Hickey's Music Center — Local services in City of Ithaca

My family did not have a very good experience with Hickey's. My daughter started flute this year, and when we initially signed up for a rental, we indicated we would like to pick it up. We were strongly advised against this and were told it's better to have it sent to the school. We agreed to this suggestion and asked that it be sent to the school. Hickey's responded with an affirmative "Will do!" That should have been the end of it. Instead, when my daughter arrived to her first lesson at school, there was no flute, and when Hickey's was emailed asking why this happened, a very rudely worded email was given in reply telling us to check our invoice. Why would we check the invoice when Hickey's directly agreed to delivering it to the school? And even if we did rely on the invoice, we received a weird invoice email about how we would retrieve a tracking email for a shipment. We knew there was no tracking, so we just disregarded it; sometimes weird things are autogenerated by small businesses. Our fault was that we simply trusted Hickey's to do what they urged us, and we agreed, to do. If at any point Hickey's had acknowledged that they made a mistake by agreeing to deliver it to the school and then not doing so, or if they had just arranged to make the delivery happen after the fact, then there would have been no issues. Instead, Hickey's never once apologized or made any acknowledgement of the role they had in this situation. We decided to figure out how to get the flute elsewhere. When asked for a refund, we were given it, which is about the only good thing I can say about this company's customer service. When my younger daughter eventually signs up for an instrument, we will make sure to...

Hickey’s has always been the go-to place in the Tompkins area, and pretty much the only place in Ithaca! It has a massive selection of instruments to buy as soon as you walk in, and so many different scores for each instrument. I’ve always gotten scores from Hickey’s for when I did NYSSMA, Ithaca College summer piano institute, piano lessons, etc. If they don’t have something in stock, you can order it! And it’s always been a week-ish or less for me when I order. There’s also lessons for most instruments that I did piano for sometime ago. (And I plan to start clarinet :D)

Great place and recommend to any music lover who lives as far away as Cortland or Binghamton!

Overall: Cleanliness- 9/10 Very well done, exterior could have some work done in however

Selection- 10/10 Definitely whatever you need is here, even if its super specific it’s probably there

Quality- 10/10 I have so far never gotten a sheet music or instrument that is not brand new

Price- 8/10 Prices are actually very fair for a local shop that’s the only music store in the area. But single-score sheets can be expensive compared to multiple-scores-in-one sheets

Service- 10/10 never met a rude staff member and they seem to know where everything is, trained very well.

Overall, 47/50

Not much to criticize about the place! The building is a little old, but it’s in a very centralized location and easy to get to. Best music store upstate NY for classical in any instrument, with a still great selection of...

Hickey's Music Center is a great place to purchase instruments, music, supplies, and any other products related to music. Chuck DePaolo and his staff are welcoming and really know the music business. All your questions will always be answered promptly. Their inventory offers the very best products on the market today. Their online shopping experience allows you to compare specs and make an educated purchase. The store itself has a wonderful inventory. I recently wanted to play test a trombone of interest and had plenty of time to check it out. Chuck spent a lot of time explaining the specific nuances of the horn and answered all my questions. It was a delightful experience in every way. I have purchased many items from this store and have been one hundred percent satisfied with every purchase. All orders are packaged carefully for shipping, and options for economy shipping are available as well. I would recommend Hickey's Music Center without any reservations. A completely...