaper than the new one. From what I had read about scratch & dent deals I figured it would be somethng very minor.

When I got the cab it was broken. The wood (MDF) was broken through near one of the corners. It was far worse than a scratch or dent. It was flat out damaged. The cab worked but it sounded a bit weird to me and the cabinet was not stable to put anything short of the Crate Power Block on it. There was no way a Manufacture would warranty a product that was sold in this condition. It had obviously been dropped from a high place or something heavey was dropped on it but there was no way this thing should have been sold to anyone.

I called MF back to return it because I felt that scratch & dent was a bit misleading since this thing had a broken cab not a dent or scratch. The operator gave me grief and said if the cabinet was working than it was ok and that I would have to pay shipping for them to take it back. I ended up talking to a supervisor and explaned my position and after a while they issued a call tag to pick it up. I ordered a new repllacement S112 cab at the same time.

I was put off by their attitude on the return so I will never buy another scratch & dent product from MF.