I bought two Hohner S32 melodicas from AMS. The ordering process is quick and easy, they e-mail you an order confirmation then provide a tracking number once your items have shipped.
I think I ordered over the weekend and they shipped it on Monday, had it at my doorstep at the end of the week.
Well one of the melodicas broke the day I received it, there's a button that opens up a vent to release any moisture, and it's held into place by a tiny tab that's maybe 1/16" thick and made of plastic when it should be metal. The plastic tab cracked right at its joint so the button now sits loose and the vent is always open making it either very difficult to produce sound on some keys, or impossible on others. Not AMS's fault, just a cheap product by Hohner, it's something very minute, but enough to ruin the entire instrument. I suspect the only reason the other one hasn't broken yet is because I gave it to my little sister and never explained the moisture vent to her. So anyways, I filled out the RMA form and got a response back saying there was nothing they could do about it, and was given the phone number to Hohner.
I was aware when I placed the order that "returns" weren't allowed, but I had no idea that included exchanges. If you walk into any store and go to the customer service desk they'll ask you, do you want to return or exchange? It's pretty well established that return means refund and exchange means exchange, but apparently to AMS non-returnable means they never want to see it again.
I glanced at the list of exclusions in their return policy and saw that "Personal use items that are used in the mouth or in the ear cannot be returned once opened due to health laws." Again, the word return is used so I assume that means no refunds, which I can understand because you can't sell something that's already been in somebody's mouth. But I can't understand why a broken item can't be replaced with a new one regardless of whether somebody has put their mouth on it or not.
So I e-mail them again confused asking whether to them returns and exchanges are the same thing, and I went back and read through the entire exclusion list and found this: "Certain items must be exchanged directly through the manufacturer if they are found to be defective. This includes tubes, strings, pickups, replacement speakers, raw speakers, drum heads, drumsticks, cymbals, cowbells, and harmonicas."
So I guess technically it's my fault for not reading through every word of the policy, I suppose they expect all their customers to read it before placing any order. I just dropped it and went to Hohner, who I still haven't heard back from by the way, and I don't blame them cause if every manufacturer had to deal with each individual user that had a problem with a product, rather than dealing with it in bulk through retailers (which is how probably every business other than AMS operates), it'd be chaos.
Some time later a package arrived at my doorstep when I hadn't ordered anything, checked the label and it was from AMS, and inside was a brand new S32. I stopped checking my e-mail after I just assumed they weren't going to help me out any, so the new melodica arrived without me even knowing it was on the way.
The last e-mail I received said something along the lines of, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to put my mouth on something somebody else has already used, and to answer your question, I wouldn't want to either, but why would you have to? Do you need to double check whether an item stated as non working really is? What would be the point of going through the trouble to pay for shipping and return an item that works perfectly fine for an identical one?
Well, all said and done I thank the folks at AMS for circumventing their return policy and replacing my broken item with a new one. A previous reviewer called AMS the Newegg of musical supplies. Well in my experience Newegg has a completely hassle free RMA service, and if an item is only warranted directly through the manufacturer, they clearly state it in the item description and don't make the customer jump through hoops or read a wordy return policy to find that out. They'd still replace it either way if you simply asked though.
I wouldn't hesitate to order from AMS again, but I would hesitate to order certain items from them. I think it'd do them a lot of good to do a little updating to some of their descriptions rather than slapping everything together into one long list and adding a small hyperlink.
