Bellflower Music Center — Attraction in Bellflower

NEVER EVER SHOP HERE OR PATRONIZE THIS BUSINESS. TLDR: The owner of this shop, Ruth, is incredibly unprofessional, unhelpful, and has made multiple rude comments to me and my friend.

The first time I came to this shop was in early April. Just came to browse and check the shop out with a friend. While browsing the store, Ruth, the owner made a comment to another customer saying “I gotta go see what these hooligans are doing in my store.” Both my friend and I noticed this comment, but we ignored it. We continued to browse the store and ended up purchasing a cymbal for $120. The workers ended up telling us about a sale that would happen next weekend.

During the sale, there were a few moments where I knew I shouldn’t patronize Ruth’s store because she was incredibly rude to me. First, I had all the snare drums I wanted neatly stacked in a corner. When I asked her asking price, she got overwhelmed because she couldn’t see the tags with prices on the drums. She then called her worker over and commanded him to “look up all the prices on the drums because SOMEONE took all the price tags off.” She was insinuating that I was popping tags in her store. Incredibly rude and unprofessional. I should have walked then.

After this incident, when I was trying to examine the drums, she came up and told me her asking price, $2000. I tried to explain to her that the drums were in rough condition from sitting on a wooden rack with no padding. She told me she didn’t care about what my opinion on the drums were and she didn’t want to hear everything that was wrong with them. Again, I should have walked.

At the sale, I purchased 5 snare drums (2 Ludwig, 1 Leedy, 1 Slingerland) for $1000 and 2 Ludwig drum sets for $1100. One sky blue pearl and one clear vistalite with a cracked floor tom. After tax, it was around $2300. She calls herself a “drum collector,” and said she could give me all the missing parts free of charge if I gave her some time to find the parts. I agreed to call her and come back that following Tuesday for the parts.

As I was taking the drums apart, the worst happened. One of the vistalite snares split right in half because of improper storage and tuning. I called for parts that Tuesday but didn’t mention the cracked snare because I wanted to see if I could talk to her in person and she would make it right.

Fast forward to today. I’ve called dozens of times. The past few weeks. Every single time, she said she hadn’t looked through her parts yet and she would get back to me. Called today, she said she was there and had the parts, but didn’t have the time to help me. Isn’t that the point of having a physical music shop? To help people that walk in?

So I went into the shop, she helped me get about half the parts I needed. She again commanded to worker to do her dirty work and look up the parts for how much they are worth.

I stopped her there and tried to remind her of our agreement. She was supposed to give me the missing parts for the drums I had bought, She told me that I got a really good deal and that I had to pay for the parts. I then mentioned that the red snare had cracked and that I overall felt I was treated unfairly in her store and she exploded.

Ruth refused to sell me the parts because I was “arguing” with her. Safe to say this was the last time I ever planned on going in the store, but I really wish I could have the parts to the old vintage drums I bought.

Instruments are special. Especially old American made drum sets. They deserve to be put back together with their original parts and played. It’s sad to see old American goods rot away in a store because a “collector” is holding on to them. A real collector would get all those drums cleaned up and put back together. Then, they would help the community out by putting parts for sale. It’s sad that parts can be used but instead they will sit in a box in her store to probably be eventually thrown away.

Eli and James are the only good parts of this shop. I feel bad for them because the owner, Ruth, always puts them in awkward situations....

I rented a pretty old tenor sax from Bellflower Music back in August for my daughter, who started on a HS marching band. I signed an agreement, purchased insurance and pre-paid for 3 months. Yesterday, I went to return the sax as the director of music and the sectional leader all complained about the sax that is out of tune and the buttons are not working. In my defense I didnt want to purchase an instrument right of the bet because I wanted to see if my daughter continues to show interest and if she is committed to marching band. As the rental was coming to an expiration on the 19th of October it was time to return the instrument back to Bellflower and purchase a good working sax. We found an excellent but used Chateau at Long Beach Woodwinds and they helped us there compare between different saxes by trying them out. The feel, the tone, the buttons...no comparison to the Conn we rented from Bellflower. I understand you rent out instruments to many people, but take the time to make adjustments and test them before renting them out. I was surprised that no testing was done when we rented the sax but when I returned it yesterday they were testing everything. No comments were done on the contract when we rented the sax in regards to the condition but they put replacement cost for the sax equal to a brand new one. In addition, they now wanted me to return a strap that they never gave us. The guy insisted the sax had a strap but we neither got one, neither the accessories issued were noted on the contract. However, he told me I can come back another day and discuss with the manager. There was no way I was going to drive 1 hour round trip to discuss a missing strap and get charged for another month of rental. He refused to accept the rental back without me paying for a strap. I saw the bin with the straps and it says $5 for a generic strap I said here let me pay you for a strap and get out. He pulls a brand new Yamaha strap and demands I pay for a brand new branded strap. Let me reephasize... no strap was given to us, it is an used instrument...heavily used...with no list detailing accessories on the contract, with an insurance purchased for missing and broken parts...and now I was expected to pay for a brand new Yamaha strap, not the generic kind. I told him I am not paying for a brand new Yamaha strap to which he again said he wont take the rental back. He ended up giving me a discount on the Yamaha strap so we can close out the issue. Bottom line for me, as far as their instrument rental services go, is do not rent from Bellflower. Go to a place that lets you test the instruments, provides a guidance on what you need, especially as a beginner, and do not give you some super old untested instrument and then demand you pay for an accessory that they never gave you. I am not for $5 but for the whole service which seems to be concentrated on renting out malfunctioning and not tested instruments and then skimming more money by trying to say something is missing or broken. The guy was testing the instrument for so long trying to find something but as soon as I mentioned that we have insurance I kid you not he said "no, everyting is fine". Thank God I purchased that insurance. I am so confident if I didnt he would have found millions of things wrong with the instrument, an old, beat up and u tested...

Been coming here since a kid. 🔥🔥❤️Always have my instrument(s) available when I need to rent one.

Customer Service is also great. Friendly staff.

They do have a lot of stuff when you walk in - its always been like that though -- I always thought they were just moving things around organizing it, but nope. Been looking the same all these years. 😅 Gives me anxiety when I go in, so I go in fast and try to conduct my business fast to get out - I would let others go for me but they usually don't know what I need so I just go myself. I seriously need to smoke a bowl before I go in. Its that bad for me. 😅 I can even feel myself talking faster and faster cause of my anxiety going up. 😅 If I worked there I would of re- organize that whole show room. Looks more like a storage then a show room. -- I take my work with me everywhere I go. I help business' with problem solving to improve business/engineer. So I'll over think everything I see when I go into someone's business. It's a curse 😂😂.

Other then that so far, I'm currently renting out a beautiful Viola, after a year of not playing -Thanks COVID. 😒 Trying to prepare myself for auditions for when the college allows live performance classes to be active again. They were so nice to explain the process with me to also help me determine which instrument to rent out. I had to go based on my current budget, and also determined which I needed more practice time with, so they have patience to work...