“Company has no interest in handling a manufacturer warranty claim. Only interested in sending items back to their shop so they can recoup the repair costs. Long time customer who will never buy from them again.”
“I ordered a Marshall 1960AHW cab back in April of 2024. This item has been on my wish list for years so I was psyched to finally have placed the order. Three months later I finally received the cab. To my dismay upon opening the box cabinet had multiple flaws and damages. Cracked back corner, tolex tear on the back, dented front face and additional small tolex tears on front. I contacted Sweetwater immediately. My sales rep convinced me to hang on to the damaged cab while Sweetwater received a replacement one. I was promised I would be getting a replacement. Long story short every month since they keep changing the ETA on when I will finally get a replacement. They blame it on Marshall. To be honest I feel they sold me a b-stock item as new. They have not responded to my last email in regards. Customer service manager handling my case has changed twice since opening case.7 months after I am still waiting on my replacement cab and stuck with a damaged item. Very disappointed with what should have been a dream purchase. If they don’t make this right this will be my last purchase from Sweetwater.”
“I don’t appreciate being put on hold on the phone for 30 minutes just to ask a question about the guitar I purchased. Goodbye Sweet Water hello Musician’s Friend.”
“I had a horrible experience getting speakers. First off, after I ordered, they waited 3 weeks to charge my card... I never heard anything about the order, nothing until a month later. Finally got it delivered, by then I had found other speakers.
The Sales Engineer I dealt with was incredibly rude. Saying he left me a voicemail, to which I had called back and they never responded. I then had to pay to return the speakers.”
“I ordered a guitar rack for my son for Christmas and when it arrived it was filthy and scratched up. I paid for a new rack and I can't believe a company would scam a consumer by sending a used rack yet charging a new rack price. Thank you Sweetwater for ruining my son's Christmas, it's the only thing he received.”
“F-Sweetwater. I Paid $3399.00 for a Gibson Songwriter Acoustic.
Has a defective bridge, per Guitar Center.
Sweetwater say it’s my fault, leaving it in the Gibson Case, with Dehu bags, they sold to me. They say it needed some moisture. Derek Spaulding in Sales.
If you want to get screwed, this is your place. I wouldn’t buy pics from these sorry SOB’s”
“I was looking to buy entry level synthesizer the joke term sales engineer was too busy with coworker clowning with camera total sale probably was going to be under $500 but there’s plenty of companies That’ll take my money”
“For the 2nd time, I placed an order from Sweetwater for a gift for my son (1st time it was for my husband) and have ended up scrambling to purchase the same gift elsewhere due to issues with their processing. I received the order confirmation back right after I placed the order and nothing was amiss. 3 days later I checked to make sure the order was still going to be delivered in time (before Christmas) and my order number doesn’t pull any info up on the website. I emailed, and then (panicked) called the customer service line an hour later. They “have no record of my order.” That’s weird since I replied to the email confirmation I received from Sweetwater 3 days ago. The guy was pretty non-chalant about it. This is my Christmas present for my son, and it wasn’t going to arrive even though they sent me an order confirmation. And this is the 2nd time this has happened to me with Sweetwater. Shame on me for letting it happen twice. Sure, they’re really nice when the order goes as planned but if you really need to know that the order you place will be delivered, you’re better off using another vendor (which I did, and my order will get here 12/23 which is cutting it way closer than I like, thanks to Sweetwater).”
“Ordered some products then the next day A representative reached out and said they were sold out & products would not be available till January and wanted to know if I still wanted them. I let them know I did. They reached back out two days later saying their was a glitch in the website and I could not have the products for the price I purchased them for. I was fished to their website to buy the products on a sponsored advertisement from Google. False Advertising is Illegal. My Wife has got me gear from these guys for years. I have advised her and she will no longer make purchases through them”
“Purchased a used Crumar Mojo Classic with 2 year "warranty." Only four gigs later, there's an issue, and just to have it evaluated, I have to ship it at my own expense; no option was given for local evaluation or servicing. Will not be making any more purchases from Sweetwater.”
“After investing with this company I found out that they were scammers please don't invest with them and also stay away from there agency after they had frozen my account I decided to report to authority and then I came across Mrs Bruce Nora who is a recovery agent I got in contact with her and she guided me through the process, within few days, my money was recovered to me in total.
If you where a victim of scam and was unable to make withdraw or your account was blocked get in contact with: b__r__u...c__e__n__o__r__a__254__(A__T)__g__m__a__i__l__.__c__o__m
Or call on Whatsapp: +1 ( 3 1 8 ) 3 1 9 4 6 2 0.”
“Sales people and really don't know what they make out to know.
Also they try to be your buddy which is really annoying
I just want to order something and get it in reasonable time
remember there are other places even local to buy equipment!!!
I have enough friends already and I don't need a follow upon an order especially if its less than 25 dollars.......thats just wasting my time and company time!!
Ill have to think twice before ordering from Sweetwater again!!!!!”
“I have spent thousands of dollars over the years with Sweetwater. Recently they recommended an interface that turned out to have extremely complicated software. They offered about 30minutes of time after which the technician could only partially fix the issue. Now, they refuse to offer any more support for the product. They just lost me as a customer.”
“Do not use this company as they make promise after promise only to drop the ball so many times and then blame shipping however and when you can't get a hold of the original sales engineer their assistants always mess up and then make excuse after excuse and they don't care because as long as they make their commission they are okay with that . The customer service department is about the only ones who actually care but even at that their hands are tied as they have no control over your items you order .”
“Ordered $1,600 worth of equipment from them just to have some items on back order . They claim they sold out so fast they had to get more items in stocks however I could have just went to the manufacturer myself and already had my items in hand by now but because it's my sweetwater credit card I had to wait so moving forward I will no longer order from Sweetwater just because their customer service is very poor and some sales reps are very rude .”
“I use to really like Sweetwater, but before a Management change, before Mike Clem, had some return issues. But resolved, but now, in the past 2 years, horrible!! Every web site I go to, Sweetwater advertisement are very deceiving. Pretty much of the stuff, isn't in stock, or on back order. So there grabbing your IP address, and advertising madly. All that matters that they get you to there site. Probably points on there company, regardless of a sell. BE VERY CAREFUL on the EZ Payments. In your account it show dates for payments to be received, there will be month/months, a line missing that doesn't show up, but your sales person will email you saying you have a payment due. I screenshot there payments, constantly. Reported to Indiana Attorney General's office, at this time, its being reviewed. Not knowing today, after all the gear bought, the inspection before sending you, was a farse, and see a lot of issue posted. But drowning your internet, with advertisement's, is horrible. Almost 8 out 10, the gear isnt in stock, on back order, or dont know when it will be in stock. Theres something wrong here”
“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.”
