Newsflash! PSA: Do not do business with Guitar Chimp

smurfco

smurfco

Meatus McPrepuce
(Mark, if this is inappropriate feel free to remove. I don’t want to cause any drama but I want to let my friends here know about my experience. But I understand if it needs to go…)

Long story short, I had an absolutely terrible experience with Guitar Chimp www.guitarchimp.com and would strongly advise that you do not do business with them.

If you want the details, here is the thread I started on TalkBass: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/ho...after-a-purchase-should-i-be-worried.1531251/

Buyer beware!
 
Dang, that sucks.

FWIW, I hate talking on the phone too, and I do my utmost to avoid it. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a business to answer its emails in a timely manner, especially if they're running a online store.
 
Reading that thread I'd say a "do not buy" is a bit harsh. Maybe more of a "consider this before buying here".

An order on Saturday evening that goes out on Tuesday isn't great, but far from unacceptable, especially as post weekend there can be a lot of orders to deal with and I can imagine they don't just want to yeet a 3000 dollar bass in a box real quick. A quick notification of the order status would be nice, but still, not really that big of a deal.

The refund process is slow as hell, and again, if they don't have time to get on the case immediately it would be nice to at least let you know they've received your email. 250 for shipping seems somewhat "adventurous", but I have no idea what shipping costs in the US, I know here prices can get into ridiculous territory pretty quickly if your item needs the right insurance and has exactly the wrong weight & dimensions.

It's pretty potato customer service that deserves negative feedback, but a "do not buy" goes a bit far IMHO.
 
ColourofFire said:
Reading that thread I'd say a "do not buy" is a bit harsh. Maybe more of a "consider this before buying here".

An order on Saturday evening that goes out on Tuesday isn't great, but far from unacceptable, especially as post weekend there can be a lot of orders to deal with and I can imagine they don't just want to yeet a 3000 dollar bass in a box real quick. A quick notification of the order status would be nice, but still, not really that big of a deal.

The refund process is slow as hell, and again, if they don't have time to get on the case immediately it would be nice to at least let you know they've received your email. 250 for shipping seems somewhat "adventurous", but I have no idea what shipping costs in the US, I know here prices can get into ridiculous territory pretty quickly if your item needs the right insurance and has exactly the wrong weight & dimensions.

It's pretty potato customer service that deserves negative feedback, but a "do not buy" goes a bit far IMHO.
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agreed on all points, a bit of an overreaction if you ask me.

of course the shipping sounds a bit off
 
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I've been ordering stuff weekly online since 2006 I'd say and before tyhat less frequently but still quite aq bit....basically I think I was an early online shopper who took to it right away. So in my experience the average "lead time" is 1 to 2 days then it ships and whatever transit time is listed is when it arrived. Some places have same day shipping if ordered before a certain time and dependant on M-F...

Now ff to the more modern era of say within the last five years with the increase of those USPS 9and mayb e others) personal shipping label creator thingy's and now many time if you order it will immediatly say shipped or "label created awaiting pick up" andf if it's the weekend then it still might not go till Tuesday, or at least show any movement till Tuesday.

BUT WAIT...with covid and suddenly all kinds of people who never hardly shopped online we now get a bit slower lead time and 1 year later there seems to be the excse still so shipping is still not generally as good as pre covid...then you add the USPS problems thanks to that DeJoy asshole....

Anyway i always make a npractice of checking 'shipping info faqs" when ordering from a new place.

Worst shipping experience I ever had was with a major company. it was Patagonia. I had been buying stuff from them since 1993 going back to snail mail orders. Well i ordered a pair of shorts I think it was (this was 2018 i think) and it said they were in stock...well 2 and then 3 days went buy so i emailed and got a reply back saying they were busier than usual due to the season or some bullshit. Then the next week came and still no 'shippoed email" so I called and had to listen to Jack Jahnmson bullshit music on hold for about ten minutes. I finally got on , told them i wasn't happy and that i was an old lon g tiome customer, etc all I got was some chick who said I'm sorry blah blah and an excuse of "we are trying to locate a pair because they are on back order"...I about lost it and I canceled my order and have never bought anything from them since. :mad:
 
I'd consider this story enough reason to avoid the company. $250 for shipping a bass, even twice, is more than a bit high. My family's main source of income is an Ebay business, so I'm familiar with the various shippers, current times and rates, and more importantly, the discounts sellers get from shipping companies, which are noticeable. For example, I made a Reverb sale yesterday, outside of our business. If I'd gone through Reverb shipping, even with their minor discount that they pass on, it would have cost me a bit over $15 at their lowest rate. I went through our business shipping account elsewhere and it cost me $8. That's a noticeable savings.

Also, 30 days to process a return is far too long, and there's no reason to go days without responding when a return time clock is ticking.
 
Alright so maybe I was too harsh. I'll amend it to say do not buy from Guitar Chimp if you don't enjoy having to send multiple e-mails to confirm receipt of payment, confirm shipment, get a return label, and wait a full month after sending your instrument back to get your refund minus $250 for shipping. And also to get an instrument described as an "8 out of 10" that's more like a 5 or 6.

Yes I got (most of) my money back (eventually - only after following up multiple times). So I guess they're better than a company that just takes your money and disappears. But it was the worst online experience I've had buying an instrument in a while and I thought you guys should know about it in case you see something there that you want. I'm not saying they're a scam and that they'll disappear with your money, but be prepared for the above issues.
 
smurfco said:
Alright so maybe I was too harsh. I'll amend it to say do not buy from Guitar Chimp if you don't enjoy having to send multiple e-mails to confirm receipt of payment, confirm shipment, get a return label, and wait a full month after sending your instrument back to get your refund minus $250 for shipping. And also to get an instrument described as an "8 out of 10" that's more like a 5 or 6.

Yes I got (most of) my money back (eventually - only after following up multiple times). So I guess they're better than a company that just takes your money and disappears. But it was the worst online experience I've had buying an instrument in a while and I thought you guys should know about it in case you see something there that you want. I'm not saying they're a scam and that they'll disappear with your money, but be prepared for the above issues.
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Is it the same Ric bass that's on reverb and their site now?
If so, why do you think it's a 5 or 6 out of 10?
 
smurfco said:
Alright so maybe I was too harsh. I'll amend it to say do not buy from Guitar Chimp if you don't enjoy having to send multiple e-mails to confirm receipt of payment, confirm shipment, get a return label, and wait a full month after sending your instrument back to get your refund minus $250 for shipping. And also to get an instrument described as an "8 out of 10" that's more like a 5 or 6.

Yes I got (most of) my money back (eventually - only after following up multiple times). So I guess they're better than a company that just takes your money and disappears. But it was the worst online experience I've had buying an instrument in a while and I thought you guys should know about it in case you see something there that you want. I'm not saying they're a scam and that they'll disappear with your money, but be prepared for the above issues.
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I totally wasn't trying to invalidate your experience. It's completely understandable that you don't want to deal with them ever again and it's good to share the experience. It's just that from having been on both sides of the fence, I know that sometimes in a small company fuckup cascades like this can happen. And while for instruments at that pricepoint, better service can be expected, I'd say your experience is more of a dark orange flag than a full red flag (with the obvious disclaimer that if this is structural, fuck them).

When I worked in a snowboarding/skateboarding shop with a webshop, we had one of those murphy's law moments... Dude ordered a snowboard, we ship the snowboard, somehow the post managed to completely destroy it. We sort it all out with the post, but the guy still wanted the board if possible rather than his money back. We contact the distributor, who still has it in stock, says he'll ship it over with another backorder that was coming our way. The board comes in a couple of days later, the dude in charge of the webshop puts it apart and emails the guy that it's going to ship the next day. Dude in charge of the webshop gets in a car accident driving home, isn't at work the next several days. The new guy who started a week earlier doesn't know anything about this case sees a snowboard standing around and instead of asking anyone, puts it with the rest of the delivery and brings it to the shop. We plonk it in the shop, and since the webshop dude told us he already set the one for the guy aside, think nothing of it, we already sold 5 of exactly that model and size, which with the volumes we were dealing with is huge, so if the boss ordered some extra, no surprise. We staved off disaster at the absolute last minute when my boss comes running in right as I've nearly sold the board because the dude sent an email a week later wondering where the hell his board is. From a customer POV, a very shit experience, and if he wasn't someone that shopped with us more often (and also came into the physical shop relatively frequently), would be wondering what a bunch of fuckup amateurs we are. No excuse for the total shit experience he had, but also doesn't mean the company structurally sucks.
 
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smurfco said:
Alright so maybe I was too harsh. I'll amend it to say do not buy from Guitar Chimp if you don't enjoy having to send multiple e-mails to confirm receipt of payment, confirm shipment, get a return label, and wait a full month after sending your instrument back to get your refund minus $250 for shipping. And also to get an instrument described as an "8 out of 10" that's more like a 5 or 6.

Yes I got (most of) my money back (eventually - only after following up multiple times). So I guess they're better than a company that just takes your money and disappears. But it was the worst online experience I've had buying an instrument in a while and I thought you guys should know about it in case you see something there that you want. I'm not saying they're a scam and that they'll disappear with your money, but be prepared for the above issues.
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$250 is a significant amount of money. I looked at their site, and there's nothing in the TOS or the refund policy that states that you're responsible for reimbursing the original "free" shipping when returning an item, and there's no way in hell it cost that much to ship it back.

I know this isn't my fight, but this kind of shit pisses me off.
 
Tralfaz said:
$250 is a significant amount of money. I looked at their site, and there's nothing in the TOS or the refund policy that states that you're responsible for reimbursing the original "free" shipping when returning an item, and there's no way in hell it cost that much to ship it back.

I know this isn't my fight, but this kind of shit pisses me off.
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Yeah, I don't know how the legislation is there. It seems really fucked up. It kind of warrants asking for a receipt of the shipping costs, but then again, I can imagine @smurfco just wants to be done with these guys. Here in the EU the seller is responsible for return shipping by law (which quite frankly has its own issues, as it's pretty brutal to have people order 3 sizes of something and send two back at the shop's expense...), but the original shipping is always untouched unless the product is not as advertised or faulty.
 
Lerxst said:
Is it the same Ric bass that's on reverb and their site now?
If so, why do you think it's a 5 or 6 out of 10?
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There's a significant amount of tail lift - like a 1/4" gap or so. A little bit of tail lift is normal on a Ric but this was a pretty big gap that isn't really disclosed in the photos. Finish wise it's also in worse shape than the photos let on, a lot more checking and wear. The rough spot on the back is even rougher in person.

It's all subjective of course as one man's 6 could be another man's 8 especially given the age of the bass. But I was pretty disappointed when I took it out of the box, especially about the tail lift.
 
I'm sorry for your bad experience. It's too bad a brick and mortar shop didn't have what you wanted. Spending 3k on a used item sight unseen is something I would be wary of.
 
xStonr said:
I'm sorry for your bad experience. It's too bad a brick and mortar shop didn't have what you wanted. Spending 3k on a used item sight unseen is something I would be wary of.
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The older 4003s5 basses don't come up very often, and that's a reasonable price for a used one these days, so I figured that with a decent return policy from a company with a large presence on Reverb and a professional looking site I would be OK. And I guess in the long term I was, sketchy $250 shipping and difficult communication aside.
 
yabba said:
I avoid doing business with all stringed instrument chimps!
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They never pay their balance owed.

monkey-play-guitar.jpg
 
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