Sweetwater

Not this time, just a text from my sales rep. ha

quote:

---

4 pieces of candy!

---

They give me Fentanyl & Cocaine

I just went through a nightmare with Sweetwater. Such that after being a customer for 30 years, I will never even purchase a guitar pick from them again.

TL;DR Sweetwater failed and failed and failed and failed on an order taking 3 months to finally get right.



Called my "engineer" in Sept asked for a quote on an EVH Frankie and case. My engineer wasnt in so I spoke with his assistant who said he'd get back to me.

I wait...

Finally in November, after never hearing from them, I contact again. "Oh I thought I emailed that to you....". Nope.

Get the quote. I call on Dec 7 to order the guitar and case. I live in CA so I asked about the CA Post Production tax exemption. Its a form I fill out that essentially cuts the sales tax in half. No problem they say. I submit the form before I even order the guitar. My Engineer tells me on 12/7 that the guitar will go out that night or the following morning. Great.

Thursday comes and I've still heard nothing. I email, my engineer says he will find out the issue.

Saturday comes, I still have not heard back from my engineer or anyone. They've taken the money from my account and I have NO IDEA when my guitar and case will be shipped.

I call Sat 12/11. My engineer isn't in (again...) so I speak with someone else. I tell them I'd like to know what is going on. Is there an issue? A little communication would go a loooong way. He says he will let me know by the end of the day what is going on. Later he lets me know the guitar and case will go out Monday, overnighted to me. Great!

I get the guitar and case on Tuesday. The guitar has an issue (between 6 and 9 on the volume, it makes a TON of noise. Above 9, it is fine, below 6, fine).I contact my engineer, he isn't in. I cannot get an answer from SW for a couple of weeks, I assume because of Christmas. At some point I post this on a business review site, that triggers several responses from a few SW reps. I let them know I will deal with this, although they do send me a can of DeOxit (I dont think thats the issue, I think it's a bad pot).

The real issue is the case. I specifically ordered the EVH for the logo. There is a recessed area on the case for the logo sticker to go into. Well, this was not in the recessed area, it is hanging over it as the logo was stuck onto the case about an inch outside the area. I let SW know this issue, they agree to send me a new case and take that one back, great.

They send out a second case. Guess what.... that one has a similar issue. The sticker was in the recessed area but it is bent up and distorted on both ends. I let them know and they say they will send a THIRD case. This time they will open it up and make sure the logo is fine. The person I am now dealing with (Someone in the PC Tech dept...I have NO IDEA why I am talking to them, but he is the one who had been dealing with this) says he has never seen this before (two problems in a row). All the while I am receiving notices from SW that they will charge me for the FIRST case unless I return it soon. I let them know this is not cool since I still have not received what I paid for (a non-defective case) and the notices stop.

They send out a third case, but also send out a tag for FedEx to pick up one of the previous cases. They do this without telling me AT ALL. So the third case arrives at 1:15pm one day. I am not home but I get a notice it has been delivered. When I get home, no case!!! Where is it? Was it stolen? Was it hidden somewhere? Was it delivered to a neighbor? All that is there is a small piece of paper from FedEx with a Call Tag number.

I look into this. Turns out they did deliver the case at 1:15PM. Then another driver PICKED IT UP FOR RETURN at 2:11PM!! In Sweetwater's infinite wisdom they had sent out a return pickup tag THE VERY DAY they third case was being delivered. SW looks into getting that case rerouted, this takes a day or so but nope FedEx cannot reroute.

So SW will now send out a FOURTH case. I implore them to NOT send out return tags for the two defective cases I still have until I receive and verify the fourth case is ok. By now I am talking to the heads of Customer Service. FedEx says the case will be delivered by noon, but by the afternoon, no case. At some point it says it will be delivered a day late. THANKFULLY this turns out to not be true and it is delivered the night of the promised day (although hours late...)

This case is FINALLY what I paid for. I then contact SW to let them know they can send the return tags. I repackage the cases and set them out the day they say FedEx will be by to pick them up. A few days later they are back to SW and I believe my nightmare is over.

All this took three months to get sorted out. They did refund what I paid for the case which was, IMO, the LEAST they could do after all this. Those packages of candy aren't worth it.

Oh and a few days ago, I got a package from EVH. It is a coffee mug and two packs of picks... so now it's all better /sarc

Damn, you should have sent back an order for an A major harp. A blues band would probably do pretty well there in Tibet.

quote:

---

I want to visit their brick and mortar store in Indiana.

It's supposed to be the largest, best stocked music store in the country.

---

I've passed by the place several times, when I didn't have time to stop. The whole place is bigger than a walmart distribution center. Huge.

Open this thread, get a text from my sales rep less than 24 hours later...