   Don't EVER Buy from Musician's Friend
  I bought a Pearl P122TW double bass pedal and some mandolin strings (first-time purchase) from very popular Musician's Friend online music store. My mom received the package from the FedEx guy while I was at work, and it had some major holes/tears in the box. When I got home, I checked it out. There are 2 springs on the right pedal attached to some screws. One of them was completely disconnected from the pedal, with the plastic and metal washers off in some corner of the box, totally disconnected. (There are 2 plastic and 2 metal washers for each spring, and a nut to keep it on the pedal. The nut of the detached spring and 1 of each kind of washer are completely NOT THERE.)And to top it off, my mandolin strings aren't in the order, either. I want to know where along the way someone poked some holes through, UNSCREWED the nut, and removed my mandolin strings.Conclusion: Very bad first impression to have on a customer. I hope none of you ever buy from Musician's Friend and have to face this nightmare. </angry rant>   
  Sounds like bad handling by the shipper.I buy from them frequently for my brother. He plays the drums.I've not had one problem with them for the last year that I bought things from them.   ;  I suppose that's a large possibility...I have trouble not reacting with anger when something like this happens. =P I spend like 175$! I deserve better! </emo>   ;  I just bought an expensive weighted stationary keyboard from Musician's Friend, and it's really, really nice. Musician's friend has great prices too, I found the same piano for a couple hundred more somewhere else. My piano teacher orders from them all the time and has never had a problem.What happened to you was probably a screw up with the shipping, which happens all the time. I can't count the amount of stuff I've had arrive battered because of FedEx.   ;  I have to agree that it's almost certainly shipping. I've used Musician's Friend with no problems. Have you tried contacting them for a refund? It's probable that they'll give you a full refund or send you a new set of gear. You just need to call them to get a Return Authorization and then send the stuff back.I would be VERY interested to know if they don't deal well with the problem. Please post back here after trying to get a refund and let us know how their customer service is!   ;  Well, I feel kinda rotten because it probably *wasn't* their fault. Except that there was NO padding in the box. Not even a few peanuts or anything. So I'm counting about 30% of the fault on Musician's Friend! ^_^   ;  No padding? I bought a couple sets of guitar strings from them a while back and they were floating in peanuts...   ;  Complain to the company and they'll give you a shipping insurance claim number.   ;  I also had a bad experience with Musicians Friend on my first order.  I ordered an amp head + half stack, but they sent me two cabinets and no head.  So I followed procedure to send back the wrong cab, with an order to replace it with the proper part.  I wait and wait.  Nothing ever comes.  Turns out they simply cancelled my order for some reason.  This whole ordeal took well over six weeks.  I was so fed up with having to keep calling them to get this straightened out that I demanded refund in full, including shipping, for which I had to call the president of the company to get.   ;  Do you know if the shipping was insured in any way?   