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it's so much easier with sweetwater...

#61
dalahorse said:
I've spent many thousands of dollars at Musician's Friend. I had one instance where they shipped the wrong thing (a Zildjian Z cymbal), replaced it with the right thing (a Zidjian K cymbal with a 2x cost), gave me a credit, and didn't have me send the wrong item back. Also, at Musician's Friend, I don't have to put up with an assigned sales droid to complete my orders or call me to advertise stuff or pressure me to pull the trigger on an order. I've never bought from Sweetwater and never will.
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dalahorse said:
I’ve literally had jam sessions (more than one) interrupted when my gui**** received sales droid calls from Sweetwater.
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First, I don't understand knocking them that way if you've never used them. Second, I've used Sweetwater for about 7 years and never received a droid call for anything. I do receive an email every-so-often asking if I need any help with an item I bought, and the couple of times I've talked to my rep, it's been very pleasant conversations about playing bass. I also like B&H, Rondomusic, zZounds, Austin Bazaar, Sam Ash, AMS, PitBull Audio, and look at Guitar Center, Musicians Friend, Woodwind, Music123 as all one place.
 
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#62
Sweetwater is awesome and their selection and C.S. makes it so that shopping elsewhere almost makes no sense.

I ordered an On-Stage stand double KB stand from them. The rear support bracket had a hole for a knurled adjustment knob that was stripped. I called, explained the problem to them, and they are sending me an entirely new stand. I can do whatever I want with the old one.
 
#63
On one of my purchases from Sweetwater 4-5 years ago, the external power supply of the effect unit that I bought was broken; it was working on and off when I received the unit and it stopped working completely after a few days. I don't think it was Sweetwater's error, as the original box of the unit looked like it was sealed by the producer. When I contacted the producer via e-mail, I received no response. When I contacted Sweetwater via e-mail (as far as I remember), no response there either... I ended up ordering a separate power supply online, as I was too lazy to re-pack the unit and ship it back (I know, my bad; but I had already thrown away the shipping box).

So, I personally do not care much about the after-sale calls from Sweetwater, or any other company as a matter of fact, as they are not more than some small talk for me. Good customer service for me is when there is an issue with the product; otherwise, it is just a courtesy call (which is nice as well, but does not cut it for me).

Do I still buy from Sweetwater? I do, since they have a better selection of products than their competition. Also, one small error should not be big enough to dis the whole company (maybe I am too forgiving in these things).

Back in the day, MF was the site I ordered online happily; but they seem to have lost their place in the market as far as their product selection as well as the appearance of their website. So I do not even remember, any more, checking their site when I am about to buy some gear.
 
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#66
I think i’ve bought one thing in my life from Sweetwater. They’ve just never done it for me. Either what I want isn’t in stock or I can get much cheaper elsewhere I bought the focusrite scarlett solo a few months ago. sweetwater would not budge on price ($109.99, GC sold it to me for $95), and it got here in less than a week.
 
#68
I've had no complaints about Sweetwater. I get that it is a big box warehouse, but they do a really good job of trying to make it feel like a local guitar shop. I LOVE the way that they assign one service tech to each customer, and it is the same guy that calls me (or I call) every time I interact with them. There is a pretty cool video of John Petrucci touring the Sweetwater warehouse that sold me even more on the company :).
 
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#70
Maynard46 said:
Sweetwater is to much like Amazon. They dont do it right the first time, yet make up for it with outstanding customer service. It makes it easy to go back cause you know they fix any issues. It would just be nice if they did it right the first time.

I like to locate what I need on Reverb and then work with the smaller shops directly. I find that buying from the smaller places provides better service and they do it right the first time. Plus its better to not have 1 giant serving all like Amazon.

+1 to Alto Music in New York, Wildwood in Colorado, Daves in Wisconsin, and Music City in Detroit. There are some really great places who provide tax free and free shipping.
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One big difference: by all accounts Sweetwater treat their employees really well. It's one of the main reasons they're my default music retailer after a couple of local independent shops.
 
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#71
With Sweetwater it really depends on your rep. I've had two that were awful and finally have a good one. The first one would constantly call me at work to see if I needed cables or anything else. Even going so far as asking my secretary to pull me out of a meeting because he had something important to ask, not letting her know that he was making a sales cold call. The second was very slow about approving orders. It seems they had a system that when you order something, the order is checked by your rep before it is processed. My second rep would wait days before getting around to approving orders. It is frustrating when you expect to be using something over the weekend and when you check on Friday it has not even been approved for shipping. This was not a once a year issue. It was something that happened on most orders. I finally got a good rep that is on the ball, and works with another rep so that if he is off, the other rep processes my order and calls if he has a question.

I have to say, I also use Americanmusical a lot. They have always been friendly, quick to ship, and I like the no interest payment plans.

I used to use B&H some, but dropped them when I found that they had installed separate bathrooms for the Mexican workers. No, it is not a rumor. It was a lawsuit that they lost.
 
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#72
Eddie LeBlanc said:
For what it's worth, MF is the mail order division of GC.......... in case you didn't know.

Sweetwater is great if they have it.
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Actually, both Musicians Friend and Guitar Center have mail order. Musicians Friend was a separate company that was purchased by Guitar Center. Woodwind and Brass was also purchased by Guitar Center. They all pull from the same stock, but have kept some measure of independence so that GC would not loose any of their customer base by dropping the names.
 
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#75
beaglesandbass said:
I think i’ve bought one thing in my life from Sweetwater. They’ve just never done it for me. Either what I want isn’t in stock or I can get much cheaper elsewhere I bought the focusrite scarlett solo a few months ago. sweetwater would not budge on price ($109.99, GC sold it to me for $95), and it got here in less than a week.
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I'm always puzzled when I hear about paying full price at Sweetwater. I always get between 10 and 20%. I just ask my rep what his price is for these things and it's always below the price shown online. For example, my BB434 listed at $499.99 was $429.99. I didn't haggle - just asked my rep what is the best price he can give me on the bass, and that was the number. And these aren't floor models.
 
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#76
RabidMusic said:
I used to use B&H some, but dropped them when I found that they had installed separate bathrooms for the Mexican workers. No, it is not a rumor. It was a lawsuit that they lost.
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I wonder if it was for religious reasons? The owners and a lot of employees are Hasidic Jews. But then, it wouldn't just be Mexican workers, more like "All Other". Interesting... gonna have to look that up.
 
#78
Crystalman85 said:
I've been a sweetwater customer for years and they provide me with great service. I find it amusing that they pack some candy with every order I make. I guess they don't call them sweetwater for nothing. lol but seriously, sweetwater is a great website for musical gear.
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One time they forgot my candy, and it felt like I was on Santa's Naughty List!
 
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#79
dalahorse said:
I’ve literally had jam sessions (more than one) interrupted when my gui**** received sales droid calls from Sweetwater.
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That's strange that you have them call you with the intent of trying to sell you something. My rep, Nick Huskins, calls me a couple of times a year, seemingly just to say hey, how's everything working. I've never had him try to sell me anything.

I did ask him the last time he called, if I could get a break on the price of a big ticket item, since I've never asked for a discount in 8 years of buying tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear from him. He said no problem, just shoot him an email about it and he'd take care of it.
 

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