“This is the only and best place to buy your gear. I don't care if you spend 20.00 or 5000.00 this place goes above and beyond with there service. In a world where customer service is completely gone. It's alive and well here. I won't buy anywhere else.”
“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.”
“I have never had such a horrible experience with a business like Sweetwater. Months ago I tried to make some purchases with their installment plans, but my credit score was not good enough, and the orders were cancelled. So I asked a family member recently if they would help me out and they obliged. I made a new order with a shared credit card with my family member (installment plans since their credit is great), and a second order on a Sweetwater credit card that was offered to us during browsing the Sweetwater site via Synchrony Bank (my family member has Synchrony bank cards elsewhere too).
WELL, apparently Sweetwater does NOT want our business or money, because ALL orders were cancelled and the account was blacklisted as "fraud"... SIMPLY BECAUSE OF DIFFERENT ADDRESSES ON FILE / NAMES OF PEOPLE (again, FAMILY members).
E-mails with the original sales representative went ignored or just told "try again" (to order), and even after my family member sent in multiple forms of identification like drivers license and the full credit card info, they still hem and haw about selling. Just absolutely ridiculous. ARE YOU GUYS IN BUSINESS TO MAKE MONEY, OR TO BE CREDIT GATEKEEPERS? The second sales rep we spoke to even was almost ready to deny us business, and their manager wanted a WIRE TRANSFER to pay for everything. EXCUSE ME? Credit cards and YOUR OWN COMPANY'S CREDIT CARD WAS OFFERED TO US to buy from you.
On the other hand, my family member has helped me purchase from Zzounds issue free, AND super fast shipping from them too. It sucks because Sweetwater is the only place we have a credit card with AND the products I am after (modular).
Now they want SYNCHRONY BANK to verify my family member's identity over the phone? Or something, in order to even complete any orders with them. Just absolutely ridiculous. DO NOT try to buy from Sweetwater on credit or with their credit card offers, if your credit score is less than perfect they will cancel your order and never speak to you again if you try to have anyone else help you and gift you purchases from them. Apparently they don't understand that PEOPLE (family) LIVE TOGETHER.”
“Let Me start out by saying Sweetwater has great Prices and great Gear. The problem is not the Merchandise but the fact that the Customer Service Agents are Useless and liars. I had 2 People aka Reps tell Me My Order was modified before it shipped out and My order total would be adjusted. That however is not true because the Items I ordered by mistake for a Friend were not removed from the Package before shipping out and so therefore the order total was not adjusted. My Friend mistakenly gave Me an outdated list of Drum gear and not the updated one and the 2nd after I placed the order I had realized My Friend already had 3 of the Items I had ordered. I tried reaching out by phone and Email etc and got no help just a bunch of useless incompetent waste of my time Reps that just lie to You about modifying a dang order. I will never order from that awful Company again.”
“Overall, this is a reliable company to purchase guitars online. I deducted one star because their 55 point inspection is exaggerated and primarily non-existent. When you purchase a guitar to be delivered, it will be packed properly and arrive on-time in new condition if you're buying brand new. However, any manufacturer defects will most likely not be discovered by their Quality Control team even though they claim to thoroughly review the guitar. If you are mechanically savvy with guitars, then it's still worthwhile to order. I can say that they are very good at handling returns and refunds, so I am fine with buying from them. I would just ask that they actually perform or improve their 55 point inspection prior to shipping. In my opinion, the Les Paul Modern is the best electric guitar for the price. It as the maximum features and produces quality sound. I've tried SG Muse, PRS, Fender and other brands, and the Modern gives the best sound for the gifted listener and those that demand the best features.”
“My Husband is a musician he really wanted this headphone amp. He wanted it so he can practice around me safely due too my type epilepsy the bass can trigger seizures. I ordered the 26th my order was shipped the 29th. The site said I would receive my item in 3 days from.shipping. Day 10!! No amp!!! They used USPS to save money on shipping which btw is way less than what I was charged for shipping. I have emailed Alan twice as in the past he has helped my husband. Sadly he has ignored my emails and offered me no hey we are sorry or anything. My advice check Guitar Centar I ordered from them and they shipped it from California and I had my item in 3 days via FedEx.”
“Top notch company...zack bauman excellent gear advisor..1st place i look to buy my drum gear..ALWAYS.. sweetwater for life..free shipping, broad selection, & best customer relations anywhere..thanks again.👍👍🎵”
“I wanted to order two guitar keepers as a gift but had questions about the different varieties so I sent an email to Sweetwater. Within a short time a sales engineer, Colton Kreuzer, contacted me and was so helpful and polite. Even though my purchase was a small one he treated me as if I had purchased an expensive guitar. Additionally, the shipment arrived three days later. I will definately recomment this company to all of my family and friends.”
“Took over a week to receive my packages and then it was the wrong guitar, and then after emailing them two people back and forth several times blamed me and said that’s what I ordered but it is not because I hate black why tf would I put that in my cart...and furthermore never once took accountability for very slow shipping and instead insisting they have other methods if you pay a nice extra enormous shipping cost on top of an order that was nearly 1300 dollars, this was complete non sense and Sweetwater is definitely not the company these reviews rave about”
“WORST EXPERIENCE EVER..... WILL NEVER RECOMMEND TO ANYONE. LACK OF COMMUNICATION on Sweetwater part. They cancelled and rerouted some music equipment back to themselves before it even reached my city limits. And they still haven't returned my money! Crappy business!”
“This was the WORST experience I have ever been thru and will NEVER RECOMMEND this store to anyone!
The equipment was cancelled by Sweetwater and returned back to Sweetwater before it even reached my city and I still don't have my $$$$!!!”
“I ordered a Bullhead music/guitar stand as a gift for my husband. A mice guy from Sweetwater called the day they got the order to thank me and to ask how I found them. The Bullhead music/guitar stand arrived today as is way better than expected. Sweetwater will get our music gear orders from now on. Above and beyond is how I would describe Sweetwater.”
“My Sales Engineer, Andy Miller, recommended a Focusrite Solo as the best way to both Phantom Power my studio Mic and link it to my MAC via USB. The solo sounds great and could not have been easier to set up. Thank you so much!”
“Sweetwater has just impressed me more than any company I have ever dealt with. I ordered something simple and they took the time to have Josh S. Reach out and say hello. Impressive to say the least!”
“I was given a gift card from Sweetwater which I used to purchase a guitar tuner and some strings for my acoustic guitar. It wasn’t a huge purchase and certainly was not urgent, so I fully understand not getting it for weeks at this time. The order was out right cancelled within 24 hours with no refund to the card and no explanation other than we’re not shipping orders. Since it was not an exceptional order or urgent matter I’m sure the arrangements could’ve been made for shipping after the pandemic however that option was never made available. Been almost a week and I can’t get anyone on the phone, no email replies from my “ personalized customer rep”, And worst of all not even money put back on the card or any financial retribution for the transaction. Cancel the order, keep the money that somebody paid in good faith, and then shut the door. I don’t find that great service.”
“Excellent customer service, and I love supporting smaller companies rather than the large corporate chains, but I do have a bone to pick with Sweetwater's preferred shipping carrier, FedEx.
So while most of this review is about FedEx, it also reflects unfortunately on Sweetwater, who I trust to deliver my orders in a timely manner.
Fortunately, my go-to sales rep at Sweetwater Nich M. told me that the company would be changing shipping carriers, based on my experience and maybe other customers. Nich was also very good at following up once I expressed extreme frustration with FedEx for the incredibly slow delivery time.
Basically, it took 12 days from order of product from Sweetwater to delivery to me. Totally unacceptable, and product was delivered 3 days later (Monday instead of Friday) than expected on confirmation e-mail, which meant that I did not have it for a gig I had the previous Saturday.
FedEx has very good tracking information, but unfortunately it showed me exactly how slow and inefficient their process is. It took 2 days from order to start the shipping process, then the product (speaker stand bag) went from the Midwest to East Coast (North Carolina), then back to Midwest, then back to North Carolina (wtf?), before finally starting on it's long journey to the West Coast. What also made this frustrating was that at the same time I was waiting almost 2 weeks for delivery, the U.S. Post office which has a terrible reputation did a much better job delivering a package I sent cross-country, it only took 4 days!
When my FedEx package finally arrived near my location (San Francisco), about 60 miles east, I figured it would be delivered that day. But it took 3 more days! Also, the tracking information is confusing, because while it said "Tracy, CA" for Location, it was actually en route to Tracy, not there yet (it was coming from Arizona). All in all, a very frustrating experience.”
“My Sales Engineer is the reason I keep buying from Sweetwater. I have played guitar for 50 years, and I would never have imagined that I would have bought a high-end Acoustic guitar on someone's recommendation, without having played it first. Turns out it is one of the best music purchases I have ever made.”
