West Music Cedar Rapids — Attraction in Marion

Wonderful customer service in store, but unfortunately miscommunication led to an expensive mistake. We were looking for a very specific trumpet model and were told we could special order it. Before purchasing we showed an image of the trumpet we were looking for (it was an engraved artisan model) and before exchanging a payment method over the phone we specifically asked if the bell of the trumpet would be engraved; the answer was yes. It look a couple weeks for the trumpet to arrive, and it was unfortunately not the trumpet we were expecting. We called the store and were in contact with the manager, where we were informed that there was a restocking fee if we wanted to return the trumpet. However, since it was not the trumpet that we had expected, they would work to waive the restocking fee. After a couple of days, we get a call back and unfortunately we would need to pay the restocking fee (a fee of about $1,000) if we want to return the trumpet. Our options at this point are to pay the restocking fee on top of the $4,700 that we've already paid for the wrong instrument or select among some of the other models that they have in store which are not what we were looking for. Long story short we just wish they would have been honest and informed us that they could not source that specific model so that we could have looked elsewhere instead of spending money here and not getting what we were looking for.

*the image on the left is the engraved model we were looking for, while the image on the right is what we received

**to clarify my son still has NOT played the trumpet that we received at all hoping to...

TL;DR If you do not have the means to just purchase an instrument for your child, I strongly encourage you to rent elsewhere.

I am surprised to see such a high rating for this business. Our child was starting band and we were reluctant to purchase until we knew they would stick with a new instrument. We are a family of musicians and obviously familiar with purchasing and renting instruments. We expected zero issues. The first incident was them calling to say they couldn't process our payment because the signature didn't match the name on the card- after verifying ID to card, in person, during the school rental night. From there on out it was failure to deliver my son's instrument and failure to contact us about it beforehand. We would be informed of another surprise step in the rental process only after they found another issue with us. Conflicting information every single time we called to speak to someone. The grand finale was, after completely wasting our time, asking for a $250 security deposit without being able to give us a straight answer on what exactly made them think we were a risk to rent to. We decided to go with purchasing an instrument outright from a different business. If you do not have the means to purchase for your child, then I strongly encourage you to...

The staff are not knowledgeable about their rental policy. They can tell you to fill out an application, but can't answer any questions, like how much of your monthly payment will go towards purchasing an instrument, or whether you can just pick up the instrument instead of having it sent to the school so your child can actually use it for those three weeks before school starts, or whether they will notify you when your application goes through (or doesn't). (They won't.)

They have one person in charge of scheduling lessons, and if you call to ask about your lessons, the staff will say they are incapable of looking up the information (unless that one person happens to be there and available, which doesn't seem to be often). Obviously all non-private information that a customer might need the staff to access should be - accessible - to all the staff. It takes no training to look at a schedule and say whether or not your teacher still has a classroom scheduled for your usual time, or if it's been cancelled.

When you sign up for lessons, the site claims you'll get a welcome package with a bag and shirt, but in my experience, you'll never get this, even if you ask for...