BOTCHED INSTRUMENT REPAIR, refuses to refund our money for their tech's mistakes.\r
WARNING: Stay away from this store, especially for non-guitar needs and instrument repair!\r
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Our son's clarinet needed a complete cleaning, recorking, and all new pads, plus a new case. We spent over $200 when all was said and done. But when they were finished with the instrument, it was unplayable. Its faultiness was confirmed by my son's clarinet teacher.\r
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After they repeatedly refused to acknowledge there was anything wrong with the clarinet, we took it to another shop over an hour away from them for a second opinion. Thinking a minor adjustment would be needed, the second shop said they'd never seen anything like it. Excessive glue and pads that were not seated properly caused the clarinet to leak air, resulting in difficult sound production. It would take $250 just to make the clarinet playable again! I was shocked that The Music Place did such shoddy work.\r
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To sum it up, they became very unprofessional on the phone, refused to speak with the other tech regarding his findings, implied that I fabricated the whole thing, and accused our teacher of being inexperienced and not knowing anything. They REFUSE TO REFUND MY MONEY and therefore my son is left without a functioning clarinet.\r
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They repeatedly emphasized how their ""expert"" has been doing this for 20 years, as if even ""experts"" cannot make mistakes from time to time. Allegedly this tech does repairs for band instruments in a nearby school district, and I can only wonder if TMP is getting a cut of the proceeds, therefore does not want to alienate their tech. Otherwise, I cannot think of a single reason why you wouldn't want to hang onto an otherwise content customer who has other instruments she needs to purchase! Really, this was $150, not enough to make it worthwhile angering a good customer.\r
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I cannot emphasize to you enough how unprofessional they were (here I refer to Ken, the manager). I have never, ever been treated like this by ANY business, EVER. Again, he seems friendly and nice, but when something isn't right, he'll throw you to the wolves. TMP does NOT stand by their work. The other music shop was shocked that satisfaction wasn't guaranteed, as apparently it is standard with music shops that their work is guaranteed.
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