I ordered a boutique guitar amplifier from Sweetwater. I asked the Sales Engineer Halaj Mack if the amp would be factory sealed. He said it would be. When it arrived, it was not, with an envelope stuck to the top stating how it was "carefully double-checked and packed" by a Sweetwater rep. Not what I was promised. In fact, I believed it to be the “demo model” I had initially purchased, then cancelled that same day, since I preferred to have a brand-new product. Halaj Mack did not so much as apologize from the misrepresentation, just told me the shipping team said it was new, and not the demo model, contrary to the evidence. So, I went over his head, communicated how a Sweetwater representative had misrepresented the product, and managed to get the amp replaced. Sweetwater even double-boxed the amp in a snug double-walled box and sprang for expedited shipping without being asked. So, was I happy? Not as happy as I would have been if they’d just sent me a factory-sealed product to start with, instead of forcing me to push to get what I paid for, but at least I actually received a factory-sealed amp. Anyway, moving on… a couple of weeks later, I ordered a second boutique amp, requesting expedited shipping and double boxing identical to the way in which the first amp’s replacement was shipped – in other words, nothing that Sweetwater hadn’t done before. I paid for the $150 additional shipping cost this time, and was happy to do so since I expected to receive the second order in the same condition as the first. This did not happen. For some reason, the Sweetwater shipping department thought that double-boxing this 60-pound amplifier in near paper-thin carboard that exceeded the factory box measurements by 12 inches in length and 8 inches in height would somehow not end in disaster. When this catastrophe arrived at my home, the outer box had been torn from end to end, because the 60-pound contents was clearly too heavy for the outer box, and had broken through when handled by FedEx staff. I do not blame FedEx at all since a properly boxed item, such as the first double-boxed amp I’d received, could withstand the rigors of overnight shipping, and would have been delivered safely. I could not understand why they would use a box that was not designed to support such weight to ship a $3500 amplifier, especially when I specifically requested that this order be shipped in identical fashion to replacement amp I had received earlier. So here I am, with two shipping disappointments from Sweetwater in less than a month. Was the inner box intact? It seemed to be, aside from some bumps and scrapes, but since it had clearly torn out of the outer box, it may very well have fallen an unknown number of feet to the ground, perhaps on more than one occasion while the disintegrating outer box was being handled by various individuals during shipping. Since tube amplifier are notoriously fragile, and given the state in which the package arrived, I thought that it was entirely possible that the amp had suffered damage due to Sweetwater’s gross negligence. So, I demanded a replacement, providing the exact measurements of the double-walled outer box in which the first amp had been shipped, plus a refund for the $150 expedited shipping I had paid to make of for the distress and frustration they had caused me. I told the new Sales Engineer, Israel Hernandez, that if they refused, they would lose me as a customer. I told Sweetwater I would leave the amplifier untouched and unopened so they could sell it to someone else. They accepted my terms, and I shipped back the amp with a label they provided. The Sales Engineer then sent me the $150 shipping refund, and a promise that the replacement amp would be shipped per my specifications via free overnight shipping. Anyway, of course, they no longer had any stock to send me a replacement! So, the Sales Engineer, Israel Hernandez, told me they were expecting a new shipment in about a week. There was no update the following week, so I reached out, and he told me I had to wait 3 weeks, which would make it an entire month since I originally placed the order. A couple of weeks later, I told them not to bother with the replacement, since the whole business had left a bad taste in my mouth, and there was way too much negativity attached to the purchase for me to enjoy it. So, what do they do? They take back the $150 goodwill shipping refund which was supposed to make up for the distress and inconvenience they had caused me. This, despite me having told them that they would lose my business. The day before I cancelled the replacement, I had expressed interest in a different, pricier amplifier to the Sales Engineer, Israel Hernandez, but this promise of future business did not sway them. They only cared that I no longer wanted the replacement amplifier, which would have required them to absorb the cost of the overnight shipping. I’m disappointed to say the least. Sweetwater is very good at pretending to care about customers, but in practice, they don’t. I was never adversarial, never rude, never unreasonable. I just asked them to give me what they had promised to provide in exchange for my money. And I think I was entitled to accept their gesture of the $150 shipping refund at face value: that they were apologizing for poor customer service. Please bear in mind that they were directly responsible for the disappointment I had to swallow not once, but twice in a single month, not to mention the time and fuel it cost me to drop off their amplifiers at the closet FedEx location, which is 30 miles away. For those of you who have invested money in high-end musical equipment, who have endured the wait and prayed that the equipment would arrive undamaged, perhaps you can understand my point of view. I told both the Sales Engineer, Israel Hernandez, and his assistant Conner Verity, that I would be leaving reviews like this and filing a complaint with the BBB. No response, except that Israel Hernandez had himself removed from my account as my personal Sales Engineer (if you have a Sweetwater account, you’ll have an assigned Sales Engineer that you can contact from your profile). Anyway, hopefully this will make you think twice about giving your money to Sweetwater. There are plenty of retailers out there, with the same range of equipment and pricing. Some may be more impersonal. But that’s just it. In the end, I’d rather deal with a company that doesn’t pretend to care about its customers.