"Worst place on earth to buy anything from. You are getting musical instruments unseen and unplayed and... well they deliver absolute junk. Unless you are willing to swallow all kinds of shipping charges to get replacement junk, you are screwed. I bought a Rogue mandolin off them and it arrived in a completely unplayable condition and it's not worth the work to make it playable."

"This is my first purchase from Musician's Friend. I ordered a small piano bench which arrived promptly. Upon opening the undamaged box, there was a cut on one of the corners on the padded chair. I contacted their Customer Service the next morning and was given a UPS return label. The lady on the phone was polite and provided me specific instruction on returning the damaged product back to them. I packaged the box back as instructed and when they received the box, I was notified via email. A replacement was shipped out promptly as well, which I was also notified via email. I received my replacement bench without any issue. "

"Never have anything in stock, always delay/backordered for months. If you order anything from these people be prepare to wait for months. If you call their customer service they have no any idea about anything else that is not already posted online. God only knows what exactly they have the "customer service" for. The only thing you can do with these clowns is to cancel the order when you call them.

Just read the reviews here and you will see this is not unusual complaint."

"I ordered a violin from Musician's Friends on 2/28/2013. The Company emailed me and notified me that it is on back order until 3/26/2013. However, they didn't ship the violin (today) and they didn't send email to notify me that the item I have ordered has been delay again to 5/3/2013. I found this out the hard way by going to their site and trying to make an order again. It was then, I know it was delayed."

"Awful, awful service. First, I can't get in, although I'm not certain it was because my password was wrong or not. I ask to reset it, yet a reset password is never sent to my email. I actually had to create a new account to order something - THEN, even that new account never gets any verification email that it was ordered or that the account was created. What gives!? I call them and they say there's a "verification hold" on the order but that everything is fine. I doubt everything is fine and still to my knowledge, the order hasn't shipped. Probably the last time I order from Musicians Friend."

"Order something on January 8th marked as in stock. It was not I was told it will shipped March 4th. Now it is March 15th. Was told they would only charge my card once it shipped. It was charged IMMEDIATELY. Prices are good but not worth this kind of hassle. "

"I WAS having a good experience with this company until I tried to send back four items that I had originally ordered for $50 with "free" shipping.
When I wanted to send the items back, I had to pay $30 to ship and then when they were processed I was given a refund minus the "shipping charge." I was told by their customer service that because they sent the items as "free shipping" originally they were deducting the shipping charge.
I was told that their refund policy was clearly stated on their web site. I read the same policy before ordering and saw nothing about this. They refused to budge on this even though I had spent hundreds of dollars with them.
The lesson is, if you are absolutely sure you are keeping the items, it's not bad. If there's a remote chance you will return products, you are out of luck.
I will never order from them again. It's a shame that they aren't interested in good customer service."

"I hope you never need warranty service from them. I did and got no joy what-so-ever. Called several times about my problem with my new Ibanez guitar and got nothing but the run-around. Was told I should have purchased a Musician's Friend warranty. They wouldn't give the phone number of Ibanez. I had to find it through an authorized repair center. Called Ibanez and got very good response."

"Good place, deserves more respect"

"Ordered the last two of an item that were restocks. Got a weird email the next day saying that they were backlogged but the amount backordered was ZERO and they would let me know when they arrived. I called that afternoon and was told that this was an error. The service rep did extensive research and said I had gotten the last 2 that they had and the email was just a weird error. I said, "Are you sure?" and he said he was, that he had verified they had 2 and that they were now reserved to me and should ship soon. GREAT! I thought. I thanked him and hung up.
A day later, I got a call from a different rep.
Him: Oh we need to cancel your order. We don't have these.
Me: But I just confirmed with your rep yesterday that you did in fact have two and they were going to be shipped to me.
Him: I can tell you that we most definitely do not have these and don't know when we will be getting any in.

I'm beyond furious! Don't LIE to me on the PHONE! Do they record their conversations? I'm now without product, and the guy showed no remorse. He actually seemed like he just wanted to get off the phone and onto the next phone call that would ruin another person's day.

I will never order from Musician's Friend again, and will make sure my associates know of my dealings so they won't want to either. HORRIBLE SERVICE!"

"Purchased a Pick 'n Glide chair for approx. $300 in Oct 2011. Paid an additional $70 for shipping. When it arrived, the box was ripped and assembly contents were not individually wrapped within, but packaged loosely. It was a birthday gift so we were in earnest to use it. Have discovered that one of the brackets was cracked, and would not have cracked from weight. Deducing that either the product was faulty, or the shipping was. We were told to contact the chair's manufacturer, who was as nice as could be, and he sent us out (at his cost) replacement brackets. He as well agreed that shipping is poor at best from these merchants at times and it oftentimes causes his product to suffer. Doesn't seem right. "

"Absolutely terrible experience...do not waste your time with them. Everthing you read about bait and switch is correct...should be and is illegal. Never a problem with Sam Ash."

"Over time, I have purchased a number of items from MusiciansFriend. I have never had a bad experience. Recently, I purchased a 2012 Fender American Stratocaster from MusiciansFriend. The experience could not have been better. I was able to get a price match on the item with absolutely no hassle (they matched a price from Hello Music). The sales people I spoke to were kind, courteous and helpful. I ordered the guitar on 12/11/2012 and received it on 12/15/2012 (two business days earlier than promised).

The guitar came in a factory sealed box that had never been opened. The Strat was pristene.

To complete the experience, they sent me a $45 coupon for half the amount of the price match reduction.

Overall, it is hard to imagine how this interchange could have been any better. Thanks MusiciansFriend!"

"Musician's Enemy! I am a professional musician (piano mostly) and I have bought a lot of stuff from this company for me (keyboards, bench, music stands, lights, etc) and for my son, a jazz saxophonist. The prices are pretty good but in my opinion it is NOT worth it. This last dealing, in which an item marked on their website as "IN STOCK", was ordered mid-July and didn't arrive until mid-October, THREE MONTHS later. My repeated phone calls were met with more cheery and polite lies--there was always another date in which the item was promised to be in stock, but wasn't.
I was so exasperated with this--the item was really needed--that I don't care to ever do business with this company again.
Looking back over the years, I can think of numerous small problems--things arriving late, with parts missing, without instructions, partially broken already. I would categorize this company as both completely unreliable and dishonest. They do not mean what they say and you can not take ANYTHING they say as true or accurate."

"Bait & Switch... I have an older Epiphone/Gibson MB-250 Banjo ( very similar to the Gibson Master Tone) and wanted to get a hard shell case for it. I saw an Epiphone EH60 Hardshell Banjo Case for my MB-250 at a good price on MusicFrnd and decided to get it. The item I received was different from the item pictured and was some cheaply made hardboard covered with a thin sheet of plastic crap from china. Needless to say it didn't fit my MB-250 and case hardware/latches were stamped out of thin sheet metal and could be twisted/bent like a beer can. I will with your fingers. I called MF and all they said was "oh are you sure it dowsn't fit?" I had to send it back at my expense, this is the end of my dealings with MF. I will deal locally from here on. "