Sweetwater

The first time I called sweetwater for help, I was hung up on in the middle of my sentence. Called again. Nobody picked up. I finally get thru and ask for a supervisor hung up on.again. 4 emails and 5 phone calls later and no response. This from a company who promotes their 24 hour award winning customer service.
I'm done with them. And that personal associate to help you they offer, I never spoke or heard from anyone there the whole time I was a customer. Must just be more "advertising" from a company that doesn't deserve your business/

I spent 3,200 dollars on a Martin D-28. There are issues with the top of this guitar. This guitar was suggested to me by the sales person, there were four to choose from. After I realized that the top had a wave spot in the wood and a possible area near the neck where the wood grain will spilt over time, they pretty much told me good luck it's wood deal with it. There sales pitch about the customer being happy with there purchase is a bunch of bull. They don't stand by what they sell. You may be getting a little money off on the guitar, but there receiving sub-par guitars from the manufacturer. Do your self a favor and go to the guitar store, look and handle the guitar in person to make sure it's perfect. Don't buy online and don't use Sweetwater...

Spent close to $5000 dollars with this company just under a year ago. I had issues with some of the drum components immediately. Reached out on many occasions to get the problems resolved. Troy Davis was my rep. They made a few feeble attempts at resolving my issues and when that didn't work they just stopped responding. I was so frustrated by this that I have not used the set in almost a year. When I realized that I was on my own I finally started to try and fix the stuff myself because I just want to play. The hi-hat cymbal doesn't work. The bell on the ride doesn't work. Be careful with large purchases with this company cause if it's bad product, you are screwed. Just my experience. To each his own. Good luck.

Was told a few time my purchase would be to me at a certain date.But both times not even close.There shipping sucks.

In these times when it is personal connection, integrity and kindness that matters, this experience has shown me Sweetwater is in it only for the sale and the money. A really sad and disappointing experience.

I ordered Nov 2020. To date:
Customer service has failed in many areas so please be aware. SHORT VERSION: Josh made the $4K sale of a new sound system from bottom up so I could do online platforms to share and record a variety of instruments. I am a total neophyte with this and he promised it was part of his job to assist me once I received the equipment he put together. He has VANISHED and not helped me at all. Also, I was SENT USED EQUIPMENT (super sneaky) and when called out on it Josh apologized and promised a discount yet I still have not gotten one. Bottom line is I regret buying from Sweetwater as I felt taken advantage of from being sent used equipment, being told I would receive money back yet nothing has been rectified, and finally being told I would have support with set up questions but have received none.

The longer version for the detailed oriented, and if you experience any of these red flags use my experience to speak up or a confirmation to go elsewhere. Also, hoping since Josh doesn't respond to his phone that maybe he can be reached here:

1. I am STILL waiting for a call from Josh my "sales engineer" who promised when he made the $4K sale to assist with set up of the sound equipment which I am totally unfamiliar with and this is now January. When I received my audio interface, mic, speakers, etc I spent days with online tutorials trying to figure it out because he told me he was busy. After more time and still no working equipment, I called and he realized he sent me the wrong cables. More hours and still no sound flowing. Called following week because it's still not working, and he told me to use the support line. I spent four hours on this and in the end was told I may have a faulty audio interface or maybe a bad cable. They told me to contact Josh as he would be the one to turn to ( the classic tennis game of being bounced back and forth between people). They sent ANOTHER cable that didn't work. Called Josh but another assistant tried to help instead. This guy eventually gave up and told me to call Josh. I did and Josh told me being so close to Christmas that he was swamped and had no time to help me and asked for my understanding that Sweetwater's business had grown by over 1 million customers since Covid began and he could barely keep up with his sales and calls. He told me all it would take is five minutes to help me out and he just didn't have that until after the holidays. I told him I understood and would forgo a Christmas sound event I was offering. I have been contacting Josh since the end of December (I also missed a NY eve event) and he has vanished. No customer care. No follow up. No promise kept to support after his sale. Not even the 5 minutes he told me would be all it took to get my system working.

2. Received my Presonus Audio Interface and it was clearly used even though I paid full price. Called Josh about this and he admitted it saying he was trying to save ME money but funny thing is he didn't give me that discount. He apologized (he is very smooth) and said he would credit me but I still (one month later) have NOT received my refund for my used AI.

3. Received my ribbon microphone (which I was told was delaying my entire shipment which was on hold for this piece) and the box was damaged and clearly rebuilt with the help of rolls of packing tape. Josh told me he knew I didn't want to wait until January now as he found out it would be delayed even further so went to the shop window and sent me that one and they had hanging there and build a box for it. He told me this was brand new and no discount was offered. So TWO MAJOR EXPENSIVE COMPONENTS CAME USED WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION AND NO REFUND GIVEN.

If you feel you are in any way being sold or scammed instead of supported, listen to your gut and go elsewhere. I wish I had. I will not be using Sweetwater ever again. In these times when it is personal connection, integrity and kindness that matters, this experience has shown me Sweetwater is in it only for the sale and the money. A really sad and disappointing experience.

So, I bought a new Yamaha electric guitar for my son to learn on. When it arrived it had a terrible open fret buzz. When the company reached out to me about my 'shopping experience', I told them as much. The salesperson followed up with words to the effect that I should have expected as much from a cheap guitar and that I could take advantage of their (paid) setup service. To be fair they (eventually) offered to do it for free, but by then I'd already gotten rid of the box. I found them to be pretty condescending if you don't know a lot about guitars. They are certainly quick to tell you…at great length…how much they know. If you already know a lot about guitars im sure they're just fine, but if you don't I'd keep moving along.

There is a major problem with this company. They saddle you with one specific 'sales engineer' that you have to work with. When that sales engineer is the problem you cannot get anyone else to assist you. Every communication goes through that specific person so no one else ever hears your grievance. It's such a headache that I just choose to do business elsewhere. They also have items for sale that they do not have in stock which generally would not be a problem as they are not the only online retailer to do so, however they promise delivery dates that they know they will never make and then keep changing those dates just to get the sale. They should be honest and just give the real delivery date or just let you know they have no idea but it could be a year or more before they have the item available to ship. Lastly, their 55-point inspection is a joke. My last bass I ordered was so horribly set-up that I had to perform a complete set-up just to get it to manufacturer specifications. It also was incredibly dirty.

Trying to reach them for 10 days
Nobody calls back
Nobody responds to emails
Worst service from any music retailer. Avoid!

I have shopped at Sweetwater for a few years and spent thousands of dollars. They text and call you when you place an order. I thought this was a sign of good customer service but I never had a problem until now. FedEx delivered my package to the wrong address. This shouldn't be hard to remedy. I contact Sweetwater and let them know what happened. It took four days before they sent out my replacement package. I had to contact them many times just to get that. The final insult was that they would not ship it to my place. I had to pick up my package at a Walgreens near me. I will never place another order with them.

Here's the guitar that passed their "55 point inspection". When I went to send the guitar back, they wanted to offer me a "discount" instead; gosh, I wonder why they won't post my review about this incident under "Gibson Flying V - Antique Natural"?

I have never had such a horrible experience with a business like Sweetwater. Months ago I tried to make some purchases with their installment plans, but my credit score was not good enough, and the orders were cancelled. So I asked a family member recently if they would help me out and they obliged. I made a new order with a shared credit card with my family member (installment plans since their credit is great), and a second order on a Sweetwater credit card that was offered to us during browsing the Sweetwater site via Synchrony Bank (my family member has Synchrony bank cards elsewhere too).

WELL, apparently Sweetwater does NOT want our business or money, because ALL orders were cancelled and the account was blacklisted as "fraud"... SIMPLY BECAUSE OF DIFFERENT ADDRESSES ON FILE / NAMES OF PEOPLE (again, FAMILY members).

E-mails with the original sales representative went ignored or just told "try again" (to order), and even after my family member sent in multiple forms of identification like drivers license and the full credit card info, they still hem and haw about selling. Just absolutely ridiculous. ARE YOU GUYS IN BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY, OR TO BE CREDIT GATEKEEPERS? The second sales rep we spoke to even was almost ready to deny us business, and their manager wanted a WIRE TRANSFER to pay for everything. EXCUSE ME? Credit cards and YOUR OWN COMPANY'S CREDIT CARD WAS OFFERED TO US to buy from you.

On the other hand, my family member has helped me purchase from Zzounds issue free, AND super fast shipping from them too. It sucks because Sweetwater is the only place we have a credit card with AND the products I am after (modular).

Now they want SYNCHRONY BANK to verify my family member's identity over the phone? Or something, in order to even complete any orders with them. Just absolutely ridiculous. DO NOT try to buy from Sweetwater on credit or with their credit card offers, if your credit score is less than perfect they will cancel your order and never speak to you again if you try to have anyone else help you and gift you purchases from them. Apparently they don't understand that PEOPLE (family) LIVE TOGETHER.

My guitar came 3 months late. I was never updated at all on the order. When it arrived it was not set up, and one of the pickups didn't work

Ok to start off with I bought my Martin Guitar 8 months ago had a very bad experience even then they were very fast to take my money but then the problem's started ok I placed my order and paid two weeks went buy no guitar so I called the salesman said oh you need to pick strings before we mail it out I was like WTF I already did that he said no you need to pick strings ok just put reg martin strings and ship my guitar plz two more weeks went by no guitar so I called salesman told me I need to pick strings again and we need to wait for a bench f@)k wow ok whatever after a month and a half I got it and it's nice well I made up my mind to never deal with them again until now my 8 month old Martin is coming apart the side is separated from the top so I called they are telling me that they need to inspect it before they fix it WHAT fix it I need a new one man like sweetwater can FIX it to Martin standards right so even right now while writing this they still haven't done anything to help me resolve this even though I'm within my one year warranty so what's that say about sweetwater I barely even play this guitar it's brand new except where it's coming apart not one blemish on this thing come on sweetwater do better I paid like $ 850 for a $ 600 dollar guitar just for peace of mind but that has failed someone plz help me I can't afford to just buy another guitar like this one

Just a quick comment!
If you have a product that is defective, you shouldn't be selling it. But if you have a product that is having a trend of getting broken for the same reason, as a customer I expect, at least your response to be as fast as possible and have a solution for it. Dear sweetwater, you have failed in providing the excellence in service you say you do!
I'm talking about the Helix Line 6, all of them got buttons out of order!
Shame on you guys.

I'm switching my purchases to ZZounds. The customer engineer I was assigned too doesn't seem interested in my small purchases and info that I need back ASAP. When I ask important questions (at least to me there important) Maybe during covid his business is through the roof?

Customer service was rude and I received a product that didn't work. Over 1000$ I can't get back. Will never use this company again.

Their reps have a nasty attitude. After spending tens of thousands of dollars on equipment at Sweetwater, a rep was nickel and diming me over $6 to pay for return shipping on a broken brand new pedal that they sent me. The nut slot of the A string on a brand new guitar that they sent me was cut too deep and the A string was buzzing no matter how high I raised the saddle. When I called Sweetwater, instead of immediately offering me a replacement, the "tech support" wanted to teach me how to use Crazy Glue to fill in the nut slot, then file it down to the right height! Imagine that! I had to spend 25 minutes on the phone to convince him that I didn't want to spend time learning how to and fixing a brand new guitar and that I just wanted to return it. The reps at Guitar Center are a million times nicer and friendlier and their return process makes you feel like a welcome, valued customer. I'll never buy anything from Sweetwater again!

Took money from my account and received no order after canceling an order before it shipped. Bad purchase

I ordered a sampler which happened to be an open-box unit... save money should be great right? Wrong! I received the unit with a damaged midi port. I had to struggle through DAYS of technical support that had the audacity to suggest at one point ignoring the non-functioning port and using a completely different setup.

I would've GLADLY paid for an unopened item if I had any indication the item wouldn't have been thoroughly inspected before being shipped out let alone listed for sale. INCREDIBLE.

They refused to return the package via FedEx stating the reasoning was that the package was delivered when it was available for pick-up at a FedEx location. They instead insisted I receive and purchase materials to repackage the replacement unit. So much for hassle-free returns!

There are so many companies selling music equipment these days, why spend your money where you're treated so poorly! I didn't even mention the account security issues IMMEDIATELY upon making my initial purchase.

There doesn't seem to be any real sense of integrity or stewardship at Sweetwater. I can't say they went above and beyond in helping me to get any issue resolved. I rightfully expect to return ANYTHING that I purchased damaged from anywhere. Silly me, I expected a smooth and empathetic resolution from start to finish.

I've never had an issue REMOTELY similar to this at Guitar Center and it's Guitar center and their years of experience I'll be buying with moving forward.

This bussiness was recommended for several colleagues and also some friends, and i subscribed to the page and i made a purchase, i made a purchased and they sent me a receipt, 2 days after i received an email staying the item is out of stock, for me this is very unprofessional they let me to do all the enrollment and also send me a receipt with a item that never showed it was out of stock, and the person who emailed to me from this company it said maybe its an error, but guess what? I just search the product again in the website and it is still available and i doesnt say its out of stock, when they actually dont have it... very dissappointed of this business, i will never buy from them

Called tech support 4 aid on my Looper but I didn't buy there & was denied aid. Spent many $$ before

Sweetwater is well-known for their gear, but I have to say their service is awful. I ordered 2 cable testers, but one was mistake. I responded nearly immediately with an order cancellation. This was apparently ignored, and some random sales associate Maxwell emailed with an introduction and a "Thank you for your order e-mail. I then responded to him with another request to cancel the order. HE THEN RESPONDED WITH TRACKING INFORMATION HOURS LATER. It honestly felt like the company was taunting me. Now, even though I IMMEDIATELY CANCELLED THE ORDER, I have to wait to recieve it, return it, then wait for them to recieve it to get a refund on an order that should have been cancelled. Actually trash service and will never order directly from the company again. Third parties obviously know how to handle inventory much better.

Ordered a Epiphone LP custom the fit and finish was poor. Was told and that at this price point this is what you get. In basic terms. Will not use them ever again.