Big Sweetwater fan....ask a question and get a answer....they also follow up on whatever you purchase and ask if everything is okay.... fantastic service!!
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Sweetwater Customer Service
- Thread starter Brians356
- Start date
Midwest nice!!! But some Cali companies are that good too. EMG, Mesa Boogie, Bartolini when they were still in Livermore ( have always had excellent CS ). But Sweetwater as a retailer is a model. I heard and even studied in business schools. They call this customer obsession.
Having said I do not have a Sweetwater account. Ordered pedals via PayPal as a guest and have bought indirectly through Reverb and Amazon. They are excellent in Packaging. One of their packages survived a 2 hour soak from a sprinkler when the Fedex guy just threw it over the fence. Double boxes were almost disintegrated but they doubled it up on a plastic bags inside and no damage. My only complaint is that those candies are sure to get you dentist bound, acidic, super hard and concentrated sweeteners
Having said I do not have a Sweetwater account. Ordered pedals via PayPal as a guest and have bought indirectly through Reverb and Amazon. They are excellent in Packaging. One of their packages survived a 2 hour soak from a sprinkler when the Fedex guy just threw it over the fence. Double boxes were almost disintegrated but they doubled it up on a plastic bags inside and no damage. My only complaint is that those candies are sure to get you dentist bound, acidic, super hard and concentrated sweeteners
Hey Pete,
Just remember that a warranty claim needs to be made by the original buyer. That could have had some effect on your dealings with them.
Sweetwater did you a solid and you didn't even realize it. Sweetwater's warranty is a 2-year protection plan available only to the original purchaser. They are clear that it is not transferable:
https://www.sweetwater.com/about/warranty/
If it only "was still under warranty with Sweetwater" that means the manufacturers warranty had expired and the product was purchased between 12-24 months previously.
I'm not gonna put the seller on blast, although he deserves no less. But Sweetwater sent me another faulty unit. I still have the useless brick. Maybe those Tone Pockets just generally suck.
They have always treated me right when I have used them as well. The candy is always a welcome bonus!
Do you guys actually talk to your sales engineer? Does that help get discounts or anything? I always just place an order on the website (usually for a pedal or misc items) but I always wonder if calling would make a difference
It works. Last month someone on TB called Sweetwater about getting a better price on a BB434 that every retailer advertises for $539, and Sweetwater quoted him $499. He then called American Musical Supply and the rep was able to give him a price of $489 and he made the purchase there.
Retailers can be compelled as part of their retail agreement to adhere to a manufacturer's Minimum Advertised Price (MAP). But if you call and speak to a sales rep you can often get a lower price because it's not "advertised" lower.
Typically regular Sweetwater customers get better deals than new or occasional customers. I’m not a big Sweetwater customer and on a couple of occasions (in the 2010s) I know of people who got a price on an item that my Sweetwater rep was unable or unwilling to extend to me.
I focus on customer service. Price is important, but we can play vendors against each other and pick the lowest offer. I don't blame any vendor for drawing a price line they won't (or can't) cross. But if I know their service is as good as it gets, I'll pay a higher price within reason (of course).
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Sweetwater has good to very good service, but it's sometimes biased towards certain customers, and sometimes it's let down by other parts of the business (like badly checked '55-point' inspections or sub-par Plek jobs). There are other places, local and online that offer quality service at the same price or lower. You might focus on customer service but when it comes to simple items sitting on a shelf I aim my purchases toward lower prices.
Dislike it from my lone first *bass* purchase from them. I never explored the bass, since I meant to return it immediately but they shipped it in their single large box, no retail box, and the bass protuding out of the box. Could it have been FedEx? Of course, but it would not have happened if they truly boxed it well. Very stressing. The "Engineer" never replies. Asked for a replacement sales person, but not sure that will be heed to either.
Everything else I have ordered before from them has gone well-happens to be that my first ugly experience was this bass delivery.
(Notice the foam and bass coming out of the box!)
I was able to catch the driver and sent it back to sender with him (I already had a return in file with them), but it was unnerving and frankly unnecessary stress that as I grabbed the box by the sidewalk, the bass came out of the box (luckily well-padded, but I never checked it for transportation damage.) Even if they could not find the original retail box of a supposedly new bass, they should have double boxed it. It was appalling. Of course I sent an urgent text to the *Engineer", and haven't heard back with at least "that sounds bad, will get back to you soon!" message. Truly it seems they care more about sales than customer service, ignoring that customer service will produce more sales. Do not want anything to do with such *Engineers" that do not take me seriously unless I make them look good with their managers ($$$.)
Not sorry for my true review above, and glad most of you always receive perfect service from them.
Everything else I have ordered before from them has gone well-happens to be that my first ugly experience was this bass delivery.
(Notice the foam and bass coming out of the box!)
I was able to catch the driver and sent it back to sender with him (I already had a return in file with them), but it was unnerving and frankly unnecessary stress that as I grabbed the box by the sidewalk, the bass came out of the box (luckily well-padded, but I never checked it for transportation damage.) Even if they could not find the original retail box of a supposedly new bass, they should have double boxed it. It was appalling. Of course I sent an urgent text to the *Engineer", and haven't heard back with at least "that sounds bad, will get back to you soon!" message. Truly it seems they care more about sales than customer service, ignoring that customer service will produce more sales. Do not want anything to do with such *Engineers" that do not take me seriously unless I make them look good with their managers ($$$.)
Not sorry for my true review above, and glad most of you always receive perfect service from them.
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I was going to return it UNOPENED-my plan was not to open the box. Do not understand why you need to question my words to defend these folks.The bass came out by the sidewalk without a box. Hope that makes it more clear.
No luck required, I gave it to the FedEx gentleman soon after he left it there to return to sender (Sweetwater.) That's when it got out of the box. I don't think you can relate, because you cannot imagine it happening to you.
My point is, it wasn't double boxed, and even if they blame FedEx (who probably messed up the box along the way) the bass would have been safer if packed in its original retail box-which they did not include. All these YouTube videos where people unbox perfect packages from Sweetwater are best case scenarios, and what happened to my shipment is very possible to happen to any of you. They didn't prepare that package for a worst case scenario, and who knows if the bass had already come out of the box during shipping, before that happened to me.
Hope it's in one piece and they are able to sell it to someone that could make good use of it.
What annoys me the most is that the Sales Engineer customer service remains silent. This Engineer is really bad at his work. The phone people have been better, so credit where it's due. Emailing and texting has, so far, been pointless.
I am sure the positive Sweetwater experiences outnumber the bad ones, but the above wasn't good, and it would have been even more upsetting had the bass fallen hard, off from its lone box.
Sorry if my story offends you-please just do not reply, as it seems we'll never see eye to eye on this matter.
For the Sweetwater warranty it only applies to the original owner, not when it’s resold to someone else. Your choices would have been return it to the original owner and have him work with Sweetwater, or contact the manufacturer if the warranty was still valid with them.
As you said THIS WAS NOT SWEETWATER’S FAULT so don’t blame them. This is all on the original owner.
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