Music Source — Attraction in Gages Lake

I had a horrible experience trying to get an instrument repaired here. I wanted to give a local business a chance but I’ll be taking them elsewhere. I have been a music teacher for 15 years and have never had an experience like this.

I dropped a saxophone off over a month ago for a repair quote. Bob (the owner) told me a reasonable price on 8/30 and said it would be back within 1-2 weeks. I understood the long timeline because it was back to school time and shops are slammed with student instruments that needed to be serviced from summer. I also gave him another instrument to send as well.

Two weeks came and went and so I called on 9/16 and was told that the repair tech has been busy and just picked up the instruments a few days before. I was a little frustrated because he knew that I needed the instruments back to teach but again asked the timeframe and he said it should be back by Friday (it was Monday). Friday came and went again with no update from Bob. I tried to call and couldn’t get an answer (I think he was screening the calls). My husband called and he answered immediately, giving him the same story that the guy is busy and he’ll get it done. We asked for an update in 24 hours. No call. Meanwhile I’m losing money because I don’t have an instrument I need to teach with. My husband calls back after 48 hours and Bob gets an attitude, said he’s “called twice and I’m not bothering him again”. We ask for the repair tech’s contact info because at this point I just want my property back and he refuses to call him or give us his name or number. I had to threaten to make a police report for stolen instruments and magically the instruments were back in the shop the next day. They had been there a full month and the tech hadn’t even touched them.

I understand woodwinds aren’t his normal area of expertise but the lack of communication, timeline and disrespect of other’s property is unacceptable. I can’t even imagine how long the repair would have actually taken, if I ever would have gotten it back at all. Please send your instruments to a reputable shop and your...

I took 2 of my guitars in to have the intonation and have a full set up put on and it was a disaster. Bob on the first one argued about the strings I told him to put on when I asked for specific ones. He said the Ernie's would be better... when that's not what I asked for. Then when he put the new strings on it I was charged for the new ones as well. Moving on to the second guitar, he sat and argued about how he has been doing this for 30 years but apparently I'm crazy for hearing the buzzing of the strings hitting. He also mentioned it's an electric guitar so you won't hear that when playing live and sure enough it sounds terrible. Both my guitars sound like twanging buzzing nonsense after dropping almost 200 dollars with him. I showed multiple people (semi-pro & pro guitarists) what happened to make sure I wasn't crazy and just an inexperienced older chap and they are astounded as am I. Now I have to go drop the money to take it somewhere else like guitar center for over 100 per guitar... Dealing with that kind of old knows best attitude is ridiculous. We all make mistakes even in our old age but come on. When I tried to bring it up it was nothing but confrontational so I walked out because that's just immatureand bad business. Good luck Music Source, you lost a loyal repeat customer....

A week and a half later, I’m waiting on a repair that was supposed to take two days. They called on the day it was supposed to be done to say they just started working on it. Two days after that they called again to say it will be done in a week (or maybe less) due to a problem with the instrument that requires additional work. Today (a week later) they said it will be ready two weeks from the day I brought it in. While I can’t comment on the quality of the work because I still haven’t received it yet, I am disappointed with the service so far. I dislike dishonesty, excuses, and false promises. I can only hope that my instrument isn’t being butchered. I hope I’ll get it back and be able to add a positive update to this review. Unfortunately since they lied to me, I can’t trust them, so I’ll have to take it somewhere else to get it checked out after I get it back.

Update: I got the guitar back and had it checked out by a friend’s technician. He said it was in good shape, so I’ve decided to raise my rating by two stars. I won’t forget the bad communication and lack of transparency, so I don’t think I would bring an instrument here for repair a...