Musicians Friend... my new outlook on this company

mystixboi1

mystixboi1

Kick Henry Jackassowski
So I've been on the fence with MF for awhile now, but I think(at the end of they day), they have my business for a lot of gear. Some gear I can't get through them, like Suhr... but they have a lot of stuff that I would order through them, like my EVH gear, any of the pedals I own, PRS, etc.

But here's the thing... a few months ago, I had problems with an order for a Charvel San Dimas. They sent me 3 different guitars... all had issues. But in the end, they took care of me by making sure I didn't pay a single cent in shipping. Plus, they gave me $50 worth of accessories of my choosing(and partial refunds on the guitar) just to make sure I was happy.

On top of that, they have a pretty cool Backstage Pass program to give you credit on each dollar you spend with them. In the recent weeks, I've used this program to get new tubes for my EVH 5150 iii, double guitar gig bag and a discount off of a Fender Jazzmaster I just ordered.

They aren't perfect, but they really do try to make sure their customer's are happy.
 
It's nice to hear something good about them (for a change).

Too many times, it's just one horror story after another. Sounds like they're trying to take care of you.

Of course, they may look at how much business you do with them, but again, at least they're trying.
:wink:
 
I don't buy much from MF but they did make good on an equipment cart. Had a bad tire on mine and asked for a replacement tire. They said the tires don't get replaced and sent me a new cart. I asked them where do I need to send the old cart to, they said keep it, cost too much to ship back and process.
 
I'm good with both Musician's Friend and Sweetwater. With Sweetwater, I've never had a problem, and I get a "personal consultant" if I need any help. With MF, I've had people give me their names, and extension number, so it would be like having a personal consultant if I chose to go that way. What I do know about MF is that they will bend over backward to make something right, but they have gotten a lot more strict on people that abuse their willingness to be easy one returns (sort of like women that will buy an outfit, wear it for an occasioon, then return it). The other thing I've noticed is that MF seems to getting a few more "seconds." I don't know if this is just manufacturers not doing as much quality control, or if the retailers get a break on per unit cost if they take a certain amount of imperfect merchandise. When I was growing up, this was common in the clothing industry. I have no real idea if this might actually have spread to other industries. It's just an idle speculation on my part. I just know that when I was purchasing an acoustic-electric guitar from MF, I returned 2, gave up and went with a different maker, and returned one before finding a good one - which I got a nice discount on, for my troubles.
 
It makes sense that they will take care of such an important revenue stream like Myz....

But seriously fuck musicians friend.

Their practice of buying up competition to put them out of business just adds to their homogenation of product lines. I'm sick of seeing the same cheap imports everywhere. They are the Walmart of the music industry and I'm glad that companies are finding ways to be successful without having to pander to Musicians Friend.
 
I did a lot of business with Musician's Friend in the late 90s after Carol's son told me about them, and I have always had good service from them, including with returns. As time goes on, I have found other places that are just as good to deal with, including local places, so I don't do much business with them any more. I have no complaints, just many more options.
 
I've bought gear from most of the large online companies without incident. No service complaints at all. I do find MF easier to get a deal from. My only Sweetwater complaint would be the sales calls.
 
My only big music franchise purchases were via Sam Ash, but those ended by the time I turned 22 or so (so about 22 years ago) and in one from the Music & Arts center more than a decade ago. Everything else has been Mom & Pop. There was a single exception with my La Patrie Concert CW, which I bought from Amazon, but they are decidedly not a music store, just a HUGE box department store (with seemingly unlimited departments).

I prefer to do business with mom & pop shops if I can. That said, our local shop suffers from a few 20-something employees striving-for-rock-stardom-syndrome so common to music stores of all stripes. They try to seem more mature, but they aren't. They don't do anything particularly poorly from a standard sales perspective, but they do annoy me to no end. Also, the store has taken to mainly selling some gorgeous high-end Fender and Godin stuff that I can't justify buying (not only do I not have the desposeable income, I don't actually need any gear).
 
Dogsinotpalc said:
My only big music franchise purchases were via Sam Ash, but those ended by the time I turned 22 or so (so about 22 years ago) and in one from the Music & Arts center more than a decade ago. Everything else has been Mom & Pop. There was a single exception with my La Patrie Concert CW, which I bought from Amazon, but they are decidedly not a music store, just a HUGE box department store (with seemingly unlimited departments).

I prefer to do business with mom & pop shops if I can. That said, our local shop suffers from a few 20-something employees striving-for-rock-stardom-syndrome so common to music stores of all stripes. They try to seem more mature, but they aren't. They don't do anything particularly poorly from a standard sales perspective, but they do annoy me to no end. Also, the store has taken to mainly selling some gorgeous high-end Fender and Godin stuff that I can't justify buying (not only do I not have the desposeable income, I don't actually need any gear).
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I would prefer mom and pops, but online shops and GC have pretty much killed all of the ones by me. It is close to an hour to get to any from my house. That being said, 90% of my purchases are from Reverb. I just don't buy new gear.
 
Chad said:
I would prefer mom and pops, but online shops and GC have pretty much killed all of the ones by me. It is close to an hour to get to any from my house. That being said, 90% of my purchases are from Reverb. I just don't buy new gear.
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I get that, I just never liked the music mega-stores. I forgot that I actually bought a bass at Guitar Center, that was my one time from any of the big guys but that was about 15 years ago. The one thing I did like about GC were the acoustic rooms. They were relatively quiet and sparsely populated whenever I went to the stores.

Not that it needs clarifying, I'm not actually knocking the stores themselves and especially not anyone that shopped at them or the catalog/online equivalents, I just never got a better deal from them than I could from a local. Then again, I bought most of my gear when you either got or could easily get 40% of MSRP. These days, they mostly dropped the list/MSRP, calculated the MAP. You're lucky to get 20% off of list in most cases.
 
Dogsinotpalc said:
I get that, I just never liked the music mega-stores. I forgot that I actually bought a bass at Guitar Center, that was my one time from any of the big guys but that was about 15 years ago. The one thing I did like about GC were the acoustic rooms. They were relatively quiet and sparsely populated whenever I went to the stores.

Not that it needs clarifying, I'm not actually knocking the stores themselves and especially not anyone that shopped at them or the catalog/online equivalents, I just never got a better deal from them than I could from a local. Then again, I bought most of my gear when you either got or could easily get 40% of MSRP. These days, they mostly dropped the list/MSRP, calculated the MAP. You're lucky to get 20% off of list in most cases.
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If I wasn't married, had kids and was still in a gigging band, I would probably take those treks out to the remaining mom and pops. 13 years ago, I did that almost every weekend, but now, I just don't have the time.
 
Most of the local shops around me do not have access to some of the major brands. I know Gibson set rules about how much a dealer needs to buy from them to be a dealer, and I imagine some others may have as well. Then too, as Dogsintopalc pointed out, my local shops are geared more toward the rock and rollers who will buy guitars, amps, and pedals. We folkies buy a guitar, and that's it. :grin:
 
The only problem I've ever had with MF is when stuff is backordered. Back in the 90s I waited for months for a CD recorder. Every time they'd give me a new "in stock date" it would get pushed back 3 weeks or so. I ended up finding it Circuit City or Sears or someplace locally, and cancelled that order.

I've had a few things that seemed to be on infinite back order.

The take away is that if it isn't in stock when you plan to order, don't order.
 
I still visit guitar centers frequently as well as Sam Ash and I buy from GC and SA too. My local mom and pop is not as convenient to get to but I still buy my consumables there as well as some mod parts. I like the M&P because the folks who work there aren't dorks. I could never get a $50 Jackson there though and GC sent me home with one so....I probably search the R o n d o Music site weekly at least too even though I haven't bought anything from them since they closed the brick and mortar.
 
Prages said:
The only problem I've ever had with MF is when stuff is backordered. Back in the 90s I waited for months for a CD recorder. Every time they'd give me a new "in stock date" it would get pushed back 3 weeks or so. I ended up finding it Circuit City or Sears or someplace locally, and cancelled that order.

I've had a few things that seemed to be on infinite back order.

The take away is that if it isn't in stock when you plan to order, don't order.
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Plus, at Circuit City service is state of the art.
 
5 years ago, I ordered a Zoom h4 from them, and with no communication with me They substituted something that looked like a Soviet era Walkman with an external speaker. They took the return with no acknowledgement of how ridiculous their substitution was, and i haven't given them a dime since. I use Sweetwater for the more obscure items (I ordered a ukulele case from them last year), but for everything else I pay a little extra at the place in town.
 
Aside from pedals and assorted bits and bobs, I've purchased 4 guitars from MF. Two of those purchases went off without a hitch. One time they sent me the wrong guitar, sold out of the finish I wanted on the guitar I did buy, and gave me no break/relief/apology on anything beyond the obvious paying for return shipping on the fancy PRS they mistakenly sent instead of the Danelectro I bought.

The second time they shipped me a SDOTD guitar that arrived with a busted truss rod and they were pretty lame about the whole return/refund/exchange situation because I had paid with PayPal and they communicated what a hassle this was for them. They sold out of what I wanted and didn't wanna give me a deal on an alternate finish that wasn't the SDOTD.

So it's basically a 50/50 chance with them.
 
I honestly think we're really lucky to live in an era where we can sit on our fat rear ends and click some buttons and --poof!-- gear shows up! Magic. I'm getting old, but when I first bought gear nearly 40 years ago, I paid (silly) list, never got a discount or a return, and had my choice of the one thing the shop had in inventory.

Our gear lives are pretty damn good these days.
 
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