BEWARE IN PURCHASING FROM MUSIC-123

[Reef Ranger]

WATCH-OUT WHEN BUYING FROM MUSIC-123

Some of you have asked me to keep you posted on this saga, and the time has now come to close the story out. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, see earlier post entitled "CURRENT STATUS OF AUDIO TRACK EXPANSION KIT".

Anyway, I'm sad to say that despite being given ample time and opportunity to do so, this particular on-line merchant (www.music123.com) has blatantly, and in some respects, arrogantly failed to do the right thing by us on this purchase, and its high time for others to know about it. Safe to say, three-thousand dollars ($3,000) is alot of money to us, and we don't take kindly to being misled by retail or on-line merchants, no matter who they are.

In overview, this merchant was paid the full retail sales price for a "new" Fantom X8, yet they purposefully and knowingly shipped us a sorely outdated unit (OS 1.00), which may well have been a re-packaged demo (the evidence is still unclear). And worse, it arrived here in a badly damaged box.

They were then repeatedly contacted by phone to rectify the situation including provision of a replacement shipping box, and while waiting for them to return our calls, we discovered their "unsatisfactory" rating with the Better Business Bureau which included a record of fifty-nine!!! formal complaints filed by their customers over the last 36-months alone (http://www.michiana.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=24253). Foolishly, we had not researched them on this database first.

At present, we are 10-12 days out from the date of original delivery, yet they have failed to arrange or pay for return shipment, and they have yet to credit or refund the purchase price to our credit card. Soon, because of return shipping time and crediting delays, we will be without the X8 and without the original funds to replace it for a protracted period of time (ca. ~20-30 days). Consequently, we will indeed be filing the sixtieth (60th) formal complaint against this group of charlatans, and I would strongly encourage all potential buyers of music equipment out there to be very-very cautious in purchasing anything at all from Music-123!

My advice? Always check the record of a given merchant on the BBB website before buying (www.bbb.org). It will pay great-great dividends.

[cuborg]

thanks for sharing this. I'll avoid them in future.

But, when you purchase something online using credit card
you can call credit card and dispute that charge. That way
you will not be charged until they resolve that dispute in your behalf. I did it many times.

good luck

[Reef Ranger]

Cuborg,

You're most welcome and thanks for your advice. Yes, you're absolutely right, under normal circumstances, we could indeed dispute the charge with the credit card company. However, this particular case is somewhat different, and here's why . . .

Like Musician's Friend and other mainstream on-line retailers, Music 123 has arranged for it's own dedicated credit provider (i.e., Wells Fargo), and the account cannot be used for purchases with any other merchant. I believe Musician's Friend uses Conseco or GMAC Financing in much the same way. Anyway, this complicates things a bit because its not a formal VISA or MasterCard account, so you don't get to enjoy the same policies and privileges as you would with those more reputable organizations.

We certainly intend to apprise Wells Fargo of our ordeal with these clowns. In fact, we fully intend to deny payment on the account if it becomes necessary. But more importantly, we intend to ask them (Wells Fargo), why they have consciously chosen to do business with a shade-tree retailer that has 60 formal complaints filed against them with the BBB!

Like us, maybe Wells Fargo simply failed to do their homework too!

[msam]

^^^
I would like to add...
DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM MUSICIANSBUY.COM!!!

their customer service is crap...they are rude and act as if we don't have the money to buy from them or something...

[ocomain]

Here in the United States, I've had excellent service from the following online retailers, having purchased many, many pieces of gear from them:

Sweetwater (Indiana)
zzounds & Sameday Music (same company) (New Jersey)
audiomidi.com (California)
BPMmusic.com (Colorado)
AMS (American Musical Supply) (New Jersey)
8th Street Music (Pennsylvania)
KraftMUSIC.com (Wisconsin)

Michael

[cuborg]

I can comfirm also the same good experience
from Sweetwater, Sameday Music and BPMmusic.com.

Polite and helpful customer service, quick delivery, brand new gear and no problems with returns.

[Reef Ranger]

As the original poster here, I think it is important for me to add that we too have had little or no problems with other on-line music e-tailers/retailers in recent years. In fact, over the past 5-6 years, we have probably spent in excess of $15,000-$25,000 on-line without a single problem including notable purchases with Musician's Friend, ZZounds, and Musician's Buy. As a result, we have concluded (and I believe accurately), that this particular episode and merchant are an aberration.

[Jamesm601]

Just want to add that I bought a $1200 guitar from Sweetwater a few months ago, and they were absolutely top notch in every respect. This being my first purchase of that significance from an online company, I was an extremely picky and high maintenance customer. Their professionalism and patience with my many demands never faltered. Highly recommended.

[Keroseus]

I purchased a A-33 controller from 123's Parent store, got it home, opened it up and the manual was in spanish. I contacted them and they said I should contact Roland for a english manual and flatly refused to help in getting me one.
It just seems they are resting on their Laurels, treating people like numbers and sales statistics instead of concentrating on customer service.

[dalematt]

I have purchased a few things from Music123, among which are a PA system and Tascam DP01 home recording system. The only complaint I have is the last purchase where free shipping was advertised but not being told (even in the fine print) that it was to the continental USA only. I live about 1 1/2 hours over the border. I questioned them about it and was not given a reasonable reply. In fact, I was given the impression that Canadian sales were not very important to them. It was just a little thing (shipping was about $30 -$40), but it was enough for me to decide to not do business with them again.

[Reef Ranger]

Well, I'm glad to say that this ill-fated, older X8 is finally on it's way back to Music-123, but here's an update on this case for those of you who might be interested.

After originally purchasing the X8 on August 2nd, it took us a couple of days to receive it and then a couple more to learn that the Operating System (OS) was so outdated. However, once we discovered it, we quickly called and reported it to Music-123 (on August 11th), and we were told by Customer Service that the original salesperson would return our call to make return shipping arrangements with us (which given the circumstances, we refused to pay for). But of course, no one ever called.

On August 14th, we called again and insisted to speak with a supervisor who repeatedly assured us that she would make return shipping arrangements and get back to us with details (i.e., their FedEx account number, where to take it to, or who would come to pick it up, etc.). But for reasons that seemed a little strange to us at the time, she stated "that it could take as long as two weeks" to make the arrangements?!#$%&? However, after expressing my frustrations with such a nonsensical delay and accepting my fate by hanging up the phone, it hit me like a ton of resumes! They (Music-123) have a maximum 30-day return policy!

Thus, if they could have postponed making return shipping arrangements until August 28th or 29th, we could easily have been forced to 'eat' this outdated little hummer, and we believe that this may well have been exactly what they were trying to pull. We actually waited 10-12 more days (from 8/14 to 8/25!!!) without another call from them before we finally acted in fear. We sent them a flaming little nasty-gram via fax with some polished 'legalese' yesterday, and the courier was at our door by 4pm today. But again, in our view, this sort of thing should never have been necessary, and would not have happened with a reputable e-tailer/re-tailer. So again, be careful out there! It's a flippin' war zone!

[cuborg]

Sweetwater (Indiana)
zzounds & Sameday Music (same company) (New Jersey)
audiomidi.com (California)
BPMmusic.com (Colorado)
AMS (American Musical Supply) (New Jersey)
8th Street Music (Pennsylvania)
KraftMUSIC.com (Wisconsin)

Sweetwater falling out of that list for me.
They sent broken stand, I returned and exchaneg for other kind.
Sent me piece of junk "OnStage", when I wanted to return
this they tried to cheat me on shipping costs they deducting from the charge. Not buying from them anymore, "cheap" company.