"I ordered the software Spectrasonics BackBeat S.A.G.E. Xpander from GuitarCenter.com, which was in stock and the order was arked "processed" rapidly.

5 business days later, with no shipment, I checked online and saw that it wasn't marked shipped. Sent a Customer Service ticket inquiring what was up.

2 days later, no response from the ticket, but an email from MusiciansFriend.com saying "Backorder Notice". Very disturbing where the lies in this email:

"As you may recall from the Item Status, the item is on backorder." PATENTLY FALSE. It read, and still reads, that it is in stock and available to be shipped immediately.

"If we anticipate an extended delay, we will contact you again." THEY DID NOT CONTACT ME ABOUT THE DELAY INITIALLY. They just let me rot in ignorance, indicating online that everything was fine.


I called customer service, waited 10 minutes on hold and cancelled my "backordered" item. The rep could not indicate whether the item would be able to be cancelled or not, and said if i received it in the mail, if I wanted a refund, i'd need to return it.

So I'm in limbo all over again, still with no product, or money, or any way to find out what the status of anything is."

"After ordering the product I was notified that the item was backordered. Strange since it was listed as "in-stock and ready to ship". I wrote an email asking for an ETA and inquiring as to why it was still listed as in-stock. A week later (their stated service level is to provide a response in 24hrs!) I get a reply that basically says to hang in there. I respond with an email restating my original concerns and suggesting that their system is broken since their stated inventory does not match their actual inventory and they are not responding to customers promptly. Finally (a few days later) my order ships and I get a more prompt response that tells me nothing is broken and everything is fine with their system. To me this is a silly response for any commercial operation. Firstly the customer is always right, right? Secondly, it's clear there is a problem otherwise I would have the product I ordered or an apologetic explanation as to what is going on. I have been a customer of theirs for years, but I'm afraid I have to recommend avoiding this merchant."

"Don't believe for one second that Musician's Friend has their "warehouse issues" resolved. I am professional musician & a long time Musician's Friend Customer who has spent THOUSANDS of dollars with them over the years. Only because of this past history with no problems have I given them REPEATED chances lately. 6 weeks ago I placed an order. After losing the order in their "new system" TWICE..they finally ship it. It arrives so poorly packaged that TWO OF THE ITEMS ARE MISSING! PRESUMABLY THIS IS BECAUSE THEIR PACKAGING GURU'S DIDN'T PUT TAPE ON ONE OF THE BOX FLAPS! They gave me a $25 credit & sent the rest of my order. I let a few weeks pass and tried again. I bought a NEW keyboard but recieved a USED one. I returned it, got a refund & bought it elsewhere. This week I decided to try once more to use that credit. I order a NEW pair of speakers & of course one of them is USED. I STRONGLY advise you to avoid this merchant! They only thing worse than their ignorance is their apathy!"

"I decided to order a BBE Sonic Stomp Pedal. I've been wanting to get this pedal since May and I have finally had the amount of money to purchase this thing. I've been reading reviews all along about how great it opens up your tone and changes the sound of your amp and all these other beautiful and wonderful things. So I finally make the order and I'm ecstatic. I can't wait for the thing to get here. I finally get home on Thursday, open the packaging waiting to take out my beautiful new red pedal, but I get a green one instead. I had gotten the Green Screamer Overdrive Pedal instead. I felt completely drained and depressed. The moment I had been looking forward all to this week was completely gone. Needless to say, I returned it and am waiting for my return. Never again, Musician's Friend. Thank you for ruining my day."

"Bad bad bad! My first time ordering from them and it's a bad experience right off the bat! After I ordered, there's no update on the status of my order through email/their website. Then suddenly, I got a call 3 days later and an email 4 days later about a declined credit card. Perhaps they should've contacted me earlier to tell me the problem! I was in a hurry to get my keyboard and here I was running out of time. The customer service person didn't sound like she cared about its company's reputation or strive to improve. So I just cancelled my order all together. Would not order from them again. Can't believe such bad service from a big reputable company as this."

"Wow this store has horrible customer service no because it has been almost a month since I ordered Shure e2c from them and the status was stuck on being packed. Then a couple of days ago it was changed to back ordered, but when I purchased the thing it said instock. I couldnt wait any longer so I just bought a pair on Ebay.com that way I can finally get them from someone I know that has them instock. This order is going to be cancelled for sure."

"I am finished with MF. They screwed up my last order and vowed then I'd never used them again. I gave them the benefit of the doubt given the excuse of "we just moved to a new warehosue". This last order was placed on 9/10 and on this day (9/15) it is still shown as "being packed". Never again for me with MF. Screw me once, shame on you. Screw me twice, shame on me. "

"Absolutely the WORST customer service around. If I have to hear one more excuse about the WAREHOUSE move... This store went DOWN-HILL!! AVOID!!! The reps don't return calls, management is practically NON-EXISTANT. I used to LOVE shopping at MF - NO MORE!

My order has either been wrong, missing items, partially (and incorrectly) refunded, or just MIA!

MF - Get on the ball or you won't need this new big warehouse because your customers will all find new sources to purchase gear!!!"

"They first sent the wrong item to me. I sent it back. Over the last week I have sent multiple e-mails but still no response.

6 months ago I had a similar problem. They sent me a defective item and I had to send it back. I was not happy about customer service then, but I thought it might have been just bad luck.

Now I am positive that customer service is bad all around. "

"I was shocked to see the ratings for Musician's Friend to be so low on here! I have been scared away from buying from lots of stores to to ratings of 5 and lower on this website, but never checked Musician's Friend, or a few other stores I've trusted since forever. Go figure!

I just bought a Numark HDX Turntable in a fire sale, very cheap - $499 brand new, with warranty - it arrived in perfect condition within a week, and it's been one of the best purchases I've made in years. In fact, this turntable that I got for $499, is still going for around $1000 used on ebay.

I might have recommended them, however it sounds as if things have changed since their warehouse move, whenever that was (I ordered and received my item in mid July). Regardless, I have to give a positive review based on my experience - but read the other reviews with care."

"I ordered 7 items from Musicians Friend on 7/15/07, all of which were listed as 'In stock, ready to ship'. It is now 8/17/07 and I have lost all respect for this merchant. I still have not received this order, even though I was immediately charged. I placed 3 additional orders (8/4, 8/4 & 8/7 and those have been shipped and received. Surprisingly, 3 of the items in the received orders are identical to items in the lost order.

I sent 3 emails over the past month concerning my lost order and they have not answered any. I spoke to their telephone reps on 6 different occasions and have received 6 different responses. At first I was told the delay would be 'a few days', 'I don't know', 'will ship by the end of July'. I wound up going to another vendor for 1 of the items I needed. I would not have placed the order had I been aware it would be delayed.

Yesterday I was told on the phone that the order had shipped and that the website order status must not have been updated. This morning, after the website status STILL said 'Being Packed' and no tracking number still, I called again and was told by Jason that they are 'filling new orders and will get to the tremendous backlog within a month'.

I am afraid if I cancel my order I'll never see my $200 again.

I can only imagine how many customers besides me they have lost because of the mishandling of the warehouse move, the scripted putoffs told by the phone reps, and no email responses. It is apparant that they have no concern for their customer's satisfaction.

I have ordered from Musicians Friend since 2005 with good results, but their treatment of me and others during their mismanaged warehouse move has left a nasty taste in my mouth and I will take my business to someone who has respect for their customers.

Ted

EDIT 9/2/07 After posting my review here I sent an email to Management expecting to get better results than with live or email customer service. I did not receive any reply. I have since cancelled my order and found other sources for the items continually needed for my business. After the treatment I received from Musicians Friend regarding my/their problems I will never order from them again."

"I've always had good luck with Musician's Friend in the past (although I see others have not been so lucky). This time, I was doubly ticked off. On July 16, I placed an order for a Martin LX1 guitar, which was listed as "in stock" or I wouldn't have placed the order. A couple of days later, the order status was "being packed." The status stayed that way until August 8, when I received a shipping confirmation and a tracking number. The UPS tracking showed the package status as "billing information received" for a week. Today, I finally called to see what was going on, and they tell me "It says the order was cancelled, customer changed their mind." WHAT!?!? This was a total fabrication on someone's part, and my order was arbitrarily cancelled with no notification to me. Further investigation showed that the order was probably damaged before it was received by UPS and never shipped, but this sort of customer treatment is not acceptable. I allowed them to reorder the guitar, but I've probably placed my last order with Musician's Friend.

Jon"

"I was in the market for an MXL 990 microphone and a mixer (I decided on a Behringer Xenyx 802) for doing my own podcast as well as other recording tasks...

Ordered the stuff July 16th through their website, all of it was in-stock and ready to go, and things were going fine. On the 18th the status changed to 'Being Packed'... And that was it.

Here it is, August 11th, and the status hasn't changed. I called them last Friday and the CSR gave me the same song and dance about them changing warehouses and said that she'd 'be surprised if it didn't ship Monday or Tuesday'. Yeah well... Despite saying I was going to cancel my order if it didn't, I decided it was more hassle than waiting...I mean, it can't POSSIBLY take them much longer, right?

Like I said, that was a week ago. No package. No updates. They still haven't told me if/what was backordered. And now, the mic is $10 cheaper.

I was expecting to have the stuff by the end of that week, and here it is a month later. That's a lot of podcast time missed.

-UPDATE 08/14/2007-
Well, the mixer arrived today... Don't get me started on the inadequacy of their packing, I think others have done a good enough job describing it. The product's box had moderate wear to its exterior, but its contents are fine as far as I can tell... Which isn't far, as I didn't receive any of the other items I ordered. The order tracking doesn't even say anything about the mixer being shipped...no change since 07/18. So, while they did actually manage to ship something to me, I'm not exactly thrilled...since I don't have the mic and mic stand, or cables.

-UPDATE 08/20/2007-
So, this last Friday, I called their customer service again and got a more realistic assessment of the situation, that this warehouse move has been nothing but trouble and that they're having problems with EVERYTHING. I was also told, when I brought up the issue of price-matching, that they were already refunding me the $10 on the mic, and that while this CSR wouldn't make any promises, he said that the rest of my order should ship within the week.

So, today I got shipping confirmation and a UPS tracking number. My order tracking information has also changed to 'Shipped', the first and only change since 07/18.

-UPDATE 08/23/2007-
Wow. So, three days later and the tracking number still doesn't show up in UPS' system...BUT, I received two packages... One had my MXL 990 microphone kit... The other, had a packing list indicating that it had the mic stand and all the cables I had ordered...but instead it had a Nady Starpower SP-1 microphone, which I did not order... Where's my cabling? I still can't use my mic or mixer! (Or even the POS $8 mic, since it needs an XLR cable too)

I call, and they have no godly idea what happened. Apparently, the tracking number they gave me was for the package with the cables...which is apparently lost, but they don't know if they lost it, or UPS did. (Seeing as how it never even got a pick-up scan, yeah. They lost it.) They're going to re-ship the missing package, and hopefully I will have it in '3-5 business days'.

-UPDATE 09/06/2007-
Got a UPS shipping confirmation this morning, and this time, the package DID eventually show up in UPS's system... Says I'll have it on the 11th... This sure isn't the '3-5 business days' I was told last time...

-UPDATE 09/11/2007-
Cables and everything arrived. Finally able to test the mixer and mic. Everything works.

It took 58 days, but I have my items, and they even refunded the $10 difference on the mic. (As well as sending me a cheap $8 mic I didn't order and will never use.) I am satisfied that I have my stuff, but the overall experience was excruciating."

"UPDATE to the below...I buy a few things still from MF and noticed their shipping times have greatly improved...Good start to coming back...Jim

I used to love shopping online for musical items from these guys. They must have grown too big for their own pants. Seems they moved their warehouse and messed up 2 of my orders, I canceld one and it took 2 weeks to receive the second one with many phone calls. They even charged me before shipping, next day to be exact...

I will probably shop with them again, but not as often as before, I have other choices to shop at. If only they would have planned the warehouse move in advance and to at least warned us that it would be this bad, I left 3 reviews at Bizrate about musicicansfriend serive, they posted NONE of them, Who is being paid to advertize through Bizrate???????? I canceled my Bizrate account because they posted nothing of my concerns..

Most buyers are becoming alot wiser to online problems and people like MusiciansFriend should take note, also there are many FASLE reviews out there, look for long reviews, not short to the point ones...These honest comments are turning up during Google searches as well. I buy from good honest misspelled bad grammer long reviews, not bad ones or short reviews... MF I know you dont give a rats arse about ONE or TWO customers, just call their customer service and youll see, if there is a major problem (clueless underpaid lacking training, agents)they go "Duh, what where who I dont know"...etc...This may make me give up music and take up bowling....Jim"

"The harmonica I order arrived Aug 8. It took 17 days to ship and arrived 6 days later. Their reason was that they were moving the warehouse and could not ship. There was only a very vague note about "possible" delays on their website at the time of placing the order. If you want to receive your order quickly I would advise another vendor.
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