Can you give zero stars? We entered into an instrument rental contract with Bert Murdock Music for a clarinet. I purchased the replacement insurance, as well. We live very remotely and I did not want a hassle, if we needed to trade for a new instrument.
I noticed when we got home that the two hinges on the case had part of the hinge broken but the case still worked and we live far away from the store.
After about 10 months, I changed the rental agreement to a purchasing agreement, as I could see they were offering no interest contracts and my daughter loved playing. I made 3 or 4 payments after that toward the purchase in addition to the 10 rental payments.
One day when my daughter was taking the instrument apart, the end just snapped off. She was devastated and in tears. She loved her clarinet.
I took the instrument into Bert Murdock myself . . . 120 miles from my house for replacement or repair. I was told the instrument was not reparable and that they weren't sure if it was my daughter's fault or not and so they didn't know if the replacement agreement would apply. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING, I thought.
They examined it and told us they would give us 200.00 toward the purchase of a new clarinet. I had paid about 350 already. The old one was going to be paid off in 8 months.
I told them that this was not enough and asked what it would take to get out of the contract. I was informed that I would have to pay 50% of the value of the broken case. The rest of the plastic on the one hinge had broken since we had taken it home. It was a cheap plastic case. The manager valued the cheap, old plastic case at $90.00. I paid the $45.00 just to avoid further loses and contention and to get out of business with someone who didn't seem to want to really help us without making a LOT of money.
We purchased a much better clarinet with a solid, almost mint case off of ebay for 100.00 including shipping. My daughter has been playing the new one for 7-8 months without trouble.
At first, she told me that she didn't like the new one cause the spit ran down her leg like all the other people in her band. We realized the spit had been seeping through the crack of the other clarinet onto the clarinet itself. it had been cracked from the moment we rented it. They should have given us our money back or applied a lot more money to the new one. We should not have been required to pay anything for the broken case. We will not do business with Bert Murdock again, although I suspect that the manager who waited on us could have been the problem in Orem. I wish I could remember his name.
Ebay is GREAT!!!!!
more