“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.”
“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 ☹”
