On Monday July 21, 2008 I placed an order by phone to Musicians Friend for some cymbals. (The reason I placed the order by phone was because I was going to put the bulk of the $700 order on my MF Platinum Card and the rest was going to be on my debit card. The website offers no way to process multiple payment methods)
I explained I would like to have them by Thursday as I had a show that night. I was willing to pay for overnight shipping ($78) and the rep Austin, told me that shouldn't be a problem. My order would be shipped Tuesday and with the one day shipping I would get it Wednesday. That sounded good to me...even with a one day delay, I figured I would still get my order on Thursday in time for my Thursday night show.

I recieved an order acknowledgement Tuesday morning at 10:58 a.m. It explained my order would be shipped as soon as possible and I would recieve another email with tracking info once it shipped.

It is now Thursday afternoon at 12:03 and my order STILL has not shipped. The only contact I've had with MF regarding this is when I picked up the phone to call them. No effort on their part to advise me of any delays.

My first call was Wednesday morning when I still had not received an email saying the order shipped. I talked to a rep (david I think). He told me that Austin should have explained to me that multiple payment methods slows down the process. I asked why? He said they have to verify two cards instead of one. I said so it takes 2 minutes to verify instead of one minute? At that point he had to talk to his supervisor to see if he could offer any insight. He came back with some nonsense that I don't even remember at this point. But he did say they were going to do all they could to get it shipped out today (Weds). And he advised me his supervisor was going to refund the $78 I paid for one day shipping. I would hope so since the point of paying extra for that was....pointless now.

Thursday morning (today).....still no email confirming shipment. I wait til late morning and call them again. I get Michelle at the Utah call center. She tells me there is a delay because they are 'doing inventory' at the warehouse. That should not affect customer service I think, so I ask to talk to her supervisor.

Brock gets on the phone and asks How may I help you?
I told him I wanted to know why my order hasn't shipped yet. He said he would check on it and put me on hold. He comes back and says they are having a problem locating one of the cymbals. I said you should get your story straight with Michelle....She says it's because they are doing inventory. He informs me....'That's the same thing'. I told him it was not the same thing....listened to his blah blah about how different people talk differently and I should understand that. And then cut him off and asked.....OK WHAT item is holding up this order?

I heard some keystrokes then he replied 'the Wuhan 12' cymbal'. A $15 throw away cymbal is holding up a $700 order that needs to be here today?? He reminds me that I've been compensated for this delay....they are refunding the shipping. Oh my....how could I have forgotten that? What a joke!

What can I say to someone like this? He's probably not even listenting to me anymore. I then told him to call the warehouse and get answers from them. He put me on hold again then came back and told me they said they would TRY to get it shipped tomorrow. Tomorrow!! What happened to today?! Finally I just got tired of listening to lie after lie and told him goodbye.

This is the last order they will ever get from me. In the last few years I've bought quite a bit of stuff from them. One order I finally got after about 5 months of being backordered even though it stated it was in stock when I ordered it. For the next 5 months it was labeled 'available in 2 weeks' until one day it finally came.

I don't know what good filing this report will do. It certainly will not get my order to me by tonight.

Mike
Watertown, New York
U.S.A.