Experience of stringbusters.com

markallen5

Hi,
I had been a loyal customer of stringbusters.com, based in Barnstaple for many years and had never had a problem, until recently.
I ordered over £80 worth of strings in May. They said they were all in stock, but a few days later when my order arrived, a 10 pack of strings , value £52 wasn't included, only a note to say they would follow.
 Stringbusters had taken the full amount from my paypal account. The strings never did arrive, so I asked for a refund, which didn't happen despite numerous emails and phone calls, which were never answered. I then found lots of recent reviews from customers telling of similar experiences on sitejabber review site.
I have just got my money back from paypal after having to open a dispute.
Stringbusters   have still never got back to me. Obviously, I will never try to order anything else from them, ever.
 Just felt I had to tell this story. Mark. 

Roland

Moved to Made in the UK, which is where supplier related discussions belong.

Title changed. There are usually at least two sides to every dispute with a supplier.

Comments are invited from other stringbusters customers. Let’s have the good and the bad, but keep it constructive. We’re here to support and improve the guitar industry, not show how antagonistic we can be.

Philtre

"Comments are invited from other stringbusters customers."

Indeed. So here are some:

https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/stringbusters.com

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/stringbusters.com

https://www.yell.com/biz/stringbusters-ltd-barnstaple-3447185/

Roland

Those are a small number of comments by anonymous people on the internet. We’ve no way of knowing whether they are true, or posted by competitors. Every business slips up occasionally.

Now if one of our regular contributors had something to say we would pay attention.

IvisonGuitars

Ive had no trouble with them in the past, in fact, I ordered 10 sets of strings once, only 9 came as that's all the stock they had then a few weeks later the other packet followed, i'd forgotten about it to be honest.

RiftAmps

I’ve only ever had exceptional service from Stringbusters, great to deal with. Any unfulfilled orders have been sorted quickly and with great levels of contact.

markallen5 said:

 Stringbusters had taken the full amount from my paypal account.

Not quite how it works. Retailers don’t take money from your account, you send it to them.

markallen5

Hi Mark Allen, who posted the stringbusters post.
I too have only ever had quality service from them in the past, going back over many years. So I was very surprised when what I have accurately described in my post happened recently. I emailed them many times and tried calling. no one ever answers. try it yourself. Go on place an order to see what will happen. as to paying with paypal. you authorise paypal to let the retailer have the amount don't you ? I certainly didn't "send" it in the post .I have a copy of the paypal dispute with them with me. It says we find in your favour and I, well it's my partner's account, have been refunded the money they took. Although I am new to posting on this site, I am a real person. If you go on youtube and search mark allen busker, you might find several videos of me, looking rather like the 50 something year old old hippy that I am, playing my strat on the street which is how I earn my living. Anyone who knows me, knows I wouldn't make up something like this. 
I would welcome a reply from stringbusters to see what they have to say to justify the terrible service I have described in my post. If I am proved to be lying about this, I will donate £100 to a worthwhile charity.
 I was only trying to let others know.

GuitarAndy2

Unfortunately I've also had a negative experience with Stringbusters in the last year, which came after previously good service dating back as far as the middle of 2011. Ordered mid December in the run up to xmas, was an elixir triple pack and some bridge pins, never arrived which I then chased up after allowing extra time for peak trading/post related issues.

Initially answered my call, saying they'd look into the situation and confirm a solution via email within 48hrs, said they were also out of stock of the items I'd ordered so unable to send replacements, but expecting more soon from their supplier. Chased them again after prolonged radio silence, were still 'out of stock' of elixirs but had bridge pins which I had them pack for posting whilst on the phone & received assurances they'd either get a triple pack of strings to send out to me or if weren't available instead send three individual packs.

The bridge pins arrived the next day but no further communication was ever sent on the strings, no answer repeatedly when calling the company & no response to any emails I also sent. Was particularly frustrating as every previous order had been stress & hassle free.

Arjailer

Had the same experience back in November.

Have used Stringbusters since 2011, so ordered without thinking about it. Money was sent to them and then nothing. Searched around and found worrying comments from other customers on Facebook. Chased the order with SB but heard nothing back. After another week of silence I filed a dispute with Paypal, which involved them asking SB for comment (which they never got) and eventually got my money back from Paypal.

It certainly feels like Stringbusters are "gone" and just haven't taken their site or Paypal account down  :-(