"Future buyers beware !!! Ordered guitar strings which were such a great price. Got confirmation on the order. Then got an email later saying they were on back order. Then later another email saying order was canceled. No explanation whatsoever. Placed their website on my firewall so it will never show up on my computer ever again."

"Their low price guarantee is bogus! They would not match the price for Adorama nor J&R. They said they are not Sony Retailers, but are so listed in the Sony USA website as legitimate Sony dealers. "

"I ordered a $4,000 sax from them, specified I needed it shipped next day, I get a call at 5 next day, verifying the order saying it wont go out till tuesday. Seems like this scenario is repeated here,

If they couldn't ship it then they shouldv'e said so, but you call CS and they are quite comical,,,saying "you should get the tracking # today"

Avoid this company"

"this store is by far the biggest joke on the net, next to musicanstoybox prolly owned by same people! I had to dj lights overnighted to me, i ask the salesman 3 times they are going to be here tommarrow right? he says oh ya they be there tommarrow, oh guess what thats today and they are not here! why because musicans friend has a 24 hr hold to make sure you didnt steal the credit card you used. This would be a good thing if you dont need stuff asap, if they are going to do this they should tell clients on the phone that there overnight is really 2 days!now thanks to them my client was without the lights i told them i would have, luckly i knew these clients and they understood, otherwise i would be on the phone with my attorney sueing them for false advertising and claims. Do yourself a favor and shop at zzounds! they had my order here over night and I shipped it 3 day!"

"Fine, as advertised. My initial purchase was through Amazon, but I'll try them again directly in the future. Apparently this vendor shares some systems with other music stores, but perhaps that is just their common Amazon backbone.

The package included a shipping list, but that did not show the prices and total cost, which would have been useful."

"Thou I have just ordered only one product from them, I am satisfied with the service. I had ordered a pair of stands for my recording monitors and it was delivered in due time, as expected.
I won't hesitate to shop with them again, if required. Thou I have my preferred stores, I have added them to the list now. "

"I placed an order today with a promised 24 hour shipping guarantee, because I needed a PA system by next Saturday. Well, 2 hours after my order I get a notification that my stuff is back-ordered.

This does me no good, so I canceled the order. And in today's age, back-order, really? Back-order was for a time when people used to mail in checks with catalog order forms. There's no reason why MF can't update their website with actual inventory, but based on the reviews I've seen, that's business as usual for them.

Avoid this train-wreck of a company"

"As everyone knows, people are more likely to leave a review if they've had a negative experience, but not so if they've had a positive one. So, against my natural inclination, I'm going to attempt the latter. I've ordered from Musician's Friend several times over the years and never had any trouble with them. I will admit their stock seems frequently backordered, but I'm always aware of this before placing my order.

Just a couple weeks ago I placed an order for a Yamaha digital piano, matching wooden stand, sustain pedal assembly and bench and not every item was in stock. The piano and bench arrived promptly. The stand and pedal assembly were backordered, but were eventually restocked BEFORE the anticipated restocking date. Each item in my order was brand new and not a return item and was in undamaged packaging.

My only small complaint was the pricematching policy. It's not much of a "guarantee" considering they refused to pricematch the $40 bench (found it at Amazon for $26), but after a little complaining and asking them to refund the bench before shipping it, they complied charging the lower price minus 10% of the difference.

Overall, I feel like Musician's Friend gets a bad rap. I'm sure there are more happy customers than there are unhappy ones, but they're less likely to take the time to write a review."

"I ordered an amp at a good price from these guys and for some reason I assumed I would not receive it due to the bad reviews I've been reading. Well, sure enough, every day I have called and get the same answer, "You should be getting a tracking number any day". You can almost detect the humor in their voice when they say this knowing they are making it up as they go. If you get an item at a good price, don't expect to receive it.

They probably don't have much inventory to reduce expenses. It's probable they love sales projections by all the so-called orders. Of course, that can't last long as they eventually go unfulfilled.

These guys have to be the worst music retailer."

"Short Story: BEYOND A DOUBT WORST COMPANY EVER! PATHETIC.

Long Story: I made an order on June 2nd for a recording studio kit. It came with everything and the price was reasonable. 4 days later I received an e-mail saying it was out of stock and they would be delivering as soon as it was in stock again. No estimated date or any further information. So I e-mailed customer service the last week of June asking for an update (It had been three weeks and not one single e-mail or anything from them) They responded that the product would be in stock on July 7th and would be mailed to me promptly but I could cancel the order if I like. So July 7th came and went and so did August 7th. And today on AUGUST 13th I had to write them again, this time requesting that they just cancel my order. Its been almost 11 weeks since I placed my order and have heard NOTHING from them on the status of my order. This is the worst company customer service I have ever had to deal with and WILL NEVER purchase anything from them again. I'm finding every review board I can find to. Musiciansfriend.com is as far from a friend as possible. "

"Purchased a guitar and some accessories (picks, strings, strap, stand) on June 24. The guitar was a great price so I couldn't resist. Web page stated that it was on backorder but would be available on July 2. It has been well over a month now and still no guitar. The accessories came in a cheap cardboard box that looked like it had been run over. The picks were scattered in the bottom of the box. After calling customer service several times they were unwilling to work with me to find a comparable guitar for the same price. VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE"

"I bought two used products, a Dean Bass and a Novation Midi controller. I'm not from the US, so I picked the instruments in the US and went back to my country.

The bass just worked for 2 days. I had to change the preamp.

The Midi controller condititions did not matched with the describtions mentioned in the web page. In the description they mention that the keyboard had minor signs of use. Particularly, this product was supposed to have minor scratches. However, the product I received had a hit making that one of the keys is not at the same level as the others. From my perspective this is not been used, this is having an important esthetic damage that needs to be repaired. Evidently, this is not the product description registered in the offer.

After several emails and communications with the customer service they finally helped me solving the situation.

I don't recommend buying used products at Musician's Friend. "

"Billing department is totally incompetent - has trouble with an approved credit transaction."

"Caveat Emptor!
Let the buy beware!

The last three things I've bought from Musician's Friend were all repackaged returns. They sell this stuff as "new" but who is kidding who.

I bought a Dean Boca 12 string guitar. I knew it was returned because the warranty cards were gone. It had a few small blemishes on the neck. I'll keep the guitar because it is a good guitar and I like it. Dean makes an excellent guitar.

Next item was a Behrenger Feedback Destroyer, purchased over a year ago. It again must have been returned because of the fingerprints and scratches on it. Someone had programmed it and it was not set to factory defaults. I could not get it to go back to the documented factory defaults, either. I could not get a straight answer from Behrenger either about whether or not midi programming will override factory defaults. So this unit has a big huge question mark over it.

Last, but not least, I bought a Nady CM-2S stereo recording mic a few years ago. It started acted weird. Today I went to take it apart and sure enough, the small phillips screws are all chewed up. I know I didn't do that, and neither did the folks at the factory. Another obvious return.

I will never, ever buy anything from this place again.

Bob S.
Bergenfield, NJ

"

"This used to be my go-to place for all kinds of musical equipment. Apparently, around December 2009 they installed a new procurement system which is a total disaster. Yes, it's true that they have the 24-hour shipping guarantee, BUT that only from the moment they actually get the order. Apparently like 50% of all cases orders get stuck in the website database and, like, once or twice a week somebody manually pushes through those orders. I have no other explanation why I received a "thank you for your order" email 4 days after I actually made an order on the website (that was way back in December).
Called on Wednesday about another order I made on Monday, and the customer service rep (who was very nice) told me that the guitar will ship tomorrow. Will check back tomorrow and see.
Word of wisdom: order by phone. Those orders are apparently recorded in a different system and they actually do get processed faster, and I have never had problems with those even after they "upgraded" their order management system."