Poor experience at Musician's Friend shows me the great service at Sweetwater

Written by Ben

Thursday, 24 July 2008 18:09

I just want to tell you how good customer relations can make or break a deal. I was recently looking to make a large purchase from Musician's Friend (website) purchasing 25 Rogue guitars, wall hangers, and method books. I sent them an email requesting someone get in contact with me so that we could work out the details of this purchase. This is the non customer-friendly response I received from them (*notice: some info has been edited for privacy purposes*):

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
Large Purchase

Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Justin) - 06/13/2008 01:51 PM
Dear musician,
Thank you for your recent inquiry. We’d be glad to provide a quote for you. Please respond with our six digit product number and item description for each product listed, as well as the quantities. This will ensure the correct items are entered on the quote.

Customer - 06/05/2008 09:34 AM
I am planning to purchase 25 guitars for a general music class as well as wall hangers and methods books. Could you please have someone get in touch with me? My number is (XXX) XXX-XXXX xXXX.

It doesn't look too bad, but this is the only response I received from them. There was no phone call or no follow-up. I let this hang for a whole month to see when they would call me and they never did. Instead, I received this e-mail:

We have not heard from you concerning your request for support in the
48 hours since we sent you a response. Consequently, we have changed
the status of your question to SOLVED.

If your issue remains unresolved, please update this question at
http://mf.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/mf.cfg/php/enduser/acct_login.php?p_userid=xxx@xxxx.xxxxx&p_next_page=myq_upd.php&p_iid=1366710&p_created=1212683690

Question Reference #080605-000278

I couldn't believe what I was reading! My question was far from solved and it surprised me that this was the only interest they had in such a large purchase. I guess they didn't need my business after all. This is an example of poor customer relations because there was not a very personal response, nobody called me as requested, and instead of trying to follow up on the inquiry, they automatically changed the status to 'solved.' Because of these issues, I didn't push the issue and they lost a valuable customer...a band director who is always looking for music-related things. Since I needed these guitars for my general music class next year, I went to a place where I had previously ordered equipment, Sweetwater. I sent an email to them the exact same way and this is the response I received (question first, then response).

On Tuesday, July 8, 2008 8:44 PM, Ben wrote:

>I am looking to purchase 25 Rogue RA-100D Dreadnought guitars for

>classroom use (they run at $79.99 a pop) through Musician's Friend

>since I don't see them through Sweetwater but was wondering if you

>could get them or had another decent quality guitar at a comparable price.

>I have a Rogue RA-100D and it is pretty well put together, it stays in

>tune nicely and will work well for my classroom and so I'm looking for

>something that has the same quality (or better) for the same price. I'm

>on a limited budget and I also need to purchase method books and wall

>hangers too.

>Ben

Hi Ben!

YES I do! And these are built much better than the Rogue stuff from MF. I have no access to that brand because its a MF house brand. Instead, I would recommend the Squier (Fender) Acoustic Pak. This has a Guitar, Gig Bag, Picks, instructional book and a Pitch Pipe in one package. Normally for this pack its 99.99 - however, I will do 25 of them at 79.99. What you get is a much better value.

The other is the String Swing hangers. Normally 12.97 - to you with this deal at 9.99. Total for the order including shipping would be 2449.50. Is that in your budget range? You never mentioned.

Here are some links to what you would be purchasing:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AcousPakSA100/

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GtrHangerSS/

Please call with questions and let me know what I can to help.

Thanks.

Best Regards,

Mark A. Magdich

Senior Sales Engineer

Sweetwater Sound

PH 800 222 4700 x1265

Fax 1 260 432 1758

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Joy Justice

Administrative Sales Assistant

Sweetwater Sound

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

PH 800 222 4700 x1394

Now talk about a better response! It was truly impressive what a friendly email can do for business! I ended up making the purchase through them and will continue to go to them first for anything I'm looking to purchase. I felt so bad for Musician's Friend that I sent them a message telling them about their poor customer relations and how it cost them business from a band director...and once again their poor relations struck:

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
Large Purchase

Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Stefanie) - 07/16/2008 01:02 PM
Thank you for your feedback on our website. We value your feedback and are constantly looking for ways to improve our service to you.

Based on your feedback, you were not able to get all of the information you were looking for. If we can be of further assistance to you, please reply to this email or call us at the phone number listed below.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any more questions or concerns.

We appreciate you choosing Musician's Friend.

1-800-391-8762

Customer - 07/15/2008 07:33 PM
Not really a question, but merely some feedback. A couple of months ago, I inquired about a large purchase for 25 guitars with wall hooks and method books and ask for a representative to call me. I received a generic e-mail that was not personal at all and looked like it had been automatically processed. I would think that you, as a company, would be interested in such an individual looking to purchase that many guitars. Since I received no phone calls, and only that e-mail, I took my business to Sweetwater where after sending in an information question (much like this one) I was called within the hour by a person who spent the time with me to help me find what I was looking for. Because of their excellent customer service, I have spent over $XXXX in purchases there. I just wanted to make you aware that your poor customer relations cost you from getting a customer.

It doesn't seem like they even care they lost a customer. Their response to my feedback was the same type of response that turned me off them in the first place! I have since taken them off my music sites links on the front page and have decided to share this experience with you. Never settle for less than good customer service, you deserve better, and if something goes wrong you want the company that was there to serve you from the beginning!

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Greg Albing said:

Wow, yeah, what a cold shoulder... You can tell that person-to-person isn't their normal way of getting business; they're just looking for someone to enter "25" into the box and hit "Buy."

Also, it's always a good lesson to us teachers that sometimes what gets us by is our "customer service."

July 25, 2008 | url

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