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Sweetwater Scam

corradoc

corradoc

Dec 20, 2007
386
24
New York City
www.lostrevolution.com
#1
Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I wanted to give folks a heads up. I ordered a Sadowsky, 24 fret modern, metroline from Sweetwater a couple of weeks ago. The bass came. I took it out and could niot for the life of me adjust two of the bridge pole pieces. Took a good look and they appeared stripped. This, to me, was not acceptable for a $3500 bass - so I asked to return it.

Got the return label. Took it to UPS - even paid to have the fragile pack it (extra $100).

Then I get an email from Sweetwater that they got the bass, but there is a ding on it, so they are charging me $600 anyway.

I took the bass out for a total of maybe 20 minutes. It sat on my lap the whole time. No way any dings happenned with me. But they're trying to screw me over anyhow for the extra cash.

I've bought a lot of gear from them in the past (including other basses) but will NEVER use them again. And if you are considering buying a high end bass from them, beware - you may end of paying hundreds of dollars simply for the priveledge of touching the bass for a few minutes.
 
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#6
They have always done right by me. Ive have ordered very nice basses and sent them back no questions asked. Maybe you should try contacting your sales rep or management about this situation. This does not sound like any type of scam to me. It sounds like a damage dispute. Perhaps the shipping company is to blame and should be dealt with accordingly. My Sweetwater basses always come and return FEDEX.
 
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#9
Reply to them with the circumstances and that the bridge screws were stripped, so this was obviously an already returned bass. Something like, "I can't prove that I didn't ding the bass as it's logically impossible to prove a negative. But I've played many other instruments with no dings and as this bass appears to be a previously returned instrument and the 55 point inspection didn't capture the stripped bridge screws, a ding passing through the inspection is not impossible. Please provide a photograph of the ding in question. I have enclosed a photograph of the receipt from UPS where I paid extra for fragile packaging."
 
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#10
I personally don't believe they do a real 55-point inspection based on my two experiences with them. One bass was riddled with heavy fret sprout while the other (a $2,500 Gretsch guitar) had damage on the headstock near the nut. These were both things I discovered within seconds of removing the instruments from their boxes.

Anyway, for your situation, assuming it is exactly as you've described, it looks like they missed the stripped pole pieces, so it's clear that they sent a damaged item in the first place. I think that's great evidence that they didn't check the item for damage before sending it to you. Calmly but firmly tell them this along with the fact that you're giving them one last opportunity to do right by you and refund your money before you to go to your credit card company and do a chargeback.

One question though -- why would you need to pay to have the guitar specially packed for a return? For a guitar return, you're pretty much always just packaging it up like it came using the original packaging. Did you ship it back in a different box or something?
 
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#11
Weird. Is it possible the ding was on it already, but you didn't see it?

Anyway, I used SW a lot, years ago. Then things changed and they never had what I wanted in inventory. It seemed like they had become brokers rather than distributors. Like they didn't even order anything unless they had customers.

Anyway, after a few times waiting on them to get inventory of items I wanted, and me finding those items faster elsewhere, I just stopped using them.

That was until a week ago. I wanted to see if I could get a WD800 through them, but as usual, what I wanted was back ordered. So I ordered from Pitbull audio, with free 2 day shipping.

And my personal experience with the 55 point inspection: Last 2 basses were clearly damaged before they were packed. Previous 4 or 5 were perfect though.

Sorry for an unintended derail. Had to vent a bit.
 
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#13
I haven't been impressed with Sweetwater, and their "55-point inspection" for a few years now. Sorry this happened to you. If it were me I'd be a royal pain in their rear, working my way up the corporate chain with incessant phone calls and emails.

It does serve as a good reminder to me though... I'm about to return a guitar to Musician's Friend and I'm going to photograph it closely before shipping.
 
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#14
I have sold a couple of basses that I shipped out of province and I took a video and extensive pictures of the basses before I packed them and during the packing process. That way, you could easily have proof of the condition of the bass before it was sent and recourse if there was any dispute.

If you are sure the ding was not there, I would contact Sweetwater (or the shipping company - whoever payed for the shipping) and file a claim for the damage.
 
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#15
But they send candy with your order! That means they care about you!

When I return something I always take pictures of everything:
- The condition of the item before I packed it.
- How I packed it before I put it in the box
- The item in the box
- The box completely packed and taped to show what damage the box might have had before I shipped it.

Some people might call that paranoid but in light of sweetwater charging the op $600 it doesn't seem like it.
 
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#16
Just wait till groceries are only available online, and takeout is delivered by robots. CONVENIENCE, will no longer be CONVENIENT, when your customer representative is a machine.

But hey... BIT-O-HONEY is Yummy.
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#20
Sweetwater sells returned items as new all the time. Just look at the pictures and when you have four brand new instruments with the tags and plastic still on but one or two, its pretty evident. The fact they sell Demo/ B- Stock means someone us checking them at some point along the way but I doubt they do the same for returned inventory. The fact this bass already had issues and with how it appears to be I'd say they were trying to get their money back on a defective item. Less likely than pure incompetence and theirs no shortage of that in corporate America.
 
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