Musician's Friend

[russrags]

Has anyone ever had a BAD experience with them ???

 

Seems really odd, that the day after I give them credit card info for a purchase, I have fraudulent charges on my card and now that the card has been compromised, I have to cancel the card !@#$%^&

 

 

Russ

Nashville

[Mudcat007]

I've only made a couple of purchases from them. Both experiences were uneventful.

[Marc G]

ahhhhh I haven't had any BAD exeriences really.... I"ve ordered 2 or 3 times for the year from them and only on the last order, which I got yesterday and today, was a little annoying as they split my shipment. So I got my pedaltrain yesterday and my SKB case today... but... they still got here.... They have my credit card on file for about...ummm.... 2+ years now and I haven't had an issue with unknown charges on that card.... besides... I gave them my card with the smallest limit so IF anything does happen I know I can't get in tooooo deep.

[amplayer]

I bought a few things there, and over the years, I've bought tons of stuff from their owner, Guitar Center. I've never had any issues.

 

However, what I hate about the company now is that there is essentially no negotiating; Everything is sold at the MAP, and that means you can get a better deal somewhere else.

[Jeff da Weasel]

Bought lots of stuff from there, never had a problem.

[fesswrx]

 

Bought lots of stuff from there, never had a problem.

 

 

Same however I use the MF credit card when I do buy from them and then pay it off when the bill comes.

[Rhythm Junky]

Never had a bad experience with them.

[kurfu]

 

I bought a few things there, and over the years, I've bought tons of stuff from their owner, Guitar Center. I've never had any issues. However, what I hate about the company now is that there is essentially no negotiating; Everything is sold at the MAP, and that means you can get a better deal somewhere else.

 

 

MF gives a 5% discount if you are an ASCAP member. You have to place your order over the phone, though.

[Lee Knight]

No issues... but we're talking an idividual here it sounds like to me. A teleservice agent nabs your visa number and goes to town. I take it you've reported the issue to MF?

[Fuzzlabs]

No credit card problems, but.. I did order something last fall, for someone's birthday, and a week later it hadn't even been approved. I ended up cancelling the order, buying one locally, and bringing it with us on the trip from Texas to Kentucky, instead of it being shipped there direct.

[WrdsNmuzik]

not exactly on topic but . . .

 

I have tried to buy "clearance" or "refurb" or "blem" items thru MF four times, and only one of them actually arrived: my card would get charged, but then the order would be cancelled, presumably because they were out of stock.

 

Regular catalog items arrived quickly, tho....apart from 2 sets of strings I ordered that took over a month.

[blue2blue]

I've actually had overall quite good luck with MF. (Considering their familial corporate relation to GC, that may be somewhat notable. )

 

Nothing's ever come up missing or broken (Although my $50 mandolin shipping container was a little the worse for wear; but, inside, the little mandolin was as shiny and pretty as a $50 mando could be.)

 

 

And they've even volunteered discounts (a phone operator asked me if I was eligible for any professional discounts and I gave them my ASCAP number and got another 5% off). And on some already cheap mics that were coming with free 3rd party shock mounts per a special sale, at checkout, there was the 'free bonus' of a pair of 6" pop screens that their computer just decided to kick in.

 

No doubt it's possible to have a bad time with them -- as with any other big vendor.

 

But my luck has been just fine.

[meccajay]

Nope, almost 10 years of business now, and no problemo..

[Jerry_L]

I've purchased a lot from them over many years, mostly uneventful. In my last order, a couple of plastic boxes of picks had popped open and a half-dozen or so must have fallen out of the shipping box, but I didn't bother to register a complaint.

 

I ordered a scratch-and-dent drum shield from them that was damaged in a way that made it hard to assemble and stand up properly. Once again, I didn't bother to return it, but I would have rather paid full price and got one that was undamaged. I will be very wary of ordering any scratch-and-dent from them again.

[Hard Truth]

Many purchases, no problems except for one time an item remained out of stock for months. I ended buying that item elsewhere. Overall, good service.

[MrKnobs]

 

Has anyone ever had a BAD experience with them ??? Seems really odd, that the day after I give them credit card info for a purchase, I have fraudulent charges on my card and now that the card has been compromised, I have to cancel the card !@#$%^& Russ Nashville

 

 

After having this experience with TigerDirect, I started using Discover's single use number thingy. Works like a charm, you just log on to Discover and click a button to "spin the wheel" and get assigned a card number for that specific purchase, one time use only.

 

Terry D.

[blue2blue]

 

You walked into Hell and handed your credit card to Satan...

 

 

 

Sadly, you are not alone in having suffered such a tragic downfall. In fact, you might be one of the folks who tried to warn me (too late!) not to buy from TD. I learned my lesson. But it was an expensive and utterly infuriating one.

[Magpel]

I've bought quite a lot from MF. and never had a problem.

[Ani]

I've bought quite a bit from Musician's Friend over the years, but fortunately for me, I have a MF based right here in Kansas City and pay the live cashier. I've never had any problems with them other than weeding out the weekend warriors working for the sake of a discount and getting to the GURUS that really know what they are talking about; sometimes you have to wait, but hey.... Even though the main store front is scratch and dent, the location warehouses a LOT of brand new catalog merchandise that I can buy without a wait. I've bought several new instruments there, acoustical supplies, rack mount cases, and what-have-you.

 

It's also nice to be able to inspect the scratch and dent prior to purchase; bought a real nice Slim Takamine Electracoustic guitar for about $150 off original price. The only thing wrong with it was the cap that held the battery in place was missing. When I called Takamine directly to order the missing part, they shipped it out to me for free.

 

I'm not sure how close they are to finishing the new MF that they have been building, but I'm sure they will have a killer showcase... and who knows, they might even invite Craig to Kansas City to do a few seminars like Sweetwater does.... hint, hint....

[D Charles]

I used to buy pretty regularly from them but haven't in quite some time, in fact, it's been so long I haven't got their catalogs for a few years. I was seduced by the easy payment plan from AMS.

 

Russ, I think you got the new dishonest employee. :-0

[spokenward]

I ordered stuff that they never shipped. I made the mistake of ordering within a month of their move. They could not figure out that process to save their lives. As Ani pointed out, their warehouse is in KC - but last I heard their phone room is in Utah. So, Russ, your biggest problem is going to be convincing someone that you were scammed by somebody from UTAH. That could be a tough sell.

 

They did send me an order-up-and-makeup offer with a discount. And I haven't seen any criminal activity associated with my orders, but I should probably check the compartment of the inexpensive guitar case I ordered...

[ggm1960]

Spent 1000's at MF over the years and never had a problem, I use a MF card.

 

I had a different experience though just today, call from Capital One. Seems my credit card through them got hacked. The most recent charge with that was FTD online ordering flowers for Mom's Day on Tuesday.

 

Apparently Capital One was really on the ball, talked to rep and I'm not going to have any problems.

That card is dead though and I'll have to wait until I get a new one.

[Anderton]

I think the card problems and MF are unrelated. I've had to deal with identity theft stuff and sometimes it's literally people picking up data out of the air.

 

These days I do transactions online only if essential. I have a credit card with a $300 limit specifically for this purpose. Everything else is either check or phone. Those aren't foolproof either, but when you read stories about entire databases of huge corporations being stolen, it pays to be careful.

 

FYI I've ordered stuff from MF going back years and years, and it was always uneventful: Pay money, get product. Since becoming part of HC, which is part of MF, I've met many of the people involved and they take the whole customer service thing seriously.

[blstbeatdrumr19]

Have ordered from them countless times, and have never had a single problem.

[Phil O'Keefe]

After having this experience with TigerDirect, I started using Discover's single use number thingy. Works like a charm, you just log on to Discover and click a button to "spin the wheel" and get assigned a card number for that specific purchase, one time use only. Terry D.

 

Hmmm... kind of like a one-time cypher pad. Unless the key's compromised at one end or the other, or the number generation isn't truly random, it's pretty crack proof. It's about time the CC companies started offering something like that as an option.

 

As to the OP, I'd say it sounds like an individual was indeed the culprit. Maybe a bad apple employee at MF or the CC company. The event should definitely be reported to both companies (get a supervisor on the phone), as well as to any other company you used the card with recently, and of course, law enforcement. Of course, as Craig said, chances are that the two events are unrelated.

 

FWIW, all of my (admittedly few) purchases with MF have gone off without a hitch.