Beware of Gear4Music.com while purchasing musical instruments

andy1839

They're only 20 minutes away from me and I've bought both in store and online. 
Online has always been spot on, fast delivery on everything I've bought. 

In store I've only had one bad experience and that was during a school holiday when the staff were all less than enthusiastic. 

Next visit I spoke to another chap, told him about the bad experience in passing and he went to speak to the manager and I ended up with a new Roland TD-25KV with over £1000 knocked off. 

All sins forgiven. 

The amount of business they do it's entirely possible not everything goes to plan for every single thing they sell. 

stickyfiddle

FWIW I bought a Helix from G4M this time last year and they were really good, even with international shipping (to Abu Dhabi)

To @Ammeo - have you contacted the various music shops in the UAE? They're all quite used to international requests and such. No affiliation, but they're all decent guys in my experience.

www.musicianswarehousedubai.com/
www.musicianssupplydubai.com/
www.sadek-music.com/

richardhomer

I appreciate that a bad buying experience is annoying - but publicly slating a business as a result of one incident on a forum like this, is poor form in my view.

I have no experience of the firm in question - but they presumably have thousands of transactions per year which go perfectly well.

People die as a result of medical negligence while in NHS care occasionally - while millions are ‘cured’ - or have the length or quality of their life enhanced by it. Applying the OP’s logic, we would be wise to avoid the NHS.....

EricTheWeary

I’ve bought a couple of things off them without any problems.
When my son had drum lessons through the local authority music scheme ( about 7 years ago) Gear4Music were the main provider of their school’s musical equipment ( trumpets, drum kits, guitars,etc,etc) and I guess had some quite big contracts. I think those type of contracts have largely disappeared now but they are / were a reasonably big concern. 
I’m amazed that someone in India/ Pakistan is buying Chinese made goods from a retailer in the U.K. By that I don’t mean that they shouldn’t or that this isn’t in the best deal just that it seems a bit of a crazy journey ( or is not how that works?).
However, years ago it used to befuddle me that I could buy a Laney valve amp made about four miles from my house cheaper if it went via thomann in Germany than I could from a local shop. 

Neill

This is the world we live in today.

Unless you are Boris Johnson you can't have your cake and eat it.  By all means surf the net and find the cheapest supplier but don't expect the personal service you might get from a one man band high street retailer.  And don't expect their stock lists to be bang up to date.  People forget that the poor guy/girl on the end of the phone/email only has a computer screen to tell them what is in stock.  If it's a massive operation with several branches there's a fair chance the list will not be 100% accurate. 

If you are on the lookout for a rare item and one of these places claims to have it, I'd be more inclined to assume they just haven't got their stock list up to date. "It's showing several in stock sir" means nothing as far as I'm concerned.  Even then, as Stavros testifies, the item may be wrongly labelled/described. 

In this context, and reading the positive feedback about this company, I do think Ammeo is being a bit harsh in his reaction.  If this had happened to me, my attitude would have put it down to the fact that every so often in this era of ruthless efficiency something goes wrong and when it does, it generally goes badly wrong because the system is rarely designed to cope.  
   

Having said all this, if any or all of the items I ordered from Gear4music yesterday don't turn up this week I may change my view...

GoldenEraGuitars

Wow @Ammeo .... “I don’t usually do this...” is what THAT type of girl says to you (and you know what you’re getting into).

I don’t have too much sympathy. You managed to get angry with them yet “gave them a second chance” rather quickly. You should have taken your money and gone elsewhere.

Im guessing you did this on price if you were shopping at G4M? I’ve gone to them for two items in the past. One item wasn’t fully as described and they issued a refund very quickly. The other item was faulty.. they said “hang onto it, a replacement is being dispatched”. 

Most large companies have a negative reviews. This comes hand in hand with these box shifting companies offering their goods at a lower price point. But their bad reviews are usually in the minority compared with their happy customers.

So, you had a bad experience so your solution was to go straight back to them for another item? 

In that case you’ve countered your bad experience with your own stupidity. Next time, add a fiver on to your budget and go to the next company on the list

Stavros

richardhomer said:

I appreciate that a bad buying experience is annoying - but publicly slating a business as a result of one incident on a forum like this, is poor form in my view.

I have no experience of the firm in question - but they presumably have thousands of transactions per year which go perfectly well.

People die as a result of medical negligence while in NHS care occasionally - while millions are ‘cured’ - or have the length or quality of their life enhanced by it. Applying the OP’s logic, we would be wise to avoid the NHS.....

Exactly.

mart

Hmm, so our friend from India/Pakistan says

Ammeo said:

...
My first order was a Behringer U-PHORIA UMC202HD USB Audio Interface ordered on 20th November 2017 .... I instantly cancelled my order. 

Now come my 2nd order (order no W2318881) which is the Behringer U-PHORIA UMC204HD USB Audio Interface ... 3 days ago got my 3rd order delay message saying order has been even further delayed to 26 January. 
...

So he clearly has not got an interface yet - one order cancelled, the other delayed til Jan 26th.

But on Ultimate Guitar he says

amadnaeem86 said:

...
My 2 orders were delayed a total 7 times and i got the item after a whole 2.5 months.

Just STAY AWAY.
...

as per the link @Heartfeltdawn gave.

So, not only is he in India and Pakistan simultaneously, but he also has and does not have the interface simultaneously. 

Looks like a quantum architectural photographer to me.

PC_Dave

mart said:

Hmm, so our friend from India/Pakistan says

Ammeo said:

...
My first order was a Behringer U-PHORIA UMC202HD USB Audio Interface ordered on 20th November 2017 .... I instantly cancelled my order. 

Now come my 2nd order (order no W2318881) which is the Behringer U-PHORIA UMC204HD USB Audio Interface ... 3 days ago got my 3rd order delay message saying order has been even further delayed to 26 January. 
...

So he clearly has not got an interface yet - one order cancelled, the other delayed til Jan 26th.

But on Ultimate Guitar he says

amadnaeem86 said:

...
My 2 orders were delayed a total 7 times and i got the item after a whole 2.5 months.

Just STAY AWAY.
...

as per the link @Heartfeltdawn gave.

So, not only is he in India and Pakistan simultaneously, but he also has and does not have the interface simultaneously. 

Looks like a quantum architectural photographer to me.

Schrodingers USB interface 

JezWynd

Both items made by Behringer. That could be part of the problem.

Moominpapa

A few years ago I experienced some lengthy delays when ordering stuff from Gear4Music - although everything turned up fine in the end. Recently they have been using DPD for delivery and their online service has been excellent in my opinion. I have no hesitation using them. (Can't speak to the bricks and mortar experience.)

rocktron

I bought three cheap electric guitars (which I could upgrade), from them and did not encounter any problems. One guitar in particular, their own brand gloss black Flying V (no longer available), is superb.

Also, a colleague at work bought a junior acoustic guitar package for his son from them recently, and he is very pleased.

Bridgehouse

One does not simply receive Behringer interfaces. 

They slip in and out of our dimension. 

randella

Well that killed a few minutes while waiting for my sausages to grill. 

I’m not sure I gleaned much from it though. 

terada

That was entertaining. On a forum that has always to me seemed populated by genuine (if sometimes bizarre) individuals, it is good to see a blatant chancer caught out. 

Cracking work @Heartfeltdawn

Heartfeltdawn

Ammeo said:

I didnt get the audio interface yet and im in desperate need for it. I tried to find the behringer audio interface on aliexpress too but not a single seller there is selling behringer interfaces. Atleast those aliexpress merchants are honest about the unavailability of behringer interface unlike G4M who wasted 2 months for me. 

If you could help i will be very thankful. 

mart said:

Hmm, so our friend from India/Pakistan says

Ammeo said:

...
My first order was a Behringer U-PHORIA UMC202HD USB Audio Interface ordered on 20th November 2017 .... I instantly cancelled my order. 

Now come my 2nd order (order no W2318881) which is the Behringer U-PHORIA UMC204HD USB Audio Interface ... 3 days ago got my 3rd order delay message saying order has been even further delayed to 26 January. 
...

So he clearly has not got an interface yet - one order cancelled, the other delayed til Jan 26th.

But on Ultimate Guitar he says

amadnaeem86 said:

...
My 2 orders were delayed a total 7 times and i got the item after a whole 2.5 months.

Just STAY AWAY.
...

as per the link @Heartfeltdawn gave.

So, not only is he in India and Pakistan simultaneously, but he also has and does not have the interface simultaneously. 

Looks like a quantum architectural photographer to me.

Well played @mart  

Heartfeltdawn

Ammeo said:

I didnt get the audio interface yet and im in desperate need for it. I tried to find the behringer audio interface on aliexpress too but not a single seller there is selling behringer interfaces. Atleast those aliexpress merchants are honest about the unavailability of behringer interface unlike G4M who wasted 2 months for me. 

If you could help i will be very thankful. 

After review, I believe I am not medically qualified to offer the kind of help you require. 

GoldenEraGuitars

Weird... you can join here, have one rant thread and rack up 32 frets in a day. People need to stop feeding narcissists like this. He’s clearly going around looking for approval for his silly story.

Ignoring now.

Good luck.

punchesjudy

@lonestar At least if I ever become bothered by the amount of frets I have I now know what to do. 
All thanks to our new friend.

GoldenEraGuitars

punchesjudy said:

@lonestar At least if I ever become bothered by the amount of frets I have I now know what to do. 
All thanks to our new friend.

Indeed. Order something from an internet music retailer then create a few different versions of events in order to spin a load of nonsense as your first post on a few forums.

Damn, I wish I had thought of that