Doug G.

I ordered from this company and, when I opened the invoice email they sent, noticed they had charged me sales tax for a town I do not live in. I contacted them THREE TIMES, explained the error, and asked them to remedy it. They flat-out refused to correct it and told me I was wrong (as if, as a business owner, I don't know what my tax rate is!). Finally, after receiving no resolution from them, I wrote a review on their site, explaining what happened. Minutes later, I got a telephone call from them, offering a refund IN EXCHANGE FOR changing my review to a positive one. The caller repeatedly talked over me as I tried to explain the problem, telling me (again) that I am wrong, and that they did nothing wrong, even while trying to convince me to accept a refund to "pay me off" for favorably lying about their service in my review. If they cared as much about their customers and their service as they seem to care about their reviews, they would probably be a lot better off. My only explanation for why anyone one this site has given them a 5-star review is that they probably did so in exchange for a full refund of their purchase. Sorry. I am a small business owner, myself, and that is NOT the way it should work. You should EARN your good reviews, through providing great products and service that satisfy your customers.

I am a stave drum builder, both snare drums and complete sets. I found dfd when I was first starting out, and have since ordered almost exclusively from them. Their range of brands, quality levels, and variety are awesome, and their website is (mostly) easy to use (thedropdown menus get a bit annoying, sometimes). I have found, when discussing hardware options with custom buyers, to refer them to the dfd site to select their own hardware package. Oh, there's an idea! Why not provide a few basic "all-inclusive" packages for outfitting, say, a snare drum, including heads, hoops, t-rods, lugs, wires, throw and butt plate? I would think that three options would be nice (low, medium, and high end price ranges), and might make ordering a LOT quicker! But, I digress. Anyway, I have built three complete stave sets and a number of snare drums with parts from dfd. In fact, I just received a pair of Maple bass drum hoops and an Aquarian SKII head from them five days ago to complete my latest build.
Whether you are building from raw product to finished drum, or just want to jazz up the drums you have, you won't go wrong with dfd.
P.S. Any suggestions of what to do with all those dfd bumper stickers they send with every order? I've got enough of them to wallpaper my rehearsal studio with!

I recently ordered a hard case for my cymbals from Sweetwater. MAN! They are really upping their game! A few minutes after I placed the order, I got a call from Julio Jimenez, thanking me for my order and offering to provide any assistance I might need, then and in the future. It sure was nice to hear a human voice after placing an online order. And Julio even gave my drum-building business page a "Like" on Facebook! Awesome job, Sweetwater. With customer service like that, you have a bright future ahead!