Fret Nation

[joel406]

Ordered some strings from Fret Nation on 2/12/22.

I'm sure you are mostly all familiar with their website. It showed that the strings I wanted were "in stock" and would ship in 1-3 days.

After waiting 3 days for a conformation email (which never came) I sent an inquiry as to the status of my order. It wasn't a large order... $100. Well, I contacted them through their messaging system imbedded in their website to see what was what. After a 16 hour wait I revived a reply that they were not in stock and the website should not have said that or given a lead time of 1-3 days. I was assured they would be in by the begging of the following week. Roughly 4 days further down the road. Also one should note that after I asked about my order status the website quickly changed to 7-10 day lead time. I said fine I have time.

Fast forward to today. I am leaving on tour Thursday. And no email about my order. I sent a message that I am out of time and if they will not be to me by tomorrow I can't use em. I'll have to buy strings at GC or Sam Ash before I leave. They don't carry what I really want. I hope to find some up in the snow.

Received an email 4 hours later telling me...

Strings arrived yesterday. Couldn't ship because USPS closed Monday for holiday.

Sure .... Can't ship, but incoming is working fine.

They canceled my order and refunded. Cool.

If they arrived yesterday at Fret Nation. Was email shutdown for a holiday yesterday? Couldn't let me know they were in and would ship the next day?

My main problem is inventory represented as "in stock". Magically becoming "Special order".

If you don't have them, don't offer to ship em within 3 days. If you love Fret Nation great. I don't trust any website that says, "YEAH WE GOT IT". You already know what happened next.

At least they refunded in full. I give them credit for that.

Don't promise and not be able to fulfill.

It's an inconvenience I may not be able to deal with because of trusting them.

I won't order from there again. Lessoned learned.

Can't trust their website as to whether or not what your ordering is even really there.

 

[31HZ]

I've had good experiences. Hope they are doing OK.

Covid has turned a lot of things upside down; I'm giving everyone the benefit of the doubt for the first few transgressions.

Sorry about your bad experience.

 

[joel406]

I've had good experiences. Hope they are doing OK.

Covid has turned a lot of things upside down; I'm giving everyone the benefit of the doubt for the first few transgressions.

Sorry about your bad experience.

I mentioned supply chain problems. And I get it.

Communication should be top priority.

 

[tindrum]

I only ordered twice from them and had a similar long delay prior to shipping. I honestly don’t get the devotional love that guy gets around here. It’s not like the prices are crazy low or the shipping is quick. There are TONS of way better options. The TalkBass store ships via UPS, in a box, every single time I order there. Awesome! Not to mention good prices.

 

[joel406]

I only ordered twice from them and had a similar long delay prior to shipping. I honestly don’t get the devotional love that guy gets around here. It’s not like the prices are crazy low or the shipping is quick. There are TONS of way better options. The TalkBass store ships via UPS, in a box, every single time I order there. Awesome! Not to mention good prices.

Gonna give em a shot. Thanks.

 

[mmbongo]

Fret Nation has by far the biggest selection and best prices on strings for Dingwalls so he gets all my business. Even though he has always delivered right away I do keep stock on hand so I don’t have to wait until the last minute to order.

 

[FunkHead]

I think Jason at FretNation is a great guy. I also think he get's in a little over his head sometimes. I don't think he sets out to mislead anyone but I realize it can be a pain when you experience such delays. I believe it's just Him and his wife running the business. It's probably almost a 24-7 responsibility.

I have found that it's just best to email Jason when ordering to establish an ETA. Especially if I need strings in a hurry. He's just always been so nice to deal with that I feel like he deserves some slack.

 

[BassFalcon]

I prefer Strings By Mail, they’ve never let me down.

 

[tb-player]

Ordered some strings from Fret Nation on 2/12/22.

I'm sure you are mostly all familiar with their website. It showed that the strings I wanted were "in stock" and would ship in 1-3 days.

After waiting 3 days for a conformation email (which never came) I sent an inquiry as to the status of my order. It wasn't a large order... $100. Well, I contacted them through their messaging system imbedded in their website to see what was what. After a 16 hour wait I revived a reply that they were not in stock and the website should not have said that or given a lead time of 1-3 days. I was assured they would be in by the begging of the following week. Roughly 4 days further down the road. Also one should note that after I asked about my order status the website quickly changed to 7-10 day lead time. I said fine I have time.

Fast forward to today. I am leaving on tour Thursday. And no email about my order. I sent a message that I am out of time and if they will not be to me by tomorrow I can't use em. I'll have to buy strings at GC or Sam Ash before I leave. They don't carry what I really want. I hope to find some up in the snow.

Received an email 4 hours later telling me...

Strings arrived yesterday. Couldn't ship because USPS closed Monday for holiday.

Sure .... Can't ship, but incoming is working fine.

They canceled my order and refunded. Cool.

If they arrived yesterday at Fret Nation. Was email shutdown for a holiday yesterday? Couldn't let me know they were in and would ship the next day?

My main problem is inventory represented as "in stock". Magically becoming "Special order".

If you don't have them, don't offer to ship em within 3 days. If you love Fret Nation great. I don't trust any website that says, "YEAH WE GOT IT". You already know what happened next.

At least they refunded in full. I give them credit for that.

Don't promise and not be able to fulfill.

It's an inconvenience I may not be able to deal with because of trusting them.

I won't order from there again. Lessoned learned.

Can't trust their website as to whether or not what your ordering is even really there.

Jason runs a small business and does a very nice job. He stands behind everything he sells. I bought a very expensive bass from him a couple of years ago that I didn’t vibe with. He took the bass back and promptly refunded me, including shipping. He actually lost money to make sure I was satisfied.

You calling his business out publicly over one bad experience is pretty crappy.

 

[Laurentian Dave]

I've been waiting over a month for my order so far. I emailed last week and got immediate response saying no stock available. Not surprising because I can't find any locally either. GHS super steels CM5000 (pretty basic). I always have minimum 2 sets on hand before re-ordering. Now down to my last set so fingers crossed. I should also mention this was my first ever Fretnation order and it was strongly influenced by the positive posts on TB.

 

[PrimitiveMan]

That's a bummer to hear. I ordered some strings from them a few months ago. Jason actually called me to say they were not in stock and back ordered. He offered me a significantly more expensive set for the same price. So I considered that great customer service.

But as you said communication is the issue. Seems like they are good at it in my experience, but sounds like you fell through the cracks. I'd be annoyed too.

Hope you get them in time

 

[Super Bass]

wow, how things have changed....

 

[LBS-bass]

Ordered some strings from Fret Nation on 2/12/22.

I'm sure you are mostly all familiar with their website. It showed that the strings I wanted were "in stock" and would ship in 1-3 days.

After waiting 3 days for a conformation email (which never came) I sent an inquiry as to the status of my order. It wasn't a large order... $100. Well, I contacted them through their messaging system imbedded in their website to see what was what. After a 16 hour wait I revived a reply that they were not in stock and the website should not have said that or given a lead time of 1-3 days. I was assured they would be in by the begging of the following week. Roughly 4 days further down the road. Also one should note that after I asked about my order status the website quickly changed to 7-10 day lead time. I said fine I have time.

Fast forward to today. I am leaving on tour Thursday. And no email about my order. I sent a message that I am out of time and if they will not be to me by tomorrow I can't use em. I'll have to buy strings at GC or Sam Ash before I leave. They don't carry what I really want. I hope to find some up in the snow.

Received an email 4 hours later telling me...

Strings arrived yesterday. Couldn't ship because USPS closed Monday for holiday.

Sure .... Can't ship, but incoming is working fine.

They canceled my order and refunded. Cool.

If they arrived yesterday at Fret Nation. Was email shutdown for a holiday yesterday? Couldn't let me know they were in and would ship the next day?

My main problem is inventory represented as "in stock". Magically becoming "Special order".

If you don't have them, don't offer to ship em within 3 days. If you love Fret Nation great. I don't trust any website that says, "YEAH WE GOT IT". You already know what happened next.

At least they refunded in full. I give them credit for that.

Don't promise and not be able to fulfill.

It's an inconvenience I may not be able to deal with because of trusting them.

I won't order from there again. Lessoned learned.

Can't trust their website as to whether or not what your ordering is even really there.

I really wanted to love this site. Highly recommended, but experienced similar lag times.

Strings By Mail has been great for me. Always have what I want in stock (and the strings I use are not common) and shipped immediately, and received within a day or two. Will stick with them for the time being.

 

[Chrisk-K]

I buy strings from Amazon, which has never ever let me down over the past 20 years.

 

[Pings Bass]

Back in the day i bought strings mail order by making a phone call. I must have sent a check in the mail, because I know I didn't have a credit card at that time.

Anyway, every web site on the Internet is out of date, and the big boys have made it exceedingly difficult for the mom and pops to stay in business selling any kind of merchandise online.

Next time maybe give em a shout on the phone?

 

[KaseOfBass]

You know, I held my tongue for quite some time regarding Fret Nation, or Bass Strings Online as it was back then, but had a similar experience years ago and haven't been back because of Jason's petulant attitude toward the whole thing.

Back in 2018, I ordered some strings and 17 days later, after there was an announcement that the Bass Strings Online store was closing and receiving absolutely zero communication about my order, I sent an email requesting cancellation and refund. I received a response saying, "This just got here....Ok I'll cancel." I thanked him and received a response that just said, "yeah." Then another response indicating he had a new box of six so he could he fulfill the order. I said, sure, go ahead and fulfill the order. After receiving no communication after that, I went to check my account at Bass Strings Online only to discover he had childishly deleted it.

The guy is a jerk whose inability to behave correctly got him banned from TB. I'd make my own bass strings before buying from him again.

 

[Riff Ranger]

I think Jason at FretNation is a great guy. I also think he get's in a little over his head sometimes.

This sums up my impression right here. He knows his stuff and will generally treat people right but like almost every other operation I’ve observed since maybe 2000 what would once have been considered a skeleton crew is now just standard operation, so in this case you’ve got what sounds like one or two people doing everything, with no one to pick up the slack that inevitably crops up from time to time because humans aren’t machines. One of my orders fell through the cracks which mildly annoyed me, and I got more annoyed at the suggestion that I was somehow at fault; but I remember that the guy also helped me solve a tricky string situation before I had bought anything on this same order (if you want to know how to fit 34” scale strings on a 32” 5-string acoustic bass guitar, I’m now your dude). I have since stuck to ordering items listed as in-stock and have had no problems, but I can’t say I’m surprised that they (or us it just “he?”) drop the ball occasionally even then when they appear to operate with zero redundancy.

 

[drumvsbass]

The fact that a 2 person business can keep their inventory straight at all is something of a miracle. I work for a major music retailer and can say it's a mess out there right now. Moving target of ETA's.

 

[Riff Ranger]

You know, I held my tongue for quite some time regarding Fret Nation, or Bass Strings Online as it was back then, but had a similar experience years ago and haven't been back because of Jason's petulant attitude toward the whole thing.

Back in 2018, I ordered some strings and 17 days later, after there was an announcement that the Bass Strings Online store was closing and receiving absolutely zero communication about my order, I sent an email requesting cancellation and refund. I received a response saying, "This just got here....Ok I'll cancel." I thanked him and received a response that just said, "yeah." Then another response indicating he had a new box of six so he could he fulfill the order. I said, sure, go ahead a fulfill the order. After receiving no communication after that, I went to check my account at Bass Strings Online only to discover he had childishly deleted it.

The guy is a jerk whose inability to behave correctly got him banned from TB. I'd make my own bass strings before buying from him again.

We were typing at the same time. I can relate to this, too.

 

[muggsy]

I have ordered from Fret Nation twice and had great customer service. First time was ordering Dingwall Canadian knobs for my NG2. They had two different sizes in stock (1/4” and 6mm) for different pot shafts. I emailed to ask which size I needed and Jason said 1/4” so I ordered 5. When they arrived it turned out the pickup selector needed a 6 mm knob, so Jason sent a replacement and postage paid envelope for the return. Second order I wanted TI flats for the same bass, and Jason put together a 5-string set for multi scale with a mixture of strings from long and extra-long TI sets. I would absolutely order from them again.