Complaint Review: TriStar Musc

Thank you. I apologize if I got upset. This whole thing was rediculous, but I did get a full refund from them after fighting with them for a month.

Musician? That's a difficult word to define. Do I consider myself to be of the level of talent and ability to truly call myself a musician? Not really...Do I have a degree in music? Yes. Have I taught music professionally? Yes. Do I play my instrument 3-4 days a week either in individual practice or in various ensembles? Yes. Do I truly consider myself a musician? Not really. I am just not that good. I have, however, played on a regular basis for the last 20 years and play in and conduct various community ensembles.

Anyway, I applaud the fact that you expose this company as a rip-off, as that's truly what they are. Your original post said "to a pro trumpet player it matters", which led me to believe that you were implying that you were a pro trumpet player. Didn't mean to give offense.

My point is ultimately, that India and China have flooded the musical instrument market in the states with crap. Search for instruments on Ebay, and you find businesses passing themselves off as legitimate music stores selling knock-off junk as professional and quality student horns. "Selman" saxophones instead of "Selmer" etc. Folks that buy horns from them compound the problem, as it encourages them to stay in business, which ultimately hurts music education, and ultimately hurts kids who want to learn to play an instrument, as uneducated parents who think these are quality items make their kids play on them, and ultimately the kid ends up quitting because they are frustrated because they have a crappy horn.

What surprises me the most is that these companies get such great feedback on Ebay. Personally, I think that the feedback system on Ebay is crap, as whenever I leave bad feedback when I'm buying something (rarely) I get a threat from the company to retract or they will ruin my feedback. As a former band director, the majority of the stuff that I saw come from these knock-off India/China Ebay or mail order companies is pure 100% garbage. Parents love it, however, because it's shiny and inexpensive, thus the positive feedback, thus it continues to sell. It's sad.

Thus, Ryker, I applaud your efforts.

And what do you mean by patronizing them, i'm adding to the problem? I posted this to help people and stop them from buying from them. How would slamming the company help them? And also, are YOU a musician? Probably not.

I never said I was a pro player. I had played alot in the past and had only a conn cornet and wanted to get a trumpet! I wanted something inexpensive until I could afford a new one. I KNOW 99 dollars doesn't get you a professional horn, but I figured an import would be cheap anyway.

Either way the horn was crap and now I have a yamaha Pro model. And if you look on the website, it advertises a PRO model for 99 dollars. False advertising and poor quality. I'm just warning people of this company ok?

I'm sorry to be insensitive here, but I took a look at the Tristar web page...What do you expect when you see a "Pro" trumpet for $99.00 and that price even includes shipping? What did you think you were going to get? A Bach strad? A Getzen?

Are you REALLY a professional trumpet player? Come on, now...you would know better.

These companies that are flooding the US musical instrument market with this knock-off junk are hurting music education and music in general. By patronizing them, you are just compounding the problem.