American Musical Supply AMS Selling Factory Fender Strat Seconds as New, Not Posting Negative Customer Reviews New Jersey
I ordered, what I understood to be a new, unblemished, Fender Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster Olympic White for 1,049.99 + $21.00 so I could pay in 12 installments. I have dealt with AMS for over a decade and had few issues and usually none other than they do their best NOT to honor price matches.
So above guitar arrived. It was unplayable. I've been playing for 40 years...I'm not some kid. Fender makes a solid Strat out of Mexico so the fact this was as well being a signature model gave me no concerns. Brings up the adage about "knowing when you assume". I assumed better from Fender and better from AMS. Finsh had flaws, no set-up was done, frets were not finished to the point the sharp edges cut my hand, the was a blem on the side of the fretboard that was filled in and no attempt to even match it. I've played guitars for $200-$300 that were far better and would expect this quality out of a $60-$75 guitar.
I will be calling tomorrow to return it or ask for 1/2 off so I can professionally have the repairs done. I have taken pictures and will be posting them elsewhere. Aside from the blatant disrespect selling a damaged and/or factory second guitar without claiming so knowingly I see 4 days later same guitar at AMS for $150 more. I guess they unloaded all the bad guitars on unsuspecting chumps like myself. When I went to their site to leave a user review and voice my dissatisfaction it was BLOCKED! Why have the option to leave honest user comments/reviews if they censor the negative ones and only allow the positive? THAT really adds insult to injury here!
Though I've used AMS I will NEVER do so again and urge others to use one of the many online music dealers.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
W. Heald
Saint Peters,Missouri,
AMS / American Musical Supply Calls Me, Then never Calls Back!!!
#2Author of original report
Fri, March 21, 2014
Upon seeing my complaint HERE, American Musical Supply made a point of calling me before I had a chance to call them.....GUESS THEY READ UP ON THEMSELVES HERE.....and they acted like they gave a d**n, I ended up having to UNPACK the guitar I re-packed to ship back because they claimed to want the serial # so they could investigate it and would get back to me later that day or the next.....that was 11:30 AM CST March 19 and here it is the 21st....NOTHING!
As I said before, like many businesses, they don't care that I've bought from them for a decade at least. When I confronted them about censoring my user review they claimed they didn't. I build computers from the ground up, repair/modify and do software so I think I'm capable of leaving an online user review.
As I mentioned, they offered to send me another but I simply told them I'd prefer 1/2 off so I can take it to the local shop I trust here to do the repairs. I mean, why take a second bite out of the same rotten apple? They said they will get back to me......I doubt they will so I'll just repack it, ship it back, get my initial payment and NEVER deal with them again! Like I said, there are other online dealers.