"Ordered item #583339 on Oct 29. Expected it to arrive today. Instead my card was refunded and upon calling Musicians Friend I spoke with (Nick) who informed me that the item i ordered was discontinued although it list it in stock and ready to ship. then he proceeded to tell me i could order the guitar and the exact same amp that is discontiuned speperatly. Item #620299 and item #582102 which are the exact same.

He contined to argue with me, and refused to send me thru to a supervisor when asked. i have been waiting for this as a gift for my stepson and i got no confirmation email, no email stating it was not in stock no appology or anything.

they have lost my business forever. I used to always shop there but never again..."

"UPDATE: Musicians Friend management called me after an email and offered me a brand new guitar for the sale price. This means I got the same guitar except brand new at 50% off. Musicians Friend made this right. I am very glad to have worked this out. They will get my support and endorsement in the future!!! ORIGINAL COMPLAINT: Musiciansfriend.com had a Labor Day Holiday sale on blemished equipment where each day leading up to Labor Day (7 SEP 09)5% off was added and maxed out on Labor Day at 30%. I knew there was limited quantities so I decided if the guitar was still available at 30% off I would get it. I woke up the morning of 7 SEP and discovered it was so I attempted to purchase it using Musiciansfriend.com website. After several attempts I discovered their promo number (M030) would not work. So I called their 1-800 number and talked to a "LIVE" sales person. I was told the guitar was available and it was mine. I receieved an "order submitted" email with my order number. After waiting 2 days and no further email I called to inquire about my purchase. I was told my guitar was sold to someone else. They offered me a "USED" guitar for (at first) $300 more than my original purchase then reduced it to $200 more (and it wasn't even the same guitar). Leaves me wondering "were they ever going to sell me the guitar at the 30% sale price?". They should have honored the purchase price for the same guitar whether it was new or blemished."

"I called in to request a return for a mic stand I'd ordered, and not only was the gentleman I spoke to (Bill) very friendly and helpful, he walked me through the process of setting up an exchange order. What's better is that I was told I didn't have to return the original product, yet I was only charged the difference in price between it and the exchanged item (which was a bit more expensive).

This was a "Wow!" moment, and I wish I could say I've had customer service experiences as good as this one! Talk about looking out for your customers. Great great great!"

"This company used to be really on top of their game, but I've been very disappointed with my experience with them thus far. I placed an order on Thursday and expected it to ship on Friday because the system showed it as in stock and they guarantee next day shippinag on in stock items. By Saturday, there was no status on my order, nor did I receive any e-mail telling me what was happening. I called in to customer service and the representative gave me conflicting reports of the item was backordered or the item was in stock. When I brought up their shipping guarantee, she dodged the issue by saying that the order was probably backordered by the time my order went through, so they would not honor their shipping guarantee. This seems really sketchy to me since it seems they can arbitrarily decide whether their shipping guarantee applies from case to case, since they can always claim that even though the item showed as in stock it was actually backordered.

UPDATE: A week later they still had not shipped so I called again and they told me that since it was a refurb item they probably wouldn't get anymore in stock. I was not too pleased about that, but they hooked me up with a brand new item for the refurb price to make up for it. So even though I have gripes with their whole tracking mechanism for whether items are in stock and updating the customer with status, at least when they mess up they make up for it."

"Their online catalog is huge, and it is very well done. Also, the prices are very interesting.
The problem is the service. It took almost two weeks for them to tell me that I had to choose a different way of payment, because my credit card wasn't accepted. It wouldn't have been a problem to pay them by other means if they had told me that reasonably soon, not after 10 days.
So I ended up cancelling the order, after wasting two weeks."

"I was lucky to check my bank account on the same day a fraudulent charge for almost $400.00 was deducted from my bank account.
I called MUSICIAN FRIEND help line and got no assistance, just redirected to my bank. I had to make two trips to my bank to cancel all of my credit and debit cards and to sign affidavits in front of a notary.
Yesterday I received a scripted speech on my voice mail stating the whole affair was the fault of MUSICIAN FRIEND’S accounting department. I was offered a $20.00 discount.
This response is inadequate. I don't know which is worse, fraud or an accounting mistake. The result is the same, canceled credit cards and a lot of stress concerning ID theft. The last time I bought anything from MUSICIAN FRIEND was 6 months ago. They brag a lot about the security of their payment system but do not seem to have a secure handle on their internal processes. You should know, anytime you purchase from MUSICIAN FRIEND they can go into your bank/credit account and withdraw money.
"

"On June 7th, I Ordered an EBS multi-compressor for electric bass from these guys. A $200 electronic equipment that these dudes shipped through USPS, simply because it weighs less than 1lb! What a careless and a stupid way of cutting cost! The responsible of this approach should be fired! 16 days after it was shipped, I haven’t received it! USPS claims on its website that the package was delivered on June 11, 2009 at 10:35AM. I was at home that day and no USPS mailman knocked at my door or did put any such package in my mailbox.
I talked today to some manager (I call him “Borgoua”, since I don’t remember his first name) at musician’s friend who told me that it was their policy to ship packages of less than 1lb weight via USPS, no matter how expensive their contain is! Hey dude, it’s going to cost you more than you wanted to save, because you will refund my credit card in full. Even if, by a miracle this item was finally delivered to me, I will return it to musician’s friend. Hey Borgoua, I’ve just ordered my EBS from Activemusician.com and they will ship it (free) via UPS and I will receive it on the 29th! You’ve just lost a customer and remember that my credit card must be fully refunded on July 8th 2009!!
"

"I placed an order on jun-9-2009 a couple of days later the order was cancelled without explanation.


Not a very nice way to treat customers.... "

"I had ordered an Ibanez RG370 online and may not have noticed that is was out of stock when I ordered so I called the customer service dept. They had confirmed that the RG370 was in fact out of stock but told me that the RG350DX was "In stock and ready to ship". Since it is essentially the same guitar I said sure why not. They told me it would ship out the next day. Next day comes ... no ship. So I called again and they said it was still in stock and should ship out the next day. Next day I get a shipping confirmation good deal right? ... wrong! They sent me some cheap Ibanez guitar that wasn't even close to what I had ordered. I call customer service once again and they send me a return label for the guitar and then tell me that the guitar I ordered was OUT OF STOCK! So they tell me they should get a shipment the next week ... so I wait. Next week comes still out of stock. I wait until the following monday night ... still out of stock. Rep says it might not be in till next month. So all this time I have $400 invested in this ordeal (since something shipped they can charge you .. if it's the wrong item .. oh well). I canceled my order yesterday and I'm waiting for my refund so I can buy the exact same guitar for the exact same price somewhere else where it is actually in stock. Don't waste your time with these people. Ever since Guitar Center took them over it's gone downhill. They lie to their customers and that's enough for me. "

"* * If you're not already aware, Guitar Center owns MusiciansFriend.com, Music123.com, Musician.com, Woodwind & Brasswind and others. Many of these all ship from the same warehouse(s) and share product stock. * *

I have placed many orders with MF over the past few months and what was an initial annoyance has grown into much more.

All items I have ordered that were truly in stock were shipped quickly and arrived on time! Their biggest problem concerns items that aren't in stock. If they show an item on their site as not being in stock, I think it's up to the shopper whether they are happy waiting for an unknown amount of time until the item arrives and is shipped. Unfortunately, many times I've ordered items that were shown as being in stock, only to receive an email a day or two later stating the opposite. The majority of the time, the expected arrival date was 3-8 weeks later.

I'm of the opinion that they intentionally choose to display this incorrect status knowing that most customers won't call and cancel the back ordered item once ordered, yet they wouldn't have purchased the item originally if it was shown as being on back order. There have been far too many of these situations with me and others here for it to simply be a coincidence!! I've since chosen to use other online retailers and am happy occasionally paying a little more for accuracy and honesty!

Bottom line, you may want to call and confirm the status before placing the order, assuming the person you speak with will be honest!"

"This company has terrible service. All items showed available at the time of ordering. But two days later, they sent me an email that they were backordered for a week. After a week, I called back to see check the status, they told me that they are still backordered and the dates were pushed out for 10 additional days.
Unless you don't care when your order will arrive, don't buy from this company. Whatever delivery date they told you can not be trusted. It will be delayed, and delayed and delayed."

"2 items never arrived.. quick email to them and they resent the 2 items for free without hassle.. good customer service recovery... would shop there again... as long as I am not in a rush to receive the items"

"Placed my order via the Musician's Friend.com website on the 2nd of January(after close of business Friday), and got my entire order by Friday the 9th. Some parts even came in on Thursday, ahead of schedule. I ordered a BC. Rich Avenge SOB guitar, a Crate 15w amp, some picks, a guitar stand, a Line 6 stereo dock and the Line 6 Über Metal effects plugin. Everything arrived in good shape, with the guitar packaging being the most sketchy, but good enough to protect it through the shipping process. Maybe MF used to have problems in the past, but this order for me went as smoothly as possible, when dealing with an online vendor. Awesome prices, fast FREE shipping, and to boot, I used a $35 off code and scored everything for under $440. Brilliant! I will be a repeat customer for sure."

"Website indicated "in stock". But actually, not in stock. Charged my credit card immediately anyway. (Isn't that illegal?) Promised that will be "in stock" in a couple of days. But actually, not until late January. Maybe.

Canceled order. Glad I did, because the order was for qty 3 when I only wanted qty 1! Will not use this reseller again. I'd feel safer buying from ebay. "

"I have made three purchases from musiciansfriend.com--two guitars, a hardshell case, and an amp with a few accessories. The orders have all come in good shape and on time. Prices were excellent--I always shop around for the lowest prices. I have never dealt with customer service, so I can't comment on that area of their business."