DO NOT BUY ONLINE! When it comes to purchasing a valuable musical instrument, I strongly advise against buying online. Just don't do it! Instead, visit your local music store or seek recommendations from your teacher. As for my experience with Sharmusic, it was disappointing. The violin I received had a scratch/crack at the back, and one of the strings snapped during the initial tuning. It took an eternity for them to ship out the replacement. read more

About a month ago I ordered two violin mutes and an expensive cake of rosin. The package arrived after approximately one week. Upon opening it I tried to take the rosin out of its protective plastic box, to no avail. Could not open the box at all! I contacted Shar via email twice with no answer. I am stuck now with a piece of expensive rosin that I cannot use. I have not seen this kind of attitude from Shar in my long time professional career and it looks like I will take my business somewhere else. read more

Fifteen years you wait to contact me about a review? I haven't bought a thing from you in all that time, and don't plan to in the future. If it takes 15 years to reach out to me, you have to really work on your customer service! read more

Too expensiv. Ceo wants employees to work but doesn't allow them to speak even after excelling in production. Find cheaper instruments on Amazon and buy from a company that cares about the employees. read more

I have been purchasing from Shar Music since 2024, originally recommended by my child's violin teacher. Unfortunately, my experience has been consistently disappointing. Multiple shipments arrived with missing items, including a bow and accessory kits. I had to contact customer service several times to request refunds. In one case, I contacted them five separate times through live chat and email before the issue was addressed. The responses were inconsistent -- they would promise one thing but fail to follow through. I also noticed that low-rating reviews seem to be removed from their website, which is concerning. Additionally, the quality of one violin I purchased (1/8 size $460) was not satisfactory. The E string had a persistent noise issue. We replaced the string, but the problem remained. After bringing it to a local violin shop, we discovered the issue was due to a poorly designed bridge. We ultimately had to replace the bridge at our own expense. Overall, the instrument quality did not meet expectations. Based on my experience, I would recommend buyers carefully consider other options read more

Can't be all that good a place if they can't tip delivery drivers when they want food on the company's dime.

Worst service, don't buy from them, I made a mistake and they sent my order even they knew I requested the cancelation, so I lost my money

The worst company I have ever dealt with for any reason. Can't get a refund for the year of over charges after rental was returned by the school. can't give less than one star read more

Terrific customer service! I spoke with Kyndra, who was incredibly helpful, knowledgeable, and patient. She clarified a confusion with my order, resolved the issue, helped me place a new order, and assisted with starting a return for an item I ordered by mistake. read more

My order never shipped I ordered strings March 17th. Shar estimated delivery Thursday, Mar 21-Friday, Mar 22. I emailed to check on my order March 26 and was told they expedited my order. I finally canceled my order April 16th because my strings had Still not arrived. I ordered strings from Southwest Strings and they arrived 2 days later I recommend Southwest Strings. read more

I'm new to the cello and needed new strings. Shar was recommended to me by my cello teacher. I got expert help from the salesperson over the phone. Had a problem with one of the strings which they will be replacing. I also had help in selecting peg dope. What I was guided to and purchased worked perfectly! read more

I have been buying products from Shar since 1989. They are excellent. Buying strings from them is safe, because you won't have counterfeit strings. If you buy from Amazon, the packaging may look correct, but they might be counterfeit. Shipping is reasonable and their products are high quality. I highly recommend Shar! read more

I have never had an in-person experience with Shar music, because all I have ever done was order from them through their phone customer service. My daughter has played the viola for years and this is the 2nd time I've purchased an one from them. Their customer service has always been top notch! The first time I ordered one a very nice lady helped me on the phone and got me all set up and even gave me the option for a used instrument which was priced less than a the new one. We purchased the whole outfit with the bow & case. She outgrew her viola this year, so I needed to buy a new one. I called Shar and spoke to Philip. He was super helpful too and was great about a mishap with the shipping. If you are looking for a great deal on instruments, please connect with SHAR! I've never been to their physical showroom and not sure if things are different there, but their phone customer service was spectacular and we have always been happy with their instruments. My daughter hasn't yet grown into the largest viola, so we will definitely be ordering from them in the future. Thank you! read more

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I had a wonderful time there and the service was great, just a small problem was problem was how much the scores cost, but still it was in mint condition and I really loved their policy on how long you rent an instrument you can buy a instrument for cheaper!!! read more

I used to recommend Shar to all of my fellow musicians. I won't be using them anymore. I don't believe I should ever have to pay to return purchases to a company. read more

I see the low rating of this place. I completely agree with other reviewers. When the pandemic started, I was going to purchase a violin which cost over $10,000. I just asked a few questions about it, and this lady Susan Grobosky didn't want to answer me but wanted to discuss about the home trial blah blah so asked me to give her phone number and the time she could reach me. Because of my busy schedule, I told her I'd rather deal with emailing, plus I was not interested in the home trial, but to purchase outright. She still insisted to call me, so I gave her the google phone number so that I am not bothered at work. Then she left a voice message by laughing about me having the google phone, and insulted me whether I was financially secure enough to purchase this violin. Please note this lady is a "Senior Sales Representative." I officially complained about this rude lady to the company, then she told me that someone else is going to contact me regarding the violin. Did I hear from another sales rep? No. Did I hear from this company about this lady? The answer is, of course, NO. I did request the follow-up response. Surprised? I am not. There are many great music stores out there, so that nobody has to go through what I had to go through and the insult I experienced from her. read more

**INSTRUMENT RENTER BEWARE ** I would not recommend renting an instrument through this business. We rented a double bass for our daughter from Shar and eventually concluded our rental due to issues we were having with instrument and having to drive from Ferndale to Ann Arbor for service. We mutually ended the contract two months ago and yet continue to be billed every month. This morning my wife called the store after the transaction posted to our account. We were told that it would take at least 3-4 days for them return our funds as it will take that long to get the needed approvals and to process it through thier accounting department. read more

Use caution: We purchased instruments from Shar a number of years ago. These string instruments were quite expensive, but we decided to purchased them - with the understanding that Shar had a buy back program. This gave us confidence that if our daughter needed to sell them at a later date, she could count on Shar to stand by their policy and purchase the instruments from us, at what price they deemed fair. NOPE, today I was told - "you're on your own......we dont provide any such assistance" Apparently the sales associate lied to us to make the sale. Shame on you Shar. read more

For forty-something years, Shar Products has served the national music community by selling and repairing stringed instruments. Their catalog lists contemporary and fine instruments, instrument accessories, strings, sheet music, and music records/CD/DVDs. You can order any product by internet or mail. If you live close to the store, you can visit the shop and try out their instruments and talk to their experts. On a recent visit to Ann Arbor, I stopped by the store to try out some violins. I was surprised at the size of the store and the number of instruments they have on hand. Conveniently, they have several practice rooms where you can try out the instruments. They also sell instrument cases and bags. Again, the number and variety were considerable. As far as repairs go, Shar repaired my sister's cello a few years ago. The workmanship was excellent. The repairs were done on time. So overall, my sister was very satisfied. If you live locally to the store, Shar is a great place to check out instruments and supplies. The location is also convenient for quality repairs. If you live far away, Shar is a great source for strings, accessories, and sheet music. I have always been happy with the products I've bought from Shar and the service I've received. read more

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I am giving a 1 star rating because I cant give a zero. I ordered a violin for my son and was promised a 7 day delivery. I was so excited on the 7th day to recieve the violin. No violin was recieved instead an email stating their were none in stock. I placed roughly 10 phone calls to see what else could be done. Never spoke with a person. So 2 weeks after I ordered. I had no violin and no customer service. I canceled my order. read more

Oh my goodness. Some of these reviews are really awful... I didn't have a bad experience in fact I never have. I went there to buy a violin for my daughter and they were so awesome. We had so many problems... My daughter forgot her chin rest, Tuner, and rosin in the rental violin case. They found it almost immediately. We bought the wrong bow and he gave us the more expensive one for the same price. They were so understanding. read more

I think the main problem with Shar is that they are the only game in town in terms of classical music services. So their customer service suffers. There are a few folks who actually want to help you, but sometimes you feel like you are being tolerated by musicians who can't make it as professionals and so are inflicting their loss-of-talent-emotion on us lowly customers. Still they are the only game in town, so we have to endure it. Maybe someone out there can start an alternative that has a web service you can trust. That being said, you will find what you need there (and if not they will order it for you). Does anyone else feel that Shar needs a shot in the arm? read more

Shar's Strings Suck!! I purchased a set of cello strings by mail order from Shar and the strings were false. Shar is known for purchasing strings in large quantities so there is no telling how old the strings are that you will receive. Beware Shar's 30 day return policy. It is inflexible. They will do nothing for you except steal your money if you don't return the strings within that time frame regardless of when you actually put them on the instrument. I will never do business with Shar again and I advise that you do the same. A better bet is Southwest Strings. read more

In elementary school, we were required to play an instrument. I played the violin. I was okay at it. When we moved, I gave up on playing the violin, because I wanted to hang out with friends and be 'cool' or what have you. And since we moved, my violin fell apart. I wasn't too familiar with how violins worked, since I stopped caring at about the age of 12, but I began to miss making music on a stringed instrument. For my birthday, my boyfriend and I went here to see if I could get my violin fixed. We went and talked to get an estimate, and they explained everything that was wrong with the violin (yay neglect!) and went on further to explain things about the violin and violin making that I had never even thought about before. The man explaining things to us, did this without hesitation and it was a really great experience to be treated as a person instead of an idiot with a neglected broken violin. They indeed fixed my violin and I've been really happy with it. The result looked beautiful and it was done earlier than estimated. Overall the ambiance of the place is wonderful. I definitely recommend if you are in the Ann Arbor-Detroit area and are interested in learning, or even relearning, a stringed instrument. read more

I love SHAR! They have the most competitive (often lowest prices) on standard string materials, music, and accessories. Incredible selection of instruments in a wide range of prices. As a professional musician, I've had my instrument repaired here and was very satisfied with the repair work. Subscribe to their email list for additional discounts and pop-up emails regarding special sales! All of the negative reviews that I've seen on Yelp seem ridiculous and I would caution others to dismiss them. I've ordered with SHAR for the past 15 years with confidence. Their customer reps are friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. read more

I am a guitarist, and have been considering learning cello. I went to Shar and had a very good experience talking to the staff about my options, the prices I would pay for rental and purchas. The two people I spoke with were very happy to answer my questions, were willing to ask me questions to better relate to my experience and interests, and answered a couple of "dumb" questions I asked with aplomb and good vibes. The instruments I looked at were well constructed; one was a refurbished instrument that looked, not new, bu well-repaired and cared for. I felt that the environment was supportive, friendly, and I felt no pressure at all. When I am ready to start working with cello, I will definitely go back there. read more

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY!!! I tried to order a book of violin music from this company months and months ago. I got an email that it was back ordered so I bought it off Amazon and canceled my order (or so I thought). I have now attempted to cancel the order multiple times, both by email and by talking to a sales person and I am STILL getting emails about this backordered book that I don't even need and haven't in well over six months. It's one thing to be a smaller independent business that doesn't have the infrastructure of a larger online presence, but this incompetence is bordering on harassment read more

This business appears to be struggling. 1. They are quick to take your money but not so quick to issue a refund or a trade-in, or to even communicate with you. The Shar employee I work with has not yet confirmed, after 3+ weeks, if the violin I returned has been received (FedEx indicates that it has been received). I still don't know when I will get credit issued back. 2. How the employees coordinate among themselves is a mini-mystery as well. You speak to one and ask for a trials on bows, weeks pass, and there are no bows. You contact them, or they say they will contact you, and there are still no bows, weeks and weeks later. I would not trust a company with such poor out-going communication. Whatever is happening internally, is going to result in this business dying out. They invested in a website but that is just not sufficient when you need to maintain a relationship with your customers. Please, look elsewhere for your music needs. read more

I recent stepped into Shar Music's showroom during a visit to Michigan. I've been mail ordering from them since I was 10 years old. I can still remember when I was at Interlochen and they would take my phone orders, mail me the products, and THEN bill my parents' residence. No e-commerce in the 1980s. I hadn't been in the store since 1990 and it was a nice surprise. I live in Hawaii now (yeah, the sound of the world's smallest violin playing) and I miss having access to Shar Music where the salespeople could speak my language. I've purchased two violins, dozens of cakes of rosin (I drop them too much), a case, tons of strings, sheet music, and numerous accessories. After not playing for 20 years the chat feature was helpful in me choosing new strings that would survive the high humidity in Hawaii. I've always been satisfied with their service and will continue to use them. read more

I have been using Sharmusic for 5 years, since my friends recommended me. Even if the trade-in policy does not apply to switching instrument, it was good until I traded-in early 2017. Then, they evaluated 2.5 year old violin almost full price. After paying $50 fee, then we could upgrade with better quality violin. Now they said that the trade-in policy was updated. They evaluated the old violin only half. Probably, the policy (https://www.sharmusic.com/pages/services/trade-in-policy/) said that the depreciation fee may apply for the serious damage. But, they may apply even before inspection based on the age. If anyone consider the new violin purchase with trade-in in the future, they had better know that the policy changed between 2017 and now. It is not attractive any more. read more

This review is for the online store. I ordered a back ordered item that they charged me for even though there was no estimate for when or if it would be available. I contacted them by phone and email multiple times trying to cancel, but they will not refund my money. Internet scam. Do not use! Sheet Music Plus is much better. read more

I ordered a violin on a credit card, and the transaction was approved. I come to find 3 months later, they never actually ran the card and now want me to pay up after they said I did. These people them go on to say that the instrument must be I perfect condition to give back and I must pay a fee. This company is completely unprofessional and I highly recommend going elsewhere. They sold me a $200 violin and after getting it looked at by local shops; it isn't worth more than 125$. Rip off, con artists, and rude. Avoid buying from them online at any cost. read more

My daughter was in need of a new bow, I, unfortunately chose the wrong one online. While looking into returning it I found a trial program, so I signed up, picked a bow and waited. The kind representative called and asked if we wanted to try a few more bows and made some suggestions, told us it would make it more enjoyable for her. She was so excited to try them all. We ended up purchasing one of his suggestions and returning our original purchase. They credited our account for the return quickly and processed our purchase. I would recommend Shar as we have had nothing but good experiences. read more

Worst customer service! They won't respond....ever! I've been getting emails about a certain persons orders for years now and I've tried contacting these people and they won't help. Every time a lady orders from there I get her order information and shipping emails sent to my business email and this has been going on for years! I don't recommend this place, they don't take care of issues. read more

Awful administration! I ordered a music sheet with CD, they sent me a music sheet without CD. I called them, they told me to return it while they sent a replacement. They sent another music sheet WITHOUT CD. OK, so I thought they must not have one with CD. And I returned the music sheet, via fedex. 4 months later they emailed me saying that I owe them money for not returning the item. I gave them the fedex tracking number with proof that it has been delivered, back 4 months ago. Let's see if they the audacity to bill me again. read more

I'm sorry to leave a bad review since I'm from Ann Arbor and Shar has been my string shop for awhile. I placed an order for strings when they had a sale almost two months ago. The strings were backordered, but I didn't receive any notification about this and only found out about a month after ordering when I called to see where my strings were. They then informed me that the strings would be arriving at the end of the month and would get to me soon. When that didn't happen, I called again. The person basically told me that there is some disconnect between the supplier and Shar and that they don't send out notifications when items are backordered. Which seems inefficient and confusing to me. It became up to me to suggest solutions, so now I have half of the set of strings on the way, and the other half backordered. In short, it's messy and confusing and I still don't have a full set of strings. Shar has not been proactive in sorting it out, except when I call and suggest solutions. I am a professional musician, I need quality tools and I don't have time to be chasing them down. So I won't be relying on Shar in the future. Also, why have a string sale if you don't have the stock? read more

Eek !!!!! Working with Shar Music was an awful experience for me! I am a graduate of Interlochen and the SF Conservatory that is now a music teacher and mom of a child that wanted to start up cello. I made the mistake of believing that Shar music sent there instruments set up and had good customer service. The instrument I ordered didn't come to me in good condition given that I bought it new. The peg didn't work and the bridge was a mess. :( The customer service side of Shar has been the worst I have ever seen! And I have seen a lot. There is no way that I would ever recommend them to any of my parents at my school or local surrounding schools. Don't make the expensive mistake I made! read more

I've never had a bad experience with Shar. I've been ordering from them for almost 20 years, since my high school days. I even bought a bow from them one time - they shipped 5 or 6 of them to me, in my price range, in California, and I selected one. I guess they must have some kind of insurance to be sending out like $6,000-7,000 worth of bows at a time to people to try out. Their products are all high quality and I have never ordered any products that ended up being defective. The only thing I would criticize is their website. They have never had a good website...it's always been very bad in some way or another. If they can find a way to get the website overhauled, and the shopping cart in better working order, it would be good. read more

I am renting a cello from Shar for my wife. We received the cello and the bridge is not set up properly. I called and asked for a replacement and they sent a bridge blank and did not offer to cover the cost of a luthier setting the cello up all over again. Even though we had just received the cello. read more

Don't order anything from Shar Music. Never ever. If you read my story, you will understand why I want to say that. It is a long story. Please be patient. In Nov 2018, as recommended by my son's private music teacher (Later I found that the teacher has a special affiliation with the String Teacher program at Shar music company. If I knew that, I wouldn't order from this company and I would save a lot of troubles). We ordered the violin and bow from this company. We paid $1800 for violin and around $700 for bow. Violin so far has been working fine. The problem is with bow. I believe $700 bow should last a while. But in less than 3 months, the tip of bow fell off. We contacted the company and got replacement. Even this is for replacement, the company still sent me a bill to charge me $693. I had to call the company and the company apologized to me. Then in less than one month, the replacement bow developed the same issue. The music teacher has to write this down "This is the replacement bow for Timothy. He has had it even less time than the bow originally included with his violin package. The same defect, a broken tip is shown in the pictures below. Since Shar has the original bow, there's no question that this is the second time it has happened. Since Timothy is storing it in a safe place at home, it's difficult to understand why this has happened a second time." I have to contact the company again. I first talked to Customer service rep Kimberly, who said that she will ship the replacement to me soon. Usually this company will ship 4 bows to us and my son will pick one. I waited more than 1 week and haven't heard back from this company. I had to call them again. And I was told that Kimberly is not working at the company any more. So they don't follow up with this replacement plan. I couldn't believe that. When I look back right now, I can tell how disorganized this company it. Any way, after going back and forth, we got the replacement bow. What they sent to me in the replacement box is not the bows that we have picked online. I put something like this in my email: The package has arrived. We found that these 4 bows are not those 4 bows mentioned in previous Kimberly's email. But the company chose to not respond to this email. They just ignored my email. Instead the company sent me a bill of $3000, assuming I wouldn't return the bows. This is not my first time to deal with this issue. The company just doesn't trust customer. On their website, they claim that this company is run by a real musician. I don't see it at all. The thing turns more wield after. My son's music teacher found a job in school. So we found a new violin teacher for my son. On the first day (it is around 6 months after 2nd replacement), the new teacher told us the bow has a low quality. The tip fell off again, which shouldn't happy to $700 bow. The teacher was shocked to know that we paid $700 for this bow. I had to contact the company again and sent them the picture of bow tip falling off. They agreed to send the replacement bows to us again (the third time). It has taken a while and we found that the company also didn't send us the bows that we picked for replacement. That seems normal to this company. I packed the old bow that my son has been using for 6 months and shipped it back to the company. After a few days, someone(Angela as a director of sale) from the company sent me email and said that the old bow is not from their company. But the fact is we don't have the second bow. The bow is the one that the company sent to us as replacement and the one that my son has been using for a few months. I asked her to show me the evidence. She never got back to me or responded to my email. After 2 month, Susan from the company sent email to me and threatened to send the bill to outside collection service. I asked them to send me the evidence. This time they did. They claim that the bow is a bow of basic Chinese workshop origin. Chinese workshop? Really? Does the manufacture place matter? If you believe it has the low quality, why did your company send us the first time as the replacement? My son has used this one for a few months. I want to ask the company: If you believe your bow has the high quality, why the bow tip fell off again and again. And you never find out what happened. You sell the defected product to the customer, but blame customer for your fault. I asked the company to come up with some other plan. We definitely don't want to pay twice for bow. The company insisted to ask us to ship the bow back to the company or they will send the bill the collection agent. Without contacting me about the new plan, the company sent the bill to the collection agent. I was contacted by one guy from the collection. He is afraid to tell me the company's name and how he got my contact information. To be honest, I am really mad at Shar music, which is quite disorganized and disrespectful of customer. Music should be a beautiful thing. Musician sh read more