SweetwaterReviews 1,199

A big thanks to Norb for his patent and very good support. He´s the man.
If you wanna solve any issue. Just ask him. By the way good Black Friday deals.

Bo from Sweden

I purchased a rather expensive guitar from them ($1,600) and it showed up totally out of whack, strings buzzing and intonation off (they say they compete 50 some point inspection, no way). I was just not happy with the guitar, and guitar quality (I tried doing a setup, but something was off). I called them the next day to get return instructions, and it was like pulling teeth trying to return the guitar. They kept telling me to wait to return the guitar, and kept asking me over and over again why I wanted to return the guitar (like 10 times!). I kept telling them, I told you why! After I insisted over and over again to return the guitar, and the Sweetwater guy on the phone getting rather snarky (really unprofessional), they finally emailed me the paperwork to mail back the guitar. The only reason I kept my cool and remained so pleasant is because I was afraid they would not honor their 30 return policy. Last time I buy anything from them.

"Two day shipping" on a $300 package. The thing didn't ship until I called and said "HEY. Where is it"

Now it's been marked delivered. Lo and behold, I don't have it! After contacting Sweetwater they more or less told me I'm just screwed if FedEx doesn't locate it. So I essentially gave them $300 for nothing. Thanks Sweetwater! That's the LAST time I'm dealing with you. You're no better than Guitar Center.

UPDATE: Changing my rating because someone remedied the situation. It clearly depends on what rep you're dealing with. My "personal sales engineer" got back with me and said on the contrary to what I was told on the phone "of course we will replace the product or refund you if FedEx does not locate the package. No problem". I eventually did get the package. However after the initial headache, and the fact that I had to say "hey, where is it" before the package was even shipped, I'm not taking back what I said.

This would have been my 4th purchase from Sweetwater totaling nearly $4K. My wife ordered a Taylor mini-e KOA as an anniversary surprise. The guitar was $700.00. Long story short, Sweetwater made a mistake on the shipping address. When my wife checked status via the tracking number through FedEx the very day after initiating the order, the shipping address was California and we live in ARIZONA! She immediately called the Sales person and was told that it would be re-routed. When she called to follow up the following day (Day 3) she was told that it could not be re-routed after all. It was headed to the wrong address in a different state. The guitar would theoretically be returned to Sweetwater when the signer name was different than ours. So we would roll the dice by paying for the guitar and cross our fingers that the people at the wrong address wouldn't sign for it? We insisted on a full refund. Waiting for it to show up on our CC bill as a credit. Wouldn't surprise me if we had to follow up on that too.

Stay clear of Sweet Water!

I am a musician. About 16 years ago I purchased a Roland 2480 DAW recording studio and have used it and used it and then used it some more. I have tried several of the new units out there but always fell back to my Roland.
While ordering something from Sweetwater I mentioned I was having an issue with my Roland. Michael told me to hold on, and I did. Minutes later I spoke to a technician who specializes in Roland recording equipment. He immediately knew what my issue was, naturally it was something I had mistakenly switched to a different position. He was right.
I asked how much for the tech service. He said, Nothing, we will support your Roland as long as you own it until it dies or worse. Who supports a unit 16 years later? Sweetwater does. Found out they personally support everything they sell, everything. Their customer service is absolutely the best.
I had purchased some software and needed help with some of the language they used and some functions. No problem, I had a tech on the phone within minutes and he helped me.
I recommend Sweetwater to anyone and everyone who needs musical equipment or software. Don't go it alone or wait hours for some tech from out of the country.
If I could give them more stars I would.

I perched a speaker from sweet water and did not test it before the party started, to find out that the speaker was not working properly. All you can hear is the background of the song but when it was time to listen to the person singing you could not here anything. I returned the speaker to sweet-water and they had the nerve to say that nothing was wrong with it. I had a DJ friend of mind check it out and he said it was defective, but since sweet water tech did not agree with it being defective they charged me $19.00 for the shipping label. Therefore DO NOT BUY DEMO PRODUCTS FROM SWEETWATER.COM

I ordered a guitar, it sat in their warehouse for 4 days before it was sent out, I called to cancel and was told it was shipped out days ago. I called Fedex they said "the label was created on Thursday, but they did not get it until Monday." So I thought I had learned my lesson, next order was on a Sunday night, I spent an extra $20 for two day shipping expecting the package by Wednesday. They didn't even ship it until after shipping hours Tuesday night. Fedex told me I would not get it until Friday, meanwhile I ordered something from Musician's Friend Monday night, via ground and received it Thursday. I will never order from Sweetwater again. It takes two days for Fedex to send something across the country, but it also takes them 2-4 days to be bothered to mail anything. Lazy, dishonest company that has officially lost my business.

I've now bought two guitars from Peter, a Taylor and Córdoba. He has treated me not only as a customer but also as a friend. He always follows up on everything and let's you know from beginning to end how things are progressing. But even after the sale is done, he still is in contact to see if everything is going well. I would highly recommend Peter as your sales rep. For Sweetwater items. You won't be sorry and you'll know you have a quality product with his experience.

First, I have purchased thousands of dollars worth the equipment from Sweetwater in the past. Over the years their service has gotten worse, to the point that I will no longer purchase from them anymore. I've been through three different sales representatives and they all claim they will take better care of you but nope, they just don't care anymore. IMO, they have gotten too big and don't need your business. I will purchase from other, smaller retailers, who appreciate my business. Bye Bye Sweetwater.

Never had a worse experience with a company.
During black Friday we ordered a guitar for my daughter, who has been saving for years for this special event. The company took our order and our money but nothing came. This is a very expensive guitar and case! I got a call from a guy saying well they were out of stock. Then another call with the excuse that they had to verify my CC. I use it all the time for online and jumped through ridiculous hoops. He said the guitar would be here in 2 days. My daughter literally waited by the window for nearly 2 weeks. We planned to order several years worth of savings in music live sound and band equipment for Christmas and had decided to order it all from Sweetwater. We hesitated when they gave us such a run around for one simple order of a guitar. We missed other company's black Friday deals and Christmas coupons while Sweetwater took their Sweet time. I left messages and finally emailed the guy I had jumped through hoops for before. They were out of stock but he still said I should send a wire transfer to them! I have loved Musician's Friend and Guitar Center in past and never had a single problem ordering from them. My friend who orders a lot from Sweetwater for their bands talked me into using Sweetwater. I know they used to have a good reputation in the past, but these guys are dishonest, and nothing more than a scam company now. I hope you don't risk your money with them. Initially we thought it was worth it for the better deal they had on a warranty. Now that I've asked around I've learned that a warranty from Sweetwater is worthless anyway. I will never risk ordering from these guys again. Stick with someone safe like Musician's Friend or Guitar Center.

I purchased a DAW (digital audio workstation) for a home studio from Sweetwater primarily because they explained that their service & support was unparalleled. When I had my 1st and only question they ran away from my question claiming they don't offer "training"! Well, you know, every question is a how-to question so technically they don't have to answer any questions, right? B&H had better deals but I was suckered by Sweetwater's service pitch. Hope this was helpful.

I've been ordering from Sweetwater since the 1990's. This company is very well supervised and if one representative doesn't have the answer, it's always simple to find someone who does. It's wonderful how vast a selection of products they offer and service. The company president Chuck Surack founded this company himself and built it into the gold standard of musical instrument supply in this country. I couldn't recommend Sweetwater higher.

Wow! I am looking at some of the negative reviews here and wondering why there are such polar opposite reviews. I've probably made somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 purchases from Sweetwater and have never had anything but outstanding support and service. It makes me wonder what happened to the people who had negative experiences with Sweetwater. Is it their sales consultant? I had a wonderful sales consultant, Keith Schreiber, who treated me like family and followed up with me about every three months to make sure everything was alright and to see if I needed anything. I say "had" because Keith moved to be closer to family after this Christmas. I'm perplexed to say the least. I'll check back after a purchase with my new sales consultant. As I said, I've had nothing but positive experiences with Sweetwater.