Hi, just wondering if any of you guys have ordered a bass or a guitar from Amazon and if so what was the experience like?
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Buying Basses from Amazon?
- Thread starter mybassisalemom
- Start date
Never ordered a bass but had good luck with amps and a rack tuner from amazon. They do seem to have lower prices on everything though.
I recently received my Fender Dimension from Amazon. It was shipped on time, actually came fairly well setup, and arrived well packed. No issues.
One thing to consider on Amazon: some products are sold and shipped by amazon, some products are sold by a third party and shipped by amazon, and some are both sold and shipped by the third party.
Since the third party could be a big name like Music123 or one of the GC/MF companies or a smaller music store or who knows what kind of seller you have to be aware you could have a very different experience with each choice.
The best bet would be to stick to Amazon.com shipped items or to a big name seller you've heard of from their own business outside amazon.com. Typically when viewing an item it will allow you to compare prices from everyone selling one through amazon and you can weed out sellers you don't want to deal with.
Since the third party could be a big name like Music123 or one of the GC/MF companies or a smaller music store or who knows what kind of seller you have to be aware you could have a very different experience with each choice.
The best bet would be to stick to Amazon.com shipped items or to a big name seller you've heard of from their own business outside amazon.com. Typically when viewing an item it will allow you to compare prices from everyone selling one through amazon and you can weed out sellers you don't want to deal with.
don't worry, I open and play with every bass I see in the warehouse.
j/k. I work with items that got put on the wrong truck so they come back to us. The ones that come back, and therefore we will say are damaged, I will open and check out. The ones I do see come out of the box great.
I'm sure someone will come on and tell you how amazon beats the hell out of instruments and they get nothing but second hand factory rejects. totally not true, I'll tell you this, if the box it's in has so much as a scratch on it coming thru the door here we'll reject it. unless you're buying it from the warehouse deals section.
j/k. I work with items that got put on the wrong truck so they come back to us. The ones that come back, and therefore we will say are damaged, I will open and check out. The ones I do see come out of the box great.
I'm sure someone will come on and tell you how amazon beats the hell out of instruments and they get nothing but second hand factory rejects. totally not true, I'll tell you this, if the box it's in has so much as a scratch on it coming thru the door here we'll reject it. unless you're buying it from the warehouse deals section.
I ordered a Travel bass from amazon. Playable right out of the box. I'm deployed at the moment and it still got to me on time.
Ordered my Warwick Streamer from Amazon, got an incredible price on a new German Warwick and you can't beat $3.99 for next day air shipping!
I've bought ten guitars and basses. Very fast delivery (faster than most of the other online options).
I've had to return one as it was a warehouse deal, and the bass had damage on the back not through delivery- that wasn't mentioned in the description. (If you buy a warehouse deal, read the description carefully- it will usually mention why it's selling for much less- eg. open box, slightly used etc)
Here is where Amazon really shines though is the return process. That one damaged bass arrived, I went online requesting an RMA- took five minutes, printed it out and stuck the label on the box. Re-taped the box and dropped it off a ups store. The whole return process took place within an hour. Even if you purchase from a third party, Amazon I believe is responsible for the return policy.
I would certainly buy through Amazon again- in fact I will soon as I have an Amazon certificate I received during Christmas...there's a nice Squier VM Jaguar awaiting it's usage.
I've had to return one as it was a warehouse deal, and the bass had damage on the back not through delivery- that wasn't mentioned in the description. (If you buy a warehouse deal, read the description carefully- it will usually mention why it's selling for much less- eg. open box, slightly used etc)
Here is where Amazon really shines though is the return process. That one damaged bass arrived, I went online requesting an RMA- took five minutes, printed it out and stuck the label on the box. Re-taped the box and dropped it off a ups store. The whole return process took place within an hour. Even if you purchase from a third party, Amazon I believe is responsible for the return policy.
I would certainly buy through Amazon again- in fact I will soon as I have an Amazon certificate I received during Christmas...there's a nice Squier VM Jaguar awaiting it's usage.
I have bought *A LOT* of music gear from Amazon, though not in the past two years.
I had quality beefs to some degree with about 75% of the stuff I bought, across the board, and I'm talking about a couple of hundred items.
Amazon sourcing is quite mysterious, and includes a lot of B-stock, floor demos, ancient stuff ages beyond its serviceable life, returns, QC rejects, discontinued models, out-of-spec electronics, strange liquidated merchandise of all kinds -- all sold as new A-stock.
I've been told privately by one bass manufacturer not to buy their stuff from Amazon as they only sell them their import-line instruments that failed their in-house QC upon importation and they won't ship to their authorized dealers.
That sounds about typical.
In the "Hot Deals" section here there are lots of people with interesting Amazon stories. I could keep you entertained for a while with absolutely crazy stories about wacky stuff they shipped to me.
On the other hand...I've got a lot of nice stuff on the first try and Amazon always made good on either refunds or replacements at no additional cost to me when they shipped crap.
So, for me it was a can't-lose proposition because I know gear and could do an exhaustive bench check of everything as it came in, fully aware of what I was up against.
The average bubba probably would have missed at least half the problems, at least until it was too late.
All this may have changed since I stopped buying stuff -- but it doesn't hurt to exercise some caution.
I had quality beefs to some degree with about 75% of the stuff I bought, across the board, and I'm talking about a couple of hundred items.
Amazon sourcing is quite mysterious, and includes a lot of B-stock, floor demos, ancient stuff ages beyond its serviceable life, returns, QC rejects, discontinued models, out-of-spec electronics, strange liquidated merchandise of all kinds -- all sold as new A-stock.
I've been told privately by one bass manufacturer not to buy their stuff from Amazon as they only sell them their import-line instruments that failed their in-house QC upon importation and they won't ship to their authorized dealers.
That sounds about typical.
In the "Hot Deals" section here there are lots of people with interesting Amazon stories. I could keep you entertained for a while with absolutely crazy stories about wacky stuff they shipped to me.
On the other hand...I've got a lot of nice stuff on the first try and Amazon always made good on either refunds or replacements at no additional cost to me when they shipped crap.
So, for me it was a can't-lose proposition because I know gear and could do an exhaustive bench check of everything as it came in, fully aware of what I was up against.
The average bubba probably would have missed at least half the problems, at least until it was too late.
All this may have changed since I stopped buying stuff -- but it doesn't hurt to exercise some caution.
If one is worried about the condition of Amazon's stock one can order and item sold and fulfilled by plenty of other third party music stores that sell on Amazon. I did this once because I had a gift card, I was nervous about counterfeit strings, so I chose a big brick and mortal seller with an established web store who just happens to also list on amazon.
I ordered a Yamaha BB424X, but I believe it was from a 3rd party. I went with Amazon because it was the only place that had the color I wanted in stock.
I would treat it like ordering from any online retailer. It's better to buy in person since instruments do vary, but I've had a lot of experience with Yamaha instruments (of all kinds) so I knew that if it was new, it would be consistently good quality.
I would treat it like ordering from any online retailer. It's better to buy in person since instruments do vary, but I've had a lot of experience with Yamaha instruments (of all kinds) so I knew that if it was new, it would be consistently good quality.
Alrighty then. I wanted to mention what I did because it confuses more people than I would expect that they can buy something on the Amazon.com website and learn it was offered and shipped by a completely different web retailer.
I recently purchased an overwater by tanglewood bass on amazon as it was the only way I could get one outside of the UK. It arrived set up ready to play and with no issues.
Assuming you're getting a mass produced bass, I still imagine it's much like ordering from musicians friend or guitar center. Those companies get the instruments from the manufacturer and ship them directly out. Amazon is great with shipping and sorting items, so I'm sure it's just as good.
Bongolation said it all.
They have an efficient return policy/procedure. You can get a gem that looks like you are the first to open the box, or you can get an instrument that comes in a box that has been taped back up for the fourth time, and you will be the fifth guy to return it, when you see mild finger scratches and fingerprints on it, and maybe some other issue.
I will continue to take a chance on an Amazon deal if I really want/need it. I got two really nice basses from them at great prices. I recently returned a few things. It was easy though.
They have an efficient return policy/procedure. You can get a gem that looks like you are the first to open the box, or you can get an instrument that comes in a box that has been taped back up for the fourth time, and you will be the fifth guy to return it, when you see mild finger scratches and fingerprints on it, and maybe some other issue.
I will continue to take a chance on an Amazon deal if I really want/need it. I got two really nice basses from them at great prices. I recently returned a few things. It was easy though.
No I understand that I'm talking about the basses that say "shipped and sold by Amazon"
Yup, most of that post was for anyone else coming into the thread who may not have had experience with Amazon and were not aware. Cheers!
- Jun 26, 2012
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- Disclosures
- Owner/Operator of Cotten Patch Sound Design. Burns of London Guitars and Basses retail. I do sound design, resetting, and education for churches, organizations, and small venues with no Sound personnel. Studio for "self-produced" rental use.
The caveat to this is even the stuff you buy and ship from a third party has Amazon's awesome customer care with it. Ordered something for my truck while in Canada, got lost, then torn up and couldn't get a hold of the seller. Called Amazon and within 24 hours my money was back on my credit card and was advised to just throw away the busted up part. (i.e. I noticed a year later this seller was no long in Amazon.)
