Sweetwater Customer Service

[Pep]

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.

No reply . . . . . . but you know.

 

[dumbuser]

Nothing but good has been my experience. I bought a bass that developed a rattle about a year into ownership and just outside the manufacturer warranty. I emailed customer service and they asked to have it shipped to their Guitar Shop for inspection. They even mailed me a packing box with packing materials so I could ship the bass back without spending a dime. Bass went back to them, they concluded the rattle was not repairable, and are now sending me a brand new bass. They even let me choose the serial number.

I have a friend that works at Guitar Center corporate and can get me 20% off on almost anything. Even with that kind of discount, I still feel like buying from Sweetwater just because their CS is so good.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

No reply . . . . . . but you know.

I wsa asked to not reply and honored the request.

 

[Pep]

 

[Peteyboy]

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.

Yeah, I was stupid to believe what he said about the warranty's transferability. Caveat Emptor, I know. And I believe that product to be a flimsy piece of garbage.

 

[Pep]

Yeah, I was stupid to believe what he said about the warranty's transferability. Caveat Emptor, I know. And I believe that product to be a flimsy piece of garbage.

If he was any kind of decent guy he would have offered to send it back himself under warranty, then send the replacement to you.

 

[thrashingbass]

They deleted the bad "Engineer" from my profile, thankfully. But did so in silence, and never apologized for the horrible shipment issue. Haven't heard from any higher up or any new "Engineer." As long as I am not blamed for their packing issues, all is well.

I suppose it will take forever for the bass to get back to them-if it survives shipping with an open box. If it was a "certified open box" (new meaning for that!) item, it would be less bad, but it was sold as new, not as a demo or customer return.

Sales corporate environments are killer. I have no reason to defend them, and feel bad for any "Sales Engineer" that is trying to do his/her job but is not empowered by management to do so. I imagine the gentleman saw no "profit" in helping me, and being numbers driven, I did not matter to him/them. Understand that, even if that hasn't been your experience and you deem them the best music business in the world, it was mine-your great experiences with them do not make me a liar. I have not mentioned names, nor have any desire to create a false narrative.

I believe in good customer service, and have been treated well by earlier "Engineers." But all it takes is one bad experience to sour someone from a company. Profits are good, but keeping customers happy and reassured all is well is best. I would be fired day one on such a company, as I would indeed put customers first-and companies generally only pay lip service to that.

I am always impressed and loyal to those few companies who go above and beyond. Sweetwater is just a big, ambitious corporation, nothing more. Have been treated better by Fender customer service, and FMIC couldn't be more hated by the influencer scene. Have been sent bonus stuff for problems on their side, sent factory pickguard replacements for faulty ones on out of the box items, and more importantly, have never been IGNORED by support. Will gladly revise my comments if the story changes, but I won't be a blind fan of Sweetwater in general.

With that said, all the best to all the nice people working there who do their best and are truly good customer service people.

 

[thrashingbass]

Updating thread to praise Sweetwater for having an unofficial "Sales Engineer" by another classification-he has been very different than the "real" Sales Engineer, but seems more caring and replies ASAP (the other fellow would ignore me.) Takes cares of the orders as usual, and is very good at customer service, but seems to not be named "Sales Engineers" (who knows, though. he may really be.)

The black Phoenix 1004 bass they shipped two weeks ago, single boxed, was ruined by either FedEx Ground, the bad packaging, or both. I just saw it reposted again on sale as "used", with three huge dents that weren't there before it was shipped. These dents are gnarly, but not too visible from the front. This makes me sad, as the bass was (is) so cool, and it's a pity it got messed up this way.

But I got another LTD bass from Sweetwater on Thursday, a Surveyor 87 (also ten pounds!) and it was double boxed, packed very securely, with the retail box and an inspection certificate. Bass is flawless, without dents, and a perfect specimen from Cort-Tek for LTD. Very happy with the latter, but still frustrated with how that other nice Korean bass was so carelessly treated in transit.

It is important to note that, even if it wasn't the Sales Engineer's fault, because the experience with him wasn't satisfying, because everything else with an order under his name as Engineers was messed up as well, it made Sweetwater look horrible to me. So, good or bad customer service will always leave an important impression on any company-ALL Sales Engineers should give priority to customer relations over sales, in my strong opinion, as a happy customer will buy more stuff from you.

The present gentleman assisting me *is* excellent-perhaps the best customer service I have received from them even when I had the much better "Engineers" that used to assist me. So I agree, when things go as they should, Sweetwater does have a great customer service experience, but believe me that things have gone wrong for at least a few of us.

My apologies for perhaps having offended any of you for my initial comments. I was very frustrated by what I felt was some ghosting from them save for the phone people that are forced to answer. I explained to the newer gentleman who I was frustrated, and instead of being defensive or ignoring me, has been very careful and detailed in his responses, and while still having to send a few automated replies, it feels as if he is actually responding, rather than just giving me near robotic or canned responses. I no longer feel ignored, just because this gentleman is on top of my emails, and answers personally ASAP.

Great company, and some of their sales are amazing.