“My uncle told me he’s gotten 2 guitars from here that were great so I decided to buy one from them… I spent over $900 for a beautiful Alvarez. As soon as I got it and started playing it I noticed it sounded awful (it was buzzing and vibrating on the frets). Costumer service told me that the guitars don’t come setup and that I had to pay to get that done. I’ve spent over $200 on professionals to setup this guitar and it still sounds horrible.
I will never buy a guitar online again, only in stores!”
“Sweetwater offers these 24 month interest free credit cards on certain items, it's a big scam. The bank that they use for there credit cards (Synchrony Bank) just sent me a letter after making payments on time for the last 8 months, that they are going to start charging me a 2% fee and a 1.99 fee per-month for getting a paper statement. Do yourself a favor, don't buy anything from Sweetwater.”
“When you place an order, you write them an email cause the items are in back ordered, they never respond. And when I cancelled it, they insist they want to ship it. After I wrote several messages/emails to their so called personal sales person for items if they are in-stock, they never ever returned my email!!! They spend so much money on ads, but their customer service is the worst ever!!!!! Will not think again to try buy from them.”
“Literally never buying from here again. I believed it to be reputable, but I take back that statement. I ordered a Kala Uke and that same night realized that it was not a concert uke (the one I actually wanted) and when I go to cancel order, my order doesn’t show up! I can’t cancel it. I can’t call because I ordered on a Saturday night and they’re closed, but the website says I have 24 hours to cancel, so I don’t freak out. The next day at 9 am on the dot I call, they tell me they shipped it out within an hour of me ordering. I tell him what I read and he tells me he doesn’t know what website I got that from. I ask if there is anything I can do, he says they can’t send it back and if I get a return, I’ll be paying for that because “we have to make money somehow” (yes, this guy literally said that) No grace period for a fault on THEIR website. It takes a week but it gets here. The ukulele breaks straight out of the box. I’m so over it. I call the store to see if I can get a return started, and some dude with a New York accent basically tells me yeah, but I’ll have to pay shipping (I’m cool with that at this point) and asks me if I wanna trade out with something else. I tell him that I was just gonna buy a used concert Uke from Goodwill for the same price, and he has the audacity to try and scare me off, saying I don’t know the quality I’ll get, I’m taking a risk buying it, unlike their stuff which is brand new. After informing him that the Ukulele broke right out of the box, he just said “yeah.” So no, I will not be ordering from Sweetwater again, and I’ll take my chances at Goodwill or even eBay before I ever return.”
“Every order I’ve placed for the last 2 1/2 years has been miserable. Wrong items being shipped, damaged items arriving with no damage to the original packaging. Bad recommendations through their so-called consultants that led to multiple multiple incorrect purchases.”
“The first time I called for help, I was hung up on. Called back to try to speak with a supervisor, they hung up on me again. I've sent 4 emails and 3 more phone calls trying to speak to a supervisor. Horrible experience. They must spend all their time making commercials of customer service, instead of training their employees to provide it.
They don't even have the decency to return an email or call. won't recommend or purchase from ever again.”
“This company charged me $579.99 erroneously. They then assured me it had been backed out, but they failed to follow through. Now the matter has gone to Synchony (credit card company) and I'm getting letters from a collections agency. Sweetwater has provided no help with this matter, and have made it my problem.”
“REALLY DESERVES ZERO STARS! I really can't say anything good about Sweetwater because the first guitar I ordered was lost by FedEx for a few weeks. I didn't receive my return right away because Sweetwater said "without the guitar, we can't give a return". So after waiting over a month and spending a lot of time on the phone with both Sweetwater and FedEx, I finally got my return, but was charged about 100 bucks for the return. After all that BS from FedEx and waiting over a month, Sweetwater still had the audacity to charge for the return.
Having no luck elsewhere locally, I waited about 6 months and recently made the mistake of ordering again from Sweetwater and FedEx has dropped the ball again with no resolution or status at this point in time... The guitar I ordered was last scanned in Indiana a few days ago and that's all FedEx can say... Just exactly like the first time I ordered from them. NO STATUS! I had to wait a few weeks to see if they even had the guitar, and I'm doing this all over again. Deju vu. Now I'll will be spending the next few days on the phone AGAIN with them and have my money tied up with them for weeks and can't go elsewhere until Sweetwater and FedEx can somehow sort their mess out. Meanwhile I'm out over 1000 bucks until then!
I don't understand why Sweetwater won't return the customer's money when it's their 3rd party associate who loses something. Sweetwater needs to change that policy. It is no way the customer's fault FedEx lost an order. That should be between Sweetwater and FedEx ONLY! Why is the customer penalized so harshly for FedEx's incompetence?! Your money is tied up with them for many weeks until they can sort out their mess and then will charge you a return fee on top of that.
Just absurd!
I gave you a second chance, Sweetwater. But just an exact duplication of the same incompetence is all I got!
Ridiculous!
-David C - Sincerely!”
“They are a bunch of liars They said they had my bass on stock and two days later they didn’t even ship it yet.
With that excuse of the 55 point inspection
If they don’t ship it right away that means they are going to ship it anytime soon
If you need to buy something and you need it right away, go somewhere else
For real avoid all this headaches”
“I ordered drum heads. Two of the five I ordered came in warped. The sales representative said that they were going to replace one of them which they never did. He told me he spoke to his superiors and they said, "Yeah sometimes those heads look warped but they're not." I tried putting them on and tuning them and I can't. One side butts up right against the lugs which should never happen, while the opposite side is about 2" from the lugs. I was asked to send them pictures which I did within 10 minutes of the phone call. I never heard back. I could never get the sales representative on the phone again. I called a number designated to customer complaints and/or returning gear to get help. The girl on the phone sent me to another line and I left a detailed message. I never heard back from them either. So I'm out about $56 and have two drumheads that are complete garbage.
When the first drum head came in alone it was delivered in a box that look like it took a quarter of the Brazilian rainforest to create. Not only did these guys screw up by sending two garbage drum heads, but they are completely unconscious when it comes to what is happening to the trees on this planet. Who sends a box big enough to put a car tire in it for an 18-in drum head. There was enough plastic bubble wrap in there to choke 10,000 fish. Just gross!
I highly recommend that you avoid this company at all cost. They talk about caring about customer relations. I have found all that really means is every two months they call you and try to sell you something. Who does that? We will call you when we want to buy something. I honestly think this company is completely useless and it shows in the representatives that they hire.
Use a specialized store not a store that sells many instruments. You'll never get the professional attention and care you should from this company.”
“First time customer. Ordered upgrade of current system. Received package. Had 2 green Demo stickers on box. Opened box. The contents were just thrown in the box.
Called cusomer service. Told that was the only one in stock.
I should have been given the option of a demo and would not have paid full price.
Very disappointed with this transaction.”
“I ordered brosten creme donuts. Ive never had this issue before. I went threw the drive threw and when I got home this is what I got. It was not hot outside and when I touch it, it's hard frosting. Very disappointed in whoever frosted these.”
“I received a call from Visa fraud saying someone had tried to purchase a large item for 1700.00. I called Sweetwater to ask them about the purchase and what had happened. There reply was they didn't know what had happened and that this kind of things happens all the time on their site. So will not be purchasing any other items on.this site. Be ware of purchasing on this site.”
“Bought a inspired by Gibson hummingbird and I was shocked. This guitar had to be a blemished being sold as new. Had scratches all over the back.... a gap between the fretboard and binding on the 4fret low e string.. also the soundhold toward the top where fretboard attached looked awful.... absolutely wrong they sent a guitar like this to me. Never again will I order from them.”
“Sorry excuse for customer service. I've reached out at least 3x now. They have no idea what their selling, chances are their true headquarters is in India. These people are absolutely not at all knowledgeable about their products or services. They ask a question 6 months after I asked mine showing they are not smart enough to run this business currently. Stupid inbred middle eastern brats spoiled brats never know anything. Karma is coming.”
“I've ordered from Sweetwater twice in the past year where they were unable to deliver the equipment they show on their website. Last fall I ordered an audio interface. First, they told me the item I ordered had been discontinued, even though they showed it in stock. Then, the replacement unit they suggested kept getting backordered. I finally canceled the order and found one on Amazon that I received in days.
Most recently, I ordered a case and foot pedal for my son's birthday in March. It has been backordered since. Each month, I get a call telling me it didn't come in and they're hoping maybe first of the next month. It's now been 5 months. I'm not holding my breath and have learned my lesson...next time, I'll go to a different music site ☹”
“Buying from sweetwater was a terrible. Bought a Squier classic vibe 70s Stratocaster a while back for my daughter. Had a bad neck sent it back. Sweetwater took it back no questions asked. Full refund was send back to my credit card no problems. Was told buy a sales engineer. When the they come back in stock he would call me so I could get one. Months went buy. Called on a Monday to see if they had any more. Talked to my sales engineer Jeff. He said he thinks there was one left. This guitar has been discountinued by Squier. He found one sent it out. I got it in about four days. I watched the tracking of the guitar. I seen at one point the lable got destroyed and fedex had to put a new lable on. Guitar was delivered bottom of the box was opened. Opened the guitar was damaged scratched. Pickgaurd screws no screwed down all the way some were in sideways sticking up. Frets had a gritty feeling to them. I called back to tell Sweetwater about the problems. Got a younger man on the phone. And he basically told me that it was a 300.00 dollar guitar what do u expect. And he bragged about paying for the guitar the have it pleked. That’s where there put in this machine and the neck gets read by a computer and levels any high frets. Buffs and polishes them. I told him I wasn’t going to spend the money on that. He went on and on about there 55 point inspection and customer service. That’s what sets them apart from guitar center musicians friend Sam ash etc. I’m completely besides myself with this company. Will never order anything again from them. They don’t care about you. I sent the guitar back for a full refund. Will do buisness at guitar center of musicians friends. Was going to buy a 2k Gibson les paul from them. Not now. After 2 guitars that were basically junk according to them. Stay away buy else where.”
