MusiciansFriend screw-up
OK - I’m basically an honest guy (despite what any of you think).
I once found $120 in the street around Christmas, and I took it to the police.
Everyone said I was nuts for doing that, but I ended up getting the money in the end because no-one claimed it.
So, this is the 2nd time this has happened.
I ordered some stuff from MusiciansFriend & one item was backordered.
When they finally sent the item, instead of a $19.99 One-Spot adapter, they sent me a $169.99 Audio-Technica U853R Cardiod Condenser mic.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the box.
Now I know the “honest” thing to do is to return the item, and normally I would but this clearly is their screw-up (and I hate to reward idiots).
Now I really don’t care about the mic but I did decide to try it out & it doesn’t sound as good as my Rode NT-1000.
Part of me says - why should I bother to return it?
The other time this happened they sent me a Fog Machine out of the blue (I didn’t even have anything backordered).
I didn’t return that item either but I did give it to one of my son’s teachers for her class room.
So what would you do do and why?
That’s why it’s called MUSICIANS FRIEND.
The same thing happened to me years ago -
I ordered a bottom of the line 4 track recorder,
and they sent me a FOSTEX XR-7 which I still
use to this day.
I ordered 4 mic stands (mini-booms for my drums)
They sent me 8 - 7 mini-booms and one full sized stand and boom combo
I ordered 2 scratch and dent mics with shock mounts
They were not back ordered at the time but 3 shock mounts showed up but no mics in the box
When I called they said the mics were back ordered
They didn’t think they were getting any more so I canceled
They sent a nice vocal pop screen I didn’t order - boxes separately and shipped on a different day
It was free gift that was to be included with a mic I didn’t order
After talking to them I was told to keep everything I didn’t order. They were, at the time, moving into a new warehouse in KC.
All of that was from one large order that also included 4 crash cymbals. They didn’t screw up the cymbals fortunately.
Yes, they were a very good friend to this musician.
I did call and let them know the order was messed up and they are the ones that told me to keep everything. I suppose they can write most of it off as business losses or something.
Of course, your mileage may vary. They are fully moved now, so they may not be as eager to please.
You know what to do. Call them. It’s not that big of a deal, really, it’s beans to them, but you don’t want to think of yourself as someone who takes advantage of someone else like that. That’s my thought, anyway.
…and after you’ve called them, I’ll give you $19.99 for the mic 
Quote: (TomS @ Oct. 02 2007, 9:13 PM)
You know what to do. Call them. It's not that big of a deal, really, it's beans to them, but you don't want to think of yourself as someone who takes advantage of someone else like that. That's my thought, anyway.
Yeah, I agree. How ever you try to rationalise it you have something that you didn't pay for. The honourable thing to do is to tell them. If they want it back then it's fair enough that it's at their expense and your convenience. It's probably not worth it for them but at least you have a clear conscience.
Eyup!
Of course, the honest thing to do is inform them that they have sent you something you didn’t order. 
I don’t know about the States Mike, but in the UK if this happens the procedure is to inform the company in writing and give them a “reasonable” time to collect the goods, at their expense. If they don’t then they are yours. The company is deemed to have “abandoned” the goods.
It has only happened to me once. I received a book I didn’t order, so I wrote and told them I would keep it safe for a fortnight. They wrote back and asked me to pack it up and post it back to them, so I wrote back and reminded them that shipping was at their expense.
I heard no more.
Can you persuade Musicians Friend to open a branch in the UK? 
Steve
Quote: (Beefy Steve @ Oct. 03 2007, 10:55 AM)
Can you persuade Musicians Friend to open a branch in the UK?
Yes please..... with US prices and "delivery" policy too
Quote: (Beefy Steve @ Oct. 03 2007, 10:55 AM)
Save the cheerleader, save the world.
Well they've done that haven't they? What next?
Personally I think that Dr Who has turned up to give Hiro a lesson in time travel. All we need now is Rose Tyler and my joy will be complete... :-)
Thanks guys - the opinions expressed here are interesting.
I don’t feel any obligation whatsoever to contact MF, and no, I don’t necessarily feel that is the “right” thing to do which is why I made this post.
There’s an old saying “Let the buyer beware”, so here the burden is most always on the buyer.
As a consequence of this philosophy, if the seller screws up then too bad.
Now it would be different if it were a local shop or someone I knew.
However, I will think about it and maybe call them, but I am not going to hassle with this item at all.
You guys in the UK - use eBay.
PS - I’m a big Dr Who fan and Rose Tyler is indeed a winner but I thought she was supposed to be gone now, replaced by an African actress? Rose is on every week over here.
I think we just gave Musicians Friend about
$50 grand worth of advertising here. -
Maybe they should send us all Reason 4 or something.
But seriously, if they make a mistake in my favor,
then I am inclined to give them my business. Not out
of expectation that they’ll screw up in my favor,
because I believe that they sent something (better)
possibly because they did not have the exact item I
ordered in stock - and rather than have me wait 6 weeks
for the item - they just said 'We’ll send him this’
He’s happy(ier)- and we’ll reap what we sow.
Smart marketing 301
Quote: (MidnightToker @ Oct. 03 2007, 7:10 AM)
I don't feel any obligation whatsoever to contact MF, and no, I don't necessarily feel that is the "right" thing to do which is why I made this post.
There's an old saying "Let the buyer beware", so here the burden is most always on the buyer.
As a consequence of this philosophy, if the seller screws up then too bad.
Now it would be different if it were a local shop or someone I knew.
However, I will think about it and maybe call them, but I am not going to hassle with this item at all.
Now, that's a specious argument if I've ever heard one, Mike.
Aside from the fact that caveat emptor means, as you say, that the buyer has the burden of finding out if the product is as advertised and has nothing to do with sellers' mistakes on delivery (it might be different if you bought the item from them, and they knew you were buying it, and misunderstood its value - but there the operative principle is caveat venditor), let's just see what happens if we apply your line of thought to another transaction. In this case, let's suppose that instead of the mistake being on the seller's end, it's on the buyer's: the buyer overpaid the seller. Somehow I can't imagine that the buyer would accept the idea that he or she should just say "Oops, I guess it's yours now."
Taking advantage of a mistake on delivery in your favor is simply theft. Theft might be justified in some cases, if there are some extraordinary aspects to the situation (a life depends on it, that sort of thing, although the fact that MF is a big bad corporation and it's OK to stick it to 'em doesn't count), but what you are contemplating is not justified by any such extraordinary facts, as far as I can tell.
Sorry, but I can see no arugment that justifies not telling them.
Why did you put the word "right" in scare quotes?
Thanks for reminding me. I need to call Musician’s Friend and find out whatever happened to that Pro-Tools rig I ordered! And that MPC4000, and my Neumann mics, and my hoo hooters and twee tweeters, and my… Darn it, I need my stuff! 
Quote: (TomS @ Oct. 03 2007, 8:31 PM)
Why did you put the word "right" in scare quotes?
Oh no, this gonna turn political? Politically Correct? Left and Right? Cats and Dogs?
Oh I can't resist, let's "Stir it up"
Right wingist, turns product back over to company, in turn demanding a reward for being honest, 2,000 times the worth of the product, which in turn goes toward their campaign fund as they are now running for local gov. office.
Left wingest, calls company demanding reward to be donated to local charity, in which they get on the local news giving them free publicty against the right wing opponent.
Middle of the roadist, shuts up and plays guitar!
Southern Redneck, reads headlines and says "What's for supper baby?"
Can't believe I posted this.
I labeled the speaker cabinets on my sound system to say “RIGHT” and “WRONG” instead of “LEFT” and “RIGHT”. That sure messed up the roadies. (seriously)
Quote:
Taking advantage of a mistake on delivery in your favor is simply theft.
I think I understand what you are saying but I completely disagree with this statement.
I didn't steal anything, and legally, I am pretty sure that keeping the mic would not be considered theft.
I put the word "right" in quotes because there is no right thing to do in this situation, i.e., it's a matter of opinion.
For you the "right" thing to do is to call MF, which I still may do.
As for my argument, it wasn't meant to be a legal argument - it's just how I feel.
The burden is always on the buyer and if the seller sells you something you didn't really want, then too bad (in our country).
Now of course we have consumer laws to protect ourselves somewhat but that's a different issue.
And a lot of sellers attempt to always please the consumer, no matter what, but that isn't true across the board.
Quote:
Middle of the roadist, shuts up and plays guitar!
Southern Redneck, reads headlines and says "What's for supper baby?"
Yaz got his priorities straight! LOL!
D
I didn’t make a legal argument, I made a moral argument.
Remember, law is supposed to follow ethics, for the most part, and they share a vocabulary - so one has to distinguish a moral claim about caveat emptor, e.g., from a legal claim.
I was making a moral claim, not a legal one.
If you were using the scare quotes to indicate that you think moral law doesn’t apply in this case, well, you don’t need to do that.
E.g., if I say that I feel that some action is wrong, I am reporting my feelings.
If I say that I believe that some action is wrong, I am making a stronger claim - that as a matter of fact the action is wrong,a dn I think I am justified in asserting that fact.
There is no need for scare quotes to differentiate between the two kinds of claims.
One might infer that you think there are no moral truths period, just feelings and individual opinions.
I suspect, however, that you don’t really think that moral rules are just a matter of personal opinion or feelings.
I suspect, e.g., you believe that murder, rape, and theft are morally wrong, and that this a truth, not just a matter of opinion or feelings.
So what is it about the present situation that exempts it from moral law?
Hmmm.
Let’s think about that.
You have benefited from their mistake - you and I agree on that point.
Is the benefit unjust in some way?
Consider the following case as an analogy.
You and I agree to trade two guitar pedals.
I by mistake send you my new Roland Space Echo pedal, rather than the Big Muff I thought I was sending.
You would let me know about the mistake - about that I have no doubt.
Why?
We agreed to trade, and I made a mistake, so on your argument I’d be SOL.
(Don’t think that it makes a difference if money is involved - supposed we agreed that I would sell you the Big Muff for 50 bucks, and I sent you the Roland pedal - you’d still contact me.)
So how does this case differ from the MF case?
The only think I can think of is we are members of some sort of community and have exchanged music and ideas over a period of a couple of years, so there is a personal connection, whereas MF is a business.
But that, however psychologically compelling, is not a morally relevant distinction - or if it is, you’ll have to show me how.
I’d further argue that MF and you are in fact members of a relevant community, if that’s what changes the moral status of the action - you and MF are members of the music community.
So even if the moral principle one might use to distinguish the two cases is that “we don’t eat our own,” MF is one of our own.
Back to the legal part (but remember, there is a moral parallel to this part of the discussion)… Your last comment - that the burden is always on the buyer - is not fully stated, and not correct.
The burden is usually on the buyer to ascertain if the item is worth the money.
The burden is also on the seller, to make sure that the money is worth the product.
And there are cases in which caveat emptor does not apply, as a matter of law - and even more cases when it does not as a mater of moral law.
I suspect that your description of this as how you feel is significant.
When making moral judgments we have to pay close attention to the ways in which feelings affect those judgments.
Anger, for example, can distort one’s judgment rather profoundly; as can love.
Mere antipathy can start us on a search for some justification, e.g. for justification to "stick it to the man."
Also - think about this - MF is not just a faceless corporation.
The person in the shipping department who made the mistake may have to pay for it…and in any case this sort of thing reduces the bottom line and in turn affects how much they can pay their employees, how much they pay in taxes, how much they charge for stuff, that sort of thing, so in an infintesimal way you are actually harming the folks here too.
I called MF tonight & am shipping the mic back tomorrow. I agree that it is the “right” thing to do.
However, MF is a faceless corporation as far as I’m concerned. Sure it was someone’s mistake but their customer service person had the gaul to tell me that I might be charged a 15% restocking fee if the item wasn’t packaged properly. I told her that they better not do that because I was being an honest guy & returning this $170 item. She replied by saying that she had to tell me that. No - she didn’t have to tell me that but she did. She did that because she works for a faceless corporation who’s rules tell her to do that. It’s very different than you & I exchanging items.