Great Prices, Great Website, Quick Shipping
Written: Feb 19 '05 (Updated Mar 19 '07)
| Ease of Ordering: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
 |
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
|
|
|
| Full Review |
Background ** UPDATED 3/31/05 & 10/28/05, Three orders placed, see details below, along with first-time order experience.***
I heard of MUSIC123 from a co-worker, who is a guitar afficionado and a cheapskate to boot!
I was in the market for a hollowbody electric and, being a cheapskate myself, wanted to get the best price I could while not having to deal with a lot of hassles from the place I bought it from.
They sell a vast variety of stringed instruments, drums, band instruments, recording, DJ, PA, keyboard, just about every accessory know to man, etc. Their print catalog is like a Sears Wishbook (are you old enough to know what that is?) for a musician.
I ordered an Epiphone Dot, Squire Mini (for the daughter) and some other go-with stuff.
What's Their Website Like?
MUSIC123.com's website was very easy to navigate and search. Adding, removing and otherwise modifying your shopping cart was simple and straightforward. Product pictures and descriptions were more than adequate, with links to manufacturer's websites if you wanted to verify something or wanted more in-depth stats. The zoom-in feature on the pictures really gives you a nice, big look at whatever it is you're looking at.
How Are Their Prices & What About Shipping?
First off, they offer FREE SHIPPING on orders over $199. Otherwise, the shipping charges seem reasonable and in-line with other on-line retailers.
Prices are also quite reasonable and when compared with other large-volume online music retailers,were right on the mark. When I did a prices-based web search for the guitar I was looking for, MUSIC123 and a few others consistently came up within a few pennies of one another.
EXAMPLE: I purchased a "B-Stock" Epiphone Dot for $299.99, that's $100 less that the best price I could find on a "Perfect" model at $399.99 - also at MUSIC123.
MUSIC123.com also offers "B-Stock" Guitars - what I call "Factory Seconds": guitars with small imperfections that don't pass final QA at the factory and are offered at a discount. This is what I bought, and honestly, when I got it and looked it over CAREFULLY, I could not find a defect...
I beleive the manufacturer assigns the grade to the product before selling them to MUSIC123, so you may want to keep in mind different manufacturers may grade their stock differently.
They also offer other "classifications" of instruments at discounts respective to their grade:
"C-Stock (a little "worse" than B-Stock), D-Stock, Factory-Seal-Broken, Open-Box, etc. You should visit their site and read up on their classification system to be sure what you're looking at.
Actual Ordering Experience
You can order via online, telephone or mail.
Placing the order went well - I ordered a number of items - two guitars, straps, picks, wall hangers, etc. The site offers secure credit card ordering (see the site for details) and the process went smooth.
You get ample opportunities to edit your cart and they also offer "suggested accessories" with each item you add to your cart. This can be a bit annoying, but they do jog your mind and remind you of some simple things you may want to add, plus they add an additional discount on these items if you snatch them up at that time.
At the end, you are given an order number and are sent a confirmation e-mail, which contains links where you can track the status of your order and it's individual items.
You are also sent an e-mail when they ship you any order or part thereof. A nice feature.
I received all of my order, except the Epiphone guitar, case and strap within one week. These items were packed well and received in good order. The guitar was statused as "in process" for a few days and so I called them to see what was going on. Their telephone customer service people were nice and helpful, and to make a long story short, they had a mix-up in the warehouse where the Epiphone went into Limbo somewhere for about another week before they finally got it out the door to me. I did have to make a couple more calls, but they did come through in the end. I figured they would have thrown a set of strings in or some freebie to make up for the lost time, but no dice, but yet - I didn't ask.
** UPDATE 3/31/05 ** I ordered from them again, this time a Behringer V-Amp Pro , a rack bag and some cables. The order process went smooth as before and the items were shipped in a very timely manner, but they left a MIDI cable out of the order when they boxed it up. Anyway, a call to their customer service number got me in touch with a very polite lady who got me the cable shipped out that day and I got it a few days later. Again, a fairly happy ending. ** END UPDATE***
** UPDATE 10/28/05** I ordered a bass guitar, preamp, tuner and other accessories for our church's praise team. I also ordered a Hamer SATQ for myself. The order for the church went 100% smooth, delivered on-time with everything in good order. My personal order was a bit different, but with an OK outcome: My order was to be two boxes shipped via FedEx Home Delivery. The first box came - it was the case for the guitar. I figured the guitar (and a strap) would be the second box that showed up. Well, the second box came and all it contained was the strap! I immediately called MUSIC123 and their service rep (very nice, polite lady)checked the order and said it showed the guitar as shipped and received! I kind of came unglued at this point but remained calm and polite with the rep (which did help) and we reviewed all the info and history of the order. As we got into this, she finally pulled up information showing my order was THREE boxes total and was able to then get the shipping info on the guitar. She immediately offered me a $20.00 credit on the guitar which I accepted. I received the guitar in fine shape a couple of days later. The rep explained that they had recently consolidated their operation into a single massive distribution center and where still in the process of getting the kinks ironed out of their new systems. I understood this, but I sure wished they had messed up on the $10 strap or maybe even the $80 case, but the nearly $400 guitar?? Well, that caused some sphincter-lock until I was able get some resolution over the phone with their rep.
This was a good example of how maintaining your cool with company reps can help with a potentially bad situation: Had I unleased the hounds on this gal (as she says she frequently endures), she may not have had the prescence-of-mind and patience to dig into their order system and talk with their warehouse folks to find my guitar. I'm sure either way, I'd have had a satisfactory outcome, but everyone would have been on blood-pressure meds afterwards...
ANYWAY - I will probably use them again, but I will feel much better about them if the next order goes without any hitches and will also check out some other deep-discount houses. So far only one order out of four has gone without incident(25% average a'int real good),but they all have been very satisfactorally resolved with a phone call or two.
** UPDATE 10/10/06 ** A year later and here I am giving them money again.... Well, this time I ordered an Ovation Celebrity CC44 acoustic/electric guitar. I ordered from their website and the guitar was here within one week. Unfortunatley, the guitar was defective: The bridge became detached from the soundboard when the guitar was tuned to standard pitch. A very quick call to MUSIC123 got me a return authorization number and also a pre-paid shipping form for Fed-Ex Ground was e-mailed to me. The rep waited until I comfirmed I had received the e-mail and then said they would ship another guitar immediately. They did and actually shipped it Fed-Ex Priority Overnight, so I had the replacement guitar the following morning. A nice touch on their part. The replacement guitar was just fine. Another tale of intrigue, although with a happy ending.
** UPDATE 11/17/06 **
Well, I am beginning to feel the love wearing off a bit with these folks. The case for my Ovation acoustic still hasn't shown up. I called their customer support folks and they said they would have their purchasing department e-mail me with an expected time-of-delivery of a new batch of cases from Ovation. She said the response time was commited to 24 hours. Well, a week has passed and no e-mail or call. Also, I ordered a keyboard amp for our church, which is also backordered for over a month now, and I got the same non-response on that item too. I'll be calling them back next week and request a manager get involved to either get me the items or refund my money.
** UPDATE 3/17/07 **
Sorry, been tied up with things and didn't get to fill you in on the last purchase from MUSIC123. The keyboard amp never materialized and I had them cancel the item. They kept pushing the "expected in-stock" date out on the guitar case until I finally gave up and cancelled it as well and ordered the case from Zzounds.com.
** END UPDATE **
** END UPDATE **
So Will I Buy From Them Again?
Not if I can find it elsewhere. I have changed my mind on saying "yes" to this question. I have seen other online music houses (Musician's Friend, Zzounds, Sam Ash) offering similar pricing and shipping deals, as well as a new local music store that is offering to match online catalog prices.
I also found out about the financial difficulties and bankruptcy proceedings MUSIC123 was/is going through and how this was affecting their inventory management.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Epiphone Dot, Epiphone case, Squire Mini, Gig Bag, Hamer SATQ, V-AMP,
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
lspan2k
|
|
Location: Central Virginia
Reviews written: 50
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
I have been a avid outdoorsman and musician for most of my life.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.