I almost hate to tank their thin yelp profile with this review because they've done so many outstanding things, but all the present shortcomings need to be addressed.
A few years ago this was an outstanding operation: a family business offering services far beyond what other online instrument retailers were offering, but I've had a string of bad experiences with them recently.
Firstly, three issues with two shipments in two weeks:
1) The first shipment was delayed three days and I wasn't notified until the day it shipped that some of the items had been out of stock. Fine. Not fine, but fine.
2) The second order was delayed for ten days (at least. It's currently Day 10 and it still hasn't shipped). I didn't hear anything from them until I asked them on day eight why the order status was still "pending", just thinking they didn't update the tracking information. They tell me they've been moving to another warehouse and all orders for the week had been postponed.
Why wasn't I and assumedly anyone else notified of this from the beginning? I wouldn't have minded at all. But they need to be forthcoming about predictable service failures like this one or stocking issues so their customers aren't left hanging and with the onus of badgering them for details or a time frame. Just have a banner during checkout: "Hey, Fiddlershop is currently reorganizing to better suit customer demand in the future. We apologize but orders made in the next week are going to be a little late while we complete the transition. Thanks for sticking with us." This would have been a five-star review had I been told that from the beginning. If something is back ordered, it shouldn't be a surprise when it gets sent out the day I'm expecting it on my doorstep.
3) In this same order I bought a violin, thinking it was the one from one of their videos claiming you can add that exact instrument to your cart. Because even instruments of the same model sound different, and I loved that they appreciated this and was astonished Pierre had taken the time to make all those videos for their entire inventory. And I had found one I really liked; definitely different from the mean of the group. Don't know if it was the setup, microphones, the day's humidity, or the tree they cut it from, but it was a sweet sound. So I emailed them (this is day 1) just making sure the link in the video had placed that specific violin in my cart, and they told me they don't offer the service anymore and that fiddle had already been sold.
It's understandable they stopped doing this once demand and volume reached a certain point, but take the videos down so no one's disappointed. Granted, they'll still choose an instrument based on the customer's preferences and even make a side-by-side comparison of different instruments if requested, which is certainly admirable and definitely more than you get from Musiciansfriend or Guitar Center, but this isn't stated anywhere on the site.
What really irritates me though, is they knew over the days I was talking to them about this selection issue that my order was going to be late and they didn't say a thing.
So for all their countenance of being customer-oriented and putting in extra effort to make sure the customers are included in the process and taken care of, I've felt excluded and blindsided at every turn. Even in the emails I've sensed a lack of accountability and genuine acknowledgement that they've made mistakes. In three emails, I've gotten four separate "apologies" for inconvenience, confusion, frustration, and delays; but these were all phrased like explanations. Like no one on that end is actually thinking "Wow, we screwed up or should change how we do this so it doesn't happen again." More like: "Apologies for any sort of delay that our not shipping your items may have caused, but it's because we haven't been shipping items this week. You understand."
And I give them ample credit for partnering with GCV to make their own violins and making them available for a great price for the quality of sound they offer, but it feels like the owners weren't prepared for the boon of having a monopoly over arguably the finest products in their price range. I might be wrong, but it seems like the infrastructure just isn't there yet, and they're not doing enough to compensate for this. Despite still offering some excellent services, they're falling short on the basic precepts of the buyer-seller arrangement and misleading simply through negligence about what services they do offer.
I may have just caught them during a clumsy gear shift, and I hope they recover because I do have a soft spot for them (I got my first violin here and learned my first lessons from Pierre's free videos, and their branded products really are remarkable for what they cost), but at this moment I wouldn't buy from them again, at least for some time. Sorry Fiddlerfamily, I wish you all the best. read more