"I ordered a Furman gni light. It has been one full month and no light has been recieved. I find it difficult to get a reply to e-mails, none so far. When I call, they seem unconcerned.

I am beginning to wonder if they are a scam."

"My experience with InstrumentPro was the worst experience I've ever had in buying music equipment, and I buy an awful lot of music equipment on line, from large and small retailers alike. I have filed a complaint against Instrumentpro with the Better Business Bureau, and I will also be filling a complaint with the California State Attorney General. Yes, InstrumentPro’s customer service is really so bad that I am going to take the time to file a complaint with California’s Attorney General. No one should have to suffer through their nonsense. Incidentally, InstrumentPro received a grade of "F" from the Better Business Bureau.

InstrumentPro's website will not tell you if the product you are ordering is out of stock. My impression is that they don't actually stock much. They won't let you cancel an order by phone or e-mail, though. You have to use their web form, which doesn't seem to work when you try to submit your information. Whether the form works or not, no-one replies to your request. They also say that they need three days to respond to a cancelation request, so if the product ships from the manufacturer to InstrumentPro in the meantime, you are out of luck, because they won't let you cancel the purchase once the item is on its way to THEM (not on the way to you).

It is incredibly difficult to get in touch with InstrumentPro's customer support people. They often fail to answer the phone during their business hours, and they do not return telephone messages. They will only let one employee in the entire company can work with your order... no one else will give you the time of day. It's great when that one employee is never available, and doesn't return your messages. InstrumentPro does not respond to e-mails. I sent e-mails multiple times, to multiple e-mail addresses, but InstrumentPro almost never responded. They don't respond to requests sent via their web forms, either. Good stuff, I tell you. It took me numerous e-mails and telephone calls just to get a return authorization number. Actually, it took me numerous e-mails and telephone calls just to get a PROMISE that an RA number would arrive shortly. It didn't arrive shortly. It then took several more e-mails and phone calls to ACTUALLY get an RA number.

InstrumentPro's policies state that you will have to cover the original shipping cost if you return something that originally shipped for free. This is perfectly understandable. What they don't tell you is that they will charge you more for the outbound shipping than it cost them to ship the items -- I checked with FedEx. I estimate that they shortchanged me by about $20-30 between my two packages.

InstrumentPro's refund policy states that you will receive a refund within two weeks of your merchandise arriving back at their warehouse. It took me six weeks and numerous phone calls and e-mails to get an initial refund, and they still didn't get it right. At one point, I finally got in touch with someone and told them that it had been well over two weeks since my items arrived back at their warehouse, and they couldn't even find a record of it (thankfully I had a record of it!). After another call or two (or three) and some more e-mails -- I can't even remember how many e-mails I sent by that point -- I finally got in touch with someone again, and they said that, yes, they had indeed received my items, but they wouldn't issue the refunds until the items arrived back at the MANUFACTURURE. Strange that they didn't mention THAT in their refund policy, no?

In any case, six weeks after my items had arrived back at their warehouse, InstrumentPro finally issues my refunds... Sort of. I had returned two items, one of which I had paid for with PayPal. InstrumentPro sent me a PayPal payment instead of a PayPal refund for this item. Sending my a PayPal refund would have resulted in me getting the full and proper amount back -- less the shipping they ripped me off on, of course. Because they sent me a PayPal payment rather that issuing me a PayPal refund, however, I was charged a $25 PayPal fee. When I asked InstrumentPro about it, they said that you can only issue PayPal refunds for two months after the purchase date. They said I hadn't contacted them about the refund until after that. That was a bald-faced lie, of course, seeing as I had the tracking information from FedEx stating that they received the merchandise WELL before the two month limit was up.

In any case, while the customer service rep refused to acknowledge that InstrumentPro was shortchanging me, I finally convinced them to mail me a refund check once I refunded their PayPal payment. Great, right? Wrong. The rep had told me that it might be two weeks before I got the check, and I said that was fine. Two weeks went by. Then three. Somewhere around the forth week, I sent a number of additional e-mails and left at least one additional telephone message. I didn't receive any replies. After several attempts, I finally got the rep on the phone and told him I hadn't received the check. He told me that I should have. I told him that I knew I should have. He said he would have to check with his supervisor, and that his supervisor was not there. He said he would talk to him the first thing the next morning. Amazingly, he actually did. I called to verify that he had spoken to his supervisor about it, and he had. He said that the check had not been sent out for some reason but that it was in the process of being sent out. It arrived one week later (I guess they didn't want to put it in the mail TOO soon, huh?)

My returns arrived back at InstrumentPro on April 20th. I got the refund check for the second item on July 17th. So much for two weeks. Thanks, InstrumentPro!

Good luck if you try to buy anything from these guys. I suppose you might get lucky if they happen to have what you need in stock. They should really be shut down by the state of California, if you ask me.
"

"I wish I had read the reviews on this site before I made the mistake of ordering from them (more than once!). These jokers are the biggest bunch of wannabees since Newegg! Never ONCE did I ever receive a reply to any of the numerous emails I sent trying to 1)Find out where the hell an overdue order was, or 2)Determine the status of refunds due to their screwups. Unless you've got a great deal of patience and time to waste, and are feeling lucky, DO NOT ORDER FROM THESE ABSOLUTE MORONS! "

"After reading the reviews about this site I was unsure about ordering from them because of all of the negative press. However, they had a guitar that I wanted that no one else was selling. Also one of my friends ordered from them before with no snag. I called the company to verify stock on the guitar. I placed my order over the phone. The person I spoke to was nice and attentive. The next day I received tracking info and a few days later my new guitar was in my hands in great condition. Job well done...."

"I made this order through Underbid.com, ANOTHER company I will not do business with again, and the payment was submitted through Paypal, which I regard as pure poison due to past experiences with them, a fact that was made plain to me only after the transaction was complete.

Part of Instrumentpro's business model is to collect the money from the holder's account (or have Paypal do it for them) regardless of whether they actually have the item in stock. When I ordered the item, a speaker cabinet, through Underbid, they showed 5 available, however I received a notice from Instrumentpro 2 days after I placed the order that the item was on backorder until October. I immediately cancelled the order by submitting the form on their site, but after 2 MORE days I had not received an ackowledgement. I had to mount an email campaign to get some attention form them, which included demands via email to their customer service dept and a flurry of cancellation submissions through their online form. It got their attention, because I then received ackowledgement.

Long story short, I placed the order on 8/12, the cancellation on 8/14, received ackowledgement of the cancellation on 8/18 and notification that my card had been credited on 8/19, or a full week after I placed the order...a week in which I had no idea what the status of my money was.

This is not acceptable to me. I will do business from now on only with vendors that do not charge the card until the item ships, and who let you know up front whether or not they actually have the item in stock, rather than waiting until the order is placed and the card charged to let you know if its on backorder. I will give my business to Music123, Zzounds or Sweetwater, or Carvin, all of whom give excellent customer service and don't take your money until the item is SHIPPED!.

I will NEVER AGAIN order through Instrumentpro, Underbid or any other reseller without first checking out their reviews (something I should have done in the first place). It's worth the 20 or 30 bucks I would have saved just to know that my order will be handled professionally and that my money will not line someone's account until the backorder is filled."

"I had a very negative experience dealing with InstrumentPro.com. I ordered a coiled headphone cable for a set of AKG headphones. I received an automated e-mail with an order number, but found no way to track the status of my order. Requests for status updates went unanswered. Worse yet, the wrong part was shipped to me (I received a straight cable when I ordered a coiled one). I sent one request through the online form for service. I followed up a couple days later by calling their automated voicemail system. I was forced to leave a message and never got to talk to an actual person. After 2.5 business days of not getting a reply to my voicemail, I pursued a chargeback through my credit card company. One week after the chargeback was resolved, I received a voicemail asking me to return the cable. I replied later that day with a voicemail asking for directions and a return shipping label and 3 days have now passed since I made that request.

My takeaway here is that customer service is not at all timely at InstrumentPro.com. I understand that sometimes the wrong product is shipped (especially from a drop-shipper), but the long waits between service communications are unacceptable. My local guitar center ordered the right cable for me and had it in my hands within 2 weeks."

"I have never been treated so poorly by an on-line merchant. Pay extra at any other on-line merchant before subjecting yourself to this company. The money you "save" will never be worth the pain you endure when you have to sort out an issue (due to their poor website)and worst service."

"Hello,

To whom this may concern, do not order from this company!!! Here is a list of issues that I experienced with Instrumentpro.com...

My order was placed online (rather than over the phone, which is an option), they swapped the billing and shipping addresses (which were different, because I was purchasing a gift). This can be proven because I have a copy of the original invoice. As a result the order was not fulfilled, but my credit card was billed. To be clear, I was not notified that there was an issue with the order (e.g. address mixup), in fact, they didn’t even know it was wrong…but at least they had my money, right?

While I was talking to them about this, they acted like it was my fault, e.g. “…are you sure that you used the right address?”…talk about aggravating. Furthermore, the supplier (Audio Technica) for this product was closed, so the supply could not be ordered. Their response: call back the following day so that the order could be placed…again, WTF?!

The next day my order gets placed. A few days later I ask for a tracking number...and I'm told that the item is on back order and that I should expect the item in 3 weeks (a month after my initial order).

WHAT THE HELL, WHY WASN'T I WARNED OF THE ITEM BEING ON BACKORDER?!

I am currently in the process of getting my order returned. Waiting 3 weeks for something that I can order elsewhere for $30 more is unacceptable. Hopefully this helps someone…"

"Ordered a Fender amp on 1/8. Arrived on 1/18. Tubes were rolling around loose and one was broken. Couple of other parts were loose inside amp. Filled out online return form same day. No contacts from IP for the next week.Tried to talk to someone in returns dept and received excuses why I couldn’t speak to anyone (they are in the warehouse helping ship, gone for the day, etc.) Finally, in desperation I called Mike Lee, referred to in an earlier review. He tried to help and got a FedEx guy to come pick it up on 1/26. It is now 1/31 and it is still at the local FedEx facility. I asked for a refund so I could end the nightmare and go to a local store. They said if I wanted a refund I would have to pay shipping on the busted amp.

FedEx estimated delivery date is 2/5 on the returned amp. God knows how long it will take to ship the replacement out after they receive it. My first really bad experience buying online. To be continued…
"

"Worst service I've ever had shopping period. Purchased a set of headphones and waited and waited. It was the holidays so I cut them a break. After a month I called and was told my item had been discontinued and I should buy a more expensive model (it wasn't even available when I ordered it!). I voiced they ought to just send me the replacement model ($5 more) to make up for their bad service and my wasted time and effor so as to possibly keep a customer. Answer was, we don't do that because we would lose money. I asked for a refund which three weeks later still hasn't been credited to my card. Awful company!"

"Horrible customer service. Charged my credit card a week before shipping. Everyday I was promised that the product will ship out that day, but it did not happen for 8 days. It was supposed to be a gift and reached too late, so had to return. I also thought the electric guitar I had ordered was defective, which the company claimed wasn't the case, yet they mentioned none of this when I submitted my description for reason of return. They processed my return satisfactorily but I lost one third of my money on shipping back and forth. Many other mistakes before this transaction was over which took about a month's time. I never intend to deal with them again."

"Horrible customer service, ordered canceled without any reason, pricing on website is misleading in order to lure you. Will never buy from them ever again."

"...incredibly friendly contact, Michael (ext#2940) very knowledgeble, tactful and pleasant - order smooth, BEST PRICE on Web plus extras for free.....My Tyros2 on its way to Florida - all information (few mails from Mike and company) provided daily....now waiting for delivery...visa not yet charged...ALL together excelent (of course so far)...would HIGHLY recommend that not much publicized music store....Christopher from Beverly Hills,Florida"

"Very poor attention and customer service after the order was made. I ordered a bass guitar as a gift for Christmas on 12/9 and received confirmation the order was shipped on 12/11. The item was not received the week before Christmas and I called several timex for an update and had to leave a messgae for follow up. Also emailed 3 different times. I never received a response to any of my inquiries and the item never arrived. The company has just now reversed the charge, but not after I filed a dispute with Paypal... and I had to run around Christmas Eve to find the same guitar and pay $40.00 additional. I do not recommend doing business with this merchant."

"This is the worst music store I ever dealt with. Ordered a short-scale bass and my credit card was immediately charged, but the delivery date came and went but nothing was delivered. Left voicemail and emails asking for an update but there were no replies. I finally reached someone live and they informed me that the model was discontinued. Argh!!!! Two weeks had elapsed by this time and I had one devastated child without the Christmas gift he wanted. Never again will I order from this store!!!!"