Musicians Enemy

[Buddy]

It all started when I was shopping for cymbal bags online. I was checking Reverb, ebay, GC, etc. In the course of my shopping I had favorited some things along the way.

A day or two passed and I got a notification in my eBay account that because I had showed interest in a nice Sabian cymbal bag by favoring it, the seller was offering me a special deal. $10 off. I had been considering buying it at the regular price, so the $10 discount really gave me the push I needed to buy it, so I clicked the button.

The seller was "musiciansfriend" on ebay.

They shipped out the item quickly. I checked the tracking along the way. I had an estimated delivery date. The item showed, "out for delivery" on the estimated date, but the item never showed up. That day was a very hot, and I live near the end of the delivery routes for all the carriers. My packages are usually delivered late in the day (sometimes night) on a regular basis. In this case, the carrier was UPS. I'm sure the delivery guy was really slogging through. It was very hot and very humid. Nobody could be operating at full speed in that heat. I had empathy. I understood. I've spoken to my delivery guy, and he is a nice guy. I like him. I figured it would just come the next day. No big deal.

When the next day came, the item still showed, "out for delivery." I waited my usual waiting time, but again, the item never arrived. I kept checking periodically until 10 pm. Finally I gave up and went to bed.

Next morning, no package. When I checked the tracking it said "delivered," but it said it had been delivered to THE WRONG CITY! It was delivered to the city next to mine. The ebay tracking and the UPS site both showed that the package had been "delivered," but to the city next to mine, not my city. I have probably received about 500 items via shipping over the years, and I had never seen anything like this before.

I contacted musicians "friend" immediately and explained about the item being delivered to the wrong city. They told me to contact UPS. in good faith, I did try to contact UPS.

Does anyone know how to talk to a human being at UPS? I kept getting hung up on by the automated system no matter what I pressed. It is INFURIATING to only have the system tell you that your package has been successfully delivered when it has not. Seriously, I spent a significant amount of time trying to contact UPS. I was never able to get a human to explain the situation and the mistake.

Having failed at contacting UPS, I went back to musiciansfriend and sent a very nice message, begging them to contact UPS about my case. I explained the whole situation clearly. I thought that maybe as the shipper they might be able to contact UPS easier than I could as the buyer.

I got an unemotional message back telling me to contact UPS. I replied, explaining again that I had tried, but I was unsuccessful. I explained that I needed some customer service from them at this time. I had paid them for an item that I never received. I didn't pick the shipper, they did. That time I got a SARCASTIC message back, telling me that they are sorry for MY misunderstanding, but that I need to contact UPS, not them.

I messaged them back, this time with a little salt in my writing, telling them that they were providing shoddy customer service and that I planned to post on all the forums and blogs I belong to about my experience with them (which is what I'm doing now). I got no response at all.

I opened a case with ebay and waited the required number of days. When the days passed, and ebay was able to intervene, they refunded my money in about 15 minutes. Ebay (for all the heat they get sometimes), was quick and super efficient settling my case. Of course, since they found in my favor, I was very happy with their decision.

But here's the kicker:
The day before ebay found in my favor, I received an unsolicited call from either "Bee" or "Vee" from musicians friend. They left a message because I was away from my phone when they called. As I started listening, I figured, ok, maybe it's about my eBay case. Maybe they see I opened a claim and I'm serious about my order not being received. Nope. It was a straight forward telemarketing call, a la "Hey! I'm so n so, and I'm here to help you pick out your next piece of gear from musicians friend!"

Can you believe that? I'm literally livid with the company, and they call me about buying more instead of fixing the original problem.

I kept the number on file, because if ebay didn't find in my favor, I was going to let Bee or Vee hear about it and see if they could do anything, but other than that, I immediately blocked and reported as spam. Having unsolicited calls from a company I'm not happy with is something that would not be good for my blood pressure.

Anyway, that's my story. They are now officially "musiciansenemy" to me from now on. They do have good stuff, at good prices, but you will he up the river without a paddle if anything happens to go wrong with your order. Instead of gonzo telemarketing, they should hire those people as customer service, instead.

I know there are many ebay dislikes out there, but in my case, for my purposes, good job ebay, and bad job musiciansenemy.

[toomanycats]

Seems to be a lot of this type of thing going around.

[Buddy]

The crazy thing is, I should really be irate with UPS for the blunder of delivering to the wrong city, but they have so completely and thoroughly insulated themselves from any human interaction, I completely gave up on going after them almost instantaneously after assessing the situation. They love to raise the shipping fees, but they hate to provide customer service.

The only thing I can think of is that they would probably be bombarded by so many thousands of complaints each day, they just needed to shut it down the source, and not talk to anyone, ever.

They even have a little window that pops up when you try to get them via the website that tells you that you can't contact anyone about your issue. It's infuriating. But effective. Lol. The 'ol UPS Stonewall. Lol. Gotta love it.

Another funny little anecdote: I do not believe that the city next to mine (where my package was delivered) has a street with the same name as my street, so I have NO IDEA where this package actually went. They may have just thrown it in the ocean and marked it as delivered. Lol.

[mozz]

https://www.dialahuman.com/

[ID10t]

https://www.dialahuman.com/

and bookmarked,thanks @mozz

Sometimes and some places let you choose your shipping method, that really should be more available. I don't know that it isn't, I don't pay attention.

I've preached before how much I like our UPS and FedEx folks, USPS mostly too. I know it does happen,,,, but most problems with deliveries happen at either end and less in the middle. It seems the case here and that is a local problem. When they cut local drivers because they don't have deliveries because fewer people ship with that carrier, management doesn't care, it's small to them.
This is a self-correcting error.

Sorry for your trouble though and glad eBay took care of it.

[BatUtilityBelt]

UPS and Fed Ex both consider the shipping party (Musician's Friend in this case) the customer, and don't want to deal with the recipient. Every large shipper should know that and take the reins dealing with shipping problems. Anything less is shirking responsibility.

[PoodlesAgain]

Occasional loss is cost of business?
Damn good things it was only cymbal BAGS, not cymbals (sad trombone music).
Not really helping but I have to say, I followed my local UPS delivery truck via the live map on the UPS site.
I know when they leave the regional dispatch to get on the road, I see them as a long caravan on local highway.
My UPS delivery truck usually comes late afternoon, and it had yet quite a few places to serve before heading back. That's a long trek, long day of picking up and dropping packages.
Last time I got a package, very hot day, I greeted the driver and gave him ten bucks, and we both thumbs up.

BTW, anybody wanna buy a Paiste 2000 crash?

[Mossman]

This is unacceptable. Musician's Friend took your money, so it's THEIR responsibility to make sure you receive what you paid for, not yours. I have never had a situation where the retailer expected ME to track down the package myself, when I didn't receive an item that I ordered. In light of this, and MF/GC's hyper-aggressive phone/email sales tactics (https://www.aguitarforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2208), I wouldn't buy anything from them unless I absolutely had to. The only good thing about ebay (from a buyer's perspective, anyway), is that they're very proactive about responding to buyer's issues, and will always side with the buyer in a dispute.

Nobody who wants to sell you something is your "friend", but Sweetwater comes way closer than MF.

[nomadh]

I thought mf used to do pretty good but now even sweetwater is having problems?
Mf is the same co as gc, right. And gc may be crashing here so maybe all the same orob?