My recent experience with Music Direct - online vendor

Hello all ---

Just wondering if anyone has an recent experience with ordering audio equipment hardware from online vendor Music Direct. I have bought a few items from them in the past - mostly vinyl records.

My baseline for great customer service has been Crutchfield. I would give them an A+. If they say something will ship on x day... then it ships on x day. Their website is top notch.... returns are super easy.... but they don't sell everything..... so after a bunch of research I decided to go with a Musical Fidelity integrated amp to pair with my Monitor Audio Silver 300 speakers.

I found the amp that I wanted on Music Direct.... great, I have bought from them before ... I would prefer to buy locally but, for whatever reason, no one sells this amp locally....

Maybe I am just being way too impatient as my baseline has been set with Crutchfield.... and Amazon as well.

Tuesday
- The Music Direct website said unit was in stock and would ship on Tuesday...
- I ordered the unit at approx. 9am ET Tuesday and fully expected the unit to ship (per their website)
- I got a call at 10am asking to confirm my address since I was "a new customer" (their website has my order history clearly listed and I am definitely not a new customer...)
- They said the unit "should" ship later that day after I confirmed my address

Wednesday
- My order still listed as "unshipped" on their website (after I login and look at my order history)
- I called their 800 number & sales guy said "I am not in the shipping department and can't say when it will ship"

Today/Thursday
- Two days later my order is still listed as "unshipped"
- I checked other online audio vendor sites and then unit is listed as backordered until July
- Annoyed and debating if I should just call back and cancel my order..... something just doeesn't feel right
- Their website now lists the MF unit as "out of stock".....

Thoughts......

 

they are usually very good. have patience. these are unusual and difficult times for suppliers and dealers and i have recently experienced out of character delays with other dealers. give them a call if you have concerns.

 

There are a lot of supply chain issues right now caused by the pandemic. Chips in particular which probably trickle down to things like consumer electronics. It's got to be very difficult for these companies right now to manage their stocks and maybe things are going on back order indefinitely. I don't think anything shady is going on if that's what you are worried about. There are very big supply shocks in certain areas of the economy.

 

Don't question 10s of thousands of years of human evolution. If you smell a rat, there's a rat. I'm almost always bitten in the ass when I go against my own gut. i like you have purchased vinyl from them without issues at all. Shipped fast, packed well, great communication. I wouldn't hesitate to order hardware from them until I read your thread.

 

? he ordered two days ago.

Music Direct is a very reputable company. Supply chains and labor are both in a bind right now. A little leeway would be nice.

 

I've found them to be very good at shipping, packing and overall customer service.
I've purchased both vinyl and hardware from them in the past.

Sounds like in your case the item wasn't listed correctly on their site.
It sucks, but it happens.

 

As others have said, in general I've had great luck with Music Direct.

Still, they are a retailer. I was one for thirty years. Sometimes my inventory said I had something in stock and I didn't. Other times I'd find a piece in the back room that I thought I was out of and there it was.

@Augie05, just go buy it from somebody else. I don't see how complaining here gets you anywhere. It certainly won't get you an amplifier.

 

Due to all of the problems with shipping aver the past two months, I stopped buying critical or big ticket items online.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Leaning towards cancelling my order tomorrow if status stays at "unshipped".

 

just call them again today

 

Panic seems warranted. Maybe a lawsuit.

 

I just used them for the first time a couple weeks ago as I usually use acousticsounds, amazon, etc... Ordered a VPI record cleaning machine and a Audio Intelligent cleaning bundle. No issues, packed good and showed up quick which I kinda expected since I'm in Chicago as well.

 

To be honest I would steer clear of music-direct. I think they're reputable in the sense that they won't steal from you and the merchandise is authentic. They can be really snotty over the phone. I have placed orders on several occasions that just sat in limbo for months until I finally called to cancel. I had to return one record because it was obviously opened and used. It was one of those records with a resealable glue strip and the record looked VG+ at best with marks all over it. When I was shopping for a turntable I returned several things to them. Certainly nothing fraudulent or out of control. These were returns due to manufacturing defects, I didn't like it etc. Returned back to them promptly in like new condition. Then a few months ago I preordered a few records and when I went back to check my order status it was cancelled. I wasted some time on the phone with them and it turns out they will no longer sell to me because I returned too many things. They did not even bother to notify me about this. I just purchased all the records somewhere else. Why would I even care. The reason I checked the order status to begin with was because Amazon had it for a couple of dollars less and I thought I would get it sooner through them.

 

Has anybody noticed the new pricing for Mobile Fidelity vinyl releases? Single lps are now $39.99 and the 45 rpm 2 lp sets are now $59.99
Right up there with Acoustic Sounds although A.S. gave a heads-up 2 weeks ago that prices were going to increase. Mo-Fi just slapped increases across the board..... or did I miss the announcement?
I'm almost willing to bet that Mo-Fi repressings are going to be back in stock real soon now with the $5 and $10 increases.

 

They know people will keep on buying them...