Some words of caution....

[elwoodblues1969]

After having just gone through yet another terrible experience buying a product online,I felt compelled to warn anyone here that lives in the continental U.S.,to avoid making any purchases online from these online retailers;

Musician's Friend,GuitarCenter & Samash.

Here is an overview of my latest online debaucle....I recently ordered a Samson 12 channel mixer from SamAsh & I was surprised to discover that despite SamAsh being based out of New York,thier online distribution warehouse is located in Tampa,FL.-which worried me,as Florida is one of the states in this country that is a haven for scams & shady business dealings.

I thought I was ordering a new,factory fresh mixer,but as it turned out,this was far from the situation.

When I recieved it,the warranty & registration card were missing.
There was a gob of dried glue on the face of the mixer.
After about an hour of using the mixer,it malfunctioned & became inoperable.

The main volume controls froze at a high level,as did the level meters and as a result,every incoming signal was distorted & I had no control over the volume after that point.
I shut off the mixer,but this did not change anything.

When I contacted SamAsh,I adamantly complained that I paid full price for a used product,but they denied it completely & they put the blame squarely on the manufacturer.

What's even worse,is that SamAsh made me pay out of my own pocket to ship the f**king thing back to them for a refund.

Of course though,if I had decided to do an exchange,they would not charge me for shipping.
This is the only retailer that does this that I know of.This is one of the largest retailers in the world & they're pinching pennies?!!

I only went outside of my usual retailer(Sweetwater.com),because they did not carry the particular mixer I wanted,but given my experiences such as this,I will never deviate from Sweetwater.com again(with the exception of bhphotovideo.com),as these two online retailers are the only honest & reputable online retailers that I know of.

My advice to everyone; when making purchases online,do not buy from anyone except Sweetwater.com & bhphotovideo.com,as otherwise,you will not have any clue as to what you will recieve in the mail,until you open & inspect the package.

If you cannot find what you want online from these two retailers,then I would suggest buying locally,so that you can personally inspect what you are getting before you buy.

Just wanted to pass along my experiences,so that no one here gets burned.

Happy holidays,

Thom

[kara]

Thanks for the warning Thom
and sorry to hear about your bad experience, I hope it will work out at the end...

k

[Moon]

God, this is a shame !

I don't understand this way of doing business.

In Europe I have experience with www.dv247.com & www.thomann.de

No complaints sofar. They both are very correct.

But indeed, one has to watch out...

Moon

[folderol]

So far I've been lucky here in the UK, but then again I buy very little of value on-line.

Hope it gets sorted Thom

[Wyatt]

Thanks for the heads-up.

I had just placed an order with them an hour before I saw your post.

Last two times I ordered from them they said my order was backordered
one week. When the week was up they said one more week and I cancelled.

Only ordered again because the sale was too good.

Keepin fingers crossed.

Wyatt

[elwoodblues1969]

Wyatt,

I hope things work out for your purchase,but if they do not,I highly recommend Sweetwater.com

I bought a microphone stand from them about a month or so ago & it arrived damaged,but this was a very minor inconvenience as it turned out,because when I contacted them,they told me to keep the stand & they sent me a new one right away with absolutely no additional cost to me whatsoever.

I don't know of any other company that has this level of customer service and because of this,I do most, if not all my purchasing with them.

They also had let me reserve the Alesis Ion with a down payment-without the use of a credit card,which is also a service that no other online store would do(that I know of).

I strongly urge you to at least puruse thier website & check them out for yourself & consider dealing with these guys in the future.

Cheers,

Thom

[Wyatt]

Thom,

Good advice, thanks.

I will keep them at the top of my list.

Wyatt

[rharv]

Yeah, it's a bummer when things go bad.
 I've bought a lot of stuff from Musiciansfriend, and never ever had a problem, but I have heard of others who did.
 I'm actually thinking of getting another ART tubeMP from them since the price dropped again to $30!  I thought 35 was an absolute steal..I really like the depth of that preamp.  It's not perfect for everything, but it sure makes some things sound real good.
 I'm also hearing from guys that if you swap out the tube you can make a signicant improvement...which may be worth getting one to experiment on for that price.