[UncleScooter]

I love stories like this.
I ordered a new Yamaha piano I have been eyeing last night. Free shipping, free goodies and three times different confirmations that it is IN STOCK!

I get an e-mail this morning saying "As I was told on the web site or by the customer service agent on the phone, the item is on backorder..." No big deal I say. A local store has one, I was buying it from them to save on sales tax and get the commish, a $100 savings all together.

I log on to my credit card account only to see the charge on my bill from them even though it is not in stock...and I get a bit PO'd at this point, so I call them. The customer service person I speak with first tells me they did NOT charge my card, only reserved enough on it to cover the piano when it arrives. "What a shitty way to do things", I thought. If I depend on that card and the money they have tied up, I am now dependent on them for the piano since it will take 10 days or so for that approval to fall off my account.

I call back and ask for a manager. The customer service person then tells me that the piano is indeed IN STOCK. I get a manager and she not only tells me that it is in stock but that I DID NOT get an e-mail telling me that it would not be in stock until the 13th. At this point, you can light a cigarette off the top of my head.

In the end, I told MusiciansFriend to shove the piano and went and bought it from the local merchant and paid tax and got no commish, but I have been playing it for several hours and it is wonderful. Yamaha P-60 for any of you who play piano. Nice features and lots of bang for the buck.

Not only are they infested with parasites, but their customer service and management are infested with idiocy and arrogance.

[Rexanne]

Good to know. I'll stick with the one I have although it's not converting. Better that than sending my visitors to evil twits. Customer service is key, especially online where the average shopper is skeptical and paranoid.

[Andy]

Some companies are so clueless. They wonder why sales are down, and customers are so unhappy. I also get ticked off when backordered items get charged to my card in advance, there's no excuse to tie up available funds for so long.

I'm glad you did what you did, Scooter. I used to play the piano, but haven't time for it any more. ENJOY!

Andy

[markwelch]

I empathize with your experience, which is (unfortunately) typical for most online companies at this time of year, especially companies which rely on distributors or manufacturers to drop-ship (I don't know if Musician's Friend does this, or has its own warehouse and inventory). It certainly sounds as if they need to work on their customer service, if they intend to retain customers.

What I do know is that I generated a series of WebMerge pages with the Musician's Friend datafeed some time last summer, and then did nothing else, spending my time on other projects.

A few weeks ago, I received a nice check from Musician's Friend (via BeFree) for about $400 in commissions. It was a pleasant surprise, as I rarely check my BeFree stats. It made for a nice Christmas bonus.

[RWorld]

As a merchant, I know it is against the TOS of all major credit cards to actually charge a card until the order has shipped.
However, I also know that just _authorizing_ a card will actually put a temporary hold on the funds - this is not the fault of the merchant, and is just how it works - it is necessary to protect the merchant.

Normally, this authorization will be "captured" when the order ships.

I believe that in a lot of cases, an authorization can be confused with a "charge", as they appear on statements in a similar fashion.

All I am saying is that the merchant may actully be correct in this case, and didn't actually charge your card (as they said) and perhaps everyone is bashing them (and merchants in general) unfairly...

[Mr. B]

I know this is an old post, but I have to share my displeasure - I spent about $1000 with Musician's enemy and was waiting for my product to ship, when I check my credit card account and they charged me - not once, not twice, not even three times, but FIVE times for the same product.

As you can guess, this didn't go over well.

I call them and they say they only charged me once. I beg to differ and ask for a manager. The manager gets on the line and after going back and forth for 45 minutes, they realized that the did, in fact, charge me 5 times. It was taken care of finally, so I was happy, but I've heard of others who were unhappy with this company.

Since they're the only company that does halfway decent online for this kind of stuff, I still use them and my second order went much better.

[Xion]

Musician's Friend has a tie up with Amazon. I bought a few microphones and recording equipment from them, but went through Amazon instead directly dealing with the merchant.

[GethsemeneRose]

I have been buying form MF for years and NEVER had a problem I was so pleased to be allowed to affiliate with them because I know that most musicians only have one place they look for gear and that is MF.