SweetwaterReviews 1,199

Bought the product and waited for an email receipt which never showed up. When I called a few days later, the salesman blamed another salesperson. I explained that all I wanted was a conformation that I made the purchase. Minutes later someone emailed me. I'm frustrated and angry over such a simple request. When givig out bank numbers over the phone, you would hope someone doesn't take that lightly in this spam-oriented world we live in.

Sweetwater has a good reputation so I'm a little befuddled here. First, they charge my credit card $300 when they do not actually have product to send - not a pre-order authorization; which I did give, but an actual charge that I had to pay with real money. Then they erase my order history from my Sweetwater account but fail to credit my card and it is now 10 days past the time they said they would do so. In summary, a full month later I have no product and no money to buy it from vendors who have it in stock at the same price. Great job Sweetwater. You have now almost guaranteed that I will go out of my way not to use you. Retail is brutal and online retailers still need to understand that customers are priority one. Tell me again what distinguishes you from the other available online retailers.

I was amazed the first time I ordered from Sweetwater. I purchased a new rack mount case online and the next day I received a call from "Karl" just to thank me for my purchase and let me know that if I needed anything to give him a call. That's it. He was not trying to sell me anything... just called to thank me. That's customer service. Since that time, I have called Karl a number of times whenever I have a question about something. He's always helpful and Sweetwater is my first stop when I need new gear.

I am a total beginner and was looking for a guitar. I selected sweetwater because they had the color of the guitar and was in stock. I did read the reviews here and was a little worried about some of the negative reviews. My experience was one of the best internet sales experience I ever had. I placed my order late one night and the next morning Greg Savino from sweetwater called to confirm the order. He kept me up to date on the whole process and sent pics of the guitar before it was sent. Guitar was packaged great and out of the box in tune. I have rarely been so impressed with a company and its service. It is so rare I took the time to write this review.

I used to buy quite a few items from these guys guitars pedals etc. but the last time I did I got a pedal and the site and salesman both indicated it came with no adaptor so the guy talked me into buying one, only about 24.99 but when I got the pedal it indeed had the adaptor with it, so all I can figure is they needed more sales or the salesman worked on commission but it was enough for me to not buy from them again considering there are so many others that sell the same stuff at the same price or lower, so just a heads up BEWARE!

From my own experience, I can say that the sales end of sweetwater is very good, with good customer service, deals, and finance options.
Unfortunately, for me that is where the positive experience ends. Sweetwater claims to have the best support and repair team in the industry, with "the fastest turnaround time".
Nothing could be farther from the truth. After the hardware they sold me spontaniously blasting static white noise after 9 months, I payed $27 to send it to their repair crew.
After a few weeks, they send me an email saying they werent actually qualified to fix the device like they had advertized, but needed to send it to actual experts at the manufacturer.
2 full months pass! No calls, no emails, and the support line is unreachable, leaving messages useless. I was not offered any substitute hardware.
Finnally, I became so fed up with waiting that I called a manager to complain. I told him I had read the 2-year all inclusive warranty information and wanted to know how many more weeks of waiting i had to expect.
After that he appologized and offered me a full refund on the devise (although not the shipping fee for the now useless repair ticket). I agreed and proceeded to start waiting 3 days for that to show up.
In conclusion, don't use sweetwater's bulls**t repair, just demand a refund from a manager.

I was contacted by a sales reps from sweetwater.com. He wanted to know if there was anything he could do for me. I asked him about special pricing on a certain product. After all, that is the point of using a sales rep instead of ordering directly online. I told him the special pricing for the product I was looking for I got from another vendor. He said, "he was not willing to go below $xxx". He went on about how their tech support is the best in the business... yadda yadaa". I told him, "For software, I don't need tech support when there are tons of tutorials online. I need the best price". I told him that I am fully aware of the price they pay per software license and what their markup is. I told him, I understand and respect that every company needs to make a profit. I thanked him for his time and don't see myself ever doing business with them till they become more competitive with their pricing. I have a preferred vendor that I will always stick with, but I figured I would give this guy a chance to earn some $$$.

The only real online competition to musiciansfriend.com that I can find. Comparable prices, Free shipping, 45 day return guarantee, and a free set up! On top of this, my favorite part about this site is the ability to pick the guitar you want by it's serial number. I feel this makes the whole buying experience more personal and easy to deal with. The only downside to the whole service is that the set up causes the product to take longer to get to you then normally. But hey, I'm not complaining!

I consider myself a pro musician and have been working in the industry for 3 decades, it is my life and I spend a fortune on it each year. I have order from Sweetwater 6 times, the first few times there was no problem, after I started spending bigger money however, they became unraveled.

I could not get it resolved until I escalate up to the top of the company. Once I did that they fixed it in 1 day. However I should not have had to contact them so many times. The worst was despite being told several times by several different people they would "personally follow up and I would be called back in a day" none followed through. I also twice wrote for help on their website form with no reply.

It should not take 19 days to get an item that is commonly in stock at all their competitors and I should not have contacted them so many time nor had to escalate it to get it resolved. People were not rude, but everyone there I contacted clearly dropped the ball. I will highly recommend brick and mortar stores from now, but in hindsight I should have known better to buy it from a local store as their price was the same. I have already contacted GE Moneybank about closing my credit account with Sweetwater.

Hands down the best customer service in the music gear industry - Every time I deal with these guys, I continue to be amazed by their customer service. You'll usually get assigned to a certain guy who will help you every time that you call. How can it get better than that? I've often called to just ask random questions even if I'm not looking to buy, and the patient phone operators will fully indulge and oblige me. Seriously, much of what I know about gear I've learned from these guys. I'd much rather deal with them than those dumbasses over at Guitar Center, and the loyalty factor will keep me buying from them. I fully endorse Sweetwater, despite the higher prices.