Musician's Friend

We bought a violin and a bow. Order number mf*******042 on Aug 23 2018. They didn't check the product before shipping. We received a disgusting bow with fungus and mold. Please see the photo. We spent over $800 but got a poor quality bow.
We already sent the photos regarding the bow showing 5 spots with mold and fungus when the violin arrived. But the company asked us to mail back the bow from Taiwan. And they didn't pay the international return freight cost. It is the poorest service we had encountered. We only want to return the money of bow and excuse.

We attempted to buy a classical guitar that was on a sale and back ordered. It was only supposed to take an extra two weeks and that was fine. However, over the next month the back order date continuously slipped until it was pushed over three weeks beyond the initial date. That's when we decided to get of the back order game and actually bought the guitar from someone that actually had the guitar. Don't trust their back order time lines. They are meaningless and they don't care that their drawing customers in and charging them for items they can't actually provide. An upstanding company would simply mark the item as out of stock and wait till they actually had a firm shipment date but that is not the Musician's Friend.

I spent 2 and a half grand back in July 2018 thinking I could apply the points to a September 218 purchase and they told me I have no acquired points. Turns out that the guy who took my phone order back then never connected the points to my account and therfore nothing. This is after my points from another purchase expired a few years back. What a scammy mess! Seems like there's nothing they can ever do to fix the problems caused by their own inefficiencies.

I ordered a PA system that was "backordered" so I was fully prepared for additional wait time. A couple of weeks after order was placed, I received notice that my system was shipped. That's when the trouble started. ABF Freight (another terrible company to stay away from) was chosen by MF to deliver the system to my home. ABF scheduled two appointments wherein they never showed up and I had to call them to ask what happened. They said the driver should have called both times because the system was not on the truck. They then "located" my system in their warehouse and attempted to deliver it. It arrived with ripped, damaged packing, broken and missing equipment. I rejected the order, attempted to contact MF but have heard nothing from this terrible company for the last week! Stay away! I have pictures of the damaged boxes but this site will not upload them.

I bought a brand new guitar and paid extra for expedited shipping AND Saturday delivery. Received it on Saturday, but the lower pickups don't work. I called and service rep, Nicholas, said the manufacturers warranty would cover it and to call them. I said I'd rather get a new guitar. He told me I'd have to wait until their warehouse received it and processed it before they would ship a new one... because people don't ship them back if they get a new one. He stated once again that I couldn't be trusted to send the broken one back, so I said I'd just return it for a refund. He said he wouldn't return my money for the shipping, so I asked to talk to his supervisor. After waiting on hold, he returned and said that this wasn't important enough for a busy supervisor to spend time on. So now I have to wait to get a replacement because I don't want to lose the 50 bucks... I shipped that POS back in less than two hours after receiving it. If this ever gets resolved, I will NEVER buy from Musician's Friend again.

I was looking for a red acoustic guitar and checking online this site came out. It had a good price so I decided to buy it here. I had a problem with my credit card and I contacted the customer service. Well, tried to because they didn't reply to any of my emails or phone calls. I'm so pissed off with the miscommunication offered by this company. In the end, I contacted my bank to solve it. The guitar was a nice good but the customer service was the worse experience EVER.

I'd never heard of Musician's Friend until I happened on their site while doing research for a Martin guitar I was thinking about buying. As it turned out, they had it on a special hot deal for $200 off the regular price. It was too good to pass up so I bought it. Then I started reading reviews that told how bad they are and I had a lot of second thoughts. As it turned out, I made the purchase late Tuesday evening, it shipped on Wednesday and I got a brand new Martin guitar in the factory box this afternoon. They couldn't have done better.

After dealing with Sweetwater and Musicians friend for years, I can assure u that you should buy NEW gear from musicians friend. Better tech support, honest REPS. Better prices on most gear. They simply have more durable gear. Sweetwater sells refurbished type stuff and returned gear as New. That's a fact.
MF Won't sell you old/"new" gear buried deep in a huge warehouse.
MF actually inspects items, Sweetwater lies about their 55 point evaluation (that's obvious bs, lol)
Sweetwater has great marketing tactics and will easily fool nonprofessional-musicians. They tell you everything u want to hear during the sale. When ur item breaks after 30 days their attitude changes. They work hand in hand with companies, to sell the companies reject items... They look new cuz They make them look new. SCAM. Sweetwater can easily replace thier garbage cuz they exchange it for garbage! They get these items cheap cuz of the sheer amount they buy. They don't buy companies good stuff, they buy up their garbage... Their 2 year warranty is a scam. Their expensive stuff over $900 breaks right after 2 years (conveniently after the warranty expires). While Musicians friend has never sold me an item that has broke, EVER! Not even a demo, or refurbished item, nothing! I've bought thousands of dollars worth of stuff from MF... Even Sweetwaters patch cables are garbage after a short time. They sell companies weaker, older stock, I promise you!.
Sweetwaters garbage let's me down constantly.
I'm done with SW and dealing only with MF, Reverb.com, or ebay/craigslist.
Sweetwater gives a 2 year warranty cuz their stuff breaks, not cuz they care! Every company would do it if there wasnt a catch. Read between the lines, folks... They will knock off $200 on a $1200 item for a reason folks... i can't explain everything that has happened to me at Sweetwater. If interested on what to expect from sweetwater u can reach me at *******@gmail.com. My mom taught me as a kid to never trust strangers that give me candy... sweetwater puts candy in every box, lol... im not falling for their scam any longer.
Pathetic company that relies on foreign sweatshops to sell there merchandise. My last orange ad30 amp i got from Sweetwater sounded like it was built by a malnourished, beaten 10 year old in some dungeon in china after the warranty expired and i played the amp maybe 15 times for a total of 10 hours tops... screw Chinese goods, screw sweetwaters sweatshop crap... Boycott Sweetwater and their communist friends and buy American made from Musicians Friend.
If you are the type that goes to the car dealership to get your windshield wipers changed, or buy your 10 year old a $4000 Taylor guitar, then Sweetwater may be right up your alley. If you want durability in the gear u buy, from people that know gear, trust MUSICIANS FRIEND. You won't be sorry.
Their name says it all, musiciansFRIEND.
Don't believe the positive reviews about Sweetwater. It's ur hard earned money... you have been warned.

MUSICIAN'S UNFRIEND. Bought a guitar open box $319 with the help of sales associate online chat and confirmed by phone. Received email confirmation of order, then received Back order notice. The next day I get a cancellation notice of order. Call customer service for assistance, basically told me T. S. you can purchase at regular sale price of $499. They used to call that bait and switch. Why did associate online and phone confirm that it was in stock when the was purchase made? NOT A FRIEND OF THIS MUSICIAN. #Musician'sFriend buyer beware

Stay far away! First they said they give military discounts when I tried using the code they gave me it didn't work. Contacted customer support and eventually gear for a birthday present. Confirmed that the product would arrive in time before placing the order. Never got a order update and after a day finally called their "customer support" only to be told the order was on hold for some reason. Will never do business with this company again. Horrible.

This company is absolutely awful. I placed an order for a sound system in November, with a check sent to them on January 4th. It is now 2 months later, and I have not received my order yet. I have been emailing them, with no one replying, UNTIL I threatened to file a complaint with the BBB. Finally someone replied, and she did not seem to know how to read an email. She kept asking me for the check #, which was plain as day in the email, then repeatedly told me in 2 more emails that it just was not in my email. She finally got it, after 3 emails. I have never worked with a company this unorganized in my 20 year career. Their lack of proper customer service is evident, and their terrible online reviews are certainly reflective of that. Save yourself some trouble, and do not use this company. Ever.