OT: Warning! Musician's Friend Warning!

[Mark Sottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

Hey.

I just had/am having a horrible experience with Musician's Friend.  I 
ordered a
GR-30 and a GK-2A, as they were blowing out the GR-30s at a great price 
($399)
I paid extra to have it shipped next day FedEx.  The order was done on the
27th.  For some reason they decided not to ship it until the 29th.  I have 
not
received anything from them at this point.  They gave me a FedEx tracking
number, but FedEx claims to have never entered that number into their 
system.
Musician's Friend told me they had started a trace with FedEx, but I found 
out
yesterday that they never had.  This was confirmed by both FedEx, and a
customer service manager at Musician's Friend.

I was totally lied to.

Fed up with waiting, I attempted to buy a GR-33 from The Guitar Center,
Musician's Friend's brick and mortar sister.  Via the phone, I made the
salesman hunt down both the synth and the pick up and put my name on them. 
 He
claimed he could see both units in front of him.  When I arrived, the 
salesman
launched into an explanation about how the GK-2 blister pack only looked 
as if
it were missing stuff, when in fact it was not.  "Roland just uses the same
package for a lot of it's products."  Of course, the pick up was missing 
all of
the mounting hardware and cables.  You could see where some of the double 
sided
tape still clung to the pickup.  I just turned around and walked out.

I was totally lied to.

Last Friday I was told that if the "trace" didn't turn up something by
yesterday, they would just send me another one, next day, at no extra 
charge.
Yesterday I was told that the item was no longer in stock, and the trace 
might
take weeks.  They refuse to cancel the order and refund my money.  They 
refuse
to sell me a GR-33 at a discount.  After speaking to another FedEx rep 
today, I
find that still no trace has been put on this order.

Finally I get an email telling me that they are sending me a GR-30 and I 
should
receive it tomorrow.  Were they out of stock?  Are they really sending it?
Good question.  Oh, and get this: They are now out of the GK-2 pick up, so 
my
synth will be useless.

So this is my story.  Use the knowledge wisely.  I will never give a dime 
to
either Musician's Friend, or The Guitar Center again.

Mark Sottilaro