I would give zero stars to this establishment if I could. I am a Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra…read morealumnae ('05) who used to rehearse in the same historic Fine Arts Bldg (where this shop is located) every Sunday. As a high school student, I used to perform in violin competitions in the Midwest but was about to graduate from medical school and start residency in California. In need of money to repay loans, I placed my Carl Becker violin and Fetique bow on consignment in April 2019 with Bein & Fushi. The pandemic hit tail-end of 2019/early 2020 and the shop closed for at least one year. The original consignment contract I signed was for 6 months. Communication (even remotely) with the owner of Bein and Fushi (Gabriel) and his staff was nonexistent throughout the pandemic. I constantly called and left e-mails and voicemails in the hopes of getting an update. The violin was finally sold in October 2021, but the payment took several months to come through.
Even as a busy physician (just having completed residency in 2022 and having returned to Chicago from California), I physically visited the shop on Michigan Avenue in April '24 in the hopes of forcing an update regarding the status of my bow, which has remained on consignment since April 2019 (mind you, 5+ years later). The front desk (Trista) promised to send a hard copy of a new 6-month contract signed by Gabriel (owner), which never materialized. She mentioned nonchalantly that there's a "surplus of inventory in the area after the Pandemic," which still failed to address the incommunicado issue. After I called several times 3 months later asking what happened to the agreement, an electronic copy was sent to me containing the wrong mailing address. Trista condescendingly told me, "Everyone is busy," when I picked up her phone call at 5 PM while I was in between seeing patients at the hospital and mentioned I was preoccupied. She subsequently hung up on me when I asked why USPS tracking was not done for an official document, after saying, "Why don't you ask the post office?"
I have never been disrespected or ignored to this degree by an organization that would be profiting from the sale of an instrument I placed in their possession. They have proven to be lackadaisical, disrespectful, woefully unprofessional, and arrogant, needless to say, incompetent. The overarching attitude from this organization has been one of condescension - "my time is more important than yours," "customers come to us, we don't need to advertise," "the name speaks for itself," etc. Only after I was finally done with them - after the psychological stress they had caused spanning 5+ years - and decided to pick up my bow and take it elsewhere did I receive a half-genuine apology, "We don't like to lose anyone's business."
I highly advise taking your business (whether consignment or purchasing a stringed instrument) elsewhere. In the same building, there are at least two other premium fine stringed instrument shops: William Harris and Lee on the 5th floor and Carl Becker & Son on the 4th floor. They will respond to your e-mails and phone calls. William Harris & Lee also have a shop in Wilmette if you live in the NW suburbs.
I am currently looking for a lower-range violin as I've decided to pick it up again as a hobby. Bein and Fushi will never be getting my business again, even for a bow rehair or purchase of accessories (rosin, strings, etc.)
If you have millions of dollars in the bank to spare or are "VIP" in some shape or form (a Rockefeller, Kennedy, Hilary Hahn, Itzhak Perlman, etc.) you may get an iota of respect and common courtesy from Bein and Fushi, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Never again.
